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Good God - reading this thread makes me think I will stick with my pile of OS maps on back seat and a head turn every now and again to check the OS.🤣 Only times I have ever got truely lost is when relying on Sat Nav (inbuilt) or relying too much on Google (which is better, but too much for an old g*t like me). I would add (in support of LS400 satnav) it did a better job of getting me to Cadbury World then my brain, but that was a one off IMHO

Interesting thread, I haven't read it all but I have an LS460. It's had a few minor issues but absolutely nothing remotely expensive. Only had it since November 2019 and it hasn't let me down (yet!). I read about the gearbox/radiator problem and had a new OEM radiator fitted out of precaution. Other than that, and general servicing I have had to replace 1 wheel bearing and I had to get the ride height sensors removed and thoroughly cleaned because at times the car was a bit "wonky" with its ride height, but that is now resolved and didn't require new parts. Overall it has been a very good car. There is always a risk of bigger bills with more complex cars, but the additional performance over an LS400 is very significant, coupled with (slightly) better economy and more creature comforts available (especially now I have a GROM unit fitted - I have full Android integration) means that, for me, those risks are worth it. The way I see it, I bought the car outright, it isn't really depreciating, and the monthly payments on a new car lease deal would easily pay for any unexpected servicing costs on the LS460, and I am driving an LS460 instead of some dreary 1.4L diesel hatchback or whatever.

For my two pennies worth, I bought a second car as a runabout given I can and do park in places where a large and wide car would not be expected to go. This arrangement works well and for the most part the LC gets used on longer journeys. The runabout gets used for all manner of things such as shopping, trips to the tip and even (much to my angst) by my wife who frequently uses it to tow a sand school leveller! Obviously two cars to tax/insure/service but the payback is driving the LC. Oh, definitely do not underestimate the width of the car and the door lengths. For what it is worth, I have number 3 of the seat memory settings adjusted such that the seat fully reverses and lifts up at the same time. I engage this when exiting is difficult, and it can and does make life a lot easier.

I just want to say two more things. Back in 1973 my dad got a brand new car. OK, it was 'only' a Morris Marina Estate but in our street/neighbourhood/circle of friends it was almost unheard of to own a brand new car and it cost him a lot of money at the time. Thing is, we lived in a street of terraced houses with no driveway or garage and he just had to park it outside the house. I know traffic wasn't as bad back then but we still had double-decker buses, trucks and all manner of vehicular traffic passing by. When I asked if he was worried about it getting damaged he just laughed and said no - he couldn't do anything about it and there were plenty of other things in life to worry about. I am absolutely not making light of the war but, four weeks ago someone in Ukraine may have had an LC500 (or some other car that they loved equally as much) locked away in a garage because they were paranoid of someone dinging a door panel or whatever. My point is, you never know what's round the corner so get it out and enjoy it now, for tomorrow may never come.

I talked to Kwikfit again this morning and showed them the photograph. It appears that japanese company ITOCHU owns both Kwikfit and Stapletons. The manager at the Wilmslow branch of Kwikfit told me that if Stapletons have the tyre, then Kwikfit will be able to source it even if it's not in their catalogue. If demand increases he assumes that Kwikfit will add the tyre to their catalogue.

