Linas.P

I noticed that I was probably using US gal for conversion and not British, so my number for L/km are a bit off. But in general same experience 300miles/500km on single tank is about normal, but depends on driving conditions.

Note that it says "2017", but realistically most cars with LSS+ and 10 Inch display started cropping-up in 2018 (so when you see 17/67/18 plate don't automatically assume it has the updated infotainment), before that (2014-2018) mostly just cosmetic differences. Obviously small changes were done between the years, but nothing major, in terms of power, economy an all that nothing has changed throughout the life-time of the model.

Really depends on what driving you doing. Over many miles of ownership I had as high as 44MPG (5.3L/100km) and as low as 18MPG (13.1/100km), average being ~28MPG. So with ~52L in fuel tank it is somewhere between 396km and nearly a 1000km if you can find the road long enough and quiet enough to cruise at 100km/h for 10 hours. One thing I would advise - if you trying to see real fuel efficiency, then don't refill half-tanks. Fill full thank, reset trip and drive until range is 0 and you can even drive another 30-50km easily. Then refill until it clicks, see how much you were able to fill and then check what was your trip, this is so called "brim-to-brim" measurement and that is the only accurate way to tell how much fuel your car is consuming. Repeat 3-4 times and see what you are averaging. The only time fuel gauge is accurate is when your engine cut-out and it indicates "Empty", and when you fill full-tank and it shows it "Full". Anything in between is indicative at best, especially on Japanese cars from 90's and into late 2000's the last quarter on the gauge does not exist, you put full tank and drive 200km and it is still indicates full, then after another 100km it is 3/4, after another 100km it is half, and after another 100km it says you have 20km left until refill 😄 So if you refilled until half-full indicated, that could mean anything really - could have been near half, could have been closer to 1/4. Just the way it is. In other hand I found IS250 indicated economy accurate within +/- 1% compared to brim-to-brim, whereas newer cars like IS300h likes to exaggerate MPG and range allot - ~5-10% optimistic.

From 2011 (or maybe late 2010) with memory seats. Not available on pre-facelift models. On facelift you don't even need Carly or any other tools, you can set it with satellite switch.

RF has little to do with "safety", the difference is just that you can drive them after having puncture. Ironically if you have accident when driving car on RF tyre with puncture this is more likely to be cause of denied cover as you not suppose to be driving on flat tyre even if it is RF. As well in practice RF tyre has always failed me and car ended-up on flatbed... which kind of indicative of my opinion about RF - throw them away at the earliest convenience.

It would be best to ask your insurance if unsure, each Insurance can have their own policies... although I am sure fitting different (arguably better) tyres should not be a problem for any, nor needs reporting. This would create major legal issue in UK if suddenly people would be only allowed to fit the tyres which came with the car when it was new (makes no sense!), not only that would mean budget tyres would be virtually made illegal (probably not a bad thing), but most of mid-range tyres as well... and then somebody with Golf GTI from 2018 would have to get only Nexen tyres because that was for short period of time supplier for some WV. And all people with cars older than ~10 years would be completely screwed, because those tyres on their cars are no longer made. Ohhh boy, there are loads. I am not immune to it either, hence I called insurance once to clarify. I could not say I was laughed at, but at very least the adviser was slightly surprised about the question. "So you saying they are both Lexus wheels and they both meant for that model? And why you want to report it? No it is not modification. Yes... that is fine!"

No - insurance requires your car to be road worthy and that is all. The part about "modifications" is for them to know if you have anything else on the car that they need to insure, in old days when cars didn't have alloy wheels (later audio systems) and they were stolen all the time Insurance would have expected to know you have them fitted, else they would not cover the wheels if they are stolen. Second part are performance modifications where somebody has swapped the engine or fitted the turbo and instead for 150hp now has 700hp - yes that is modification. At no point Insurance cares what brand tyres are fitted (event thought in my opinion, that is one of more important things for safety when it comes to premium/budget tyres), even Lexus themselves stock different tyres from time to time, because spec changes from year to year. One I called insurance anonymously an asked if I would need to report that I have fitted 18" wheels instead of 17", but both being available for the car as options from Lexus - and they said "nope - we don't care as long as they are road legal". As for the tyres I would get - definitely something non-run flat, apart of that there are many very comparable and very good tyres. What is your goal - take car to the track form time to time, then go for UUHP like PS4s, if it is more comforts and safety there are now PS5 (better on fuel, on noise and comfort). Goodyear, Bridgestone, Continental will have equivalent offers - Goodyear Asymmetric SuperSport or Asymmetric 6, Bridgestone has new Potenza Sport which is somewhere in between, Continental has SportContact 7 or PremiumContact 7. It is very hard to make mistake choosing any of these tyres.

