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Very nice. @bernie_the_bolt, is your car the one that was recently for sale at Lexus Liverpool! Here is one of ours.

She cleans up quite well!

I own this now... I brought it for £150 yeah still had the white wrap on it to

They are a real disaster them pop up hoods, makes it pointless mowing down traffic wardens😕

I love the red interior available in the f sport. It also has the adaptive suspension of the premier.

For £18k, I would consider something like this: https://usedcars.lexus.co.uk/en/used-lexus/Lexus/GS-300h/25-F-Sport-r1b2n84 The F Sport is second only to the Premier in spec, and the mileage is on the higher side, but I don't think it is that bad considering your budget.

Michelin Primacy 4. Try and get them when Michelin due their cashback offers. I got a£100 refund on a set of 4 and have since done the same on my RX450 with a set of Cross Climates.

Haha cheers mate It looks pink but that's just the light it's red to match interior trim just to my own taste. The charging cables are a neccassary evil, FAST charger for mobile USB type C, charger for vape pen my mini USB, interior mirror dash cam cable and I have a external battery charger running so yeah no choice lol

It's tricky, deciding to stick with a car (model) you like as it ages, or thinking "I've had that one and enjoyed it, now....." Certainly there are no cars that have that 'feel' of an LS. Setright had it that if you see a driver in a jam actually smiling, he will actually be enjoying his car (He might have been talking about a Citroen CX....) but the idea applies here. The concept of price is irrelevant. It's a £50K car still. Or factor in the billions it took to conceive! They wanted to make the best car irrespective of cost. I still miss my old Ser 4.

I think you are right about the dealers. They are obviously in a strong bargaining position once you have arrived. So it has now gone to a good home locally, which is great. I will leave him to advise the forum on the details, as it is his car now. Temporarily Lexus-less! Jon

Just had my mechanic replace the power steering pipe with a set I made up. Was 12mm tubing with a 10mm short tube insert and two solder Straight 10mm Couplers on the end to slip the rubber pipe over. Pipe bought in France but may be able to buy in UK? Malcs solution may have been less complicated?

It's probably about both. They have to make a profit. In this instance they may have sold more cars by getting the Best in Class NCAP safety rating for the IS 2013 model. They probably got the best in class by having the best pedestrian safety score. They got 80% for pedestrian safety, the highest score for any of the 2013 cars and slightly ahead of the 2014 Mercedes C class with 77%. My understanding is that when a pedestrian is hit by a car and bounces onto the bonnet a lot of the injuries are caused by hitting not only the hard bonnet surface but also, when the bonnet deforms, by hitting the hard bits of metal under the bonnet including the engine. So I believe the Lexus bonnet is aluminium which deforms more easily than steel and presumably causes slightly less injury. And by popping up the bonnet, a bigger gap is created between the bonnet lid and the hard bits of metal under the bonnet, resulting in less severe injuries. The cost of replacing this system did actually make me think twice about buying the car. There's another thread somewhere on this forum from three or four years ago about the costs of repairing it, which made me wonder whether it was a good idea to go for this car and I have great sympathy with Phil having to deal with this repair. But at the time I thought that on balance I'd probably rather have an annoyingly large repair bill, which I would eventually forget, than a dead pedestrian for ever in my memory. If there was just a minor accident, even if there was barely any visible damage, I thought I would just have to go the insurance route, annoying as that would be too. The insurance companies ought to be happy to repair the pop-up bonnet - it's probably saving them from some huge payouts for pedestrian deaths. And if it pops up when there's no sign of any collision, then Lexus ought to recognise there was a fault. If the insurance company says there was no collision, then it must have been a fault and Lexus should repair it without charge.

Yes, I believe there is only one left registered to Lexus UK. Only 5 registered in 2018 so look after yours. Rare beast!!!!!

Try the GS300h, it may not feel as slow as you think. I can't fully compare because I've never driven a GS250, but to me the hybrid system feels like it acts like a (very) small turbocharger which gives you some extra mid-range pull so feels like it accelerates quicker than the figures suggest and you might expect it too. I'm not saying it's fast, but it may not be as slow as you imagine. I drove an IS300h as a courtesy car and it didn't feel noticeably quicker to me. The main things I noticed were a harsher ride, more noise and the low roofline above the doors. Having said all this, I would have had a GS450h in a heartbeat if I could have afforded it.

