Linas.P

Carbon build-up is theoretical issue on any DI engine, so IS250 is no exception, however cases of it becoming an issue I have seen was from US. I don't know what, but in UK it isn't common issue. I am sure there is build-up of carbon, but it doesn't get to the point where it becomes an issue. Not sure spark-plugs change is warranted, unless you have an issue. Lexus say 60k, but they can even last a 100k. So I would say - at very least replace them at 120k. Obviously, it would be good to check if they were done before, because it is possible they were never done and at 108k it would be right time for it. As for fuel - IS250 does not benefit from Premium fuel when it comes to power or fuel economy, the benefits of cleaning engine are as well kind of irrelevant, because it is DI (so intake valves cannot benefit from it)... and in my experience I was getting better fuel economy on standard fuel compared to premium.

That is my point - Lexus are very hard to persuade to do "replacement", so most of the time they do "refresh". There is no way you can get ATF replaced for £75 or even £140. Only the parts alone are over £100. I would expect replacement to cost ~£280-450 depending here you do it and what parts and ATF you use. £75 for 1.5L ATF refresh is not bad deal all things considered. The A960E requires about 4L of ATF in the pan if memory serves me right and total of nearly 8L, but it is not possible to replace it all at once.

Sadly no.. you can get summary of work done, but it is cryptic, you can hardly make anything out of what it says. You can do it on MyLexus app yourself if you want, but it does not say much. I had A/C pump seizing, but that was kind of my fault as it need to be serviced every 2 years and I didn't know that and I am not sure when my A/C was serviced (maybe never), but two years after I bought the car it seized. Costed me ~£350 to replace with refurbished unit, but new cost and labour in Lexus would have been £1000. I had rust on back section of my exhaust and at one point one of rear silencers fallen off. However I looked at it and it was mostly just broken on the weld and not rusted, so it was simply the case of welding it back on and had no further issue for 4 years. One drop link ball joint rubber boot got hole in it at 170k miles, but that was cheap replacement. Around 190k I had gearbox solenoids issues and ATF change mostly solved the issue. Towards 200k it seems that some O2 sensor or something got "lazy" and my fuel consumption increased, but no errors - never got to the bottom of what it was. Overall, not much issues. Never had issue with carbon build-up, did Teraclean once but without any results - car was indicating 0 on emissions before it and 0 on emissions after it, no noticeable improvement in how it ran either. As far as I gather in UK carbon build-up isn't common issue - I always used cheapest fuel and never bothered too much about it. The only thing - I did oil changes every 6k miles, 10k is just too much for oil and I would get hydraulic lifters sticking issues after 6k miles/6 months, as well used engine flush every other time which fixed the issue with lifters.

Which partially explains rust on the exhaust - low mile cars really suffers from that, although mostly rear section and rarely manifolds/down pipes (as they generally getting hot very quickly, so even driving 5 miles is enough to dry them out). 109k is nothing for this car, as long as it is maintained (which yours seems like it was). I got my previous IS250 with FLSH and 120k miles, which was ideal because the car was just 6 years old at the time (meaning it was driven mostly long journeys on motorway) and it was like new car, drove to 200k with little issues. No... it is surprisingly good on petrol, especially on motorway, basically rendering IS220d irrelevant. I was able to get up-to 28MPG in the city, which is not bad for relatively heavy car and on motorway you can expect 40MPG+, 44 is nothing special, but 48 is about as much as you can get. But that is very good. Not sure why people thinks it is gas guzzler. I would be careful with that, because they can surely make it more quiet, but they can't change the properties of metal itself which tends to drone/ring. And by making it "quiet" they may be making it as well restrictive. SS works well on sports cars which you want to make loud, but it is not great for daily driven cars where quiet exhaust and comfort is more important. I was playing with silly idea of titanium exhaust, which is more like mild steel in terms of sound properties, but won't rust. But as you can imagine prices of that would have been ridiculous. Contacted one place which was making exhaust for motorbikes and they estimated that only the pipes for the car would have costed £3600 without the cost of fabrication itself.

