Leaderboard

Update, just sailed through its MOT with no advisories and running like a dream. New timing belt kit and waterpump fitted last week (additional 100K mileage) at local engine specialist - £600 all in.

Well it arrived today. Like all these things not without incident if I'm involved. Luckily 2 brilliant guys delivered it. First probletwhen unpacked was that the base was scrap as the forklift in the warehouse had crushed one lower corner beyond redemption. 1 1/2 hours later new base arrived. Men had kindly fixed the wheels on to move it easily. It is MEGA HEAVY. Having greased their palms with good old spondooliks, they agreed to help fit the top cupboards. WARNING THIS IS A 3 MAN Job. An hour of graft and job was a good un. Don't think that this is a click and collect item unless you have a wagon with a tail lift. It was assembled in my car port and only just squeezed through the height of the garage door. Fabulous quality for the price and looks great.

Good evening all I am looking to purchase a IS300 Hybrid, what kind of MPG can I expect - currently run an Audi A4, 2 litre TDI & returning an average of 38mpg, driving about 30 miles a day. I know it won't have any reliability issues as it is after all a Lexus Thanks in advance

Our local Pistonheads group meet up for a regular breakfast meeting in Hampshire each month, if anyone fancies coming on down to Soberton Heath do come along I'll post up here when the next one comes up. This month we were at a new venue and as I turned up there parked amongst the cars was a blue GSF. Had a chat to the owner who has quite a few Lexi (Alan Partridge there) so this may be the blue GSF some of us must have seen around Hampshire this one had a number plate ending in GSF.

Yep, mine is on “the bay” now so I’ll keep you posted!!

in any induction setup what you are trying to create is laminar flow, for which their is three elements, viscosity, velocity and geometry, the two we can influence are velocity and geometry, the easiest to address over standard is geometry, the standard item has a resonator box which is there to tune the induction sound, it will however create turbulence, this sounds bad, but the diameter of the induction hose will have been specced to allow allow for this loss anyway, next point velocity, we can increase velocity by having a free'er flowing filter, again the standard system will have been specced for the total air requirement the engine needs, if the standard filter wasn't up to the job it would suck the inaction hose flat, which it doesn't. so in summary you are not going to make any gains from an aftermarket induction setup, in modern day cars the induction setup is incredibly well thought out. So why bother"upgrading" and I use the term upgrading loosely, as mentioned before there will be little to none performance benefits, but what you can gain is sound, which for me is what a big V8 is all about, when you look at any performance car they try to balance the sound of the exhaust with the sound of induction, I have a noisy exhaust, so I want a noisy induction, which is why I am developing my own induction setup, which will include a smooth radius silicon elbow like Dans

I realise this is some weeks old but....many years ago when I lived in London we had a dentist that knocked out nervous patients, of which I was one. I should have had someone with me but I didn't. Walking home feeling light headed I saw an old car for sale outside a house, had money in my pocket so I bought it to get me home. The foolishness of youth! Heap of junk of course!

I will nevertheless brave it until June........weather must change before then and I`ll keep an eye on how you solve your problem Phil !!

That's the one sir. As for the Indie, a garage I used for servicing the other car (Skoda) recommended them for all their 'specialist work' It was these guys http://www.birkenheadenginecentre.co.uk/ - the owner had the same model I beleive?

Enjoy, I was blaming the vibration of the Caledonian MacBrayne ferries at one point but I was just fitted with a poor gearbox it seems?😉

Off to Arran myself early next month and just read your blog.....wish me well 😂😂😂

Cornering lights? Many Japanese cars were fitted with cornering lights from the late 90s onwards - a feature that didn't make it to the european market until quite recently.

So, for me it is about noise. We need to face facts that without a remap you are never really going to notice any extra power gains at the levels both the HPS and Takeda claim. They both claim about the same gains but they are minimal. The HPS definitely makes a deeper rumble over stock and also gives a much more linear acceleration pull but remember I also have the intake flap mod so mine is permanently open. Don't believe what others tell you, you still get the two stage noise with the flap mod but you just get it earlier. The Takeda just screams more at higher revs and that is better for me. Gives the same linear acceleration as the HPS just more noise into the bargain so it gets my vote for now. I'm building my own intake system which will require a map so my Takeda will be up for grabs later this year too. We need @Twellsie to pitch in on this. He is the induction engineer so knows his stuff. My view is that, other than the RR racing tuned intake and the one I'm building myself, all of the induction kits are visual and noise improvements only so If that's what you are after you can take your pick. If you are after power gains, get your wallet out and go big or go home. The bigger the filter the better the noise and avaliable gains. At full tilt all of this heat soaking nonsense is largely irrelevant.

