Linas.P

Yes - actually I don't think we ever seen AT issue on IS250 on this forum either. By issue I mean mechanical issue requiring to replace parts or whole gearbox. Hard/late/early shifts and error codes are what usually requires fluid change, but that is not a "fault", because after fluid change issues mostly gets solved. And again that is why I said - it becomes question whenever this is economically viable to do, especially if you don't have any issues at the moment.

@royoftherovers - thanks.. I actually forgotten to mention one key point. Touchscreen controls in cars actually suck... as they require you to take your focus away from the road to use. The screen as big and as complex as Teslas in my opinion literally requires stopping to adjust something as simple climate. Either that or you have to take passengers just so they can control your climate. So with this in mind Lexus centre console may look dated, but it is much more practical when driving. Secondly, I would like to separate "infotainment screen" from "drivers dashboard". Yes pre-FL Lexus infotainment screen (8inch) is dated and tiny, but FL IS/RC screens (10.25inch) are completely sufficient for the task they meant to be used for - like GPS, adjusting audio settings, checking fuel consumption etc. One does not need 16inch screen to adjust radio station. Where Lexus infotainment is lacking are areas like android auto/apple car play - built in maps are quite poor compared to google maps or waze and having that ability would elevate them to fully useful system. But here is "party piece" Lexus F-sport drivers dashboard is in my opinion "best in the market", I have tried several fully digital dashboards (BMW 6, i8, MB E-class) and they all suck - they just look silly - reminds me the "race computers" in rally cars. I much prefer "analog" look on Lexus dashboard and it is both functional and looks stunning and classy at the same time. Problem comes again from Lexus really limiting the functionality, to most basic functions - when you have digital screen it would be possible to make it fully customisable with endless futures, but Lexus only included few basic options and that is it. In summary, Lexus issue is not that they don't have 16" computer screen instead of dash, but because they never bothered to really polish the software and options which they have in their entertainment system and dashboard. If they make current dash smooth, sensibly laid-out or customisable. That will cover 99% of needs one can reasonably have in the car.

You are lucky (or probably you driving in friendly neighbourhood). At times I get up-to 4 screws into my tyres a year and at that rate I suspect somebody wasn't entirely pleased seeing my car where it was (London is nasty place for drivers). But I agree that breakdown cover is at very least better than run-flat tyres. Spare is still the best in my opinion.

Nobody denying that Lexus infotainment is dated and that Tesla at the same time has one of the most advanced system in this area. That said, having ability to watch Netflix or dash-cam video in car sounds like TV which makes espresso - just a nice gimmick nothing more. Somehow I have never found myself in the situation where I was driving and thought - "heck it would be nice if I could watch Netflix now". What I am saying - there is no denying Tesla infotainment is better, but at the same time it is completely irrelevant. Yes if both cars would be identical otherwise, I would say "why not!" if you can have reliable and well built car with better infotainment (sorry - 20 years better) of course that is good. But having "gimmicky computer" on wheels does not solve the reliability, build quality and material quality issues Tesla has. And here is my solution - if I ever going to need things which Tesla computer does... I will simply take any android or iOS tablet with me. It will show netflix, it will show my dashcam footage, in fact I can even mount it on wents and when not needed I can take it home with me or take it to the plane and continue watching the same series offline. How about that? I think it is actually better then spending £70k on unreliable and cheaply feeling car, just to have mediocre tablet functionality integrated into infotainment screen.

I cannot argue, but I thought driver and passenger seats are "mirror identical", meaning that you just get, passenger seat as a driver one in UK. But you right regarding door cards - window controls would be wrong. That said I believe that actual controls are interchangeable between all RCs (200t/300h) if not even IS300h/200t (some electrical parts certainly are) - this means as long as you have seats, the rest of the parts are not as expensive or rare. So what I am suggesting is to get interior from US car - then swap window controls from UK 200t/300h models. Question for OP is - why does he need the interior and for what car. If it is replacement for RC-F, then he will have all right parts to swap out with US door cards (same applies for 200t/300h).

