Linas.P

All your point are kind of irrelevant, because it seems you speaking with yourself... or you just can't read. At what point did I say people have to learn to drive on summer tyres in cold?! This is ridiculous idea and it wasn't me who said it... it was you... ...learn to drive on WINTER tyres in those conditions. My point was about overall skill of driving on slippery roads that majority of Brits do not have because there is no environment here to learn it. point being - if you don't have skill to drive on slippery roads, then it does not matter what tyres you have... and as I said previously, having all seasons may just work out worse for inexperienced driver, because they will mask the road condition until it is too late. Not tyres fault, just reality in UK. Black ice is not "edge case", this is basically the only reason to have anything but summer tyres ever (well... and deep snow)... and in UK black ice is the main winter condition and most dangerous one in the country where people do not have proper winter tyres. Because patches of ice may appear right around 0C, especially on the bridges and UK is particularly bad, because it is particularly humid/wet. By the time temperatures gets to -10C or -20C black ice is not an issue anymore, because weather has to be very dry for such temperature to occur. So black ice is not edge case at all.

I think many people do not realise how small is the BEV market around the world. It is certainly growing, but it is not a big market. I understand that please investors is as well important, but looking what Toyota makes and sells it becomes clear that BEVs is small fish to fry for them... at least at the moment. They can easily let other companies to sort out the kinks and then come in with superior model to take over the market. Obviously there are always business risks. I do not fully agree... yes main problem is infrastructure for both. But BEVs are extremely dirty as a car itself as well. 60-80k miles just to break-even on pollution and about 30% saving on 100k lifetime in pollution compared with ICEV on mixed energy grid. I mean they are simply not the "clean miracle" they are advertised to be. Sure that to some point applies to hydrogen - car is very clean, but we simply don't have "clean" hydrogen at all. Relevant comparison would be charging BEV with exclusively coal power stations. Which by the way is exactly the case in many "developing" countries like India and China... they increasing they BEV fleet, but their energy is very dirty... on top of cars themselves not being that clean to build either. Now sure that is "average", there are areas where BEVs are significantly better than ICEVs, especially certain types e.g. city driving. But that is the whole another topic of how it is horribly prioritised to specifically promote the particular use which is most beneficial. Battery Electric is great for small, short range city cars - horrible for long rage, large intercity cars.

I have long given-up reading tyre reviews from actual owners, because they are always all over the place. The guy in tyre reviews who does driving tests is excellent thought, the only annoying part is that he often tests Premium tyres on Ecnoshaitboxes like 1.5 Golf, or even GTI. Basically, what works and doesn't work on Golf will be completely different on Lexus or some other Premium RWD car. As far as Goodyear always cracking before wearing out... again really depends. Tyres age, so if your mileage is low it may be the case, but will not be the case for people who drive more. So I would take such blanket statement with pinch of salt (even if sometimes I like to make such statements myself). And it is not necessary that such statements are wrong, but because they can be interpreted wrong without context.

Tesla? I am not "hydrogen evangelists", but quite clearly there are no issues with hydrogen cars, the issues are with fuel supply and distribution, which by the way as well main issue with BEV. So I think Toyota could set it's own trend if they would build their own network or set long term partnership with one of big oil companies. Now sure - we still have issue when it comes to producing clean hydrogen, could Toyota build their own NPPs to focus on only making hydrogen, could they again partner with some companies in the field... I think they could. Point I am trying to make - it seems like when it comes to unpractical and in places outright stupid BEV trend, like outright bans of alternative vehicles despite BEVs still having loads of issues, then people somehow finds explanation for them, but when it comes to hydrogen... suddenly it is not possible. I don't think the price is the issue, although it is important. The problem that many EVangelists makes statements about charging the BEVs as if it is some sort of norm, standard and accessible for everyone. No it is not - in fact majority of people cannot charge their BEVs at home and that is before widespread adoption. So at the moment the issue is that majority of people do not have access to dedicated, off-road to parking space - and this is important, for BEV charging you need such parking space, or people have parking space, but doesn't have a charger and can't install one. In future we will have issues with having the parking space and charger, but there being insufficient capacity to charge all BEVs in the network, or overall lack of electricity. And this argument is circular as well, I don't know how many times I had to explain this in detail that we as a nation - do not generate enough peak electricity, do not have enough transmission capacity to charge all BEVs, especially in the cities (where BEVs makes most sense) we do not have where to park them and where to install the chargers. And so far we just hedging our bets on unproven technology which is not on the market to make BEVs to charge as quickly as ICE counterparts and centralise the charging... it may happen or we may have to give up driving altogether.

