Linas.P

Likewise I have seen some positive comments about certain halfords centres, but it seems they are few and far between. I am not even going to tell the story of how they were fixing my A/C 😁 that is a good one as well. The other thing - I know that you can get like 50% off if you have their trade card, which just goes to show how overpriced are their products generally.

That is very true, but I am now contemplating whenever I should find car salesman forum where somebody can advise me how to market your 17 years old Lexus which is otherwise in very low demand for it to sell for £7100 😁 And again - absolutely everyone should do research before buying the car and there is no better place to do it than in the forum. If you haven't done the research then you can only blame yourself for buying the lemon (in quite literal sense in this Lexus case!). Thought, not all forums made equal and when I was trying to do my research on BMW I really struggled. LOC is by far best forum I have witnessed over long time.

You know what... I actually drafter the response, but then I realised this is not sort of topic to be discussed in the "why not SUV thread". For now I just say - Q1 - yes and no, Q2 some, yes and maybe. If you really interested, you could always send me such question in PM and I will be happy to respond in more detail.

Yes - to say that SUV is by default slow is incorrect. RX450h is not even the best example - X5M, X6M, G63AMG, Q7 V12, Range Rover SVR are very fast. And there are even like Dodge Durango SRT with is like 3.7s to 60. The list goes on. But I guess what we can agree with if both car and SUV has same engine (e.g. Durnago and Challenger Hellcat has the same), then the car will be faster. I personally think that these "performance" SUVs are the silliest thing ever, but RX450h is just about perfect in that sense - it has enough power, but it doesn't try to pretend it is some sort of sports car either. Finally, it is probably just my driving style but I don't need track to feel uncomfortable with SUV body roll and handling overall. Even on the public road I take corners fast enough for this to matter. But I appreciate that many people don't so it is not an issue for them.

But in that case even if it was limited edition, then the parts which made it unique are gone. And if it was just painted that colour, or even "special" ordered in that colour is still not limited edition. Car sales wold is bizarre ... I still cannot believe that somebody would be paying so much money for basically standard 17 years old car only because it has less common colour option. If that could be repeated with my RC200t - then I should be able to sell it for 70k. Because "rare car". 😁😁😁

So our limited edition car turns out to be fake?! I am still amazed it sold for over £7000! I am sure it would be rare if it would be real, but this isn't exactly "collectable" car.

No I am not trying to be like you - I just thought wisdom is a universally accepted value and as a matter of fact you have more of it at the moment... and that is respectable. David - I agree that there are areas where SUVs are more practical, however it seems like in the past only the people who needed that extra practicality were getting them. To be honest I don't care, people who want SUVs will have SUVs, people who don't want SUVs will get something else. The real issue for me is only that market is nowadays so monopolised by SUVs, that they have become de-facto default body style for any car. As it is evident manufacturers simply stops offering other body types altogether and if I am not "SUV" guy then it is clearly an issue. Looking historically, maybe this trend is temporary - it came from ever increasingly large wheels and low profile tyres trend and cars overly focused on handling, which wasn't that practical and now it goes into overly practical trend which ignores handling. Perhaps when everyone is going to get SUVs they will suddenly become usual and boring. Everyone going to have enough of them and next big trend will be something else. At least that is my wishful thinking. For now I just have to work on ever smaller choice of "proper" cars and will have to get used to more and more SUVs on the road blocking my view.

Agree - if it is little damp or there is light drizzle then the construction and design of the chargers are certainly up-to the task. I still tend believe that in proper charging points and electric cars there are systems to prevent any accidents when charging. Even if charger itself would short-circuit I am quite confident there are protection in both car and the charger to deal with that. Maybe you get blown fuse or simply find that car has not charged because of some error, but it should not result in the fire ball. Obviously, if you open your charging port and there is water pouring out of it, or if it's raining heavily and you are in the middle of the thunderstorm then perhaps it would not be a good idea to charge electric car outside. That doesn't mean people should be ignorant or abuse the systems e.g. don't try to pressure wash your car when charging, but neither they are just waiting until they can turn into fireball. I think warnings are there just to remind people to have common sense. Whenever that is the case for China, or infrastructure in developing nations - that is different question. I think they don't have as robust standards of safety as we do and therefore corners could be cut and accidents happens more often. This is as well not limited to EVs, they have much more risk on all activity across the board (i.e. deaths at work).

This is always going to be subjective topic. Some will love it some will hate it. Over the time using it, I don't think it is as bad as press makes it to be. It is certainly better than Lexus own rotary dial and better than most touchscreens. However, if we take Lexus infotainment system in it's entirety (menu layouts, responsiveness, functionality) then I would still be of the opinion that it is one of the worst systems currently available. This is not because of track-pad on it's own, but I don't find it intuitive to use, it don't find as responsive as it should be and functionally it is fairly poor and limited. Points of reference - new MB and BMW systems (circa 2019), I just find them more functional, more clearly laid-out, more modern menu design, higher definition screens, better rear view cameras, maps much more responsive, up-to date (up-to time even when we talking traffic alerts) and obviously android auto/apple car play is a big thing for me (Lexus just starting to implement it with limited models now).

