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As promised some pics of the finished job. I can't believe the difference it's like a different car. Happy as with it Still to get it outside into the daylight to see how it looks.

This reminds me of being 17 again, my brother had an issue with his speedo in his cavalier and when removed a note was in there with the words “ oh no, not again” 😂😂😂

£270 for an RX400 by the way. (And £105 for an NX )

Not available for Lexus as yet just Big German manufacturers, it's an OBD plug in app that interrogates the ecu for information regarding the cars past life - mileage clocking identification etc etc. It's aimed to assist with purchasing decision of a vehicle. Number of articles on it on the web sounds interesting. http://www.mycarly.com/home-wip/ Big Rat

The first couple on minutes of this review is comedy gold. I was expecting a comparison to M3 etc but not to a Beluga Whale 🐳 and a fish 🐠.

have an SC 430 and locked keys in boot last Friday while packing to come home from Devon. AA arrived within 1/2 hr but could not get the door open as i had deadlocked it. he tried other operatives to see if he could find one with a lock pick, that failed so he tried 4 lock smiths they use to no avail. only option left is transport back home a hundred miles away. he arrived about 6 o'clock. with some very very good manoeuvring he got the rig to a point where the bed could be extended to it's full 36' length avoiding overhanging balconies and negotiating a tight corner between houses. then another guy had to come with a trolley jack so the car could be aligned with the bed as the skates they had would not go under it. got it loaded by about 9 and a 2 1/2 hrs later we were home. i have nothing but praise for those guys with their patience and persistence plus the great care they took with the car on both the loading , unloading and the refusal to do anything that would have caused damage to the car when someone at a Lexus dealer i phoned for some help told me to break a window and claim on insurance. my annual cost is definitely worth paying. before i joined i had a cam belt go 2 miles from Gordano services, breakdown bandit robbed me of £140 for that tow and that was approx 18yrs ago, goodness knows what they would want now. i believe for those that think they can just join when they breakdown that it cannot be done as when i tried the guy that comes out could not sign you up but that was quite a few years ago.

Here's a few pics of the job so far. Bumpers and door handle still to do, interior clean then apply the coating. There's one thing for sure it's going to be super shiny. Its not coming out the garage ever again

LC has arrived home, thank you to Ultimate Finish at Brand hatch for bringing the paintwork up to a morrow finish, a great job as usual.

I had a CT for 3 years and never realy loved it. Nice car but a big comedown from my previous RX300 which I still miss. Saved me a fortune in fuel though. Swapped the CT for an IS300H which was a massive improvement. Test drove an NX and IMHO it is significantly better than the CT (fuel consumption excepted) However if you have been used to premium nav and or Levinson sound system avoid the base model NX as sound system is truly awful. I also thought that the parcel shelf was a let down in the NX, cheap assed like from a ford fiesta LOL

Didn't think about the airbag...yes one is yellow.

Good luck with the test drives. I had to make a similar decision to you. Was going from an IS300H Premier. First test drive was 24 hours in an NX. Nice but not enough of a difference and the ride was not as smooth, rather jittery over stippled surfaces. Around town feels plenty powerful enough though. Returned it and said not for me and was offered a quick drive in a gen 4 RX. Knew that was going to be what I would buy immediately on pulling off the forecourt. The difference is night and day between NX and RX in every respect. I personally dont care for the exterior design of the gen 3 RX but I am sure you will prefer either version of the RX to an NX. My initial thought prior to test drive was a 6 month old NX Premier. Bought an 18 month old RX Fsport with red interior for £3k more and absolutely love it

If the rx350 could be had for half the price of an rx400h, that would probably be worth it. However, the one I looked at was still £6.5k, with 98k miles. Therefore a lot of rx400h choice at that price or within a couple of thousand more. So it still does not appeal on the basis of cost.

@Womble72 Paul just the sort of journey to keep you bonded 😁 That is until you see all those fast jets ! Looking forward to seeing you both 👍 Big Rat

I used bp ultimate religiously in my previous is220d. Still had dpf and egr issues so it' a waste of money in my opinion. Different story with my current 250 petrol though. Due to the high compression ratio of the V6 it definitely performs better on shell nitro than regular unleaded.