I have replaced ECU kit - must be matching keys + ID box + steering lock, but as well they need to be matching part numbers to gateway and smart key module. So you basically just end-up buying whole kit anyway, ideally with 2 keys already. Engine ECU can be programmed via pins on OBD2, just one advice - be careful not to damage OBD2 port as replacing it is really annoying. The only thing that theoretically would need dealership programming would be keys, so just make sure to get kit with keys. if the car was unlocked remotely, but key was never detected and and you try to start the car then it will say "no key detected". Other option I am thinking about - faulty brake pedal, clutch pedal or gear selector switch i.e. car doe not recognise that you depress clutch, so it does not know you attempting to start it. Again I am not 100% sure how it works on IS220d, but on IS250 immobiliser does not cut power to anything, so everything in the car works, expect it cuts fuel like 0.5s after the start.

Overload of fallacies here, moving goal post with each sentence, creating imaginary narratives that you can then defeat yourself (that is strawman, but I have lost the count of others)... I never said they are not good on snow, now you introducing arbitrary conditions... salting, dry or damp road in winter... nobody cares. Seems like you just summarising all the conditions that all seasons would be perfect for, but not the conditions of the real winter, nor even the one some of the parts in UK gets. My statement was fairly simple - below freezing point they are useless... now think of where the freezing point is in your imaginary world and from there they will become useless. Got it? It is debatable, because 360 days per year Summer tyres are better compromise where I live... and 50% of the population in UK lives. This winter was kind of mild, so I hardly remember a day when temp was below 5C, but even going back all the way to the "beast from the east" times that was what? maybe 2 days of snow? wow... sure it was probably -5C at night, but by 8AM when I was driving to work it was already +2C and everything was melting. This is typical anxiety of something that you don't understand... I lived and learned to drive in the country where we often have full month of -10C and at least 3-4 months when it gets below 0C... by the way -10C or -20C are amazing conditions for driving, dry and easy. The worst time is exactly around 0C, that is because in some spots water freezes and at the same time ice melts in others... and you get patches of black ice everywhere, there are no tyres that works in those conditions. Studded ones are bad in puddles and on dry surface studs just falls out, non-studded winter tyres still struggles with black ice, the all-seasons are useless, summer tyres are obviously illegal.. the chains don't work either. So you just have to learn to drive in those conditions. And then you come to UK where it is basically a single season all year long and people are complaining about winter conditions 👍

not sure if that is language barrier or something else. Why can't all seasons deal with negative temps? Because that is when waters turns from liquid, so solid... which in English language (which is not my first one) is also called ICE! So again - all seasons deals with everything nicely, expect of ice, and if you hit patch of ice you will spin just as you would spin on summer tyres. Any other questions?

power seats are always on, so they only need battery to be connected to work. check OBD2 fuse, although you need to be in IG ON to be able to use OBD2, so if the car does not cycle power modes you can't read anything. In my case it allowed me to cycle OFF>ACC>IG and would let me start the engine, but engine would stall right away (IS250 auto). It may turn out into boring task of checking all the fuses. Including combination fuse. I assume you tried touching key to the start button (if batteries in key are good should not matter, but sometimes every little helps). Hard to say, but so far it sounds more like no power to ignition, rather than immobiliser fault. Immobiliser should only prevent engine from starting. Could be smart key module as well, perhaps not recognising the key is inside the car at all... although in that case I would expect it to say "no key detected" on the dash.

