B1RMA

Sad to hear that, many, many years ago when I was self employed I had a very large tax bill to pay one January and my only path was to sell one of my cars to instantly sort out the tax bill. It happens in life, what was amazing that I sold my beloved Isuzu Vehicle-Cross to a very nice guy who looked after it very well and as fate would have it I bought it back after about 8 years. So as I said to my girlfriend/wife at the time, small sacrifice now for better things in the future

Well worth a visit to the AMG headquarters too.

Not bad, although I only use mine locally now not long distance, computer says 21 mpg

I could never understand why anyone who had the money to buy the track edition car would buy it, if they had desires to go on track for the money you'd spend on one you could actually buy a decent 2017 RCF and have enough spare to buy something like I had a highly modified VX220 turbo pictured below. It would run circles around the RCF track edition, in fact it ran circles around most things other than GT3 RS Porsches and Nissan GTR's and what's more you could insure it for very little and it included 12 track day cover in the insurance. Plus if you drove above your talent range and binned it you've not lost a fortune. That's my take on it anyway.

If its any help I recently had my 2017 up for sale at £39000 which I think was a good price for what it is. I had a lot of what must have been dealers offering between £30-£35K for it, I obviously don't need to sell it for financial reasons but to all low ball offers all I would say is 'In your dreams mate' in my reply via e-mail and just say it over the phone and put the phone down. I also had several offers to take the car to a car dealer for them to sell for you, I very nearly did this with a company near Chichester with a very Italian sounding name, when I mentioned this to a friend he advised me to not go near them. I know we all have to make a living but car dealers at the moment seem to sell any old tat for sky high prices and no doubt big margins. I've put mine back on Pistonheads to just see if it sells, not bothered if it does but phone calls about it from chancers and wide boys always give me a certain amount of entertainment. I know it's a perverse form of entertainment but it is fun.

Rather you than me

There was a thread a while back about the RCF Track Edition and I think I'm right in thinking the general consensus was negative towards the Track Edition. My personal opinion is that it was a bad move and will always be a car that has no purpose and in my opinion never be sought after. Put it this way that if one came up for sale even if it had the optional Carbon Ceramic discs and a similar year normal Rcf I wouldn't hesitate in buying the normal RCf even though I'm a fan of Carbon Ceramic brakes.

I think describing it as a special edition is the right way forward because compared to other marques top of the range sports editions the Lexus RCF track edition is a bad joke and probably the biggest fopar any car manufacturer could make to date ( I could be wrong but I can't recall another) Can't imagine anyone wanting to throw that sort of money at one of these when a late RCf is more than adequate.

Couldn't agree more, although I loved my CL65 I sold it just before it was due a £3500 spark plug big service plus you had to get it serviced at a main agent so as you didn't waste the £1500 a year warranty. Don't get me wrong I've loved owning these types of cars but when you consider what the RCF/GSF offers it is as I first proclaimed after my first RCF's service this thing is as cheap as chips (well at least in those days) to run. This was one of the reasons I looked for an RCF with everything you could have as options i.e. TVD, AVS etc because I had concluded that unlike other marques it would probably never go wrong, will not cost a fortune to maintain in full working order, and in the unlikely event of it going bang Lexus would probably replace it without you having to bend over. I have tried other cars that are sharper/quicker etc but the RCF/GSF for road use are so close it isn't worth the hassle.

