mrfunex

Just personal opinion, but I’d imagine a small, local place could fit a towbar and you wouldn’t need a transmission cooler (I’d heard this too when looking for a towbar for our old RX450) if: You're towing a small, lightish trailer on short journeys to the tip or using the bar to mount a bike rack etc. I’d think hard about doing things properly if I was using the car to tow something more substantial, like a caravan across Europe for example.

I think you bought the wrong car if you want to tune it...

Be interesting to see if it disappears when the weather warms up a bit. My old GS450 used to rattle a bit from the lower windscreen when the temperature was less than 7C. That was, until I used a spatula to wedge some black felt into the gap between the dash and the windscreen! The hybrids are so quiet, you probably wouldn’t notice the noise in anything else!

You say that, I sold my original ‘08 suspension to a guy from Puerto Rico!

Err... It’s a while ago, but I installed 2013 suspension on my ISF - they were a straight swap. I have no idea if the 2014 suspension is the same. The part numbers are in post #4 of this thread. You buy the parts and fit them (I was very lucky and sourced an almost unused set of everything secondhand - dealer prices are extremely high). It’s not really any more complicated than that! The ride wasn’t as good as my GSF is, but I thought it was vastly improved over 2008 spec.

@malcolmw , maybe that was it - perhaps there would be a clawback against the dealer from the finance company.

You’ll need to make 5 of your monthly payments before settling if you want to benefit from the £2000 dealer contribution.

Quite a good, honest review, that. I’ve yet to drive one (I’m really looking forward to doing so), but it seems that the ES is just about the most boringly anonymous car out there - which is a good thing! Hugely reliable, fast enough, driving dynamics that aren’t going to surprise anyone; just a good all-round.... saloon car. I had a courtesy Camry on holiday a short while back, so I’d expect this to be fairly similar. Excusing the brand-oriented UK market, It’s no wonder they’re bought in such large numbers around the rest of the world.

Get an OBD code reader and see what the fault is?

😭

Tsk! All these clean cars! I love looking at the aero flow on the bodywork after a few motorway journeys...

Silverstone never actually tested me, but it was far too loud for Goodwood (98dB) - I think it came in at 103dB at a constant 2/3 or 3/4 of maximum revs. It was far louder on the blips on downchanges. Something to bear in mind!

I tracked mine. It was very capable on ‘big power’ tracks like Silverstone. Huge grunt and the brakes never showed any hint of fading, even when standing on them from almost 140mph at the end of Hangar Straight into Stowe. I was on standard tyres but as mine had a H&S exhaust, I was a bit restricted which circuits would let me play - it was rather loud! Fuel economy dropped to 4-6mpg and as long as I restricted myself to about 15 mins at a time, the tyres held up! I have no doubt that on twisty, technical circuits however, my S2000 would run rings around it - I found the ISF to be fairly nose-heavy, but easily neutralised with a bit of gas. Mine was an early ‘08 without the mechanical LSD - I can’t say I noticed. I was having far too much fun. It all came to an end about an hour before the end of the day last time though, when I picked up a screw in the rear left! D’oh! Looking forward to reading about your experiences!

A ~30psi tyre exploded and killed someone? 😏 Edit: wow.. apparently it’s true! Didn’t think tyres would explode until well north of 100psi, or that 30psi would have enough power to actually kill someone! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8600833.stm

@noby76, whilst I enjoyed reading your post, there must be more to the garage’s story than that, together with a healthy dose of scaremongering. The Tesco unleaded that has lived in a jerry can in our shed for the last four years that I’m slowly getting through in our lawnmower looks exactly the same as it did the day it was bought. I know a Briggs and Stratton 140cc single is hardly the finest engine in the world, but this old fuel has never caused it any issues. It certainly doesn’t look like mud! Back on topic, I used to run V-power in my ISF and GSF. I switched to the normal 95 octane stuff about 3 months ago and I can’t tell any difference, apart from it costs me slightly less.

You buy a 400+ bhp saloon mostly with your heart. If you’re bought with your head, you’d already be driving a hybrid Yaris... That said, my ISF and GSF have been the cheapest cars to run (ALL factors considered - depreciation too!) that I’ve owned in a long time - barring the fuel, but you can see 35+mpg on a motorway run. Even the road tax (£555 now) is just over £1.50 a day... life’s too short to drive boring cars.

I agree with most of what you are saying, but a 1970s Rolls Royce most definitely did not have nearly 400bhp. Not anywhere near it! For example, the 6.75l V8 was producing a rather heady 189bhp in the Silver Shadow from 1970 until approx 1980! Its clear that the ES will not be a ‘driver’s’ car, but a comfortable, anonymous, reliable wafter. Not that there’s anything bad about that, of course - it’s nice for Lexus to head off in a bit of a different direction to the Germans!

I know it’s not what the new ES is all about, but almost 9 seconds to 60? The traffic light GP has never really interested me, but that’s diesel Fiesta territory...

Re: retrofitting bits I wonder if Lexus will keep tight control of the special components, like BMW did when they launched the E46 M3 CSL. I don’t think they were too keen on owners of normal M3s “making” a CSL with the parts catalog...

I cannot imagine how much Lexus would charge for replacement brakes, given the current pricing of the steel ones!

Love that F detailing in the carbon on the side of the wing! Anyone got a list of the actual differences from a standard RCF?

I had insurance years ago on a Mercedes SL500 with Flux. The first year, the premium was roughly £700, which was fairly competitive. Come renewal time, the premium had jumped to several times that (over £3000 rings a bell), and couldn’t be noticeably lowered. The only difference was the car being a year older and me having another years NCD - I hadn’t moved, had an accident, etc. I have no idea what method these companies (not just Flux!) use to calculate risk/premiums...

*fingers crossed* please be a V8, please be a V8, please be a V8...

I’d pay serious money for a modern car that’s actually really comfortable. My GSF is a wonderful machine, but if a modern car could wallow a bit in the corners, ride potholes as if they weren’t there and, in a traditional ‘big-Citroen’ way, totally isolate you from the road, I’m sure they’d sell really well. I’m not getting the current obsession for ultra low profile tyres, rock hard suspension and sporting pretentiousness. I eagerly look forward to a test drive in an ES!

I have auto full beam on my GSF - it’s totally useless. I’ve tried using the feature on a few night journeys and the headlights take so long to react, or gets easily confused, it’s almost as if they switch on/off at random! The final straw was when, driving along a dual carriageway at night with the headlights operating in dipped beam mode, I closed the distance to the car in front as we approached a roundabout. The headlights then decided to increase to full beam and stay there - I think the other driver got the hump! I’ve never bothered with them since!