dutchie01

VW golf mark 1 Alfa Romeo GTV Junior Citroen 2cv ( 2x) Citroen Dyane DAF 44 Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 Citroen BX Peugeot 405 Alfa Romeo 75 Ford Mondeo diesel ( tried to wreck it for 2 years shift without clutch overrev etc but 100% undestrucable, but crap car) Opel Omega diesel 3.0 estate Saab 93 Saab 93 Viggen Lexus IS250 BMW 320i estate Lexus IS300H I liked all of them except the ford and bmw. all other cars had a strong character regardless of how expensive/cheap they were.

Hi Yong, This sounds wrong. i strongly suggest to visit the dealer and have the traction control system inspected. I just cannot drift spin or whatever with my IS as the traction control steps in immediately if wheels loose traction. The engine immediately looses power revs drop regardless what you do with the throttle and the brakes are active on the wheel(s) neccesary. All this is instant and without hesitation or possibillitiy to influence. BMW has a more forgiving TCS that allows a certain drift angle before the system pulls you right but not the IS. I am told this is to prevent the rear wheels spinning and overrevving the electric motor. Anyhow, your story seems there could be something seriously wrong with the TCS system is it functional is it working?? take care Dutchie

That picture gives me a headache...

Only one word, Wintertyres. Living in Holland with almost no hills i did make the decision to go for them some 8 years ago when we had a 2 weeks of snow. As both my wife and me were driving BMW's at the time we found out we could not reach the mainroad as the driveway was too much of a hurdle for rearwheel drive summertyres and snow. The cars moved maybe 1 or 2 meters and that was it! could NOT drive until the snow was gone. Imagine shopping by foot etc etc. The difference of driving in snow or icy slippery winterconditions with summer or wintertyres is beyond belief. You will have to experience it for yourself. it's not only about the deeper profile of the tyre clawing through the snow but also the different rubber that keeps it soft a low temps. Brakingdistances are considerably shorther even on dry tarmac. Below 7 degr celcius is where they start to work. I will never drive a car on summertyres in the snow again for sure. It is of course an investment but it is for safety and if you use the winters the summers keep clean!

I have an uncle that really knows a lot about cars and always gives honest advice. I met him last night at a birthday party and he told me that driving without seatbelts is much safer. It seems easy to bypass the warningsystem so the annoying beep will be silent. What do you think, shall i follow his advice??

Great review, never heard of this site but will look it up now. The new LS. I think it is a truly fascinating car, just the size of the thing, it is wide, low and very long, the size of an S class L or BMW 7 L. the long hood low roof and coupe like roofline reminds me of the Aston Martin Lagonda/tarraf. I would love to see it in the streets in between regular traffic. This is a car that really stands out Look forward to the first driving reviews!

Take a look at one of the pics in that article. It shows the gearlever and below that are 4 little buttons. 1 of those states : EV-MODE : Could it be that Lexus made a mistake in the pressrelease? Could it be on purpose?

fascinating car but i am not sure if i like it or not, need to see more pics or better in the flesh. it looks unmistakably Asian with hints of Hyundai, Nissan, Kia. i Can't see German influences at this stage. engine V6 twinturbo petrol only at the moment. Will there be more options? V8, Hybrid? Fuell cell? look forward to more info in the next few days.

Hi Tim, This puzzles me. I drove an IS250 2008 model for 4 glorious years and have never ever been able to create oversteer, not even in the snow! The traction control systems kick in immediately, The engine cuts off power to the rear wheels instantly to stop them spinning in combination with brake intervention of the required wheel/wheels. All this is instant and agressive, no playing around like for instance in a BMW that allows a certain angle of drift before the systems intervene. Even while driving on snow i honestly could not create oversteer as big brother did not allow it. So, that makes me wonder if your traction control is healthy and does function as it should. Maybe the buzzing sound is ok but does it actually intervene? Might be an idea to check this out.. i have never heard of Evergreen tyres but it sounds Chinese. In my opinion there is only 1 thing you can do with tyres manufactured in China. Dig a deep hole and throw them in. I will always go for an A-class brand even if this is more expensive. Never ever play with your safety.

Temperatures have dropped below zero now and my windows keep misting up. When i wake the car up in the morning all windows are damp. Normally the airco takes care of that within seconds but it can now take up to 10 minutes before all windows are fully clear again. Park the car after a trip and immediately it steams up again repeating the whole process. I have experimented with aircon / venting settings and also switched the aircon off only to find the windows steaming up whilst i am driving. Could there be something wrong with the airco unit? maybe extremely high humidity levels? combination of that plus freezing temps? Any idea's?

In the Netherlands Lexus offers a "designated mechanic"so it is always thesame person working on your car. I have to admit that i never looked at the oil level after a service but i do ask what has been done. In Detail. Sometimes the service manager has to call the mechanic and i think that works well enough for me. They can explain what has been done and what they did not do yet because of. Another thing is prices for service. I find these are open for negotiation. 30.000 km service that will cost you X sir, Really? wow thatś expensive are you sure there is nothing you can do about that price?. Oh hmm well ok best i can do is Y. My advice would be to always ask for the price when making an appointment and never agree the price immediately..

