Linas.P

If you getting wheels refurbished this is quite good deal, they did good job on my calipers and I believe I have seen some good feedback on wheels (haven't done myself). It is 6h until deal ends. https://bcs-wheel-refurb.com/wheel-refurb-deal-order-form-01 https://pimpmycalipers.com/brake-caliper-painting-deal01#tmp_order2step-11469 You can get 16-17" done for £167 + £35 delivery And I am seriously thinking about doing my 18" for £187 + £35 delivery 4 Caliper + high end paint £187 as well, I have paid north of £400 last time and it was with with 30% discount. This is like £50-60 wheel, pretty hard to beat. I guess if that is standard "alloy silver" or black finish maybe not so much, but doing Lexus Shadow Chrome/Phantom Grey on 18" F-sport rims are usually £100+ per wheel.

US fuel is considered inferior, not necessary due to Octane because they just use different grading system, but overall quality, less additives, cleaners lower quality control (heck it is 1/3rd the price). Secondly, they do much more miles - like mine 188k is more of exception here, where in US that would be around average.

To be honest I advise to not to do it unless you have particular problem. I have done hydrogen cleaning in the past and found no noticeable difference (maybe except some placebo). Generally, you should do carbon cleaning if you failing emissions tests i.e. you have high emissions before tests, after test they should drop. In my case all emissions were 0 before tests (below the measurable scale) and stayed the same after the test - so I don't know if it even worked. In mean time better invest into oil catch can and only do carbon cleaning when you have issue like described above.

Yes actual fuel currently costs something like 53p, it is "little bit ridiculous", that we not only double tax the fuel which then duplicates itself (basically you add fuel duty and then apply VAT on top of both), we as well additionally pay 3rd tax (which is VED) and potentially 4th tax ( that is additional VED for over £40k cars)... YET none of this goes into the roads (at least 90%+ doesn't). If goverment would be private company they would be charged by multiple authorities with filing and double counting taxes and effectively having no accountability of where it goes, as they are not I guess it is (not) fine.... And let's not make this political - Corbyn or Blo*job none of that matters, we are the issue, we need to start burning some trash dumpsters like French, preferably closer to the parliament, or even better set MPs homes on fire. That would do it. Btw that is not suggesting act of violence in public - just stating fact democracy does not exist in Britain.

I doubt they would have been replaced. Mine is now 188k miles and still on original shocks... they do not generally leak unless previous owner hit massive pot hole (or had some sort of accident) and damaged it. The reason for replacing suspension components in pairs is to have equal grip on each side, in extreme circumstances differently aged components can have different compression, rebound, travel rates and it could cause imbalance lets say in extreme emergency braking. Kind of unlikely for road car.... When it comes to shocks and springs specifically, there is as well wear consideration - if you shock travels at different rate from other you basically wearing both shocks more. However, again this is kind of theoretical thing - road surface is uneven as well, so uneven wear happens naturally anyway.

As others mentioned VED increases based on inflation or more accurately CPI, I believe it was £285 when I bought the car. In grand scheme of things it is still minor expense for me. Overall, it is not true that new cars are cheaper to tax as there were only very short period of time ~2011-2017 where tax bands of £0-40 existed. from 2017 all cars are on flat £140 tax rate + £310 for first 3 years if your cars listing price was over £40k. And these rates has not increased further to £145 + £320. It seems electric cars are still £0 to tax, but ones like Tesla would be still hit with "over £40k tax".. although don't quote me on that as it is moving target. Point being - VED increase every year for old cars and even more for new cars- this is just a way it is. In terms of VED structure, I believe it should be part of fuel price as well i.e. the more you drive the more you pay, the less efficient your car is the more you pay. Nice self-adjusting structure, even caters for wear and tear on the engines etc. However, overall I believe that any VED or fuel duty should be directly linked to road improvements/investment. Now we are in stupid situation where last year goverment raised £37bn from motorists (VED+Duty only) and spend barely £4bn on road "improvements"... all the roads getting more an more neglected (at least around where I live) and I could not even make fun of that saying "roads here are now like in Eastern Europe"... because actually they are far worse. @jackcramerr ... but you still allowed into the city (and will be for foreseeable future) whereas your friend would have to pay £12.50 surcharge every time. Obviously, subject to actually going into the city.