It really depends on your expectations, how much you value clean car and the level of OCD you have for dirty paint. I personally am a little bit sick - suspecting OCD at very least, maybe some paranoia as well 😁 (obviously exaggerating) and without a doubt I have very high expectations of how car should be washed, what products have to be used and how it should look after that. That said I understand spending too much time cleaning their car is not for everyone. Point is - you need to decide how clean you want it and depend on that how you going to clean it. You already noted that your car is kept outside, near seaside and birds are likely to trash even the cleanest car. Based on that I would say perhaps there isn't much point in trying to keep the car in pristine condition all the time. Saying that modern cars only need washing down and that is it - that is coming from people who simply have low standards on how the car should look like (it is personal preference). Yes modern cars have clear coat, so if not protected sun not going to bleach the paint as quickly as single stage paints of old days. But scratches and dirty clear coat does not look any better, so to large extent nothing has changed - if you want your car to look good then you have to spend time and money getting it clean. When it comes to end result, it is always important how the paint (or rather clear coat) looks to begin with - if its scratched already, then no matter what you apply it will look crap. So you need to address that to the level of your liking first (means polishing). For minimum maintenance I would go for full multi stage polish + ceramic coating. This would give protection and some "self-cleaning" characteristics, it does not mean car will clean itself, just that dirt will be easier to remove when washing and things like bird droppings won't etch pain as much. Then I would only do maintenance clean once in couple of months and another detail after 2 years. Alternatives are carnauba based waxes (which lasts 1-3 months) and cheaper silicon based waxes (1-4weeks). I think natural carnauba still gives best shine, whereas only advantage of silicon is cheap price, ceramic coatings have best durability, but they are expensive and tricky to apply. Note - claying car is just intermediate step which must be followed by polishing. Many people don't understand it, but claying scratches the car, so if you not planning to polish the car - don't clay it.

All Run-Flats I had were always atrocious (harsh riding) and failed to do exactly the thing they meant to do - once I hit the pothole and tyre literally dismounted itself from the inner edge of the wheel. To this day I prefer just using spare if needed. I know that IS300h does not come with spare and it is little bit of an issue, but even it that case I would stay away from Run-flats. If you can find - look at continental "self-sealing" tyres, they won't help you from major damage, but they should do well enough for minor punctures like screws and nails. As well 300h is technically CVT and not automatic, but truth to be told I always thought that e-CVT with "fake" gear changes was quite suiting for hybrids in most scenarios. re: handbrake - do you mean it literally does not hold, or do you mean it rolls ~1 inch when you let off the brakes after parking? If latter then it is fine, but if it does not hold at all then it definitely needs looking after (MOT failure as well).

I tend to believe there are some "compliance" laws dictating how long manufacturers have to keep the spares. So possibility is that they literally don't want them sold and are completely happy to keep nearly worthless parts in warehouse somewhere with stupid prices and simply take them to the landfill when period of required support ends. However that does not explain why used GS interior from breakers cost so much - perhaps they focusing on getting their margins from value rather than quantity. My advise for OP would be to look in US auctions - not sure how economical is to import the interior from US, but certainly the number of RC-Fs and likewise of beakers/spare-parts is much higher there. This would give you more choice and likewise there is more competition so the prices may be better than here - where we literally have like 2 RC-Fs a year broken and 1 GS-F once every 3 years.

Indeed - considering that GS-F is total unicorn, I don't think anyone have another option. Although, it is the case working against seller as well - it is not exactly like buyers are lining-up to buy it, very few people actually need it... and even then maybe as an upgrade to GS450/300h or other projects and not to replace GS-F seats. I recently had RC200t seat electric motors repaired under warranty - I have not seen the brake-down of the cost, but my understanding from the call with the dealership was that it was ~£2700 for parts and £1500 for labour. Ouch! At such cost I was surprised they didn't just replaced whole seat (which would have been welcome considering I have a bit of wear on the outside bolster). That said they replaced bottom leather cover... which was in good shape anyway (doh)... As far as I understand Lexus does not sell the whole seat as a unit for RC or the cost of it is so astronomical that it made sense for Lexus warranty to pay £4200 just for parts and labour to repair existing seat.