I have noticed several threads where people seem very unhappy with the Lexus dealerservice sometimes even leading to total mistrust. Living in Holland i have no insight in the UK dealers and can only report about my experiences over here. In spite of the fact that Lexus is marketing their service as first class, red carpet and so on i find them just like any other garage. Things go wrong, things go right. What i do notice is that the salesguys are really lacking knowledge about their product sometimes to such an extent i just can believe it. How many cars do Lexus have on offer, how many do you sell per dealer? For instance new facelift model question what is changed and answer cannot be given without looking in the folder? Or, what is the weight of the GS compared to IS? again no clue, i can go on and on. Also the service managers are not always easy to talk to, i tend to talk directly to the mechanics if possible much better. Anyhow good people and bad people and nothing better or worse than other makes. But how is the dealer experience in the UK, is it really that bad? And if you tend to avoid the dealers what is the alternative for maintenance? Merry Christmass all!

i had various LPG cars before but never experienced what you are describing. it would set off all alarmbells with me sounds very dangerous. Best to bring it to a specialist before using the car again..

i always write down the milage driven before it goes in for service. One time ( not a Lexus) the dealer drove 60 miles when the car was in for a one day service. Your story makes me wonder what and where they have been with your car as wheels usually don't get damaged in the workshop?

Itś not only the key cloning that enables easy theft. Just as efficient is to smash in the smallest window in the reardoor, open the front door, take your small netbook on which you have downloaded a programme that overwrites the carś internal software, hook up your laptop to the car using a cable that fits ( same entry that the dealer uses when reading out the software), connect the laptop, start the programme and after 20 seconds Voila! start and disappear. How do i know? It was a lively discussion at the BMW dealer when i was there as mine was stripped again. The software needed is offered on the internet. If you want to clone a key you need a receiver to detect the key and also that is widely for sale on the net. There will always be thieves, 20 years ago they used a small hammer and a screwdriver and time has now moved on. Maybe a difference is that in the old days thieves were mostly junkies or independent "entrepreneurs" and now organised crime has stepped in.. Keep Safe!

if it are the tyres it could be "cupping". leave the car standing and the tyres are not completely as the weight is in the part where they touch the road. some tyres are more sensitive/soft than others but it can take several miles before they are completely round again. temperature plays a role here. als age of tyre. over the year the rubber dries out and then gets hard so the tyre will not be round again. how old are your tyres are they on the car from the beginning?

Here in Holland the RX is in the top 5 of stolen cars, all done by professional organised gangs and transported to Eastern Europe thesame day. Apparently the hybrid systems give nice tax breaks in Russia creating a huge demand for these cars. The BMWś are not stolen but stripped completely. Imagine leaving the house in the morning opening the cardoor to find out the steeringwheel, satnav, aircounit, radio and controllers are gone... This happened to me 2 times in 6 months so i was forced to sell the car and went back to Lexus. Idea behind this is there are not so many Lexus cars about so no market for stolen parts. Maybe a solution would be to spec the car without satnav and close the door with the twist of a key like 20 years ago? oh yes police is not interested at all..

With respect Rayaan but i dont think you can be the judge for other people in deciding what what is good or bad. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so on, and what you think is ugly or fits in your bad taste category can be the opposite for other members of the club. Me personally would never order an orange Lexus but i just smile seeing one, i respect the owner for ordering it. Same with the Wald kits, some are maybe over the top but i like to see them on the road, it brings color to a bland landscape of grey and silver cars. I just admire the individualism and i do think people ordering motorcars like that follow their own taste and they like the look of what they order. I respect your taste ( have to have same car and color haha) so please pay some respect to members that have a slightly different taste then you. PS i also like the Juke!

taste is a personal thing. works for me looks great. thought wald stuff was only available in japan and the states?

Renato, just one word, WOW What a beauty In my mind a coupe needs to be aesthetically pleasing, elegant, challenging and above all beautiful. Full marks here. The RC could well be the most attractive coupe on the market today

Haha what a great comparison! My wife just got a bmw 118i 4 cyl 1.6 turbo 170hp with 8 speed auto. I drove it the other day and the gearbox was such a relief compared to the cvt. The lightness and nimbleness of the car made it feel so much faster, more nimble, easier to drive around town and just a great overall experience that made me think. Wasnt it Colin Chapman saying he added lightness to the car? the BM is some 500 kg lighter than the IS300H. The BM is almost 1200 ( twelve hundred) kgs lighter than the Tesla X. Somewhere this goes wrong.... Still puzzled i took the little Ford Ka of my daughter for a spin and this more or less confirmed my ideaś that stowing a car full of batteries to store electricity is not a long term solution. EV cars need a breakthrough in batterytechnology to really become a mainstream succes.

i was told Lexus does want the soft feel of genuine leather and the wear and tear over time comes with it. a bit like classic jags. the bmw i owned had dakota leather and this i was told by a bmw dealer that this had a plastic layer on top of the leather in order to make sure it looks like new in 10 years time. i hated this leather and often wondered why they would produce leather seats that feel like plastic. i very much prefer the Lexus leather seats and yes over time it stretches, looses color and somehow sits in like my favorite sofa. works for me

Hi Rabbers, first of all congrats on your beautiful purchase. Can we see some pics?

Hey Ganzoom, correct me if i am wrong but 90K seems to buy you an underdeveloped EV called Tesla with mediocre buildquality, horrible fit and finish, rust at critical places after some months, batterypacks that often stop working, doors that do not work, touchscreens that need replacing as they freeze and die, a curb weight of 2450kgs, depreciation faster than a novice skiing down a black slope, and looks that are questionable to say the least. ( i find it damn ugly looks like a whale but taste is personal). How can you say that Lexus is missing the boat compared with this? for thesame amount you could have bought a beautiful Range Rover, a superfast BMW 7 series ( or X⁶ ) Audi, Merc or Lexus RX And IS.