Not sure why this appears as sticky note on my profile and a bit confused how it is relevant to the thread: Anyhow, I never seen L1NAS (number plate) for sale. However, I have accidentally noticed that such plate exist and it is attached to the exactly same car as mine Black Lexus IS250 SE-L. As it would be perfect match for my name I though that it is strange coincidence it is as well attached to the same car - perhaps another Linas has black IS250. In other hand I am not sure I would like to drive car with my name on it... sound like good idea at first, but when you think about it more it would be kind of weird.

I agree in general, but there are caveats - Octane booster actually reduces the temp not raises it. Again, probably it won't hurt, but the carbon issues is specific to intake valves, cylinders themselves and exhaust vales burns carbon deposits when at the operating temp for prolonged periods of time anyway. So I guess the only part where cleaners could help is the injectors.

I didn't say either that you said it or didn't say the rest. My point was that on DI the main issue is intake valves, the rest actually cleans well enough just with normal use. Obviously, it won't hurt to clean rest of the system just in case, but it won't help with the key issue.

On IS250 Discs wear is horrible anyway, no matter what pads you use. OE discs barely last 2 sets of pads, any softer pads would result in much more brake dust and Lexus low dust pads (although more aggressive) doesn't really wear discs much more, still requires replacement every second time.

I floor my car all day everyday, generally drive it very hard and launch from every light possible, so doubt it is an issue with anything stuck anywhere. Always drove like that and will always do, however now the MPG is lower compared to exact same driving habits before. When it come to valve cleaning, I have done hydrogen cleaning few years back - theory is that they pump hydrogen via intake so it should clean intake valves as well. Haven't really felt any difference before or after it, equally never had issues with excessive pollution so it didn't really fix anything. Redex won't help intake valves, only injectors or hopefully exhaust valves, maybe cylinders little bit, but problem is always intake valve stems and back side where carbon build-up is biggest problem.

generally, shock absorbers should be replaced in pairs (and anything else in suspension) - that is considered to be good practice. In other hand I do understand that when car is not that valuable anymore replacing part which still works might not make much sense.

No, mine is Auto. Lexus haven't done lifters TSIB in UK. Mine had lifter rattle well before the MPG problem started, easiest solution - replace oil after no more than 6000 miles and flush every second time. Works for me, oil stays clean for long and I do not have rattle since I have started doing it (last 60k miles). It kind of starts at 10-12k miles(at the end of second oil change after refill), but it is nowhere as loud or frequent, could barely hear it for a fraction of second after turning on the engine.... at least compared with when I first time had it on cold morning and car was like 128k miles and oil was not changed since I bough it @120k - it was literally like mini-gun under acceleration until oil warmed-up

I must say, that perhaps LC is not the best GT car ever, but this convertible must be currently one of the best looking convertibles. Looks almost concept model on the street - somewhat reminds me when in 2014 BMW confirmed i8 design and it was (hate it or like it) extraordinary compared to anything else on the road. From additional, pictures again I could say - what a good choice of the wheel design, massive improvement over previous style. The only other thing I have noticed is the space in the rear - obviously this is not an issue for somebody buying £80k+ convertible, but it seems compared with coupe there are no space left, seems like literally 10cm between front passenger and rear headrests.

yes you are right, however people keep raising same points - meaning they will get same monotonic response. When people going to stop saying 300h is fast enough I am going to stop saying my part of the same script.

