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Why would anyone be interested in a diesel Lexus?? It is against everything that the brand stands for and the only reason the car came to market was opportunism from the marketingdepartment. Diesels then ruled the company car market and toyota had an engine available so lets try to get some sales. Engineers then were dead against it as the engines just destroyed the Noise Vibration Harshness philosophy Lexus was known for. On top of that reliability proved to be way below Lexus standard and after some time the model was axed. It did more damage to the brand than justified complaints alone... I drove an IS 250 for 4 years and 100k miles and nothing ever went wrong. No vibrations from the engine, buttersmooth , super silent and enough power. Low end torque to be desired but from 3500 rpm enough. A true joy to glide through town, the gearbox matches the engine in smoothness and acceleration from standstill is like there is a cloud between your shoe and the pedal. Linear, smooth, effortless. Lifting a mediocre diesel engine into a Lexus was a mistake. A Lexus withe a diesel engine is not a Lexus.

Last Saturday I purchased an Is300h. My previous car was a very much loved and cherished 20 year old celica who I was very sad to see go. But new baby was proving to be a pain in the bum to lug in and out of 3 door (didnt have that problem with my son 7 years ago). So Lexus was the only way I wanted to go, been looking out for one and a 2013 luxury model came up at decent price with low miles. Enjoying the ride/ handling so far... driving an auto was a strange adjustment. But loving the solid drive so far. Only annoying points I have so far... typical saloon and no rear wiper (why?!) Would like a digital clock somewhere i can quickly glance at! Anyway hiya, sure I will go back to lurking. Vicky

In 5 years of owning my IS250 I never ever got used to the positioning of the clock, it's just not where you instinctively look. Love the analogue one on the 300h though, has that Fabergé look about it. Or maybe I watch too much Antiques Roadshow 🙂

A tyre gauge is cheap and I recommend that one is obtained. It enables you to check for wear and investigate any significant discrepancy earlier.

Here you go as promised please excuse the crude erasing of no. plates I'm not great on computers.

Thank you Herbie - I've never heard of them. I'll give 'em a go!

Use a broker like https://www.aplan.co.uk/ who do all the comparisons for you. I've dealt with A-Plan for five years now and had insurance with three different companies through them during that time and I can say they are excellent to deal with.

Get a number of quotations from agencies like'Compare the Market dot com' and you'll discover how widely varied the quotes can be

My RX450h is around £270 a year with breakdown cover.

I`m looking for a rx450h and got a quote only today, £362. full ncb and I`m 53.

My 56 plate RX350 costs £274 a year with LV. I think they saw you coming!

Yes it seems we knocking off some rough edges. I think HJ had in mind straight six from mk1 IS300, that is certainly on of the most reliable engines. IS250 has v6 which is still good, but it has some shortcomings - like no port injection meaning there are issues with carbon build-up on intake valves in particular. But this issue is far overblown by US experience due to trash petrol they use there and far less of an issue in UK. Obviously, ideal solution would be to have port-injection like on IS350 (2GR-FSE). Clearly... So we kind of agree on this one, how comes you just said IS220d is "probably even better"? Regarding the speed it is just simply not true, you really trying to tell me that 177BHP car is "just as fast" as 208BHP car?! No it is not... IS250 does easy ~7.5s 0-60, IS220d does not even break 8s, even chipped ones. Equally, 215WHP is not realistic on IS220d - yes TD are highly unable but your claim of say 260BHP is just outside of reality. I would say ~10% more power would be good yardstick - so 190-200BHP whilst still improving economy and reducing smoking is achievable... but it has to be solid engine to begin with, everything in order etc. Certainly not the case for majority of used IS220ds. 215WHP/260BHP - get out of here man! Equally you overstate fuel consumption on IS250 by a lot! I used to live in metric country as well and I had 2 IS250s before I came to UK. One was brand new 2012 F-Sport and second one was ~40k miles US import IS250 AWD and have never seen 14l/100km... never! If you really launching at every traffic light.. 12l/100km is as high as it gets and even that was AWD model which I really didn't like, it was just sluggish and fuel consumption was much worse than RWD. In UK I have never seen fuel consumption below 22MPG... this is absolute minimum! I guess you can get below that if you deliberately trying, but not in normal circumstances. Although, I never looked at "current" fuel consumption as it is just not reliable - so my all claims are for brim to brim, full tank. If engine burns 1l per 1000km then it is only good for scrapping... this is not normal and definitely not the case with most IS250. This is territory of Mazda rotary engines. if you say 1l per 10k.. then I would believe it. Again I owned 3 different IS250.. one started with 68km on the clock and I sold it at around 23k km. Second one 43k miles - 92k km and last one was UK car - bought at 122k miles sold at 192k miles. It was burning some oil, but it was ~0.6l/10k miles... what you saying is that apparently I should have been driving with bottle of oil in the boot and adding 0.5l every other time I filled the tank! Certainly not the case. In UK nowadays is hard to find IS250 below 60k miles (because that would be extremely low mileage for 15 years car), so with your claim of 100k+ km this means almost all IS250s in UK should be burning oil... again not the case.

