Cotswold Pete

I recall we underestimated the Japanese when they first started making stuff that the Western world thought was their 'right', and would be fair to say Quality Control in China is getting better. Though time will tell if the current Chinese EVs will be good to use in a decade or so. When you look at the bad stuff that came out of Longbirdge or Oxford years ago, we cannot really be poo-pooing our Far East compatriots. On the AI front, it will be useful (and dangerous) just like the Internet is. Having used the Internet since 1980 (and helping program some very small chunks of it) we saw it only as a force for good, and now we have criminals using it for things less the good. AI will only be as good and mad as humans when it can be capable of ADHD, Autism, crying, laughing and making huge mistakes - coz that is where inventiveness comes from (stretching the boundaries of data and known facts), well that is my Humble view, and in some ways I am glad to be getting out of the tech industry after 43 years, to focus on my gardening, bird watching and walking and keeping an eye on this wonderful forum

Used to do that a couple of times every year, usually after starting the engine and then popping over to have a quick chat with neighbour that ended up being longer chat

I used Lexus Parts direct, found them not a bad price for shocks, and then Amayama for control arms etc. You wont regret having a GS450, a mate has just gone from 450 to MB E220 and just like me the same view, the Lexus will always be a better car Mercs are too fragile in my view (though run of the mill parts are cheaper than Lexus - specialist stuff is an arm and a leg). I kind of regret not going with Lexus, but got MB as quick buy off a mate of mine - so I knew it's provenance.

My guess would be a dry joint somewhere. which would be a bit of a do to spot even if you took the radio out. Slight possibility of some loose push connector on the board, or worse a dry joint on base of the connector socket (seen lots of these in the days when I delved into the circuits)

If you want to know a bit more about what might be near you then this web site is good - I use it at work a lot to suss out options for my clients. UK Broadband Map - scroll to bottom enter your post code and then tick the boxes in the right hand panel This will give you some idea of whether you can get fast fibre. If you tick the 'Speed Test Results' box then it will pop up speeds of people near you and sometimes who their provider is, which might help. There are over 100 Alt-Net providers in the UK so it can be a faff if you have options in your local area So although the map will show you an Alt-net provider it is not possible to ask the web site just to tell you who that alt-net is.

All this reminds me of what one lecturer said when at Uni back in the 70's Hitler really wanted Peace, well he actually wanted a piece of Poland a piece of France etc. So one assumes that Xi and Netanyahu are looking for PIECE.

Tyres at 5 years old on a car will suffer thsi problem. I have seen spares that are 10 years old and never used, but the rubber harderns and cracks as soon as you put a load on them. I have MB E350 and the Michelin Primacy are an excellent choice, very quite, and seem to wear well. I am running 17inch rims, with the right balance between pot-hole handling and general road handling.

Heck almighty, really strange story this one. Glad problem solved but would have been interesting to see what the old battery was reading before you cranked engine. The voltage of a car battery should be between 12.2 to 12.6 volts when the engine is turned off. A fully charged car battery voltage falls between 13.7 and 14.7 volts with the engine running. With the battery charge at 75%, the voltage can drop to 12.4 volts. At 25% charge, the voltage will measure around 12 volts. The LS400 is more tolerant of battery on the way out from my experience.

WIth nealry 300K on clock I would think £1K-2K would be what you adverytise. Personally so long as no rust in rear wheel arches which is what got mine at 250K miles, I would pay more than £2K, so long as (if you have the touchscreen) it was readable in cold weather. I preferred the LCD in my Mk3 over the Mk4. On the crank breaking front, I understand they are rated up to 1000Bhp, so pretty much impossible to break as result of engine issues. Enjoy driving and do not sell it to anyone as you will regret that day, but soak up the admiring glances. If ever I see an LS with owner in a supermarket car park cannot help myself from having a chat.

Have heard that this product works, not tried it myself as have used the WD40 mainly or a silicone spray. The trick is the binding of the coating to the lense so that it does not peel of (wear out) and having tried cheap products never seemed to be worth expense over using WD40 and just using T-cut (or some such agent - ceramic bath cleaner) on a regular basis to clean the algal growth off the headlights that lives in the micro-scratches and causes the dimming.

