Linas.P

I am sure hybrids are fine for daily driving, but it is not like V8 are particularly bad at it, I doubt it makes huge difference for somebody paying £50k or 100k for a car whenever it does 30MPG and 40MPG. Not to mention it is unlikely that many LCs does huge miles either - and for somebody that does 4000 miles a year... again MPG makes little difference. Why would hybrids would be cheaper? Because for GT car like this economy does not matter - pretty much anyone who pays that amount of money for such car are buying it to get V8. People who want daily driving and more practical car won't buy LC anyway, they will have RX or whatever. LC hybrids were always much less desirable and were outsold by V8s something like 3:1... and those that sold were probably first bought by Lexus dealers themselves as demos just to be further passed down as used cars at lower price later on. Now I am not saying that LC500h is a bad car, or that I would not like to have one myself for the right price, I am just stating kind of obvious - they are less desirable and therefore I am slightly surprised that they are not cheaper compared to V8s whatever the price point it would.

I am kind of surprised that hybrids are keeping up as well. One would think they would be in lower demand, hence lower price and thus there would be 2 layers let's say £35-50k for hybrids and 50+ for V8s perhaps with few higher miles V8s intermixed between the more expensive hybrids. But at the moment it seems they selling purely on year + mileage without consideration for engine. I guess it could be partially explained by most of the cars still being at dealers who don't mind waiting and have no pressures of private seller.

They sold IS250 manual which is £600 to tax and there are many many examples of cars that didn't have "kind" tax regime and sold relatively well. CLS500 (actually all CLS range with exception of diesels), SL350, Z350, several models of SAABs and Volvos with 2.3T, as well Lexus own LS and GS models which we can argue sold less units combined that cheaper IS could have sold, not to mention IS-F. So I just just think somebody in Lexus strategy department being outright stupid. Same can be said about IS220d being manual only for no reason. And by the way - it wasn't just UK, they have not sold it in entire Europe, despite many countries being completely fine as far as tax is concerned (i.e. not having one at all). Yeah... I had that on my European F-Sport too. It was only UK which got half polyester seats as standard and as the only option.

maybe find a song or a band you like, and play it loud - if it happens to be one that your wife hates this should resolve both problems at once 🙂

If they were very faded, there is point by which they are too far gone to refurbish, but normally if they just started yellowing/fading then it should be good for many years. As well there is possibility that something is not done right.

What is the mileage? Because if it is ~75-100k, then it my be the case of O2/Lamda sensor failing and car simply running rich which would blow emissions out right away. Catalytic converter failing very unlikely before like 200k miles, but catalytic performance would show as bad if O2 sensor is bad.

They basically do - the solution is sanding the lenses and clear coating them. This is sort of permanent solution and in my experience lasts good 5 years (so more or less the same as original). Or just polishing them, which is obviously quicker, cheaper and less involved process, but it gives back like 80% shine and last maybe 2 years. If good ceramic coating is used then maybe 3 years. I mean sure - neither is 100% like new headlight, but for sort of £50 to polish or £100 to sand/clear coat it get's 80-90% of the looks and 100% of performance back, so no real need to remanufacture anything. I doubt there would be huge market for remanufactured headlight for say £250 each (half the price of original). I certainly given the cost would rather polish mine every 2-3 years rather than spending £500 to have them looking slightly nicer for maybe 5.

No it is 2006, so not legal requirement to have them - but I was thinking about the MOT and whenever they would give advisory or would outright fail it. As I understand they shouldn't as it is not VSC light, but to be safe I will be putting original set of wheels when it comes to MOT time just to be safe.

Replacement lenses as well exists, but the process is basically impossible. You have to hack trough epoxy glue that holds the lens and that is material that was designed to be as thought as possible... and then you would have to glue the lens back in place with same glue which again easier said than done. In short - if they are not cracked then simply polish them, or if they are really really bad, then you can as well replace them altogether. As it happens forum member selling pair for £200... Just note - you will have to remove front bumper to replace them (either way, even if you get replacement lenses that would still be needed as there is no way you replacing them on the car)

That is right - the only Lexus that is better to be passenger in than to drive it! 😄 As for LS - they are quite popular for "beater events", basically picked-up for specific journey just to be abandoned at the end of it. Kind of sad end, but there are many reasons for why... most common ones are reliability, comfort and low cost. Sadly LS seems to be too good value for it's own good.

