Linas.P

I think it goes back to what you said before - it is optimised for fuel economy, not for speed. And that is why both RC200t and RC300h are way slower than one would expect just based on power they make or even power-to-weight ratio. And this is why I would say RC200t is even worse than RC300h, at least RC300h makes sense because it is economical, but RC200t is neither economical nor fast. Why make turbo charged car focused on economy which it just can't achieve?

Not really. They are rather narrow one lane streets, so I can imagine when camera is triggered and there is only one super car on the street, then it is possible to attribute the fine... but if they there would be 5 of them... who get's the fine? Or if you just sitting in your Ferrari and motorbike flies by and you get the fine. I think it is just difficult to prove legally. I would certainly fight it in court and I would give high chance of beating it. The ones which were issued are most likely because mega rich Arabs in Sloane Square could not be bothered to challenge them.

It would be interesting to see how this would work on busy street i.e. how could they tell what was source of noise? I can imagine it may work fine on a quieter street and I guess that is fine to have them there, but very unlikely to work near bigger road.

Absolutely, and that is why 300h exists, problem is that there is nothing else between 300h and RC-F. And that is not normal. It is like BMW offering 420d and M4, no 425, no 430, no 435, no 440... Well technically there was RC200t which is ~420-428i, but for sure nothing in a range above that.

But you know lithium isn't that great to transport and store either... and has tendency to randomly burst into highly toxic and hard to put out electrical fire. In contract - when you spill hydrogen it simply dissipates into atmosphere and becomes water. The real problem with hydrogen is electrolysis efficiency i.e. it takes so much energy to produce 1L of hydrogen, that by the time you use hydrogen cell to make electricity or indeed burn it, almost 70% of energy is wasted. But here is the catch - if you electricity production contributes to CO2, then such hydrogen will not be very clean, but if you electricity production is carbon neutral, then it technically does not matter - even with awful efficiency the hydrogen will still be carbon neutral. So the challenge is - where do we get loads of carbon neutral electricity. I think here we don't need to worry about hydrogen vs lithium. The real challenge is nuclear fusion, so this discussion is more of theoretical one i.e. what would happen if they can make nuclear fusion reactor tomorrow, what would be medium in which we can store nearly endless energy it can produce? That would definitely be hydrogen by very long way.... but reality is that tomorrow we sadly won't have nuclear fusion. So it is more of discussion "what if". However, tomorrow we can have loads of nuclear fission plants and make very very very low CO2 hydrogen. Technology is already there.

And indeed that was clearly expressed multiple times, so not sure why anyone would be confused.

As I said, I was still able to get Essential maintenance service in December, but it is fair to say they don't automatically offered me a deal on getting service plan. So it was kind of under the counter discount and I got impression they don't want to advertise it too much.

That is good price. Again essential care is kind of partly there, partly not there so I don't know whenever one could get this price. I remember that outright price for front shock was £660 from Lexus, but genuine part costed like £600 for a pair, so Lexus was charging almost double.

fusion for cheap electricity - yes. But Charging batteries of BEV would be least efficient way to use it, because battery manufacturing itself is very dirty and charging time is very time consuming and inconvenient. Even making something like CO2 neutral synthetic fuel would be better idea, or carbon capture, but hydrogen is just most convenient as it is full 100% reversible process - we can make hydrogen and oxygen from water and once used oxygen and hydrogen again becomes water. No waste product, quick to refuel - just perfect medium to carry energy.

