Northern Boys Luv Gravy

I have absolutely no idea what these letters mean mate. Having said that the most common one is API CF where I looked...

I'm gonna get the Mobil 1 5-30 Fully Synthetic (will need to check the label again).

Does anyone know what these spec's are and whether as Roonaldo asks one is better than another??

I haven't got my handbook in front of me but I do recall one of the selling points of the new IS250 that Lexus were plugging was the fact that as it still adheres to fairly frequent 10k oil change intervals it only needed the cheaper mineral oil, not the expensive full synthetic of the competition - thus reducing ownership costs.

I don't know if this applies to the diesel though. Having said which I don't think you can go wrong with Mobil 1.

Hi guys!

Anybody want a ride from Newcastle to London? I will be taking the ferry from Norway to England in a short while, and I am somewhat conserned about the drive from Newcastle to London. So, here is my question. Anybody want to have a ride to London (one way, will not drive back)? Anybody got any tips for a route? Help me out! :)

Just keep heading downhill. It literally is downhill all the way from Newcastle to London. In every sense of the word!

More annoying is that the dealer wants it twice. Once to "evaluate" whether the units need replacing and then once more to replace them. I'm being told that lexus Oz have told the dealership this is the procedure. Apparently there are two brands of seat belt units fitted- one good one stuffed

Bollocks. I'd be very surprised if Lexus don't know what's fitted - if there really are different brands

It's quite normal for a munufacturer to have more than one component supplier for things like seatbelts etc. - it prevents them having to stop production if one supplier has problems at their end. Having said which I would have though they would be able to track the seatbelt supplier from the VIN number.

Got a quote from Lexus today to fit a tow bar - £801!!!! Does anyone know if there are any aftermarket suppliers that can do this cheaper? Any other advice would be appreciated.

For that amount of money I hope they are throwing in the caravan as well!

I felt there there was something not right with the car and had it checked by Lexus. They stated that with uneven wear on the front wheels it was likely a geometry problem.

My *** - the front ends seems to have totally buckled...if not split in 2! That off side front wing and wheel are pointing at 2.00 o'clock!!

I reckon there was something more wrong than just uneven wear for that car to have been destroyed like that at 35mph...

At least you and yours are all more or less OK...thank the heavens!!

The car has gone side on into a tree - the most dangerous type of impact a vehicle can have. While manufacturers now carry out the "pole test" to see how a car stands up to this type of impact - most end up looking like that.

FWIW I think a lot of drivers come a cropper when they move onto RWD cars like BMWs or Lexus after years of driving generally forgiving understeering FWD cars. They learn on FWD superminis and move up, getting used to a bit of understeer and putting on the power early coming out of corners, feeling the front wheels scrabbling for grip and then pulling the car round. As we all know trying this in a RWD car leads to sudden oversteer and if you are not expecting it you spin.

There's a lot to be said for a few sessions on a skid pan.

And then this morning I'm driving down the A19 and realise there are 3 of us in a line - another silver one and that metallic Kermit green (can't say I'm impressed with that). Are we stalking each other?

I got my IS250 last week and diascovered the button (well hidden) a few days later. The car feels a little sharper with it, so I leave it switched on most of the time, what do others think?

The button isn't actually connected to anything - it works purely on the placebo effect. You press the button and you think the car goes faster. You can prove my theory by adding a second ECT Power button in a blank switch space. If you have 2 buttons to press the car goes even quicker.

Go for the MM option if you can - it's damn worth every penny!! And will help resale value!!

Is this true? How much of the £2700 would one get back in 3 years time? What are the predicted residuals of a 250 SE with MM and without?

very few cars are actually built in the country that the manufacturer originates from. Some mercedes benz for example are built in south africa, and porsche are built in eastern europe somewhere, and these are examples of high end manufacturers. Its just pure economics, wherever is the cheapest location to build, you go there.

Porche Boxters are built in Finland, Audi TTs in Hungary, BMW X3s in Austria by a third party contractor, Mercedes MLs and BMW Z4s in the USA, many right hand drive BMW 3 series in South Africa....

Has anyone else noticed all current Lexus/Toyota cars no longer have the country of manufacture displayed on the windsreen:how long before they start building cars in China for the U.K.?

