Hi, Just wanted to share my news.

Downsizing complete.

Exchanged by 55 plate IS250 SE Petrol Manual with MM, for a new Black IS250 S/R Auto without MM.

Very nice drive, a lot sweeter than the manual. Happy 3rd time Lexus owner here...lets hope that lasts eh....

Congrats on your new purchase mate......so whats the difference between the SR and the SE IS250.? the autobox would be my choice if i got the IS250...

Probably take me a while to realise if I miss the SE extras...

So the things I have no longer got, that I had in my SE are:

Leather Seats
Ventilated cooling fans in front seats (got heated)
Electric seat adjustments and lumbar support for front seats (needed showing how to use the manual method)

My SE had MultiMedia fitted, so have had to go out and buy a TomTom GO 730. No bluetooth for handsfree phone, so again TomTom solves that.

No voice commands, but I hardly ever used that except to say "I'm hungry" and impress people when she popped up "showing restaurant icons"

Stereo still has 6 CD player, and support for MP3/iPod connection.

Same wheels as my old SE, so I expect them to need changing after 20k miles due to corrosion.

No dreaded dashboard rattle...yet !!

Best thing is the auto box. Manual on the SE was horrid, and I was never happy with it.

would find it hard not having the leather & sat-nav, but wouldn't miss the manual

Please excuse my ignorance, I've always thought that sat-nav was part of MM, is it not?

nice one mate, sounds great to me.

i think i could get used to not having those extras... just for the auto box

Nice one! I had an SR when my 250 se-l was in for service. I think the bodykit looks great... so much so I want a spoiler for mine too.

I could have sworn the SR sounded more throaty than the 250 as well- is there any difference in the airbox/exhaust?

Word of warning on the front spoiler in the cold weather.... it's as brittle as glass. I carelessly tapped the kerb when front parking (I vow to always reverse park in future). In warm weather it would flex, unfortuneatley in the cold it cracked . Oh well, opportunity to get the whole front bumper & spoiler resprayed to get rid of three years worth of stone chips...and finish it off with a coat of Ceramiclear instead of the OEM clearcoat .

Hi good luck picking up you SR.....

wot colour did you get....?

Nice motor.... looks, sounds and drives great..... Sound like a good choice to down size.... less CO2's as well so you will be the £210 group... the manual is £400 RFL...

won't miss the leather in this cold weather.....

Sleepness nights.....

I'll definitely heed that warning, as my drive way dips sharply and one fraction too fast and even high vehicles bottom out.....Will tread carefully.



Yes Kin, you are right. MM has SatNav, and I have no longer got MM on my new SR, so have invested in a TomTom. First big'ish drive out in it tomorrow, Manchester to Ilkley, armed with my TomTom.

One other thing I will really miss from my SE MM, and that is the reversing camera. Now that was a very handy gadget, that I thought I'd never need, but it really does come in handy. Never failed to impress passengers either.

Might consider some after market tweakery to get this feature....perhaps a bluetooth camera for my TomTom...if they exist?

Use a Pro-Clip to mount your Tom Tom & power it from your centre console so that the set-up is integrated & appears quite professional & less obvious to the Low-Lifes!
Tel

Sorry, I didn't read your post properly, regarding satnav and MM, must ahve been half asleep at the time

Thanks for the advice. Got any images of what this looks like?

Had first drive out yesterday and the car was a very pleasant drive. Only complaint was the bloody TomTom, which at one point failed to have audio for a telephone call I made, and then when I tried to make the call again, it got stuck in ringing, making a ringing noise, yet the phone handset had answered, and had the person on the other end hearing me shouting at my TomTom, and then it falling to the floor....

Girlfriend thinks its user error, but I'll wait to see if it happens again. Reset the unit and it made calls ok after that.

It'll be interesting to see how much you miss the factory Satnav. I only miss the rear camera I think it should be mandatory on all cars!! I don't miss the touch screen, or electric seats at all.

Looking at things now, the best spec has got to be the 250SR Auto.

TomTom phone facility is pretty rubbishy really. I got fed up with it and installed a proper SonyEricsson car kit - spent a happy afternoon wiring it in neatly. MUCH better, and you don't have to bugger about fitting the TomTom to the screen everytime you get in the car and think you might need to use the phone.

I have tried the Garmin BT HF and that was a bit pants too...separat MIC ires, white noise (crackling) etc, and the other party struggled to hear half the time....nothing beats a proper integrated BT, but the newer visor clip type are pretty good. They have DSP and Noise Canx. You can take them from car to car, or use them for HF at home too...and they don't look CHAV on the windscreen either !!