Hi everyone! For those looking to do this mod, I just finished editing a video showing the process! I no longer have it installed for a few reasons: First of all, CEL 😞 Second of all, UNBELIEVABLY LOUD! But the main reason is that I'm no longer installing a SC, since I've decided to upgrade to an IS300 🙂 Enjoy! P.S - Feel free to drop a like and subscribe! 🙂

Well I thought you were all wondering did he ever get his UX? It finally arrived at my dealer at the weekend and I picked it up yesterday. So far very pleased with my experience with the vehicle albeit very early days. I must credit Hedge End after my frustrating ordering experience. The vehicle was Diamond coated (FOC), first service free, Mud guards fitted (FOC), rubber boot liner supplied (FOC) and rubber floor mats (FOC). The salesman did a fine job of anticipating all the multitude of settings you can set up on the vehicle and ran through them with me which just left me my specific tastes in music register. I will put some pictures up when the bl**dy rain stops and I have cleaned it again! ☺️ The above additional kit Hedge End supplied and fitted left me with some purchases I had made beforehand now no longer needed by me. I have a tailored rubber boot liner unused, and some mud flaps with fixings. Both non-Lexus. If anybody is interested in either or both let me know and perhaps we can come to some arrangement. For some reason I was unable to upload my pictures, I will follow this up if anybody is interested. Cheers Barry and Happy Christmas to you all from Tier 4 from Boxing Day!

Indeed! Been doing quite a bit of digging - suspect a faulty or damaged sunroof switch? No time to fix it, so my thinking is... take out the fuse 48? LOVE mince pies ( M&S are the best. ) Happy Christmas.

One knows one`s plaice then ! That makes at least too of us.

so sorry to hear about your troubles with Oponeo When I ordered tyres they were at a great price and delivered to their / and my local fitter, worked out well I'm pleased to report Please don't blame Brexit for all these woes with cross border hold-ups .......... I think it's covid issues but I'm just waiting for the Calais port workers to just go on-strike over whatever too Lucky here in the UK that we only import 10% of our HGV hauled stuff via Calais eh ! Don't know what all the fuss is about Dover / Calais .............. just avoid the places maybe ........ there's loadsa capacity elsewhere in the UK it seems I must admit I relish the prospect of Cornish lobster, scallops, crabs etc being available at better prices in England when the export markets to Parisians to eat just " dry up " yummy Malc

It's on a private plate Piers so the records are probably under its 'proper' reg number.

😂 A very good point sir, as a bonus I have family in that part of the country so could easily combine the trip...

I could never get rid of the one in mine either. Tried everything under the sun but nothing would budge it.

I left everything in place, ie the height sensors and compressor and simply removed the 40amp fuse which disabled the suspension system, no warning lights at all. I can't be sure it'll be the same for the RX but I don't see why not. Last week I did 700 miles on a trip to Cornwall and couldn't have been happier with the ride, even at driving ban speeds!