SC430s are really one of the least stolen cars, so I would worry more about vandalism and less about somebody attempting to steal it. Obviously, big bright steering lock may act as further deterrent, but such cars are just not very hot for thief. Thief mindset is completely different, they don't care it is Lamborghini, Ferrari or Lexus coupe/convertible, nor they care how car looks or drives, what they care about is demand for second hand parts or for export/cloning. In short new SUVs are very hot or 3-5 years old German cars. As for Lexus only very few cars are popular - RX and NX mostly.

I mean there is slim chance that somehow the accident caused the exhaust leak and sensor is just getting fresh air from leak and thus failing.

No. You can only replace it, the good news - it is not very expensive. I got spare for £23, but eventually it got stolen by call-out electrician who said he could programme-out the immobiliser (which at the time was causing issues for me). But that is story for another time. I tend to think it is wiring issue, rather than ECU issue, if it would be ECU, you are more likely to get all sorts of sporadic problems with various things, not only o2 sensor. As well, if you swapped the sensors and the code remains on bank 1, this is 100% not sensor issue and again in my option points at wiring.

Well illegally spaced number plates are offense in name only, ANPR still can read them and they can still be captured or seen. So yes technically illegal, but in practice they are fine. However, if number plate is behind the bicycle, then nobody sees them... still considering with what motorists can get away in UK this is tiny problem. I have seen idiots going around 3 lane roundabout in outside lane and nearly crashing into police car (police had to stop!), but police still didn't bother to check them. As such I am not surprised to hear you have not been stopped by police, I haven't been stopped once in all 14 years driving in UK either. When I was considering bike rack on the back of the car, I was planning to get second plate and plate holder ~£30. So although my lights would be partially obscured, at least my plate would be visible. Then in case I am stopped I could at least argue with police, as offence would not be as clear cut as missing number plate and it does not require any fancy wiring.

This precisely. On straight-petrol car the difference is less noticeable, but that is because it is generally less efficient without hybrid system. The difference on hybrid is that without A/C your car is quite efficient with engine-start stop (much more efficient than petrol start-stop which always seems to engage in wrong time), but if you have A/C on, this means engine is kept running for A/C instead of starting and stopping like the hybrid should. So basically it is not like A/C is using 0.2 of extra fuel, but having it ON does not allow hybrid system to work optimally. But 5.47-5.6/100km drop to 5.7-5.8/100km between A/C ON and OFF is very good result i.e. having A/C on only uses between 0.1-0.33L for 100km of driving. Generally speaking, the larger is the engine on the car and the faster you driving (the more loaded it is), the less of an impact A/C will have i.e. small engine car in traffic could consume a lot more fuel because of A/C, but large engine car on motorway may see little to no difference. I always guesstimated A/C fuel consumption to be between 1-2% on engines above 2L in displacement, which seems to be supported by your figures. That said Lexus thought about it and in most (if not all) Lexus hybrids you have "eco mode" on A/C, which basically prioritises hybrid system efficiency over A/C performance. However, I would advise to avoid it - the eco mode on A/C allows engine to stop (and preserve fuel) instead of keeping it on for A/C, so yes it will save fuel, BUT if you in start stop traffic it will fog-up the car horribly, because A/C will stop every time engine stops, but ventilation continues. Then all the humidity accumulated in condenser, instead of being condensed and draining out will get's blown back into cabin. It is actually better to drive without A/C at all, than to use eco mode in my opinion, but obviously the best is to keep A/C on all the time, best for you, best for A/C and as it turns out not really that much of impact on fuel economy.

Well, I guess that is seriously their marketing strategy. Instead of paying £600 upfront, you can have it switched on only for 2 months a year for 3 years of your lease for £18/month, making it £108. Obviously, they probably expect people to forget to cancel the subscription and let it run year long for 5 years, making them more money than just selling it upfront. In either case, these subscription based features are just stupid in my opinion and I can't see any positive about it.