Yes agreed - for average person this sort of TPMS is better than nothing, for me it is more of a nuisance than anything else, because most of the time it triggers incorrectly, so basically I am driving with TPMS light with obstructs my view of more important things (like remaining range) despite me knowing the tyre pressure is correct and light was just triggered because of sharp corner. I was actually surprised it didn't trigger at all when I replaced the wheels, but that was short lived - half way from London to Birmingham TPMS decided to start working and informed me that I was apparently driving without wheels for last 100 miles. Now when I clear the code for TPMS it triggers only when I take sharp turn at speed... which doesn't inspire confidence in me to trust the system works at all... I guess workaround would be to press button that switches between main and second set and that should get rid of the fault until next sharp corner. The other solution I am thinking off - just put 4 sensors in the boot, set warning to 0PSI (not actually sure that is possible) and just carry them around.

I kind of know the answer and just hoping I am wrong and missing something... but is there any way to disable TPMS on GS mk3? Why? First, because it is absolutely useless outside of rare case of getting complete tyre failure and sudden loss of air... because it does not show tyre pressure, nor which wheel is low and for me it is simply easier to check that myself with gauge, than it is with Techstream and then guess which sensor is in which wheel. Secondly, the cost of fitting the sensors for what is basically useless feature (even thought I have 2 set of GS wheels and all together 10 TPMS sensors, it would still be like £160 just to refit them to new wheels). So if there is any possibility of simply disabling the TPMS I would rather take that option, than wasting £160 fixing something that is annoying at best.

That is pretty much perfect summary of my view. And very honestly I support low range and small BEVs that can be used in urban areas. And I am happy for that to be promoted if car meets certain criteria e.g. up-to 1,500kg in weight, perhaps certain limits of the size with up to 20kWh battery or whatever is decided to to be acceptable (almost like K-Car concept just for EV). Then they perhaps can get free or cheaper parking, charging, no congestion charge etc. That is positive way of encouraging people to do it, but just simply banning something that works in favour of something that doesn't work is stupid. The problems only starts, as you said, when they want to make it the only way. And that is the case with all public transport and will always be. You just simply can't make it "too nice" because not every member of the society is educated, responsible, clean person who will look after it. Some will ***** in the corners, some will spray it with graffiti, some will carve the back of the seats with knife, some will have they dirty kids wipe their hands after eating chicken burger with barbeque sauce onto the seats, some will put their shaity shoes on the seat in front of them, some will leave their rubbish after themselves and {insert whatever else here}. So it is inevitable that public transport will always remain dirty and stinky place and the only other option is to have some space that you own yourself and you have control of what happens inside. Obviously, it is possible to control it somewhat, perhaps ban the food on public transport, have some sort of attendant to enforce it, but inevitably there is limit of where it becomes counterproductive and it is simpler just to make the seats from plain stainless steel and just clean the with bleach once in a while.

When it comes to lead free fuel... that was change basically at no cost to consumer, at no cost to manufacturers, no difference in refuelling and mostly compatible with all cars. Basically the lead was replaced with different additives. So it really was no brainer and that was very poisonous substance which was really used just for sake of being lazy and not wanting to change. BEVs are huge change to everything, more expensive to consumer, very inconvenient to charge, as they stand new in dealerships they are factually much much more polluting and to really get benefit one must use them in quite specific way and for at least 80k miles before they really provide any benefits, and that is even ignoring unbelievable damage they cause to communities, all slave labour involved etc. So I just don't think that is comparable. As well as for public transport - that is kind of the point, private car ownership is about convenience and even with the best public transport in the world I can't see myself sitting next to other stinky people, their stupid unruly kids etc. Having car is not about going from point A to point B (at least for me), not only it is more comfortable, but as well you are in control of when you go, where you go and what do you take with you... and public transport will never be able to match that.