When I had my 2nd generation IS250 I was always distracted by that squiggly blue arrow pointing down to the digital clock.... 😉😂

Nope, not at all and I’m more than happy with the SE-I. I would have preferred an SE-L but not particularly for the HID headlights. The standard halogens are not really bad, I just wanted to improve them that’s all.

Sort of Tom. Sod's Law suggests that if you need a jump start then it'll probably be on a cold, wet and windy night rather than a nice sunny day, so rather than mess about getting access to the battery itself (wife's mobility scooter usually in there) or risk losing the small plastic clips that hold the engine covers on to get access to the fusebox jump terminal, I thought I would fit a more convenient jump starting connection. That wiring is to a connector that I installed in the luggage area - only to later realise that if the battery is dead then you can't manually open the tailgate from outside as there is no key barrel So I left that connector in place and rectified my mistake by fitting another one in the lower level centre console, details of which are below:

I enjoyed watching the video quite informative

hi Paul there is a button to turn the parking assist on & off please see image

I’ve just ordered a CTEK MXS battery charger and the manual suggests that it is suitable for in vehicle battery charging. Is there anything against using it for charging the 12V battery without disconnecting it from the vehicle? Thanks. Edit: Herbie, you seem to have additional leads hooked up to the battery in your RX (as per the picture). I assume these are for an easy in vehicle charging?

Actually I may have solved the problem. I have a cheapo dongle plugged into the OBD port which seems to have stopped communicating properly with both my 'phone and the Vline. I'm thinking it might also be draining the battery. I've ordered a new OBDlink LX so I can use Hybrid Assistant. The spec says that it shuts down when not in use, so we'll see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all the very helpful comments.

You are now a big boy Shahpor, so you know the answer already:):)

Haha yeh try having a Black Country accent😂!! Yeh happy to help with what ever you need and thanks for the kind words 👍

A terrible state of affairs Vlad--I for one would not even consider them after reading that. Brexit is not the reason international Borders are closed Vlad and you did not know it but you have at least one virtual friend on this Forum who did vote for Brexit and you have offered to buy him coffee and a fish and chips luncheon and an ice cream pudding when he is next in Largs !!.

Well, 3 years on from this post..... The car’s had it’s MOT, had covered about 37k miles and has been absolutely faultless in operation. The only thing that has needed attention was the very beginning of corrosion near the centre caps of all 4 alloy wheels. I can only assume that a screwdriver had been used (at the dealer - the only place the wheels have come off) to prize off the caps. They were replaced at 35 months without question. Apart from that, we really do think we made an excellent choice 3 years ago. I go a new VW Golf recently - the quality feels poor compared to the three year old Lexus. There’s “something” that feels well engineered and solid about the Lexus. A great start to what will probably be a very long relationship.

I have a Dhp ls400, recently for the mot, I had to replace both front springs as one was broken, it still drove smooth and quiet, I couldn't even tell it was broken until it was mot time, so instead of just replacing one front spring, I think it was best to replace both, I bought kyb springs for £35 each, to be honest I can't tell the difference, it still drives very smooth. I'm abit anal so I got all the work done on the advisories, I was lucky with the rear upper arms, bought them from Paul on here.

Morning Mark. As I`ve said on 3 occasions a league table whilst sounding a neat idea, would not be fair for many reasons. Population density differences and unwillingness to name and/or shame, being two. What we can say is that in very general terms, the smaller Motor Groups seem to try harder and the larger ones, less so. Motorline Group (7 orgs)rarely attract praise and Border Group (Carlisle only) seem consistently poor. The Dealerships at Sheffield, Hedge End and Hull have been identified as consistently good. I think that JeffL will now continue the monitoring process as I have passed Dealership Locations over to him. Have as pleasant a Christmas and New Year, as possible.

Yes I can't fault the handover, they gave the car a full 60,000 service and valet. Paperwork went without any problems, car was sat indoors ready for a good run down of controls walking through the sat nav, drive modes etc even taking time to synchronise my phone. They have a neat trick where your car is behind a two-way mirrored wall, when paperwork is finished the mirror changes allowing you to see your car in the bay. Neat little touches which give a feelgood factor.