If it was truly black ice, then all-seasons would have made absolutely no difference. Snow, slush, slippery mud with leaves, temperatures close to 0, but not negative - yes all seasons deals with that nicely, but on ice they are just summer tyres basically. And that is one thing I don't like about all seasons (not that it is tyre fault), but people fit them and drive way too confidently... almost as if it is summer. On summer tyres they may get warring just coming out of their drive that it is slippery and they need to drive more carefully, on all seasons they don't get that warning before it is too late and then smashes at even higher speed then they would have if they were on summer tyres. Again - not tyres fault, but just leads to bad habits, especially for people who don't have experience driving on really really slippery wintry conditions... which, sorry to say, but it is 90% of Brits. And by the way that is not an attack of overall driving proficiency, but one just can't be competent in something when they see those conditions 2 days per year... and likely even when they see them, they don't have right car, tyres, space or skill to practice.

Whole dash has to come off. I have not tried myself, but I reckon it would be possible to "loosen" the dartboard and fish it out through the went/head unit hole, but at that point you would be 90% there in dash removal.

The metallic in most productions cars are in the base coat, apart of few custom pain jobs and maybe Lexus "structural" blue. Not that would make a difference where it is, in the context I mentioned it, but I think at this point I will make a note to myself to never ask you about paint jobs, because you clearly don't have a clue. As for door being painted and not the quarter, that is more reasonable statement and I made sure to compare it to other side... as it happens doors are lighter/brighter metallic on both sides, so I am pretty confident it is the rear bumper and both quarters that don't match the rest of the car. As well if you click on "Imperfecciones", then you will see that car is quite beaten-up and was either not cared for or rental... but the most important picture is of boot liner which is creased around the opening of the boot and doesn't quite fit under the seals. If that is not a sign of rear end job, then sorry nothing will help here. Again - I am not saying car was in serious accident, nobody could say it from the pictures, but that rear needs further investigation that is quite obvious.

If you know what you looking for you can tell mismatching paint quite easily. Nobody is going to tell it 100% from picture or even in person without using paint gauges etc. but I can say with 90% confidence the rear has been repainted, because there is mismatch. It is just flagging that further investigation is needed to check why paint isn't matching, that it isn't matching that is kind of fact and not even up for debate. In principle it is opposite of what you said - not many people can tell you from the pictures that car was NOT painted, because it may look okey in the picture, but in person it will be clear it is not matching. But many can spot when it not matching in the picture with high degree of accuracy and if it isn't matching in the picture then it is almost guaranteed not to match in person. It is just a matter of experience, especially if one had experience with painting or detailing. There is no reason whatsoever why there would be different reflection between rear door and quarter, the panel is in the same plain so should reflect the same. What I can't tell from pictures is whenever it was minor damage or major damage, or how is the repair quality - this needs to be measured, you need to look at the corners and panel gaps for overspray or tape lines etc.

Disagree - rear is clearly different shade, where reflection on the rear door and rear quarter should match. If anything - lighting in the protos is excellent, so it is not lighting issue. Again look to screen shot above and you can clearly see different reflection below the body line despite panels being in alignment. Quite simple issue here - when metallic paint is repainted it is very difficult to get same angle of metallic flakes as factory paint, so what usually happens is that they match paint colour, but not the angle at which flakes reflect and therefore it is very easy to spot repainted panels on metallic colours. That does not mean the car was in major accident or was poorly repaired, only that at least rear bumper and quarters on both sides were repainted, for all we know it may have been minor shunt to the back, or it may have been minor damage to wheel arches, but as well that they were repainted.

They are alright all things considered, people seems to report decent fuel economy and wear. Reasonably quiet as well. But don't expect handling or feedback from all season tyres, as well all season does not mean winter, so they are no-go below 0C and they will behave on ice exactly the same as summer tyre. The only time they have the edge over purse summer tyres will be temperatures ~1-8C. Basically that is my personal issue with all-seasons - there are no days in my driving where they would give me any benefit over normal summer tyres, when it is really cold they are no better and when it is not that cold it is usually still well above 0, so why compromise on summer performance and handling then? In the end of the day - they are very good tyres, but I would say more comfort focused, compromised on performance and that is just not for me, but it may be what you looking for, in which case - yes they are good! Secondly... they are really expensive. You can have a lot of excellent tyres for less money e.g. Michelin Pilot Sport 5, Continental Premium Contact 6, Goodyear Asymmetric 6 etc.

