Linas.P

Been posted in the forum few times, so certainly not new news 🙂 I still think hydrogen is the future, just doubt that burning it in ICE way is best idea. It sounds cool and I am sure there will niche for it in more enthusiast application, motorcycles, maybe some low volume sports cars, but for general use just too inefficient.

Fuel should not impact your gear changes. As for spark plugs - assuming they are correct plugs they should not be a problem either, after just 30k miles. So generally speaking, anything to do with gearchanges will be related to gearbox itself. Perhaps disconnect the battery to clear what it has learned (clears ECU memory)? That is not how octane works. Higher number does not mean more "potent" fuel, it just means fuel is more resistant to pre-ignition... so it is almost opposite, the higher is the number the "worse" it burns (at least by itself).

In short - IS250 (and most Lexus) are not great platforms for modifying.

Well, that is why you can't. You can get aftermarket ECU if you really want it that much, but it will be like £1500+ and except all sorts of issue related to it.

Only for certain cars. So for example I got a card (like a Christmas card) saying that they offer £4000 in RX-L Takumi, £3000 on RX Takumi and £2000 on ES F-Sport with Takumi. I have seen this offered periodically, but does not mean that you can come order UX and get £2000 off and further I never seen it offered on cars which are selling well anyway, like IS, CT or UX. It is only for specific high end models... In grand scheme of things £4000 isn't really that much for £80k RX-L. As for low interest, most of new cars are generally on low interest, deepening on the time of the year it is like 2.9-4.9%. If Toyota offers 0%, that is great deal, but I assume their cars I priced accordingly. Free service with new car is always first thing to be offered if you try to negotiate.

I receive at least dozen calls, e-mails and letter every year... sound like massive event but in reality it is nothing exceptional. Not sure if that is in all dealership, but at least my experience with Woodford and Reading. I was expecting at least some champagne and canapes, but it wasn't the case. Perhaps because of Covid, but it was pretty much same as booking appointment with sales guy, just in my case sales guy didn't even know what I am after despite all that information was gathered from me over the phone. Besides you don't even need to attend the event to get all exactly same deals e.g. service plan and low interest with new purchase is offered across the board. £2000-£4000 discounts on pre-orders are as well available for certain models even over the phone, so you definitely don't need to attend anything to qualify. Probably more interesting event is one you have after this one, when they try to sell cars which comeback from lease, but even then last time I have attended all the cars were already pre-sold. So it wasn't like you attend in group of 50 people in front of 50 cars and you can almost bid on the best. But that was not the case - there were like 8 cars 7 of which were "reserved", one was IS300h executive which was just poor deal.

Yeah... it is balanced for "safe" handling characteristics which is extremely annoying on the limit. Basically, 225 will lose grip before 245 does, so oversteering is less likely, instead car understeers into every corner. This is considered "safer" for unexperienced drivers. I tried moving this balance back towards neutral and car feels much better. This staggered set-up maybe makes sense on IS350, but on IS250 I would prefer to have square set-up.

Generally... you can't on IS250. Pops and bangs are happening when engine isn't running great and there is unburnt fuel in the exhaust pipes, which never happens in any normal modern car. The they it is achieved generally are via changes in ECU which squirts some extra fuel on overrun... but IS250 ECU is locked, so won't be able to do this. Maybe for the better... when this happens on some exotic race car... that is cool. When it happens on aging Japanese luxury car - it is rice! And nobody wants to be ricer!

I have considered IS250C, SC430 and SL500, but they all are kind of ~£10k nowadays. Not much to shed... I decided against them because the price was not right for me - kind of crazy market right now. Overall, I sold RC for £19k ... and £10k was just not my definition of "cheaper" so ended-up not buying any of them.

Family and friends falls into those two groups - either new cars serviced at dealer or old cars they don't care about, so no such knowledge to discuss. And to be fair nobody that I know are really into cars, so I just wouldn't take advise from them. Besides I don't like overpaying and that may be part of the reason why no mechanics meets my criteria. In other hand is well justified - why would I pay same to independent as it cost to take car to Lexus? The whole point of using independent is that is cheaper than dealer and if it is not, then this undermines whole purpose of using them. Now again - why am I saying this is bigger city problem? Simply because in smaller town prices are just lower overall, so the difference between dealer and independent is huge. In London cost of living is high, rent is high so even independent garages will charge you high rates as otherwise they won't be able to survive.