Onto the final major mod I've done recently, you'll notice in the above photo I managed to fit some VLAND headlights and this was done quite some months ago in October. Unfortunately I ordered some VLAND tail lights to go alongside these and to this day I have still yet to receive them! I'm currently needing to chase those up but in the meantime I spotted a new set of tail lights on the market in America and China, namely the HC Motion Tail Lights. What was special about these was not only did it have an animation when the headlights come on, but they were also sequential indicators unlike the VLAND tail lights. There is a cool little comparison video of all the tail lights lights available for the second gen IS I'll link below. After I spotted this I managed to order them from Ali Express and I received them a few days ago. Took around 2 months for shipping from China and I opted for the Smoked versions as I figured with a black car these would look great. I won't bore you with the details of how to fit them, but I will include videos from Tuner with Kids for the tail lights and Marty Motoring for the VLANDS in terms of how the fitting was done. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003445550208.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.21ef1802awR4Qt I did attempt to add some T shaped weather seal for the HC motion tail lights as they don't come with that, however the ones I purchased were a catastrophic fail. The original adhesive on this T shaped seal was too weak, so I used my own 3M foam backed adhesive and it ended up way too thick for the tail lights outer potion so I ended up peeling it back off. Most people tend to remove the seals from the OEM tail lights but I didnt want to as this may affect their resale value and incase I had to revert back to them. All this means is that grime and water can accumulate in that area making it more difficult to clean, as far as I'm aware this shouldn't cause any long standing issues or damage to the tail lights. In any case I will have to revisit this when I get time. After wasting a few hours I managed to fit the HC motion tail lights with relative ease, it is rather fiddly and far less stressful than fitting the original VLAND headlights but the results are fantastic. I'll include the footage of my fitment of the VLAND headlights also. IMG_4839.MOV IMG_6804.MOV Overall both the combo of these headlights and tail lights really helps to modernise the look of the 2IS, the only other thing you could do is a bumper conversion but not only is it quite expensive it does require alot of prep in terms of painting and what not. The HC Motions depending on your year of vehicle may require the usage of resistors, the reason being that in an older vehicle without LED tail lights you can have all sorts of error codes thrown up such as VSC check engine light etc, HC motion thankfully throw these in for you but as my car is a facelift vehicle with the newer LED tail lights this wasn't a requirement for me. The only other prep as I mentioned earlier are the weather seal gaskets which you will need to add on yourself. The boot lid portion still has the gaskets I left on however this is quite noticeable so I will come back to this and redo all the seals then possible. Out of the box the VLANDs do require adjustment of their beams as this doesnt have auto levelling in them compared to the OEM headlights, not to mention AFS will not work so a fuse will need to be pulled to remove that error. The adjustment can be made without dismantling the entire bumper if required, the bolt that is responsible for the height adjustment can be accessed from above with a fairly long flathead and rotating the gear like grooves will increase or decrease the height. Mine could do with further adjusting but that'll be done when I have a bit more free time. Overall the light output seems to be better than the HIDs my car came with but the high beam is a little weak, thankfully I dont need it all that often so its a tradeoff for better aesthetics.

Hi, today I went from Swansea to Huddersfield. 260 miles one way. 77mph cruise control most of the time. 33MPG on computer. I put petrol in Huddersfield and 36 litres to make it full again. What a wonderful car! I would never believe it if I hadn't tried it. Thank you Lexus:)

Cheers. Yes 4 replies with an equal split between red and white. All personal choice I know. Hat and paper looking favourite.

As above, try and find car(s) in those colour combos. Just swing by a dealer and have a nose. Pictures never fully represent. Other factors to think about (but not necessarily consider) is when you come to swap the car in the future, does white or red sell better? Long term care is also something as well. Looking after white can be tricky, but not impossible, depends how prone you are to in car accidents 😆 Brilliant how tastes different, I'd avoid white like the plague and love the red interiors in my current and previous Lexi 😄 Best of luck with purchase and colour choice, worst case, pull bits of paper out a hat 😛

For me, its not the car or the styling, an Audi is a flippin’ liability. I’d just be frightened of having it on the drive like a ticking bomb. I can pick holes in the Lexus but it will still be going strong in 10 years.

Toyota also very good, so it's a no lose situation whatever happens.

And on the front it had the memorable injunction to “Stop me and Buy one.” I believe that a similar venture by a peddler of prophylactics with the line “Buy me and Stop one” was less successful.

I forgot; lets not ask were all this extra power is going to come from.

Cleaned the DVD and it worked again. Sometimes when something went really wrong reading it, whole centre console died. All the controls worked but nothing on the screen even when trying to access AC e.t.c.

Just sold my 2010 LS600h L. Can't praise it enough. One of the best cars out there for long journeys. Few little niggles i encountered during ownership: PCS warning light. I replaced the brake switch still the same.. Next i was going to replace headlight bulbs but never got round to try this. The PCS light only came on once in a blue moon and only when it was dark outside. Hence why i suspected the bulbs light output. Noisy heater fan. Easy DIY took 15 minutes to replace. Second hand motor off Ebay £40. Apart from that it was tyres and servicing.

If you want to do shopping on bike maybe you need one like this

https://www.ebay.de/itm/253482214924?var=555253493287 Installed this in the CT. Hold 11" tablet without problems. Cheap 16€ included shipping (from UK). Compare with the one from Lexusparts UK? I like this from eBay. Cheaper, much cheaper, less clumsy, can be installed more ways so the tablet can be placed where my little one wants it to be. What's not to like? The CT is fine, we are happy with it, but Toyota here has nothing that can make little children comfortable in the car. Just look at the booster seat I bought. Company that made it was supported by Hyundai. https://poledglobal.com/79/?idx=4 10 times the quality of what El Corte Ingles (supposedly the best quality store in Spain) has to offer. Toyota here has nothing.

It's a car. Designed to be driven. Outside, on the roads. This life is not a rehersal where you make the choices here and get to carry them out in the next. You could be run over by a bus next week so use it and enjoy it the way it was meant to be.

