Mincey

Idiots who forget to put their lights on at night. In mitigation, I present the following for consideration: - Auto lights. It could be that their car has been in for a service and they have been turned off. - The trend for LCD instruments mean that people obviously think that because they can see how fast they are going in the dark, their lights must be on. Alternatively, they may be idiots. I had to flash someone at least 10 times the other night before they realised that they were driving along almost invisibly in the pitch black. Betsy does have a very bright main beam. Ok, they realised after five flashes but I was on a roll.

Or cyclists in general (and I'm saying this as an ex-cyclist). And vegans. Don't try to foist your weird eating habits on the rest of us normal people. And the same happened in Peterborough too. About 14 cyclists a day used it. Sheer idiocy from a council staffed by vastly overpaid buffoons. A car tried to use the lane but got stuck. Thankfully it has gone now, for the moment.

42.9 on the car vs 41.6 calculated (3.23% out) so more or less the same as you. My IS was between 2 and 5.5% out.

Just done the first fill up - an Excel calculated 41.56mpg compared with 36ish from the IS for similar journeys. Betsy, you're a good girl. This is on that watered down petrol too.

Proper McGuyver stuff there - well done Sir!

I'm sure I've seen this advice somewhere too - leave the jump start battery connected for 30 mins then go for it.

The portable jump starter always got me going again when my IS's 12v battery was depleted. I think the longest I'd left it undriven was about 3 weeks.

It's shocking isn't it. You would not get that with the German competition, would you. Oh wait a moment....

I'm not giving up on this one!

I have just replicated the test. Tonight, Betsy alerted me to the close proximity of the garage door immediately with a series of beeps and warning messages. She also let me edge as close to the door as I dare without intervening. I think Betsy may be a little contrary. She is a female after all, so it wouldn't come as any surprise. Perhaps it's a little game she likes to play. Who knows - perhaps it's just me!

I don't recall the "Object Detected Acceleration Reduced" message appearing. However, I shall take one for my Club Chums here. I'll try it again, but make sure that I'm covering the brake pedal just in case....

I had the BRAKE! warning kick in on my IS300h when I was going though some roadworks. One lane was traffic light controlled and I smoothed out the exit back onto the correct side of the road instead of jinking back again. The system clearly thought I was about to have a head-on with a waiting car, but no, I was in control. There wasn't any automated braking but there were beeps a-plenty. With Betsy's incident this week, there was nothing. I would have expected the parking sensors to go off as soon as I put her in Drive, as they had been sounding when I parked. She certainly wasn't going to go forwards as I was pressing the accelerator harder than usual before I realised that I was indeed a muppet of the highest calibre.

Total silent denial! Had the front parking sensors been bleeping, I might have realised earlier what was going on.

Precisely my reasoning behind my choice to use Lexus to fit mine. The camera they fitted to my IS300h didn't fall off or stop working, there were no rattles from wiring, so it was an easy decision to make to let them take care of my ES.

One more - when the boot on the ES is opened from the key fob or button on the dashboard, it opens all the way, it doesn't just unlock and open a millimetre or two. This is great if you're carrying stuff. Not as great admittedly as having a sensor under the bumper to open it "hands free". However, having one of these could make you look a total clot, like the driver of some Schiesserwagen in the Sainsbury's car park last night who couldn't find theirs. Or it didn't work. I was tempted to shout "Vorsprung durch technik" at them as they waggled their foot around beneath the car like some deranged lunatic, but they were already suffering enough having fallen for the hype and bought a German car.

No joy for me on Chrome, but it works on Edge.

Absolutely - I have no idea why I did it. I must be getting old...

Very clever, these Japanese! 😃

I went to visit my mother in Stamford at the weekend and instead of taking my usual return journey down the A1, I thought I'd see how Betsy fared on the back roads. I could of course have posted dashcam footage as proof that I had as much fun with FWD as RWD but I had my "Classic Rock" playlist on at the time and nobody really needs to hear me singing along to Freebird. I'm still on the first tank of fuel. The computer is showing 43.5ish mpg, and that is after the trip back from Leicester, Leicester and back for the dashcam fitting, two trips to Stamford and lots of unnecessary local trips. I'll brim her when I fill up and work out the actual mpg. The boot easily swallowed lots of stuff which would have been a squeeze in the IS, and I'm loving the heated steering wheel. Not quite so good yet is my ability to park her. If I'm parking in a space which I can drive into, her pert bottom often sticks out and I have to have another go. I just haven't got used to her length yet. Android Auto is great, it's a shame it isn't wireless but until the price of wireless adapters comes down, I can live with plugging my phone in. Blue does show up the dirt though! I could get away with my IS being filthy being silver, but I'm going to have to keep on top of a regular washing regime for Betsy.

Bear with me on this one - I may be losing my mind. Or not. Last night, I was tasked with visiting the local Next to collect a delivery for the current Mrs Mincey. I got into Betsy, who was as usual, parked on the driveway. After completing the start up sequence (seat belt on, wait to be gently ushered towards the Start button, foot on brake, push the Start button, wait for Ready light), I put Betsy in gear and pressed the accelerator. Nothing happened. "Come on old girl, what's the matter?" I enquired. Betsy was keeping schtum. She often does this. I pressed the accelerator more firmly. Still no movement was forthcoming. "Hmm," I thought to myself. Was the parking brake on? I checked the dashboard and no lights were giving any indication of this. I prodded the handbrake button just in case. There was still no movement in a rearwards direction. Had Betsy suffered a terrible malfunction? Was I going to have to call the AA? This was not a good moment. I was concerned. It was then that I looked down at the gear lever. It was in D, and not R. Bearing in mind that I've been driving automatics backwards off this driveway since 2007, this was an odd thing to have done. So this got me thinking. I'd parked Betsy close enough to the garage door for her to emit some warning bleeps the last time I drove her. Was she aware that if I was to drive off in D, I'd have gone straight through the garage door? Was this some devilishly clever self-preservation feature which I was not aware of? It is of course something which I would not put to the test, but I can promise you, she was not going to go anywhere until I realised my mistake and put her in R.

That's a good point - the standard Lexus fit camera would not do that as it's fixed. Hmm......

I had that - frightened the life out of me!

I was very tempted to contact them and ask if they needed any advice on making sure that their systems reflected the equipment which they themselves had fitted to their customers cars. I thought better of it. - oh I see - you mean in the video? This happened (and it might not work, so bear with me)

I received this yesterday 🙂