Sounds very realistic indeed and these cars were not as optimistic with MPG as later models.

London. Just to clarify - it is not like there is single mechanic around, simply the case that none of them are good. I think it is deeper problem - people have long stopped caring for cars in our consumerist society. People who buy nice cars generally have them leased, so servicing them is irrelevant (they go to dealer anyway), there is short period of time when cars are still valuable enough to get service by dealers (say 3-8 years old) and after that car is considered trash anyway by most. And this is the issue with independent garages - cars which are taken to them are usually considered by owners as being "junk" and they want cheap treatment just about to keep them road legal, so this is what independent garages focuses on. They don't focus on quality, they don't focus on good service or quality parts etc. they simply focus on making it cheap and road legal ,but this is not the level at which I want my car serviced. So in the end trusty independent garage where you can really give your keys and leave them to it is very rare nowadays, especially in bigger cities. Or that is my experience anyway.

I don't trust them, that is the point... and why use them? There are nobody else to use... I won't drive 180 miles to get the service done 🙂

That is another issue, if you have trusty independent garage - yes! What if you don't? For example I would never trust mechanics I use to work on my car without supervision and definitely not to get parts. Besides all mechanics will gauge you for part price, this is always the case. I am not saying that there are no mechanics who would get best stuff with your benefit in mind, but I haven't met such mechanic yet.

For work - never, but Essential Care service was actually good deal, you would be hard pressed to beat it by £20 getting all stuff yourself but not much more, but you won't get your car inspected by Lexus (who even if not perfect still knows better than most), you won't get the book stamped (even if utility of that questionable) and you won't get courtesy car.

I have checked if article wasn't published on 1st April, but no... it wasn't! Basically all the downsides of ICE without any upsides? Bizarre contraption.

They still offer essential in Lexus Hainaut (same as Woodford), last time I checked was December, so maybe it was stopped in meantime, but it was definitely still available. I always used Lexus service, but for 10+ years car essential service plan is must, if they cancel essential care then I can't see anyone using them.

Funny times... I have sold my RC for more than I bought it 2 years ago as well... and likewise I was considering getting IS250C at some point. I is is kind of sad Lexus didn't provide much of alternative in current range, them meant to make RC convertible, but it never materialised and going all the way to LC convertible is another league. Either way IS250C seems like they still going strong, keeps values, looks modern - nice choice. As for TMPS - I am not sure it is faulty just yet. maybe previous owners set them on lower or higher pressure and whilst car was sitting pressure changed e.g. that happens when you set it in summer and winter comes. So my first step would be to inflate tyres to desirable (and preferably correct) pressure and just reset TPMS (there should be button under steering column.

Do you think in 90s they even planned the placements? Or it was chosen by studios itself as sort of "generic" car, something that doesn't stand out too much?

As I said before, I have minimal issues with new wording, mostly nit-picking and issues with the language rather than meaning (which exception with "hierarchy" where it is opposite, happy with the language but not the meaning). And although we are on "different side of the fence" it is just barely and I am sure we would agree on more individual points than disagree. I just generally think these changes where not an improvement, but you probably right - it will have minimal effect to overall goodwill. Those who don't care continue not to care and those who cared will continue caring. My assumption as to why pedestrians will suddenly walk into the road or cyclists choose to cycle in the middle for no other reason just to annoy motorist is based on my experience. These groups were already doing it even before this change, so at best they will continue doing it at worse they will be emboldened. Especially cyclists... pedestrians are just generally ignorant (mostly) and thus careless (they simply don't know any better) so they will continue as they are, but some cyclists are ideologically against motorists and they are not stupid, they will see this gap which they can abuse and will abuse it as much as they can. Good thing I do believe myself that there are minority of such cyclists. What kind of surprised me is that some people get offended, by what is clearly an opinion and even brought some past trauma from ES300h comments 😄 Just to be very clear - I don't think it is possible to be right on this topic, it is language which can be widely interpreted, this is not a topic where one can use facts to prove something, so I am sure we can discuss it for 10 years and don't arrive to any conclusion. So to say that somebody is pretending to be right here is just wrong, I am certainly not pretending to be right, I just have my opinion and others have theirs. Some opinions are better justified and explained, but it doesn't mean they are more right. I do recognise that pedestrians and cyclists are more vulnerable and that is fact, however I feel the solution in reducing deaths and injuries should be different. Who is more likely to lose hand on table saw - worker or sawmill director? And who is most trained of how to safely use it? You get my gist? Same here - we can put more responsibility on most vulnerable, because that would inherently help them to make better decisions, stay safer and be less vulnerable. Likewise drivers would have much more respect for other groups, because it would be clear that other groups have not only rights, but some responsibilities as well, some stake in the system and are not just meatballs jumping into their deaths. At the moment what responsibilities do pedestrian have? None... and whatever little there exists is just guidance, they can't even be punished for it. But finally, I guess life just isn't fair and HC isn't fair for drivers... thought luck.