Rear bumper and rear quarters - look at the difference between rear doors and the quarters primarily if you want to spot it.

Yeah - basically, although eBay sometimes have them with quicker shipping, locally and with option of returning and better customer protection... and price often is not that much different.

I wouldn't jump the gun so quickly considering rear-end damage, but that is you money and your decision. Have you considered or tried any other cars? I would highly recommend that, because now you just don't have any point of reference. I tend to believe Luxury would be same, maybe had different optional equipment i.e. in UK some equipment is marked with "x" meaning you can't even opt for it, whereas in other countries it was available as optional. But base equipment would be the same. The difference then is only that in UK we had more trims which were not available in other countries - like Exec. Regarding the speakers - that is what I said, it is okey for radio, but if you at all in the music I don't think it is acceptable. The sound is very "shallow" and lacks clarity, definition is literally "low", i.e. there is big crossover between base, mid and treble, so there are no highlights at all, everything becomes just mid. As for fiesta reference - 2013 fiesta had 10-Speakers Sony system as standard. Now that doesn't say much in itself as 10 speakers are not equal 10 speakers, but it was comfortably better than Lexus standard 6-speakers system. It is really shame that Lexus decided such system is even acceptable in premium car. Again it is not specifically amount of speakers, one can have amazing sounding system with 6 speakers and maybe sub, but Lexus one is just not it. There are well further complications if one would ever want to upgrade it as there are no other outputs that could be used to say add sub, or amplifier... so you will be stuck with 6 speakers unless you do extensive rework and replace everything. That said if you going for android head unit anyway, I believe there is option of having "optical out" and at that point you can connect anything you like and just ignore build in amp.

Good spot on rear shunt. Whenever it was major damage, or just bumper job with poor blending it is hard to say. Carfax only going to show if it was "salvaged" and went trough insurance auction, if it was fixed by owner or insurance company and was not declared salvage then it won't show. That said getting carfax(facts?) or equivalent services is always recommended before spending 16,000 of your own Euros, I always do it even for cheap car, for £5 you will know all the details of the car and if not stolen or crashed it can still give you insight. There is as well one missed service 12k>32k They all comming from china anyway, so sadly you will have to suppress you morals and get something my by child labour. I would gladly pay more for decent system NOT made in china, but that does not exist. Even cheapest system will be 10 times better than what Lexus fitted, so there is no way to get it wrong. Apart of that you need to look at the system same way as if you would be buying tablet or laptop and compare the spec. do your own research, what has more RAM, ROM, what CPU, what android version etc.

It is not leather. Yes Luxury is third worst trim no-trim>SE>Luxury>Exec>F-Sport>Premier. The rest of comments still applies, especially around audio. As I said depends on the market in Mallorca and your expectations, I would not touch anything below F-Sport and at least Premium Audio. The sat-nav upgrade with android unit would be great addition of course, highly recommended.

