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Does this forum have any moderators? If so, can one of them explain why this god damn thread hasn't been locked yet?

Driveway envy #sigh

Definitely agree on the sound front. The induction noise is addictive, just needs more from the rear. She's booked in tomorrow for her inspection for the warranty so hopefully all is hunky-dory. I did, it was absolutely mental! My dream is to get an old GT Junior from the 60/70's and put a Busso in it. So here she is home. Just needs a clean and I'll get some more picks taken over the weekend.

Found this very informative article regarding the updates the isF had to its steering and suspension for 2011 onwards. It was far more detailed than I realised with many changes and revisions made, lots of pictures explaining it all in detail. https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/track-tests/2011-lexus-is-f-suspension-walkaround.html Big Rat

Lifting the pictures straight from the SC section, here we have just about the only means to improve the performance of an SC without using forced induction. More aggressive cams would be nice but where would you find some? PPE make a set of short pipe 4-1 headers to replace the inefficient exhaust manifolds. Dyno test results show a 20 whp gain when combined with a 3rd cat delete and a free flowing exhaust. The problem is they are expensive to make and ship to the UK and they are only designed to fit the US spec left hand drive SC430. I was reluctant to try this at first but in the end I just had to have a go. After a lot of research I emailed PPE who confirmed what I already knew, that the original near side header is a direct fit for the rhd car but the offside header would need to be modified to avoid the steering shaft knuckle. PPE said it would be difficult to do, they had been looking for 3D CAD drawings of the rhd model in order to design the solution but none were available. I asked if anyone else had done it using their headers and they replied confirming no one else in Europe had to their knowledge even tried, the only one they knew of was a chap in Australia using a GS430. So I did a bit more research and took the plunge. I must say PPE were very helpful and shipped one complete nearside header and all of the components to make up a custom offside header at reasonable cost, I had to pay the import duty. I approached MIJ in Walsall as they built the exhaust system. They make headers from scratch and thought with 2 technicians working on it the job could be done in a day but might take an extra day if problems arose. Here are some pictures of the headers and the components sent. Here is the car on the ramp It took four long days to get both headers done as they were having issues with other customers' cars at the same time. I hired a car to get home on the first day, dropped it back on the third day and stayed overnight in a local hotel. On the fourth day, I was the last customer in the garage at 6 p.m. and by 7.00 p.m. was under the ramp helping out get it back together but with a lot of effort, late into the evening of that fourth day I drove it off the ramp and headed for the M40. Very little room to work in here, difficult even to take a clear pic of the header. The exhaust wrap is very necessary to restrict the heat. Because of the extent of the works carried out, I was a very long way into the journey home before feeling confident about opening it up but when I did, what a difference! There was a subtle change in the exhaust note higher in the rev range but the car suddenly had overtaking power that it didn't have before. Hats off to the young engineer Sean for completing it, he did receive a nice tip. It had been an epic adventure and the final result appeared to be very good I did have one regret and that was simply the fact that despite the feeling of extra power it still sounded very tame.

Yeah neither were easy jobs but excavating the driveway by hand was a killer

I know! and the IS compliments it so well don't you think? lol

Oh I see what you did there@bobmc, Robb's block paving is fancy [emoji41]

What a fantastic looking car, congrats! I like the optional alloys on your car too, I haven't seen many for sale with those. Would love to see more photos if you are up to posting them

So a few might remember but I've been on the hunt for an IS-F for a little while and finally put a deposit down on one yesterday and will be collecting tomorrow! I'm literally like a child waiting for Christmas! If anyone is around the Sussex/Kent area and wants to go out drive sometime, do let me know. The Lewes tunnel is always fun!

That sounds like an epic job on the header. Thank gawd work wasn't needed on both sides! I doff my hat to the chaps that worked in that tight space.

That's great news, I always enjoy following what you're doing and I do love the IS in that colour #DrivewayEnvy

I thought I should update this thread. I now drive a grey Lexus CT200h F-Sport :-) Glad I upgraded to Lexus, coming from a Toyota Yaris which I kept for 14 years! But this time I took a PCP so it won't be that many years probably.

It's what I term 'The Lexus Paradox'. People are attracted to the brand in no small part by the legendary reliability and then spend hundreds of pounds per year on Lexus extended warranties because they're worried about the reliability I know this thread is about breakdown cover rather than warranty but personally, it's a must for me. My LPG tank lives where the spare wheel should go so for small punctures I carry a can of goo and a small compressor but if anything were to wreck the tyre such as a puncture in the side wall or a blowout, then it would be a call to the breakdown people.

