noby76

Nope your gonna have a nasty shock sorry. The manual is £460 I believe as it has higher emissions than the auto. The auto is £270 I beleive a late November will be a 55 Plate so will be a VED band K which is £270 a year or £148.50 half year tax.

Engine code reading should be first... if no error codes are found might be worth cleaning your MAF sensor

I agree with all was in US summer last year and saw the new Lexus ES350 and Toyota Avalon not the crown and i must say both the ES and mainly the Avalon where nice the Avalon had a presence on the road and looked solid in the metal you would think its a Lexus GS if the front and rear badges where hidden from sight. I think Lexus would take a chunk of Ford mondeo and Vauxhall Insignia sales if they offered the FWD ES and a Toyota Avalon/Crown into Europe as some customers do not want to be seen in a Luxury/premium badged car but would want all the toys and drive a Luxury car gives. and I think Volvo is now catering for these type of customers..I recall a survey was done by one of these onlince car mag companies and they found out mordern day Volvo drivers of S60, S80, C70 and XC's were earning more money anually than drivers of BMW, Audi and Merc and when asked why they were not driving those brands most of them said they didnt want to be associated with that snob image even tho they could afford and run those cars..so Lexus/Toyota might do well in Europe with cars like the ES's and Toyota Avalon/Crowns to cater for those type of customers.

same here an I know i keep banging on about this on other threads aswell but with this mode activated especially with M mode aswell which in your case will be S mode this car does fly like it has a turbo fitted to it on V power.. on my way to birmingham yesterday i bumped into a Subaru WRX RB270 estate which is known to pack 270bhp from its 2ltre turbo engine we where both on the fast lane, wanted to see if the IS300 can hang with it. ECT PWR was already activated as i now drive with it on all the time so i just flicked over to M mode dropped it to 3rd and hanged in there waiting..traffic in front cleared for us he was in front and floored it and i did the same and to my surprise the IS300 was keeping up with a 270bhp car which weighs less than it. ok the IS300 has 1 more litre and two more cylinders compared to the RB270 WRX but this car was turbo charged pumping 270bhp and i know when another driver has thier foot down and when they are just cruising and this dude had his foot down..obviously the road was clear so no other cars were put in danger but what i keep asking my self is how is the IS300 with only 210 bhp able to hung with some cars its not supposed to do if you go by the paper figures compared to that car... just out of curiosity i got home and checked the real weight of the RB270 estate and it weighs 1400kg which is a power-to-weight figure of 190bhp per tone ..IS300 only has 140bhp per tone which is a difference of 50bhp and that is a lot of horse power to make a difference . so again does Lexus intentionally lower thier cars power , torque and top speed figures on paper but the story becomes different in real world? or is thier engineering so good it does not need a lot of horse power to put its power down efffectively..as things like gearbox effeciency, airbox design, drag co-efficient and other factors contributes to a cars performance and not just a high BHP figure..e.g your IS250 auto is only down as 140mph top speed but go on you tube and you will see IS250's doing 161mph on the german autobhan with ease.

Yes you are right Argento shift lever in D without ECT PWR activated is normal mode and should give good consumption as stated in the manual but as you know some people like to experiment things and most have found ECT PWR improving or being no different to normal mode with regards to fuel consumption including my self but the difference is, it makes the car more fun to drive as its more responsive to the drivers commands but i must say I am getting these results in conjuction with using higher octane fuel. Shell V power for that matter. i think these results will boil down to how the driver is actually driving the car as everyone drives and steers slightly differently. only way to test this is top up your as you normally on weekly fuel with high octane, reset your trip computer and drive with ECT PWR activated for the week and make a note of roughly where the fuel guage level is sitting after the week against the miles travelled. then top up again with the same amount for the next coming week using normal unleaded, reset trip computer and turn ECT PWR off and drive the car as you did for the previous week. after the week make a not of the fuel guage level against the miles travelled and now compare the fuel level guage to that of the previous week guage and that will give you an answer as to which of the modes is more economical to the engine. obviously your weekly mileage should be consistent for both tests as mileage to work and back from mon - friday does not change for both.

