Help buying an IS250 - advice needed

[rayaans]

I wouldnt worry about the electrics on these, its not a Merc!! ha Our Merc had stupid amounts of electric work that needed doing.

My RX300 had the electric steering column, it was still working 8 years later.

My RX450h has also got it, along with the electric easy access seats. The steering wheel works fine but I turned the seat off as I usually put my lunch in the footwell in the back and it crushed my sandwiches once lol.

[steveledzep]

5 hours ago, bobmc said:

The Lexus extended warranty is available on all models up to 10 years old and with less than 140K on the clock. So an 09/10 IS250 SE-L can be covered. I think I've read somewhere that cars bought through independent dealers need a pre-inspection but it doesn't seem to mention that on the website T&C's. 

My previous IS250 underwent an inspection at Lexus Cardiff before being accepted for the warranty.  It had a full service history, but 2 were done by independents.

My current IS250C was bought from an independent trader but was accepted for warranty without inspection because its service record is 100% Lexus.

[toffee_pie]

why are we even talking reliability, The reliability of Lexus embarrasses German cars. I took a punt on an incredible weapon that is a CL55 and it totally backfired. 

Even Lexus cars like LS400s are incredible and probably even now many of them are still ticking along with no drama after all them years.

[rayaans]

47 minutes ago, toffee_pie said:

why are we even talking reliability, The reliability of Lexus embarrasses German cars. I took a punt on an incredible weapon that is a CL55 and it totally backfired. 

Even Lexus cars like LS400s are incredible and probably even now many of them are still ticking along with no drama after all them years.

What do you mean backfired?

[steveledzep]

1 minute ago, rayaans said:

What do you mean backfired?

Can of worms !.....Hornets nest !.....Here we go !

[toffee_pie]

moving on!

[rayaans]

1 hour ago, steveledzep said:

Can of worms !.....Hornets nest !.....Here we go !

 

59 minutes ago, toffee_pie said:

moving on!

Whats going on? What happened then? give me an overview atleast lol

[toffee_pie]

I 'sold' that Merc back to where it came from, got my money back. circa 4k of work was required. Not what I was sold lets say.

 

[steveledzep]

6 minutes ago, rayaans said:

 

Whats going on? What happened then? give me an overview atleast lol

Check out Toffee's thread "au revoir".  Surprised you missed it 

[toffee_pie]

should rename it deja vu

[rayaans]

I saw that he got a Merc but didn't read everything else!

Sorry for the late reply though - took ages just to scroll through the severe load of IBS on the Merc forum

 

Just get an IS-F - white one with 84k miles is on, previous forum members I believe and I doubt it'd give you any trouble lol

[Dylanlewis2000]

IS-F?!? The 5.0 one? I'll have to have a fuel tanker to follow me :-)

[steveledzep]

The fuel tanker wouldn't be able to keep up 

[toffee_pie]

Compared to a CL55 the ISF is like a Fiat Punto on economy.

[rayaans]

 

57 minutes ago, toffee_pie said:

Compared to a CL55 the ISF is like a Fiat Punto on economy.

IS-F does decent economy TBF, especially on long runs!

[steveledzep]

1 hour ago, toffee_pie said:

Compared to a CL55 the ISF is like a Fiat Punto on economy.

You can't compare a Lexus to a FIAT......Fix It Again Tomorrow.

[toffee_pie]

21 hours ago, rayaans said:

 

IS-F does decent economy TBF, especially on long runs!

Yeah, I would not hesitate to get a F, had I a spare 20k. Economy on that is of no concern. Economy on the CL55 was slightly worrying.....

[Dylanlewis2000]

Well I thought I had found a good one but it turns out it was just sold! It was a 2012 advance black with black leather on a 12 plate. Back to the search!

[bobmc]

Does this mean you've decided you can live without the paddle shifters?

 

[Dylanlewis2000]

Well yes kind of- my rationale was that a newer car would be better than an older one? As much as I like the SE-L a 2009 car would be three years older. I don't have paddles on mine now (Volvo) so I don't know how much use they would be. I suppose you can still knock it into manual mode via the shifter.

[rayaans]

40 minutes ago, Dylanlewis2000 said:

Well yes kind of- my rationale was that a newer car would be better than an older one? As much as I like the SE-L a 2009 car would be three years older. I don't have paddles on mine now (Volvo) so I don't know how much use they would be. I suppose you can still knock it into manual mode via the shifter.

What colour combo and budget are you looking at? 

[Dylanlewis2000]

Everything and anything to be honest, whatever takes my fancy. Lexus do this lovely bight bluey/purple colour but these seem to be few and far between. There is a nice model on Used Lexus, 2011, cream leather and 25000 miles, it's the same price as the 2012 model which I can't understand why. 

[J Henderson]

Wow, I had no idea an Advance model doesn't have paddle shifters before reading this topic... 

To be honest, I rarely use them day-to-day. Just for the occasional bit of spirited driving, or when I want to slow quickly for a traffic light or something.

Is the lack of full leather the sole reason for ruling out an F-Sport? Because retrofitting the seats from an SE-L would be completely plug & play and just a few hours work. A number of people on the forum have done it.

As to whether "newer = better". In theory yes, I suppose a newer car is more likely to have been serviced on time by a main dealer and there's maybe less chance of the bodywork being scratched and stone-chipped etc. As already mentioned earlier in the topic though, these cars are mechanically bulletproof so buying an older one isn't really an issue as long as it's been well-maintained and in good condition.

One thing I've noticed about the newer run-out models though, is that very few of them seem to have the Mark Levinson stereo in them. On older cars, if it has the nav screen in the dash, you know it also has the ML sound system, but Lexus made them seperate options on later cars.

[Dylanlewis2000]

 

12 minutes ago, Kodiak Sky said:

Wow, I had no idea an Advance model doesn't have paddle shifters before reading this topic... 

To be honest, I rarely use them day-to-day. Just for the occasional bit of spirited driving, or when I want to slow quickly for a traffic light or something.

Is the lack of full leather the sole reason for ruling out an F-Sport? Because retrofitting the seats from an SE-L would be completely plug & play and just a few hours work. A number of people on the forum have done it.

As to whether "newer = better". In theory yes, I suppose a newer car is more likely to have been serviced on time by a main dealer and there's maybe less chance of the bodywork being scratched and stone-chipped etc. As already mentioned earlier in the topic though, these cars are mechanically bulletproof so buying an older one isn't really an issue as long as it's been well-maintained and in good condition.

One thing I've noticed about the newer run-out models though, is that very few of them seem to have the Mark Levinson stereo in them. On older cars, if it has the nav screen in the dash, you know it also has the ML sound system, but Lexus made them seperate options on later cars.

Yes, it would appear that in 2011 they decided to discontinue the Mark Levinson sound system. You can find it on the 2010 cars and everything earlier but not the 2011 or 2012. It seems silly that they have done this as it's something that BMW (logic 7) and Merc (h&k) have in their series of cars.

[steveledzep]

I wouldn't worry too much about the ML sound system.  The standard one is more than adequate in a noisy, compromised listening environment.....you can't even sit in the middle of the speakers !

 I had ML in my previous saloon, my convertible has a standard 11 speaker system.  I'm a bit of an audiophile with a tidy home system and the ML system wasn't anything special in the car environment.