Linas.P

I wish that would be case... I would probably have LC or LFA then 😁

I probably should have said RC (entire model). Yes it was only RC300h and RC200t for now... officially. But writing is on the wall. It makes no sense that they just going to continue producing RC-F on it's own. Not sure what is the deal with having them still available to buy, maybe they already had frames or engines build or stock of other components, but I am sure one more year and RC-F will be gone as well.

Just don't see how that makes financial sense, but in the end of the day it is your money 🙂

Owners manual is usually your friend in such situations 🙂 I don't know for sure as I have older system of multimedia in my car, but it is something like Setup>bluetooth or phone settings. Then you will see list of paired devices (in your case probably only one) and when you select device for more details it will have option to delete/unpair/remove. Not sure what is exact wording - may actually be like dust-bin icon. That will forget your device and you will need to pair it again, which in turn should give you prompt again.

so it rather "was" an option 😁 Anyhow, I hope the wheel refurbishment will workout great for you! good luck and drive carefully on those tyres...

Yes, but for price of 2012 IS-F you can get RC-F which not only going to have DLR, but will as well going to be 4 years never model and 8 years never technology and design. I mean from time to time you can find RC-F for ~£26-28k, and 2012-13 IS-Fs ~£23k nowadays... have no idea who is buying them and why, but that seems to be market pricing now. Obviously, up to you, but I would rather get £14k IS-F (that is the price I can understand for ~8-10 years old car) and if DLRs are really that needed then retrofit them or fit aftermarket lights.

Considering the market and competition... sounds about right. Don't forget Lexus discontinued RC-F so dealers probably are allowed to discount them more now. I was expecting that to be the case. It is funny that there are only few for sale now, but few months ago there were several ~2017/2018 cars selling for £38k with like 6-10k miles. Sure that is not 600 miles, but from my perspective that is still nearly new car... having had even first service. I would certainly rather buy car with few more miles and for cheaper - car being brand new only adds value if you can customise it to your taste and choose options. Once it is made in certain colour and with certain options, then from my perspective it is same as used.. unless somehow this particular car has exactly perfect options. And finally, one can buy LC500 for ~50k with ~6-10k miles... so when you put this fact in perspective, I think the price stops looking that amazing.

Funny enough, white IS-F was just added to autotrader today for £14,000, but not 2012. Any particular reason why you want specifically 2012?

That is just my opinion, not a fact. I agree that compared with UK there are specialist just as good if not better in US, however the impression I got about standard dealership service quality is very bad. As such... again in my opinion... car owner in US have 2 choices - go independent specialist (which is expensive and can void warranty) or continue with standard dealership service (which is less expensive but rather patchy and only covers complete basics any repair hourly rate is excessive). 3-6k miles oil changes only applies to premium performance cars and only carried out by enthusiasts... certainly not common place. Small daily runabouts does not get such treatment. IS250 being small daily runabout car in amurican standards, it is only us in UK who thinks that 2.5L V6 entry-exec saloon is sporty and prestigious car. By the way I was changing oil every 6k miles on IS250 as well, but that is just me and as you said in UK that is not common.

On original Lexus wheels (both 17s and 18s) offset is 45.

@johnbiker7 I tend to disagree regarding fuel quality affecting blowby, if ECU retards timing then you likely going to get less cylinder pressure not more. There are several things which changes when timing is retarded (opening and closing of valves and spark timing), but in general the goal is to reduce the pressure - less pressure = reduced likelihood of knock ... and less pressure means less blowby. I think US problems are literally what you said in your earlier post - higher mileage. I still think their fuel is worse quality even after adjusting for for different rating systems (AKI vs RON), but they are not as bad as people may think and finally, I think maintenance quality is worse in US. Like dealership mechanics are less knowledgeable, uses worse quality oils etc. So overall they doing higher miles, and they maintain cars less well - so it becomes just logical that they have more problems in general. As for your car at 112k miles I would say it no longer worth it, unless you planning to clean the valves somehow and you planning to keep car for 10+ years.