Finally found time to do this... It was annoying me so much I was actually thinking about getting rid of the car. Anyway, took the panel off, covered every edge in felt tape, covered the knee airbag cover fixings in tape to get a good fix, covered some of the redundant electrical connectors, and taped down some of the loose harness. Did the clip as suggested although it already had tape on it ... And this morning.... No annoying rattle. Thanks so much for the help. Now to find the passenger side rattle! Can't believe how truly awful theses cars for rattles, worst car I've ever owned for rattles.

its for rewinding the station you are on press button then turn the file/album button on the radio to the left and it will rewind the station i,e You didnt quite catch the news so you just rewind it mind you have to have been on that station a while HTH Robert

But the old bill are not always right However in this case (and some of the MOT classifications as dangerous) the customer would have been in a catch 22 situation because as soon as they drove it on the public road they could have nicked for an un-roadworthy vehicle, and the vehicle would have been impounded anyway.

In a few days time my Nissan Leaf will be sold and gone, so here's my impressions after over 18 months and 12000 miles. Mine is a 2015 24kWh Tekna (top spec) Quality, fit and finish Not great. Distinctly not great. The paint (flat white) isn't good, and there are various noticeable poor bits of panel alignment all around the vehicle. Interior materials are mostly very cheap, with some hard plastics and horrid cheap synthetic felt. However, as a workaday basic car it is fine, but any kind of premium product it certainly is not. Remember that the Leaf (even the current, facelifted 40kWh and 62kWh versions) is based on the 2004-on Nissan Tiida, a low-cost, light-weight basic C-seg hatch. Comfort Actually not bad. Seats are ok (heated front and rear, perforated "Leather") and the ride is softer than many other C-seg hatchbacks. Noise levels are ok - obviously no engine noise and they worked on the Aero and things like the windscreen wiper motor to be quiet - however, road noise is significant, and the glass in the windows is thin so sounds from the outside world aren't well insulated. Gadgets Not bad - App to turn on AC/Heating remotely, Satnav, 360deg cameras, all seats heated, LED headlamps, Bose sound system (not very good), Inrix traffic data. However, the infotainment is not very intuitive, and has some even bigger annoyances than Lexus have managed (total fail on Artist/Album handling). Drivetrain Fantastic. Significant instantaneous torque with no kickdown lag, turbolag, etc. The torque at the wheel is changing directly, immediately, in response to the position of the throttle pedal. Ultimately there's not a HUGE amount of power and you certainly feel that above 40-50mph, but up to 40 and in town, getting onto roundabouts etc then it's way more responsive and nippy than a great many ICE cars, even ones that are much more powerful. There's also no stop-start system to contend with that would make nipping out of a junction that much trickier. There's a psychological element as well, because you'd rarely bother to use full throttle, full performance in something like a ford focus 1.0 ecoboost because of the noise, harshness and lumpiness of trying to make fast gearchanges - it's a lot of effort and wearing because of the noise, whereas in the Leaf you simply put foot to the floor with greater regularity. However, this isn't that Nissan engineered an amazing EV drivetrain. They made an acceptable one - much of the benefits above are simply the nature of an EV. The Leaf is not terribly efficient; typically around 3.5-4 miles per kWh. The worst EVs are around 2.5 (Audi e-Tron), with high-performance (Tesla S, X, Jag I-Pace) around 3, up to the very efficient being 4 and better (Tesla 3, Kia e-Niro) and even heading towards 5 (Hyundai Ioniq). In terms of weight and performance and size, the Leaf should achieve better than 4, but it doesn't. Handling Remarkable, in a qualified sense. Some of the ingredients are terrible - high kerb weight (1545kg), very basic suspension design (macpherson strut front, torsion-beam rear), FWD and the aforementioned soft ride. However, the centre of gravity is very low down, and the significant parts of the mass are within the wheelbase, so it has a very low polar moment of inertia. The low centre of gravity means that despite relatively soft suspension it doesn't roll very much when cornering hard, and the weight