noby76

not sure what you mean by kick down switch as the box will automatically kick down a gear or two if you stretch your right foot??

actually I was at Toyota sourcing some parts for my car and saw the GT86 in the metal and I must say its design is not like any other sport Coupe on the road today. it sits really low to the ground and though I haven't been in the IS-F I have test driven the IS250 which I guess shares most interior dash parts with the IS-F but might be wrong. for £25K the GT86's interior looked good with all dials and switches looking nice hadn't booked for a test drive when I got there so couldn't take one for a spin but I heard they are fun cars to drive. since its pretty much a Subaru engine and Subaru sells the BRZ version, there are rumours Subaru is toying with the idea of bringing out a turbo charged version chucking out 300bhp and with a weight of around 1200KG that's gives it a power to weight ratio of 250bhp per ton. now that pretty much matches the IS-F in terms of power to weight ratio performance.. even with slight mods they are said to out do more powerful cars on the track. looks like a fun little Toyota This is one hunting some curves at the ring http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKDycY7wCY

fav Stylistics track are 'Stop Look Listen' think they did a better version than Marvin Gaye/Diana Ross. also like 'Betcha by Golly wow'

Brits are known to be very good at bringing new ideas but always fail on build quality and reliability.. were as the Japs dont bring the ideas, but take an existing one and improve on it. manufactures like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda always take up top spots in most reliable well built cars and this has gone on for years..

Yeh those Nismo exhausts sounds nice and throaty. watched a few vids of these editions on the race track and they can hold thier own against more powerful cars.

nice Lexus and 350Z you got there.. is the Z the HR version with over 300bhp? Love those Nissans if i didnt need four doors I would love me one ot those Z's. not a lot about and very quick sleepers... enjoy your IS..

Justin Beiber JLS One direction Rihana Beyonce Cher Lloyd

most forget the IS200's 1G-FE engine was designed in the mid to late 80's and at that time it made good power, and consumed well for an engine of that era. things have moved on since in terms of engine technology and design. the problem is not the IS, its prices of fuel. some one driving the IS in 1999 wont even worry about consumption as fuel was around 60 pence per litre would have cost around £40 to brim the tank of an IS in 99' but now cost over twice that. most modern engines have been designed to be very fuel efficient and green which is good and 90% of the time at the cost of reliabilty and longevity. consumption is actually not that bad on open roads or motorways as i can easily do 33-35mpg which is not bad for a 6 cylinder engine designed in the 90's but in stop start town driving it can get worse as 15mpg. i dont blame the car i blame the oil companies and govt for thier high taxes/vat on fuel prices. we have no choice, it gets to the point we cannot run it any longer, we'll just have to get rid of it for something more economical.

from various threads on here it looks like the IS's dont take LPG well due to thier Inline configration and other factors. best to sell the IS for a GS430 V8 as its been proved the V8 engines handles LPG very well and 100k on a Toyota V8 engine is still like new. but you might have to do your calculations well as you confirm you will be migrating in 5 years time as LPG pays off if you are dong more miles per year and if it cost say £2000 to £3000 to LPG the car and will take about 4 to 5 years to actually reaping the benefits of the initial money invested then its false economy as you would have migrated before you can start benefitting from having the conversion done.

so on a more powerful engines like turbo or a higher compression ratio engine by using higher RON fuels is like getting extra free power due to ignition timign advance.. i noticed on your test, the V power kept ignition timing at its peak for longer which equates to free power without having effect on consumption , how much free power all depends on engine tune of course.

tbh at the age of 21-22 I was not driving a 6 cylinder 2.0 car. more so a Lexus. at that age, I was running around in a 1996 1.2litre Clio with only 60bhp to its name and was still paying around £150 a month to insure it as a new driver with no claims discount and clean license. I have just done a quick quote on money super market as a 22 year old living in Brixton London and cheapest was around £3,300 with around £600 deposit and around 10 monthly payments of £300. if you can make these payments then they will be happy to insure you via comparison website but for under 23 years with no claims don't expect £100 per month on insurance for the Lexus IS .

just go on comparison web sites get a quote off there ring the company and see if you can even get it down further if you pay it in one lump sum instead of instalments. still cant get my head round why they wont insure you on an IS200..a modern 2.0 litre Astra diesel makes more power then the IS and I bet they wont have issues insuring you on that one. or maybe its cus the IS can be modded easily to make more power but that's if you can find the supercharger ..