I would say FLSH is not worth much in 10+ years old car, but it adds same value as say ML, or sunroof, or good cosmetic condition - it just makes easier to sell car and as result indirectly adds value. One is more likely to get the price they asking for and quicker. As well as I said - it is not like you going to save much money going independent. Genuine maintenance kit depending on what you include costs ~ £100-£280 and any garage will charge between £80-160 to do the work. So even going independent one will be paying £180-£440 for the service (£440 includes spark plugs and Lexus charges ~£540 for similar service). So depending on what you doing one may be saving £50-£100, but not much more. But one will be losing some convenience and adding a bit of risk as well. Now if one has Lexus specialist, which does amazing job and they trust, and one does not need courtesy car - fair enough even that £50-£100 can be saved, but if one just take car to any independent garage and they do some junk job (say scrap injector driver when changing water pump) the damages could easily be £500 and £1000 on IS250. It seems like cheap car, but parts for it are not cheap and if somebody does less then great job it could quickly escalate. Obviously, Lexus does make mistakes as well, but you can rest assured Lexus will get you sorted if they mess something-up, I am not so sure independent garage will, they might, or they might say you brought the car to them like that already - what you going to do? sue them? So here is the thing - if the saving is large, say you want replace 2 shock absorbers and it is simple job just needs a lift... yeah I would absolutely go for independent garage. Shocks from Lexus if I am not mistaken are £660 a piece + like 4 hours labour, so we talking about £2000. This is stupid price. In such case I would definitely go independent route get myself 2 shocks for £660 and pay them £120 to put them in under my supervision. Cool that saved £1200 right there. But to skimp on £50 for a service and then find that some twisthand broke some sensor for £400 is just not worth it. Lexus servicing prices are really competitive if you can get essential care and really not worth inventing anything.

First picture is more or less what it should have been new.

It may already be Essential care price. I believe it is £360 for major and £180 for minor, but as I said if you get it as a package it is possible to negotiate the price further.

I would ask for essential service plan, because it is over 5 years old. I know Lexus no longer officially offers it, but I was able to convince my local Lexus to do it and they still had an option to book it as "essential" plan. In the past I was able to get 2 services for £400, which I consider to be good value. Is "full service history" valuable for 14 years old car - I doubt it, but if it comes at no extra cost then why not. And you will be hard pressed to get it done for under £200 in independent shop. And indeed you won't get courtesy car from independents, whereas hear you can get to try brand new Lexus. Note: £20 is for excess cover, you can say you don't need it and courtesy car is then completely free with £500-£1000 excess.

In second picture tip is just not genuine, round and much smaller and not central to the cut-out. In the first picture is genuine exhaust with big oval tips. I guess as advised it would be possible to pull the exhaust little bit up with zip-ties, but it depends on all the rest of measurements, if back-box just sits wrong or pipe comes out through wrong place, then really the only option is to visit exhaust specialist and let them cut and weld it in the way that it sits right.

I think you are confused what "opinion" and personal experience is. When I say that I get 38MPG with my driving, that is what I get, that is fact. When you get 55MPG that is equally fact... we just do different driving. And when I come and say that in my experience based on the driving I do I would expect this car to get 38MPG - that does not mean you wrong or that I dig my heels or refusing to listen to other views. It just means exactly that "if you drive like me you will get 38 MPG", if you drive like Anthony you may get 55MPG. If you value things about the car I do, you will find car sluggish and underwhelming, but if you value things Anthony values, it may be fast enough. Those are two opinions and for somebody trying to choose what they like, the argumentation is important. Somebody may come and thing "I don't care how car handles, I want reliable, well built car with good economy, what Anthony is saying resonates with my needs and that is right car for me", or they may come and think "I want car which drivers well, I don't want only looks, I actually want sporty car and it seems Linas is right, this car is all about the looks and no performance". That is the purpose of the forum, that is what makes it useful. And whenever you own the car that is irrelevant, seriously forget about it. As Sergio said - most reviewers don't actually own the cars they review. I do agree that if somebody sat in the car in the showroom and claims to know everything about it, that opinion is not very credible, but it is still opinion thought. And there is no right or wrong amount of time one has to spend in car to form opinion about it, but equally saying that your opinion is right because you paid money for it and mine is wrong even after thousands of miles, just makes no sense. If anything - you owning the car makes you opinion more biased and less independent. That is not to say your opinion is automatically wrong, just that one doesn't have to own the car to have opinion about it. That is why my advise is always to test drive the car and make your own decision. I never said - "you will not like it, because I didn't". I just say - "I didn't like it because of reason, but try it yourself and see how it suits you". Especially on the cars which are a bit controversial like 300h and perhaps described by Lexus little bit disingenuously.

