Linas.P

AWD makes steering very dull, it is great for low grip environment (i.e. rally on gravel), but is less than ideal if you want spirited driving on smooth road. I understand benefits of AWD and for some cars it makes sense, but definitely not on GS350, especially considering that compromise you have to make on gearbox. 306hp isn't too much to handle for rear wheels, but even if it would get tricky then that is part of the "fun". But I agree with you on the prices - GS was not very competitive new and it is still not competitive used. With hindsight it was good buy in 2018, as if one have bought it then they had no inflation whatsoever on the car (although that is true for most cars nowadays, I even managed to make £4000 by buying RC and keeping it for few years). There are some rare unicorns called mk3 GS460, which do pop from time to time on sale, but I didn't know there was AWD LS in UK.

No change whatsoever, even at current prices fuel remains minor cost of car ownership for me. Secondly, what changed my driving habits was covid and not fuel prices, that is - I used to drive to work daily, at least 3-4 days a week and sitting in horrible traffic... and I would do 12-14k miles a year. Now I get to the office once in two weeks at best and most of my miles are actually weekend trips to sea side or visiting friends that tends to be more quiet driving on motorway as well. Besides I only do like 2-4k miles a year now, so fuel literally does not matter at all. 8x£80 is still not even as much as insurance. And let's not forget - it isn't £640 more, because fuel wasn't exactly cheap even last year, realistically I am paying maybe £20 more per tank now, maybe not even that... that works out to what... maybe 50p per day. So yes - I would like fuel to be cheaper, but in grand scheme of things it was minor expense and the increase despite being annoying really makes maybe few hundred £ difference per year.

Except that is not how money works, nor how the cars are valued, because if gas price would be defining reason than any car with engine bigger than 1L would be worthless. If anything IS250 has significantly increased in value and you can't get one without £4000 nowadays (unless it is completely beaten to death and manual), which is likewise ridiculous because I bought my old 2008 IS250 in 2014 for £4000. It was 6 years old car back then with 120k miles. Now £4000 buys you 15 years old car with similar mileage.

What doesn't help either is that GS450h prices got stuck like 4-5 years ago and they haven't depreciated even a bit. 5 years ago they were like 14-15k, now they are 12-13k. It is just ridiculous that in first 5 years those cars depreciated by 75% (I mean they were £60-70k new) and for the second 5 years, they literally stuck with the price and didn't depreciate even 10% more. I guess inflations does amazing things. If the trend would have followed, now they should be £4-6k and that would be no brainer, but for £13k there is quite a few cars to choose. I guess the other big reason - Lexus barely sold few 100 and almost none of the facelift ones, so supply on mk4 GS in UK is just non-existent which keeps the prices-up. I know it is repetitive, but imagine if we had GS350 in UK, same gearbox as IS-F, they even had AWD (although that used standard 6-speed auto and generally RWD is better to drive) - how amazing would be that?!

Ahh cool, I looked at the picture and didn't understand what it was showing, but now I clearly see how the sensor is positioned.

That is about right, PX prices are always horrible and especially for last 2 years have not been updated with market trends i.e. car prices actually increased, but most of valuation tools continue to depreciate them based on age and mileage despite it being clearly unrealistic. When I tried to trade in my old IS250 I was literally told that they won't give me the price in writing, because they don't want to offend me, but verbally speaking they said "maybe £1000" and then we laughed because I sad "only wheels on the car are worth more" and the car itself was easily £2500-£3000 and that is in 2019 prices. I see no problem getting £5k and maybe even £6k if your dad is willing to wait few months. If it is Lexus then they would not be selling it, they would discard it in auction. Too old and too many miles. Independent dealers obviously will be grab it, but it isn't highly desirable car for them.

That is a nice addition to the package. Where does the actual sensor mounts?

Not really, like MBs and BMW don't really have delay, or it happens for different reason e.g. 2L turbo charged engines with little bit of turbo lag maybe. But purely electronic throttle delay is more of Japanese and American thing.

No worries, it was kind of off-topic in the other thread.

That is because it is 2008, as I said switch happened in 10/2006.

We have already touched on this in another IS220d thread, but obvious answer is - what else would you expect from IS220d?!

ATS is generally quite expensive. Apart of fitting tyres and doing wheel alignment I don't generally use them, but they are generally better than Kwikfit and Fraudfords. Perhaps you can use some independent shop? Because replacing brake disks is literally 10 minute job and requires no qualification and I can't imagine somebody doing it "wrong". Although I am sure fraudfords would manage to muck it up somehow.

