B1RMA

Well done, you must be pleased with the car to do that. Interestingly enough I insured my wife for mine. She drives like Miss Daisy though so it would be wasted on her, much more suited to her Yaris Hybrid.

I fall into both sort of, as someone who changes his car more or less every year once I've test driven the car of my preferred choice I always lurk/investigate the marque by going on the owners forum. You get a much better idea than any Youtube or Top Gear review from the people who actually own the cars, well that's my take on it anyway. I've had my opinion changed about my choice of car sometimes negative sometimes positive from such forums. Once I've bought the car and joined the owners forum I like to think that I contribute in a constructive way, and just hope we haven't all been taken in and bought a load of crap.

I'm both too, I have bought far too many overpriced waxes and shampoo's and I like cleaning my cars. Where I live is near the A272 and brilliant road for cars and bikers so I normally keep the car sparkling clean and regularly take it for good blasts out, currently reading 16 MPG but who cares when your having this much fun.

If you are about the Pub meet on the 14th is generally a decent gathering of like minded car folk.

I live between Portsmouth and Petersfield. I regularly meet up with a few Mercedes guys at MB World Brooklands. In fact the member Nemesis on here is going to the gathering as well as myself on Sunday 21st if you fancy joining do come along we arrive about 10-11. Always interested in meeting up and chewing the fat with fellow car nuts. I also go to a few Pistonheads gatherings too there is a lunch time gathering at the Hinton Arms Cheriton on the A272 (good road) between Winchester and Petersfield on the 14th that should be a good gathering as the food is good.

Thanks just watched it, a good honest review. I must admit when I've been about to buy a new car I always set a budget, find all the cars in that given budget and tried them all in as close a time as possible to each other, then do some homework/research on running costs and reliability. As I mentioned I tried a very late, last of the series BMW M3 super spec with EDC etc and loved the way it seemed to shrink around you and it felt alive. What I couldn't do was relax in it, it felt like it wanted to be driven quickly all the time and I figured that could be tiresome in the long run. I'm just pleased I saw the red RCF at my local filling station because I may well of overlooked a gem.

Thanks, I am really starting to enjoy this now. One of the less negative You Tube reviews stated that the car seems to grow on you month after month and I'm beginning to agree even though I've only had it a few days. I tend to use it in manual a lot of the time as its so good and you can really feel the suspension tightening up as you make progress, manual seems to effect the fuel consumption as I took her indoors out for a driving Miss Daisy ride in it and she noticed the fuel reading at 16 MPG. I said it was because of the extra weight in the car. I have to be careful because she swears I put her back out once in my track prepped RX7. I had just run it in on one of the several engine re-builds these cars require and we had just posted a letter one Sunday morning and the industrial site was empty so I floored it, I really shouldn't have. So anyway I have to promise not to be stupid in her words. Going back to the delightful paddle shift, I once tried a drop dead gorgeous Aston Martin V8s softtop in light metallic green from a place in Walton upon Thames it had the truly appalling speed shift paddle change system in it. I took it back after about ten minutes and said to the salesman that was the most crap paddle change I've experienced since test driving a Maserati 4200 Gambiocorsa to which he replied 'they use the same auto-box company' what could I say apart from I didn't want to try the manual. The engine sounded horrible too.

And another angle

Had time today to take some better photos.

Excellent, love the LFA. you can see how it influences the look of the LC500. Those RCF's are as common as muck.

That's actually a nice one, I wouldn't touch one without a full service history but this seems to have it plus Tier 1. A bit of poetic licence about the numbers though. I'll do a check with how many left. The CL600 is a very nice comfortable cruiser the AMG version has just over 100 BHP more and fairly extensive work done to the running gear. They sound a bit quiet actually it's the CL63's that are really raucous. It will still require a C service at some time and would probably be £2K+ a CL65 AMG of the same era would be double the price of that. In fact one was for sale a while ago and sold in 2 hours. What he meant was only 4 registered that year there are over 100 of them, although pretty rare still.