Few other things I got done for the car, one long overdue thing was a Dashcam. I had a cheapo cheap and cheerful Chinese dash cam but I had a few issues with it. The first being that it was quite distracting due it having a screen, the second being that it was wired to the cigarette lighter which is normally fine but I was wanting to have it hard wired to the car and something fairly cheap without an official hardwire kit I wasn't very comfortable using. Enter the Road Angel 3 Halo Pro, this was a Dash Cam I spotted on Amazon and it fulfilled the following criteria for me. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HXKXLLY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07LB66WCM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 1) It didnt have a screen and was fairly slim so not only was it discrete, it wouldnt be distracting me mid drive. 2) The quality was pretty decent and it provided a rear camera also which also had acceptable quality. 3) It has available an official hardwire kit as an option which was very important to me. Other features include a winter mode as well as Wi-Fi, but truth be told from what I've read and my general usage the App is pretty unintuitive and not great to use and the speeds were pretty bad. However for my needs I'm quite happy to pop the SD card out and take it to my computer to obtain footage. I will apologise that I don't have many photos of hard wiring the camera up as I only managed to do this months after purchasing this. I'll include a video of an IS F Member who wired his dash cam in a similar manner to mine. I will include the fuses below I used to wire into via Fuse taps that the hardwire kit came with for good measure. 1 FR P/SEAT LH 30 A Power seat 12 ECU-IG LH 10 A Cruise control, air conditioning system, power steering, rain sensor, antiglare inside rear view mirror, shift lock system, moon roof, tire inflation pressure warning system, (& VSC (2011-2013 Once installed and configured for hard wire mod in the pretty awful Halo Pro app, the dash cam seemed to work great. I've got audio notifications of when the Dashcam is operational, GPS is connected and when it shuts down to protect the car battery from draining. The footage seems to be quite good also both at night time and day time, and you do have the option to record audio as well as not use it. Not to mention it is fairly discreet and you wouldnt notice it aside from the blinking LED which could always be disabled in the settings. I'll include some of the footage below for your viewing pleasure. outputVideo.MOV outputVideo 2.MOV outputVideo 3.mp4

Following on from the project lights, was another visual and somewhat practical mod. When I originally got the car, the original drivers mat had worn all the way through to even the original carpet underneath and I suspected this was due to the single owner and largely motorway driving. At first I got a basic cheap plate cover to conceal the damage and give your foot a place to rest as well as look a bit smarter. This was absolutely fine, but a few months down the line my mum was moaning she didnt have mats in her IS250C and I saw an opportunity to donate my mats (which pretty much fit the same with the exception of the rear passengers) and get myself something a little snazzier seeing as I didnt want to get any generic eBay ones or go direct to Lexus either. I happened to come across someone on Facebook selling custom car mats, its the style of those Manicci or Diamond mats you can get but with customised logos. I suspected these were simply cheap Chinese made ones I could have gotten for fairly cheap but I was intrigued to see if I could get a Custom F Logo similar to both my steering wheel and my new projector lights. Using the above sample photos as a reference and providing a high quality F Logo which matched my IS250 exactly, I placed the order and after around 2 weeks or so the European chap popped around to my house and fitted the mats for me. He charged me around £140 and knowing what I know now, I could have probably done this myself and gotten them at possibly half the cost off of Aliexpress but all in all it looks very smart and I'm quite pleased with the overall look. The drivers side does come with the plate to protect the mats from wear while driving so that covers me in that regard. These mats should be far easier to clean compared to the OEM ones, plus at some point when I've got some spare cash I may go for an option in the boot to have that lined in a similar style mat but I'm in no particular rush at this point.