distribution shares the loading between front and rear very well. It will grip and fling itself around a corner with suprising alacrity. No, it's by no means communicative or go-karty, but it's really very good for a a bog basic family hatchback. With good tyres on (Michelin Crossclimate+) it has a very secure, grippy feel. Range / Long Journeys Either fine or terrible, depending on how you look at it. For day-to-day use it's absolutely fine. There aren't many days when many of us drive more than 50 miles, and that's fine. Charge up at night or during the day at work and it's simply not an issue, not a bother. Long Journeys can even be ok - I've used it a few times to go to my mother's house (160 miles from my home), and my best run only had 21 minutes of charging time (of which I'd have stopped for 10 to pee and get a coffee in my ICE vehicles anyway). However, that was having a bunch of things go right. When the weather is bad or if a charging point is offline or whatever things can rapidly get more tedious. Ultimately long journeys in it ARE possible, but at some point you'll get bored. However, consider the typical middle-class 2-car family. Do BOTH cars need to be able to do long journeys? Or does the family have a big family car/SUV for that stuff, and a smaller hatchback that just gets used for school run, shops, commute, etc? The Leaf is an ideal and brilliant second car, where the range limitations are simply a non-event. Running costs / TCO Outstanding. Utterly insanely cheap to run. Fuel costs are 3p/mile from domestic supply (12p/kWh), 2p/mile on E7 (or my workplace charger), and there are still quite a number of free-to-use chargers (my local supermarket has a 50kW rapid charger that is free). No tax of course, and servicing is a non-event. There's no oil, filter, transmission, cam belt, plugs, etc - hundreds of pounds per year on consumables that simply go away. Depreciation is the absolute kicker though - After more than 18 months and 12000 miles I've sold the car to a trader for only £350 less than I paid for it. Total cost of ownership excluding insurance has been around £900 (£350 depreciation, £400 tyres (£460, sold old partworns for £60), £150 electricity), working out to 7.5p/mile - or half what most cars cost to fuel alone. Random stuff All of the steering wheel buttons are mounted on top of the large floating piece that sounds the horn. Usually not a problem, but the cruise control button requires a firm enough press that the horn beeps when you turn it on. Tekna spec has 17" wheels with an uncommon tyre size (215/50R17). These tyres are literally twice the price of those fitted to the Acenta spec (205/55 R16) (Full set of Crossclimate+ cost me £460 on offer from Costco. A friend got a full set of Primacy 4 from costco for his Leaf Acenta for £231) Reliability Never let me down as such, but did start making a clicking/cracking noise. Known issue with driveshafts needing splines lubricating and bolts tightened. Performed under warranty. Overall The Leaf has fulfilled the role for which we bought it brilliantly. That role was as a second car, to cover the repetitive, day-to-day commutes that were costing a fortune in diesel (at the time). I pushed it further in making long journeys simply because of the novelty, and the cost savings (£70 of diesel saved on a single round-trip to my mother's house, for a "cost" of about 45 minutes extra journey time - more than most people earn after tax), and learned a few lessons along the way. I don't think it would be a good "only car". A friend of mine has one as his only car (he's had it 6 years, since new and covered 70k+ in it) and it's lead to frustrations at times (but never enough to even think for a second about changing back). As I said before, a brilliant second car. The ease with which you can jump in and drive without worrying about the impact of short journeys on engine wear, instant cabin heat (and preheat from timer or app), etc is great for popping to the shops or nipping over to a friend's house. Ultimately perhaps it's telling that the reason I'm getting rid is because it whetted my appetite for a better EV, and I cashed in the Leaf before depreciation takes a turn (which I think it will next year as the e208, Corsa-e, Mini Cooper SE, Honda e and VW ID3 begin to hit the market). I've ordered a Tesla 3. Would I buy one again, as a second car? Probably not at current pricing. Pricing has been a bit silly of late, and they've held up well but I think we're in a period of over-valuation. At similar pricing I'd have a Kia Soul EV over a Leaf.

