Scarlet Pimpernell

The diesel is 168 g/Km so is not too Bad compared to what the Petrol heads will be paying My IS200 was going to cost a fortune to road fund But as i said do you really think they will do it as it is suicide for the Brown/Darling Mob. Not compared to say a 320d, which is around 128g/km, or £50 odd cheaper trhan the lexus. Rumour has it that the new facelifted 318d will be less than 120g/km. Then if they do at that point it'll make the Prius look un-necessary! It'll be interesting to see what the Government does. I think they know thy're doomed and will take us all with them. As for the Tories - well do you think they would actually reverse anything? Let me think about it ...NO!

I been told by some of the experts here that black c**p comes out of the exhausts on diesel cars, that why they have exhausts pointing downward, i have done 40 miles since i had the new exhaust fitted, no problems yet with black c**p, and i dont mind clearing the bumper even if the exhaust make it dirty, since i wash the car everytimes i been out with it... :whistling: Not much Black cack comes out of the IS220d, it has a pretty clean engine, unlike my old A4 which used to throw soot all over town. Twin Chrome straight tips would have been so much nicer in the first place like most diesel manufacturers are doing now. Your looks quite good, now you need to lower the car, give it a fresh rear skirt and black out them windows

Don't go overboard trying to protect it - they'll chase you down with a gun and car jack you. Just keep a decent insurance policy on the car....

Dealer ill do it for you - did mine for me!! I thought I did read that there was a Blackberry poblem, and you need to dowload the latest software???Or am I barking mad (again...)

The nannies are a fact of life I'm afraid... As for the Satnav, it's actually not as good as most topish end Garmin systems costing £250 - relatively speaking! Speed dials can only hold a limited number, so you might jut get your most frequently dialled ones on there!!!

This IS was designed to be run on mineral oil - in fact early on Lexus did state that the car was supposed to be cheaper to service - and the oil was a key factor. It's probably one reason for Lexus having fixed servicing (10k/12m), but no dealer will offr you mineral oils. It turns out that: 1) Dealers try and you flog you oil at ridiculous prices - like up to £20 p/litre - mobil1 10/40 Fully Synth (when you can buy the oil for £23+Vat for 4 litres at Costco...!!!) - like every sller, customer servic slogans are great for drawing people in, but their "bottom line" is what floats their boat!! 2) The new IS looks to be far more expensive to service than any of the competition over a typical 60,000 miles 3) Don't know what it cost to to service an equivalent IS200/300 over 60K, but my estimation is that new IS will cost approx £1380 just in standard servicing Just to put things into persepective, my Old A4 would have cost me £650ish over 60,000 for basic servicing Bottom line is that it is a Top end expensive car, so you really need to put the best oil you can afford in and dealers will always play the conscience card. Lexus's are not cheap to service, and it's one (more) area where it does appear to be lagging behind... I would suggest that we should all start to provide our own oil - should knock £50-60 odd quid off the servicing costs and send a clear mesage to the dealerships....I suppose someone has to pay for the classy showrooms with B&O televisions, Saturday car wash clubs etc...

JEN, firstly I doubt that the smaller amount of diesel in it is likely to be causing an issue. I have run mine down to 0 miles in the tank and it would still start no problems (!). The fact that the battery light is on could be due to the fact the battery has no power in it, and hence you struggling to start the car. If there is a filling station close by take it for a drive and fill up, then take a scenic route back to give it tim to gt some charge back in. I am here of course assuming that the battery is flat - and it may not be. So if you have been driving the car around daily for anything other than short journeys, then apologies. There is also a LED type thing on the battery itself. I can't remmber off top of my head what the colours should be, but If you peer down onto it, it will be blue crescent rings with a red dot in the centre I think IF the battery is OK. If not, it might show a small red dot. The 5th Injector thing is to do with the car going into "Safe mode". This is when the engine electronics in the car decide that it needs to just get you to a Lexus garage as someting has gone wrong with the emissions handling within the car. "VSC Check" might appear on the dash, and you wouldn't be able to go very fast at all. You may well find that your local dealership has an English speaker there, especially if you are in a town close to a US/UK airbase. PS - the fact that t is 18 months old could mean that it needs the 5th Injector thing sorting out. The fix is that they install a new 5th injector and associated bits and bobs, plus re-programme the electronic control unit with different software. This should stop the safe mode problms that some of the earlier cars were plagued with.

Are you talking about yours in particular, or 220D's in general? Lexus Cheltenham have loaned me one today as a courtesy car while my 200 is having a cambelt change, not noticed any odd noises or rattles but it's crap IMPO compared to the 250 SE-L auto with MM. Gearbox is notchy, ratios are no good and from an overall driving experience I may has well be in any Ford or Vauxhall diesel... Certainly mine and a few others on the forum, but apparently not generally. Mine has been in 7 times now for rattles and they can't fix it. Dash out twice and I have actually video'd the rattles and you can hear them so cisply. It's going in soon. The ratio's are OK once you get used to them, but they are dead wierd to start with! On the test drive I was told it was because the engine was tight!