Tel

Toyota already have plants in China building cars largely for that market. These plants are not the highly automated plants they have in Japan but very labour intensive with workers pushing handcarts and moving vehicles on dollies by hand. The labour is so cheap it's not worth investing in robots and if there is a downturn in demand it can be laid off easily. However the aim is to match quality levels set in Japan.

how gutted am i :tsktsk: :tsktsk: :tsktsk: :tsktsk:

just spotted some bubbling on my passenger rear wheel arch,

have i got any come back on lexus paintwork or corrosion warrenty any light on this would be helpful.

cheers guys in advance

kirkyboy

The anti perforation warranty on Lexus covers rust coming through from the inside to the outside. If your car hasn't suffered any damage and it has rusted from inside the wheel arch you may have a good case. I'm assuming the wheel arch liners are in place as well. I'd drop into your dealer and ask for his opinion.

IS should get 5 stars easily, results should be up in next testing phase...

I have seen the crash test results they did in the States somewhere. The IS250/350 came out top, outperforming the new 3 series BMW, especially in the side impact tests.

I have the basic IS250 - no ML or Sat-Nav. Couldn't bring myself to part with the large amount they want for it. Also wanted a portable GPS to move between cars.

Has anyone used one in the base IS? Any problems with the windscreen bloking signal. I'm looking at a Garmin but don't really want the hassle of putting in an external receiver

I've got the IS250 without MM and I bought the Garmin Streetpilot for £140 from Asda. It works like a dream with a good colour screen and clear spoken instructions. For that price you can't go wrong.

Having also owned a Mini and an Audi and frequented their forums, one of the main causes of complaints there is also stone chips, and the fact that the MINI/Audi seems more prone than other cars. Maybe I'm just unlucky with my choice of cars. I picked up a chip on the A pillar within 300 miles and a few weeks ago picked up a large one on the leading edge of the bonnet. I touched it up as best I can and there's no point in worrying about it.

Maybe we travel faster/closer these days, maybe it's the new water based paints or the fact that there seems to be more debris on the road. Nissan has developed a new self healing paint that recovers from chips and scratches with the heat of the sun/warm water and they should start using it soon. Other manufacturers will no doubt follow suit.

For those of you who have wind noise in the doors etc. I know a fix is alignment of doors, new/refit of window and door seals etc is a solution. I just need to guage the severity of the problem on mine.

The first question is how bad is/was yours (drivers side)?

Was it:

1) So bad you could only hear that and nothing else in your right ear; almost as if the window/door is slightly open

2) Mildly irritating, constantly "whissing" and really noticeable after a few minutes on a fast road

3) Only noticeable if you listened carefully and then un-noticeable

Any help would be good. I just want to know how that compares to mine, which is really a 2) above...

The second question is about the A/C.

Even on "auto", I found that on a warm day (last week) with A/C on the system tended to chuck air out of the "face" level vents only. I know it's an intelligent system (!), but you have to manually override it to make it comfortable or cool your legs. Anyone else finding that? Also it's a "noisy" air flow...??? You have to switch to "circ" (not auto recirc on the oiler) to stop un-necessary wind noise at the front of the car (possibly the external vents).

Any assistance would be good. I'm not driving the car at all currently, but would just like to know how mine compares to your experience.

Just to be difficult I would put mine at somewhere between 2 and 3 for the wind noise. It's there if you listen for it at speeds over 70mph. I'm not really sure if the rest of the car is just so quiet that that happens to be the first thing you notice as speed increases. If you look at the seal at the top of the door where it meets the B pillar it seems to be harder and a slightly different profile for some reason. That , to me, is the cause of the noise.

As for the vents, well everytime I look at the display it seems to be directing air at my feet and I often wonder when it is going to direct it at my face. Best bet would be to combine our systems and divide by two...

:) Back to the "Did you know" , someone please tell me if this is true ?

I was in my local dealer on Saturday, having a moan, or should I say waiting to have a moan when I overheard a potensial IS250 buyer remark on the size of the boot and the fact he would have no problems getting his golf clubs in the back, to which the salesmen replied "Actually the boot on this was designed around 2 sets of golf clubs to ensure they would fit"

Not sure if it swung the sale :D

He may not be far from the truth. In the US it is generally considered to be the kiss of death to a luxury car if the boot (or trunk!) won't hold 2 sets of golf clubs. So Lexus probably did make sure they fitted.

I phoned Adrian Flux Insurance and found them very helpful. They didn't have the 250SE on their system back in December but good as their word they checked it out and phoned me back within a few minutes.

...............!

ScarFace Edit : Non Gold !

LMAO - it was a joke about having a load of valve caps for sale....

Then again I could start mugging the kids round here and pinching them off their BMXs. Then I'd have to go Gold.

The new IS appears to be taking a right battering on here - I feel genuinely sorry for owners who are having problems but I think we need to redress the balance - and hopefully at the same time find out whether it is a quality control problem at the factory.

