noby76

sorry jpac Auto car labled that as the 4series GT so thought that was the one you meant. the pic you have up looks quite nice and given an iption i would go for the Honda/Acura tbh. Honda has upped thier game in recent years..

BMW used the 3 series engineers to design the front and the X6 engineers to design the rear...i say either one wants to drive a saloon or one wants an SUV so whats up with BMW trying to combine both into one?? is there really a market for this?? I see it like this.. a Saloon driver wants to sit low and attack corners where as an SUV driver wants to sit high and waft around. both Lexus and BMW cater for the same class(Premium) car buyers and both brands will get you from London to Birmingham OK so will boil down to what one really wants from a car. e.g BMW dealers are known to treat their customers like crap and even charge to replace a light bulb whereas Lexus dealers are known to treat every customer like they are spending £50K with the exception of a few so if one puts customer service high in their list when looking at new cars or drivetrain refinement then BMW looses to Lexus but if one puts handling high in their list then Lexus looses to BMW. so a decision to go for BMW over Lexus or Lexus over BMW really depends on what one puts as a priority when shopping for a Premium brand car as both brands are in the same class. I personally wouldn't consider a BMW for the 1 fact that every man drives one and his dog too drives one .. and if i would ever get a Diesel car i would opt for a nice comfy facelift Volvo S60 D5. they known as 'Old mans car' but their rarity, design and the way they glide through the road with slightly tinted windows always makes me take a second glance. but hey BMW is not a bad car just too common for me..

I know we have comprehensive cover Insurance in UK. and there is a lot of 'sneeze on me and i will sue you' blame culture here aswell but stevlee shouldnt be left to pick up the damages in terms of his insurance premuims shooting over the roof as a result of police chase. as I confirmed Stevlee you might have a legal case against your local council or the police as to who forks out the bill. you can by all means go through your insurance under your Comprehensive cover and be worse off but there is no harm in seeking advice from Citizens Advice/ solicitor as to where you stand on this matter. at the end of the day, your pride and joy has been damaged due to a police pursue and someone needs to fork the bill as a result of this and not you... my 2 cents..

maybe i didnt come right. I am not saying the police shouldnt do thier job or pursue thieves.. but if thier influence caused harm to a life or damage to someone elses property during the process of them doing thier job then i beleive there is a legal case to be had here. the Police are free to do thier job but not at the expense of putting society in danger or damaging societies property. thats why some Police chases are called off if the chase is getting to the point where a 'by stander' be it human life or property is put at risk. Yes the police did not hit the car but thier influence played a part which led to this damage and if damages are suffered due to this then i beleive there is a legal case but citizens advice are in the best postion to confirm this.

am not sure the way the law works in UK but if the stolen car was being pursued by the Police then sure the Police could be held accountable for your cars damage and you dont have to tell your insurance company about this. I say this because regardless of if it was your fault or not your premuims will go up next time you insure your car so worth getting free advice from citizens advice with regards to where you Legally stand on this matter. you could argue if the police did not pursue this stolen car, your car would have been safe and the damage was caused by a police pursue chase. all though i did contract law in uni, i did not take things further with reagrds to law so wont be of any much help but you seem to have a legal case here against the police which i think you can claim for compensation/damages from the police force dept and could use that money to repair the car if no chasis damage has been done. thereby not writing it off and not telling your insurance company and saving your premiums going up which will be a win win for you but thats only if you have a legal case against the police on this matter. Good luck

might make it Petey depending on plans. was thinking of getting an Imprezza or more so the Masda MPS but the prices of turbo's when they break is eye watering. more over i like the sound of a big naturally aspirated car.. and they dont inheret no lag. drop down a gear or two in an NA car and you are gone.. but its sad now as the Euro Emission laws are rendering big NA engines obsolete and newer cars are all being fitted with 2.0litre turbos or 1.6 turbos. even the new BMW M5 has forgone the 5 litre V10 for a 4.4 turbo V8. it will be more economical and might be a tenth or two quicker but wont sound like a V10..same as the high revving Celica's and Honda Type R's they have all been discontinued and newer models will be fitted with Turbo engines.. am an NA engine man..

