noby76

Gen 1 300  

 i kinda missed the raw feel in both my Lexus's.. had a 2.5 V6 ford cougar prior to my first Lexus and that was raw was not very powerful but the engine note made up for it... as you say the 2.4 accord betters the lexus IS for rawness and feel without loosing many points in the comfy/luxury toys department.. so yeh if you going by badge then one could say the Lexus is a step up but in terms of driving dynamics i feel the accord drives better even with lesser power than my two previous lexus's...

On 15/12/2017 at 11:41 PM, igotthechronicbythetree said:

 My current Accord driven by wife which has fantastic brakes, I think they are twin pot up front. Suspension is OK, a bit meh.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
 

I did the opposite went from Lexus to Honda Accord 2.4 Auto... had IS300 and GS430 both nice cars but didnt enjoy the caliper issues managed to get them fixed and replaced but kept reoccuring after few months apart from that nice powerful cars.. always fancied the CL9 Accord and heard nice stories of the K series engines so decided to give one a go and i must say the Accord is just as smooth as the gen 1 and gen 2 IS250's as i had one for a test drive years ago when my Gen 1 went in for cambelt change at the dealers.. i think honda did a great job with the CL9 Accords. no sqeaks or rattles feels well put together and feels powerful than the 190 horses quoted surprised by honda build quality I am considering the Legend as an option when I am ready to change or likely come back to Lexus brand again. enjoy your IS 

Below Vid is from a lexus Owner about the Accords.

18 minutes ago, Farqui said:

Good catch @noby76 

I also found Honda's respond better, drive smoother on higher octane or premium fuels.

Yes due to 'race cam' lobe they switch to at higher revs.. so its designed to take advantage of it.. last i checked its the 9th highest car with fastest piston speed in the world.  Redline: 7100rpm 
Piston Speed: 4615 Ft/min 

test is flawed they used a 2013 Chevrolet Cruz which comes with a 1.8 litre 140bhp and manufactures recommended fuel says 'regular unleaded' of course they will not see any benefit from using premium fuels!! engine is not designed to take advantage of it.. best to test with other cars like higher revving, larger displacement  and turbo'd cars whos manufactures recommend premium fuels to then draw a fair conclusion. 

Lexus recommends 95RON or more, my Honda recommends premium i.e  97-99 RON did back to back tests in my IS300, GS430 and now 2.4 higher revving 4 pot and on each car, the standard 95 RON fuels all made the cars run slightly sluggish, noisier, and revved slower. moment i switch to premium mainly Esso 97 they all run quieter, accelerated smoother,  revved happily and felt powerful. switched back to 95 RON and same symptoms arise again. this was on 3 cars. so i personally use Esso premium 97. if the engine is not designed for it then you are wasting your money.

this was when Lexus held fastest automatic saloon in the world i had to own one... 

rock on,  you beat me to it.... always liked the look of these Accords and bought one a year ago..

managed to get decibel noise levels from this site and seems the IS300h is quieter at most cruising speeds than the IS250 and CT200h not by much but still enough to make a difference

http://www.auto-decibel-db.com/index.html

4 hours ago, DanD said:

 

Surely road tax and insurance would be much higher for the IS250? - Also, after 7 years, despite the car's reliability, I expect that some components will start failing and need replacing?

£7500 buys a lot of tax insurance fuel and suspension parts...

12 hours ago, Linas.P said:

If you say so:

I must say that is bit of exception, but 44MPG is standard for motorway cruise. 

I understand that OP is looking for newer car so mk2 IS is out of question, but considering car price and potential fuel cost difference.. there is potential for 3 years of free motoring.

agree with Linas... most look for economy ways to run a vehicle but only factor in fuel, servicing and road tax cost...whilst forgetting the initial cost of the vehicle its self.  e.g. a £15,000 2 year old CT200h wont be cheaper to run over say 3-4 years than a 1 owner 7 year IS250 SE-L costing £7500 which is essentially half the CT's price tag.  

in a nut shell yes in my humble opinion new cars are a wast of ££'a but i will happyily buy a one owner depreciated Nissan GT-R than a new RCF 

44 minutes ago, Comedian said:

Ignoring the logic that I was showing you how many STANDARD editions were registered- giving an indication to the manufacturer how many specials they may sell.