Thanks Kaycee - that's a problem I've come across in the past, but I solved by using a program that renames the files from the tags so the filename is prefaced with the track number - that resolves the write-order issue (except in the case of multi-disc albums, if you use a single folder - it will then play the two track 1s, followed by two track 2s, etc. Did it to me on Dylan at Budokan, and RHCP Stadium Arcadium.) One annoyance I did notice today (and a failing of almost all modern streaming players, but something that the SB3 that I mentioned above could do) is that the GS doesn't do gapless playback (ie there is a pause between each file, which is noticeable on an album like Pink Floyd - The Wall where tracks run into one another).

Thanks, I wish I had your expertise.. had a bit of ‘shake’ on the blast down to Dorset this weekend and thinking may be a sign that these may need attending to! I’m booked in to a major service at a specialist next week so will await their report..

Here's a previous topic on the subject:

it sits behind the front bumper between the number plate and radiator. It would be easy for it to get wet with a hosing and cool the plastic sensor, taking it some time to warm up again.

I agree with you. I own two LS400 for comfort. A 1995 for winter use. And a spotless 1998 for summer. both with around 110k miles on them

According to the Lexus EU tech doc for my 2016 RC300h the car maintains brake hydraulic pressure to all four wheels to prevent the car rolling backwards

So for Mk4 1998 to 2000 it has ODB2 port also in europe? . I just checked my 1998 mk4 . Confirmed. It has a white connector marked ODB2 under the steering wheel.

Not sure how this particular camera is connected to power, but for front camera I would suggest using 12V to USB adapter connected to power behind light panel above rear view mirror - saves running a lot of cables and worked perfectly on my CT for over 5 years. Rear camera is quite straightforward as you have got 12V battery in the boot, matter of finding acc on cable and connecting via relay.

Find a different fitter! They shouldn't be wiring into the traction battery circuit. There will be a 12v accessory fuse for this sort of thing.