To be fair I don't know the complications that are introduced by hybrid battery. On conventional car I connected it directly to starter battery leads (which in your case is aux battery) and when engine is running my starter battery did not lose any charger (in fact it got fully charged in mean time). This means alternator was enough to both power the polisher/vacuum and charge battery. In such way the starter battery basically becomes a large capacitor which absorbs any peaks. Checking with multimeter the alternator was still outputting 12.8-13.2V with the load. Now in hybrid case I don't know if the hybrid battery would be impacted in any way.

On IS250 in general you looking at 28MPG average (I would say 22MPG at very lowest in city and 44MPG on motorway), which is very very good considering the car it is. As for autobox - not sure what you want to know? It is good box, much better than one in SC430 before 2006. After 2006 SC got new box (A760E) which in principle is the same one as IS250C (A960E) just rated for more torque. But in my experience A960E is more responsive. Road tax you looking at ridiculous £395/year, not as bad as SC430 I guess, but certainly unjustified. As for the rest of car it will be similar to SC430 - slower, but more practical, semi-useable rear seats compared to unusable ones in SC. The most at risk item is roof, as for all convertibles, but probably better than competition. Otherwise everything that applies to IS250 applies to IS250C as well.

If you want more than 120W, then you should connect inverter to battery directly, not via power outlet. That is not to say I recommend it, so be warned about it and do it at your own risk. I have 2000W inverter connected directly to car battery and was using successfully with vacuum (1600W) and with DA polisher (claims 800-1200W). The alternator theoretically outputs 14.4V at 150A so that is 2160W, now obviously in practice it does not output as much, car need some power to run and you still want battery charging, so I would say should never exceed 1000W continuous or 1500W peak. But if we talking about 300W continuous that would not be a problem.

Sadly it sounds to me like it is going to go into junk box on Lexus corporate. It is not like they are not aware of the problem - because this affect most new Lexus and Toyota cars, even broader industry, I think these sort of attacks started on Range Rovers, later BMWs and Audi. By now I think BMW/Audi got on top of it so this type off attack is moving to other brands. What I am saying - if they wanted to fix it, they could... but clearly there is no sufficient risk from alike of class action suits to justify rolling out recall and fixing it. They just decided damage done by theft is lower than damage created by recall, so they clearly need looming risk of $10 billion class action suit before they move the finger. Currently, they are just playing on owners ignorance, because let's face it - 95% of owners will not blame them for the theft and won't realise that part of the reason of popularity of this method is negligent security design from the maker. I think it is as well a "watershed" moment for them - because issue is so widespread they can't just do few models. If they now admit that say LC and RX, NX are vulnerable and they will be calling them back, then next on the list will be ES... and if ES is on the list then why Toyota Avalon isn't?! In short this would open the gates for owners of all other cars with that vulnerability to start raising the issue as well. I don't believe Toyota is worried about fixing few 100k Lexus, they are afraid that if they admit it is their fault then they will be responsible for fixing tens of millions of Toyotas. Just good example that "corporate mindset" does not change. This is like exploding Pinto gas tanks - Ford decided it will cost them less money to pay compensation to the families of people who died, than fixing the cars. Toyota doing exactly the same thing and the only difference that this is not fuel tank and likely won't kill anyone, so they just calculated the risks and decided doing nothing is most "cost efficient" way.

The camera quality was quite bad on IS250, so I am not sure if that is maybe the way it is. As for screen replacement - it is possible to replace just the digitiser, which would as well replace the coating (as it is top layer). This could be done by yourself for ~£20 with minimal skills, but it requires taking out the whole head-unit. Basically depends on how much you like to do yourself on the cars. I did it myself and it is ~1h job all in. Other option - just get whole replacement head unit, depending on version and availability you have, these sells for ~80-£300. But if you want to go that route, then I advise just replacing with aftermarket android units which are 10 times better than what came in cars original and one can get them for ~£300 as well. Finally, if it turns out to be camera itself, then again your best best it to get used one from like eBay. Should be no more than £100.

