DAW

Would love to, although a bit of trek from Essex!! Might end up getting entangled with the camera vans on the way

Love the photos - look like they are straight out of a magazine shoot. Very nice work!! The roads and scenery look fantastic. Looks like a very nice part of the country to visit and a good excuse for blast!!.

Really sorry to hear about all of this, but not surprised with regard to the insurer's. It was bad enough having to go through the whole experience of being robbed, without getting stabbed in the back by the insurers as well. I'm sure it's not much consolation, but at least its made the rest of us realise that the usual insurance policies are not suitable for our cars. I have a three year GAP policy which came free with the car, which I will now be looking to renew or else an agreed value policy if its even an option. Hope you can both move on quickly from this sorry business. If you don't mind me asking, who did you get your GAP insurance through, and perhaps it would be a good idea if we start a new thread relating to GAP/Agreed value insurance info for all our benefit!!

I agree it sounds like the rev limiter and the upgraded ISF has the upshift beeps.

Ok so not a huge difference in cost compared with the painted refurbs I've had done in the past. Thats food for thought!!. Thanks for the info.

The independant garage my friend bought the car from had them refurbished, so the costs he incurred ended up being covered under warranty. Not sure how the coating ended up uneven but the brake specialist had not come across this issue before. Its sobering to note that had my friend left it to the local Maserati dealer they would have replaced the discs, which would have been very expensive and wouldn't have solved the issue. He also couldn't have claimed under the cars warranty because it doesn't cover consumables, so as you can imagine he is chuffed with the outcome on all fronts. He considers himself very lucky to have found someone with exactly the right skills for the job. How difficult would that have been in the days before the internet!! Out of interest, and if you don't mind me asking, are the costs significantly different from the more usual painted refurb?

Hi Dave nice choice of wheels!! Just for your info re the powder coating wheel refurb. A friend recently bought a car which had refurbished powder coated wheels. After about a thosand miles he noticed a vibration when braking which got progressively worse. Got the brakes inspected with no issues found so did some research and contacted a guy who races cars and specialises in brakes. Having got the guy to checked the car he confirmed that there was no issue with the brake discs etc, but found that there was excessive powder coating to one of the rear wheels on one side of the contact area with the hub. The guy skimmed the coating to flatten the contact surface and the issue has been resolved. I hadn't heard about anything like this before, never having had powder coated wheels, so just thought this may be useful info for anyone considering it.

A friend has just bought a very nice GTS and having driven it I have to agree with Stuart. That said I think the Quattroporte is one of the best looking large saloons to have been produced and I much prefer it to the current version together with a lot of the competition. The interiors are stylish and are a very special place to be with plenty of space. I was surprised by how small the boot was for a car of this size - It would rule one out for me purely from a practical perspective (probably a reflection of the front/mid engine setup). But they are fun to drive for such a large car, with light communicative steering, and I could listen to the roar from the engine at higher revs all day (gave me goose bumps!! - just brilliant). However imo they are just not as agile as the smaller saloons and the brakes and engine torque were less impressive when compared with the ISF. It very much depends on what your priorities are and for me they are just not dynamic enough. My friend had an E46 M3 before and was tired of the firm ride on our less than perfect roads. He loves the Maserati and I can totally see why. That said he has already had an issue with the CD player not working, which to be fair may equally be due to the age of the car. I just hope this car doesn't prove as unreliable as Maserati's of old because he will need very deep pockets to keep it running from what he has told me!!. We all buy cars based on our own preferences so go and drive one (if you haven't already) because its a great car. I'm sure you will enjoy the experience whether you decide to buy one or not!! Let us know what you decide and what you think of the car.

Having had same major bills on German cars I did a lot of research on the ISF before buying one. Other than the water pump issue mentioned above they really don't seem to suffer from any serious weaknesses. The only reference I ever found relating to a gearbox was on an Australian forum where one failed straight after the delivery of the new car to its owner and this was immediately replaced by Lexus. There are large numbers of these cars being run in the US and there was no mention of any gearbox issues on their forums. I took out the Lexus extended warranty to cover the only other issue I read about at the time, which was the occasional fogged zenon head lamp unit. These are are expensive to replace and because the warranty also comes with breakdown cover including Europe it seemed pretty good value to me. As has already been mentioned above kerbing your wheels is more of a concern to most of us because the twin colour coating is difficult to match, which means its usually easier to refurb all 4 wheels. The only other minor issue to be aware of (similar to the BMW 3 series E46) is age/mileage softened front suspension bushes which result in inside front tyre wear which is worth checking because obviously the tyres are not cheap. I've had my car since 2014 and it really hasn't missed a beat. I honestly can't think of another car of this type which comes close to the ISF's reliabilty. Do the research on its competitors and I'm sure you will agree!!