Any idea on times yet??.......it’s a 3 hr drive for me and 140ish miles, but pencil me in, obviously time depending 🙄........Kemble was a 2-1/2 hr journey 😳 but be good to catch up in person 👍

I was considering the 400h and ended up buying the RX300. Fuel consumption is obviously not as good. The purchase price is about half when you consider the mileage. The RX350 has the advantage of being a chain rather than a cam belt. The down side, and it is a down side, is the £535 road tax each year compared to £305 for the RX300. I bought mine on condition rather than specification - mine does not have the reversing camera or parking sensors (having those fitted). If you are happy to pay the extra then I am sure you will be more than pleased with the 400h. It is horses for courses. Let us all know how you get on and what you eventually purchase! Good luck with your search!

I have a spare set of tyres, the larger sizes popular on here, vredstein on back, hankook on front, need them out the way. You can have them for a snip or just two of them etc...

Just to add - normal price for this battery is £75-85... don't go to places like eurocarparts and buy it for £120-150. I paid £71.98 for mine with delivery. Otherwise - definitely recommended.

They are often worse in terms of performance or performance/price ratio. One major thing TV programmes fails to achieve is long term results, actually nobody claims that one tank will clean your engine and improves the performance (even though adverts usually are designed to be confusing and borders on implying exactly that). Actually, I have seen quite a few studies where the engines were run in simulated condition and then are cut in half to show the difference - there is definitely the difference, but the engines are not sparkling clean, they are just less dirty. Now if you take engine which is already dirty and run same test I believe end result will not be much different. That said premium fuels are questionable investment and if anything have placebo effect to them, I guess it can be compared with nitrogen in tires - they do not hurt, they are theoretically better, but in real life the result doesn't justify the premium. Finally, premium petrol exists for a reason - some cars requires higher octane petrol and it would be wrong to use regular 95 instead, but premium diesel has literally appeared when private diesel cars became popular and some owners started looking for ways to waste some money hoping for some miracles. I would probably go as far as stating that premium diesel is not a thing - it is same diesel with some additives, but for results you would need to run the engine for like million miles before they would be visible.

@rayaans Don't you just hate it when a friend knows you to well, @Flytvr the cakes and coffee are on you tomorrow I can't afford it now I've let my investment slide and have to slum it in an is-F 😉 🐀

This is the life I live every day

This is an excellent point and what the 'experts' say. Even worse, mixed tyres. One thing to consider is that an F isn't the easiest car to sell, so why put off any potential buyer with unheard of tyres? If I was in your shoes Paul, I'd go for the cheapest premium tyre you can get. Be sorry to see you go fella :)

I read this ^ as - "I used to go out with a great girl. She was gorgeous, intelligent and rich. I dumped her as I fancied a change. I saw her the other day and she still looks amazing - actually better than before. I'm now single and live in Merthyr Tydfil with my two budgies and a cat, but I have no regrets"

or so you think...... BANG

Picked mine up today from Lexus Swindon, no damage at all, no petrol added to the tank or box of sweets either unlike some dealers, at least they did a decent job though.

That really does look good, not sure I would want to take it out!!!!!!!!!!!

Few years back LR collected my RR Sport for a service - I got it out of garage and car jockey jumped in and off he drove - I then walked up to front door of house and put my hand in pocket to find door key and pulled out Fob I immediately rang dealer to tell them to get their guy to come back for fob so they did and he pulled over to answer phone and stopped engine I then had to ring a friend to take me to find my car and hand over the fob as he was stuck there

Paul.if your selling the f , I surpose it doesn’t really matter.but it’s Bridgestone for me to

My insurance was renewed on 5/10/17, price had increased to £306 and pennies, mine is 9/10k a year and an accumulated excess of £350, my insurance is with esure, although I only do about 3500 a year but not worth changing mileage figures as it has sod all difference when u want to reduce it, so just left it as it’s always been, renwal search was £500+ so stayed where I’ve been for the last 10yrs

This is the code reader I got a while ago but I think almost any of the ones available on eBay will do. Alternatively, if you have a laptop you could get a MiniVCI cable from eBay and install Techstream, the Toyota diagnostic software, which does a lot more than just read and delete codes.

