Cotswold Pete

All I have to say is Gor Blimey and Amazing

I was enamoured by these little beasts, but a friend of mine dis-abused me of that dream by telling me her stories of rust buckets on wheels that she got rid of before the inevitable MOT fail

Blimey that is a lot of people making the wrong choice. I should know having a mate with two S classes (one of them normally needing something done to it) and me with an E class (which is an S class with less to go wrong). I am not sure the 500 is ever going to be on my list - it just looks too 'not right' on the front end - I keep looking at LS460's on ebay, but for the mo lets see how my E350 goes

Also keep in mind Infinity Exhausts by J18 of M4, they are stainless exhaust fabricators, sorted out my Y-piece on the 400 (only bit that was not stainless). They are excellent and good value, and could no doubt do you a full stainless exhaust if you wanted to splash the cash

recently been told about the CVT noise, so maybe I need to go in one to check it out. surely with newer models Lexus have worked out how to deaden the sound!!

People buy from people, this is something most companies forget, and that customers will trust support people way more if they are hoenst and up front. With 45 years experience I have found the trick is making the bosses think you are doing their bidding, when in fact you are keeping the clients happy, coz getting a new client if a lot more expensive than keeping the existing client. Learnt Under-Promise Over Deliver many years ago, a great maxim to live by (expect with the missus, maybe)

Maybe I should have said 'chilled', in that it just does it's work quite calmly until you press that pedal and it just gets up and goes. Having driven a number of USA V6 and V8s always felt like they wanted to shout at you even when they were pootling along, I get that some of that was exhaust design but the 1UZ beats IMHO most engines into a cocked hat.

If only in the days when I did on avearge 50Kmiles a year in my company Cav, I had a V8 Lexus instead I would have been a very happy (and lucky) chap. Most of my Cavs were tired after 18 months, and in one where I did 72,000 in one year it was more or less a bit of a wreck, but I did always rev through the gears, where as the Lexus V8 is so 'lazy' that no need to rag it to get going, which is why 200, 500K is nothing to worry about. However I am not sure yet I like the look of the LS500 or the LC, so not going to be on my Xmas present request list yet

Had the Mk2 1.6 Cav as company car for many years, then got my first Cavalier Sri 130, that was my first 'true' sports car. Loved it, even got let off once when i was doing 115 down the M4 late one night (God knows how I managed that). Then traded sideways to a 1.8 full spec CDi, lovely car, but could only get to 112 (downhill), so had to get used to not chasing other t*ssers down the M4 when they had cut me up. It was not until I got my first LS 400 15 years ago I felt like had a car that could give a sports car a run for it's money and stick to road well (when bone dry surface) Been in many sports cars, I still think best was the VW Corrado VR6 and Aston DB7, and worst Aston DB9 and TVR Chimeara (5 litre) and the most interesting E-type (coz it felt like a proper toy car).

According to this web site - in theory any changes to bushes could constitute a mod Insurance Mods So if you used poly bushes instead of the originals then that might get you caught. However if you ragged your car, slammed it into a wall and expected a pay out, I not so sure that they would be looking at the spec of the bushes or the springs unless you have tweaked to uprate cornering and it was obvious that the running gear was out of spec. So I do not think it relates to non-OEM but what might be classed as modified specification to change the handling/road holding of the car. So if someone rear ends you, the car is a right off, I suspect they are not going to pulling the control arms apart to see what the bushes are.

I like happy endings, glad to here you are all sorted on the MOT front

Pretty certain all Mk4 sensor were retro fit. Mine had rear sensors only, which did make it easier to park. Though I actually found the dipping rear view mirrors pretty darned helpful (one thing i miss on my E350) From experience with other cars and sensors water is what gets them, and I assume front ones take a bigger battering than rear fitted ones.

Mine needed less work on it and could not give it away, so off the the scrapper. So £3K seems a little high to me, given I was only asking scrap value £500ish. If I did have a Mig I would have done the wheel arches on mine, but hey ho, 15 years of driving LS was a treat never to be forgotten.