Lexus Leeds John

Now the proud owner of a Lexus IS300h 2015 in charcoal grey looking the business on the drive. Handover very smooth and professional added bonus of just under half a tank of petrol. Too dull and drizzly to take any photos but they will be coming.

Hi, I'm thinking of getting a Lexus UX as a daily driver and am a bit confused about the spec. Is the only way you can get Mark Levinson Sound System with the 10 inch infotainment screen to get the Takumi Spec or F Sport with Takumi Pack? If so, that's quite annoying since both are over the £40k list road tax increase. Takumi spec especially is annoying with it costing £40,150. Just £200 lower and it would be under. The F Sport with Takumi Pack is more expensive at £41,450 list price on configurator. I was hoping to get both without having the pay the extra road tax but guess I'll have to choose between either F-Sport spec (10 inch infotainment and 8 speakers) or Premium Plus Tech and Sound/Pro (regular infotainment and Mark Levinson). Any advice/help would be appreciated.

It's not so much the venting that's the problem. The reason AGM batteries were fitted OEM was for safety reasons because if the car rolls in an accident the acid cannot leak out into the cabin and pose a danger to the occupants. Some consider it a risk not worth taking but if you're happy with the risk then yes, a standard 'wet' battery can be fitted. EDIT: Lexus Parts Direct are currently out of stock but charge £187.26 for the OEM here.

Thanks I am loving him! I know the rear wiper is absent from most saloons. However coming from the celica which isn't too dissimilar shape from a saloon (if we are being honest). The urge to quickly blip on the rear wiper to see more clearly on the motorway is still there. The interior is lovely, and I don't really like having my mobile anywhere in sight. Its just a shame there isn't a clock in the instrument panel, to I can flick my eyes quickly down. These are very very minor things. I'm so pleased that you can still get a good amount of random objects in the car. Again thus was something the Celica could handle really well. Just waiting for the logbook to arrive, then I can switch my private plates over and give Luthor a good clean... I will then attempt to upload some photos 🙂

Maybe you did visit the dealer before 10.00 hr in which case they have not arrived yet, or between 1200 and 1330 when there is lunch or after 1500 when they left for home?

a couple of years ago i took our Auris hybrid to lexus liverpool to have its mot as it saved me £15, by the time the mot was done i unexpectedly spent £29k on an 11 month old 17 plate IS300h F sport , i only asked what the options where on my pcp that would end in 6mth's i think the purchace more than out weighed the £15 saving i would of been making.

Welcome to the forum! I'm 3 weeks into my 300h ownership having enjoyed my is250 for the past 5 years. Really enjoying learning a new driving style with regenerative braking and noticing the increase in mpg over the purely petrol V6. Rear wipers aren't fitted to saloon cars for aerodynamic reasons, the gentler sloping back ensures the air flow over the roof will clear the rear screen but I know it's a pain until you get going. I keep a squeegy in the boot. I hope you get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of yours. Post pics when you can.

Hi mate. Me & my friend took apart the EGR yesterday what was meant to be just an EGR clean ended in... Removed EGR the cooler & the pipes connected. Cleaned out the EGR cooler & pipes with brake cleaner. Removed & cleaned the Throttle body with brake cleaner. Also removed & cleaned the Intake manifold. End result after 6/7 Hrs working perfect job The rattles missing shakes all gone. Drives perfect now 👏👍

I have always been told by the generation above me ( wise old men) to not buy a brandnew model and wait at least a year for the child deseases to disappear. This was in the analogue mechanical area. Appears it is still the case and maybe even more so. VW will get it right eventually i have no doubts about that but buying an ID3 or4 does not seem to be the best idea now...

I use Cheltenham and like you have gone from 500 miles a week to virtually zero. They always do a good job and give me a 15% gold member discount which for the big Service is not to be sniffed at.

My understanding is that if the original list prices exceeds the £40k,then the higher tax applies.This is regardless of any discount or secondhand price. A J