Even then they won't deliver the car for just test drive. Most likely they will advise you to go to another dealership in England to test drive the car and if you wanted to purchase it, then your local dealer can transfer the car for you to purchase it in Scotland. I know it may be inconvenient, but I have travelled say from London to Derby to test-drive/purchase the cars. So I guess generally the expectation is that buyer will travel if they interested to test the car. However, this has nothing to do with 24h test drive. Just book it, select your closest dealer and they will contact you to arrange it, obviously it will be their demo car which may not be available for sale on their website. You will have an option to buy demo car if you wanted it, but dealers will have 2019/2020 cars as demos, so sadly there is no option to test drive Pre-2018 FL cars unless they listed for sale.

Well basically that means ALL 5.5l of fluid as you cannot change gasket/filter (both under oil pan) and keep oil.

I think I probably stated all the points (my opinion) on this topic, so I can just summarise it in one post. Is gearbox fill life-time? Yes and no. Yes because Lexus probably considers life-time to be as long as car is warranted ~120k miles/14years (with warranty extension gap). So when you car is past that it may need changing. Does it need changing... that will depend on many thing you may not know e.g. was car driven for long journeys on motorway or trashed around town, was the previous owner driving it hard or not. Was previous engine braking or using brakes etc. etc. therefore my take on it - if you have issues like hard/late/early shifts then do it, else leave it. Regarding the job - I already said it is better done by independent gearbox specialist. This is not brand specific job, it is more AT transmission specific job and transmission specialist will have more and better experience on how to do it best, including full replacement at once. Rather than going to dealership and refreshing it many times. In terms of cost, depending on what you use and what is their labour cost it may cost you quite a lot... I mean even in the range of the cost of transmission itself - . Just a note here - used 4GR-FSE + A960E package depending on accessories costs £600-800. So I am sure it is possible to get just transmission for £200-400 + fitting. So this becomes question of economical sense because the full refill job will be ~£300-400 on dealership rates. Consumables alone are £142: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/toyota-a960e-automatic-gearbox-oil-5L-aisin-type-iv-fluid-filter-gasket/264387179867?hash=item3d8eb4355b:g:b4wAAOSwND5dHefV Finally, if you not in big rush and can wait a bit then I may ask the owner of my previous car to advise how it went for him. As mentioned my previous car had issues shifting (after all near 200k miles, maybe more now) so he definitely going to do this. Sadly, I can't promise, because again it is not my car anymore, but is not in rush then it may give you insights on what is to come.

Hello John and welcome, Up-to 10% over real speed is standard deviation and it is mandated by international law - that means speedometer must overstate the speed. There are complex formulas to calculate what exact margins are acceptable, but I guess for this discussion it is enough to say 8% is normal. And you right, from my memory my IS250 used to have margin of ~8% @~50MPH, up-to 10% at lower speeds and then something completely out of order over 100MPH.. I think it was indicating ~160MPH, when according to GPS I was doing 225km/h on autobahn (which is ~139). This is as well the case on any car I owned, but you right to say Lexus is above average. Most of my other cars were closer 5% and not 10%. If that is big issue for you, then I guess having bigger tyres could make it closer to real speed. 245/55 will definitely be fine for rear, but what is your plan for front? Ideally, you should keep them 225, maybe maximum 235 as they may scrub on full lock. Unless you planning to keep front as standard and have "very positive" rake angle - not sure how much it matters for you, but it may look little bit odd from the appearance (especially considering overall IS250 design is already on positive side). This may even affect car balance in cornering a little bit and will impact your fuel consumption - expect the car to use more fuel in general.

I think the Lexus UK in this case should be sort of on your side, sort of "independent mediator", so no point making threats to them. ‘if no satisfactory resolution then to ombudsmen H&S etc’ - this is the part for the actual Dealership, because responsibility to prepare the car to the satisfactory standards lies with them and not Lexus UK itself. Lexus UK is just interested party on the consumer side, because obviously they are the ones who wants you to have good experience with the brand "within reason", so if they think Dealerships misrepresents the brand they can "poke" them. .... actually to add. I would be interested to see what is Lexus UK positions on their dealerships stocking Qingdao Fullrun tyres. Certainly, this cannot be globally or even nationally accepted standard.