yeh Falkens Azenis are like marmite either love them or hate them!! read many reviews with some loving them and others hating them..they are quite big in the motorsport drift scene and its more to the type of car its fitted to and the drivers driving style. I like them to my previous Rosso Pirelli's and it puts down the power well in the 300 when dry. cars do behave differenlty with the type of tyres they are wearing so fact that a review mag might praise one brand of tyre over the other does not necessarily mean the tyre which came last in the review is not a good tyre or the one which comes first is the best tyre money can buy. e.g. Renault Megane Trophy broke the front wheel drive record round the Nurburgring using Bridgestone Potenza RE050A. these tyres always comes lower in pretty much all tyre review tests I have read when compared to other brands like Michelines, Pirrelli, Goodyear, Continentals, Vredestein etc the Renault engineers specifically chose the RE050A as it had some characteristics which matches the power delivery/braking of the Megane RS. Michelins and Pirreli's tends to top most tyre review tests and if they were that good Renault enginners would have opted for those especially the Michellins as its even French but they ditched it and went Jap(Bridgestone). so when it comes to tyre one size(brand) does not fit all. below link if you interested. http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/renault-megane-rs-265-trophy-smashes-nurburgring-front-wheel-drive-lap-time-record-ar111379.html Honda enginners are now looking to smash this record with the new Civic Type R Turbo.

no matter what Tyre manufactures say, most high performance summer rated tyres are crap in wet weather more so if the car is rear wheel drive. I juts take it easy on my Falken's when wet and any time I try to push hard the back end kicks out round bends. only time it grips is when dry and cant fault it as its capable of 186mph in the dry if the car permits it. not in my IS300 tho.. best Tyres for wet weather I read were Uniroyals as they are designed with wet weather in mind from the go! but why push a rear wheel drive car when its wet any way??

always associated them hela lights with Bmer's for some reason any other car and I think its a BMW wannabe lol but that's me..

mmh thats a tough one as am still a 'manual' man at heart! would depend on if the manual version offers better performance/ mpg comapred to the auto but from owning mine almost 2 years, it can easiy return 33-35mpg when cruising on motorway which is 4 cylinder manual car consumption. and one can pick and hold which ever gears they want in a given situation with the auto IS so not sure what advantage a manual will bring compared to the auto but i wont know until i tried one. read an article a while back and it was confirmed the Lexus enginners realised a manaul will only be about 0.2 seconds quicker than an auto so didnt bother with one untill those in US(biggest Lexus customer) cried out for a manual IS300 as 328i - 330i E36/E46 BMW's were offered in manual spec hence only the US market had it. the 300's are a rare sight and as you confirmed only a few on autotrader.. which was a shame and good at the same time.. it was a shame because i dont think Lexus marketed this Lexus well and for the price the IS300 was going for at that time, most in Europe would rather pay that money for a BMW/Audi/Merc and over looked the IS300. fact that it did not have a manual version might have also contributed to poor sales as IS200's sold quite well compared to the 300. but its now good cus we get to drive a rare car, with one of the best 6 cylinder engines ever produced.(every tuner swears by a 2JZ Block), :D

nice looking TTE matt always good to pay a bit more ££'s to get a low mileage well looked after models! wanted one in Black but settled for Platinum silver.. nice looking EK9 Type R you got there. always wanted one in the Coupe VTI version.. the IS will be a bit soft and sedate compared to the 8000rpm EK9 but will be a more relaxed drive with few toys to play with but without VTEC experience.. Welcome :)

Same here got tired of shifting my self and decided to try auto/manual for once! It’s the same A650E gearboxes used in the LS400/430’s and the GS300/430’s so its quiet a strong box. I did used to mod my cars in the past but these were Renaults and mainly Fords but got to a point I realized it sometimes cheaper getting a car which has all the toys and the go from standard don’t get me wrong sometimes its good to make a car more yours enjoy it for a couple of years but loose out when its time to sell it as the buyer will still pay market rate and won’t care about the mods. Maybe unless it’s a Cosworth, Supra or Skyline.. and I know what you mean. ISF’s can be picked up for less than 20K and have seen quite a few on autotrader with reasonable miles done on them but the question is where will you get the chance/road to actually ‘DRIVE’ the thing without speed camreas here and there or under cover police cars pulling you over?? So the question is will it be money well spent if you upgrade to a more powerful car and only get to ‘DRIVE’ the thing only on track day events?? Thing is most will backout once they see those quad exhaust at the back of the ISF maybe M3/M5,Audi RS, STI or EVO drivers might take you on but that’s it and how many would you encounter on a daily basis? so you left driving a powerful car which you can t actually ‘DRIVE’ if you know what I mean..but is IS300’s case its not overly powerful and cus most don’t know there was a 3 litre version of the gen1 IS, you get a lot of them try it on.. and I agree the handling is quiet soft and has its moments..some days it can take and still to corners like glue and some days its all over the place its fine on sweeping corners but show it some tight corners and its not too sure.. two things I will fix is the on limit handling and backend sliding out during for some reason it doesn’t stay planted. Was looking at 330i Beemers and 3.0 Audi A4’s when I was hunting didn’t even know IS’s came in 3.0litre models until I saw one in B’ham and thought yes.. ended up trading in my V6 ford Cougar for one within 2 weeks as I wanted something unique, a bit of guts which won’t draw too much attention.. ok went off topic for a sec..back on topic sounds like MR Rudus gets the noise aswell really strange I don’t or maybe I haven’t actually listened to experience it.. but will suggest having the existing gearbox fluid replaced to be on the safe side. For handling most recommend Eibach springs as its claimed it won’t make the ride too harsh but will stick round the corners.. :)