Do you think it's because the RCF is a car outside most Lexus dealers comfort zone? I think the majority of the public view Lexus as a luxury brand on the whole, whereas BMW and Mercedes have dedicated M and AMG divisions. So maybe that's where they fall down.

No there are loads of CL 600's on the market, the CL65 is the very rare one. I tried a CL 600 and really liked it. I then wondered what the all singing all dancing AMG version would be like, I tried one and bought it straight away. The CL 600 has that horrid wooden steering wheel which if you're lucky may be in back ash but on the whole they come with light coloured wood, I never understood why they do this. I really liked my Cl65 with well over 600 bhp and about 800lb torque available at about 1200 it was to say the least a rocket ship. I averaged 18 mpg over the year I had it. Servicing costs can make a grown man cry. Most were about £800 then there was the C service at just under £3K. The warranty cost £1500 a year so not for those on a budget. It was a great experience and like all petrolheads you've got to own a V12 at sometime in your life.

That's interesting as I didn't have a chance to monitor prices prior to buying mine, although I did make a few lower offers on cars just to test the water which thankfully weren't accepted as I had time to discover AVS. The problem is though with low number cars, getting one with the exact spec and colour you want is a nightmare. My last car a CL65 AMG had only 23 examples in the UK. I wanted silver and really didn't want the light coloured wood steering wheel and trim. Eventually one came up with black ash trim and a leather wheel so I phoned but was told the car was reserved by a relative of a famous pop star who had recently died. I left my number and got a call back to say he had failed to get accepted for a loan as a bridge to his share of the wealth, the dealer wasn't prepared to wait so I jumped I even managed to get £1500 knocked off. I now know there were a few people after the car but having the cash burning a whole in my pocket was all the motivation I needed to pounce straight away. I wanted an RCF in red and wanted TVD so I guess I was lucky to find one exactly as I wanted

What a result, I'm really warming to the way Lexus looks after its customers, the callipers look really nice.

Nice one have you painted the callipers yourself, I like that colour as the standard black ones are hidden and they are really nice big meaty callipers that deserve highlighting.

I like these and think they would suit the RCF

I'm not a fan of those new wheels I much prefer the older style. although some of the Vossen wheels with the slightly angled spoke look very nice.

Thanks, that's typical I've been tracing my history and can't find it, I'm positive it was a USA based forum.

In my fevered quest for more knowledge about the RCF a while back I read some details of an owner of a RCF with over 100K miles with no issues whatsoever. Try as I might I can't find it if I remember correctly it was a USA based forum. Any help would be great, I'm trying to establish facts about long term costs. Not that it's likely to effect me as someone who changes his car every year.

Thanks I think I'll ask first then see if my detailer guy may know something.

Thanks, do you think they'll be able to match it colour wise correctly? I know sometimes these things are best left alone but it is dented and needs doing.

I think I'd strongly recommend a potential new buyer to consider and at least try both. Although these days you can buy aftermarket active suspension I'm just about to put some on my hot Minivan

Thanks, the stone chip has created a small indentation too so I'll have to sort it. Paintwork is a bit naff with far too many swirls but I'm a bit anal about things like that. I'll pop to Lexus Southampton tomorrow to get an idea what's involved in sorting the mark out, any excuse for a blast.

Well the car arrived at midday and I've just got back from wasting loads of V-Power. You can certainly tell the different suspension settings when you change drive modes, Sport + is quite firm but on a decent twisty A road just what I want when I want to drive like that, so I'm very pleased I hung out for an AVS model. No doubt about it the car works very nicely with the paddle shifts very satisfying. I'm used to 600+ BHP V12 twin turbo 900 lb torque but I like the way the car works with the gears more. Did a bit of cruising which again this car does so well with it set in normal the ride makes the journey a pleasure. Only negative the car suffered a stone chip (quite bad) being delivered, plus it looks like this car has been through car washes all it's life too the swirl marks are everywhere. So it looks like my mate Luke has got a fair detailing job to do and I'll have a ceramic coating put on it and never let Lexus wash it again.