Cotswold Pete

I think we are all in for rough ride with insurance premiums. I found not even GoCompare or Confused offered anything better. Had a colleage in office who had car side swipped by a truck. Ended up with a hire car for 9 weeks, that would be a tidy sum for insurance company to cough up. Problem is not only long delivery time on spare, but lack of mechanics to do the job, so what would have been a 1 to 2 week fix took 9 weeks. I suspect some companies will be taking the michael, but seems like we are all going to have to dig deeper.

The paint is probably not mismatched, as when I had a Mk4 taking photos of it it looked mismatched when it was not. My only thing would be prodding up into rear arches for tin mice activity, especially as this we a car always near salt water, and my Mk4 was riddled by 18 years old.

Not seen the original post, but looking at this product seems like even E5 users might benefit from a drop of the juice. The problem with ethanol

My Mk4 was always noisier than my Mk3. I would add my Merc 350 has manual adjust, so reallty appreciate what I had when I owned LS

According to ProTyre it is not dangerous, but will impact wet road handling. WIll be an MOT fail if the tester notices it. Never thought about this until reading this post, as directionals offer better performance, but as this post shows, your spare is going to correct for one side of the car only. Last time I ever needed to get the spare running was over 20 years ago

Not until 2024 seems to be booked out for this year. Looks like heaven when the sun is shining

Infrared is able to deliver high quality - and maybe the headphones need a bit of running in to get to sounds at their best. Recently bought some ne AKG phones for home and once they had about 40 hours of use they sounded as good as the reviews suggested. Bass better and highs better defined.

With my LS had full change at 148K, and had no problems with gear box until the car passed away at 230K.

I think my choice might be a well sorted Volvo 260, or maybe wait another few years until the 850 is exempt.

You can fit a Seasucker bike rack to any LS, I have seem them on Audi Q7s and so on, so appears they stick well enough. Also Rockbros do a sucker rack. And Treefrog I used Saris Bones with my LS, though I think this method may cause more drag than top mounted racks which I have used on previous cars. At least with Saris Bones no fear of dropping the bike onto the roof by accident. I was lucky in that someone had fitted a tow bar unit so I had the connection for rear lighting fitting to go with the bikes. Not sure how that was allowed as the Mk4 LS was not approved for UK fitting of tow bars (but she never failed her MOT)

So after 16 years I no longer have an LS in my hands. My beloved Mk4 sat on the drive for a month or so, but no one interested enough to take it on a as project. A week ago I tried to fire the beast up, but she refused, could have been the starter motor, but the scrap man came today to take it away to Durlsey Breaks (off A38). First time in 16 years I ever had an LS do that, maybe she was protesting about being parked up (like she was at Dia Woodhams Steam Graveyard of the 70's awaiting the inevitable, with no hope of some benefactor towing her off to a new nirvana) One last time I set in the drivers seat turned on the stereo and know I would sorely miss the sound system, the darned comfortable seats, but I knew I would not miss the wife going on about how much I had spent on that car in 11 years (which was naff all, but she seems to think I had), it has been the cheapest car to date to run, even with average MPG of just under 25 on daily commute. Still getting used to my seven speed E350 (13 years old), not as comfortable as LS, but does have Bluetooth, and does 44mpg on commute, and that V6 diesel sounds almost as good as a V8 when you give some serious welly. If I ever come back to Lexus not sure what it would be, not keen on the newer hybrids and the stupidly busy dashboards, the E350 is more old school, not as simple as LS400, more like a 430, and to me that is enough to keep you out of trouble without wondering what some light or noise is trying to tell you (as you go through some red light coz they changed the layout of a roundabout since you last navigated it three years ago). I have been thinking should I divorce the wife and get a SC430, saw a lovely one the other day, but not enough as it is with the four cards in our family. (mind you one less if I get rid of the wife, maybe no more cars as the kids will disown me as well😈) As per previous chats, will keep on this forum which I love as much as the LS, and such a brilliant collection of true gents who have helped over the years - I say thanks and carry on enjoying your steeds.

Dan, Being a father is something special, and you never stop being a parent. I would say I got my first LS when my son was 7 years old, him and his mates thought it was such a cool car, so maybe in future you can indulge. Having just got rid of my LS (scrapped), after 16 years of Lexus ownership their still is nothing like an LS, but at least we have all enjoyed a period of driving such a magnificent beast. Sorry to hear about the miscarriage, and all the best for success with some 'tiddly-winks' in the near future

I remember when 130BHP appeared plenty managed to get my SRi up to nearly 130mph once. Then one day scooting along the M5 at a ton only to see a Lotus Carlton leave me for dust. And nowadays 300Bhp seems to be 'de rigeur'.