Roy - as always voice of wisdom! Sadly, I will have to grow-up quite a bit before I can be like you 🙂 I am not sure what you find so offensive about my posts. I can assume that my "straight forward" posts could sound "threatening" and perhaps some formalities are lost in translation, but I almost never aim to offend someone, certainly not personally. That said, I am kind of surprised that you and perhaps few other members find them offensive - inconvenient, unrefined, challenging, unpleasant or maybe demanding... yes could be. But offensive? Really cannot see where you coming from. You see my view is that the value of the discussion is not how pleasant it is, but how factually correct or informed it is. For accuracy I expect proof to be present, I expect my comments to be challenged and if I feel that opinions are not justified (unless clearly marked as opinion) I will challenge them. Nobody is perfect, I am certainly not perfect - in certain occasions I have quoted opinions as facts and I haven't always justified my comments or provided the proof. If you want to challenge me on something I said - I will actually appreciate it, because I see value in the truth. However, at the same time I can see other members feel offended when their opinion is questioned or their "facts" are challenged. Point is - I am not trying to be pleasant, that is not the goal, the goal is truth and facts. Journey to the facts may not be pleasant, but I rather be unpleasant on my journey than make everyone comfortable believing in fallacies. I am just explaining why I am the way I am - you don't need to appreciate this and I don't expect you to. If you ever wanted to PM me and clarify if we both are on the same page then you are more than welcome to. For now I just leave you with these two: vs. Do you still think my response was inappropriate... I guess it could be argued we both were inappropriate as this exchange has added nothing to the topic. However, In the interests of impartiality are you really trying to say it was all my fault?

I don't think it is so much of an issue with how low car is, didn't find it particularly lower than IS, but I often cannot open the doors all the way or at least as wide as IS. Obviously, getting into car with doors wide open is easier than squeezing through the small gap. Not sure if it helps, but I found that it is much easier to get in when you move steering wheel away and the seat back - in my case that is more due to very narrow parking spaces where I have to squeeze through narrow gap, but may be useful to you as well. So my suggestion would be have 2 memory options - 1 is having seat far back and low and steering wheel all the way to the front and up and 2 the actual comfortable driving position. Yes it is workaround and you will need to wait for both to move into right place, but better than nothing.

Interesting - because I always find these particular things to be at least double the price compared to specialist suppliers... and on top of that usually they have only very poor quality "supermarket" stuff like Autoglym, Turtle or Meguiars. Obviously, all 3 companies have few decent products e.g. I remember Autoglym UHD Wax was on sale for £20 in halfrauds, and it is decent wax just not worth £49, but that is more like exception and not the rule - majority of their stuff is overpriced or outright doesn't work.

Will be at least one or two for each dealership - so my guess just under 100 maybe.

I feel this comparison is little bit apples vs. oranges. RX450h is hybrid and I assume you comparing it with IS250 (2IS) - so yes MPG will be similar up-to ~ 70MPH is not somewhat better on RX depending on your driving style - that is because it is hybrid. Then when it comes to faster compared to majority of current line-up... I guess you mean that really we comparing against 300h... and again yes indeed 450h will always be faster than 300h - not very fair comparison. However, if you take 2 comparably priced cars e.g. NX300h and IS300h, then IS will be both more economical, faster, handles better, wear items will be cheaper/and or last longer (e.g. tyres, brakes) and all that is objective differences. Then there is large list of subjective differences and advantages or disadvantages depending on the perspective e.g. one can say SUV is more comfortable, because with higher ride it dampens the bumps better, but I would disagree because I don't feel comfortable when SUV wobbles around the corners due to the same higher ride/higher centre of gravity/softer suspension. Obviously, this is neither here nor there - depending on person it may or may not be an issue, but again there are areas where SUV is objectively worse than saloon. I would generally agree with you here, but you kind of need to look into conversation from the beginning . It wasn't me calling others twuts, threatening to brake their backs etc. Yes my response there could be considered offensive, but that is justified considering previous post - I would not start speaking in such way with person for no reason. You may not like my style of communication and certainly you are free to have your opinion about it. May well be! 😁 Some say man always stays as small boys mentally - never grows-up. I would argue maybe even closer to 5 years old in that regard. At least I am not threatening others with violence over the internet - this kind of got out of fashion in early 2000's ...