yeh that and the turbo lag the experience aswell.. dont get me wrong when the turbo is kicked in, they are mighty but 90% of the time they have to wait for it to spool up and by that time, we are already gone in PWR mode E-Shift..

so at least you have confirmed i wasnt seeing things when i notice myself keeping up and passing those 3.0litre Diesel BM's and Audis who tried it on with thier 500NM of torque lol.. told some guys on here the paper figures makes the car look like its a slow performer but in real life it can out accelerate a 500nm deisel in rolling acceleration in pretty much all gears..

wow 4.9 V8 Turbo.. now that's what i call a GUZZLER not the IS's we moan about guzzling fuel lol..

not to worry its just the engine code . apparently one of the best 6 cylinder engines Toyota has ever produced and one of the best 6 cylinder engines in the world.this and the Nissan RB26 engines are well rated among car tuners... sorry BMW ..

ahh Kolrobi so its you... i remember watching a vid of you a while back with you and a BMW 330d in rolling acceleration in different gears and each time you gained on him.. arent those diesels meant to have like 500NM of torque.. I heard this quote a while back "Diesel torque is only important when a petrol car is in the wrong gear" :D

yeh if you notice the VVTi is helping the IS200 make around 170NM of torque at the wheels even at a low 2500rpm. if 10% is added to this figure that equates to 187NM at the crank meaning the engine is making over 90% of its total torque available to it at 2500rpm. if this same formula is punched into mine, at 2500rpm, 90% of the torque is 260NM it peaks at 3800rpm with 288nm and then falls back to 260nm at 6000rpm.. whilst most Turbo hot hatches are waiting for their Turbo to spool up at this low rpm, am gone.. :P

is153 dyno'd his a couple of weeks ago i think so worth asking him for a copy. found this link which shows the graph of one dyno'd aswell. click on the graph tab to see the power and torque curve.. from the looks of it the VVTi helps the engine maintain an almost flat tourque curve from 2500 rpm to 6000 rpm as can be seen in the line in green. you can see figures of other cars by clicking one the see more cars button on the top right. http://rri.se/popup/performancegraphs.php?ChartsID=496

its 2JZ-GE nipper..you hear a turbo whistle even when its not wearing one.. watch out for those speed cameras as ECT-PWR mode does get addictive..

500 miles out of 13.2 gallons(full tank) in a 3litre automatic petrol is the best i have seen Koko.. this equates to roughly 38mpg. on a combined 85 mile town/motorway trip with cruise control set at 70mph i average 33mpg and i suppose the longer one spends on a long cruising motorway drive, the more mpg is being extracted from the engine. I guess this might be due to the fact that at 70mph our engines are only turning at 2500rpm. The VW Touran TDI staff car i use occasionally at work turns at 1500rpm at the same 70mph. This is only 1000rpm lower than the IS300 cruising at the same speed which explains your good mpg because at this speed in overdrive gear, the IS300 is barely stressed or working hard and this can result in it relaxing like a diesel engine and sip fuel.. thats not bad for an engine built using 90's technology... are you running some special type of engine oil and fuel we don't know about lol

if most thought the IS200 was bad imagine having to take the revs to 6400rpm to extract peak torque from the 3S-GE engine in the Altezza but actually this is not a bad thing . when not in the mood you can keep it between 1000 - 6000 rpm were it will operate and consume fuel like any other docile 4 cylinder 2litre engine out there. but hold the gear longer and cross over to 6400rpm and the race engine bursts to life and wont back down until 8000rpm and this 4 pot will be drinking like a 6 cylinder engine and performing like one too. I see this design as two different cars combined into one. with an engine making 210bhp i doubt it would be more economical than the 6cylinder IS200 when operating between 6400 - 8000rpm. would be fun car to drive tho.. closest one can get to an NA racing engine in terms of rpms..