This is not even "modern pedal", it is rather Lexus specific "feature". It is known as "unintended acceleration" prevention, it is installed in all Lexus and most Toyota models (Hondas and Nissans as well)... well not "installed", but electronic throttle is adjusted that way. And this is just so dumb, because the "feature" was introduced to reduce liability in amurica, where idiot amuricans switched into D instead or R and accelerated into shops or other cars by accident and then tried to blame car manufacturers for their stupidity (think first one was Audi to be sued). So Lexus in particular started adding delay into electronic throttle so that response from standstill isn't instant. I mean amuricans literally make our cars worse by being stupid. Not only this is not an issue in Europe or rest of the world, but anyone who have ever made such mistake would not dare to sue the company for what is clearly their mistake... only in amurica.

I am still surprised that people are surprised about this. Yes E10 fuel consumption is higher, because there is less "fuel" in it. Ethanol has 30% less energy density compared to Petrol, so E10 fuel consumption has to be at least 3% higher. MPG is kind of silly measurement because it is not as obvious that 3MPG difference over 50 is very small (~5%), where same MPG differences between say 10 and 13MPG is huge (like ~25%). So let's just say your MPG dropped from 52 to 49, (5.4L to 5.7L/100km) and that is ~5% difference. Now yes - that is higher than 3%, but we talking about couple of % variance between different batches of fuel and maybe slightly different weather, maybe it was hotter or colder, maybe A/C had to work harder, maybe there was slightly more traffic on few days, so that difference is in line with expectations. Basically, this is normal and that E10 is less fuel efficient is not some sort of fringe theory it is fact.

Nope, I had 2006 SE-L and it had smaller brakes (I actually have SE-L now and it has smaller brakes), so it had nothing to do with the trim. Unless maybe Sport or SR came with bigger brakes, but I am not sure about that. Either way it is moot point - 2010 IS250 definitely has vented rears.

Absolutely, and then they often have 45-60% discount on brakes. I have bought Brembo discs from ECP for as low as £40 per pair. I believe it was £38 for rear and £54 for front, although my rears were solid and not vented. Point is - both £210 and £310 is ridiculous money for piece of pot metal. I correct you here however - disc size has nothing to do with model spec or wheel size - one can easily fit 16" on the front, so they would fit on the rear with both vented and solid discs. The difference was - early cars until ~10/2006 had solid type, but it was upgraded for 2007 model year with vented discs in the rear for IS250. Whereas I believe IS220d kept them all the way until IS200d was introduced.

That was long time ago... so hard to say. But from the memory when washers stopped working I could not hear the motor, it was just dead. But when it works you should be able to hear it from inside of the tank.

That was my impression - they were hired for being good at sales, but complete do not care about the cars overall, nevermind particularly the ones they are selling. This is in fact in my opinion Lexus fault, they should ensure people on the floor have sufficient training and are briefed about each model they sell. As you said - Lexus does not have that many cars on sale, not many options and just few trims, so I just can't see how that could be an issue to learn. And I am not even saying people have to memorise everything. They can have a tablet or sales brochure in hand with key information and just confirm it when asked. But that just not happening!

Absolutely and I have experienced that with Lexus when enquiring about various cars, including LC500 and RC-F, it is absolutely unacceptable that I as a buyer know more than salesman selling flagship model. Now ok - to be fair I know way too much about Lexus than it is healthy, but when I purchased RC200t and when I test drove LC500 in the conversation it was clear salesman didn't know even basics. Like they were not been able to tell the whenever car has ML or not, what options car had, kept saying that wheels are 18" on RC, when they were 19" etc. I think on LC500 he kept saying it is "4L V8 car with 8 speed dual clutch box", he did not know trims of LC500 i.e. Standard, Sport and Sport+... really?! I didn't even expect he knew about rear wheel steering and LSD. I said something along the lines "I wish one could order Sport+ with glass roof" and he said - yes that is possible - NO it is NOT! And, importantly, Lexus are already one of the better ones at that. Other dealers are way worse. What it seems to me is that Lexus in UK only bothers of selling SUVs and hybrids, so on rare occasion when somebody enquires about non-hybrid coupe they are just clueless.

That was my exact comment on the video. "I doubt there is any profit in the car, unless you find somebody completely clueless who doesn't know anything and does not bother to do any research on the car they are purchasing.". Sadly the latter is true - a lot of people, I would probably go as far as saying "majority", does NOT do any damn research when purchasing a car, which is the second biggest purchase in terms of value after the house. And likewise it always boggle my mind too... How people just go to spend thousands of £ without doing any research. Should we be surprised that dodgy used car dealers can get away with almost anything?