Seems a bit low for me... I used to get ~28MPG in London and ~44MPG on motorway if not going over 90. However, for last couple of months I am having issues with MPG as well as it has dropped to ~37MPG on motorway and barely 22MPG in town. Still cannot get to the bottom of it, but suspected are "lazy" oxygen sensors or MAF. In short - if you getting anything below 25MPG look for issues.

Just to add the same - best place to compromise is on mileage, because you really should not worry about it. However, you should not compromise on service history. Secondly, make sure you get exactly the car you want with all options you want - retrofitting or modifying anything on Lexus is next to impossible and always works out more expensive than simply getting car with all option straight away. As said above - look for SE-L with options you like and as long as service history check outs and price suits you, there isn't much to check about the cars. Bargaining points could be stuck or sticking brakes which are common thing. On higher miles older cars expect to have bit of rust on exhaust - if spotted could save you few £ if seller is willing to sell.

The location of the drip is kind of strange, so I guess it drips into plastic tray an then somewhere round the side of the tray. First thing to do would be to get tray removed and identify where the oil is actually leaking from, from there somebody would be able to give you more accurate guesstimate.

That has been posted several times and I happily quote it - Lexus dealerships (as much they are not perfect) are still one of the best in terms of customer service, servicing costs are low, cars are reliable, so from practical ownership experience I completely agree - Lexus gives best impression. If one ever goes to dealership most of the time it will be just fluids changes and no unexpected bills. However, that is not to say it somehow makes ES less worse from the driving perspective, or any 300h less sluggish. What ones needs to understand is what comes in mind when filling such surveys - they ask ask questions about reliability, customer service etc. and nobody can deny Lexus does well in these departments. However, if survey would be about driving thrill, dynamics or experience Lexus would be nowhere to be found on the list. That is pretty much what I have said many times - if Lexus wants to advertise themselves as reliable and luxurious, that is fine they certainly deserve top places. However, if they advertising themselves as cars for younger people, fast and sporty, giving some sort of thrills behind the wheel... then sorry it is lie! And then Lexus deserves criticism for advertising their products in worn light and in the way they are not performing. That is what I am doing here and with this thread - if they try to sell me smaller car and pretend it is comparable with 5-Series where it clearly isn't or that it is dynamic and with FWD which it isn't - then I will call it lie.

Wow, kind of unexpected and I would say look gorgeous! I even like the wheels - somehow fits the design of the car without being cheesy like ones on normal LCs.

and I explicitly said that @spacenase ... yes you are car enthusiast who does not care about "the driving" or "the handling". I hope you not feel insulted, because this is just another person online and just a discussion forum. Based on what you said above it is a stretch to call yourself car enthusiast (just my opinion obviously). My uncle is kind of similar - he eats chicken, but still considers himself a vegetarian. And when somebody goes "Darius... you not really rear vegetarian are you?!" ... he quickly claims "ohhh yes I am, it is only red meat which counts, not chicken!". So you trying to similarly stretch commonly agreed terms between car enthusiasts and say that actually, you don't even need to care about handling or that handling does not actually means what it means, it means "the way car absorbs potholes, drives in traffic and on straight busy motorway". That sounds like me on cycling forum - saying all bicycles should be banned from the roads or they should have insurance and cyclists at least basic mandatory training... but then claiming I am devoted cyclist. Why? Because I do actually own bicycle.... sure. Should you care that Linas on internet says you are not car enthusiasts by even remote stretch of imagination... probably you shouldn't (I would not). Hope we could find more luck discussing other motoring related topics apart of "the driving aspect". 👍