Yeah - Lexus recently started adding product placement in Hollywood and to be fair their cars fit futuristic sci-fi genre quite well. Regardless if one hates it or loves it, over the top aggressive design just works and feels more at home in the future then it is in the present. The only thing which is kind of sad is that most prominent appearances were in the movies which I don't regard as particularly good, but I guess they going with assumption that any recognition is better than none. Other strong point - most of the time those are current production models, not some concepts, so when people notice car in the movie they can literally go ahead and buy it, that cannot be said about other brands. That is as well kind of shows that Lexus concepts/prototypes are really relevant - most came to production with minimal alterations to appearance, which is again unusual. I know placements in Black Planter and Man in Black quite well, thought again I don't consider them good movies. One interesting thing to consider is that Lexus seems to have grown from generic car in the background to more conscious product placement over the years. Very first appearance of planned product placement by Lexus I believe was in Minority Report where protagonist fights in automated car factory and drivers of this beast of the assembly line: There is actually page dedicated to listing every car in every movie ever, but I don't want to spoil the party of people remembering and guessing what they remember as Lexus appearance and in what movie.

This is quite unusual problem, so quite hard to advise over the internet. What is for sure - something had to impact sensor physically for it to get damaged like this and that can't be good (snapped chain, broken tensioner or some lose piece of debris in the engine). This is unless somebody was changing the sensor and dropped it or used second hand sensor which came damaged (stuff like this happens, but it would be lucky and I would not count on that). And for the same reason just replacing crankshaft sensor (without further inspection) would not be advisable. In either case I would advise not to attempt to start the engine, try to inspect what is happening under chain cover - perhaps use borescope via sensor hole, turn engine with wrench by hand, then check what is in the oil and in oil filter, metal shaving in the engine would most likely mean it is scrap. Less bad would be if chain tensioner broke, so it is just hard plastic, but still means oil pan and chain cover out, inspecting all the parts and making sure that noting else is damaged and there is no debris left. In either case removing oil pan and chain cover would be necessary, otherwise it would be gamble. Sadly I can't advise on any good independent specialist, avoid chain halfords, kwikfit and similar, Lexus is good but very expensive. Perhaps somebody more local to you could advise better. Good luck

Or diesel... but the point is the same - BEV for short distance with small battery with some form of ICEV (maybe even indirectly driving wheels like range-extender generators). This would be best we can get with our current technology. But our politicians don't care what is best for long term, they only care on what is popular now. There are ecomentalists shouting about climate, so let's please them with unworkable promise of banning all ICEV by 2030... when comes 2030 it will be an issue of the government at the time, or like with diesel-gate it will be passed onto consumers punished them for following government advise.

Agree - IS250 is just not the car which benefits or is complimented by manual. I understand that is light and nimble sports car or something one could take to the trackdays, but IS250 just isn't that. It has enough power to cruise comfortably at any speed and it's key strength is how smooth the engine is. However, it does not have performance to really hool it around and manual gearbox fundamentally takes away from key strength of the car. Basically manual improves the car in areas which don't matter and makes it worse in areas where it does. Nothing fundamentally wrong with manual, just not as good as auto for this car... And if it would be the case of being significantly cheaper - say £2000 vs. £4000, then I can see the point for somebody who doesn't get stuck in traffic, but the deal breaker is that £500 VED in UK.

Actually you don't even need that - at least in theory you should tell the seller what system you have and they should send you the unit with right harness, or right adapter, so literally plug an play. These chinese screens are of varying quality, but even in worse case 10 times better than what was fitted by Lexus back in the day. Technology simply moved on a lot since mk2 was made.