Looks a bit like a video game here but it is real 🙂

Certainly very similar to how we feel about our 15 plate 450h Premier. Handling is superb compared to our previous Volvo V70 - the GS has much better weight distribution, much less roll, grips WAY harder. The drivetrain is much more securely mounted in the car (in the volvo you could feel the engine flop about on its mounts) which gives a much more predictable feel, and when you really pitch it into a corner and the adaptive dampers do their thing... well, it's the most capable roadholding car that I've ever had (or driven, come to that). Drivetrain is superbly refined, able to cruise @ 1500rpm at any speed. Acceleration doesn't FEEL super fast, and doesn't have the peak punch that our V70 did (twin-turbo 5-cylinder diesel, 470Nm torque), but the EV-like linearity of the acceleration means that it actually gathers speed with so little fuss and effort by comparison, and in a much smoother manner. This fools you into believing it's slower than it actually is. Fuel consumption is as per my fuelly sig at the bottom of this post. I'm very pleased with that, as our V70 only returned 38mpg (225bhp, diesel). The 450h is 50% more powerful and petrol so to get basically the same economy is remarkable and welcome. The CD thing doesn't bother me - our V70 was the same, and we never once used it. Our honda had a 6-disc changer which we did use, but in a world of USB I don't miss that faff at all! The infotainment UI isn't very good. I'm not complaining about the mouse-thing - I actually think that works very well. It provides useful haptic feedback (we have it set to max strength) and once you understand that it has an absolute relationship to the position on the screen (rather than a relative relationship like an actual computer mouse) then it's a very good bridge between hand and screen. The problem is that the actual UI of how things are accessed is really awkward, taking many more presses and actions than it should. For example, when playing some music off the USB stick and deciding that I want to listen to a different artist I must take the following steps: Select right-hand screen, select music panel, send music panel to left-hand screen, select browse, select artist, select letter group (or scroll list), select artist, select album. If partway through that process I come to a road junction or whatever that requires my full attention then if I do not return to it quickly enough it will time out and I must start again. Another example is that it is not possible to cancel the navigation when it is giving you instructions - we have been a couple of times to a shop where the postcode doesn't quite align, so pulling into the car park the sat nav is constantly re-routing and trying to direct. Every time it does this it blocks you out of the menu to cancel the route navigation. And why are postcodes (the PRIMARY method of destination entry in the UK) on the second page of the nav screen? We once tried voice commands to cancel navigation with totally hilarious (and depressing) results - completely useless. Now, in fairness most car infotainment UIs are awful - our volvo was limited and tedious (for example, choosing an artist from USB required scrolling through a list - could not jump the list using the physical number/letter group keys, and every time you went to the list it started from A). My Leaf is extraordinarily annoying (Doesn't give a list of Artists, but instead the complete list of Albums, sorted in Artist order.... Then don't get me started on its interpretation of finding charging points (Start a journey with a full charge, ~90 miles range. Put in destination 150 miles away. Warns you that you won't make it on your current charge, and offers to find a charge point for you - guides you to nearest charge point which you will arrive at with 95% battery remaining and still won't make your destination)). In other words.... the Lexus system has its annoyances and idiosyncrasies (and idiocies), but so do most others. Another issue is the spray of buttons and some settings buried in menus. I spent 10 minutes looking through the menus one time because the mirrors weren't folding in when locked. Gave up, and 5 minutes later noticed that the "auto" button on the door mirror control panel did not have the little green tell-tale LED lit. Similarly the auto-wipers are only indicated by a little green tell-tale on the wiper stalk, that is obscured behind the steering wheel (our volvo had a similar tell-tale, but it also put an icon up in the instrument panel - and the wipers defaulted to off every time you started the car (sensible because it meant it wouldn't try wiping while you were deicing the car, clearly an important consideration for volvo)). How many buttons and telltales are there in the car marked "auto" (one on the mirror