Rabbers

This is a very upsetting item of news. I had been planning to buy myself an LS500 when I turn 90. But now I won't. ***** Van Dyke Behind the Wheel in Single-Car Crash - TMZTMZhttps-::www.tmz.com › 2023:03:22 › *****-van-dyke-c....webloc

For some reason or another apparently to do with currently reduced manufacturer inventories, my trusty tyre guy has been unable to locate matching pairs of 235/40/19 and 265/35/19 tyres for immediate delivery in my first and second choices of Pirelli PZeros and Goodyear Eagle F1s. However, he has been able to source Conti Sportcontact 7s at the Price of €925 (fitted), which is around what I would have been expecting to pay for the other brands. Not ever having had Sportcontacts of any generation on any car despite hearing nothing but good things about them I am quite looking forward to the prospect.

R.I.P. John. We are the poorer for your passing.

Don't ask this man to drink and drive, but check out the hypnotic guitar.url.weblocurl.weblocurl.weblocurl.weblocurl.weblocurl.webloc

Yes, however hard I try to relax with somebody else at the wheel, I never really succeed. I have learned under threat of being made to get out and walk to remain silent when the driver is my wife but my instinctive tendency to simulate braking in the footwell and cling white-knuckled to the armrests inevitably transmits my nervousness anyway. To be perfectly honest I don’t know what I can do about it.

As the result of a bruised ankle I spent the last week with my wife at the wheel of our RC and myself as the passenger. Of course this was not the first time our normal roles were reversed, but the drives had always been much shorter. Apart from a few frights due to my unjustified belief that she was driving too close to the kerb or was going to hit a cyclist, I must admit that I rather enjoyed being chauffeured around. This was because I felt free to fiddle at will with the infotainment system via the touchpad (albeit to my wife's irritation), to adjust the seat position according to my whims and needs at any given moment, and generally to admire the nice design and construction of the cabin and controls without the distraction of constantly having to focus on the road. Although I was happy to get back behind the wheel I think I'll probably surrender it more often in future.

I have sometimes been irritated by screeching from my brakes at low speeds, particularly audible with windows not fully closed, and since the sound disappears after a while, I simply attribute it to dirt or grit on one of the pads. This might be evidenced by visible scoring of the relative disc, though not so severely in my experience as to perceptibly affect braking performance.

Don’t know if it rusted in later life. Showed no signs of it at three years and approx. 90000km in all manner of weathers evenly split between Italy and Scandinavia. Never had engine problems, regularly serviced, one proud and careful user, namely me.

Yes, a lovely car in its day, and surprisingly reliable. Raised a few jealous eyebrows when I chose it as a company car. It was light metallic blue, tan leather, spectacular in direct sunlight, preferably Mediterranean quayside. Must rank as one of Pininfarina’s best designs.

Strangest thing, I had two Deltas, MYs 1982 and 1985, as wall as a 1985 Gamma Coupé, all with the system you describe, and don’t recall any such problem. I’ve never thought about it before now but, looking back, I don’t think I’ve ever had cleaner rear windows.

Andy, if by “extra attention to detail” you mean a higher level of conscientiousness in carrying out given tasks than might generally be found among their Western counterparts, I would personally tend to place greater trust in Japanese workers, individually and collectively, and therefore in the products they make. I base my opinion not on any dealings I have ever had with Japanese car factory personnel, which are none, but on the imagined extension to them of the excellent professional memories I retain of their “white-collar” colleagues in the commercial and administrative areas of other industries. Levels of reliability and punctuality were in my experience so high as to be almost taken for granted. Whether these and other related business virtues primarily derived from the local culture or an educational system that fostered receptivity to training in trades and professions I am unable to say, but they were an immediately observable phenomenon in Japanese managers and staff.

Casio with its Oceanus line of premium auto-synchronising watches may well have taken its marketing cue from Seiko with its Grand Seiko line of mechanical ones. The latter continue to be entirely made in Japan and were launched with the declared intent of matching the best of Swiss horology. While their excellence is universally acknowledged (and reflected in the prices), their desirability to connoisseurs is more debatable, mainly, it is said, because of the absence of a long background tradition. I have heard it said that Toyota's creation of the Lexus brand may have been in some measure inspired by the Grand Seiko philosophy, and it is interesting to note that such following as the watches have acquired is also largely in the U.S.

