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I've got a theory which may or may not be right. I've noticed (and I do the same) that people often get out of their cars holding the steering wheel, and I'm wondering if the extra work the steering motor has to do when someone's holding onto it causes the motors to wear? When I turn my engine off and get out of the car the steering wheel is still retracting.

I've had an LS430 which ended in disaster when the gearbox failed. Make sure you dip the transmission oil, it should be red and also make sure it doesn't smell burnt. I'd change the radiator as a precaution because the transmission fluid is also cooled by the radiator and if the radiator gets any corrosion it can allow engine coolant into the transmission fluid which can cause the gearbox to completely fail without warning. I think that's what happened to mine!!! Gear changes should be barely noticeable. The suspension is prone to problems mainly due to water ingress into the ride height sensors and is VERY expensive to fix, some owners replace the air suspension with standard coil over suspension because it's much cheaper than repairing the air suspension. The ride should be smooth with no creaks or knocks, put the switch to high, the car should raise by about an inch and the compressor should be quiet. Make sure both steering column motors work, again very expensive to fix. Subwoofers can be repaired with varying degrees of success, new ones cost £350 or more from Lexus. Door speakers can blow too so take a CD with you with lots of bass to check all speakers. Parking sensors are a common failure point. The double glazed side windows can become delaminated with age. Bonnet and boot support struts can be weak but are cheap and easy to replace. The heated and cooled seats often don't work very well. Check for correct red Toyota coolant. Full service history is vital and check for cam belt changes every 100k or 10 years. Check all electrics work and there's lots to check!!! Check AC works in both front and rear if premium pack fitted. Check no warning lights are lit on dash. Check sat nav as this can go wrong. Make sure toolbox is present and the locking wheelnut. All the other checks you would do on any used car. Personally after my experience with the LS430 I would be very nervous getting another, if I was going to get another Lexus I would find a nice mk4 LS400. I have no experience with LPG so can't comment on that. Lexus are great well engineered cars that do last well but they CAN go wrong and DO go wrong and can be horrendous money pits if you get a bad un. Tread carefully and you should be OK. Get it right and you have a bargain luxury saloon but get it wrong and it can be a whole world of hurt!!! Good luck!!!

Inspired by the Scottish scenery framing a shiny green car I decided to give mine the same treatment today. The very good East Europeans did the hand wash and I applied the Autoglym, an excellent product (unless you put the bottle down too hard like I did so it shoots out all over your face!) Obviously my backdrop is a little more uninspiring.

Lexus Birmingham got one up for £39k. Forget getting that RC300h now

Careful you don't polish all the paint off. She does look good though. I think the way you have constructed the studio as distressed inner suburbia is pure genius for a studio shoot. Mike.

Hmmmm - yes, maybe. Certainly good to be mindful of that. One particularly LS430 I test drove, the telescopic function didn't, at first, appear to work.. .. I gave it some "encouragement", and after a bit of creaking, it did indeed work... albeit slowly.... My steering wheel motors seem pretty perky... so I am hoping it's a good sign that there's some good life in them yet... (but I maybe completely wrong if they slow down before failing?).

You are almost correct. Morimoto manufacture all things HID & projector - mainly for retrofitting. TRS is a very reputable retailer of their products. I had a projector retrofit in my IS200 and the morimoto bulbs that came with that had a very very good output indeed. Leads me now to think it was the projectors giving me such a good output compared to my OEM HIDs on the 250. I think the side mounting bulb is the problem in the IS250. As soon as I can afford to splash out, I will get some Osram bulbs and have the projectors professionally aligned.

I've been negotiating a shipping price for a RHD kit since last week. Kit price $69.99. He agreed $35 instead of $61.19 for shipping which I said was excessive, but so far his attempt to lower the Shipping price has just changed it to $57.00. I've suggested that he change item the price downward so we agree at $104.99 in all. We'll see!

Cars will always have a much better mpg that SUV's due to the extra weight mainly. It depends what you want, better mpg or higher seating position, more space, easy to get in and out of, all wheel drive, to name but a few. :)

Selection of pound land kiddies paint brushes work very well too lol