All images should be back up and running hosted on the forum itself so providing the forum doesn't go down neither will the images! Updates to follow when I get more time and money!

OK, a million thanks to Lee Riley and katabrontes and others who have recommended www.keytrader.co.uk They have just cut a new key for my Lexus RX400h (2009 model) after the plastic key shell totally disintigrated. I'd tried to order a replacement on eBay but the blank blade comes permanently attached to the plastic key shell, and my blade worked perfectly it was just the plastic bit I was after. Keytrader cut the key from a photo (how does that work!?) that I emailed them, and as soon as I inserted my remote control module into the new key shell I was able to open up car and start up the car. Took 2 days, and all for a tenner including postage. Now what would a Lexus garage have charged for that! What a wonderful thing this Forum is.

Breakdown cover for a Lexus? Nonsense!

Cool. Yeah, they weren't so bad once the diff was fitted. I know what you mean about fuel consumption though. I had a 156 V6 with a supercharger back in the day and 15mpg is about the best I got. Like you say though, the sound more than made up for it Did you ever see the 3.7 GTA that Autodelta did?

So the delivery of my car was delayed by a few days and rather than being delivered on the 17th, I'm now picking up the car tomorrow morning Will be getting to the dealership early doors as they've got the LC coupes in the showroom as part of the nationwide launch that they are doing.

Q2 diff and had the later 330 brakes. It handled surprisingly well! Just couldn't believe the fuel consumption could be so bad on something with 250HP. I got 180 miles out of a £85 fill up! But then I would drive through the Dartford crossing and everything was forgiven Thanks, fingers crossed I get the same happy motoring! Cheers for clearing that up.

@Flytvr Don't take any notice of him Dav got a picture of @emjay82 late again for an appointment taking a short cut through his local camp site, remerber he likes tents and stuff 😁 Big Rat

I know people who are fanatical about driving slowly and accelerating slowly to save fuel. The same people have 3 or 4 takeaways and eat out on a regular basis each month too. I'd much rather cut down on the takeaways and drive normally to be honest.

So before buying my daily car which is a second-hand 2003 1 owner Accord 2.4 Executive, I toyed with the idea of actually financing a nearly new or new Lexus. But after some further investigation researching online and few videos I decided to go with a well looked after second hand car which based on my knowledge packed pretty much anything in terms of toys/gadgets one could find in a 2017 car apart from Bluetooth connectivity, lane keeping assist and reversing camera which truth be told are gadgets I can live without. Majority of my music are still on CD’s so I don’t stream music from my phone. Having owned about 9 cars in total the youngest car I have owned was 5 years old. And I am the sort that tends to change my cars every 2.5 to 3 years so didn’t want to be locked in or keep driving the same car for the next 4 - 5 years which tends to be the average years car finance/hire contract runs for. I also couldn’t justify making monthly payments on something which is depreciating faster compared to a 5 year or older second-hand which has done most of its depreciation so not a lot to loose when reselling. Advance in auto technology has improved mpg figures and emissions which keeps road tax down on newer cars but my maths concluded the savings made on mpg and road tax will be wiped out by monthly payments towards driving the car compared to a less fuel efficient but decent older car bought outright with no monthly payments being made on it. Also came across this US article which in a way persuaded me more in my decision not to bother with financing a new/ nearly new car. http://thegarage.jalopnik.com/heres-four-reasons-why-you-should-never-ever-finance-a-1638384343 So for those who prefer new cars what’s your reason for making this decision and would you go back to an older car in future or keep financing new and for those who prefer to buy and drive second hand cars would you buy another older car or finance new and what will be your reason?

That is 1 epic little story, glad it had a happy ending, sounds like you are very pleased with the headers, that's a serious amount of work to create custom ones is such a confined area, and I'm guessing still to this day the only set oh headers on an SC430 RHD though!

@Farqui Me to and I lay the bloody things, you should see mine........... maybe not on second thoughts 😂 Big Rat

That was a good read and written by someone who knows his stuff. It begs the question though when buying in the UK, how do we know we are buying a later car that has the optimised suspension/steering. It seems the MY is not a clear guide to the updates you can see, letalone those you cannot.

lol #DrivewayEnvy

I'll check this for you. Can you get any more photos like where it is coming from exactly?