On a separate note - Halfrauds! 😁 @Mr Vlad - it may depend on particular centre you have local to you, all Halfrauds I used around the London left me aftertaste of fraudulent activity and lack of basic understanding about the cars. Almost every-time they tried to pull something beyond just up-sales and all the way into fraudulent. The worst bit is that they knew so little about the cars that they could not even do it in sophisticated enough way without making it total cringe. Just one example - like 4 years ago I did A/C bacterial clean on my old IS250 and asked them to do "free-40 point" winter check. I knew exactly what is wrong with the car e.g. rear pads were close to limit. Initially the guy scared me and I thought maybe they have indeed found something major - £698 for car which really in my opinion just needed rear pads, but when I looked to the list and I realised it is total BS. They come up with list of issues, but none them were true - they said my tyres needs changing because of uneven wear (IS250 tends to scrub inner edges) and they quoted me £256 for front tyres (£128 each), then they said 1 parking light is blown and quoted £22 to change it, they quoted £140 for battery replacement because they said it failed the tests and they said front brake disks are lipped and advised £280 for front pads and disks. Just for fun asked what tyres they are offering for £128 each as I have paid ~£78 for Dunlop RT2's and he said "same Dunlop as you have", then in quote they printed "SP Sport 01" which is much cheaper and inferior tyre. Then I said ok could you show me on the car what is wrong - so we walked in and he didn't even know which car is IS250. We looked to front brakes and they were fine - it was little bit of the lip, but when I asked about the overall thickness he agreed that front brakes don't really need changing. Then I showed him rear pads and he said "sorry we missed it, but we can add it to the bill ( I mean c'mon 😁)". Then we looked at the tyres and they were good 6mm across 75% of thread, but he still insisted they need changing. Finally, the battery - it was halfrauds own brand with 3 years warranty, the battery was manufactured ~28month ago so obviously still in warranty, but when I pointed it out he refused to replace it under warranty because it was Halfrauds retail who sold it and no them (halfraud autoservices). Conclusion, I said that the tyres he is offering are at best £70 and they are not the same as mine, he then suddenly offered to discount them to £101 each, but obviously I still rejected it. I rejected point about brakes, they refused to replace battery under their own warranty and then the last thing was the parking light for £22. I was like - "what £22 for a W2W bulb which costs £2?!" and he was "yes but it takes time to fit it under all the trays etc."Then, I said - "ok I don't want it then, if you want take it out" 😁 And then he said - "never mind I will add this as complimentary then (sure complimentary 😁)". The thing is I have fitted LED parking lights and could not believe it was blown. Later I checked at home on and it was still LED bulb, meaning they have not changed it and just try to defraud me by £22 for work thing which was never required nor carried out! And here is the thing - I am used to mechanics trying to up-sell for repairs which are not strictly necessary e.g. Lexus Dealer does that on brake disks almost every time. But at least I expect mechanic to familiar with the car and find real issues. If the then try to up-sale me from there it goes back to my knowledge as owner what to accept and what not - it is not great but I am kind of expecting that. However, Halfrauds repeatedly failed to find real issues and tried to charge me for work which was not carried out and not even needed. And this is not one centre - this is like 4-5 different centres throughout multiple years, same for Kwik-frauds... the only difference I only visited them twice.

When it comes to Lexus OEM brakes on IS250, to be honest they are not the best. By design and the OEM parts themselves are not amazing. The real solution is to get IS350 brakes retrofitted, but if you keeping IS250 brakes (as I am sure 99% of people do) then I would say all aftermarket components are just as good if not better than OEM. I generally get Brembo disks and pads just because they cheaper - they are not better than OEM but certainly not worse. Brembo pads are about in the middle between OEM standard pads and OEM low dust pads. Generally, when it comes to IS250 most of OEM parts are best, but brakes are exception. Other items could include engine oil and various bulbs around the car - simply because technology has moved on since car was made and there are better alternatives now.

Careful there - I can clearly see you having bad day, but you need to stop venting it out here. First of all, I am not sure what was so offensive about my post - jokingly saying that one may use an excuse to own SUV? is that end of the world? Sounds to me like you need to relax or grow-up (mentally). This is internet - if you going to be offended about things like that every time it will take you nowhere. Beside LOC is the best behaved and most friendly forum I have ever seen - there are more bickering and offensive post of woodturning forum or mumsnet. Nobody is going out of their way here to personally offend you - so just get your pills, book physio tomorrow and go get some sleep!

maybe relaxing a little bit would help? some say many issues have a link with psychology.

It seems like you treating the symptoms not the cause, but happy to report that at least I don't have bad back so will never know... still sounds like excuse...

That is wishful thinking - now you would not be able to get rid of it and won't ever going to find the reason to change it. One issue with the car I forgotten to mention - IS250 is just such a good car, requires so little maintenance and offers so much convenience that it always seems like there is nothing which could replace it, even for 3 times as much. It took me 6 years, over 70k miles and I could not justify upgrading it until it got written-off. So my prediction is that you will be stuck in it for far longer than just 3 years! Sadly, no way out now mate 😁

@Shahpor - damn I completely forgotten about my venture as columnist in the local newspaper! But well said - it almost feels like I have said it myself 😁

some may even call such offer cheeky... but considering amount of winging on this forum about how apparently harsh the ride is on 18's it is certainly not unjustified! 😁 Good luck with your trade!

Sounds like an excuse. I appreciate getting into small sports cars could be an issue, but in average car like IS or GS... is it really that much of an issue? Or you saying it from perspective of general comfort - i.e. SUVs simply being more floaty / "comfortable" on our ever increasingly terrible roads compared to other cars?

Sorry, I am sure you already knew what I said, however I didn't assume it - that is what you said. I actually double cheeked it whenever you said "in" or "out" before making the comment. Regardless, my suggestion would remain the same - get yourself a light with motion detention somewhere convenient to fit on the driveway and it will light it-up. Modifying light on the car will be more difficult.

Yeah and that is the stage at which they are :