No probs mate :) am also learning my self as I dont fully understand it to be honest but I think Kurt on the forumn has some good points but same as the guy with name 'Balance' aswell they had a heated discussion at some point about normal mode being quicker than ECT-PWR mode but in a way i might disaggree with Kurt as I believe ECT-PWR mode sharpens things up a little with regards to trottle opening times, ignition timing mapping and other factors so there is no way ECT mode will record a slower shoot out time than normal mode but i might be wrong. i personally feel the difference in the whole cars behavior and engine/exhaust note when in ECT compared to normal mode. understanding these things do get complicated and a bit technical aswell so I wouldnt really try to understand it technically all you need to know is once this button is activated the car sharpens up and accelerates better when you plant the pedal :D . that button was put there for a reason. Simples

Not exactly sure to be honest but this is the way I understood it and someone correct me if I am wrong. I think what the ECT-PWR also does besides increasing the shift patterns to higher revs is it tries to think(Artificial Intelligence) or anticipate what the driver intends to do based on road conditions maybe by use of some suspension/tyre sensors, drivers intentions maybe based on how the driver is aggressively or calmly steering the car in conjunction with how far their pedal position is or how instantly they depress the pedal to either give them a comfortable ride/drive or a more aggressive/sporty drive. And by the document, this Artificial intelligence is only active in D mode with ECT-PWR active but cancels out or deactivates i.e stops thinking for the driver when S or in my case M mode is selected but the performance parameters/algorithms will still be locked in place S/M mode . Hence the driver has full control of the highest gear they want the car to stay in when S or M mode is selected e.g. when in S mode and 3rd is selected the car will shift from 1st to 2nd to 3rd by its self and hold at this gear until driver selects 4th gear by using the selectors and at a twisty corner the driver can then decide if 2nd gear will be best rather than the AI deciding 3rd gear for the same corner which means the AI is no longer thinking for the driver but the driver is now deciding which gear selections are best suited for the situation. The sudden acceleration control operates within 4th , 5th and 6th gear which I can understand it to be kick down will only happen when the car is in these gears but will not kick down from 2nd to 1st or from 3rd to 2nd gear. Well that’s my understanding from reading The sudden accelerator release control will hold in in the same gear when the driver suddenly takes the foot off which improves re-acceleration response once the pedal is reapplied sharply again. And this intelligence operates with 2nd to 5th gears. Sudden deceleration downshift control will operate similar to sudden acceleration but operates within 4th to 6th gears only. This probably explains why S/M mode is needed for corners or twisty driving because when in D mode with ECT-PWR active and one is approaching a bend with sudden deceleration, the lowest gear the transmission will downshift to will be 3rd as the operating gears for sudden deceleration intelligence are 4th, 5th and 6th but with S / M mode the driver can select 2nd in some cases for better traction and torque when powering out of the corner. This is my understanding from reading it but all might be wrong.

Once you switched to PWR mode and get used to it, its impossible to switch back to granny mode. :D +1 :D ... granny(normal) mode now feels gutless after driving with PWR mode for a while you definately feel the throttle response and quicker acceleration difference. getting to normal cruising speed like 30-50mph doest take long in pwr mode which i think translates to economy because the car will get to desired speed quicly and you can ease off the pedal and cruise.

guess how much insurance you would pay if lexus officailly states the IS250 is a 161mph car?? my guess will be they had to bring the figure down to sound resonable on paper. I dont think the dude had a MOD if you read the comments he said its a stock EU version IS250.

yep even if the speedo is reading 3% above the real speed as most cars do thats still 157mph real road speed.and if you watch closely that top speed was covered preety quickly from 120kph(74mph) to 260kph(161mph) not bad for a 2.5 V6 with only 204bhp

LPB is made in China... but which product is not these days http://www.chinabrake.com/eng/ABOUT/

one thing I have noticed is the Lexus likes grippy tyres anything other than high performance grippy tyres will cause it to fish tail a lot or traction control to kick in frequently even in the dry so if the Ventus Prime does not give good grip in the dry then might aswell get something else looks like it does a good job in the wet and braking performance tho and the price is reasonable for a performace tyre.. a save of just 6 litres over 625miles of driving?? that works out a saving of 0.0096 litres for every mile travelled . this translates to a saving of 1-2pence saving for every mile travelled compared to the next man running the worst rated fuel efficient trye of 'G' . infact am due some new rear tyres in a couple of miles and I just cant decide :( to much to choose from. your likes of goodyear, Michelin, Toyo, bridgestone , Falken, hankook, Yoko's ... they all good brands but thier enginering will differ...am leaning more towards the brands like Toyo's , Falken, bridgestones and Yoko's can't decide

if you need fuel economy and still want to stay 2 litre then get a 4 cylinder engine..the IS200 is as fuel efficient as any other 2.0 6 cylinder engine the 1999 BMW 320i which is also a 2.2 6 cylinder only achives 2 mpg more than the IS200, same as the Jag X type with 2.0 V6 engine. so as you can see they are quiet similar due to more cylinders.. the more cylinders a petrol engine has the more fuel it uses unles its being injected diretly which mordern cars now do hence the IS250 with more displacement can achive 31mpg even with an auto gerbox, more power, more torque comapred to IS200 29mpg with manual box.. so am afraid there is nothin you can do to get an IS200 to achieve 40mpg. for the year and technology available to car manufactures that time, 29-31mpg was the best economy they could extract from the engine if you want any more then 2 litre 4 cylinder will increase this to about 34-38mpg which can be found in 2.0 Honda Accords, 2.0 audi A4, 318i bmw (2.0), 2.0 mondeo etc

not sure if the question was for me Sterling? but yeh lived there for a while during my teenage years! why do you ask?