Yes, I appreciate that - actually I noticed they look quite "meaty" still. So indeed considering the circumstances your position makes sense. In some way I am in similar position with my rear tyres. And again you right - when refurbishing wheels you can simply get "mail-order" price rather than "fitted", which is usually another £8-12 cheaper per tyre. So if you could save £25 on set + £48 for fitting, then suddenly new tyre price becomes much more affordable. Which probably brings me to another point - all considered maybe delay the refurbishment until tyres needs changing? I am sure you will not be bit fan of this option and I understand why (your wheels really desperately needs refurbishment), but it is an option nonetheless 😁

Lexus fitted S001 or S005 Potenzas, all Turanzas and all Yokohamas are hopeless. In fact I no longer consider Bridgestone or Yokohama as premium brand, I rather class them in "mid-range" together with Toyo, Kuhmo, Avon, Falken and similar. Certainly Uniroyal Rainsport is better tyre than anything the rest of the bunch can offer combined. The only reason I cannot recommend Rainsport 5 is the price, which now approaches Goodyear/Dunlop and Continental. So yes, must be just a price Lexus gets and support for "fellow Japanese brand", but overall Brigestones are terrible tyres for road car. The only exception are RE050 which actually quite decent for light track use and fast road. Not great fuel economy or noise, but grip and feel is not bad. When it comes to replacement I would never buy Bridgestone or Yokohama. I sadly still have two Potenzas S001 on the rear because they were brand new when I bought my RC and I barely done 5000 miles now. The only excuse not to throw them away is that at least they are not dangerous like chinesium tyres. But as soon as they get to like 5mm or I have puncture in one of them they will go.

No these ones would be just to protect the key from being scratched. Had one with my IS250 F-sport, dealer gave them for free with the car. I think they were like 29 Euro to buy. I assume that on eBay they are not genuine, but who knows... and obviously it is not rocket science to make one, so there is huge selection of reproduction in any shapes and forms coming from china. Again as I said, I don't believe they will be of the same quality and I had one in the past and liked it, but considering it is sacrificial piece to protect the key I am not sure if it matters.

Calipers are cast steel as well and they rust, but for 18k miles car I would expect them to be rather clean, perhaps linked to what I said before - it is lock-down, cars stay outside for prolonged amount of time and that accelerates the rate at which they rust. As long as calipers are not stuck it should not matter. But that said mine were clean when I bought my car and that had 3 times the mileage. There is one way to "rust your" calipers very quickly thought - use strong acidic wheel cleaner and leave it on calipers. Does wonders that thing! So just a speculation, but maybe somebody "super-cleaned" the wheels, just forgotten to rinse the cleaner of the calipers. So raise that with dealership - ask them what is the price of the calipers and when they say it is like £1000 to replace ask them why they so rusty and whenever they need replacing. In my case that was exactly the issue (just with disks and pads). I said it looks like disks are grooved and have a lip and pad are rather low, they told me that car passed MOT and their inspection and thus should be fine, then I asked the inspect them again... long story short, they didn't, 3000 miles later it turned out that there are no pads left and other dealership concluded that disks and pads requires changing all around for £1000+. Because I had this conversation on e-mail the dealership which sold me ended-up paying for it. Now... I know it may sound scary, but used card dealing has a lot of grey areas. I was quite disappointed considering this was Lexus Dealership, but don't be fooled by false sense of security of it being dealership. It is still used cars sales and what matter is only what you spot, and what you have agreed (preferably in writing).

Yes... particularly considering your one is fully loaded unicorn car I cannot see you changing it soon 😁

yes indeed, but I personally believe it is like a death spiral... if they would consider market more seriously, offer more choices and more merchandise, maybe they overall sales would increase. Now is pretty much - you can have any Lexus as long as it is 300h and it is SUV... and no aftermarket at all. Not sure how they expecting to be successful with such strategy. Anyway, good luck with the covers, that is already better than having nothing and they do look good.

