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Re question 6 I used to own a Rover 75 CDTi Tourer and thought it one of the best cars I had owned. The 2 litre BMW engine in it was a peach. But, hallelujah I saw the light and bought a Lexus :D

Hi Luke, welcome to the club, i butt in on the IS-F forum every now and then, i get fed up talking to myself on the RC forum.lol

While I was in the dealership I noticed a brand new is300 which had a bumper protector fitted. I like the look so bought one. My bumper had a few marks & scratches so it covered them up to. It is an OE part so fits properly. Ed

F-Sport White with Red Leather and Premium nav! Its a 63 plate with 10k miles on it too! They ended up giving £3500 for my Mercedes (weird that, its not worth that much lol) and cost to change was £20,950. I have to transfer my number plate however so altogether £21,030 + my car.

Thank you for the update Darren. It seems some owners does not notice this issue, while others are bothered by it. I was passenger in another IS300h a few weeks, and could feel the vibrations clearly, even though the owner claimed his car did not have them. I pointed them out to him... "There! Can't you feel it?". A couple of days ago I met him again, and he cursed me for making him notice. Now he could feel the vibrations all the time and was really bothered about them -Tore

"I always liked Mesa Red, wife not so much!" Shame on you !!!......how can you like Mesa Red more than you like your wife ? :winky:

Thanks god I don't have anything to do with those VAT B....... no I mustn't swear, I was never in a position where I couldn't pay the bill but on a couple of occasions I made a mistake and the way they descended on me you would have thought I was some sort of low life villain of the worst sort. I had a friend who committed the ultimate way out because of the pressure they put on him. Good luck with it. Mike.

Well done Ray. I`m sure that you will enjoy it very much. Photos please if possible.Regards John I've put the deposit down. Will find out when to collect at some point hopefully lol

That's interesting then Luke. :) Let me know if you ever decide to give them a try mate. Be interesting to see the gains on say my car or Stu's (we both have the H&S exhausts fitted). Hoping I can afford to get my headers done next year. :) Should get me close if not just over the 500HP mark if I can get the ECU re-mapped.

I'd forgotten about the beautifully made Jennings Road Rangers. Usually built on a CF or Transit lwb chassis. I came close to owning one once from a yard in Somerset, but the scrappy crushed it before I could arrange the transport. This Austin Sheerline (vdP) chassis? based example is probably unique. I doubt a Lexus' underpinnings would cope though?

As far as Im aware - interior options for the F-Sport are Black, Red and *white*(this one may not come to the UK though) Of course, on other models you can choose a new shade of grey called Moonstone, Brown, Beige and Black :) The RX450H has always had a spare wheel in the boot - mine does anyway. I dont think there are any massive changes to the suspension but its basically an evolution - ie you get adaptive dampers now and F-Sport gets the active stabilizer for flat cornering. If you take a good look at the spec sheet (Japanese anyone?) its being compared to an X5 Xdrive 35d! Appears there is now a sunglasses holder. Cupholder from the drivers side has been removed and replaced with buttons and a small storage area. There is a picture referring to the glovebox and armrest cubby - are they cooled perhaps?!

It's definately growing on me Rayaan, I love the red leather, are there any more interior colour choices ? also the indicators are a nice touch & it's nice to see the spare wheel in the boot now where it should be .... it's a shame the sunroof isn't standard anymore though ... One of the things I do miss (on the Shogun) is the variable electronic suspension, are there any new changes on the Rx suspension set-up ? ...

Great car and a great location. Thanks for sharing.

Graham, I can only speak as an LS400 owner, but I imagine that the 430 is virtually identical in regard to rustproofing. You can prise up the 'Lexus' kickplates quite easily. They're held in place by some clip fasteners underneath and on the side. You can then spray your rustproofing compound into the holes that the clips went into. The double -skinned wheel arches are a bit trickier. For the rear wheels I drilled one 10mm diameter hole somewhere above the inner wheelarch lip ( you have to judge the thickness between the two skins) and used some Dynax S50 in there. It's excellent stuff and comes with a very long flexible tube which fits nicely between the two skins of bodywork. You can spray right down the length of the wheelarch with the tubing, left side and right side. The good thing about Dynax is that the wax sprays out at rightangles at the tip of the tubing, so covering everything as you push or pull it along. Afterwards, I found a suitable bung for the hole and put some sealant round it .Job done. The front wheelarch liner is a tough flexible plastic and is removed relatively easily with the wheel removed. Don't be afraid of bending it. I haven't had to touch my doors or boot lid yet. Hope this helps.