panel on the door, one on the wiper stalk, one on the headlamp stalk, two in the HVAC controls, one on each seat heater control, one on the rear climate panel, one on the rear view mirror....) The build quality is excellent, although the paint isn't particularly good (we have a couple of patches of crazing, and it's soft, picking up scratches easily). The most remarkable aspect of build quality to me is the way that when you shut the doors the noise of the outside world is so comprehensively drowned out - my Leaf has very thin glass and lets a lot of noise in, whereas the GS does not. Noticeably quieter than our V70. Seats are generally very good.... but I have a funny shaped back and I just can't quite get the lumbar to work for me, even the 2-step lumbar in the Premier. The problem that I have is that even the higher lumbar control isn't quite high enough up the seat for me (and I'm only 5'7). It's a shame that despite super-many-way-adjustable seats, the Premier does not have a proper 2d lumbar (ie in/out, up/down) but rather 2 separate 1d controls (lower in/out, upper in/out) - the lower is so low as to be useless for anyone, and the upper one is not high enough for me but may suit others. I love the adjustable bolsters and thigh support, but the memory functions are weird. It's extremely annoying not being able to recall the memory position whilst the car is moving or even stationary but in gear, and the passenger memory does not recall the thigh support position. On the plus side, the ventilation and heating are great, and I love being in the front passenger seat, set the thigh support out, recline a bit.... way too comfortable. Visibility is excellent! The A-pillars are designed exactly right in terms of size and angle. The V70 wasn't great in this regard, but the Leaf is truly appalling (you can literally lose a van in the A-pillar blind spot). There's a few little things you don't notice at first about how lexus designed the vehicle to improve this - the windscreen bonding overlap is moved as far outboard as possible, so the windscreen covers the front of the A-pillar, and with minimal masking applied on the screen, so there's not 1/2 inch of visible (from the inside) black masking at the edge like other cars. Then the A-pillar trim is angled to not project into that space, and the door overlap is also slightly carefully designed. You can see a similar overlap on the rear screen on the C-pillar, that the rear screen is wider and overlaps further onto the C pillar than other cars, making the view from inside wider. Really lovely piece of design work. BSM is good, ACC is ok - not as good as a VW hire car I had recently though (66 plate touran. It was the only good thing about that car). The ACC tends to pick up vehicles in adjacent lanes on curves as obstacles (which the VW was much better at), and the ACC is only a guide (the VW, I quickly discovered, allowed you to use it as a virtual bumper - once it was locked onto the car in front you could floor the throttle and it wouldn't move, which was a nice way of driving - felt like there was something the car was pushing against). AHB is totally useless - it works for a minute or two, then gets confused, doesn't dip for oncoming cars and then goes into a sulk and never turns high beam on ever again. I've not really played with LKA. LED headlamps (I know, a VERY rare option in the UK) are excellent, but confusing. Excellent in that they provide extremely wide, bright coverage, although in common with many high-power flat-beam systems they don't project as far down the road (in order to avoid dazzle) as a good halogen dip-beam setup (but that is very dim by comparison). The optic design isn't great, with extremely strong chromatic aberration at the cut-off (blue-red-yellow). The confusing element comes from them turning with the steering (which the xenons on our V70 did also). They turn much faster than the volvo and that works fine - I just don't understand why bother? The LED lights project light SO widely (pavements on both sides of the road well illuminated, pool of light extends out almost perpendicular to the motion of the car) that what's the point of turning them? You don't see any better over that way because it was already lit over that way. I understood the purpose with much narrower projected Xenon and Halogen lights, but it's just a totally unnecessary complication on the LED lights. So, I know it sounds like I'm focused on the negatives... I'm not - I just don't indulge in blind fanboyism with any car. I love the car and it's easily the best car we've ever owned (but I might not be saying that anymore once my Leaf is replaced with the Tesla). It's brilliant for what we do with it, and if you live your life on the motorway I can't think of a car I'd rather have. It feels special to be in and to drive.