Simple question - would Lexus fit such tyre on the vehicle from the factory... and answer is obvious - NO! As such dealership should not have parts in stock which would not be acceptbale quality for the car manufacturer to fit. If they do, then they should not - that is disgusting and simply unacceptable. Definitely the case for Lexus UK to get involved. Have they touched on point that they fitted two very different tyres on the front? That would be interesting story! I would imagine not great for a brand...

Well, it is basically proven not to work, especially when we consider the place where carbon build-up is the biggest issue - intake valves and intake ports. Even the cylinders themselves - it merely slows down build-up. Much more beneficial thing would be consider oil catch-can. At least that is proven to work well on DI engines.

I am sure they just used some wax with a lot of fillers and now once it has washed-off you see the real deal. But it could be improved significantly without repainting, but yes - repainting is the only real solution here. I will try to find what my car looked like after accident and after being polished (by myself).

Using say standard Shell vs. standard Supermarket fuel, I find even harder to justify... actually sorry... it is simply not justifiable! All petrol stations get's their petrol from same refineries/depos/terminals, there are multiple across UK, but in same area most of the stations will have same petrol. For example I know for a fact local Tesco was filled by Shell when I used to live in Beckton. It is common to see different brand tankers in different stations. And generally for East London/south Essex you can expect your petrol to come from either Esso Purfleet or Shell Heaven terminals, so don't think that ASDA has it's own terminal and handles it's own fuel - no they just get same Shell, Esso, BP fuel from the terminal which are closest to them or which can offer the same deal. Petrol being generic good I doubt that price varies massively across different suppliers, so let's just stick with closest. On top of that - most petrol station are franchises and not actually owned by big brands, as part of agreement to have franchise they are generally required to order certain percentage or certain amount of fuel from particular brand. So if you Shell franchise you can be expected to order 50% of all your fuel from Shell, or maybe 2000t of fuel from Shell. Depending on how busy the station is and what agreement they have... it is completely possible and even common for say Shell franchise station to order the fuel from different brand. So the most bizarre thing (or logical, depending on how you look at it) is that you can sometimes get full tank of Esso fuel in Shell station, when nearby Tesco has Shell fuel. Point being Tesco ultra cheep 95 is exactly the same fuel as Shell V standard which simply meets RON95 standard. There is discussion however, whenever say V Power = 99 Momentum, I believe it is, but some may argue that additives could be added on order depending who is ordering and it could be true. But this would be only true for premium fuel where Shell may have special recipe, it does not apply to standard baseline quality fuels. With all above in mind paying premium for fuel in "branded stations" vs. supermarket makes no sense. Premium fuel? - well that is a question you will have to answer yourself...

How it did in racing is irrelevant for road car - when preparing for racing they have obviously change geometry of suspension, if not the components themselves, then they were substantially modified. Yes it may be same "type" of suspension, but racing car suspension shares nothing in common with road car. All angles, tyres, track width will be different. The hybrid weight distribution is indeed 50:50 for IS and RC (well 51:49 for IS, but that is close enough). My comment was related to what I have and RC200t has 54:46 (it is ever worse for RC-F - 55:45). Cannot really comment much more on the wear on rear tyres in IS300h, but considering that 200t has same suspension argument can be made that 300h rear suspension is "overloaded", but I doubt this could be significant enough - this equates to less than 50kg after-all. If there is significant wear when driving hard, then I would relate it to other thing - like high/instant torque from low RPM from electric motor, too soft bushings leaving too much of compliance in hard cornering, thus creating less than ideal angles (equal to running miss-aligned wheels) and overall too soft suspension which dives too much on the pressure. So I doubt it is because hybrid battery placement was after-thought (which may be true), but because car is simply not set-up with right angles and is too soft for being driven hard. Talking about any Lexus so far, I find that suspension balance (not weight distribution) is always set for "safe" driving, that is - the car will always loose the grip in the front before loosing it in the rear... apparently that is considered "safe", I just call it annoying. This is even applicable for IS-Fs, RC-Fs and LC - yes they can do power-slide because they have enough power in engine to overpower grip on rear wheels, but if you just push them into corner equally loaded they will always loose grip in the front first.