Hi try spraying some WD40 behind the glass this will hopefully get rid of the dirt that has built up over the years(assuming that the motor hasn't packed up) and should get it working again

Well a few interesting replies. I am interested in how Rayann got 3 services for £990 when I was initially offered one service for £745 but that is perhaps because I bought my car from a VW dealership at a very good price and not like a friend of mine bought his from lexus and paid about 10K more for I think a 6 month newer car. I would have paid £300 per service myself if it had been offered. Don't quite understand the maths of the reply "To be fair £120 difference for a major service between main dealer and a good local garage doesn't seem bad to me" £430-£189 =£241 doesn't it and £745-£189=£556 oh and a Lexus oil filter was used as I had asked for as well as fully synthetic oil etc. I do take the point that some garages don't take much care of your car with respect to soiling or scratching but then do Lexus fill an inspection sheet and get you to sign on hand over of the car to them for the service if you take my point. I wouldn't mind paying £300 that would be reasonable for the Lexus stamp etc but the prices I was quoted I thought were off the scale. I always taken great care of my cars and have had compliments from time to time which acknowledge such and I will continue to do so with or without main agents. Neilj

It was the levinson amp. I never checked to see if they replaced it with another levinson as the dealer did it under warranty. I wonder how many of these problems were just on the SEL?

I had a 220d and now have a 250 SEL. The is250 is miles ahead as an all round experience IMHO. Personally....I'd go for the auto..it is a fabulous gearbox...annual road tax is £290. Watch out for garages that list an SE-l for sale...as it kinda looks like they're saying SEL. It is very often an SE-i which is not the same at all. Forewarned is forearmed, there are some unscrupulous bar stewards out there.

The higher road tax rate is only an issue on cars with manual transmission. All automatic 250s will cost £290 to tax. I was amazed by that fact, but apparently the manual version has worse fuel economy/higher CO2 output and is therefore placed in a higher tax band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwHIlq2NRho Nice selection of videos of an RX450h in Sonic Titanium and the other is a 200t F-Sport with RHD Interior shots. Interior definitely looks great in terms of fit and finish!

I wouldn't tar all tyres made by one manufacture with the same brush. It's a bit like saying Lexus vehicles are all noisy after just test driving a CT200h. All manufacturers have made good and bad tyres in the past and their current ranges are all built to certain prices - a low end Michelins is no match for a higher end Pirelli for example. I'd had some shocking Michelin tyres in the past.

Looks like I picked up a slow puncture on FL tyre, as have been contemplating an All Season tyre for a while now, thought it a good time to swap all round. After lots of checking of sites ended up going for Pirelli Scorpion Verde All Season - so far very impressed, much smoother than the previous Bridgestones. Will keep this thread updated as they combat the various seasons :)

Got some miles on these tyres now and would highly recommend, nice and quiet, great fuel consumption and wet grip seems very good. Can't comment about snow performance yet ;)

I have OEM 18" wheels and they are absolutely fine. No issues...the only one you'll have will be tyre choice. Get out and try as many cars as you can. You haven't indicated whether its Manual or Auto. Be aware the road tax can be quite a lot higher for the manual after a certain point....sorry not sure when exactly, but think it was around 06 where it changed from £280 to £460. Auto is currently £290pa. As has been indicated, one of the biggest issues is seized brake calipers. You need to know that the slide pins have been greased to ensure correct operation. Can be quite expensive to sort via Lexus. If you are handy with cars you can do it yourself, or use a good independent garage. It's worth reading back through many posts in this section....you will learn quite a lot about the 250 from doing that. Check if you have bluetooth functionality....as I believe Lexus were a little slow (polite version!!!) on this in the early models (started at 55 plate). I had a 07 220d which had no bluetooth function at all...had to put an aftermarket device in. The facelift model (09-on had most niggles ironed out from my experience). If you have any audio devices you may wish to connect there is a mini phono jack in the arm rest. You could check connection? Facelift cars have a USB port in there too. If you want the best model it will be the SEL to look for. As with any car...check everything is working correctly/ use your eyes/ suss the vendor...has the care the car been well maintained/ check the tyre wear/ drive it for a decent amount of time...i could go on for ages but you get the intent. Listen to the audio from all sources and listen to the speakers...fade front to back and left to right to ensure all are working and no distortions. Full service history is mandatory in my book. Pay attention to the exhaust and do a visual underneath as much as you can....has it been thumped on a kerb? They are very very expensive to replace and Lexus is your only route to a replacement should it be needed. Good luck, take your time and choose the car you want. Don't be seduced by wheels alone, nice as they appear...look at the whole package......closely. Best of luck with the hunt.

Hi Andy and welcome. 18" wheels were an option I believe, and as James says, will likely affect the ride comfort. I've had my 2008 IS250 SE-L since last November with no issues other than a siezed front caliper which the supplying dealer sorted. It's on 72k now and no hint of anything else. I purchased a Lexus extended warranty in January. £800 for 2 years cover, ask your local dealer if it's still available at that price. Easy to buy as they do £80 a month for 10 months. Dealer will need to inspect the vehicle. Best car I've ever had (and I've had a few !). Enjoy yours if you buy it. Let us know and post some more pics.

From what I've read on reviews of the car, having bigger wheels create a much firmer ride (making British roads feel even worse) so it depends whether that would bother you or not. As for what to look for, I bought an IS250 on an 06 plate 6 months ago and it needed both lambda sensors replacing- something that apparently is quite common around the 70k mark so depending on it's age ask if it's had those changed as they are expensive. Other than that they are supremely reliable cars and if looked after properly shouldn't cause you any issues