You just keep thinking....... you never know....... 

 

An this is the problem we have these days when you let accountants/sales persons dictate its all about how many sold, future predictions, emissions etc.. this has caused the demise/discontinue  of countless enthusiast vehicles. sometime its not all about how many were registered its about putting your name out there doing something out of the ordinary. the ISF was the first ever high performance car from Lexus imagine how much attention if a lightened version CSL like model was released to mark its 10th year.

and no I personally wouldn't spend my £65k on a new car performance car. , i would invest instead. do you know how much £65k would be be worth in 5 years  if it was invested in facebook shares or bitcoins?? enough profits to buy me a second hand performance car which will just be as fun to drive and wont own the dealer a dime.  but that's me..

34 minutes ago, Comedian said:

In 2017 there were 11,000 M3 registered.......... 164 RC-F's

Do you have 65k waiting in the bank for a special edition Lexus? If so I'd put it toward a GT3 rather than wait for the big L to make your dream come true.

if you know about cars you would know i was not on about M3 i was on about M3 CSL edition.. read up on CSL eddton and what BMW did to that model and you wopuld see the idea i was trying to bring.

so is this

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201709189412524?year-from=1990&advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=mk160ay&make=BMW&sort=sponsored&year-to=1990&model=M3&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&radius=200&page=1

This has next to no toys all stripped out... just man v machine

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201709289737332?make=BMW&sort=price-desc&advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=mk160ay&keywords=csl&radius=200&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&page=1

why would some one pay that kind on money for one? Answer = its scarce/limited ed. I am not saying it should be priced as such but fact that the chasis is 10 years does not meant hard core enthusiats/collecters will not buy. i still think the RC/GS-F move was wrong. lets see how much of those will sell..

34 minutes ago, stevet said:

There isn't an ISF made to remove the 'unnecessary' toys. Plus they couldn't sell the original ISF's they made in the first place so I can see why they are trying a different approach.

rid off sat nav, electric seats, sound proofing, lighter dashboard?? why would you think there wouldn't be a market for it?? so long its marketed well there will always be a buyer(s). limit it to 500 world wide enthusiast and collectors will snap up scarcity sells ..

4 hours ago, Big Rat said:

So the milestone is celebrated with a limited edition Gsf........ looks nice a replacement is-F would have been nicer 😁

https://lexusenthusiast.com/2017/10/24/lexus-japan-releases-special-edition-rc-f-gs-f-in-matte-gray/

Big Rat

i think this was a wrong move by Lexus... how about a 'stripped' down/ lighter version of the IS-F remove 'unnecessary' toys leaving only man + machine produce 500 units all in matt grey... that would have been a better marketing move than using RC and GS platforms...

16 hours ago, Linas.P said:

 

@noby76 - 340i... but that is no coupe?! You probably meant 430i? but that is 2.0t ?! how that makes sense? If BMW would make 430e I would get it tomorrow, same if Lexus would RC350 or RC450h, however none are the option.

Now again GS450h is not car for me, I am just not in the market for large 4 doors car, 

The car for you can be found at Infiniti in form of Q60 3.0T (which I am guess the interior does not appeal to you even though i personally think its a cracking looking beast) the BMW 435i Luxury Audi A5 3.0T or Ford Mustang 5.0 either one you pick will have a compromise...

