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After pricing up a Lexus tow bar and a Lexus bike rack that fits to the tow bar at about £1000 I decided to make my own. One of my hobbies is welding. I noticed that the Is300h has "towing hitch's" on the nearside and the offside. These are supposed to be used for pulling the Is300h from ditches etc. I made some brackets that bolts to the towing eyes and welded a length of 50mm square tubing to each bracket. I then welded another piece of tubing in the middle and at 90 degrees, a piece of shaped flat plate welded to that. When using the bike rack I bolt a plate to the welded plate and insert two 20mm square tubes and hang the bike on to the tubes. A few lengths of bungy cord holds the bike steady. It looks as if the bike wheels are wider that the car but it's an illusion. The bike wheels do not overhang the body. Obviously, this is not a tow bar and I have only used it for one bike. I made the system a couple of years ago and it is till going strong. It must be OK as I have been to the Lake District with the bike attached (over 200 miles round trip) and use the rack every Sunday. Total cost about £50 and no, I won't be making another. It's for my own use only. Dave T

OK Herbie. I've now determined that 3.6l drained, and I'm now in the process of refilling with the old coolant to ensure that it really was full (to save wastage of new coolant). Initially, I couldn't find the relevant section in the workshop manual, but I now have, so no need for you to look it up. There are two drains on the block, apparently.

Premium petrol is for people with too much money to waste or for engines that are specifically tuned to make use of it. None of my cars have ever fallen into that category so I only use supermarket fuel (or others if I'm somewhere else when I need it) and have run some of them up to 150k without any problems.

Use a mixture of supermarket and branded fuel. Occasionally stick some Redex ii. I always used to use branded fuel, but the RX450h has so much power I haven't bothered. Mind my cars usually running hot as a minimum journey is around 25 miles and several times a week 160+ a day with lots of A roads and motorway. I never had dpf or egr problems with any of my diesels because of the mileage they were doing,

I don't mind which petrol I put in the car. Generally it's a mixture of regular supermarket petrol, with the premium stuff once a month or so. I did use a fuel cleaner once, it cleaned the system so well my mpg went from 32 to 22. It had cleaned the fuel consumption sensor so I was getting a true reading. ☹️

I have mine plugged into front charger port, it doesn't look messy at all. I'll try to remember to add a photo latet. I have a camera in the front and back.

I've been meaning to give this a go for ages, and as Halfords are doing a promotion on clay kits (plus 15% off with the gold members card) I gave it a go today. I have to say, I've never felt car paint so smooth! The whole process, with waxing, took about 3+ hours. I almost had a Narcissus moment as I saw myself so clearly in the reflection!💎

I second DanD - had lots of cars with automatic air con and never any bad smells but I have always leave air con running full time just adjusting the temperature as needed. When the air con isn't running some water accumulates in the system in which the bacteria grow and hence the smell and it's then very difficult to rid the car of it completely. The very small difference running air con all the time makes to mpg (in modern cars as it's regulated by the car as to how much is needed) is very small and well worth it to a) avoid the small of old socks and b) maintain all the O-rings etc. and avoid leaks as they get old and dry out by keeping the oil circulating. If you get the system cleaned and deodorised then leave the AC from there on out and hopefully the smell won't come back again.

And make sure your AC is left switched ON all the time.

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

I have had my gs300 (55 plate) for 5 yrs. now done 112000 miles 50000 by me. I have used many different satnavs over time but i do quite like the lexus approach (apart from bl****** post codes). i have updated mine and apart from some newer roads very little difference. It navigated through france with no problems at all. no problem with visibility of screen i think you can change brightness i originally had lexus warranty and extended it had most of shocks replaced with oem parts. as already mentioned the dash creaks i am learning to live with it. the lack of mp3 is mildly irritating but a tape drive... wow i can use many old tapes in it. the children think i am mad and old. but it does provide a part solution to mp3s with a 3.5m jack to tape adapter so can play from phone but controlled from phone. not ideal but cheap. Everynow and then i think i want a new car but it is actually a joy to drive David