If I understand correctly it requires to have roof bars on the car already?

In some sense this doesn't scare me as much, I am certain that as long as heated seats exists in the car, the function could be hacked. It is silly when you need to hack your own car to use what is already installed in it and most likely you have paid for anyway, but if I have to I will hack it. Good luck for BMW trying to prove to me that I have "pirated" heated seats in my car.

Any particular time this happen, anything affects vibration, like braking, accelerating, idling? My first guess would be front tyres, or front wheels, but you said you have already checked them... and are you confident they are ok?

IS200t has brakes from IS350, much larger 4 piston callipers in front and much larger disks. This is sort of good and the bad, because they are bigger and they last probably as much as 300h brakes (certainly longer than IS250), but when it comes to replacement they cost loads of money to replace. I had claim against dealership (long story about them selling me the car without brake pads) and it was £1220 just for disks and pads. As well note that regenerative braking only helps if somebody cautiously uses them (or should I say maximises their use), if one accelerates all the way to the red light and then suddenly brakes, then there is no time for regenerative braking to make any difference and IS300h has very tiny and undersized brakes, so they can wear very fast if regen is not used all the time. As ridiculous as it is IS350 is faster and more fuel efficient car, but Lexus didn't think anyone in UK would want one. It would crazy to think what would be MPG on IS200t then! By any means if you have dealership which would lend one for 24h or weekend then go and try it out. Just don't fool yourself trying it with sales guy on the side. When I test drove RC200t sales guy pointed out that cars is economical "long term average 44MPG!". It took me some time to realise, but "long term" can be reset to zero, and one can click "update" button whenever they like, it is not like it resets every 100 miles, or every tank, it can be triggered manually and just takes last 7 updates. So how did they get "44MPG long term on RC200t"?! They reset the long term fuel consumption completely when going down the long hill and idling, then clicked "update" like 5 times in a row creating 5 records of ridiculous economy, like 77, 72, 78MPG and then never updated economy again, so last one was like 28MPG, and 34MPG, but with all those 70+ MPGs it averaged 44! Neat trick I would say... if not little bit of miss-selling

Turbo is never better for fuel, it exist to add power, not to save fuel. As well it exists to trick flawed pollution testing methodology, when paired with 8-Speed close ratio gearbox it can always keep engine on very low RPM during test cycle giving favourable CO2 figures. In short when tested this way engine pretends it is anaemic 2L eco-engine, however that is achieved specifically by avoiding higher RPM where turbo starts to spool-up. Why it is so inefficient when turbo is boosting - that is because by compressing the air turbo heats it up and hot air causes pre-detonation in the engine, to avoid pre-detonation engine has to run rich (more fuel), so basically as soon as it is over 2000RPM car just dumps fuel into engine to protect it. This is not only very inefficient, but as well reduces the power of the engine. Now in theory fuel map can be "trimmed" increasing both efficiency and power, but Lexus tuned the car in the way to be reliable - so as result it just dumps fuel anytime you want to accelerate. It is bad engine tuning, bad engine design, bad gearbox/engine combination - it exists to cheat CO2 tests, not to be economical or nice to drive. I remember TopGear or Fifth Gear did like for like test when 2gen Porsche Boxer came out (or maybe it was Cayman)... anyway one of the changes was move from 6 cylinder 2.5L NA to 4 cylinder 2.0L Turbo and Porsche claimed that car has lower CO2 and better on fuel. Instead of running the car on flawed methodology, where it is simply allowed to slowly shift trough gears and slowdown on the rollers, they put both cars on track with testing equipment attached and it turned out 2L Turbo used more fuel and polluted more... just as expected. Sadly I can't find the clip now - maybe somebody knows what I am talking about and can link it? P.S. - when I bought RC200t I knew this, but I hoped that by being "more modern" 200t will compensate for inherent issues i.e. yes it has all these inefficiencies related to turbo, but "surely Lexus made the difference elsewhere" and fuel economy will be comparable to IS250, yet with more power and maybe little bit more efficient when cruising along and avoiding the turbo. I was very wrong...

Yeah it was weird decision by Lexus to use that contrasting colour on the headlining and pillars. I guess if car does not have sunroof it may get a bit claustrophobic inside, but I would prefer black headlining instead. Anyway modding is maybe something for the future, for the time being they cleaned-up real nice and that will be enough.