I am willing to join the heathens, the track was somewhat anodyne, but then I have always found any band after the first 5 or 6 albums tends to go bland or repetitive. I say that about the Beatles, New Order, Radiohead, Genesis, Elton John, Van der Graaf Generator, James, London Grammar, Jordi Savall & Hesperion XX to name a few. Was listening to the Moody Blues last night, their early stuff (IMHO) was brilliant and some of it way ahead of their time, but post Seventh Sojourn they fell into the age old trap of un-expanding horizons. Probably the only band that did not fall into the trap is The Fall, but not all their albums tickled my hearing buds.

Yousuf, your only problem now is every other car will seem like a retrograde step. Enjoy the experience and sounds like a jolly good buy, be good to see photos when you have them.

Although I cannot hear noise on your video (I am also a deaf old man). I had similar with my LS over a number of years, went through not using OEM, then OEM, and new shims etc. Still even to the end would get a squeak - usually after the car had been standing for half hour (at least) but the squeak lasted less the none second so gave up worrying about it. I always tried to remember to put car in park or handbrake after stopping at lights (to minimise any pad deposits on the disc) and always on handbrake for overnight parking etc. So I had a squeak for about the last 50K miles I owned the car.

Not an easy one, as since my heart attack the missus has been doing the long distance driving with me as passenger in Mazda MX2. Really missed the comfort (and quiteness) of a big car, and I suspect my only pottering about on my LS, was one reason why it complained and got old really quickly.. So on Monday going to have a go at driving up to Cumbria in my E350, which IMHO is quieter then the LS, but no where near as comfortable, but determined not to let the E350 suffer the same 'lack of decent runs' syndrome my LS died of. Another thought is doing same as a mate of mine did a few years back. When he has an LS, he leant it to a mate to make sure it got used, and then nabbed it back for a week or so when he needed it for the long runs.

Not sure if you know about Osaka in Newport, I used to use them when I had LS, chap I dealt with was ex lexus mechanic, genuine guys, and one of t hese garages that more than happy to get you under the car and point out things and never demeaning when I asked my not so informed questions. They are near the Transport Bridge

Looks like a well tidy LS, and I can see why £10K is a fair price - assuming it drives well and nothing in running gear needs a jolly good sort. I guess most of us got used to buying them for a song when not many appreciated the beauty of these cars, given I paid £2,250 for my Mk4, and in 11 years of ownership would not have come to £10K in total expenditure, but if I had room I would be sorely tempted, but the missus would be an ex-missus fairly quickly

Being generous I would say this numpties spend too much time watching American TV and think that we should drive like them. Not being generous I would suggest buying a South African Army Mbombe so you could nudge them into the correct lane💣

I have been in hyper cars, IMHO I am not a fan of the noise when you really put the foot down. So no Ferrari for me and as i do not have a pooch, I have no use for the back seats. But I will say a lovely looking design, nicer than the SC430 (probably not as reliable though)

Valves becoming transistors - I was there. I can recall a couple of stories from the mid 70's when I was a mere 17 years old. First - my best mate his mother told me about watching Marconi flying his kites etc, and doing some weird stuff over Poole Harbour (turned out to be inventing radio) Second - At Uni a mate of mine his father worked on the first ever computers (based on valves) and to check that it was working before the got it do some serious work, they would get it to evaluate PI. if it gave a wrong answer they would wiggle the valves until it gave the right answer then once done get it to work on the real problem. As Monty Pythons would say in a Yorkshire accent, 'You try telling that to the youth of today no one would believe you'. I also assume in years to come no one will believe we used to put hoses in cars and squirt a flammable liquid into the darned thing.

The one thing I did not appreciate is that with company car tax situation it makes real sense to go EV, so one assume fleet owners want cars that work, so possibly that will drive more development and better quality. As to 641bhp that sounds fun and dangerous with the 25 year old me (and quite possibly the 65 year old me as well).

Been in a number of EVs, seems like the dashboards are more like the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise (though even combustion cars are just as bad), and IMHO mainly impressed. However quite a few mates with EV seem to have the cars in garage more often then expected, when I assumed EVs with less moving parts should be not having much wrong in first years of life. I am more wondering where the heck all the solar panels are going to go to feed the grid, and having just listened to a podcast on sand, the challenge is making sure that not only Chile and China are the source of high grade quartz to make the solar panels.

One mans Artificial Intelligence is anothers Artifical Stupidy.