260kph (161mph) to be exact in 5th gear with ETC-PWR activated. felt like he was cruising at 70mph. not encouraging this on UK roads tho. just confirming the real world performance of the IS250.. who needs a Porsche!!

Ray am thinking for the short trips and start/stop journeys you doing have you considered the MK1 GS450h?? most of your journys will be runing on recharged batteries the car wont even use the fuel... 32mpg just driving in town on the gs450h, will drive like the 5 series aswell.. they are now fetching around £10,000 on autotrader so the question is does the benefits outweigh the initial vehicle cost compared to an IS200 with 18mpg?? all depends on how long you looking to keep the GS450h .

Here is a copy and paste from the forumn. you can find this on page 13 but worth reading from page 1 as some of the points raised where quite interesting very long thread though. :) Let me address one thing I've seen questioned in this thread, but not accurately addressed. FACT: With the ECT button engaged there is a quick shift. Question(s): more heat?/less heat? -- better for trans?/worse for trans? Answer: less heat, better for transmission Info supporting answer: (This explination is over-simplified) In an automatic transmisson, there are things called Clutch Packs. They are steel plates and friction plates alternating in various quantities. A "smooth" shifting transmission accomplishes the "smoothness" by slowly applying pressure to the "Clutch Pack". This causes more slip within the pack, therefore more heat and more wear on the friction plates. If/when you change the transmisssion filter most of what you see will be friction plate material (think of sandpaper and the sand wearing off). When the transmission shifts quickly, the plates engage faster "harder" allowing less time for the friction material to be worn away. Hence the plates run cooler and last longer. Some one is going to say..."well it changes more often which will cause more heat".... not enough heat to raise the overall temps of the transmission. Hopefully, you are in a gear more often then changing gears. If you are never in one gear more than a few seconds, then yes, more heat will be generated, and that is bad....but if you change gears every few seconds and NEVER leave the car in the same gear when driving ALL the time, you have bigger problems and probably shouldn't be on the road anyway... how hard would it to be consistantly changing gears 100% of the time you spend driving..(ie no time spent in a single gear)? This kinda brings me to the "lifetime" fill on the transmission. I'm going to change my filter and the 1.5 liters (or whatever nominal amount of fluid is avail by removing the pan) regrdless of the "recomendation" in the owners manual. You can't changes physics folks, no matter how "smart" the Lexus engineers are... and BTW, for what it's worth, I drive with the ECT button on all the time and I haven't noticed any change in MPGs. http://www.clublexus...368-post24.html http://www.clublexus...ontinuosly.html

as already confirmed it sharpens the throttle opening response and delays up shifting to higher gears longer in other words it holds onto lower gears more than normal. which translates to making the car accelerate to desired speeds quickly. It has also been confirmed on the US forumns that ECT-PWR mode gives good mpg when used in town driving becuase the car does not take long to hit the desired 30 or 50mph town driving speeds and also reduces heat generated in the transmission box because Lexus transmissions uses a device or algorithm which makes them shift smoothly but this smooth shifting also translates to more transmission heat generated because that device/algorithm is working a bit harder to give the driver that smooth transition between gear shifts but once ect pwer is enable this mechanisim is deactivated hence you feel that free trottle response and harder gear changes/upshifts when this mode is activated. I might need to fish around for this US thread and post it up I personally have been using ECT-PWR mode now for about a month and car feels like how its meant to drive from day one a (Sport Sedan) consupmtion has improved a bit even more so when i use v power shell and engine note sounds sporting when this mode is also activated. it goes well too... i accidentally turned it off after using this mode continusly for about 3 weeks when i was polishing the interior of my car, started it up drove off and it felt like i had dropped an Anchor the car felt soo slugish and even hitting 50mph took a long time i thought i had a flat tire then looked at my dash and realised the ect-pwr light was off.. activated it again and felt like the weight has been taking of the car. was surprised how i got used to this mode and noticed the cars behavior(slugishness) when it was turned off. test it out by using it constantly for about 2 weeks then turn it off and see how the car responds. watch out when moving off from traffic though the throttle response it instant you need to be a bit careful without running into the guy ahead.