Yeah, seen this one - generally, his content is good, but this time he got himself a real lemon. Funny enough he reckons he can still make profit on it by selling it for £3000. One would think car dealer should know better! But maybe he does, maybe he can found somebody clueless and flog the dead horse for them to worry about. But I would not call it sustainable business when it relies on finding most clueless buyer in the world to be able to sell the car. Obviously he fixed the immediate issue with it, but that is just a start, next week there will be something else, and something else after that. I reckon it would be good business and marketing decision for Lexus just to buy back any remaining IS220d/200d below £2000 and just scrap them, because it really hurts the opinion about their brand. Imagine the horror when used car dealers (who are more often than not are quite dodgy) find unsuspecting customer and says - "how about Lexus, they are RELIABLE and here we have example of WELL looked after IS220d!"

I am sure you could, but doing entire car by hand would be a massive and needless torture. As for the maintenance of black car, there isn't much to say, I always thought white would be unpractical (actually it is much easier than black), but black is on another level. It just basically shows any scratches and any dirt on it. I had few gloss black cars and they are absolutely worst for that, especially Lexus with it's soft paint... but when polished and waxed or with coat of ceramic they look stunning. Little bit better is black metallic or pearl, the IS mk3 F-Sport should be almost pear colour, I believe it is called black graphite and this helps a lot, the flakes in the paint hides the scratches little bit better, obviously you will never get black "mirror" effect in the photos, but in person in real life it is easier to keep it looking nice, but still requires a lot of effort. As to specific products, get it detailed and get it ceramically coated, this will make it easier to wash and dirt won't get's stuck as easily. But that is not silver bullet... if you take car to hand or automatic scratchers it will be scratched again, there is just no other way. Really the only way to wash car minimising the scratches is to do it yourself with right products. You could go to self-service washes, but that is massive pain and requires proper technique - I know because I live in the flat as well and I can't wash my car either. Now when it comes to technique and the products it really depends of how deep into rabbit hole you planning to go, because detailing is never ending pit. For beginners and using self-service I would recommend all purpose cleaner (APC - say 10:1 Surfex HD) as prewash, just spray liberally to soften the dirt, then use pressure washer, DO NOT use the brush (except maybe wheels or underside), take two buckets (often there are signs saying your are not allowed to have them, but I ignore them, just choose quiet time), one with shampoo an one for rinsing and gently wash the car with microfiber mitt (I found they scratch the least), ideally use two mitts, one for upper half to of the car start with and one for lower, with mitts try to do straight rather than round strokes following body lines (still scratches the car, but is less visible and easier to polish), pressure washer again and then apply quick detailer spay (QD - use the one suitable as top-up for ceramic coating) still on the wet paint before drying with large microfibre towel. Then I would usually go again over the pain with normal microfibre and QD for second time. You will need a lot of microfibre, never reuse if dropped and ideally keep rotating it, use few times on the paint if still clean, then as soon as dirty was and use on the wheels, then throw away. This is absolute minimum and it is already quite a bit if you not into it, and this is before we even touch on wheels or interior, or glass. But that is only way. In summary - full detail with ceramic coating, do hand wash yourself with correct technique, repeat detail every 1-2 years. If you can't detail your own car and can't or not willing to wash it yourself, then keeping black car in pristine condition will be costly. Although "pristine condition" really depends on personal definition, I have seen cars scratched to absolute crap and looking like owner "detailed" them vegetable oil or WD40, yet they still in their mind thought the cars are looking "pristine". There is no silver bullet - black paint will require extra attention and extra care.

At least reading some other treads on US forum this seems to be caused by expansion and contraction during temperature shifts and general vibration in the car. So it is not impossible that car got some sun, heated-up and some contact made connection again. Hopeful it works now and good luck with it, but to as well may be just start of intermittent problem.

ES as well worse materials and build quality than both GS and IS and worse "drivers car" being FWD. It is certainly nice Toyota, but not replacement for GS. If you just compare IS to BMW, MB, Audi, then it is indeed more special and higher trims are better equipped and more special place to be in e.g. basic BMW 3-Series is really drab and basic inside, IS still feels a little bit more special. But it is not like magical car. Likewise you will get 90% there for £15k, so why spend £25k for last 10%.

That is indeed a compromise. GS is really step above IS in all possible ways, but handling, GS450h as well offers fast car which is truly lacking in IS range in UK. But... folding seats are massive when it comes to practicality. I had RC with folding seats and I was able to fit 2 full size bikes in it and pretty much any size luggage ever needed, not something you can do in GS, if back seats are not folding then it really limits practicality. And GS isn't as well handling car as IS, it is less "sporty", but more comfortable. It is important what you actually need from the car, if you don't need folding seats and you are ok with larger car then GS is better car.