F.A.

I’ve just returned from a trip up to Harrogate this weekend and spent the last 20 or so miles following a blue ES300h F Sport down the M5 towards Bristol. I wasn’t keen on the look of the ES when it was first launched but I must admit this one did look very striking at night especially with all of its lights on. The front looked very similar to the GS with the LED headlights. On another note I think I saw more Tesla’s on the journey to and from Harrogate from Bristol than Fords Vauxhall’s and BMWs.

Lovely colour. I bet tomorrow can’t come fast enough.

Nice photos. Your ISF is looking good. Are you still sitting at the same ride height or has it been lowered slightly?

Ah I see. That makes sense.

Behind the steering wheel to the right just below the speedo etc (2.19 on the video) There is a blanking plate here on my one.

Whilst I agree with your comments regarding the opening and folding seats, I wouldn't call the the boot quite large. I found it relatively small and a nightmare with these new age prams / travel systems. At around 380 litres, it is no bigger (and less accessible) than a family hatch of that era and significantly smaller than its german peers which were around 460-480.

Nice review. Interesting how that car has a ‘hold’ button at the bottom of the cluster. I assumed the F didn’t have this feature due to its brake set up.

I had an IS250 SE-L Auto for 8 years and it was a brilliant car and completely reliable As mentioned above, I would avoid the manual. It wasn’t very good and comes with road tax implications. If a manual is a must then I would look for another car. I have a young family and the IS just wasn’t big enough. Luckily we also have an RX450h so that was used most of the time with the kids. The times that we used the IS as a family car, it was a very cramped experience and I’m only 5ft6. We replaced the IS with a GS last year and find that it has plenty of room for the family. The Multimedia Package ( as it was named on the early models you are looking at) was available as an option on all grades IIRC, and came standard on none. It included Sat. Nav, the Mark Levinson Audio and reversing Camera. The Suede seats were only available on the Sport trim. I would go with the leather. Ours had done 110k miles and the leather still looked good with very little wear even on the drivers bolsters. The Suede seats were only heated.

It’s heavy because it is an amalgamation of 3 platforms. The front is from the 4GS, the middle is from the 2IS Hardtop convertible and the rear is from the 3IS.

IIRC you could actually see that the spring had separated in to two pieces towards the top when you crawled under the car with a torch. However it was the dealer that first diagnosed it and sent me a video to illustrate the problem. The was replaced under the extended warranty. Good luck finding the cause.

Snapped Coil Spring or the latch that fixes the middle ‘20’ of the 40 20 40 split seats. Try putting some felt tap around the bar it latches on.

I thought that the car had to be under 10 years old before you bought the warranty. So theoretically you could buy 2 x the buy one get one free Lexus Warranty the day before the car was 10 and it would have a Lexus warranty until its 14th birthday or the mileage limit which I think is 140000 miles. But you couldn’t buy a Lexus Warranty on a car that had past its 10th birthday regardless if it was covered by one up to this point. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Is there no customisable mode where you can set the engine to sport and the suspension to normal, or is this just on F models? I guess that won’t help the start stop issues though...

So is the 200t being replaced with an RCF?

It’s a shame they got the size of the engine wrong 🤦🏽‍♂️ Sounds like you got a cracking deal on your car @d3ron . I would be surprised if you didn’t make some money from it, if you sold it.

This features work relatively well on our RX and GS. The times that it hasn’t worked, the notification setting on the phone (settings/Bluetooth/the cars Bluetooth name) has been turned off for some reason. Possibly after an update. This is with an iPhone.

Impressive work.

Looks good. Was it a lot of work / modification to get it to fit ?

Will you be sorry to see the Merc go?

It’s Interesting the glass has gone blue. I assume that’s the dimming substance in the mirror. I expected the GSF to have this feature but I can’t say I have noticed them change to a blue tinge with the rear view mirror. Our RX mirrors go really blue when the rear view mirror senses light at night, so I assumed that this was a random feature that was missing in the F.

I would definitely give the warranty a go but I wouldn’t touch it until the dealer assessed it for a claim. I have found the warranty to be hit and miss from past experience with items like this. My wiper mechanism snapped ok my IS250 and that was deemed wear and tear 🤷🏾‍♂️

At a risk of getting in the middle of this... Unlike the 3IS which has its own platform, for some reason the RC is made up of a combination of platforms IIRC. The front is 4GS the middle is from the ISC and the rear is from the 3IS. But yes it does have the same interior as the 3IS. I guess it all made sense to Lexus!

I went from a 2011 IS250 SE-L to a 2017 GSF. Best car decision I ever made, even now that it is mostly driven like my IS250 in this weather, the start up alone makes a smile everyday. The only other car that i would have considered was an ISF as the RCF was out due to needing 4 doors. Do it, you wont regret an 'F' car. My wife had a IS200t which I tried when her RX450h was in for a service about 2 years ago and i agree with your comments regarding the gearbox and turbo lag. We were considering a NX200t when it was first launched but the NX was a bit too small for our needs. I have heard that the 200t in the NX is actually a good match, but that could be down to the 6 speed auto I guess.

Nice review. I will always have a soft spot for the IS250. I agree that its a shame that Lexus never brought the 3.5l v6 engine to this country, but I guess it was an emissions issue when compared to its turbo charged German peers. How are you finding the RC200t?

£27k wow. These things are holding their value well. Nice car. I always wanted a white ISF following our Arctic Pearl IS250. I would carefully check each panel to make sure the colour matches. Arctic Pearl is notoriously difficult to match and even Lexus Approved workshops struggle. Those front side windows look a little bit illegal also!