Have you actually watched the Lexus advert which I have specifically quoted (advert created by "AI"). By the way - what AI did, it collated all successful adverts and their context and selected the criteria which worked best to advertise to potential buyers. That means - that not only Lexus uses "petrolhead values", but actually that "petrolhead values are widely acceptable and valued between car buyers."... at least based on "big data" analysis by AI. @spacenase - I do not make assumptions about the person you are, I can only reply to what you have stated. You said that you don't like and not agree with the values of "top gear like" or car magazine reviews, because they focus on the values which you don't have or don't appreciate. Now if you say "actually there is a lot in common, except of speed and fast corners" you just changing your story now. Basically, you saying - I made wrong assumption about you, because what you said in previous comment, you didn't actually mean it?! I mean c'mon what you except then? Vintage cars enthusiasts are slightly different topic. I am certainly one and I would love to have some space to actually restore vintage car. However, have you thought about how most of the vintage car became appreciated? To most extent compared to contemporaries they were fast, great sounding and better handling cars - exactly because of the petrolhead values. There are exception as always, but there are far far more fitting this description then not. Take even original Mini - it was outstanding car for performance and handling for it's day, on track able to go head to head with Mustang, it was extremely popular car as well so brings a lot of memories for many. RR, Bentley and XJs - maybe were not great handling car for today's standards, but they were reasonably handling for their time, however they always had massive lumps of an engine - 4, 5, 6.25 litres V8, V12s and for straight line performance only the best of the best sports cars could rival them. Probably until late 80's when "hot hatches" became a thing, again most of them are appreciated now because of performance on track and twisty road. Then there are exceptions like Beetle - terrible car overall, but was amazingly popular and probably brings a lot of memories back, same can be said about first Golfs nowadays (GTI obviously get there for different reason). Why there are Austin Allegro clubs is mystery for everyone including the club members - my guess car was so **** that everyone hated it so much and deliberately destroyed it where they can, that some even became sorry (for the car) and started collecting/protecting them. This is great considering the rarer the car is the more valuable it is and although Allegro was common car in it's time, so many have been deliberately destroyed because of hate that only handful remains. Originality, can as well be a factor, but that is very subjective. In the end of day petrolhads are not idiots (most of the time) and that is why they don't race vintage cars in the "race fashion", there are obviously vintage cars rallies which works completely differently. That is because for today standards (in contrast with contemporary) they do not handle that well, far too valuable to crash and in case of crash they are not safe. But that does not negate main reason why they are collected - because of petrolhead values. I think you mention of classic cars is really relevant here, because it is almost possible to say whenever new car is suitable for petrolhead or not based on possibility of it becoming classic. Let's be clear here - none of the cars with Lexus 300h engine ever going to be classics. I am pretty certain my IS250 won't ever become classic either, but the point here is not what we own, but what is our view about it. So if you think that ES300h is the car for the person who cares and likes driving and is potentially car enthusiast, this theory says you are basically wrong. To be clear I specifically said ES300h, not GS300h, because I think GS is fine car except of being a bit slow for my taste in 300h guise, whereas ES is fundamentally flawed car. Again we can go into detail about car handling and comfort, because I disagree with the way define it. Skoda being jerky is not handling and it being uncomfortable is not driving. What you saying is it so bad it doesn't even fit the most basic duties of stopping and starting in traffic - terrible car I would say. Comparing it with Lexus is little bit unfair, but I think it is clear to anyone that Lexus GS going to be much more comfortable then most of the cars. Now when you say how car absorbs the potholes could be part of handling - no... just no. Have you ever been going round corners at speed in very stiff rally or time attack car? Yes every-time there is ridge or pothole on the road you think your spine going to smash into pieces, but they grip.. grip.. grip. Yes there could be a point where car is too stiff and rebounds are wrongly adjusted and it could fly of the road due to hitting something and loosing grip, but that is different story. In short for handling - the stiffer the better (but it could go too far as anything). I am reaching the point where I think you are so much non-petrolhead that we simply cannot bridge this understanding and view-point gap. That is not to say it is your fault - maybe I am far too much of petrolhead to the extreme end... For me this discussion start to look like the guy with supermarket plane model in 1:120 for £12.99 trying to explain modelling enthusiast in the modelling club the values of the modelling. Tries to justify why Tesco plane models still has to be considered as real models and why he is real plane modelling enthusiast, that is when the other guy just spent 7 years building his own model from scratch in 1:10 size from thin sheet aluminium or what not. That discussion is going into direction where the second guy just leaves the first one alone and thinks - "mate you have no clue of how deep the detail and the values goes, to the extent I am could not even care to explain".

