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Hi, Yes mine had 3 cats. They removed the third cat when they installed the exhaust. It still passed the mot with 2 cats and I was able to scrap the cat they removed at my local scrap metal dealer I got £40 for it 😊

A couple of weeks ago I was in a friend's Mercedes, a fairly new one, but two days ago he was a passenger in mine and immediately commented on what a smooth ride it is!

The surface of my paint was rough. I used a clay cloth and lubricant and was surprised how easy it was to do. I put a wax on it afterwards and this is the result : (she's 6 years old in 5 days time)

So whilst waiting for the service to be done I had little spin in ES, literally a circle around the block so I am not going to go overboard that I know "what the car is like". As the drive-train is nothing to be seen anyway I think that was fair enough - on the motorway I am sure it is fine.... as any other car.. even diesel. By the time you reach 50MPH wind and tire noise going to be louder than any diesel rattle anyway... especially on broken British roads. The area around Woodford is actually quite good for "suspension check" - roads are broken and rough with a lot of speed bumps. That said nothing new - makes some humming noise form hybrid powertrain, I have noticed no difference driving it compared to CT200h, IS300h or RC.. same thing.. don't like any of them. Suspension on bad roads is rather crashy, I would say ~ the same as IS300h, GS is certainly smoother. Again nothing new there, driven it for 1.7 mile... so it would be poor judgement. What I was surprised about was interior... and not in the good way. I came to look at it with prejudice that it will "suck to drive", but it will be very luxurious and nice inside... It does suck to drive... much more due to the sluggish 300h then FWD in this very very limited test... but interior suck as well!!!! Now hold on those stones you about to launch at me for few more seconds. As always I am over-saturating, interior is well built, infotainment suck as in any Lexus, but the screen is big, steering wheel is the same as you would find in any new F-Sport Lexus - thick and soft with a lot of key.. quite good overall. Seats are great, although I felt more at home in RC driving position. However, there are sticking points, which I do not understand, do not appreciate and which are overall problem for me... for example everything inside is made out of plastic, there are no premium materials at all and I am talking here about top of the range "takumi" model. What?! The "aluminium" in inserts are just textured plastic, centre console and windows switches have sort of "wood grain" finish, but again just black plastic. Doesn't feel as cheap as inserts on RC, which were horrible sort of carbon fibre like from kids toys... but still I expected better. I guess it could be argued - the texture plastic is lighter than aluminium or wood... but hey ES not exactly race car. Again, that plastic doesn't creak, nor rattle, it is reasonable quality, but it is PLASTIC. If nor for Lexus badge on the wheel I doubt I would be able to tell whenever it is one of the larger Toyotas like Avalon... In fact no so long ago I had Toyota Auris as a rental and feeling of the console is very similar - sturdy, good quality plastic, but nothing posh.. where in Lexus I exactly expect it to be posh and fancy. Furthermore... entire Lexus range is the same CT, UX, IS, NX and only RX had leather stitched door cards, but centre console still plastic. They had no LS/LC on the floor which I know are better, but I was really puzzled what you get from Lexus over Toyota? Or what you get in ES over say IS Premier which has nice premium detailing. 100% it is step down from GS, feel like a cheaper, car is made from cheaper material, inferior drivetrain... ok you getting extra leg room in the back, but less headroom... so what is the reasoning for anyone to change for this? _____ Edit: It was Actually, F-sport with "Takumi Pack" and not actually "Takumi", still quite disappointing... Lexus call that "Hadori plasti-luminium inlays"... terrible.

will get some taken tomorrow and post them up been out playing today and first impressions very pleased

It was slightly trickier on mine as the coolant reservoir is behind the radiator so less room to get the hands down there. A few minor cuts and scrapes!

The good thing is that whilst rust coming through is annoying, it is relatively easily fixed, as Malc said not bad for 15 years old, and generally there are not too many major issues to deal with. If yours is mechanically sound, just deal with these issues and enjoy. That is what I have decided to do. I get more comments about how good a ride, from friends, than any other car I have ever owned.

at 15 years that's not too bad at all Malc

Not sure what to use. Obviously it has to be something that's compatible with rubber (unless they are made of PVC). The creaking is driving me mad. I've used silicone grease on them before, with some success, but its effectiveness doesn't last. I shall be renewing the bushes anyway, because the ridges have worn down, so new grease will be applied on assembly. Interestingly, the book doesn't say to use anything!

I have replaced my old sway bar bushes with nolathan bushes the reason why I changed them was because there is a knocking noise from the front left side removing the old ones showed the left side bushes totally worn so I replaced both bushes with the new ones but the knocking noise is still there! Any help on this is much appreciated

If you don't know what is that read the text on the bottom - looks similar isn't it ? 🙂 Hopefully I haven't ruined the experience for future users..

You’re so right. but the Lexus won’t break or go wrong. enough said!

Welcome to Europe's Leading Lexus Club! Please Enjoy!

Whilst I don't agree with you about the drive because we have different priorities, I couldn't agree more about the interior quality. It definitely has the feel of a higher end Toyota rather than what I'd expect from a Lexus, especially as a replacement for the GS. Very disappointing.

The shape of the 430 is growing on me!

1. There is a micro sd card with the mapping on. I bought an updated card from a guy in Dublin on ebay for my IS300h. Later I fitted it in my GS300h which was a 2015 car with premium nav and ML. Did Google street view on the address which was a Russian Supermarket. Card worked perfectly and cost about £70. The same guy (sergvia) has latest card for £77 pounds. There are cheaper ones on ebay but I know that the one he supplied was the latest version because I checked the part number he gave on Lexus website. Easy install.

+1 for CarWow. I used it when I bought my first NX and it was a good tool for finding out which dealers wanted the business. Further negotiations provided a very healthy discount indeed on a pre-facelift NX from stock.

hello not sure how good you are with the spanners or same prob....but my gs300 had same prob and one of the abs wires had broken and removed whole sensor and repaired wire...might be worth a look

Yes, a coat hanger will enter the first few cm of the pipe and then be useless or damaging......the blockages are normally further down the pipe.....best hang your coat on it :D and pinch some nylon from the wifes strimmer......