The next thing I did was something a little more aesthetic focussed, I noticed Ahmed was selling some of his Lexus F Door Project lights and placed an order for them and I thought this would be a good opportunity to also upgrade my standard F Sport Sills to the Illuminated Lexus Sills. These are how my standard F Sport sills look. It is worth noting that with my car being a Facelift vehicle, the standard sills for this are white and not blue. However the only two ways to get these illuminated sills is either second hand from breakers or to go direct to Lexus and pay an absurd amount of money, on top of this there are very few SE-L facelift vehicles being broken so finding sills is difficult so I opted to get Blue as this would match my overall aesthetic with the projector lights. I first started off with the projector lights, its fairly simple to swap these in with a trim removal tool, just be careful not to snag the connectors. Once in itll work straight away however its not exactly noticeable until dark. Next were the sills, now thanks to the contribution of a fellow member on LOC UK, I know that the F sport vehicles happen to have the wiring looms for the illuminated still in place as a standard. All I needed to do was just pop the connectors in and we're good to go. I did however run into a bit of a snag, those connectors were there but the placement of them rendered the connectors on my illuminated sills to damn short! I am fairly handy with electrics so I did a jerry rigged DIY solution using some block connectors and automative electrical cable I had lying around. I simply spliced the ends of the wire and joined them into a block and gave it more length then I needed and simply coiled them up. After testing it worked, I managed to transfer some of the trim clips onto my sills as some of the F Sport ones broke while trying to yank it off. I did unfortunately managed to dent them but when I get time I'll try and get them out with a suction cup! Overall I was very happy with the overall look of the sills and projector lights together, the sills fade in which is a very nice touch instead of an instant on /off and by a happy coincidence they seem to match up with the older F logo on my steering wheel perfectly! I would like to revisit this project again but to instead get projector lights in the rear passenger doors as well as illuminate those door sills as I managed to acquire two more illuminated sills for next to nothing. This will require some wiring and creativity so I'll attempt that perhaps in the summer.

Hey everyone, been a while since I've had some updates for the car. Quite a few little things have been done and a few big things. One of the main things done was changing out the boot struts, the OEM ones had seemed to worn out so I had to use quite alot of force to open them up every time. I wanted to have these open up on their own and I opted with a replacement favoured by many of us on LOC, the following provided by SGS Engineering. https://www.sgs-engineering.com/gsc2655-lexus-is300-boot-strut I have seen some people on the inter webs replace these with a BMW strut on just one side or sometimes both in order to either save some money as the SGS ones arent the cheapest, or to open up their boots automatically. However I've found through research this presents a few issues. The force for the BMW struts is excessive so while it does open the boot with ease, it takes alot of effort to close the boot also. Secondly especially if only one side is changed, there is unbalanced forces on both sides and this can cause excessive wear of the struts but the boot also doesnt close completely which does not correctly seal the boot from the elements. The benefit of the SGS engineering ones are that its just about enough force to open it and this makes it easy to close, the boot doesn't automatically open but with the addition of springs this is possible. Following on with some advice from Ahmed, I ordered some heavy compression springs as well as some M8 Penny washers. The sizes that fit the SGS struts perfectly were the following. Outside Diameter: 22mm Inside Diameter: 11mm Length: 60mm Blue: (This was for light loads I believe) Penny Washers: M8 x 20mm I got mine from the following eBay links and if you wish to do so you can grab them for there also! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223830215262 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163939882420 After I got these I simply unscrewed the ends of the SGS struts and slotted in some the springs with washers on both ends. Replacing these was fairly simple if not a bit fiddly, the interior ceiling of the boot liner has to come apart slightly via 4 clips. I was able to use my car trim removal kits clip pry tool to unfasten the boot struts with ease and my new ones seemed fit on with some persuasion. Its worth noting that the SGS engineering ones are slightly longer than the OEM so the way to get these to fit is to push the suspended boot a little more further to accommodate the length. Once in, the results speak for themselves. It does open a little slow on my vehicle but I put that down to the spoiler giving the additional weight, I may try adding some new more powerful strings but if it isnt broken I suppose theres no need to fix it 😂 IMG_5866.MOV

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-group-tests/357530/lexus-nx-450h-vs-audi-q5-50-tfsi-e-2022-twin-test-review Lexus comes out on top

Update from the dealers - car due with them 6th May - ordered 14th December - starting to feel like one of the lucky ones

Reading about all these issues with fitting chargers you could wonder if the Power Companies understand the current policy regarding ICE engines after 2030. No one seems to be taking the requirement for charging cars (public, private or home) in the future seriously.

Hi Las, Could it be the end of Lexus??? Really they are just gong to stop the brand????? Lexus build quality seems to be the same for me if not better every time I bought another Lexus as I have had a 2000 IS200, 2008 IS220D and now a 2019 CT200h have had no major problems even with the IS220d that is so problematic was fine just an air condition pump was the biggest expense for that car. All 3 of them have been and are serviced by main dealer (Lexus Teesside) and the customer service from them has always been excellent and can never complain. I understand there will be a small percentage that may have faults or some quality issues but over all with the millions of cars they produce. Why complain about the service cost when you know Lexus is a premium brand over Toyota? If you can afford a Lexus you should be able to afford the running cost and servicing that's how I look at it IMO but each to there own.