Eco Diesel - made from plants. Fitted with particulate filters etc this could be a very clean technology. So where is it? Diesel engines were originally invented to run on oil, so the technology is already there. I just cannot beleive that we don't have the like of Toyota actually making and marketing cars that can legitimately run on cooking oil. I know you can run older diesels on chip fat (as shown on Pulling Power a while back) which is recycled. I wouldn't try it, and even then the government will want you to own up and pay the duty! It's also pobably to do with the standard of oil and the fact that some idiot might not strain it and let the chips go in too! Mind you - I went to ASDA the other day and did notice that a litre of "Spry crisp and dry" was more expnsive then derv though...reason...??? 'cos the lorry that delivers it runs on standard diesel so it's transportation costs are high due to the price of crude .

Actually it's hypocracy even buying one. Can you imagine how much damage was done to the environment in actually making the darn batteries, motors etc for the thing? The only reason why governments like them is that they CAN help to reduce emissions once they are used here in this country. It all goes towards Europe trying to hit self generated targets. The fact that the manufacture of the bits which make a hybrid caused more harm than it could ever recoup is always ignored. If he was that bothered about the environment he could have bought a bicycle! It' all about snob appeal... and bing seen to be doing the right thing. Well the right thing to do of course is walk or bike IF he was really concrned... I bet he still has a personal jet too!

WOW - well blow me down with a feather. I didn't even bother checking as it definitely does not do what is claimed on that website. Certainly not on mine as far as I can tell. I do hav to compensate manually (and yes I leave ASL on all the time). With the amount of road noise and rattles that this car generates I suppose it needs it!!

Just one point. I'm not sure that the ASL increases volume depending on "Noise level". I think it's purely speed related, else you'd be able to hear the stereo when you hit that rough stretch of the M1 between J 16 and 19ish... It ain't that clever. Purely speed related from what I can tell. Only some very top end sports cars have anti-noise enhancements as far as I know.

After having had the MM system for 2 years, here are my observations: 1) Sound system is superb. The MLS is incredibly good, better than Audi BOSE, and on par with the new Audi B&O system (which is very Bassy). 2) The reversing camera is fantastic, and far better than audible sensors, and much bettr than Merc Parktronic (which looks feable and aftermarketish) and the BMW system where you see bars around a Birdseye view of the car. Only Audi comes close, but its expensive. 3) Bluetooth is great too, safe and pairs easily with most standard phones. 4) Voice Commands - I have completely stopped using it now. The BMW one with Extended Voice Commands is so much better - you can even set destinations etc. Much more "useable". The Lexus one is limited in Vocabulary and really could do with enhancing. 5) DVD player - I used it a lot when we first bought the car to "wow" the friends. Watching a decent movie with surround sound is great. BUT - who actually watches DVD's in the car? Bit of a gimmick. 6) Then you come to the Satnav. This is where I have really mixed views: Overall there is nothing like having a "plumbed in" satnav system. It is connected to the wheels and has a Gyrosensor (digital compass) so always knows where you are. Even through tunnels, or where the signal goes etc. In that respect it is very accurate. The screen is a good size. The TMC RTA is dodgy IMHO. Over 2 years I have learnt that 9/10 it scares you by telling you that there is a congestion problem, only to find that when you ignore it, the road is fine. May be it's just the one in my car - but when you challenge it/ignore it, sometimes you are so much better off. Now I know it could be down to the TMC information, but the whole thing is not trustworthy. What is interesting though is that my Garmin C510T (for pool/hire cars) has no issues, and only tells me of traffic problems only when it really is bad. The next thing is the quality of POI's which are abismal. I don't know if the new 4 Euro disc version is any better for UK, but the standard 05/06 disc just does not have many of the POI's you need. Many hotels are missing, there are very few fast food chains (if any) and no speed camera's. Anyone buying the MLS should consider buying it for the positives listed above. That's my view. Stand alone Satnav's have come along so far now, that even without a speed pulse/gyro sensor, they are more than up to the job for navigating. They are now so cheap, that a decent Garmin will cost you £250 and give you everything a Satnav system should, plus Bluetooth/MP3/Digi picture frame capabilities etc...and you can take them car to car, to different continents, get cheaper software downloads, or just buy a newer one... I would rather get the new HTC Diamond with Co pilot then change the car, or buy an aftrmarket Satnav. It makes so much more sense, and you won't get that much back for it at PEX time. EDIT - the only other thing of course is that once you have had the MM system, any IS without it feels quite bare. Overall it is good, but I wouldn't break a leg to get it!! The touchscreen is great, better than rotary dial ones from the competition, but it isn't 100% intuitive.

I think he was driving the auto version. Regarding the original poster's comments: I don't dispute the fact that the diesel is cheaper to run than the petrol, although I think the difference isn't quite as great as you made out. My point would be that nobody buys a £30K car if a fuel saving of £500-800 per annum is a big issue. If the budget's that tight surely you should be looking at something cheaper. Or am I just being financially boring and sensible? PS. Of course, if you actually prefer the diesel then that's great - you're quids in AND get the car you really want. I REALLY THINK THAT WE SHOULD NOT START ANOTHER FUEL ECONOMY WHINGE THREAD Back on topic though - I think that the IS250Auto is the way to go if yu are looking for a 55/06 plater. It's a sound car!! th only nail in it's coffin is the one around CO2, which at over 200grams is way too much for a compact exec nowadays...They need to clean it up.

Easy peasy. Buy a BMW, you get all of those things if you have iDrive. The sheer lack of Personalisation/customer customisation is shocking for a so called Luxury marque. It's one area where Lexus have lost the plot. Even little things like "Low Fuel" warning. In the Lexus all you get a is a discreet yellow light, nothing else, and believe me when I tell you with the music on loud, you can miss hearing it/seeing it and find yourself running on vapour until you can get off a gridlocked motorway! From memory: Sept 2006 (07MY) = Side by side/lit Fuel/Boot release, Velvet black Sept 2007 (08MY) = new slimmer front seat backs, auto locks, renamed the white I wonder what the 2009 one will get...maybe a cleaner V6 engine? That's what it needs, especially now that the new purchase Tax and VED rates are about to hit! Hopefully a new Diesel, or may be lithium celled hybrid and small motor so you can still put your shopping somewhere....that would be cool! The final drive issue could be corrected, just go with the Sport one which I reckon would be better for UK roads. The only issue is Emissions, which are higher in the Sport, so it's a tuffy!

but they will do it for £290!

:winky: Can you beleeeeve it? yet another ***** up in the software! Some of us can only see the negatives! rather than leaving stoopid software like that inside, why couldn't they have made it so that it could read MP3's on a DVD? That would hav been far more useable and useful!

Not necessarily tax...I read some article on What car's web site a few weeks ago. There apparently has been some speak of mariners now having to use regular derv as opposed to marine fuel (something to do with greenhouse gases emissions). So heavy tankers are creating a new demand for diesel, hence it going up by so much. As far as petrol is concerned, the Arabs are not increasing production at the same rate of demand. Someone's gotta pay for the revolving hotels in Dubai! Simple supply and demand, hence prices go up. China and India are possibly to blame for that - a barrell of crude now costs 3 times what it did just a short few years ago from what I read. Tax only comes into play in this country with VAT. I think that the 70p per litre that government here takes hasn't gone up, but VAT on the total amount remains at 17.5%, so they get more money as the prices go up!!

Glad all is OK, but whilst even I can understand the broom and bandana, what's the piece with that Chicken of yours? Were you thinking of using the Bandana as a serviette and Spearing it with the broom, to make a spit and cooking it there an then?

Not seen or heard that one yet. Doubt it's anything to with the camera. Sounds like a Navigation command so 2 things: 1) Press speaky button and say "delete all destinations" - on the off chance that you still have a destination set, and the open space you are reversing in is actually confusing the living daylights out of her 2) Is it the same parking lot each time? It is possible that the navigation disk cannot actually track you as it' not "co-ordinated" in the data.

The Beetle does have "come to bed eyes" though That is as sick as the bloke marrying his goat

Shouldn't worry about it - mine gets caked i the stuff and hasn't damaged the car at all. Just wash the car with warm soapy water and it'll melt away. Have you treated the car with a Sealant glaze etc? Worth doing. Check out the Care Care and Detailing section. Loads of tips if you do a search.

I know what this is.... The new SR model The clue must be in the roll cage...it's seriously got to be a TCC racer

I got the full tank of fuel, but no plonk! Is that standard...or was I short changed???? The wife said she thought the delivery person said there was some champagne in the car, but we never found it! Anyway - it does not improve the economy - the flat spot is still as bad at times, so it'll stop safe mode only. That's what I think. Far too many issues...especially when Lexus's are supposed to be almost 100% fault free...the last 2 years have been a motoring night mare, and I wish I could afford to change it...

I'v been saying it too...I got caught up in the promise that it would improve...it never did. The rattles are enough to put me off driving it now. That's how bad the warm weather has made it - totally intolerable for the first 20 minutes...