grab a cuppa. http://www.lexusowne...wtopic=76440=

Like they say 'you wont know until you've tried' so if you havent invested a lot in your current IS200 you can always change it for a GS and see how it does on the fuel during your short runs if its too much you can always get rid of it.. havent owned a Diesel before but i know diesels do take longer to warm up than petrol powered cars so i bet your old 5 series wasnt at its sweetest mpg spot during your cold starts and short trips.. I owned a 98' 520i with beige leather interior and walnut trim breifly until it started given problems and had to get rid of it and i do agree the interior and drive of the 5 series is different to the IS. the IS feels lighter and buttons and knobs dont pack meat like the 5 series but the GS300 feels more like the 5 series when i test drove 2 during my hunt for a lexus before settling with the IS300 infact i test drove an IS200, IS300 and GS300. i felt the IS200 was too light but the engine note sounded nice during driving and urged one to floor it i like something with a bit of oomph and i felt 155bhp is not enough for me, the GS300 was a bit too barge and heavy for me as i wanted and Athlete sedan something you can throw around every now and again but can cruise quietly at 70mph and found it in the IS300 because it had IS200 body with GS300 engine.

Thats cus you came from a 5 series which is more luxury compared to the IS's...maybe a GS or LS would suit you

I think good move... quiet engine, revs freely, chain driven cams so no cambelt service needed, same tax band as your IS200, double rear sport exhausts, Its a sport sedan so suspension will be firm like a BMW, you now get two VVT-i's for more instant responsiveness, power and better mpg holds the road better in twisty than MK1 IS200/300 more torque than IS200 more power than IS200 almost rubbing shoulders with IS300 performance wise and can do 160mph... yes this was not a typo 160mph from 2.5 litre V6 on the German autobhan in automatic form so not sure where Lexus got 140mph from. but as you know this speed is not legal on UK roads. Test drove one when I had my cambelt service done at Lexus dealer exactly a year ago. loved the dash lights on startup back seat looked about the same to MK1 IS's even though MK2's looks bigger from the outside, demontrator took it round some bends and twisties and back end never kicked out. he even confirmed the MK1 IS's where known to kick thier back ends out a lot on twisty driving but the MK2's have been improved in the handling department. I have seen the interior of an SC430 and the MK2 IS does not have that quality of polish, fit and finish as the SC430 even though the MK2 IS has leathers but the SC430 was worth more brand new in its day than the IS so Lexus was targeting a different market with the SC's.. all in all it was a good test drive but mine was just a test drive some real owners of MK2 IS's have reported rattlying and squeking dashboards and interiors so worth listening out for interior noises during your test drive but if you have music on when driving like I do would you care about a minor creak and squeak ?? :)

yep looks like mpg is what sells cars in UK/Europe these day. I mean someone will pay e.g £10,000 more on a new/newish car just because it returns 2 - 5mpg more than another car of the same level and spec. looks like most car buyers these days have drilled mpg figures into thier heads when looking at cars that they forget to do the maths and factor other aspects like running costs, reliability, servicing cost etc. I mean whats the point in buying a car which returns 50mpg but brekas down or throws engine management lights every now and again? even if its on warranty, the inconvenience of not being with a car for a couple of days every time alone will p***s one off compared to another car which does 25mpg cost £10,000 less to buy in the first place and never sees a mechanic until its due an Oil change. Yes we all want to save money on fuel costs but I tend not to dwell on mpg figures alone and put other factors into consideration before buying a car. my IS300 is officially meant to return 26mpg on the combined cycle but I am getting 31mpg in real world combined motorway and town driving mainly 70% mway 30% town and I have read stories of owners whos cars are meant to return 50mpg but they actually get 35mpg so looks like am winning :)

30 feeling like 20 :zee:

what i was comparing based on your decison was luxury and drive and not year of registration. I was under the impression you really wanted an 09 plate Audi hence i was comparing one against an equivalent and when i say equivalent i mean the Luxury and drive of a 5 year older Lexus as Luxury and drive was your priority but if year of registration is a priotiry aswell then yes you are right an 09 LS will set you back £29,995 on initial vehicle cost. given the option of an 04' LS for £4000 against an 09 LS for £30,000 I know where my money will go. dont get me wrong and I am not in any way trying to get you to change your mind as its your money. Audi's are great cars and well built than BMW in my opinion aswell but thought there might be some money to be saved if one goes for a 5 year older LS430 over an 09 Audi A8. but if date of registration, HD screen and 4 wheel drive is a priority then would make sense to go for the Audi by all means. :) What it also proves is that the depreciation on a Lexus LS is much much worst than an A8 not when an 09 LS fetches £30,000 compared to an 09' A8 going for £17,000...in order to get an accurate yearly depreciation % figure we would need to know how much both cars were being sold brand new back in 09 but based on resale values going on Autotrader the LS looks like its holding its value well.. then again regardless of what one drives thier car will depreciate by the year hence i personally buy cars which are 5 years or older as they have done most or all of thier depreciation roughly after thier 5th year but like i said Sterling, go with what ever car you feel like driving.. I was just playing with some figures by comparing a Luxury 5 year older LS against your choice and came up with those results. Enjoy the A8 :winky: