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Ford are now producing a 1 litre Focus. My Volvo has the tried and tested 5 pot diesel which is a tough engine, if not a bit dated, but they are dropping it, in fact they are dropping diesels altogether with the biggest engine being a 2 litre petrol with some producing 215 bhp. On Monday I drove a diesel Jag, it was awful. Someone was admiring my LS yesterday, asking me "is it a 3 litre?" I get a real kick out of saying 4.3 and hearing the gasp! I checked the oil yesterday, clear and light gold, and everything still works as it should. Not bad for a fifteen year old. I wonder how many 1 litre 15 year old Focus's we'll be seeing in the future.

Surely 'light misting' is an indication of the unit failing in its own right. Although the shocks may continue to function and can pass an MOT they have technically failed from the moment the misting has occurred or been identified. If a water pump was to develop a leak it would be replaced under warranty as mentioned above. You don't wait until the pump actually gives up and strands you in the middle of nowhere. The fact the advisory was noted on an MOT is actually decent evidence. If they want to argue over the use of the word unexpected then surely it was unexpected when it was noted on the MOT.

The Hybrid eCVT system has 2 electric engines that have to reach high revs speed, and this is the reason of limitation, to not exeed 11000 rpm on electric engine. GS 450 h have 2 different gear ratios to bypass this limitation.

I have a 2000 Mk 4 Ls 400 which is without doubt the best car I have ever driven. My mechanic,who I respect hugely, ( He does a lot of Cosworths and builds 1/4 size Traction engines from scratch as a hobby!) is of the opinion that all modern cars are crap. They are full of electronic and plastic bits that are designed to fail and after 5 years are not cost effective. He reckons that you are better off buying a Classic and rebuilding it properly and running it as a day to day motor and it will cost you a lot less. He has one customer who has spent 30k on his Cosworth,whose wife gave him the Ultimatum,"Its me or that car!" He is now happily divorced!

I wrote this in response to my previous post, and then realised that I had gone off at a tangent, so decided on a separate post. I am in a position in which I can afford a really nice new car but having been out of the market for a few years, and driven a few new cars recently, they seem to have moved backwards. This after many years of not being able to afford a nice new car, having wasted most of my money on children etc. These newish cars seem unrefined, don't ride particularly well, a spare wheel is unheard of (expensive insanity in my view), and research (of which I do a lot), uncovers what seem to be relatively common horror stories of dpfs, egrs, dmfs, gearbox failures, turbo failures, diesel contaminating oil and increasing oil content to destructive levels and so on. I'm talking about cars that include some that cost 30 grand upwards. I have considered various petrol engines, but they are not available in many models and come with their own issues including failed turbos, coil packs, stretched timing chains etc. The last car that was as satisfying as my 400 was my 1989 Audi 90 5 cylinder. It was a wonderful car, with a briliant engine. It was incredibly well engineered and lovely to drive. I wish I could find a mint example, I would abandon my search for a newish car. My daughter just paid just over 2 grand for a 2003 vw beetle convertible with around 50 k on the clock,, a full vw history and a set of winter tyres. I'm starting to think that buying new or even newish is insanity,unless it is something very special. Some of the new smaller petrol engines seem brilliant, with incredible power for their size -including the vw / audi 1.4 tsi 150bhp, but ever increasing fuel pressures, turbos and superchargers strapped to a small, highly stressed engine do not seem to me to be a recipe for a long and reliable life (the opposite approach taken by the LS 400 of a large , unstressed engine). I suspect that many of these little time bombs will be kept for three years only, for fear of ruinous repair bills when problems start to surface (as they already have). So here is a caveat for potential Lexus LS 400 owners. Seriously, Don't, on any account, buy one, because you will probably never find a satisfactory replacement, and will be doomed to spend the rest of your motoring life regretting the one you sold, and cursing the car you currently drive, because it fails to live up. This is my quandary in deciding whether to sell my Mk 4

Perhaps is not good enough my man, it'll be expected! Sooo, how come you have a picture of a silver one?

Sorry to hear this bud. I know you cant fully stop thieving scumbags but this is getting ridiculous. What action is lexus or any other car manufacturer taking against this known problem? We know its a problem , the police know its a problem , the internet knows its a problem, so i think its fair to say lexus know too! Please do let us know what lexus have to say to you, because in my eyes by doing nothing they are culpable. Once again sorry to hear your bad news.