I used to do a lot of work with the MOD years back, and so knew of some of the stuff done to protect 'important people', and when I zoomed into the photo I could see that it was sensors in the wheel well, so as a result typed 'TALOS SENSOR' into Google. I can recall the poking around that used to go on with my company car back in the 80's whenever I went to certain 'sensitive sites', to make sure I was not smuggling threats into the bases. A little bit of 'different' history in your car, though odd it was not removed as in theory whoever was the passenger (or driver) of that car could still be located if you were that way inclined and wanted to blow them up

The Talos is a BOMB Detector, crickey, who owned this car. Detector

This made me laugh so much, brilliant, I think I have a problem with certain letter 'Oh fugger' As to the cars, love the Monteverdi - has a certain kind of Jensen look about it, and Fiat Coupe looks nice, the Lagonda is just a missile in disguise, knew a chap who owned one, never went in it though. My dream car as a kid was the ISO Griffo saw this one back in 2018, had a Corgi model when I was a nipper

Such a succinct word 'fuggly', new one on me, and totally agree about the Crown and the new trend (not just Lexus) for looking like a fasking shark with a collander in its mouth. However beauty is in the eye of the beholder - so as we used to say - 'Get it out with Optrex'

Gordon Bennet

Lovely looking mini, that was in the days when a mini was a mini (not the current 'hugeez' we now have on the road). Many a happy days pottering about the new forest in late 70's in mates mini, always felt like you were going twice as fast as you actually were, being that close to the ground

My first company car had MW/LW radio, got that sorted by having a tape player with that new fangled thing called FM. Still got 600 cassettes in my study, and a decent home player, but for the car now addicted to using a Smart Phone with Neutron player and 10,000 tracks on the go. Do have some original John Peel sessions on cassette, and one day might digitise them, but never enough time to do the usual, let alone the not really necessary.

Lexuspartsdirect.co.uk (Swindon based), genuine Lexus parts, and fair price. I have heard (from more than one source) using non Lexus shocks on LS can create a really odd ride. I used OEM when I did mine a few years back

Totally agree, when I replaced front and rear shokcs a while back I noticed a difference, but even more important passengers noticed a better ride. Does make me think that as drivers we always - in our heads - think well it's not that bad and nothing is broke. I found cornering was much better at the limits but not a huge amount differnt when ambling. To remind myself I get in my wifes mazda which is still as tight as a drum and that remind me of how the lack of rattles and knocks is so sublte that the sound proofing in the LS can hide those noises a little to well

MBclub seemed much better to me, though IMHO not as well laid out as this site, but certainly seems to be lots of useful stuff that I will no doubt be surfing at some point. Having been a member over the years of Jag Owners, Honda, Vauxhall, Volvo, they all have (had) their good points for sorting out problems as usually someone would pop up with ideas and answers.

I have the saloon, and not a waft-mobile like an LS much firmer on the road and steering gives more road feel. Boot looks big enough to get two bodies in with having to cut feet or heads off (so useful mafia car if I ever get the call). Even to me it seems to have way too much tech, and not got used to all the beeps it makes (though less than my wifes Mazda does), and the only thing missing is DAB radio, but that mean sometimes I will have to do without Radio 6 or Jazz FM, but has bluetooth and I have 10,000 tracks on my phone so music never a problem. On the braking I suspect it does have SBC, as it was not until 2012 (I believe) they stopped putting into E-class. The braking does feel totally different to most cars I have driven but if things start going west on the complicated tech then cross that bridge when we get there. I do know that nothing will ever beat the 16 years of LS costs, given I paid £2K for each LS, and then it was just general maintenance (one cam belt change) and nothing major, on the other hand the V6 diesel does nearly twice MPG of LS on way to work and is (and feels) a darn sight quicker when you put the foot down. I did think of an Volvo as option, but could not find Swedish factory one to go for, as Volvos IMHO are very comfortable to drive. At some point I will post what I miss about the LS and what I like about the Merc, and if I won the lottery I would be up for a new ES or well sorted 460

This reminded me of many moons ago when I was still growing 'bum fluff', my mate had a brother with a 2CV, and he ripped out the passenger seat to fit a Revox Reel-To-Reel. So maybe someone somewhere has done the same and installed some record deck that can handle movement of a car, though with todays pot-holes gonna be a lot of skipiing!!