Oh I totally agree I was a maniac but at least I had 4 full tyres touching the road surface

Yep, discount isn't too bad In summary, no deposit, fixed monthly payment, Road Tax included and no mileage limit. Only cost to me will be insurance and fuel and given that I'll only cover 5-6k miles over the 6 months, no service and no new tyres (fingers crossed) It's amazing to learn for just how little they offer the vehicles to their employees and I guess it's safe to assume that they still make some decent money from the heavily discounted rates.

@Shahpor I'm fortunate enough to have a family member who works for Lexus and is allowed 2 vehicles on a friends and family car scheme and has kindly allowed me to get my car on this scheme. It's a great scheme whereby I have to order a new car every 4 months as I'm only allowed to keep a vehicle for 6 months. I've got my eye on the RX F-sport or RC for the next car

@Corrado I think you are right about this I've got the chassis number year of manufacturer of the updated ones being fitted which was at the beginning of 2010. Big Rat

Oh, just to add, leaking water pump issues only seemed to be an issue on the earlier cars (2008 and 2009), I think the updated design pump may have been used by the time yours was built.

Paul / @Big Rat, black gold eh, good shout/stout

@Rusty Crobar Russ I can just picture you driving your future GSF twin turbo in my minds eye with me whooping for joy in the passenger seat............ or should that be pooping in the passenger seat 🐀 And here we are 😂 Big Rat

Honestly, I hate these type of debates simply because its so difficult to tell. Some cars get closer to their MPG than other cars, every driver drives differently and heck, the wind speed changes day to day! You say you don't drive with a heavy foot but again, one man's lead foot is another mans feather. Only one way to find out, take one for an extended test drive and found out yourself. Additionally, with the cost of depreciation being so high, how much does it really matter if the car even did 70mpg - I don't think very much, but it sure is a good way of getting customers to justify getting a new car. "I bought a new car and its getting 2MPG more than my last one, sorry forgot to mention that the depreciation is £3k higher per year!"

I agree with you Lee and I also respect the fact that some owners like to maintain their cars in original condition, there's a lot to be said for that but in my view Lexus didn't do justice to the SC430. I admit to being a serial modifier but I think the SC was crying out for it. Perhaps because there's no rigid roof, the strut brace does seem to make a difference, it takes 5 minutes to remove so it's not really a problem. I also replaced the anti-roll bar with a thicker one. I haven't replaced the rear anti-roll bar yet but I know the ISF ARB fits with slightly shorter drop links so that's on the shopping list. LED reversing lights now work, Experimental rear spoiler under construction. this one got bigger and bigger and was eventually scrapped. A little trip to the Midlands to delete the third cat and fit a stainless steel exhaust. I didn't want it to be too loud as further hifi would follow later so settled on a 'mid sport' sound. With the exhaust flowing just slightly better, I was surprised to admit it felt a shade quicker through the gears so curious after getting the alignment corrected I took it for a spin on the dyno. Prepping for the Dynajet rolling road. Dynos are strange measuring devices as figures vary significantly depending on how they are set up and what the conditions are on any given day, etc, etc so I take all readings with a large pinch of salt but 281 bhp was a good result and just about what I expected. (279 bhp standard) No significant power gain but oddly it did seem to pull noticeably better. With nothing scientific to back it up it should only be regarded as an impression, nothing more. There's no danger to ISFs at the traffic light grand prix just yet, though the garage owner wanted me to consider a twin turbo install with a piggyback ecu delivering 600 bhp. He claimed to have a map for the 430 and could complete it for around £10k but when I mentioned engine internals, suitable gearboxes and a diff to deliver the power he agreed that my figure well North of £15k would be more realistic.

Thanks Lee there are a few bits in the SC430 section but the original is 'elsewhere.' After supporting Robb in the request for a build thread, I thought I ought to make an effort to contribute to it. There was slight hesitancy as some like and even obsess about modifications but others might fairly argue that I've ruined a very nice car. I'm going to try to keep to the correct chronology as much as possible but I didn't realize how difficult this was going to be to produce. Whilst further modification of the front bumper holds up the paintwork the car gained a custom made strut brace from the Lexusman and a new, bigger battery.

Trial fitting the front end. I don't like the amber corner markers on the SC so they won't be transferred to the new panels. it looks far too friendly with the circular fog light holders so that's another mod to do.

It's fixed as I phoned around and all quoted the same £445, I ended up going to Milton Keynes. I agree, I think it's a lot, the 10k service intervals also too short, I'll end up doing 18k this year, more than normal so will be almost two services in a year, most other manufacturers would only require one which be way cheaper. Only downside of ownership though, everything else is good.