Its funny but when i had this xjr everyone was thats a lovely jag thats a proper car. I had it a month. Didnt hate it but its not a patch on a ls. I always felt a big bill was looming too

Not likely to get near the Autobahn tbh. I was just speculating the performance capability of the Hybrid. Most of my time is spent doing short commutes and the school run 😂 Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Many thanks Peter and especially Paul whose situation was like mine (except I have four not one). I have emailed Swindon again citing precedent to press the case. Thanks John. Yes, I am keeping all the emails (stored locally and backed up hourly). Nothing has been done by phone. (I am about 80dB down with my hearing so phone is hard and unless recorded would tax my memory too.)

Apologies believe it or not I've just had a letter arrive today to confirm...in my case 2 years running concurrent with the rest of the warranty.

Deposit paid ,all paperwork done and correct. Delivery oct4. Cant wait

Well its a concept but generally the exterior looks production ready - it wont need much change for the outside. The interior is more complex and will be toned down quite a bit but its nice to see something a bit different. As for whether its a C-HR, its probably running on the same platform but like the RAV-4 and the NX, they will drive differently and of course, Lexus quality is much much better. Remember the LF-CC concept interior? Looks very similar to the IS interior today.

The Lexus hybrid system is essentially a modified version of the drive train from a Prius. It was designed from the onset to favour economy over performance, I suspect motor/battery temperature at high speeds are physical limits of the system. Try touching the boot area on the IS300H after a M-way run, it's fairly warm due to demands on the battery. The IS300H's power train is at its best been driven at 5/10th, ie at a leisurely pace. A 'sports' car it most definitely is not.

Damn thats close. That kerb looks very high though! Usually if its a parking space like that I reverse inwards. The rear is higher and seems to go over everything, not to mention the reversing camera helps!

You get it free for 3 years I believe. I got it free on both cars for 3 years anyway! Its £125 a year if buying as a standalone by direct debit each year on the Lexus website.

An LS is like being addicted to caffeine, it makes you feel good, you can give it up, but life will never be the same again. Having a modern frugal fuel beast is like having too many pints of Stella, you never know when things might get nasty

I thought the one you sold me was the right one tom😊

Well, if Peter and Paul have had theirs replaced under warranty, I can't see how they could possibly refuse yours John. It seems that particular regional manager needs a lesson on what wear and tear means.

I had one front shock replaced under warranty about 6mths after it was reported as light misting on MOT advisory.

Hello, I purchased a warranty in March last year on the advice of the service manager at my local dealer. Six months later it went in for a service when I was advised I needed one rear shock absorber and a new water pump. I asked if these items were covered and after 20 minutes got a phone call back to say Lexus warranty had confirmed both items were covered and the job was done the same day. I did ask about replacing the pair of shocks but as only one was leaking that was all that could be changed. So whilst agreeing I only needed one changing It was done with no quibble. I must say I think the wear and tear argument is very poor and not what I would expect. Best idea is to have the MOT done elsewhere. Pete

Cheers Guys, order placed today for the F Sport in Celestial Black. Now for the agonising wait for the start of November when I take delivery.

I have to backtrack on what I said. Yes, staying in 6th and around 1300rpm gives you ridiculously good mpg (best I got was 65mpg average on 180 mile journey). but after doing only two journeys like that, each 180 miles, my dpf clogged up ( P2002 code) Car went into limp mode, couldnt do much with it. I did eventually fix it up the next day - drove at 3.5k rpm at 50 mph for good 20 mins, it was a nightmare. Barely drove 2 mins after starting the engine, and it would go into limp mode again. Then had to pull up on the hard shoulder, restart the car - had another 2 mins "allowance". After about 10 pull ups, the car eventually stopped going into limp mode, so I could properly thrash it. Averaged 21 mpg on a 40 mile motorway journey! After half an hour, and about 100 ****** off drivers who now have to clean their cars from my exhaust smoke (😂), the DPF was clean enough and the car drives properly again. Seems to have more power too actually. So as you say, the conclusion is, you can get the good fuel economy by driving the 60mph in 6th, get 65mpg, but always remember to then drive at 75 mph in 5th, so the DPF gets cleaned up, you'll get around 48 mpg on that trip, but when you average it all out, its still a respectable 56.5 mpg average at 67.5mph average if you alternate between the driving styles.