Sapphire black and cream interior was what i was hunting for and if it had the nav and TTE body kit would be a bonus but had to settle for Silver tte still nice tho.

wow that was exactly the Is300 i was looking for 15 months ago. wanted Black, cream leather and satnav and TTE bodykit a bonus but none was on the market when i was looking until the Platinum Silver TTE kitted flirted with me on Autotrader and as a man, i gave in..15 months on and 13,000 miles later, has been bullet proof besides having to replace drivers side lamp bulb. 3 major things to have done if not already done are cambelt change, auto transmission fluid change and diff fluid change. The IS's are known to occasionaly experience frozen calipers which i havent and eat bushes and balljoints all which are not too expensive to replace and how quickly they wear depends on ones driving style and how skilfully you can dodge those UK pot holes.. thats the bad points out of the way..now to the good points, the 300 feels more planted compared to the 200 due to having a bit more weight and yet a balanced car around corners. and being a 3litre engine helps it pull in any gear at any revs with less hassle.

Its the badge and eye candy looks which attracts people..some years ago no other brands can match German reliabilty, speed and build quality until the Japs upped the ante..

its not an 'import' its a 51 plate which looks like it was first registered here in UK. in contrast, all Lexus cars are imports as they were not designed, built and assembled in UK but this one you looking at is not a grey import car like e.g a Nissan Skyline. but saying that the insurance company knows more than me lol. for the mileage and price thats good i recon you can still knock off another £200 off the asking price and shake hands tbh

yeh the ISF's are around the 22-25K mark now thats a huge fall from 50K price tag back in 2008 but then again M5's , AMG's and Audi RS's are also in the same price bracket. thing is most big engined high performance cars depreciate more... the IS250 is not a slow car per say. yes compared to a V8 or a high performance Turbo charged car it will fall under the slow bracket but compared to most day to day cars you see on the road, that's when you realize it a good performer with ECT-PWR and M mode activated..i found out where mine shines more is not the 0-60mph launch but from the rolling acceleration and i suppose the IS250 would be the same. I also enjoyed a blast in PWR M mode on my way back home from work .. maybe the steering on the gen 1 IS's are not over boosted compared to the gen 2's.

oh if you were looking to spend 17 -18k on importing the IS350 then might aswell get the ISF tbh. ISF's are now going for around 18 - 22K mark, returns same mpg as GS430 and can get to 62mph a second quicker, sounds better when floored, will do 170mph on a legal road and will have similar handling capabilities of the IS350 F Sport. but watch out for the insurance tho.. decision is yours mate.

I feel your pain skelly. IS350 was next in line for me if i decided to upgrade my IS300 but shamely isnt available here in UK but ISF and LFA were..WTF? so for more power, looks like you might need to upgrade to the 2005 onwards GS300 or GS430. both have enough grunt for day to day driving more so with the GS430 V8. most claim this car actually makes 300bhp when dyno'ed compared to the 279bhp stated by Lexus and can do 5.5 secs to 62mph in real life. and it will be close to the IS350's performance and still work out cheaper to buy here in UK than if you go through the importing process. infact I have just had a look and you can pick up 05/06 plate GS430's for around £5-£6K on gumtree , ebay and autotrader. but i know.. the IS350 will be more agile and handle better than a GS430 but what you need to ask yourself is, is the agilness and handling which would be used occasionally really worth the extra cost of importing the IS350? I have also taken a liking to the Infiniti G37 which is a very rare car on UK roads which i like, has pretty much the same dimensions as the Lexus IS350 and will by all means handle as good as a BM or Lexus and makes 320bhp..so worth a look..

had my car for about 15 months now and have never filled it to the brim. but will carry out a test on my next fill up and this time will max out my tank and see how many miles i get from it. most of my driving is mainly 4 miles open road and 3 miles town drive to work. currenlty this is averaging me at 22mpg which i recon is 4 mpg up on the official 18mpg urban driving quoted by Lexus so still not bad. :) . at 13.2 gallons to fill the tank this wll cost around £81 on 136.9p/ litre . will see if carrying the excess weight by maxing out the tank really does consume more than when i fill up with the exact fuel i need for a given journey.