noby76

think you must have underestimated your times. if you watch carefully you took off at 0:05 and hit 60mph at 0:11 . when i was in school my maths teacher told me 11 - 5 is not 7 :D . i guess i wasnt dreaming when i confirmed in a thread Lexus lied about the true performance of the 2JZ powered IS300. a manual 330i BMW is down as 6.5secs and this automatic is still quicker. always knew it performed like the V8 GS430 but guys on here thought i was going mad. IS300 is not a slow car and you have proved it.

a 2005/6 GS430 SE-L will have all the toys a GS450h has and enough performance than you will need on UK roads so the only difference of going h will be the silent drive when in town and a bit more economical. but think about this... even if you decide to run a GS430 for lets say a min of 5 years it will still work out cheaper than the initial 17K you have to fork out for the h model plus cost of fuel plus cost of servicing now thats a lot of down payment money without much bang or refinement compared to the 430. I personally will keep the 17K in my bank and start looking for a GS430 but thats what I would do tho.

you could always import a 4x4 Lexus with load capacity as a ford explorer SUV from the US but would be too big for UK roads.. http://www.lexus.com/models/LX/

stick with Denso OEM. These are almost £100 from Lexus http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a12813cf0

Altezza RS200 or IS300 is there for the taking if you need more BHP but for economical forget it as RS200 is high reving and IS300 is a bigger 6 cylinder but saying that , it will depend on your driving style as I do get 33 mpg on mixed driving i.e motorway and town but the book states 26 mpg. if you are looking to get 40 + mpg then diesel will be the best option!

havent owned or driven an IS220d but from owners experiece it seems diesels are not Lexus's strengths so they are not the best diesel cars but some owners are happy with them too. you could take a gamble and go for it and you'll be surprise it might run trouble free miles in your ownership but again no car is 100% reliable will boil down to how much your willing to put up with it. 250000 - 300000 is not unheard of in Petrol powered Lexus engines and I think Petrol engines is Lexus strength so if in two minds just go for IS250 Auto/manual but i will lean more towards the Auto. if your driving does not involve 70-80% motorway driving then you wont save much on a diesel powered car anyway. hope this helps

when it comes to parts like coils, spark plugs, ignition leads, clutch, water pumps its best to go genuine Lexus parts things like oil and brake pads/discs can be aftermartket. Toyota/Lexus parts are engineered to last longer and perform better.

dont shoot the messanger here these are words circluating around on the internet might be true or might not be true I cant tell but for all I know non of these problems were experienced by any other Toyota or Lexus owners in any part of the world except US. that alone should raise some questions about if these alegations were really true or fabricated. and Toyota being the No1 car manufacture in the world during the time of these allegations, makes them easy meat for other competitors. dont get me wrong no car brand is 100% reliable and Toyota/Lexus is no exception.

this is definitely not being over sensitive! this is about biased articles or review videos which gives Lexus 5% credit then knocks it down 25% in the process. The bias is evident and maybe I haven't come across one which Lexus has come out 1st place yet but all articles i have read and videos i have watched online comparing any Lexus model to its competitors always favours the competitors. even with it holding top spot for 11 years with J. D power awards under its belt it still ends up last in comparison reviews! something is not right is it?

for a brand that was setup only in 1989 to topple and hold No1 spot for 11 years is a big achievement and the reason why they not reigning any more was all down to conspiracy theories which some say was fabricated by the bankrupt US car companies(General Motors) in 2008 to give Toyota a bad reputation with accusations of failing brakes and cars speeding up for no reason. one question we need to ask ourselves is why was this only happening in America and none of these problems was experienced by owners in Russia, Middle East , Africa and Europe where the same Toyota/Lexus models are also sold? def not knocking German engineering but most european reviewers be it on TV, website articles all seem to talk down on Lexus be it LS,RX,GS,IS or the h models. just read or watch any youtube videos comparing Lexus to german makes and the result is always one sided 'biased' towards German. all am saying is honest credit needs to be given when its due. LS400 in its day toppled any german car in its class but still did not get credit.

regarding the gearbox just a drain and refill should be fine not a full flush of the system as that might do more damage than good. Lexus only recommends Toyota Type T IV and nothing else. i think a 5ltr is about £60 from Toyota garages sounds expensive but that would save you ££$$ on transmission rebuild if another oil is used in the A650E gearbox.

looks really nice in the sunset :winky:

I have come to realise no matter how hard Lexus tries it can never be as good as the German brands in the eyes of european car review companies. this was the same case with when the LS400 was released. review companies in Europe shut it down before they had even turned the key saying what was Toyota thinking taking on the Germans? and after about a year, thier tone changed as the LS400 brand new was said to be more refined and quieter than the Rolls Royce at that time. I mean how can they say this looks dated? http://wot.motortren...450h-cockpit-2/ compared to these? http://www.flickr.co...in/photostream/ http://newsexpensive...erior-wallpaper or Lexus does not have driving/handling dynamics as seen in this video courtesy of wendle? http://www.youtube.c...d&v=Ht-_CxBB-kc America is the No1 consumer of any products in the world and the No1 Luxury car selling there is Lexus that alone should tell these European reviewers something. dont get me wrong Germans do know how to build a car but Auto Express please give credit when its due to a non German car manufacturer. like i said no matter how good it is, it will never be on par or surpass German cars why because it does not waer a German badge. I bet you if the GS450h would have been wearing a BMW badge it would be hailed as the car of the decade! what a joke...

book it into Lexus to have a diagnostic check using Lexus own code reader if you nice they might just do it for free. this will tell you what the exact problem is if its coil packs buy all coils from Lexus and swap them if its spark plugs they recommend Denso irridium plugs. but as i suggested Lexus diagnotics will be best to verify the issue it could be all sorts like sensors, ignition leads, coils, spark plugs.. also dont take this the wrong way as i dont know your mechanical knowledge or background but sometimes if these things are not fitted well they could result in all sorts of problems which sometimes ends up in the over spending of the money one was trying to save in the first place by not going to a good garage/Lexus.