No petrol station in UK runs exclusively their brand fuel. Unless maybe there is petrol station very close to the same brand refinery and it simply makes sense for them to order the fuel from closest refinery. Generally, the petrol stations are franchises and some portion of their fuel comes from that brand to keep the franchise going. The rest is usually supplied by whatever is the closest refinery. It seems logical to me that something Shell V Power probably would be type of fuel the stations orders from Shell, because it is not generic, but standard 95 Octane E10 may come from anywhere, as it is just generic fuel.

Ok.

so you expect post like this: "Tried RC300h - it is sluggish". Is that better? More justified opinion? No need to explain how one comes to such conclusion? Is that not relevant for informed discussion?

Is that the reason, not to accept different view? Too long post? Really?

Zupra is not Toyota, and more importantly it is not GT car - it is tiny sports coupe. Why you guys can't accept balanced review - somebody got RC300h and they love it - fine. Somebody tried it and realised it is not for them, gone thought the different aspects of the car in the review so that other buyers can have balanced opinions available on the forum. Why can't you accept that as equally valid point of view? As soon as somebody mentions that they were disappointed with how 300h drives there are always dozen people telling - that either one drives wrong, or they don't know what they talking about, or they opinion does not matter because they don't own the car or offering their help to find alternative. Nobody is asking for that! OP just said 300h drivetrain doesn't suit RC. I wish there was RC350 - it would be better car. That is opinion, nobody telling you that you should not own 300h, maybe it is fast enough for you, but as you see it isn't fast enough for other people - just accept that.

just like on order:

NKG are ok as a brand, but not suitable for IS250. In IS250 it is best to stick with Denso, they are pricey, but in grand scheme of things not too bad: https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/product/lexus-is-phase-2-six-spark-plug-kit/

Yes most Lexus for some reason don't like speed bumps, any sort of bump which hits both wheels at the same time. Same thing in RC and IS mk3... although I would not advise flying over the bumps in BMW 1 series, because one day both spring may collapse. Happened to my friend on motorway and it was not very funny 😄

That is not true, it was £1700 for font pads and discs and £1300 for rear pads and discs, sure enough including labour directly at Lexus. I can go through historic thread and there were several owners being surprised and scared by the prices on RC-F. Have anyone ever paid £3000 for brakes on RC-F... I doubt it. But again that is not the point I am making and I am not sure why you choosing to ignore the context. Which is RC-F same as M4, same as C63 AMG are special cars and every time you will be asked to pay double just because it is "special", be it part of "ownership" experience or whatever you like to call it, because Lexus or any other make want's to justify that badge with price which stands out. Same like Bugatti oil doesn't cost £17,000 and tyres don't cost £21,000, but those prices are charged to set the precedent, to attract certain clientele. There are countless examples like that, I know Aston Martin clutch in DB9 costs like £6000, despite being like of the shelf Ford clutch and those parts are there to set the car apart. So Lexus example is these silly prices brakes.

£1700 for fronts and £1300 for rear were the original Lexus prices for brakes. How is that complete fiction? And yes, I know - nowadays with aftermarket options you can do much better than that, but it does not means I invented the prices. As well you need to consider context as I made it very clear - it is not about how much the parts actually costs, it is not about how much cheaper you can get it done. It is about car being "top of the range" product which you will be charged premium for at every single step, everything will be super car prices and again in the context, if RC350 can provide "enough" power without this "super car tax" then it would be desirable. The price just illustrates how much Lexus is willing to go to make RC-F feel like it is step above the rest and justify the badge. Is RC-F special car - yes it is! But that special car comes with special price and that special price add very little extra in practice - that was my point.