Hello... wiring harness just arrived! Just before getting into harness deal, I was completing last bits on interior. Not the time for detailing yet, but I thought I just do a quick clean whilst I have them off the car as many trim pieces were nasty it seems to make sense to clean them before putting them back... and the results: Anyway, next big step now is to check the replacement harness carefully, make sure it is not broken and not missing anything and then try to get it into the car.

Is it quicker - yes noticeably quicker. 0-60 times aside (7.5 vs 8.4) IS200t will be quicker at any speed past first 10metres or so, torque from electric motors on IS300h has little bit of advantage from stand still, but literally for first few metres. So yes IS200t is noticeable faster car... and yes I have owned RC200t, but I have as well driven IS200t and it is much of the same story. Is it possible to get above 30MPG... not really. Taking my driving aside the car is inherently terrible on fuel economy and yes you can technically get above 30MPG, but you have to work hard to get there. For example just cruising at 70MPH indicated (63MPH real), no braking, no accelerating the RC200t gets 33-34MPG so add +1 MPG for IS200t on 18" wheels, but this is absolutely ideal conditions on empty motorway. I have once seen 38MPG when driving on M6 at night with temporary 50MPH speed limit for 23 miles, it got to 38MPG, but then as soon as speed limit ended and I got back to 70MPH it quickly dropped back to 32MPG. So what we talking about here - to get 30MPG+ you need EXCEPTIONAL circumstances and be alone on the road, set cruise control and do not touch neither brakes, nor accelerator. On normal motorway driving keeping with the traffic it can barely reach 30MPG - 28-29MPG that is what I had, again add maybe +1MPG for IS vs RC, as RC slightly heavier and has wider and larger wheels. So you can just about get 30MPG, but not more. In the city - low 20MPGs even going under that, but I guess here one can blame the way I drive. I reckon 22-24MPG is possible if you "driving like granny". By the way 22MPG was my combined average during the 2.5 years ownership of RC200t. You owned IS250, so just to simplify - IS200t will be way WORSE on fuel economy than IS250. Take any conditions and any circumstances you had on your IS250 and add 30-50% more fuel consumption and that will be IS200t MPG. So where IS250 does 48MPG, IS200t will do 35MPG, where IS250 does 36MPG, it will be 24... and so on.

That is good question and I don't have an answer for that. But I don't really have "worries" about it. That said as you mentioned it now - if I would have used leather perhaps I would be slightly worried now. I can rip vinyl by hand (actually done so accidently) so it isn't particularly strong. Looking at overall construction, the dash has a "H" shaped depression underneath to facilitate splitting of dashboard, but even at it's thinnest part it is still like 2mm thick plastic which you can't really pull apart with hand. I am sure there is some impact, but I don't believe 0.4mm thick vinyl makes a huge difference. I can only speculate, but I am sure airbag will inflate, whenever it inflates slightly slower and that has an impact I don't know.

It is kind of funny, but that vinyl matches the leather on the door trim almost perfectly. Just coincidence, but it almost looks like it meant to be there (bar few mistakes which meant to happen doing it first time).

This being bank 1 sensor 1, I doubt air would be getting any effect. Sensor 1 is in engine bay before the cat, so unless you have leak on headers this won't be an issue. So I would say it is sensor - you can as well check sensor with standard multimeter:

As Peter said, it is hard to say by how much it will go up, but I can confirm it will impact your premium for 3-5 years depending on insurance company. That is because underwriters usually checks claims history for this period and you have to disclose claims for such period. This is basically what the question "do you have any claims in last 3 years (sometimes it is 5 years)" is for. By how much is basically depend on individual case, in my case (although it was not my fault, but in UK it does not matter whose fault it is) the claim added £250 or ~25% of my Premium. My premium was £900 and 3 claims made it £1660. One was not my fault, second was not my fault and I have not even claimed and third one was windscreen cover claim. But all depends on your insurance and they do not disclose how they calculate the premium so you will never know. I guess one way of calculate it theoretically is to make two generic accounts on something like compare the market without adding any personal details, but using correct details for car and address. Make 1 quote answering the question whenever you had accident as "no" and on second account answering "yes" and adding the damages and who is at fault. Then see what the difference on quote it makes. However, there are still caveats because when you make actual quote on your name other factors may be at play and end result can be different. But this is the closest you could get at knowing how much it will impact your insurance.