every IS220/200d driver i have come across bashes Lexus for having a 6th gear. news flash Merc 220CDI has 6th gear, BMW 320d has 6th gear, Audi 2.0TDI has 6th gear these are cars from 2005-6 onwards which are all in the same class as IS220/200d but thier drivers dont complain as much!! I would be glad if my IS3 had a 6th gear . 6th is to help the car return better mpg and not put strain on the engine i.e rev wise on the motorway and also help it reach the 135mph top speed without sacrifising too much fuel so its there to be used at the right place if the driver wants to but its not a 'must'... some people say ISF is a torquey V8 so why does it need 8 gears but there is a time and place when 8th gear is needed but on a track maximum gear which will be used will probabaly be 5th. but on motorway ISF can climb to 8th sit there with no cabin/engine noise and sip fuel at almost 34mpg...

yes Lexus was and still is a Luxury brand. but as my previous post the word Luxury now means Luxury/Sporty as Luxury car companies noticed buyers of thier cars wanted the Luxury but with and edge when they were in the mood for sporty driving. Lexus was not offering this in thier previous cars but found BMW , Merc and Audi were getting the upper hand due to thier sporty edgy nature hence Lexus made a you turn with the soft Luxury ride setup. CT200 F-Sport will definatley be harsh being an F-Sport setup just opt for the SE or SE-L without the sport package and you will be fine. have you driven the latest BMW's with 18inches wheels or the Audi's with the S-Line packagae ? if not have a drive in the Sline trim and let us know if that felt Luxury.

sorry about your car !! its up to you if you want to really go via insurance companies. the damage does not look too bad just the rear light needs replacing and the boot thud needs pulling out and bumper neeeds a little paint so all in all not that bad you could get a quote from a good body shop and let the woman fork out the bill. you could give her the option of either going through her insurance which will result in her insurance going up or just accepting a written quote from you from the body shop to pay for the repairs this way both parties will avoid thier insurance companies and both your premiums will not shoot up when they due renewal. sometimes doing the right thing buy informing your insurance companies would rather result in higher premiums. all up to you tho!!

They caanot accept the fact that the Japanese build a better car than the Germans when they put thier mind to it. I mean look at the Toyota Supra, the Nissan Skyline, the Lexus LS400, Civic TypeR's and S2000's, Subaru STI's, Honda NSX, Toyota Land Cruiser not to metion a few. These cars would kill any German car in its class be it handling, speed, ride quality and refinement, reliability you name it. and once some of thier engines are tuned we all know the bhp figures they could produce. dont get me wrong German cars do have it aswell but the Japanese beat them in all aspects so I never listen to those guys on TV and tend to do my own research on a car.

Yes tyres like Bridgestones, Yokos tend to have a hard compound as they more for performance. These days the word Luxury cars mean both Luxury/Sporty all in one as Lexus cars old old were bashed for being too soft a ride and boring feel except the IS then. which made buyers opt for BMW and Audi instead so the new models all have a slightly firm ride even owners of L430's who came from LS400 also complain about the ride being too firm so I guess thats the trend these days. 16" should make a difference but swap the tyres for mid-range or soft compounds. but Yoko's and Bridgestones will definately feel hard on the road.

depends on your right foot as i can extract 33mpg on combined motorway and town driving from the IS3 but the book says 26mpg and this weighs 1500kg which is heavier than both IS200 or RS200 and its automatic aswell so as you can see driven sensibly it can achieve 1.8 litre car figures. and this is not from driving like a granny either!! I use castrol magnatec 5w30 and run Esso(Mobil) 97RON fuel maybe that mite be contributing to this....

Lexus's normally come with Bridgestones from the factory well was the case for the Gen 1 IS's which are more of performance and handling so thier tyre compound is more harder. you could always swap the tyres for mide-range ones or non performance ones which could cure the ride quality but the car mite not handle as it ought to ... if Lexus offers 16" wheels you could opt for that instead which will result in having more tyre rubber than more wheel size.

and the weired thing aswell is i can bet over half of IS owners here are still running thier original shocks and exhaust systems sounds like Lexus was designing these parts to last between 15 - 20 years.

same here was torn between IS300, BMW 330i and Audi 3.0 quattro and tho the BMW and Audi has about 15 and 10 bhp more than the IS i just couldnt see my self following the herd. and with Toyota being the parent company of Lexus, I knew i would be guarenteed reliability which both BMW and Audi could dream of. and it does not feel like a 210bhp car either feels more powerful than the book figures...

I do agree even now driving on the road i still catch other drivers from the corner of my eye looking at the car..there is nothing the IS has that a modern car in its class doesnt toys wise. people say it lacks power but for a 2ltr non turbo car 150bhp and almost 200NM of torque in its day was good. mordern 2 litre 4 cylinders like the honda accord, Audi A4 FSI BMW 320 (170bhp) are now offering these figures. and IS200 can perform like them on the road but its advantage will lie in the fact that its 6 cylinder 24valaves so will be smooth and wont struggle at high speeds but civic type r's and S2000's will have the upper hand as thier advantage lies in the 9000rpm they can rev to i.e. the more revs an engine has, the more power it would make due to gearing thats why IS200's brother the Altezza RS200 makes 210bhp with its high revs. so gen 1 IS wont look out of place today, they have the style , all the toys of modern car, they smooth to drive and reliable aswell and good thing i like about them is they not as common on the roads as BMW AudiI and Merc

last time mine got admired it ended up with a broken wing mirror which was closed using the electric button so was def done delibrately.