matt-c

Had one for 6 months. Blade cost £7 to cut, swapped over internals and been using it ever since. Flip button is a little sensitive and can easily be flipped in your pocket, but on the whole it's been fine. Bit too bulky for my liking, so I'm on the lookout for a better alternative (ideally something the same shape and size as an Audi or Kia flip key, and then see if the buttons can be cloned)

It always makes me chuckle on car forums when there's a Top Gear thread, and so many come on saying how much they don't like it, don'tlike the presenters, how much money they make, etc etc - so don't watch it. Simple

???? You want proof? I'm not getting into that sillyness. There is a lot going on on that road and its changing weekly at the moment with all sorts of temporary lights, signs, etc. because of new housing estate being built while demolishing the school and completing Tesco's. The residents are in arms over it and its always making the local papers. It just seemed quite clear that day. Calm down, I did say "as I understand it"...

Can't tell you about newer ones, as mines a bit older and has outputs on it for iPod, USB and Aux. iPod, obviously being iPod/iPhone specific, USB being for plugging in a thumb drive, and Aux just being a 3.5mm stereo cable input, so anything with a headphone socket will play. Of course this means that the Aux won't be controlled by the stereo - you'd need to do any track selection/skipping on the device, not via the head unit. With the USB I believe it has HU control, and of course iPod does. The newer ones also have Android support/connectivity, and I guess that includes Samsung (if it's running Android). Can't say about Nokia though.

Good PS job, but it looks absolutely awful

I don't think you need a sign to define if a yellow box is in force or not - if it's painted on the road, it's in force, and if it's not in force then it's supposed to be removed (at least, as I understand it)

From what I've read and understood on these forums, is that with Lexus' unless your car came with it fitted, then the stuff you need to connect up to simply isn't there, and retrofitting is a bitch as a result.

Heat reflective screens are easy to spot. They are typically a gluey/purply tinge, kind of like petrol on water. Rule of thumb - if your windscreen looks the same as your door glasses, then you don't have a heat reflective screen. Here's a good example of the colour difference on a solar reflective screen; Now, in the windscreen trade, codes are used for different types of screen. The ones in the pic above are called "CC", which stands for "clear coated". This means the glass is clear (not tinted) and the laminate between the two sheets of glass, has a coating on it to give it the heat reflective'ness. You also have "GS" and "GN". "GN stand for "green" - which means the glass is just green tinted (clear laminate), and GS means the glass is "Green Solar" - green tinted glass and a solar reflective laminate, which is clear, so as not to change the colour. They both look identical, and impossible to tell the difference (between a GN and a GS) with the naked eye. However, the good news there is the difference between GN and GS is you won't have both options on the same model - it's either or. So if your car has a GS screen in it from the factory, then the available replacement for it will be GS. For example, a Renault Clio will have either a GS or a CC - so to look at it's either green or "tinted" (the bluey/purply tinge). There isn't a GN in the range at all, so it's not like you get an inferior screen from what you had if your screen simply looks green. In the Vauxhall Vivaro (or Renault Trafic - same thing) you have CL (clear), GS (green solar) and CC (clear coated) - again very easy to tell the difference. So, to wrap up, if Lexus put a GS screen in there, then you'll get a GS, as they won't have put a GS in some cars, and a GN in others. Been a long time since I did a screen on your model, but I don't remember them having the CC option, and pretty sure they are all GS screens. As for the sensor, it depends on the car. There are three types; either a "wet" gel pad (kind of like a glue, that bonds the sensor to the glass) that isn't reusable; a "fixed" gel pad (that is fixed to the sensor, and comes off the screen still attached to the sensor) and is reusable since it remains on the sensor; and "dry" gel pad (that is neither fixed to the sensor or the glass, but simply sits between the sensor and the glass) and is reusable, but needs removing from the old screen (simply peels off) and sticking on the new one. Examples; most later BMW's, Merc's, Renault's, Nissan's use the wet gel pad. When the screen is replaced, the sensor is removed cleanly from the screen, the gel remains stuck to the glass. New gel needs to be applied to the sensor and be let to "dry" (cure - basically stop being runny, but still tacky) before refitting. Most Golf's, Mondeo's, Focus', Range Rover's use the fixed gel pad - you just pull the sensor from the screen, the gel pad is part of the sensor, and you just refit the sensor to the new screen. Some Peugeot's (306) and some Japanese car's (inc Lexus RX300's) use the dry gel pad, and the fitter needs to remember to peel it off the old screen (after removing the sensor) and stick it to the new one before refitting the sensor.

