Linas.P

ISF market is extremely stiff at the moment (they actually have appreciated in last 3 years). If few years ago higher miles IS-F (at the time 80-100k) were selling at just ~£10k, now the cheapest you can get is around £14-15k. Considering it is 2008 car with 120k miles I would put it maybe for 15-16k listing all the mods with hope somebody would come-up with knowledge of what they worth, but realistically be prepared to accept £14k, generally modifications adds 0 value when selling the car. And waiting for mod enthusiast to come and appreciate them may take forever. If possible, reverting mods and selling car stock is the best option. That said in car selling a lot is to do with how quickly you want to sell, I feel it may eventually sell even for £17k, but it may take a year (during which car will need keeping-up), but if you want to do it within a month it may need to be priced at £12k for it to shift quickly.

It won't be £10k more expensive for sure, but it will be more desirable car and thus will sell easier and little bit more expensive. Looking at the prices now for 7 years old IS300h F-sport that could easily be £500-1000 more, compared to Luxury or Exec models (all rest being equal). Even Premier seems to be cheaper, despite being actually better equipped less "party piece" F-Sport dials. @Alex34 Yes indeed, buying new or nearly new car is best way to burn a lot of money in depreciation alone, added to that stupid new road tax means I would personally look for cars before April 2018 (when road tax changed). 2017 cars as such being almost perfect at the moment - still relatively new so that you don't feel like getting obsolete car, but already depreciated most of the way (~3years) and as well still new enough not to be worried about wear and tear.

Just came across random video, which I found rather interesting... I assume most newer Lexus engines would use low compression rings. Fun thing - I did oil changes on IS250 every 6k miles instead of 10k, but I doubt it matter at the mileage car had. Although my oil consumption was ~ 0.6-1L oil per 10k miles, not so bad for nearly 200k engine.

Are you looking for entire front end or only specific parts?

As well it depends what kind of finance option you get. In some types of finance you are the owner of the car either way, so you technically can sell car any time (it is yours), you simply own money to Toyota Finance or whatever and they don't care if you still have the car or not.

not much to say, great choice... Quite recently there was review from carwow and they concluded that if you can afford it, then you should just go ahead and buy it. And I agree with that - it is not most practical car, but it does not matter for what it is, for it's particular niche it is great value and very unique car. I personally could not find any issues with it. I have just recently (before current lock-down) compared it with new BMW 8-series and they are not even in the same league. Sure BMW is faster, but Lexus build quality and materials are far better + it feels more special. Indeed, the best way to check it out would be test drive. Yes LC will keep the value as it is pretty much only Lexus dealers who sells them, not much supply overall. There isn't much saving to be made, unless you willing to go for older car with equally low mileage, but then you won't get apple car play. Not sure how big of the deal that is for you. In terms of advice, not much to say - don't expect rear seats to be usable, boot space is non-existent either + the opening is awkward, so even using whatever small space there is not going to be easy. But I guess that is something one would expect from GT coupe... I doubt AMG GT would be any better in that regard. BMW 8-Series would be far more practical car, but that is how it feels as well - just larger 3-Series with 2 doors (or 4 if you go for grand coupe). There are some weird features in the car - like climate concierge (you need to get used to them) and as well entire infotainment controls. They do what they need to do, but let's just say - they are not the best in market. I consider that to be small price to pay for next level built quality and increasingly rare V8.

makes sense... I think Lexus does not care what car you have, the scrappage scheme works based on the car you get. £4000 to be honest is for likes of RX, LS, LC, but for IS it may be £2500 or £3000. Anyway too late for that. As well worth noting - there is night an day difference between CT and IS. Not that CT is bad car, but it is much more like fancy Toyota (still very reliable), but IS is proper Lexus and you can feel the difference.

Yes - that is sellers problem not yours. Well... unless you make it yours.

Considering both brand new and the 69-plate cars are basically same identical car as far as equipment is considered I would go with 69-plate. Going for new you just basically going to burn more money in depreciation and for it you won't get any "more car". And 69-plate car is basically new as well - call it extended test drive or something 😁, 9000 miles is nothing for such car. The only advantage if new car is that you configure it yo your liking and then depreciation punches you in the face for it, but in this case both cars are pre-configured and it seems you like 69-plate car more anyway. As well, if you take 69-plate car (being a cheaper car) say for 3 years instead of 4 year, then you will save on interest as well. By the way what is wrong with your current car (what car is it?). I thought Toyota/Lexus still offers up-to £4000 (dependant on model you buy) for scrapping it, not sure if that would be viable option for you.

Nothing special, just cast iron disks - the coating was OK thought, the parts which do not wear during braking didn't get as rusted, but eventually the insides of vents still got clogged with dirt, brake dust and rusted shut. I don't think that quality of the discs matters that much (provided they are straight and to the right dimensions), after all it is just good old piece of cast iron. Much bigger difference is the pads, but I have not used mtec brake pads, not sure they even made them back then.