If you have a rattle/squeak free new IS register it here and lets see how things balance out:

I know it is early days but here goes:

My model: IS250 Sport, 1200 miles, bought from Lexus Newcastle in March - NO PROBLEMS AND ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED (so far!)

I got mine from Newcastle Lexus too. 6k miles and no rattles - of course I have now cursed it and I bet next time I go out it rattles like a bag of spanners!

Loving it so far. Definitely the most comfortable car I've ever driven; the leather seats are like a comfortable pair of trainers that are wonderful to slip into after a hard day at work.

Quality seems very good, at least on a par with my Audi that I had before. I did have certain misgivings about the "metallic effect" paint finish on the centre dash and the door handles, but it seems to be wearing fine (I have 6k miles now).

I can only think of minor niggles:

1. Lack of rear legroom - not a major problem as I rarely carry rear passengers.

2. The boot release and filler release are right next to each other and not illuminated so at night it is difficult to get the right one.

3. Would have liked the headrests to be able to tilt forward slightly.

4. Tyre roar could be a bit less.

5. I have a bit of wind noise from where the driver's door meets the B-pillar at sppeds in excess of 75mph. It's not a bother - I'll get them to look at it when it goes in for its first service.

Dealer service so far was great, but then I got good service at Audi (wife works for Audi dealer so I would expect to!)

I have just ordered an IS250 Sport with the Multimedia upgrade, which looks fantastic. Never had a Jap car before, only ever bought German (VW, Audi) with a breif flirtation with Fiat (Very bad move). Looking forward to the new experience. I was so blown away with the looks and specification of the car that I simply had to have one!

GET ON WITH YOUR QUESTION!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone know of a mod to allow me to play DVD's while on the move. I have read a few posts on this topic but have not read any definitive answers.

Hope someone can help.

B)

The problem is there are enough prats driving around using a hand held mobile phone, oblivious to what's going on around them. There would bound to be some idiot who would think it was ok to drive around while watching the DVD at the same time. To be honest anyone that stupid should just have their license taken off them for good.

I always quite liked the styling of the old IS200 but the low rent interior clearly marked it out as a Toyota and that, togther with the poor fuel economy and lack of power, put me off. Then I saw the IS250 and from that moment I was a Lexus convert.

i've made it clear before i think the new IS is overpriced compared to the old model

is the proof now that only a short time after launch dealers are offering delivery milage only models?

maybe they know Lexus plan to reduce the price due to poor sales as they did with the old model and are dumping there stock !

As I understand it, Lexus dealers are allocated cars but must sell them within a fixed period or Lexus reserves the right to offer them to other dealerships. If a dealer has a particular spec that does not appear to be shifting and that period end is drawing near they may well offer some incentives. That said the only nearly new IS that I have seen for sale in dealerships were 55 Reg demonstrators that were being replaced by 06 ones.

The other point is that comparing the price of the new IS to the old IS is pointless as the new one competes against the BMW 3 series, Audi A4s etc and any price comparisons must be made with them. The big jump in price between old IS and new IS can only help the residuals of the older car as it fills that sub £20k price bracket.

I can't see how more expensive systems justify their cost when compared to this.

If the Lexus system was just pure Sat Nav then it would be very hard to justify the increased cost when you could buy a Tom Tom or similar for much less. But you are paying for a MultiMedia System. That means a DVD changer and the ability to watch DVDs (and yes I do use this feature!), a fantasic Sat Nav system, an amazing stereo, Voice activation, Reversing Camera, Bluetooth connection for phone. And I think that this is great value for money.

Like Parthiban I too am a big fan of integration - a much more elegant solution.

You're right in what your saying, of course, but look at it from my point of view:

DVD Player - watch movies stationary in my car? Why? I have friends.

Sat Nav - yes it is very good but I often lend my Garmin to my wife to help her find places on her travels. It's never failed to bring her back yet. Whether this is a plus or a minus is debatable I grant you.

Amazing stereo - the existing 13 speaker is fine for me thanks.

Voice activation - my phone has this anyway.

Reversing camera - I know how to park. (Famous last words I know).

I nearly went for the MM option on my new IS250 but decided against it. Then I was walking through ASDA and spotted the little Garmin i3 StreetPilots for £140. It's small but with a great colour 3D screen and gives clear spoken instructions. You can remove it and put it in your pocket or transfer it to another car. So far it has been 100% accurate all over the country. I can't see how more expensive systems justify their cost when compared to this.