Mincey

This thread has reminded me of an episode from my past. I was going to see a client with my boss. At the time, I had a humble 1.2 Vauxhall Nova (the "Antibes" edition - so it wasn't anything hum-drum) but he had an Alfa 164. He decided he would drive. His Alfa was a meagre 2 litre one, not an exciting 3 litre model, but having never been in an Alfa before, I was excited. On the way back, a fog started to come down. "Nobody is going to run into the back of me!" my boss said as a finger on his left hand hit the front fog light and another hit the rear fog light button. I had to stifle a chuckle when he simultaneously removed his fingers and the button for the rear fog light pinged off somewhere in the driver's footwell.

It was semi foggy this morning on my way to a client site. Some drivers had no lights on at all. I had mine on (front and rear) but no fog lights. It got a little foggier and the van in front put his lights on, then his rear fog light, but turned it off again straight away. Good chap, I thought. You clearly looked in your mirror, saw me and thought "yes, I can see the car behind, I don't need to fry his retinas with my fog lights, and potentially cause him to run into the back of me because he can't make out my brake lights due to the glare". Five minutes later they went on and stayed on. Even when the fog cleared they were still on. Had I been a Rozzer, I'd have given him a tug.

There's probably only an hour every year when fog lights are necessary. Trouble is, most idiots leave them switched on for about six weeks or longer afterwards. Oh and front fog lights are a bit Colin McRae innit? Thank God most manufacturers now make them reset with the ignition, so everyone knows you're a weapons grade idiot if you "forget" to turn them off.

Absolutely. I could not have put it better myself.

Good. It's about time that common sense prevailed against knee-jerk reactions.

Being a bass player, that's quite funny 🙂

Here are the ones which were factory fit to my IS300h

Blimey, I've just done the annual Meerkat check and prospective policies have gone up over £120! Do they secretly know I chase Scheissewagens?

I still can't do that Ted Rogers 3-2-1 thing.

Well done to Germany and Italy too.

A good point well made. I would suggest a heated badge, along with heated washer jets.

Too much trouble to "pursue". Back in the very early Nineties, I remember answering a knock on the door. It was the local Plod. He said that a woman had "nearly been knocked over by my father as he reversed off my drive". I was watching him leave and I presented a very different version of events which were in fact the truth - she had waited until he had finished his manoeuvre before crossing the road - after which Plod bade me farewell and no more of the matter was heard. These days you can call the Rozzers after having someone plunge a knife into you and they're not the slightest bit interested in coming out to look for, let alone track down and arrest the felons.

I've noticed no real difference having experienced both.

Clearly a Major of taste.

And another one! On the M11, presumably on the way to drop off or pick up a fare. It's so heartening knowing that there are people out there using the ES for its intended purpose. It brought a smile to my face, I can tell you!

Ok, let's put it another way. Is the ES a better car than the Gen 2 IS? Yes it is, despite the build quality/material issues.

This is a real smiley face thread - I'm really pleased to hear everything is going well. The diesel IS gets a huge amount of bad press around here. Whenever I'm out and about I see more diesel Gen 2's than petrols and none of the oil burners I see are leaving a smoke screen behind them. May your new steed serve you well for many years to come!

It's still a very pleasant place to be though, as they say on Pistonheads.

I think he means the "driver/wife separator between the seats"

Once the initial excitement of change had worn off, It didn't take me long to realise that the interior quality of my IS300h wasn't up to my Gen 2 IS250.

A fair point Herbie but I'm a tired old Hector and I'd rather leave that complicated stuff to someone else. Having read horror stories of cars catching fire after Halfords fitted dashcams, I felt more comfortable letting Lexus fit the cameras even if it cost more. Had anything gone wrong...

I'm in two minds now. I've got some 3M protective film which I bought after some scroat tried to break into my IS300h. I was going to try to cut a section out to put behind the door handles to stop scratches but never bothered. This could be the ideal use for it.

No rattles from front or rear, could have got a discount but didn't think of it in time. See: