plewis00_uk

Hi there, everyone. As some people know I bought my GS300 a few weeks ago and it's a great car, love the interior and the design, as well as the attention while driving it, but already it's becoming a bit of a nuisance (my IS200 was pretty much trouble-free, though fingers crossed, the IS is in for it's MOT tomorrow before being sold!). Basically, if I hop in and press the 'Start' button with my foot on the brake (as normal), it tends to try to start, sometimes struggles a bit, but normally will start and then idles rough for a minute or two around 1500-1600rpm, before settling down to around 900-1000rpm after 2 minutes or so. Last Saturday I tried to start it after it had been sitting for a few days and it stalled doing that procedure. I waited a few seconds, then tried again and it started fine but again, a slightly rough (and what I consider high-revving) idle. It's at 56,000 miles now so the big 60,000 mile service is due soon and I figured bringing that forward would help (especially done at a main dealer). Any other ideas or what this could be? The car's on-board startup check reports no faults and once warm and moving, the car drives great. I was thinking injector/fuel cleaner perhaps? Also I seem to have a minor niggle with reversing, sometimes the mirrors don't tip downwards and on the reversing camera, the guidelines have disappeared, reporting 'guidance not available'. Any help - as always, is appreciated!

folding mirrors?how long you've been driving cars? 7 years, but i have only had 3dr hatchbacks and there not the sort of thing that had 'electric' folding wing mirrors (which is what i meant, not just bog standard folding mirrors...) Since my wife and i had our first child 5 months ago i decided to get something with 4 doors last week and upgrade to saloon. And i enjoy everything about my car inside and out Don't humour him, all 17 of his stupid posts have been trolling. We knew you meant electric folding mirrors & if I'm being honest I like mine too. No more of that get out, grab mirror, apply force til it locks inward. And you should enjoy and cherish your IS200 it's a great car!

Everyone who comments on my MKIII remarks as to how quiet the engine sounds and, when I tell them its done 188k, they are gobsmacked. Camping at silverstone over the weekend, i had started the engine on my LS400 to charge my phone and make sure i didn't discharge the battery doing it, i then moved the car to in front of the tent about 20 mins later my wife asked from in the tent if i wanted the jump leads to start the car, I replied "what the one thats runnign 6 feet from you?" she was very surpised she couldn't hear it, it's done 229k now as well, again a mk3 1995. I'd still have a mk4 though :) hows your phone will discharge car battery? u barkin mate... It discharges the battery through the basic laws of physics. Just because a car has a relatively massive battery does not mean running small electrical items off of it does not discharge it. He is not the one that is 'barkin', however seeing the majority of your stupid posts you are most definitely trolling.

for £5-6k you'll get catD insurance writeoff even if you promise to give car a good home[what a load of nonsence] Actually an LS430 for that kind of money is entirely reasonable and does not have to be Cat D, finding an LPG model would be harder but not impossible. Older, large cars do not hold value well. I would advise he checks Autotrader and eBay. Also I've reported you because since joining all of an hour ago, all of your 15 irrelevant posts have added nothing to conversation, your forum conduct is appalling (who didn't read the rules?) and you've just been trolling for no reason other than being bored I bet. One would have to wonder if you even own a Lexus...

I know you were talking to the other poster but I was going to say I use SNOW mode on my IS200 Auto and my GS300 because it makes the throttle response less peaky when pulling away and accelerating. On the motorway I use cruise control anyway so SNOW or ECT PWR modes make no real difference to my driving. When I did use injector cleaner, it was Redex from Halfords. in SNOW MODE your car will start from 3rd gear.never heared of it? Actually it starts in first gear on an IS200 Auto - I know this because it's a 4-speed gearbox and I can feel all 3 gear changes until top gear. It does dull the throttle response, making it more graded - so when you touch it rather than revving straight to 2000rpm, it will slowly creep up to it as you press harder. In SNOW mode you need to apply more pressure to open the throttle a given amount, the idea being you don't spin the wheels up as fast in snow. I also totally didn't see the point of your mildly aggressive, three consecutive posts and found the Prius concept a bit lost on someone with an LX430 (and as far as I know, no such LX430 exists)...

Ah, that's not so bad then! I will gather up all the pieces for it, if anyone wants to buy mine please PM me - I have two control units (one apparently has an updated chip - that I couldn't see...) and a full set of the other bits, like the harnesses. Whoever took them off me could have the whole lot including both units (in case that wasn't clear, there aren't two full sets on offer). Thanks!

I know you were talking to the other poster but I was going to say I use SNOW mode on my IS200 Auto and my GS300 because it makes the throttle response less peaky when pulling away and accelerating. On the motorway I use cruise control anyway so SNOW or ECT PWR modes make no real difference to my driving. When I did use injector cleaner, it was Redex from Halfords.

I'm pretty sure I do, yes. But before you say anything I did tell them this numerous time before and after I paid money for the item and they never once said it was incompatible. I told them my car was an IS200 SE Navigator they said it was guaranteed to work, I was told it was the wrong chip and I needed an updated unit, never once did they admit it was just not compatible - they did offer a refund but it was going to cost me about half the price of the unit to return it and I didn't trust they would say they received it back so I'd lose even more money. I can't remember if I filed with Mastercard against them in the end or not. Reading this thread it appears there was some compatibility issue but then, they shouldn't launch something and claim it's compatible or sell things under false pretences.