That is very impressive! I wish I had half your skills. I am not sure about the body kit - will be interesting to see it fitted to the car. Really thought the photos were good. Very inspirational - well done ..... so far!

I find GS is much more pleasant to drive and handles suprisingly well for a big old barge. The double wishbone front/multilink rear works really well. You'd be hard pressed to tell it has 18" alloys too. The Civic was too firm for me really on coilovers, tho we did eventually get it almost bearable. Long trips to Belgium were easy but the GS covers the miles in style. Cobbled roads aren't avoided anymore. I know what you mean about fun tho, I had some great fast drives over the Peaks in the Honda. The Accord Type R brakes were epic on the smaller car.

A very interesting topic may I add! Thanks noby76!

I think running a vehicle for people on here is a lot more than getting from A to B. Income / money is the BIG factor for all of us. Given a choice, I am sure we would all like to easily afford a new Lexus. Imagine you could buy a new Lexus today for £1,000. ( I appreciate this is very hypothetica but bear with me!) Someone could give an excellent financial argument for NOT buying a new one, as the second-hand ones only cost £250! At that sort of money it would be a no brainer, of course we would all buy the new one - I hope! Owning a car, to me, is more than just practicality. It is more emotional and personal for me. There is also the number plate snob angle for the neighbours for some people. As Rayaans said, he has bought two new cars and when you work out the depreciation, it makes most repairs look insignificant, Rayaaans £6200 for ONE year could buy a lot of repairs, even at a Lexus dealers, so I appreciate why he would think twice before buying new again. On a side issue, I used AutoTrader to give me a quote for a Trade-in on my 2009 Mitsubishi Grandis diesel with 74,000 miles - they suggested £2400 - If I had the opportunity to buy car like that for £2400 I would jump at it! Whenever you get a trade-in price, turn it around and ask yourself, Would I buy this car at that price? Food for financial thought - not the heart!

As Rayaans said, there is tax, insurance, landlord certificates plus maintenance costs, and the possibility of a non paying tenant who also causes damage. But, really, your argument is more about leasing, or pcp etc, against buying outright, rather than new against old. Buying an older car leaves you even more money to invest than leasing.

well, you just pay the depreciation every month while you can invest the cash money in other investments. For instance lets say the Lexus CT+ that did not even have the 0% 2K up front and 299 a month. for a new car that costed 25000 with 23000 deposit I buy a 90K BTL three bed that gives me 570 monthy rent -200 interest, gives 370 pounds profit per month. Covers the PCP and leaves something for the petrol

I go with the Honda marque for good secondhand utterly reliable ( hopes ) and cheap to buy .... my 56 plate Legend with 106k miles and Full Honda Service History was a " no brainer " to purchase ...... £4k last August Likewise my Mk3 Ls400, 6 years ago at £1400 and now at 193k miles and costs nearly bugger all in annual maintenance bar simple servicing costs ........ and magical comfort, power and speed when needed and utter, utter reliability Depreciation on both cars, well, almost annualise at zero ..... and gadgets a-plenty too ............ we do about 18k miles a year on average Malc

As a private cash buyer I've graduated to older low mileage higher spec petrol cars as preference. The price of new cars is tremendous nowadays and I believe some of that absolute increase is because no-one buys new cars any more; so the headline retail figure is not really the issue.....it's the monthly figure / balloon payment / guaranteed future value that folks concentrate on..... it's a different mindset to can I afford that £10/20/30k car? VAT is a whopper in the depreciation also and the new 'new car' additional payments. The wife like a new car only and changes it every couple of years and has recently signed up for BMW Mini scheme after always being a cash buyer.....she likes the thought of not taking as much of the depreciation burden with her own hard earnt cash ....but finds not actually owning it outright a bit disconcerting......like I said I think it's a mind set. For me I think the value is in older better marques which have already taken the price hit......there's plenty of them about nowadays....plus I own it. I'm not anti finance in any way..... quite the opposite I'm a clever finance fan if you can get somebody else's money to work for you even with poor savings rates.....then do it if you can afford it. I'm low mileage and change about every 5 years...so that's an influencing factor. My local Lexus dealer sent me an email the other month on "0%" finance on any CT model........something is not seen before with Lexus. Sent from my iPad using Lexus OC

My car had a handbuild stainless steel exhaust on it from downpipes backwards cost was £950 so much cheaper that a lexus system There are exhaust specialists up and down the Uk ...it's just finding a good one in your area .