Historically, one of the reasons why goods manufactured in Japan deservedly acquired - and have maintained - a reputation for quality was the government’s active encouragement of high standards as the basis of export-driven post-war industrial reconstruction. Whereas it took several decades for other Far Eastern countries to overcome a reputation for producing shoddy goods, Japan aimed from the beginning to at least match Western quality levels, initially unashamedly imitating them but subsequently adding improvements and value. So important were exports collectively understood to be for rebuilding the national economy that, provided that most or all of the goods deriving from any new manufacturing venture were not sold or consumed within Japan, investors could count on subsidies of up to 100% of necessary capital as well as tax exemptions for agreed long periods after start-up. Lexus is itself a major example of this kind of deal, no cars produced under the Lexus name at purpose-built facilities within Japan (e.g. the Tahara plant) having by negotiated agreement been sold to the domestic market until 2005. Fundamentally, the export-or-die mentality instilled into highly disciplined workforces within an equally disciplined society has earned the country and its products a lot of respect.

I was initially surprised by the OPs since I have always been quite impressed by Lexus’ rear window/side-mirrors heating/defogging function insofar as it seems perfectly synchronised, I.e. there is no need to wait for a second area to clear after the first before switching it off again. The clearing effect generally also seems sufficiently rapid to reduce battery strain on cold winter mornings.

For private use over the better part of two decades I have never had anything other than various generations of a MacBook, an iPhone and an iPod (the latter now commercially defunct but still fine for the car). I once also had an iWatch but was never comfortable with it, not least because it made me feel nerdy. While realizing full well that I am locked into an Apple ecosystem from which there is no easy escape, I don’t resent my captivity for the simple reason that I have always found each and all of the devices easy to use, totally reliable, and aesthetically pleasing. Maybe there are competitors with equally good and functional products, but I have never felt any urge to go out and find them.

Love how the fashionable “reach[ing] out” of the opening paragraph morphed into simple “contacting” in the final one. Not to mention the shifts of person from “us” to “I” to “Lexus”. So although the contents are worth a chuckle, the style might itself be worth another.

Lorri, the up/down brightness adjustment controls only work when the tail-lights are on and are themselves both working properly. Your Lexus dealer will presumably know this, but check anyway. Congratulations on your car. Great choice.

I had 18” tyres on two IS300h’s and was sceptical about 17” ones supposedly giving a gentler ride until I experienced them on an IS I had as a courtesy car, the difference being quite noticeable. However, the downside was a reduced feeling of stability at higher speeds, for example on long motorway curves and fast bends, and fast winding roads in general. The choice really boils down to what your main priorities are.

Good comparison. I think they stopped because people finally understood that smoking Camels was more dangerous than the event itself.

Sorry for not providing a link, Vlad, but the article I read was not in English. I’m sure Google will be your friend though.

No, it’s a conversation in Warsaw.

Quite so. Even thinner, in some places, than the air itself.

I recently read about an imminent Nissan-sponsored attempt to drive an Ariya Pole-to-Pole taking in the entire length of North and South America, a journey that will require the batteries to be recharged an estimated 54 times. Unquestionably an impressive feat of endurance if successful but perhaps a little less so if it is considered the car will be towing a special renewable energy unit with wind turbines and solar panels to generate electricity. I’m not sure if this might not be considered cheating, but, then again, I don’t suppose any EV-charging stations are being planned for Antarctica in the near future.

I gave up on this thread a couple of days ago suffering from information overload. Today confirmed my original diagnosis.

Slightly OT, but I recently got a mail from the LOC which, if I understood it right, asked me if the replies I received to a query resolved my issue and if I wished to inform the senders accordingly. This put me in mind of Amazon asking you to rate a product and/or seller, although the LOC to its credit also asked if I wanted to continue receiving this message with regard to future queries. Which I didn’t. Thinking about it, I concluded that the act of starting a new topic and ending the title with a question-mark must automatically qualify it as a query requiring an answer that may or may not satisfactorily provide a solution to a problem. Which, I suppose, is not an an illogical assumption for men and algorithms to make.