Just discovered that you can order the full UX manual directly from Lexus - very odd that it doesn’t arrive with a physical one but at least you get one if you ask. I used messenger to Lexus (UK) via Facebook

I have a 2009 Lexus IS220D with factory navigation and rear camera etc. So I ordered the GROM VLINE 2 LEX5 model Friday from carputershop website which is the UK distributor of GROM. obviously ordering Friday meant Saturday and Sunday plus Bank Holiday Monday prevented my order being processed and dispatched, however it was sent Tuesday and I got it today wed 29.5.19. Now let me tell you I'm no mechanic and definitely thought the installation of this was beyond me and I couldn't find a local audio fitter who was familiar with the product and none could guarantee me they would be able to fit it successfully or place the various peripherals (mic, GPS antenna, unit housing) in any specific place so I could of ended up with it being stuck under footwell (no good with car heater blasting down on it during winter). So decided to take the plunge and do it myself. To be fair it was fairly straightforward taking apart the centre console, removing the air vents where a bit tricky but came away eventually, the hardest part was figuring out where to place the vline unit for housing and accessibility and even though I have lost my storage space for mouth wash, owner manual and various other crap I decided to clear out the glove box. I also ripped the shelf out on the left hand side which is near the cabin filter housing so I had a full rectangle space to work with. Once I did this I got my torch and looked for any gaps, there aren't any apart from one square piece of plastic which I didn't know what it's use was but turns out it just had a led light attached for the glove box. So I ripped the led from the plastic cover and set them both to one side, this now provided me with perfect access to seat the unit in the glove box and feed through the wires into the back of the stereo unit. Thank god for that otherwise it would have been a nightmare. Actually connecting the wires into the back of the stereo unit was difficult for me, no matter how many times I watched the grom installation video on YouTube I couldn't figure out as there so close up the angle frazzled my mind, that might just be me being a bit brain dead, so connected what I thought was right fired it up and nothing happened apart from my hazards lights where on and wouldn't go off. Clearly that wasn't right then. So disconnected again and what threw me was that both the power cables and the video cables have male connectors to plug in but also female connecter to re attach what you pull out. This was fine for the blue video cable but there was no power cord to unplug that would plug back into the female socket, in the end I found an empty port unused and just plugged the make into it and left the female return wire hanging, give it another start up and presto we are in business! So while everything was still pulled apart I decided to set it up a bit before putting everything back together to prevent repeating the process. First thing I did was connect to my home WiFi with no problems, then straight into system and check for updates, both software and firmware updates where available so I pressed update firmware over the air, once pressed screen went black with lines (see pic) and full thing died. Waited and waited then turned off ignition and turned back on several times.... Nothing. Felt like crying 😢 £515 just bricked, or so I thought. Rang the carputershop but the tech guy wasn't available til tomorrow, I thought I can't just leave my car in bits all night so decided to try and fix it myself as although my manual mechanical/audio hardware skills are fairly **** I am a qualified IT pro from my college days so software is quite easy for me. So after some Internet searching various YouTube vids and forum posts I managed to gather some information relating to downloading a single file from the grom website which you put into a USB stick formatted to FAT32 and put the solitary file on it. Disconnected the unit from mains and video, put USB into it, then plugged just the power cord in, waited few seconds and USB light went off, apparently this resets to factory. So then removed USB stick and plugged all back in, cycled ignition and boom, it was back from the dead like Jon Snow. My initial concerns where though that the download file for the reset on the official GROM website only says for VLINE 1, but mine was a VLINE 2 so I was curious if this would make a difference to what software version I would be getting. Anyway once back alive I decided try again but this time I updated the system software FIRST before the firmware, not sure if this made much difference but this time both updated over the air via WiFi with no issues and after checking the info in the system im running android 8.1 fully up to date. Phew! Next then was routing antenna and mic, this was easier than expected. Using plastic prying tools I pulled off the plastic trim to the left of the glove box and traced the antenna wire through that up into the side felt material window pillar and mounted on top of dash near bottom of window pillar, the wire is wedged tightly so didn't even need to stick it down as its quite rigid. The mic wire I went the same route only this time going further up past the bottom of the pillar where the antenna sat and upto the roof prying as I went, along the roof felt trim right over to the driver side pillar and just left it to hang/sit at the top of my driver side felt pillar, again the wire is tucked tight so remains in place quite rigid (see pic) . After that I replaced the plastic trim to the left of the glove box (see pic) and shut glove box with the two wires causing no obstruction to the closure and opening of the glove box. I couldn't get that bit of plastic I ripped from the top of the glove box back in place but wanted it there to prevent any excess heat from the heater leaking in and over heating the unit, so I just used a screw to re attach it to the top of the glove box with enough play to allow the wiring to feed through unharmed. Once done I re assembled all the main components, air vent, Ash tray, head unit, and I must say everything looks near enough factory fitted, you wouldn't know anything was there. I'm really proud of myself I never thought I had it in me. I even have some red trim which goes around the unit which I managed to wedge back in, so yeah very pleased. Now next then onto using it, at first was bit temperamental as I downloaded Google apps or gapps as they call them, and the first installation something went wrong and after I created a new Google account especially for the lexus it kept saying Google services needs updating before you can use Google apps, trouble is it wouldn't let me sign into Google play store to update services so eventually after pressing system reboot in settings it landed me on a recovery screen with options to install, reboot, factory reset and something else I can't remember. After trying reboot a few times to no avail I went for factory reset. Luckily it resets back to 8.1 with all updates intact. So I then went back to the download gapps section and this time it seemed to take longer and download differently, which from experience I know is a good sign. Plus once installed instead of creating a new account I just signed in with the one that I had created before the crash. And now it all seems to be working fine, YouTube works, chrome, even a dodgy live sports streaming app I use works perfectly. So after teething problems I'm delighted with it, but it's only been a few hours so I can't pass judgement just yet let's see how it performs. I wrote this reply to possibly help others who may have experienced the same issues and rather then sending the box back can do the reset method I did. I will help anyone who asks as best I can and if anyone would like any pictures other than the ones I have posted or a short YouTube video showing inside the glove box and the wiring feed I used I can produce upon request if it helps anyone. Also I'm based in Doncaster South Yorkshire so if you need a helping hand and I'm free hit me up. For those who already have this installed however might I ask has anyone used the agama car launcher without problems? I'm considering purchasing that as opposed to the standard launcher and it looks like a kids tablet rather than a sophisticated piece of car tech.

Here’s a clip, mate Aftermarket exhaust... nothing else

Black’s a sod to keep clean, but when it is, it looks great!!!!