This is more likely, but how many times we heard TTV8 rumour ? 😄 I just can't see why Lexus would do it - they have design of amazing V10, which requires no further development (sort of, minor changes to get it past emissions and maybe adding few NM/HP). Why would Lexus develop whole new V8 which would basically be inferiour as far as exclusivity and car class goes? This is kind of subjective, but one does not need to get super-car to get TTV8, this is sports car/GT territory BMW 650i. And I mean sure McLaren uses TTV8 and it is arguable supercar (but maybe GT like Aston), but V10 screams of supercar with away and Lexus already has it developed. Other thing to note forced induction engine is far more complex than simply slapping some turbos, it requires almost full redesign, because cylinder pressures are completely different. Argument could be made that they can use existing 8AR-FTS as a basis, it was rumoured all along to be Lexus "modular design" - which could be reused to make TTV8, TTV6, TTL6 etc. But all things considered it won't be enough for LFA - say even if it makes 2.5 times power, from 2 times displacement... it would only be around 600HP. Sort of power for new RC-F maybe, not LFA. LFA nowadays would need 800HP to be somewhat relevant. And again why waste money developing new engine for ~ 40HP? In short I don't believe TTV8 story the tiniest bit (or to be honest LFA2 with ICE all together), or basically I will only believe it when I see it. Lexus won't waste money developing new TTV8 just few years before going fully electric. I can see however a small niche for them to fit V10 for sort of anniversary model - basically last ICE car ever made by Lexus, so that they go out "with a bang". As for design, this is clearly some press outlet guessing, last one was Vulcan inspired, this one is Huracan inspired, but I actually like it, I think it is more likely than previous ones, except of the exhaust... what is going on there?! 😄

I would probably try to fix it rather than replacing it. For the age of the car it may not be economical to replace. Back section is alright, there are quire a few pattern ones for sale now and custom made is not too expensive, but the headers and downpipe part will cost fortune. Patch it if you can, or try to ask just to replace small part of the pipe. Is car low mileage? As for gearbox fluid change - £75 will be just top-up, they will drain 1L and put 1L back, not sure if £140 was different rate, but maybe different sales people had different view of what will be enough i.e. lady offered you 1L, and the guy later 2L refill. I don't think they made mistake or you getting much better price.

Great choice! Very solid cars and drives well. The only issue it is that it is hard to replace when it comes to it - almost nothing else comes as good in terms of value. I would advise against SS, unless you really know the place which could make it acceptable. Problem isn't with design, but metal itself - SS rings and therefore there is always some drone coming out of it. I personally go simply for aluminised steel (that is what it was from factory) and if shop knows what they are doing it will last another 10 years.

That is very good news, but your experience proves Lexus keeping it under wraps and one has to insist on having it before they get it and dealers don't even want to take it on. It is kind of strange, because this would be great thing for Lexus as a brand. If I ever want warranty it will be exactly for the car between 10-15years old, because Lexus easily last 10 years, so warranty is not really big deal, yet usually becomes worthless after 15 years, so warranty simply no longer makes economical sense. Whereas between 10-15 years old car is still valuable enough to care, but old enough to actually go wrong.

Indeed, nowadays even places like webuyanycar offers decent deals and especially on nearly new cars, autotrader has their own site, as well as carwow. Even my Lexus dealer who sold me RC contacted me with offer to buy it back. In my case cars was just under £20k and I was able to sell it privately for more than dealer has offered, but they have offered me more than I paid them in 2019. So I would say - announce that you looking to sell and see what offers comes back, it cost you nothing. Then compare it with selling the car privately and see if it even makes sense to bother with private sale. As well, if you decide to sell car privately be aware of scammers, don't accept bitcoin or paypal transfers, and don't transfer docs before balance is cleared in your account.

That is good example... and even if you don't have warranty. That is one of the benefits using Lexus - they know the cars and they will notice if something is off. So even if you have to pay for it and Lexus prices are too high at least you can drive your car with confidence knowing that either there is nothing serious, or that there was something serious and you have addressed it or planning to address it. In short that gives more knowledge and more control, which means less likely to break-down somewhere unexpectedly. When car is in depended shop I have no such confidence that they will spot Lexus specific things. They may indeed do what I ask them to do, but I am not sure that they will check model specific areas.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought they finished restoration and you now want to insure it whilst it is still SORN. If it is still being restored and you not planning on driving it anywhere, then you don't need to. You don't need to insure the car whilst it is being restored, that should be on their business liability insurance, actually thinking about it you probably can't. Because you would need to tell the type of use and that would not be applicable as you wouldn't be driving it.

Yes, you can insure it, actually you must insure it if you planning to take it to say MOT centre. But it is kind of weird, because insurance still expect your car to be road worthy. SORN does not mean it is not road worthy and MOT does not mean that it is, so it is important not to confuse it. However, it would be very interesting case if you have accident in SORN car when taking it for MOT, I am sure insurance will do all the can not to pay. Actually, I will have to do the same with my IS250 soon and my friend did it today on old Merc CE280, basically cars were off the road so was SORN and now they need MOT before they can get Road TAX, but it has to be insured before it could be taken to MOT centre. But in short the answer is yes. The only other alternative is to use trailer.

They are certainly not perfect, but still better than no-space saver. Guess how do I know...