Yes - corporate were quite efficient... although outcome is still as I expected. So they got in touch with garage and their manager tried to give me the call to probably gaslight me a little bit more. To be fair I didn't pick-up because there was nothing that I wanted to discuss or that was not explained in the e-mail. My request in the e-mail was very simple, I want print out from refill station with following information - settings, recovered amount, leak test result and refilled amount. This is standard information. Secondly, as performance test was booked I want to see results i.e. performance before, after and delta. I hope that is not something that could be confusing or need further discussion. What they sent me back? As I expected - they just sent me invoice again, so that I could remind myself the amount of money I have paid for work they didn't carry out. It is like McDonalds of Restaurants basically. People desperate for job (in this case mechanics) will inevitably have to start somewhere and I have no doubt every single on of them are there only temporary until they can get into better mechanic job or start their own business. Likewise I don't believe people looking to work in McDonalds in long-term (at least I hope they are not), so same in KwikFrauds and Halfrauds, it is fast food of the auto mechanics. I would assume the path for progression is getting into dealership network and later opening their own independent specialist shop for certain brand. In short nobody is employed there for long terms and that means they don't really care about their work and thus whatever way you look at it - engagement is minimal. Could there be some new naive mechanics who really tries? Yes sure, but they don't last long or they quickly become numb considering overall toxic and negligent environment. Again - as I am not expecting amazing food in the McDonalds, I would not expect amazing service in KwikFrauds, but it is okey sometimes to get a quick coffee and maybe ice-cream in McDonalds in the rush (I would not touch their burgers with the stick), so in theory it should be okey to get AC refill in KwikFit... again I would not trust them for anything more complex... but what I do not expect when ordering coffee and ice-cream is to get 2 empty cups with a parking fine.

Cannot advise whenever it is good deal, because I don't know what are the car prices like in Mallorca. What I can say however is that you looking at very low speck model, it does not say in advert so it is hard to guess, but I assume this is SE trim or "non-trim". Not sure what are your expectations and again I don't know what are prices like and how it compares to decent trims like Premier or F-Sport, but this car will be extremely poorly equipped for Lexus, I can spot vinyl/cloth interior, so no leather, not even half-leather. As well it comes with horrendous audio system that even contemporary Ford Fiesta would laugh at. Again not sure those are issues for you - some people don't like leather, other people do not care about audio in the car as they only ever listen to radio. I have slight suspicion this may be rental car, actually I have rented MB/BMW in Spain/Portugal and was greeted by Lexus IS300h, not sure how common they are in that area, but at least in my experience common... and they were all like that, grey + black and basic trims. In short - you looking at most basic spec. that these ever come out in.

Why don't you do service with Lexus tomorrow and then comeback to them say a week later under warranty?

Not really - I mean you can buy canister and most of the tools on amazon (perhaps it is similar to knifes/alcohol in that sense that they expect you to be at least of legal age... I don't know what kids do with them nowadays, but would not be surprised if somebody is sniffing the R134A). That said I would not advise it, because of what you said - it is rarely required and therefore not worth getting the tools. Most places that do A/C have what is called "refill station" and as I mentioned it is all automated. It is possible to do with gauges yourself, but realistically you can't do recovery and without that you can't do proper leak test... anyway - no point discussing it further. Just for refill one can go anywhere, pay ~£60-80 and that is as simple as it get's, but diagnostics is more complex and as you said, can't be done DYI

I am pretty sure many have done that in US, so it is not impossible... although it may be costly and complicated. First thing to consider is space - Lexus went with the basic design manifold design is because there is basically no space on the sides of IS250/350. One thing for sure - you not getting them of the shelves (there used to be few companies making them for astronomical prices, but I doubt they still have stock for discontinued product) and whoever makes them will have to make very intricate design. So you talking custom and intricate job to get them equal length and fitting. Now the second part - the sound will depend on the design, well designed and flowing headers will sound better on their own (not this), but you will be restricted on the first point. The third thing and the reason why I said "on their own", is because you won't hear much from the headers if you keep the rest of the stock exhaust. So we talking here about full custom system if you really want to benefit from the sound of the headers... and besides cars in UK will never sound as good as ones in US, because US ones are usually straight through exhaust with maybe resonator. In UK you have to keep cat, can be replaced to singular high-flow cat, but you must have one and the cat kind of muffles the headers. In short - it will be very expensive, the sound improvement will be minimal, power improvement will be minimal (it is possible you even lose some power) and everything well be rather complicated. Don't want to discourage you, but it is not as simple as it may sound.

Spark plugs do not age, so year part is kind of irrelevant, the only thing that matters is mileage. The iridium plugs that comes with these cars are the longest lasting type anyway, I believe Lexus recommends 80k miles, but they probably last like ~100k. So definitely do need to change them if they are 51k, 7 years or 7k for sure.