Ok... so the issue is in translation, it seems we use different definitions for the same terms - in short we both talking about totally different things. Actually, it is not my statement which is "dismissive and wrong"! I guess you can call it inconsiderate for "non-car people" values, however it is you who is dismissive and even challenge the idea of "petrolhead" values being valid. Whenever wrong or right that is different question altogether - (spoiler alert) I don't think there actually is "right", just millions of different perspectives. "The Top Gear style" and the way "all car magazines seems to think" is not a "concept" is the way petrolhead looks at the car. I think it is worth clarifying what is "petrolhead" based on publicly available definitions: a person who is interested in or is devoted to travelling by car (Collins) someone who likes and uses their car a lot, and does not want to use any other type of transport (Cambridge) a person involved in motor racing as either participant or dedicated spectator Often they as well slap "excessive", "crazy", "overly reliant", "show off" to above definitions, but that is not exactly objective, rather applies to any enthusiast - petrolhead simply being "car enthusiast". What you are basically saying is that you are not petrolhead and petrolhead values are not close to yours. If you ever consider whenever it would be better to drive your car or be driven by chauffeur (or AI in case of self-driving car), that is already a sign. It is important to note that being "non-car person" is in no way worse than being petrolhead or vice versa - everyone are entitled to their own values. However, that is what Top Gear means when saying "for people who do care about driving" - they mean very specifically "the driving" in petrolhead definition - that is "fast driving on country lanes, closed roads or tracks (or like hooligan in the traffic)". The way a car handles on busy motorway is not important to those who care about the driving, because there is nothing sophisticated about staying in straight line for prolonged period of time (unless we talking 200mph on autobahn) - it is literally most dreary type of driving, nobody gets excited about that. Same goes for being stuck in traffic - this is not driving it is punishment. How car absorbs the pot holes - that is comfort, not handling or the driving. The situations people face day-to-day is not the driving either, that is commuting. From my perspective and I would claim I am petrolhead all new cars sold in UK today are "good enough" for such daily/dreary tasks - that is something described as "a box to go from A to B". In summary - "the driving", "the handling" and other car related terms are not just any handling and any driving, but something very specific and very important for petrolhead. If you speak to enthusiast of any thing and any sort - model making, sailing, gardening etc. they all going to have some very special view which might not be shared by non-enthusiasts. Now finally, what is right or what is wrong - any mainstream car reviews are adjusted for petrolheads and any car advertisement (look for ES one above - rumbling engines, smoking tyres, twisty roads) are aimed at the petrolhead values. The wording they use have specific meaning for car enthusiasts, whereas you probably take them as more generic claims - if you can turn on the engine and drive the car that is not "the driving", if car can literally go around the corner - that is not "the handling". Now...are you wrong? - in some sense yes, you just associate different values to the terms and thus miss the point. Does that makes your values wrong? - no, you just have different values and that is fine. But then don't have distaste for reviews and the way they focus on certain values - reviews are done by petrolheads for petrolheads, if you not one just bear that in mind and only take what you care about, but don't say that values they focus on are wrong, because then the same can be said about yours!

ES is not in the same league with 5-Series or E-Class, no matter how hard Lexus would try to market it as such, I give you that it is equivalent to 4-Series GC, not 3-series. Secondly, I find it hard to believe rear legroom is that much important for high mileage drivers (unless we talking exec-taxis here). I can appreciate the sentiment of having something different from the rest, yet somehow don't see appeal when that something different is so much worse. Finally, what exactly you find wrong about the statement that "ES is for drivers who don't care about driving?" Seems to fit your case - comfortable and quiet place to be and don't care about speeds or handling... isn't that correct then?

For what Lexus ES is wouldn't BIK saving be better on BMW330e and MB C350e?