just go for the IS-F matey.. :) !! seriously..if you can finance and insure IS-F why wait?? get one even if you own for only 12months.. as you already know IS300 is a capable wolf in sheeps clothing..just last night i put a 13 plate 530d BMW in its place after we got past 2nd gear. a lot of them feel like they own the road and can cut in front of any car because they have a blue and white badge on the bonnet he wondered where all his 550NM torque went! anyway going off topic now.. back to the point your gearbox shouldnt be making that noise. its not a difficult job as its only drain and refill had mine replaced at a Toyota/Lexus Indie and all he did was unscrew the drain bolt underneather the gearbox to drain olf fluid out into a pan, he then measured the amount of fliud which came out as he had one of these measuring containers with mm and litres labeled on it, he then screwed the bolt back on and refilled the exact litres of fliud which came out with the help of a funnel. started up engine, left it idle for about 20mins for new fluid to make its way back into gearbox/torque convetor then shifted through PRND32L each time waiting for about a sec with each shift then shifted back from L to P again left it idle for about 10 more mins for fluid to make its way through the box and warm up took it for a quick drive and job done. could have actually done it my self tbh but dont have the work space and tools like Jacks and stuff. he also confirmed its worth changing the fliud every 50-60K. dont get rid of the car yet as it drives ok just replace the fluid first and see if it cures it.

wont say i have experieced a dump valve kinda sound on up shifts.. only different sound i experience is throtier engine note above around 4000rpm in ECT PWR M mode but both my up shifts and down shifts sounds normal. does it jerk quite harshly when you experience this sound on up shifts? when was the last time the gearbox oil got replaced? maybe worth having the gearbox oil drained and refilled with fresh one and see if it cures it. Lexus recommends only Toyota Type IV for these boxes.

in that case you cant go wrong with either the IS200 or IS300 later models had full specs i.e leather , satnav and better plastic interior.. IS300's are more spec's in standard form though. they have leather as standard, arm rest, LSD, HID's, self dimming wing and interior mirror. that's what everyone says until they see one keeping up with their turbo car's. if they were torque less they wont be good for 6 secs to 60 have seen some do it in 5.5 secs all the way to 155mph when legal. IS's are going for reasonable money these days and ticks all boxes for spec/Car and Image..

4K budget can buy you a lot of cars so before you make any decision you might have to think about what you lookiong for in terms of priority. e.g. mpg, relaibilty, power or power, mpg , relaibilty or reliability, power, mpg...etc if your priority is more of relibility reseonable power and mpg then the IS200 fits in perfectly as its more reliable than an Audi TT for sure has reasonable power, above average handling and 29 maybe high 30's mpg on combined cycle so if you expect 40mpg on a dialy run then get a diesel. if power is top of your priority and mpg less on your list then the IS300 betters the 200 with lazy torque low down the rev range and even more pull at the top end aswell . the more you spend on initial purchase price the less things needs doing and better a condition it will be in. they are nice cars even though getting old by todays standards can still hold thier own. ball joints , calipers and inner front tyre wear are most issues which crops on these IS's but that doesnt mean they occur every year and besides the usual wear and tear like discs pads, tires and usual oil filter servicing which every car goes through at some point, not a lot goes wrong. 125K miles on my engine and still smooth, starts perfectly, quiet when idle, returns the claimed 26mpg or more if not driven hard and goes if asked to.. Audi TT's are nice looking cars and both the 1.8Turbo or the 3.2 V6 engines retunrs reasonable mpgs for thier power outputs.. but if i had to choose a 2 door sports car then my 4K will have to go to a Honda S2000 just for the sheer 9200rpm VTEC sound. :)

i recon high RON fuels do a better job as the cleaning agents are formulated into the fuels its self so its already pre mixed. and cost about an extra £5ver more to fill up the tank with one compared to normal unleaded. I recon they the best when it comes to cleaning engine internals for less money. see here

turn your ignition on without starting and if both warning lights come up for about 3 secs and disappear then they are both functioning if both light don't come up when ignition is turned on then bulbs might be out.

by the time the light comes on warning you, its too late.. I make it a habit of checking my oil and coolant once every 3-4 weeks when pumping my tyres at gas station.