I've had my RCF for 4 years last October which for me is an all time record as well. I have rarely kept a car for more than a year, my CL65 broke that with 18 months of ownership. Although I hardly use a car much these days the RCF was bought at a transition time in my business life and not long after purchase I sold the last part of my business to my right hand man. So the need to travel over the UK to both survey contracts and to keep them running smoothly ceased about 10 months into ownership. By that time I was enjoying the RCF, my CL65 with air suspension made long journeys a pleasure and the RCF with AVS was so close to that long relaxing driving experience I didn't miss the CL65. I have had a band for a very long time and have been a collector of pre CBS Fender guitars since the 70's and had amassed a very big collection which I sold a few years ago. The sale enabled me to comfortably afford a McLaren 720s so I arranged a test drive in one. Needless to say it was mind blowing but so was the ownership costs, driving back in the RCF my thoughts were that the RCF was rubbish so I put it up for sale. Over the next few days I had what I can only describe as an epiphany when driving the RCF back to the McLaren dealership because those who know these things realise you can only really sell these cars back to the dealership rather than sell it privately and the actual real world costs of buying one and maybe selling it after a year of ownership is not for the faint hearted. So I turned back. Meanwhile the RCF started to win back favour with me because apart from the running costs being so low and it never failing to start or perform well every time I used it made me conclude this car is pretty good after all. I had the car up for sale for a while and having experienced a long line of chancers and fools decided that I wouldn't sell it. I think the car will remain a very low mileage example having only 12000 miles on the clock but I honestly can't find anything on the market I want to waste my money on, perhaps it's an age thing but I just don't want to spend any more money on cars.

I must admit to being a little sceptical as to the accuracy of the DVLA figures. Do the dealers send the filled out details or does the DVLA use their own references for this I wonder.

Just checked the V5C for mine it's 251 G/KM with a max net power (kW) 351 would the later vehicles have a lower figure?

As I hardly use my RCF these days I may just keep it on SORN until May and go for the lower rate until next winter.

Thanks for that, mine's SORN at the moment so when I do the direct debit it should be a lot cheaper mines 31/05/2017

And the nice thing about the AVS is you can leave it in standard mode and when you get a move on you can notice it all tightening up. I had my Mini Clubvan converted to the Tein EDFC PRO system which was also very clever, well worth the money as it rode like a limo on motorways then tightened up to being a super sorted Mini on the twisty A roads.

If you have the budget go for a later car with AVS.

I knew all along there must have been an issue, like I have mentioned I thought when I went over to 20 inch wheels with tyres to match it would ruin the ride, but it hasn't, in fact I can't really say I've noticed any big change in the ride quality from the standard wheels. Well done Lexus for installing a pretty good system, there are better on the market but you just know being Lexus it will probably perform well until the car is too old to worry about. And unlike other marques won't cost a fortune to maintain.

Just checked the rear diff oil was changed at the last but one service. So good on the dealer for doing it.

I'm going to check my service receipts as my RCF has TVD so it should have been done on the time factor as the car has only done 12K miles.

Somewhere in my past I had a SL 63 with that wonderful N/A engine loved it to bits. I guess you have done your research on the head bolt issue which could lead to the engine getting hydolocked, I never experienced any such problems but it was always in the back of my mind. The RCF is pretty bombproof and I believe a lot less worry and money. A test drive in both is essential in my opinion. I did test drive the later twin turbo replacement to the N/A engine it was brutal and made even more noise and by all accounts a little less prone to issues.

It's Pistonheads par for the course.

Well at least they have identified the cause. Wow just thinking about the fact yours has been stuck at full hard makes me shudder. Like I have said before on my back to back test drive of a non AVS car and an AVS equipped car I chose to pay the extra large amount of money for the AVS car. I did come from an air ride suspension AMG which was very much a magic carpet ride and the AVS equipped RCF just about replicated that ride so that's why I bought it. Hopefully when you get it sorted you can really enjoy what I consider to be a pretty well sorted car because I'm a big fan of the system and the car.

As I'm considering getting the lower Swift springs in the future I did try to find out if anyone on the USA forum had experienced any problems and I couldn't find any issues raised. Let me assure you there is a difference because I very rarely use Sports plus setting as it is just a bit too hard for my likings preferring to let it do it's own thing with the Sports setting.

One would hope that Lexus service is a bit more grown up about such things. It raises the issue as to whether you will have to go back to them if you change over to the lower springs. So far my experience with Hedge End has been one of a helpful attitude when unbeknown to all the TPMS units fitted by the wheel place were not compatible with the Lexus system. Admittedly the guy who seems to service my car says he likes it and what I've done to it. So hopefully you will encounter a similar helpful frame of mind from where you get yours serviced

were the connections removed when you changed the springs?