I use Isopropyl Alchohol to clean blades (sometimes call Rubbing Alchohol) and also clean screen with it, mainly to remove the stubborn bits of road cr*p that gets kicked up, especially in summer when road works deposit tiny bits of tar (not usually visible), and also if I get behind a very dirty truck/bus in front kicking up cr*p or belching filthy fumes. Keeping windscreen super clean helps recude micro-tears in rubber as well as making sure the blades do not pick up cr*p that sticks to them. Actually must do my screen and blades this weekend as not done for a little while. Sometimes I will also go over screen with some screen cleaner/detergent to give it a final clean

Reading this document might help if your techncially minded as to what is actaully going on between the acid and the lead in a battery. Failure Causes and Effective Repair Methods of Lead-acid Battery The more modern cars get the more I want to go back to riding a push bike or driving a late 90's Jap mobile

It was this whole shebang that made me glad I did not get into buying an ES300. Does make one wonder what the situation is Japan or USA is, as usually this kind of vulnerability travels across the whole of the 'criminal community' with speed. Kind of reminds me of the radios being stolen saga back in mid to early 80's then the industry finally got off it's butt and started coding radio. Agree that from what I am hearing Lexus seem to be putting their fingers in their ears and going 'La La La De Da'

Nice, kind of reminds me of a mate years ago who owned an E-type and he told me the previous owner would clean the wire wheels with a soft brush after any run and the engine bay looked clean as you like. Not so sure my mate kept it up to that level. This kind of video makes me hanker for another big Lexus, I must stop watching them and get on with liking my W212

All I have to say is Gor Blimey and Amazing

I was enamoured by these little beasts, but a friend of mine dis-abused me of that dream by telling me her stories of rust buckets on wheels that she got rid of before the inevitable MOT fail

Blimey that is a lot of people making the wrong choice. I should know having a mate with two S classes (one of them normally needing something done to it) and me with an E class (which is an S class with less to go wrong). I am not sure the 500 is ever going to be on my list - it just looks too 'not right' on the front end - I keep looking at LS460's on ebay, but for the mo lets see how my E350 goes

Also keep in mind Infinity Exhausts by J18 of M4, they are stainless exhaust fabricators, sorted out my Y-piece on the 400 (only bit that was not stainless). They are excellent and good value, and could no doubt do you a full stainless exhaust if you wanted to splash the cash

recently been told about the CVT noise, so maybe I need to go in one to check it out. surely with newer models Lexus have worked out how to deaden the sound!!

People buy from people, this is something most companies forget, and that customers will trust support people way more if they are hoenst and up front. With 45 years experience I have found the trick is making the bosses think you are doing their bidding, when in fact you are keeping the clients happy, coz getting a new client if a lot more expensive than keeping the existing client. Learnt Under-Promise Over Deliver many years ago, a great maxim to live by (expect with the missus, maybe)

Maybe I should have said 'chilled', in that it just does it's work quite calmly until you press that pedal and it just gets up and goes. Having driven a number of USA V6 and V8s always felt like they wanted to shout at you even when they were pootling along, I get that some of that was exhaust design but the 1UZ beats IMHO most engines into a cocked hat.

If only in the days when I did on avearge 50Kmiles a year in my company Cav, I had a V8 Lexus instead I would have been a very happy (and lucky) chap. Most of my Cavs were tired after 18 months, and in one where I did 72,000 in one year it was more or less a bit of a wreck, but I did always rev through the gears, where as the Lexus V8 is so 'lazy' that no need to rag it to get going, which is why 200, 500K is nothing to worry about. However I am not sure yet I like the look of the LS500 or the LC, so not going to be on my Xmas present request list yet

Had the Mk2 1.6 Cav as company car for many years, then got my first Cavalier Sri 130, that was my first 'true' sports car. Loved it, even got let off once when i was doing 115 down the M4 late one night (God knows how I managed that). Then traded sideways to a 1.8 full spec CDi, lovely car, but could only get to 112 (downhill), so had to get used to not chasing other t*ssers down the M4 when they had cut me up. It was not until I got my first LS 400 15 years ago I felt like had a car that could give a sports car a run for it's money and stick to road well (when bone dry surface) Been in many sports cars, I still think best was the VW Corrado VR6 and Aston DB7, and worst Aston DB9 and TVR Chimeara (5 litre) and the most interesting E-type (coz it felt like a proper toy car).

According to this web site - in theory any changes to bushes could constitute a mod Insurance Mods So if you used poly bushes instead of the originals then that might get you caught. However if you ragged your car, slammed it into a wall and expected a pay out, I not so sure that they would be looking at the spec of the bushes or the springs unless you have tweaked to uprate cornering and it was obvious that the running gear was out of spec. So I do not think it relates to non-OEM but what might be classed as modified specification to change the handling/road holding of the car. So if someone rear ends you, the car is a right off, I suspect they are not going to pulling the control arms apart to see what the bushes are.

I like happy endings, glad to here you are all sorted on the MOT front