Probably more likely men... But my main question how would they know what is in your tank... or you suggesting to make advances whilst filling-up... "hey babe, you see whats flowing into my tank..."... 😁

That is quite a good point - however having right type of suspension does not mean that it is adjusted for best handling. Lexus cars are adjusted more for safe and comfortable driving, and worse there isn't even much adjustment on suspension. So if you wanted to change suspension geometry to give better feel, feedback or to grip better it would still require quite substantial changes. Meaning that car with even inferior suspension set-up can have a better handling, because they are specifically designed for it. Obviously, I am not saying that Lexus IS/RC suspension is bad, but it is more relaxed GT type suspension, which probably suites the brand well. I feel like maybe they should have at least adjusted suspension differently on say F-Sport to give it that little bit of edge over Luxury/Premier/Takumi and diversify the model - now you get exactly the same thing on all trims.

I am sure there were several threads regarding this topic and all ended-up being locked-out.... for reasons... With my IS250 I used to run the tank completely empty - my usual refill was 62-63L, 2 times actually run out of fuel and I was taking notes for each tank. 1 premium fuel does not give better fuel economy. Best fuel consumption was from my memory on cheapest ASDA fuel and worst on one of the premium ones, Potentially Tesco Momentum 99 or so. Counter argument for this - premium gives more power ECU detects it, puts more aggressive timing and as result more fuel is used. 2 cleaning effectiveness is mostly irrelevant for 4GR-FSE as it is direct injection only, it is hard to say whenever premium fuel reduced thing like carbon buildup, I even had hydrogen cleaning done and that had no effect on say emissions. 3 premium fuel cannot give you more power, ECU is set to certain power (unless that figure is changes) and it can only get up-to that power, yes indeed one can get less power of cheap fuel and closer to full power on premium fuel, but never more than it originally had. From many tanks of premium fuel I haven't noticed any different in power and sometimes I think it was even worse. So overall after 70k miles in IS250 I was under impression that premium fuel is nothing more than snake-oil. It may have additional cleaners, which may in long term slowdown the buildup of some dirt in engine and fuel system, but for that to matter we don't drive cars long enough. So my conclusion - I am not completely denying benefits of premium fuel, but I think for it to matter one may need to do 500k miles on the same engine to really benefit from it. Considering price difference over 500k miles, probably it pays for a new car anyway, so I doubt it is worth it. IF difference is like 3p, why not, but when difference is 15-20p... thanks I will spend it elsewhere.

Too small - I need more like GT car and has to be have rear seats or 2+2. My list is RC-F, LC500 or 500h, BMW i8, or even BMW6/8 series. 6 is sadly getting too old now and 8 is just rebandge of 6 for more money. MB and BMW are as well attractive for M440i and C43 AMG, meaning you can get better engine without needing to go M4 or C63.

That would be true for last Gen LS, but the new LS looks very "slender", not even sure if that is good thing but sometimes I almost mistake it for ES. Overall, it doesn't feel as big as last gen and does not look bigger then GS gen4. But it does have to reasonably neat engine 500h - I guess nice upgrade coming from 450h. My point being - GS owners still seems to have a choice to "upgrade", whereas IS owners do not. I guess it could be argue that with the same logic RC owners have an option to upgrade to LC, but here are other factors at play. First of all RC in my books is IS-Coupe, and GS always been larger, better built, better equipped vehicle and RC just doesn't get same treatment. Perhaps if it would have been fitted with 450h engine, perhaps if it had better standard equipment and materials like GS.... In short - I think step from GS to LS is rather minor one and even cost difference on used cars isn't that big. Going from RC to LC, or from IS to LS is almost double the price in each case, so normal IS/RC owner would not be looking at purchasing the car in that segment, whereas GS owner might be. Genesis is interesting option and not bad shout-out. They literally have 3 saloons as their primary cars (targeting IS/GS/LS) and upcoming SUV.. (surprise surprise)... As well I would argue they took interior design cues from LC/LS and it actually looks very nice. Their cars RWD, which is very important to distance it from Hyundai past so they have right recipe for nice upcoming Luxury brand. Obviously, my issue is that they have no coupes at the moment, only some concept arts.

Understanding it and using to your advantage is - by the way Highway Code is not the law. Either way that is off-topic. Would hybrid Toyota really do in place of GS? perhaps LS is not so bad as an upgrade for GS?