Tyres were never an issue for me on autobahn, although I always had premium tyres so that isn't surprising. But the brakes would fade rapidly after few 200>130 stops. I even had one set of disks warped because of that. As for braking yourself drinving on ACC - I think your instincts are right. I have tried the older version of ACC on autobahn (non-all speed one before LSS+, although I am not sure if RC ever got "all-speed" ACC, so it may be fundamentally the same) and whereas it was able to slow down from ~240 to ~160 in my case, it would do it very inconsistently e.g. it would start slowing down way too slow for the situation at first, then would slam on the brakes and activate seat belt pretensioners with associated impending doom beeps, slow down too much and then let off to finish... all that would upset the car and obviously occupants. I doubt ACC was developed in mind with suddenly deaccelerating by 100km/h as part of normal driving. I am sure use case for it is doing 130 and then slowing down to 110 when somebody pulls into outside lane to overtake, or just matching speed ahead of you in the slow lane, or I guess fast lane for that matter. What I am saying system is perfectly capable of matching the speed in 5, 10, 20... maybe 30km/h increments, but if you have to shave 100km/h off then I would be doing the same (by braking myself) and I think that is right thing to do. They probably need to make special version of ACC for Germany with different "adjustment".

ECU is is not codded to anything, so you can simply pop the ECU in, run the reset procedure and it will link with all the parts. That is at least true for IS250, but I don't see why IS220d would be different in this regard. Bonus - for IS220d there is only few ECUs available, whereas on IS250 there are few dozen different versions.

To the selected few in the country...

In the end of the day it is not a bad idea, as long as you come to terms and accept that NX will not be as well built as GS... but car ownership is always a compromise... so perhaps slightly lower "perceived comfort", but more practical car will be better. And again, if you driving on poorer roads and don't take corners at speed, then perhaps the type of comfort the NX offers is just what you need. I am not trying to argue neither for, nor against NX... I personally know that if I had to choose, then my choice would be GS, because I just generally don't like SUVs, but that does not mean there is anything wrong with NX or that step down from GS is significant... actually it is quite small. The difference is more just inherent to the types of car they are. I guess the other angle to look at - GS is much better car for long trips, better fuel economy on motorway, but NX is much more practical with folding seats and big boot. I know I am just complicating the choice now, but that is kind of the point NX is not better than GS, GS is not better than NX, they are just quite different.

Yes, but that is kind of missing the point - I don't believe work quality is what at risk here, Lexus is just Toyota in principle. I am 100% sure for something like oil change there is absolutely no difference whenever Toyota or Lexus Technician will do it. In all likelihood it may be the same person. The difference comes from the price you pay, so why take your Lexus to Toyota dealership if they going to charge you the same price? And if you paying the same price, then why not benefit from nicer customer area, free coffee, biscuit, courtesy car and car wash. I am not saying they really add the value, but they don't remove any value. And finally if your car is less than 100k miles / 10 years then Relax it is quite obvious reason to stay with Lexus. I guess the only reason why I would use Toyota dealer for service... would be hypothetical scenario where there are no Lexus dealers in my area and there is Toyota dealer nearby AND my car is over 10 years / 100k miles. Then yes - I can see the point, but else just stick with Lexus.

Colour and mileage does not mean much, I think more important would be to consider the condition. Yes so called "Amarilo Edition" is limited edition, if you had a car in perfect condition, low mileage, 100% original, all time garaged, then it may be worth little bit extra over standard cars. As complete speculation and stab in the dark - let's say absolutely perfect IS200 theoretically costs £5,000, so then absolutely perfect limited edition would be worth maybe £6,000. Yet if the car is in poor condition and with 167k miles then it will be worth less than £1000 regardless if it is limited edition or standard car. On top of that, there was Toyota Altezza RS200 that was actually "special", with significant mods etc. Amarillo Edition is just a paint option, which really doesn't add that much. I would say if Lexus IS would be overall considered collectable car, then limited colour options would be worth extra, but as it isn't that means it is just rarer colour option... if you like the colour then great, else it is minor detail compared to other factors. As for selling it - if you love the car and drive it, then keep it... if you don't drive it then let others enjoy it and sell it. If you worried that this is some sort of car to keep for the future, or something that you will regret selling, because it will be highly prized classic, then don't... it really isn't.