Cotswold Pete

For sure you would not find me near an S Class, have been in a few of them, and rather large for my needs. As you say any 20 year old car needs ££ spent on it, and the 13 year old Merc just bought, I cannot see me keeping it for ever, it is likely to be my last 'big' car before I start trading down size wise and relying on my good lady more and more to ferry me about. I take a view with the E class money saved on fuel will be spent on work on the car (probably), but the paintwork on this Merc is really good, even better than the LS when I got it 11 years ago (when it was a mere 12 years old), so looks like my mate knew how to keep a car spick and span. If it does become a money-pit, maybe that is time to get an e-bike and just stay local ???

Signed up on MB Forum, and not as good is IMHO an understatement. I liken the Lexus forum to being in the Club or First Class Lounge at Heathrow (relaxed, informative a nice place to spend an evening or works time, and easy to navigate [to the drinks and food]). The MB forum is a bit like The Works - that high street book shop (a bit confusing, probably informative but not the kind of place you would strike up a conversation while sampling a fine whisky). Having said that it is 20 years since I last enjoyed the BA lounges so they may be less enjoyable than the Lexus forum. Anyway off for a run to Heathrow in 2 hours to fetch the wife and daughter after Yoga break in Goa - wont have time to pop into any lounges

I would add to make sure what ever set up you end up with make sure you can whitelist access to to the cameras, so that no unwanted IP addresses can access your system. I do not have CCTV, but college at work has his set up so when someone hacks the camera they get a message and he gets an email. He gets a couple of hits a month, so people are out there poking around

Folks, after 16 years of pottering around in an LS I have made the decision to sell my LS, as it has become a restoration project and I do not have the space or time to do it up, and getting a garage to do all the work is something my missus is not keen on. I must confess even writing this feels a little strange. As to what I am going to be driving, I have acquired a Merc E Class E350 - a mate of mine is now in his final months (maybe a year at most) and he has looked after his car, and much though I never thought I would buy a Merc, I feel it keeps his memory going as long as I keep it (and it has personalised plate which works for me as much as it did for him). I have been to Lexus and had a good look around and had my mate been in fine fettle I would probably be teasing him by getting a 460, as although I liked the ES300h I do not have the cash to splash. I have put details in For Sale, and I will not be giving up the forum, as it is a nice friendly place, and maybe one day I will be back in the fold. I guess I better sign onto the Merc Forum (and my boss will love me as he is a CL and SL fan-boy - and having driven them the E Class is more my thing)

Did not know that. It is a lovely looking car in a fantastic colour and IMHO if £8K sounds fair, but I am not looking for a 430 otherwise I would be heading up t he M5/M6 right now. (Rory - good luck in Alaska)

I don't know if it is just me but it looks like the back end sitting a cm (or so) lower than front end.

Theo, from my years of driving an LS the way to know if bushes are affecting the car are to get my missus to come out for a drive with you (only kidding), but in reality she picks up on the subtle changes as the bushes add a little more roll and instability to the car. Everytime I got bushes sorted (be it drops links, sway bars, control arms) the good lady would feel less sick. So at the mo I can tell from clunks and knocks that all my control arms needs going (upper / lower/ front and rear), but the car drives fine to me but makes the wife sicker than a dog, Not sure how she is going to cope when I pick her up from Heathrow next week. I would say at 100k bushes are going to start needing a good look at, but it's only if on MOT when on shaker plate they pick up excess movement. My previous LS had more knackered bushes than an Ozzie drought, but never had any picked up on MOT.

You could try - PSBushings - poly bushes that a local indi could fit. Certainly others have used Poly bushes on lexus with no problems Otherwise might be cheaper to use Amayama to get genuine replacements but not sure which control arm bushes cannot as purely the bushes. I am sure some other members will come back with better answers

Same with Portugal, first time I went was before they joined the EU, roads were 'interesting'. Last visit most roads amazing and goat tracks now roads. However in 20 years time I assume without decent money going into maintenance, they might start heading back towards the past, and roads falling apart. Who knows

Coming back to this post, I think it is all irrelevant because the state of the roads is really getting to be like your average banana republic that we will all either need Land Rovers or Walking boots to get about. It does make me mad that 15 years of UK government austerity has made all of the roads I use to get work so naff, that cars dodge and dive like mad, and any poor cyclist is taking their life in their hands, so what the heck have the people in power been wasting VED on. Maybe that is the master plan, let the roads fall apart then we will all be wearing clogs to trudge 'off tut mill' (that was closed down many decades ago)

Because it does cut out 50% of light, which as you get older is a bigger issue than when you are younger and your eyes are better at contrast which there is a distinct lack of at night I have also driven with tinted glasses at night which was even scarier as that kills contrast dead to the point was hard to see the grass kerb, and coz most roads have faded centre lines was a 15 mile experience not to be repeated. Night driving advice

What I love about this forum is coming across this sort of stuff. Have been noticing night driving a challenge due to glare etc. So will investigate Hoya and Essilor My dad was motorway patrol officer he always used glasses with yellow coating (no idea what it was) to aid night driving. Did one have to drive at night using polarised lenses (as I had left my normal specs at home), that was ruddy scary, especially when out on country roads.