One to add to the list Newbie. Don't think there are any batteries shown thus far. Battery For IS 250 There are quite a few to choose from, in my experience this is a good one. Bosch S4 026 068 (comes with a 4 year guarantee) Length 261 x Height 220 x Depth 175 Whichever you get, insist on a type 068. A lot of places will default you into a type 069 .... DO NOT GET THIS ... the contact posts will be at the front of the battery. The wiring loom is severely over-stretched ed to attach.

Update [if anyone is bothered]!! I've spoke to a company who offer GAP, and although they do offer cover on a private sale, if you wrote-off your ISF they'd only pay up to the figure that matches the Glass/Parker guides at the time you take out the policy - so using an 2008 ISF as an example [good condition, 50k miles]; Glass guide says £15,590. So you'd still be way short on what you'd need to replace like for like! If you buy the cover now, in 3 or 4 years time it might be useful, as Glass would say your ISF is worth say £10k but you'd get £15.5k [insurance payout and GAP combined]. Not really helpful in the present though! An agreed value policy seems to be a better bet, if the agreed figure was a more realistic price though of course!

Glad you got your car and that you like it, they are indeed brilliant cars. We've had ours about 16 or 17 months now and done something like 17,000 miles and every time I get in it I still get a big grin on my face I don't know who makes the OEM parts but the rest of your question is answered above (point No.4 in the second post).

Only because I wasn't allowed one in the house :-(

Lexus dealers are good with tyres. Lexus Stockport couldn't match the price I found for the Goodyears's I wanted from Tyreleader so they agreed that I order them and they fit them for free. Which came out cheaper than the fitted price from Blackcircles.

Look, proof it’s clean!!

To be fair, it should stay looking pretty good, his garage is really clean.... 👍

I can get a weekly supermarket big shop in the boot easily if that helps. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

That sounds disgusting!!!!

Spooky but mrsF and I have just compared the CT boot size to her mk5 Golf and the CT is larger. I had the CT as a loaner and didn't find it any smaller inside than our V-dub. I'd say it was on par but we didn't have the CT for long.

Passenger door corrected and is like a mirror, looks like the ceramic won't go on till tomorrow. Just had to drill and tap my rear number plate bolt holes. Stupid plastic bolts were seized.

@mike m Being a builder I'm always up for a challenge, so this car detailing lark no probs I've gathered up some kit from the back of the van as the Silver 'F' needs a spruce up....... Ive scraped out my best muck bucket for the 'H2 O' Solution. And my best plastering sponge had had a dust off and also my favourite broom for the difficult bits. Now I'm guessing you are all going to approve of my own 'Clay Bar' , its a hand sander with 180 grit pad that should shift even the most obstinate stains. So here we go......... Oh and by the way for a fraction of the cost 😂 🐀

No consolation I know but the 4RX has just the same issue with the inner door bottoms getting muddy. My Range Rover never suffered with this problem. I live in South Wiltshire and, at this time of year, the farmers leave huge amounts of mud on the road round here. The back of the RR got extremely filthy in about 5 minutes in the wet but I find the RX to keep the rear much cleaner and the rear screen less obscured. It must be the aerodynamics. There is nothing you can do and I think its a price worth paying to live in such a nice area.

Couple of pics to get started.

Freshly cleaned after our long drive back from Nottingham yesterday. Have to say I'm mega pleased with the work BCS did. Worth every penny and the long drive up North! Just in the Emirates lounge about to go to Dubai, then Dubai to Auckland in New Zealand! Long flight!! Hope you guys like them as much as I do.... Cheers all! Pete

They did the work on my previous car as well, the wheels went Silver to a light Anthracite with yellow calipers, good standard of finish 👍 Big Rat

Used BCS a few years back on the Cayenne. Refurbed the brakes and finished things superbly. Top blokes :)

About 4 years ago I was driving my wife (in her car) for an important hospital appointment in London. We broke down just on the outskirts and called the AA. The AA man got it going and then followed us all the way from Barnes to Chelsea so we could be sure to get to the hospital. Quite honestly that occasion alone convinced me never to be without cover.

Ummmmmm........this is as bad as one of them there technical threads that I 'sometimes' sabotage! Yesterday, my F got the special treatment, being washed and vacuumed by Lexus Cheltenham.