It is always going to be personal opinion, but OEM are million times better for me than these ugly pare wheels. The only benefit I can see having these wheels is that you don't need to bother destroying them and they are easier to clean as well. But they are ugly... almost looks like somebody put some cheap aftermarket wheels on it.

Yes... indeed. I made this comment before. The only thing you need is for somebody to buy this "hakuji" edition and soon there will be 4-spare wheels for sale. I have no idea how Lexus came-up with this ugly wheels design... although looking at LC... maybe it is not out of ordinary for them to have questionable wheel designs actually.

maybe... but it doesn't make the car with 4 spare wheels look any better.

Well... 4GR-FSE has following oils recommended depending on the climate - 5w30/0w30 for warmer climate and 5w20/0w20 for colder climate. However, at one point I did kind of experiment as I had to use the car in two extremes - driving in Germany at top speed for extended period of time and then ending-up in eastern Europe during the winter with temps below -20C. So the experiment was to put in 0w40, meaning better cold start protection in cold mornings and better hot engine protection when doing 140MPH on autobahn. Overall, experience was very successful - car didn't burn any oil (wheres it normally burned ~0.5l 5w30 Castrol Magnatec over 10k miles) and oil still looked surprisingly clean after ~6k miles, whereas Magnatec always looks very dirty. Other note - IS-F 2UR-GSE has 2 recommend oils 5w30 for daily driving and 10w60 for track. In either case, I would not recommend 10w60 in 4GR-FSE. The cold rating of 10 is too thick and for daily driving it would prematurely wear out engine on start-ups + it would reduce economy as for w60 there are no conditions in UK to bring it up-to temp. But as I said I found 0w40 as improvement overall, it kind of extends recommended oil characteristics in both ends.

The only cool things about it is 1 of 1 ... so it apparently is unique. But... ugly wheels, ugly wing... and the rest pretty much same car as any other RC-F

just out of interest - what would you say about using 0W40 in IS250?

Yeah... this is not normal. Straight after start, after shifting into gear car should move off... I don't know in 1s... maybe 2 seconds. I mean yes there is like momentary delay when you just shift and straight away release brake, but it is very short, not 1 minute for sure. And I been driving the car in -30C and there was no noticeably longer delay either, so it is not temperature either. Could you remind mileage of the car and if gearbox fluid was changed/refreshed?

multitasking 😅

hah... funny enough I am 😁

Your point is well understood - you like to spend money and time on issues which are unlikely to ever happen within the period when car is still worth maintaining. I let you do exactly that, after all that is your time and your money...

Yeah they were standard on MY2018 base model. I hate them as well, previously I have compared them with having 4 spare wheels fitted, just so bland...

Yes I am sure you know that, but there is gap between what ATF does, what role it plays in automatic gearbox is and what you suggesting. Your suggested service period pretty much matches manual transmission service period, yet we can all agree that automatic transmission fluid in sealed boxes can last longer. As I have already said - if not replacing fluid frequently would be so detrimental to wear and reliability of the transmission, then we see a lot of IS250 AT with transmission issues, yet this is virtually unheard of. I have no doubt of your engineering proves, but I would conclude that when engineering theory meets reality this is exactly what happens. Yes theoretically it is better to replace the fluid more often, but all factors considered and rate at which gearbox wears, cost of doing it and the lifetime mileage of the cars it becomes less relevant. Sure if we take two million mile cars where one had ATF changed every 50k miles and another where it was done on average every 100-150k miles when solenoid warning came one... I have no doubt the first one would be in better shape. However, both cars would be worth next to nothing, yet first one would have costed 3 times more money to maintain. And at £200/300 per change this would exceed the value of the car many times over.

Error just indicates that fluid needs changing and it is fully cured by cycling the fluid - it is not like that has damaged the transmission. This is one of very few reason where official maintenance manual advises to cycle the fluid. Don't forget that ATF fluid is not like oil in the engine - lubrication and cooling is not the only function it does. It could be argued that primary function is actually run the automatic transmission (hydraulic fluid). And even compared to manual transmission lubrication is not as critical for autos.

As if its matters when the car is 192k miles... (more like 198k now). By the time current owner needs selling it, the car will be worth less than 5L of ATF anyway.

That makes much more sense... that said I now know why my gearbox fluid needs changing now. I did 2500 miles eurotrip twice, first time average speed was ~108MPH and second time 114MPH, meaning that there was excessive amount of time driving at 80%+ of maximum car speed. About 3 month after second trip was the first time I got solenoid error. As such above is right on the money. However, I do not expect anyone in UK are doing either of the things in the list - IS250 is not the car for trailers, deliveries, police and there are no places where one could reach, never mind maintain 80%+ of speed for prolonged time.