15 minutes ago, arkviz said:

 For me it is bad because i was driving only silent and very silent petrol cars since i got driving license in spring of 1997. 

could the fact that its direct injected be the issue? if this is your first petrol car with direct injection, you will notice it sounds slightly harsh/noisier than an indirect fuel injected petrol car. i noticed my IS, GS and Accord all prefer esso supreme fuels  in that they all idle quietly, acceleratde smoothly and don't sound harsh on this fuel than the standard 95RON some might disagree but i have done back to back tests between 95 shell/esso/bp and 97 esso supreme in all above cars mentioned and the difference was clear thats why i always use 97ron fuel.. try it for a week and see if it makes a difference

On 19/10/2017 at 6:08 PM, Linas.P said:

My point from begging was that GS450h seems to be hidden away from main page and I found it strange. I eventually did find the car, but for me it seemed wrong that the car which is in my opinion one of the best in Lexus range is hidden like that.

It is kind of weird, because I love the looks of RC, but it has no engine option for me, equally I believe 450h would be perfect choice for the driving I am doing and my taste, but I am not particular fan of how either mk3 or mk4 GS looks. I still have remote hopes that maybe someday RC450h will be an option and if Lexus would drop GS450h that would become even more unlikely.... so I reacted a bit sensitively when it was hidden away.

I have provided evidence - hence I said I am trying to be factual. However, I have pointed out that my facts can mean different things to different people, based on their perspective which is subjective, but I still accept it as their opinion e.g. 9s 0-60 is slow for me, but it might be fine for somebody else, yet it does change the fact it is 9s 0-60, or that GS weights 160kg more than IS.

On the same point I don't understand why do I need to try GS300h to know that it is slow and not adequate for what I expect. I have no complaints about space or built quality of IS300h - my single and only problem was that in my opinion it was "slow", same for RC300h. Finally, not only slow, but as well described by @marrat 450h is simply much smoother and effortless in moving rather heavy car in comparison with 300h.

Is good that you finally understood what I meant  

@stevet 1730kg is not gross it is "dry" weight. For IS 1670kg is car + full tank of petrol. I have all cars as "gross", equally you can have all cars as "dry", in which case it is 1610kg vs. 1730kg.

That is valid point and I am sure it is backed with sale numbers. A the same time this is exactly the reason why I don't have RC yet. I was considering it very seriously - but RC-F doesn't fit as daily car for me with super car associated running costs and problems, equally it was painful to drive RC300h and I cannot explain in words how much more I enjoy my IS250. As such it felt just wrong to sell the car which I like even though it is getting old and buy something which I found painful to drive.

As well you are spot on describing GS/IS300h from my perspective - I like spirited driving. I don't need RC-F or sports car, but I still want relatively quick car - which IS/GS300h isn't... hence I don't like the cars. 

One way for me to enjoy Lexus ownership right now would be to get NX300h and RC-F, but neither I have money for that nor place to keep 2 cars, the second way would be to get GS450h... but because I am not biggest fan of how it looks I am just keeping IS250 for now.

Why don't you get the BMW 340i and be done with it?  I think you have to come to the conclusion, there is nothing like a 'PERFECT' car even a bughatti veyron is not perfect in all aspects. fast in a straight line awful around twisty roads. if Lexus introduced the RC350 and you should own one today, it will be lacking in some aspects once you have driven it for sometime every car on the road be it a 1.0L corsa, a fast electric Tesla Models S or an M5 BMW with 600bhp, is a compromise.. one can return 70-80mpg, but will have next to no performance other can hit 60 in under 4 or 5 seconds but will have reliability issues  down the line which translate to frequent dealer visits and will have harsh ride regardless of tyres fitted, others will look less flashy, be comfortable and reliable but not as fun to drive, others will have higher running costs but 'fun' to drive when you find the right road..and the list goes on...etc 

everyone has their priorities when it comes to cars examples...some place reliability as a  high priority  and mpg low. others vice versa. some place comfort higher than handling characteristics, others vice versa... some practicality than brand name....etc 

so always best to go for a car which meets 70-80 % of what you looks for and the  extra 20 - 30% will always be the compromise as there is nothing like the perfect car not the GS450h nor an RC350... 

On 20/10/2017 at 12:49 PM, DanD said:

I am thinking of buying a 2/3 year old CT for my daily commute, which varies between 80 and 100 miles each day, 70-75% of this being on motorways. I appreciate that hybrids make more sense in town, but on the other hand, I do not want to buy a diesel... and would like to stick to the Lexus brand.

