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Just picked up my train ticket down to London 06:20 Saturday morning. Starting to get excited!!

Nothing at all to do with me, but thought it may interest some folks on here. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182021857670?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

If it was me I would be looking to keep the car untill the body fell off it, but being a Cat D which doesn't have to be much in the way of damage, the price of Lexus parts and labour will soon add up enough to write off a Lexus LS430. I wouldn't want to spend anymore than £3K to £3.5K and if you get 10 years+ out of it its very cheap luxurious motoring. Mike.

That's true, and is one reason why, should you wish to risk a c or d write off, you should pay way below book. The other reason is that they are not an easy sell, and you'll probably need to price them low to move them on.

Another point to consider with previously written off cars ( C and D) is that if the car is written off again insurers tend to halve the book value so you could end up with very little.

Oh chap! That sucks. Remember when my motorbike was stolen. Utterly gutting! Luckily the keys were easy to get to or they could have been waking you up for them!

Very sorry to hear this. S3s in particular do seem to attract thieves. Cars are replaceable and the main thing is you and your family are ok although a burglary is a horrible thing to experience.

Enjoy mate, just make sure you give it a good check over before they start it up.........once its started up you'll get distracted.

Bit of a sad tale. Sorry to hear it's all gone wrong for you. Can't help feeling, that if anybody is buying an LS, particularly at the older/cheaper end of the market. a 400 is a much less risky option, albeit with less "toys". Good luck with your Mondeo, hope it goes well for you.

Kevin, Just to confirm, we have taken your advice - indeed, in return for a niggle at the outset (the entire sat nav disappeared and the unit had to be replaced), Lexus Belfast has kindly covered the entire cost of what is effectively the "Protection Pack".

Be very wary of any gearbox you buy from a breakers as they don't look after their spares as they should. I bought an auto box for a jeep from a scrapper but they had left the gearbox out overnight in the rain and the water went into the clutch plates which are only made of paper and that buggered that box as well. I couldn't get it into my guy who does my work before the 2 week guarantee ran out so lost £400, I took the route I should have took in the 1st place and went to a proper specialist auto box place and for £1000 they fitted one of their refurb boxes and no more problem 12 month warranty on it as well.

Spending a full day with a full time car detailer who showed me the basics of paint correction was very useful. Although some professional detailers might consider I achieved what they call a "reflection polish" result I did in fact remove all the swirl marks in the top coat after a fairly aggressive initial cut. I believe certain darker colours help with showing off results after machine polishing such as red and black whereas silver and white for example are colours, in my opinion, which are harder to show pin sharp results. I'll do another finer cut of the top coat in the spring when it's a little warmer but for now my 9 year old paint on my 460 is looking a lot better from when I purchased it in Oct 2015.

When we go down to just one car, we are very keen to go to the CT. i look at this forum everyday tp keep abreast of things. New car looks very nice indeed Ian.

Looks great - did you consider the rear bumper protective cill plate - with that car colour it would look v unobtrusive and protects the paint - I think ours has paid for itself

OK, well I ended up attempting it but didn't rehydrate the cells. Instead I triple cycled (0-100%) each module, typical capacity before was 2500mah but after the cycle, over 4000mah. Vast improvement! I couldn't bring back one module, looks like a cell had reversed and couldn't get over 6.7V, although capacity was good. I assume this was across the remaining good cells. I bought Prius Gen 2 modules and fully tested (cost of £30). I can report that it fits the Lexus module specs EXACTLY. Don't be fooled into thinking the modules are different, they are not! New module fitted and put the car back together, drives absolutely spot on! Averaging 33-34mpg and I am quite generous with my right foot :) Now to improve handling using Tanabe NF210 springs!

Graham ............ think you should let this calm down a little, sell your Ls600 and get yourself a reliable Ls400 ............... you will be sooooo pleased, calm and contented for the future Malc

Lowered as requested:-