I purchased one of these Grom Audio units and it was absolutely awful. Customer support was totally lacking and after promise after promise it would work, it never did. My IS200 never recognised anything was attached and all I got was a very expensive iPod car charger out of it. They gave me two boxes which both did nothing, and they are sitting in my bedroom gathering dust - I will probably eBay them or sell them with my IS200 in case someone else wants to try banging their head against a wall to try and get it working. Promises of refunds, product fixes/updates, email after email - they blamed my Satnav (which I told them about), my CD headunit, my car internal wiring; nothing was achieved apart from sinking a lot of time I'd rather have back. At the other end of the scale, a Harman/Kardon Drive and Play worked perfectly first time (over direct-FM line-in).

I looked at an IS300 and the performance is great (I'd have to have one with the Aero kit though), like you say, driven carefully the MPG on an IS300 is about the same as an IS200 Auto - I think this is the 5-speed box it has vs. the 4-speed in the 200. I don't believe the IS300 is rated at 8.2 seconds 0-62 though, people have been recording times of 6.9s in it. Like you say the Japanese do build good-looking cars sometimes (I'd like to throw in: Mazda MX-5, Skyline R34, 350Z) but they can also build a lot of truly forgettable cars. Still I'd rather it that way than the Italians who build almost all good-looking cars but without any care for reliability or residual value. EDIT: I'd also like to add the OP has a really nice IS200, that was the colour I'd have wanted if I had the choice - that or flat black. I think his image tags aren't working but the URL works.

I agree with the OP, there are faster and then what people would call 'better' cars out there, and the Alan Partridge thing didn't help but I'm really fond of my IS200. I went from a Smart car (which got lots of 'gay' and relentless eco-jibes) to an IS200 which used twice as much petrol but then I would get places in style, not thinking there was a chance my car would unbolt from the chassis (which is what a Smart car feels like if you ever drive it faster than 70mph) and the image was about a thousand times better, not to mention a lot rarer sight than all your A4s, C-classes and 3-series. I don't want to sell my IS200 but I can't keep both it and the GS300. Whoever buys it from me will enjoy it as much as I did I'm sure. I put 19000 miles on the car, had it serviced once during that time and got told how nice a car it was, and the most expensive thing I replaced was the wipers due to wear and tear (also front tyres but that's my own fault for knocking the tracking out, not the car's). There is a reason these cars get 5/5 for reliability and build quality, it's one of the highest-rated cars on Reliability Index (38 or something where the average is 110 I think and higher is worse). And then like others have said, the IS seems to have a timeless shape and design, you wouldn't think a car from what must be 11-12 years ago would still look modern. The IS will be missed by me, but I already decided that if I ever have to sell the GS, the car I replace it with will be a first-gen IS (probably 2003-2005) in black with the Aero kit...

Hi guys, does anyone know how to remove the central console properly on a mk3 GS300 SE-L? I would like to sort out an iPod/iPhone line-in to the car so I can take advantage of that awesome soundsystem without burning CDs everytime I hear something new I like. I don't think my car has an aux-in (or if it is it's really well hidden), I do have a Harman/Kardon Drive & Play iPod kit which has a direct-FM modulator (good but not ideal or perfectly clean across all frequencies, particularly mid-range and treble) but also a 3.5mm line-out which is what I'd rather use. Any ideas as to even if I do get the centre console out if I'll find something as simple as two RCA connectors I can plug straight into? I don't want to go removing things unless I know I can do something with it - I took my IS200 centre console out and that was fine other than the sharp metal at the back scratching the sidepanels a bit.

I can't actually offer you much advice about this specific point, but I have a GS300 SE-L and an IS200 SE. The IS200 SE has a stock premium Lexus soundsystem (I imagine this will be similar to whatever the RX SE has) and the GS300 has a Mark Levinson fitted. The IS200 still sounds seriously good when from a clean-source (i.e. the CD player, as opposed to the direct FM line-in Harman/Kardon iPod kit I have which still sounds ok), the GS300 SE-L Levinson system seems to have better reproduction across the entire range but unless you have both cars next to each other I wouldn't miss the other is the best way I can put it. I don't think Lexus would fit a crap soundsystem in an SE car is what I'm saying, and unless you have a direct comparison with the better one you won't miss it but you might appreciate the money you saved! It's like people who say stupid things like 'a Sony BRAVIA TV is so much better than a generic/Korean-brand one', unless there are strange people who have a Sony TV (or any other premium brand) next to an unbranded one just so they can compare it, I don't think they actually could tell in the majority of cases. On the other hand, using the same logic, my Mercedes SLK had the most god-awful soundsystem ever installed in a premium car...

Are you sure the clock isn't always on - I swear it is in my IS200, I mean it's not backlit but it still displays, or is that what you meant?

I openly told my insurers (and they'd know when I gave them the car registration anyway I think) and they didn't seem bothered in the slightest, if anything they went a bit down because the car's market value is a bit lower. Obviously I am paying more overall for the GS300 because it's group 17 vs. my IS200's group 12 rating. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. At the end of the day, this is the way I see it - I am paying to insure the car for what it's worth so being a Cat D shouldn't affect it. I could be wrong?