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Many forums have a 'donate' option instead of membership. Seems to work well. Also, if you have a minimum post count before you can sell it will go some way towards stopping people just popping in to sell. Won't stop them as they could rack up posts quickly but it does help. I think it would help as there are lots of odds and sods folks would like to sell and it opens up the forum a bit more.

I did run for the monster raving loonies in the chesterfield by election...LOL.

Greeting fellow Lexus fans! I've been dallying with other brands for about 7 or 8 years, but I've come back to the fold now with a 9 month old IS300h Luxury in Celestial Black with Premium Nav. I previously had two 1st-gen ISs - a 200SE manual, followed by a 300. The first surprise is that my username was still active on here after all this time! Anyway, really enjoying the new driving experience. I've just come from a Honda CR-Z Hybrid so not entirely new to battery power, but the HSD system is much more sophisticated and versatile. The behaviour of the throttle and brakes take a bit of getting used to, but otherwise all good. I've done about 800 miles in a week and a half or so, mostly motorway, and my average is 55mpg so far (on the computer anyway) which is pretty astounding for, what is after all, a fairly big and heavy car with decent performance. Still finding my way around the settings and functions of the Nav, but getting there. A couple of pics;

my car is getting a professional valet :$, will post up a video later.

It took nearly 6 months to find the right SE-L for me! However I did have to compromise slightly on the mileage. What I would say is don't get too hung up on the mileage on these, especially the SE-L... Their resale value holds still and mine now has 90k on the clock and drives like 10k. In the end I bought the late 07 SE-L MM Auto with FLSH for less than £7k and could not be happier. I've owned newer, less miles prestigious cars and not one beats this! I've owned an M5 too!

The very reason I didn't renew my membership which was due this week. It is also interesting that not a single member of staff or moderator has bothered to at least have the good grace to acknowledge this thread exists. Mike Colin Barber is a moderator is he not? Even though he has answered, I don't think that he is, (I know I wasn't), privy to the costs of running the site/where membership money goes. As for the reference to "subtle pressure" from the moderators to go Gold, the mods follow site rules, which state "only GOLD members are allowed to sell on the forums" This was made clear on joining the club (If you bothered to read the rules). If you are not aware, the Moderators are not staff and do not receive any payment for their time. I personally agree to having to be Gold before selling. I have been the victim of, and have seen what can happen when anyone can join a car forum and sell for free. They can sign up and sell items they don't have only to disappear after receiving peoples money.......... Would you like that on here??????? I myself have advertised some items on here at reasonable prices for members, sometimes at a lower price than I could have got for them on e-bay because sharing with like-minded people is what the site is about.. The biggest thing gold membership gives you is being able to buy with peace of mind. Ian (ex-mod) I stand corrected on that one. I did read the rules of the club when I joined. I am not sure where the peace of mind comes in as I am not aware of warranties or the like in place should you buy a car etc from another member for instance. Mike If you send monies off for goods etc without knowing gold member or not is just stupid and you deserve to lose your money, that goes for anything on the WWW. I originally became a Gold member not so I could sell things or to be one up on my fellow member but to help out on the financial costs of running such a club. However I like others became fed up with seeing non gold members slyly slipping in they might be selling their LS etc that in my mind is an advertisement, all I need to do now is contact the naughty member and get all the details I need. Cost of selling £NIL. I don't need to spell it out you all know how it works. Mike

If your really wanting to wax a car Stuart ... You can come round and do mine !!!!!!! I'll wash it first of course...... Allan

Hi, when I started using my 450h I too was worried about the battery charge status display untill I read on here " ignore it all, trust the technology and just drive the car" all the worries gone and 156,000 miles later she still drives superbly and returns great MPG figures. Regards Tony