IMHO policitians are attracted to the people who devliver the best lobbying, whether that be they shout loudest, come up with the most convincing arguement or (for sure) slip enough cash into someone coffers. Problem is politicians are not technocrats or even physcologists, they are vote collectors. So they are not capable of 'checking' all the facts, so they have been swayed towards green arguments that are more than likely less green than promised, whatever the Battery mix in a car. It is interesting that at least two countries are firing a shot across the bow of the sacred cow called EV, and like most people I am keen on having low pollution in my lungs, but have to balance that with a comfortable (and mobile) life creating (and always will create) pollution. It would be nice in this country if we properly recognised what good public transport brings which is why many mainland European cities are so much nicer than most UK cities (including the ones allow many tourists coaches and buses bobbling about the middle of towns -- Bath, Chester, Oxford to name a few). However I believe the major supplier of pollution are the building indurstry (cement), so maybe we need to start thinking about living in our cars and cutting out all that building of houses. Mind you steel production is polluting as well. The dream of zero emmisions is and always will be a totally fallacy, zero tail-pipe emmissions sure, but not total zero emissions.

IMHO the police are more than likely all attending some incident where 2 officers would do, but 15 seem to be in attendance. That is the impression I get from watching those trashy shows on Channel 5. I am sure my late father who was a station sergeant and then a motorway patrol officer would be appalled at the number of officers it seems to need to drive at high speed to all gather around while not solving other crimes. Or am I just being cynical??

Is this the F-sport on e-bay I saw recently, I was considering it, but cannot scrape the money together for some time, so decided to not even think about it. Was not quite sure if it was a good buy at that price, but 10year old 460's for sale not that common from what I have seen. I would be curious to know why it is for sale if it is such a nice car?

How about SeaSuckers, seen them on quite a few high end SUVs and saloons. Also might be worth looking at Treefrog I use Saris bones, but from my experience they work better on cars with either a long flat boot, or a vertical face (like landrover).

Turns out she is not bothered by the sheer size more the 'floatiness' of it, which I do recall when I got my first LS back 15 years ago was a bit of a 'shock', and now I have no prblems chucking the LS around corners knowing it floats like a butterfly stings like a bee. My own reasons for changing are I realyl do not have the space/time/energy to get it back to the shiny and mechanically sorted car it should be, and when I come into some money later this year it is my chance to try another Lexus. I do like the ES, though it is not anywhere near as solid (or brick outhouse like) build, though being a frugal chap not sure I am going to lighten my wallet to the tune of £40K when I could get a 460 for a lot less. So I agree with many sentiments in the replies and it is a little tough mentally letting go of my LS some time soon. I met a 460 dirver the other day (just got chatting in a supermarket car park) and is 10 years a 460 dirver with 15 years 400 driving before that and he said both brilliant but the 460 was now his true love. So my wife not averse to trying a 460, but I assume it needs to less floaty than my 400, which should not be difficult given the likely state of the control arm bushes.

well if they maintained the roads then less mucked up tyres throwing rubber into the air etc. I want to know when cows will be taxed for breaking wind, or will it be car drivers who have that f*rts taxed first

Visited Lexus Cheltenham on Saturday as the missus says time to let got of my LS400. Anyway looked at a wide range of new and pre-loved including CT, IS, ES, RC (not that I am ever going to buy an RC) UX etc. Then in the parking lot she spotted a Toyota Camry (one of the last). So we tried the ES and the Camry, and my missus was really shocked that the ES was so much nicer to open the doors on, to sit in etc, compared to the cmary which was the same price (more or less£40K) So made me realise if I was ever to go Toyota I would be epxecting it to be a lot cheaper than a Lexus, now I can see why so many cab drivers like the ES, no contest over top spec Camry. Now all I need to decide is do I go from LS400 to LS460 knowing it will not be young, but will be more solid than an ES, or maybe a GS450, or possibly IS300h (which the missus quite likes and my neighbour might be selling his) Also from talking to the sales man and sales woman (should that be persons) most people are going SUV, and I want to stick with saloon, which seems to be more choice limiting these days. One final comment - I hate those plastic arch trims that even lexus are fixing to their cars, IMHO makes them look a little naff

Well I recall a colleague who got a E-type in 1983 and he used to treat it like a car, where as he said some owners would (after each drive) clean it inside, outside, underside right down to the last wheel nut. So MAD has been going on for a while. I would expect the E-type owner to have a little less to worry about on the wheel nut front as if they were chromed a darned sight harder to scratch.

Yesterday on a trip back from Southampton I managed to reach all the 2's. I suspect that this might be the one and only time I see this is a car I own. 10 years of owning this car, never let me down, and now thinking about what I might be looking for next, not sure if it should be a LS460 or GS450 assuming my missus stops bothering me about owning such large cars that she does not like driving them. I just love the lack of noise and sheer lovely-ness of these barges. Here's to another 10 years of owning a Lexus of some sort

I would say they for sure do not set your bum on fire like your average Merc or BMW seems to, but I do find I can keep them on for a long time on cold mornings and feel nicely warmed by the tine I get to work. First thing on a really cold morning an LS on your rear is a shock, but my view is back in the 70's my Renault had no seat heaters and I lived to tell the tale. Personally I would like heated windscreens as standard.

I certainly found the rear seating in 430 seems to be more claustrophobic than the 400, which reading this post does make we wonder if its more of a 'brain' thing the space around you right or wrong. As Malc says it is the long journeys where you really get to know if the car is 'just right' for you. Took me about 4 months with my first LS to get the seat right, and about 10 minutes with my second one.

This would be my route to suss out issue. I had similar problem with my 400, with dipped being flaky. Two new bulbs perked up the night driving One thing I noticed is that the dipped beam gets fainter but there seems to come a point when your eyes just find it too difficult to see ahead, and what I observed before my most recent bulb replacement was this. 'If you fog lights make a huge difference to the light on the road it sure is time to replace the bulbs'.

I always thought the correct term for those gaps was 'shut lines', but anyway maybe the Canada build needs to have a bit more oomph on closing becuase maybe your avargage North American is going to a bit more horny-handed than your average Japanese buyer. I decided not to waste all my time watching the whole video, so might have missed some golden nugeets in the second half🥱