I think same spares were available across the range - IS250, 300, 350 and IS-F, so you may be alright... but it would be best to find out before you need to fit it on the side of the road 😄

Yeah I generally like how IS mk4 looks more than ES, despite it being maybe slightly less practical, less space in the back etc. In other hand I think ES has more up-to date tech, so the price point would be important. In US, the IS sell noticeable cheaper so it is ok... It is actually had to say, because in my experience IS is just better built car and feel more premium than ES, which really feels like fancy Toyota and in IS mk4 obviously one get's latest LSS+ with widescreen, so the difference can't be that big between it and ES. So I think there would be compromises on both models, one is more premium with older tech, and the other one is little bit better tech, larger, but less premium.

No, because service schedule states "every 1 year, or every 10,000 miles, whichever comes fist". That means because your car 14 years old, you should have 14 stamps. And to be honest book has place to stamp it up-to 240,000 miles if I am not mistaken, but the key point here is that Lexus only has service schedule up-to 100,000miles/10 years. After that you can repeat the cycle again, but there is no official service for 110,000 or 120,000, so it no longer matter. You can come at 120,000 and say do me a 60,000 service (it would actually be appropriate, because you need spark plugs and water-pump in 60,000 intervals), or you can ask for 20,000 service...

Yeah... I think many would choose IS mk4 instead of ES, although in 300h guise there isn't much benefit having RWD. All really depends on price.

Yeah it would be interesting to know, because that would be very good for Lexus to offer this and very sensible if one has 10-15 years old car, of if they have say 6 years old car, but with 120k miles (not compliant with Relax).

Well... it isn't really a mistake. You can go and get yourself essential minor for £180 even thought it would seem you need major and they would simply stamp your book and say service was done on this date at X miles. They really only care to get correct service whilst the cars is under warranty and whilst it is within official Lexus service schedule, so basically up-to 100k miles. After that order doesn't really matter and they won't pay much attention. In my case it was simple - I came for full service and I believe it was £340, they did the service and said ... "actually, would you be interested in service plan" and I am like, "tell me about it" and they basically tried to upsell me, but it made sense - "so the guy said, you can pay £340 now, or we can add minor service or you next year and add the discount... and that will be like £400"... and I was like "yeah sure, because the difference was very small between just major and major + minor".And he came back few minutes later and say it will actually be ~£420 or 440, so it was good deal. But this was obviously before Lexus Relax.

You only realise how big of a deal spare wheel is when you get puncture in the car without one... and you have bottle of useless glue and are stuck on the side of the road. It saved me at least 3-4 times and I always try to avoid cars without spare wheel.

Are you sure you have not confused that with "extending" the 10 years warranty past 10 years? Because that is known fact, many IS-F owners did it and it comes under standard extended warranty, where Lexus used to allow and probably still allows to extend it past 10 years/100k miles. The key point here - to extend existing policy. But you can't go to Lexus in 12 years old car with 120k miles and just buy it outright, it has to be extended before your existing policy ends - that was always the deal.

I have seen you post, but Lexus nowhere officially announced this and there are no official terms of service. Or at least I can't find any...

That is great news -I have long argued this should be done! Could you provide some more info on that as this is first time I am hearing about it.

Yes, this is sadly no longer an option so they have no choice even if they wanted to do anything. Besides even when it was available technically it was only up-to 10years/100k miles, so you would not qualify anyway. There was a loophole, where you could extend it if you already had it for extra 4 years, but even that would end of it by now. Yes ~£400 was what I paid last time (but that was like 5 years ago), it was basically £340+£180=£520, but they discounted it because I was paying it all upfront to £440 or £420 I believe.

It sold well in other regions, where fuel efficiency is not a concern. I am still surprised Lexus tested their cars and realised it does like 20-28MPG and said "yep that seems right, let's get it sold in UK, where gallon of fuel costs £8.72". Or even from development perspective, how does it even make sense? So they have production line rolling since 2003 making 2GR-FSE, engine which is proven to be reliable, fuel efficient and decently powerful (nearly 100hp/L), once production line is set-up it really only costs them as much as the raw materials and electricity to make it... and instead of putting it into the car and calling it a day, they decided to spend $100 million, make engine with less power, which uses more fuel and at no point they realised "wait a second, this is inferior to the engine we already making which costs us nothing to make"... like how? And I understand that RC200t sold in countries where fuel cost is not a concern, simply because it was cheap, but not other reason. I guess in UK the problem was stupid government CO2 rules. Because when it comes to road tax RC350 would have been in the same bracket as RC-F and they just thought it would be hard sell perhaps. Although I would take RC350 any day over RC200t, even if I would have to pay £585 road tax instead of £240, at least I would know what I am paying this tax for.