For 18k miles car you should not expect any issues, especially Lexus. I am surprised to hear that there is noticeable wear on the seats for 18k miles car. I cannot really answer this question without looking at the actual seat - being cream leather maybe it is just dirty and could be cleaned? However, my 54k miles RC literally had a hole in exact same place - so this indicates overall Lexus MK3 IS and RC (which are very similar inside) has some issue with seat wear in that area. Yes the leather could be fixed, but I would rather ask for discount and take it to proper leather specialist than let the dealer deal with it. if it is just scratches and discoloration, then any place working on leather repairs should be able to fix it in the way it is nearly invisible without much issues, mine having a hole was much tougher job. Brake disks are mild steel, so yes it is normal for them to flash rust just by sitting outside.. depending on the weather and how lucky you are it could happen within a week. However, braking once or twice should clean the surface very well. Considering lock-down and low number of test drives/sales and general period of the year I think surface rusted brake discs are to be expected/ Now what you should ask for ... that will really depend on how desperate the dealership is to make as sale, how the car is already priced and how good of negotiator you are. So it really depends. Few common sense things to check would be if tyres are in good order and all matching (premium brand as well), how worn down brake disks and pads are... those are quite expensive to replace... but again for 18k miles cars I would not expect any particular issues. In the end, what is very important - you must have a record of what you agreed, ideally white an e-mails and get them commit in writing. One tip I can give you when it comes to negotiation, be prepared for Lexus to offer you long list of unnecessary junk. Say if car is £20k and you ask them to produce like "sales offer" don't be surprised if the sales person comes to you with bill for £28k. What are these tings - useless coatings, rims and tyres protection, Lexus insurance.. various other things which are just bad value for money. Now the trick is - don't negotiate on the base price of £20k. They won't normally agree to lower it by more than few £100s, negotiate on whole "deal" of £28k. Give an impression you consider the extra items and when they agree to discount, ask them to print the offer again. What you ideally want is that expecting for you to take extra bits they will discount the car's base price. At which point you can say "yes I want to go ahead with the deal, but I decided I will take the car only". This trick may or may not work, but that is the only way in which you can actually negotiate base price down - if you go straight for it, then they won't negotiate at all. Now just to give you example of what is possible - when I bought my RC200t it was priced at £16,800 and I managed to get it for £15,500, agreed for the seat to be repaired (dealership did terrible job thought), stone-chips to be professionally touched-up (again hit and miss) and for brakes to be checked again (I wanted the replacement, but they insisted that brakes are good - there is long story how it went if you interested) and on top of that 2 years free service (minor+major). Be aware that RC200t is not IS300h, so do not expect same results (RC200t is literally unsellable car and dealership was really desperate to shift it). IS300h is pretty much staple product, so they will be way less likely to offer amazing discount, but again that depends on how the car is priced already... or whenever there are other cars offered at similar or lower price. Good luck with your purchase!

I thought premium members were allowed to post offers like that... so you probably alright. The only issue I can see with these covers for keys is that UK cars don't have button to turn alarm on/off as such the second hole is much larger for our keys than it needs to be. It is annoying Lexus in UK is really behind on parts and merchandise like that, as true UK pattern covers looks great.

That is false economy... and it only hurts your head because you looking at the cost upfront, rather than comparing cost per mile. Almost any premium tyre I ever had paid for itself twice over just on mileage alone. First of all, they do not cost £150/tyre.. yes you can spend that much, but equally I appreciate that not every one needs Michelin PS4s... fairly reasonable Dunlop SportMaxx RT2's costs ~£80 for fronts and ~£110 for rears (just checked now and in Blackcircles and price is slightly up, but you get £25-off when you buy 4, so total of £385 for 4 tyres fitted) . Yes that is £380 fully fitted over £250, but they are much quieter, have better fuel economy, have excellent wet and dry grip and covered nearly 40k miles. I am quite sure that by the time you do that mileage on those cheap tyres you may need to replace them twice. So what we are really comparing is 2 sets of cheap tyres which are definitely worse in all comparable ways for £500 vs 1 set of premium tyres for £380 which are as well better. Dunlops are just example, because I had them myself, but Goodyear and Continental have very similar tyres. Pirelli and Michelin are little bit more expensive - so add £20-30 per tyre on them. As it happens I had Michelin PS4 fitted on my old car for free and therefore the cost was not a factor to consider, but again after 26k miles they still had good 6mm of thread left... I haven't driven them to point of replacement so cannot say if they actually do 50k+ miles, but if that the case even at higher price they still worth it. Finally, I understand some people my think "I am careful driver, I am not speeding, I am not one of thus dumb youngsters racing on the public roads and therefore I don't needs these fancy premium tyres, budget will be just enough considering my driving etc."... Well think again - when some idiot is going to cut in front of you, that 1 or 2 metres of extra braking distance can be 1 or 2 metres past when your face hits the airbag (doesn't sound as bad as hitting the wheel, but at least our cars are relatively safe). p.s. there is one trick if you on the budget - you can consider Debica, Sava (mayde by Goodyear/Dunlop) or Uniroyal (made by Michelin). They are much cheaper because they are not considered "branded or premium", but they are made on exactly same lines and using very similar if not the same rubber compounds and manufacturing process. Sure, they won't last like "true" premium tyres, but at least they won't out you in the danger like chinesium brands.