Having driven a CT many a time as courtesy cars, I am not too concerned about the performance - I would be on my own in the car most of the time - or about the firm suspension. I am, however, more concerned about the road noise.

Would CT owners recommend it for this type of commute?

Would I be better off with an older IS of similar value? (bear in mind that I like my toys and would go for a F-Sport or possibly a Premier for the better audio and premium navigation)

Do running costs vary greatly between the CT and the IS?

Thank you.

You can pick up a low mileage 1 owner  IS250 SE-L for half the price of a 2-3 year old CT and money saved can be used to run it. the IS will cruise better on the m'way as the CT is more of an urban city car..

On 10/10/2017 at 7:07 PM, ST100 said:

Thanks for the welcome , 

Farqui ,  i cant remember the torque figures but the Honda certainly had some grunt when you stood on the go pedal, bullet proof engine , and only 1 headlight bulb and battery in 66000 miles and 10 years ownership .Hope the lexus is as reliable .

Still surprises me how the 2.4 shifts  and  my previous cars was an IS300 petrol and GS430 V8 the Accord is not a V8 but does shift for its engine size and packed with many toys in the Executive trim.. the previous owner had mine from new and kept it for 12 years before i bought off him so seems owners of accord keep them for long. the torque is enough to shift the car and  its more close to 2.4 and 2.5 litre   6 cylinder petrol engines from other manufactures of its era.. 

This guy might have over 14,000 but he is not a true performance guy. we was comparing apples and oranges.. he kept on going on about how the RC-F lacks tourqe... No it doesnt lack torque for an NA engine. infact the 5.0 in the RCF produces the maximum torque per litre an NA engine produces which is between 100 to 110 NM per litre.

most high performance NA engines do not produce anymore torque per litre than this figure. The ZL1 hes currently driving is supercharged. the new M3, M5, E63, C63, RS6 are all Bi-Turbo engines which translates to having more power and  the ability to artificially generate ample torque at low-mid RPM. 

The RC-F is indeed a heavy car and could do with some weight loss... lets wait and see the turbo engines Lexus releases for their new F performance models...

Video below proves a TRACK car as he puts it does not need to have a lot of torque or 650 BHP to be fun to drive. 

always miss mine when i see a clean example like this... these models age very well. fun cars to drive but saying that,  i do find these Accords more fun and  predictable than the IS...Enjoy

We sure need Gangzoom to chip in on how he's getting on with his Model X so far... had a black Model X parked near my street a few days ago and it looked quite nice and unusual. the doors alone might attract too much attention and I am not an attention seeker so will def pass on a Model X if i had that cash. Model S looks ok but does not have a wow factor if I am being honest.

I have seen a lot on the M'ways lately so they are for sure becoming very popular cars on UK roads. I think its like when the apple iphones came out they were the trend setters in modern mobile phone design and every one wants one  but they are now copying your likes of samsung in thier latest models.

although electric cars are the future the novelty of owning a Tesla will wear off once the BIG automobile companies  start releasing their own versions. seen lots of negative vidoes on Youtube from Tesla owners from over heating batteries to being unable to start the car after a few days to running out of charge due to miles range over reading leaving owners stranded to poor build quality and list goes on... if i was lucky enough to lease on an £80K car there are far more better cars like LC500 which will blow the socks off any Tesla in terms of build quality, how it makes the driver feel and driving enjoyment even through some Tesla models can hit 60 quicker. the LC will just hit 60 in style...

Tell me if you disagree...Nothing a fast Tesla can give you

My RAC breakdown cover was £20 times that by 12 months = £240 article below states most breakdown companies will charge about £110 for a call out if and when one has broken down and needs to sign up so based on my maths  it actually works out a cheaper option to hold off. considering i rarely need their services frequently, i have decided to hold off and break down before signing up. money saved wont be life changing but hey every little helps

https://www.money.co.uk/breakdown-cover/can-you-get-breakdown-cover-when-you-have-broken-down.htm