Finally arrived today 😄

My DNO will fit my isolator this Friday with the cost being £231 + VAT. A rip off but I have no choice. When I mentioned BG charge £48 they said they were quite happy for BG to install it and they would come and connect it to their system. However they wanted £160 + VAT to connect so I thought it was easier for them to do the lot rather than coordinate two separate engineers. They will change the main fuse for free though which I suppose is a bonus.

I wouldn't know what I'd have done, it depends. I'd have looked into fuel sourcing for individual oil companies, their latest Russia policy etc. Also, there is a UK phase out in motion on Russian oil (which doesn't affect petrol, because it's already 0% Russian), which could have meant I'm not taking a full tank, but wait it out if I can help. And yes, ultimately we don't have to drive around for most of the time, I could use the bike too to nearby shops, we don't actually have to go to retail parks etc. However, it's moot with a petrol car.

Yep definitely weight saving. Seems to be on all newer cars nowadays - had a C-Class coupe courtesy car the other day and it was the same

Ah. Yeah I have measured them and they're 600mm/480mm (give or take) yet looking online that seems to be a rare combination to find!

Wow its been a while! I would say its "similar" as some modules block out the TPMS measuring block on the factory ECU if you plug in diagnostic software and it won't be able to read it. The only way to read any genuine TPMS faults is to return it to stock.

Cap'n Mannering please step forwards ! Malc

Customer goes into a car parts shop: have you got a windscreen wiper for a Skoda? Man behind the counter thinks for a minute and says, ok that's a fair swap.

UK RAISES ALERT LEVEL The English 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿are feeling the pinch in relation to recent Russian 🇷🇺 threats and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. The Russians 🇷🇺 have been re-categorised from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish 🇪🇸 Armada. The Scots 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 have raised their threat level from “****** Off” to “Let’s Get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army 🪖 for the last 300 years. The French 🇫🇷 government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag 🏳️ factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability. They have also started wearing their reversible coats 🧥. Italy 🇮🇹 has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.” The Germans 🇩🇪 have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose.” Belgians 🇧🇪 on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels. The Spanish 🇪🇸 are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

What's the tax situation? If the 350h's higher CO2 figure makes the yearly running costs high then that will have an affect on the residuals.

You mentioned best Residual value - I would think the best way to decide that would be to get a quote from Lexus for PCP using the likely timescale you usually keep your car, then work out the percentages. The 450h+ is likely to be a higher value due to its initial extra cost, but is it the higher percentage?

Regarding ML, my last NX had it and I thought it sounded very good. I’ve not got it in this current NX and I’ve not had it long enough to form a complete opinion but I can’t imagine that side by side, a 17 speaker including a sub system isn’t going to sound richer than a 10 speaker without. It is a pity that it isn’t a stand alone option rather than restricting it to the Takumi.

Just my opinion on whether to have ML or not.... I personally wouldn't let the absence of ML (or another high-spec car sound system) stop me from choosing a particular specification of a car when that spec "ticks all other boxes". I do love listening to music in the car but if I want to have a proper high-end listening experience I'll do that at home. I find the "standard" sound system in my 350h to be more than adequate.

just reiterating this conundrum ......... all the suppliers approached offered the correct replacement they said BUT when it came to it the minefied proved just how taxing actually getting the correct one could be Best wishes with it all Malc

Need to make sure that the Electrical Connector matches as there are two different styles.

according to epc data it should be 100A

B-b-b-b-busted! 😆

I only looked back as far as 2019, my bad! Thanks for the share though 🙂

Thank you all for the replies! It was more out of curiosity as to what damage had been done. After seeing that picture @Big Rat I'd not touch it! That's a big smack 😮 I messaged the seller with the pic and asked if he had receipts for the repair work. He called me up and got cross at me. Said the car wasn't for sale anymore and will be taken off auto trader 😄

+1 I wouldn't. My thinking would be... My life is too important to risk, just to save a little cash buy buying such an unknown.

Possible ignorance, but do Lexus dealerships have in house capabilities for such repairs these days? Thought it was all 'Lexus approved' i.e. any one willing to take on the work... Car vertical as advised above or total car check, both worth the money, if you want a discount code for car vertical there was one floating around from 'Salvage Rebuilds UK' on youtube (great channel on the whole) which might make it a bit of an easier choice. Could be worth getting an independent inspection if you were really set on the vehicle, it is a lot of car for £20k, depends on how much risk you are willing to take. If you undertake any of the above, pretty please cherry on top, share the outcome(s) Reg plate is on the rear pics, MOT history looks fine overall.

I noticed that too.....roughly translated maybe as “ after 2018 the vehicle had the occasional engine oil and filter change during which time it was thoroughly thrashed until it crashed” 😀