Malc

lost interest in this when the guy totally blanked me a couple of years ago when i offered to help him achieve by collecting the car on a proposed trip to do Route 66 and then return the car to him Totally blanked me .............. rude or what ! Malc

NI or Northern Ireland is a part of the UK and should be exactly the same as in England If you have the usual UK plates then you might find some unfriendliness and stress there too ..... I did for sure last year when I was there 😢 Take great care if you're driving in Derry, there are parts that even Heneiken wouldn't wish to try to reach ....... tremendous anti British feeling in parts .. take great care Now, if you travel to the beautiful and stress free south ( Republic of Ireland / Eire ) then you might need some " foreign " stuff as if you're driving on the continent. But the stress free driving is amazingly BRILLIANT, scenery is fantastic and the delicious Guinness is like nothing on earth ( certainly nothing like UK Guinness for sure ) Malc

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1118507_2019-lexus-ls-500-f-sport-retrospective-a-far-cry-from-the-original see this

regular preventative maintenance is the good way to go ............ says he with original calipers and 220k miles approaching woops sorry, wrong section of the forums Malc

how does this work I wonder ? actually paying the UK import duty VAT and Customs charges upfront .......... I've only ever experienced the Customs people actually receiving the package through their hands and then deciding on Duty and VAT and whatever other handling charges as appropriate Malc

FACT.............. just had a meeting with some proper finance guys and they are telling me that the buying public is dumping finance deals on new cars and beginning to see the value of staying with 2nd hand cars, trading up but changing into other 2nd hand cars too ....... brand new car sales are slipping right now Malc

was driving in traffic and followed the rear of this car Couldn't make out what it was at first, a strange old fashioned looking boot which had a Ls500 badge ....... never seen one before and thought just how retro it looked ... I never did get to see any more of the car My impression was of what maybe a pre Ls400 working design might have been ..... looked so quite old fashioned and a bit retro ...... just what I might like tbh Malc

could well be the front drop link arms ..... aftermarket ones are relatively inexpensive ( cf Lexus ) and quite an easy fix ( so I'm told by my indy ) transformed the front end noise level Malc

that's amazing you drive over 1,000 kms a day ...... where do you go in Ireland ? Malc

it's great to know these slight idiosyncracies with our now ancient cars It's all good knowledge for when the same might happen to mine in a year or ten's time Malc

you would possibly have also needed the code if and when you changed the battery too As said here, most radios have never had security codes, well, my 3 Ls400 cars never have for sure Malc

Not really, your car could be absolutely fine with the cambelt, pulleys and waterpump being dealt with every 10 years / 100k miles ( as in the USA with exactly the same car tbh ) and therefore you're not 16k miles overdue but possibly 21k miles underdue when my cambelt was last changed it looked quite absolutely fine at 100.5k miles use and 11 years old ........... new serpentine belt then too But it's your money and you know her best and how deep your pockets are .................... Lexus main dealer will often just try to frighten and screw every last ounce out of your wallet ! Malc

cambelt is overdue once it's not been changed for 10 years / 100k miles Malc

I'd be inclined to just abandon the aircon then ( like I did a few years ago now ) ...... and see what the next lot of MOT Advisories might be what were the last MOT Advisories ? and at what miles ? mine's now turning 219k miles and this last 12 months I spent @£2k on 4 x new tyres, cambelt, pulleys, waterpump, Toyota/Lexus UCAs ( all 4 ) and drop links at the front , oh and a full service and MOT incl front discs and pads too .......... she's good for another 10 years and 100k miles methinks lived beside the seaside for at least 10 years too and no rust to speak of I believe Malc

and if Customs inspect the goods ? what then ? Malc

I thought Falkens this size had long since disappeared from manufacture so take care on the dates ..... so long as you finish using them within 10 years you should be ok whatever. I'm now on Maxxis ' all seasons ' now and even they are getting challenging to source .... about £100 a corner ' all up ' I paid last October for a pair to make up the new 4 I now have. These seem to wear very well and noise levels are ok AND they seem to have great grip too, better than any I've had for a long time. They are NOT the summer nor the winter tyres BUT ' all seasons ' ............ take care with whats available Malc

I fail to see how a Lexus dealer could realistically sort out a challenging aircon issue when they would presumably just send it to a specialist to sort it out ............... and add their margin I hope I'm wrong and that they do manage to fix it at a sensible price Malc

at 15 years that's not too bad at all Malc

just remembered .. I had this ............ turned out to be simply a stone ( or more ) in the tyre tread ! Maybe as simple as that for you Malc

what's the mileage of your car ? Malc

what other car would you consider buying and running then ? Don't forget these amazing beasts are almost bullet proof with good and regular and timely maintenance ........ if you have done that over your ownership time it's probably something relatively simple but if it was to be the cambelt area then surely it's worth paying relatively little to sort it out ! Malc

and Bob, well done, your future with well meaning Forum members is assured Malc

I concur but doubt anyone in the UK has the buying power of the likes of Toyotas / Honda to actually make a fit for purpose car these days ....... vide Honda and Nissan giving up in the UK to concentrate their efforts on ' new ' electric technology in their own countries, maybe where trial and error won't go punished like here in the UK if and when a lot of dosh is spent on futile runs of nascent technology maybe for some years to come It's a new world for cars out there and we're only just starting the very very expensive journey methinks. Malc

I managed to follow the link ok and WOW just blown away by the fact that it has a REAL clock ...... reminds me of mine in my old Wolseley 16/60 from 50 years ago nostalgia or what ! Malc

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