Saw a friend yesterday who also has an ISF and apparently his local dealership in Devon have booked his car in for the airbag recall work. They want the car for the day and were organising a courtesy car for him. So the parts must now be arriving reasonably soon!!

Same hear not a peep!!

Hi Andy did you resolve your boot button issue?

Hi Peter, great article and photos and nice for you to have a life long reminder of the car. Can't be many people who can say that!!

HI Peter, glad you are hanging onto the F, for a while at least, and look forward to checking out the article in Banzai. Managed to be on holiday for both the Bluewater meets since I joined the club, so hopefully will still now get the opportunity to see the car in the flesh at some point. I'm sure you'll also be pleased to hear that I'm now seriously considering getting the RR-Racing USRS given all the very positive feedback - my 1st mod!! I look forward to hearing about your visit to RR-Racing and on your progress with the headers etc.

I haven't come across any other way to lock the boot beyond what you have already tried. I did have a boot locking issue last year where the boot remained unlocked when I locked the car, and locked when I unlocked the car. This seemed to have been triggered by opening the boot from the key, when the car was locked, which seemed to confuse the locking system. Thankfully I eventually got it back in sync after repeated attempts with the key and the buttons on the drivers door (single/double presses). Unfortunately I have no idea what finally worked or whether it was the car itself that resolved it. I asked Lexus to check it at the next service but they couldn't find any faults or reproduce the issue and the fault hasn't reoccurred to date. Might be worth further attempts as described above, but as you said, could just be the switch. My Lexus dealer didn't charge me for checking so may just be simpler to take it in.

I had the notification letter through a few weeks ago as well. Had the car serviced weekend before last and was also told that the parts haven't arrived yet. Apparently its not unusual for recall parts to take several months to arrive so we may have a bit of a wait.

Thanks Peter thats very helpful to know. I would just hate to spoil what is already a great car, having made a mistake previously.

The RR Racing USRS seems like a really well manufactured product and a sensible idea just to help prevent any inside tyre wear. I had a similar problem with a BMW E46 330 sport which was known for this issue. My local dealer had a minimum stock of 80 pairs of oil filled suspension bushes because they needed replacing on roughly a three year cycle. On a friends recommendation I replaced them with neoprene bushes rather than the BMW stock items and I have to say it made the car very twitchy and tiring to drive, especially on poor road surfaces. I would be very interested to know, from those of you who have the USRS's fitted, what your opinions are on how much they change the steering over standard and if its likely to cause similar issues to my 330??. I am unlikely to ever use my car on a track so I am mainly interested in how the car handles on the road and if it changes the steering drastically. As I said these seem like a really good idea, but I dont want to make the same mistake I made with my 330 and given how little mileage I do (2k/yr) is it worth it re tyre wear? I realise that this will be purely down to personal preference and is completely subjective, but thanks for your views in advance anyway.

I'm only doing about 2k a year, but I am having it serviced yearly because that's the service interval required by Lexus. It makes sense to me from a resale perpective, as discussed above, and because I have the extended warranty. I also have a service plan which includes free MOT's so makes sense to get them both done at the same time in case there are any issues (unlikely I know!!).

Hi Peter - well deserved!! the car looks stunning.

Late 2011 - 10200

Nice job Peter and thanks for the info!!

I use nitogen in my tyres and like others have mentioned, find there is pretty much no loss of pressure compared with air filled. A friend had recommended nitrogen on this basis and I too was surprised, after initially repeated checks, that the pressures did indeed remain remarkably consistant. For me this consistancy was the most important reason for doing it to optimise tyre wear, safety and fuel economy etc. There may not be any other advantages to using nitrogen compared with air, but an advantage is exactly that and there don't seem to be any disadvantages other than the time and minmal cost of getting it done (providing you are not getting scammed of course!!).

Welcome to the club, Nice car - looks very shiny!! I'm sure you will a lot of fun on your way home from picking it up!!

Congratulations and wlecome to the club. I'm sure you'll have fun travelling home tomorrow!!