I agree with this in principal, but can anyone point me out to the statistics of how many gearboxes were ruined here because ATF was not changed every 50k miles? I am not aware of one, perhaps they do not exist (yet). And indeed it is inevitable that eventually gearbox will fail without changing "life-time sealed" fluid. The only thing I can report is that my car was 192k miles and already in 3 accidents and written-off by the time it actually needed one. And I advised that to the new owner and he now has new gasket, fluid filter and 5L of ATF in his boot to address it. I am not against changing it, but it is not as big issues (statistically) as some are making out... and to really ruin your transmission you need to ignore signs of issue for years before it really ruins your gearbox. And in the end - I think all contributions are valuable, even if we disagree with the opinion of the author, so no need to compare it with trumpster.

I don't actually think it is much of "can of worms" topic. I would rather group people into two groups here - the ones who have already done it and the ones who could not be bothered. I am in the latter. This is not because I think catch-can is not beneficial, but because for my car (when I had it) it was already too late. So why would you need or want catch can? Well science is very simple - IS250 engine has positive crankcase pressure which is normal for piston engines, which means it needs Positive crankcase ventilation, which it obviously has. What is the problem with that? Well 4GR-FSE is direct injection engine and DI engines have issue with carbon built-up on intake valves as petrol (which is detergent) does not flow over intake valves, like it does on port injected engine. PCV valve on this engine at the same time goes into intake and here it has very obvious impact - it blows oily residue into intake which sticks to intake valves, which already are problematic area. The catch can in itself catches the residue from PCV valve before it gets to intake and this prevents additional sludge buildup on intake valves. So that is the theory and it is correct. The practical issue - if your car has already done 100k miles without catch-can then you already have residue on your valves which is going nowhere (unless you planning to have engine apart and physically cleaning the valves) - fitting the catch can at this point is pointless exercise. If you have IS250 which is ~100k+ miles (which most of them going to be considering the age/average mileage) and you planning to keep it for 2,3 or maybe 5 years, then there is no point fitting catch-can. However, if you have low mileage IS250 which you planning to use for long time (maybe 10+ years) or to get it to million miles, then you definitely should consider fitting catch-can. This is standard trade-off between cost, benefit and how long you planning to use the car. The longer you keep it the more beneficial it is.

Sorry, I must admit - you never said to do it annually, but even 50k doesn't sit right with me. Even, unsealed manual gearboxes recommends 40-60k and automatic transmissions are much different and fluid itself is not the same. + you have mentioned yourself, that doing it wrong creates a risk and fining the trusty specialist, because the process is quite specific and should be strictly followed. This means finding good specialist at reasonable price may not be the easiest, especially when Lexus themselves refuses to do it except of 1L "refreshes".

Car is not an aircraft, car systems are not as critical and even then - I don't believe you inventing your own maintenance schedules on the aircraft. Replacing AT fluid after 100k miles when manufacturer states "it is sealed for life unit" is not doing bare minimum, that is going above and beyond of the recommendation. But replacing it annually is a different matter. If we compare that to aircraft then I tend to believe you would replace whole gearbox after 100k... no non-sense with fluid changes if schedule requires new part! As such it is a question of finding the right balance of following the official recommendation and only improving it where it is strictly necessary or when required. Not just doing it for sake of doing it. What about the coolant then? Lexus recommends their pink long live coolant to be replaced at 100k, then 60k thereafter - are you suggesting that is bare minimum as well and for sake of "preventative maintenance" to do it annually?

That valuable info (honestly). Although, it still does not change my opinion about overall maintenance schedule. I do support preventative maintenance and I do agree that AT fluid needs changing eventually, but at the same time I prefer to keep balance between keeping the car in good order and not wasting money on unnecessary maintenance... especially if it could end-up hurting the car more. So I leave it at that...