Mine get in the back and say "top the pub please driver" - although I don't think I've ever seen an IS as a minicab! You'd have to be mad to run an IS as a minicab with the fuel economy they get!

Who's JK? I've heard him say that about a lot of cars over the years

More commonly available = cheaper unit price

Very hard to tell without knowing what screen you have in there. Is it solar (heat) reflective? Does it have a rain sensor or light sensor, is it heated? It's impossible for any of us to tell any of this without seeing it.

Summer - 215/45 17 Winter - 205/50 17

2nd video - love how you just incriminated yourself for sitting in a yellow box

Have you wired them right? One button is tilt, one is open/close. Maybe you've wired them both to tilt BTW, get some pics up of it, or even better a short video. Always nice to see a custom install

The IS isn't a new car - there will be loads out there that have had aftermarket sensors fitted. Either dealer specials, or by previous owners. If the OP is really worried about it looking nice, I'd just rip them all out, buy a new set of colour coded ones off ebay, that cost less than half the price, possible a quarter, for a full set than a single Lexus one does, and stick those in

Neither, as I don't have a BT module ;) When it rings, the music pauses, and you take the call normally. What's interesting is on iOS5, you could have the headphones plugged in at the same time as using the Grom, and the audio from the Grom still worked. When iOS6 came along, plugging the headphones in mutes the audio output, which is annoying as I use the headphones with mic for phone calls when driving, and with iOS5 on my iPhone 4, I'd plug them in along with the Grom, and when a call came in, the music would be paused (by iPhone), you answer the call, and when you hang up, the music resumed. For some reason, that was overlooked in iOS6, and the idea of having both the Grom and the headphones plugged in at the same time was thrown out the window by the audio output being muted when the headphones are plugged in, so I have to faff around unplugging the Grom, detangling the headphones (which no matter how carefully I coil them, they always get tangled), plugging them in and answering the call - all before the person calling gives up! I'm tempted to get the BT module, but it's £50 and I so rarely take calls in the car (if I drove it a lot, like I do my works van, then it'd make sense, but it's not really a priority for the IS)

Just thought it worth note to fellow iPhone and Grom users; I can (finally) confirm that From units do indeed work with iPhone 5 when using a genuine Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter. I bought a couple of cheap ones off eBay last week; one for £2.45 that said it only syncs and charges, and a slightly pricier one (£5.99) that said it does sync and charge, as well as audio. Both arrived, and unfortunately, neither worked with the Grom. They both charged the iPhone when connected to the Grom's 30-pin plug, but music wasn't passed through to the stereo (came out the phone's speaker) and no control either. So decided to take a run down to the Apple Store today, with the car, and get one, thinking I'd try it and if it didn't work I could simply return it. Grabbed one, back out the carpark, plugged it in and it both charges, and passes audio to the stereo (and still retains all headunit controls too) £25, but I reckon if they're gonna be using this Lightning connector for the next ten years (and they used the 30pin for about that length of time) then it's not so bad. So there you go!

Thought it worth posting in this thread - the genuine Apple 30pin to Lightning adapters DO work with iPhone 5 and Grom units. Just been to the Apple Store and bought one, and am very glad to have my music back on again for the journey home!

What an absolutely pointless, and completely unrelated, post that was. You owe me 30 seconds of my life back.

I think that may be the definition of "drive it like you stole it"

Which I thought was incredibly ironic considering the Bentley was wearing winter tyres ;)

Ah, I see what you're getting at - sorry, misunderstood! I can understand from that point, yes if you wanted all season tyres but the car you're buying comes with summer tyres, then that's added expense of re-shoeing it. However, I do think some of it comes down to what car you're buying. If you're buying an Aston Martin, do you really want it to come with all season tyres on? That said, I'm not even slightly interested in having a set of all season tyres. I have a set of wheels with summer tyres on, and another set with winter tyres on, both of which I'm very happy with. So the way I see it, I have the best of both worlds, rather than a single set based on compromise.

That's what's so good about choices - you don't have to purchase, swap and store 2 sets of tyres. You can go out and buy yourself a single set of all season tyres. I'm glad there isn't a "default" tyre provided in this country. I like to have choices available to me, and I like to make my choice using the factors that are important to me, not have someone else dictate it to me what I have/need/want/etc.

Spring starts March 20th, which is 7.5 weeks away. So no, not "pretty much done" - it's still winter. And will be for over 7 weeks.