Yes as mentioned standard seats I wouldnt worry about the material if you do opt for these. Its been used in the CT before with no known issues Best thing to do is get a fabric protector like Gtechniq I1 and any spillages will literally just bead up on the surface - wont soak in at all

Always worth negotiating with a dealer at their financial year/half year/quarter/month end. Guildford is part of Inchcape who have a financial year that aligns with the calendar, therefore the best time would be end of Dec, June, March/Sept and then at every month end.

Available now in Toyota vellfire /Alphard guise which it's being based on Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I was lucky to get 36 overall from my 15 reg Advance, quite disappointed (in the mpg), really, as I’d previously had a couple of diesels, and expected the hybrid to not be far off, but it was a good 10mpg down, on similar, conservative driving. OK, I only did 10k miles in it from new..... BUT - at the end of the lease, I was told it would be collected on a date a couple of weeks ahead, so I visited a petrol station. A couple of days later, the lease people phoned to say they’d brought the date forward..... At that point, no longer bothered about mpg, I discovered Sport mode, and realised what a quick car it could be, but no 36 mpg, of course! Having said all that, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it had to go back when I retired.

When it popped up on my YouTube list today I thought it was a late April Fool! The Asian market seems alien to me but if this is what the up and coming elite want then I suppose Toyota/Lexus might as well grab a piece of the action.

that interior is fantastic and when you are inside you wont see the exterior! I think the interior is enough to sell the car ( in China).

There you go, a good lesson learned, one that we all need to remember. 👍 When you see so many diesels pumping out filth you have to wonder how they pass.

Hi Javed, welcome to the forum. The MPG depends on a lot of things, you driving style, speed, distance, weather etc. but I think you will improve on 38 mpg. Take a look at fuelly to see what others are getting, http://www.fuelly.com/car/lexus/is300h Paul

China has an absolutely huge market for these things. I dont suppose itll be made available anywhere else

Man, you sure is ugly!!! But - looks aside - I imagine in this you wouldn't be able to humiliate (and therefore annoy) the perpetual dumb pushy-in-a-straight-line SUV driver when you get to a roundabout, so it's a no from me...

Beat me to it, my god it’s got a face like a well slapped arse....

Funny this as i was picked up from a hotel in a blacked out mercedes van recently. Sliding door and with a very luxurious interior, captainseats and all. I remember thinking - who needs a SUV when you can get this? And now Lexus introduces their version. Great if you live in an urban environment and are chaufeured around all of the time. Seems like a silent capsule that transports you around town. Seems wealthy Chinese cant get enough of them!

Below is the text of the advice I had from Lexus UK (in English and French in case you want to print it out to show a French policemen if you are stopped). 16 September 2013 Dear Sir Thank you for your further email. I can confirm that the HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlamps on the RX 350 do not need to be converted for travel on the continent. The set up of the headlamp is such that the light shines in a horizontal flat beam which has no kick up and as such is not dazzling to drivers of oncoming cars. As you have suggested, we would recommend that the Intelligent Adaptive Front-lighting System (I-AFS) is switched off when travelling on the continent. Yours sincerely Claire Newman Customer Relations Executive Translated by Google Translate 16 Septembre 2013 Monsieur Merci pour votre plus email. Je peux confirmer que les HID (High Intensity Discharge) phares sur le RX 350 n'ont pas besoin d'être convertis pour les voyages sur le continent. La mise en place du projecteur est telle que la lumière brille dans un faisceau plat horizontal qui n'a pas de coup de pied et en tant que telle n'est pas éblouissant pour les conducteurs venant en sens inverse des voitures. Comme vous l'avez suggéré, nous recommandons que le système frontal de l'éclairage adaptatif intelligent (I-AFS) soit éteint lorsque vous voyagez sur le continent. Cordialement Claire Newman Relations exécutif à la clientèle