Ro1

Nice looking dial. I wonder why they include wires with it.

Why would road noise be worse at night?

My nearest Tesco is open 24 / 7 , so it helps to go at midnight. Nobody in the car park! No chance of damage!

I find that strange that you can't get an auto sport. They are available through dealers in Ireland. You could buy one here and export it to the UK, but the speedo would be in kph, not mph.

did you know... If you have accessories on (without engine running), the car shuts itself off after a while. I was waxing the car today so had the windows down and the radio on. After a while, I noticed the radio wasn't on anymore. Not sure if it detects the last action in the car (eg volume increase/decrease) or the last time the start/stop button was pushed. As a result, the timeout is somewhere from 20 - 60 minutes.

Sorry to hear about the car. I scraped an alloy after 5 days, but luckily I don't worry about alloy damage so much. The front bumper would be a different story. However, that's what bumpers are for at least, so try not to worry too-much. Were any cats harmed in the making of this post?

3 weeks & 1500 km with the following: 1) tiny rattle from seatbelt in door pillar, right by the driver's ear; 2) AC unit does not come on when the car starts - it loses all its settings. Not posible to switch it on for first 20 - 30 seconds until the front demister light stops flashing; 3) wind noise from drivers door at motorway speeds. Reported first two to dealer over a week ago who promised to call back the next working day. I'm still waiting.

With my seat vents on the max setting of 3, I can hear the fans if the engine is idling, and I can just about feel air coming out of them if I hold my hand very close. However, when just sitting on the seats, I wouldn't even know the seat vent was switched on. What's this like in other cars?

Interestingly, the rear view mirror vibrates in the 250 aswell. It's not extremely bad, but I have seen better on lesser cars. My old IS200 mirror didn't vibrate like this.

When you think about it - the same price as the ML system will get you a kick-axx surround sound system for your living room!

The standard stereo is of excellent quality. I have not heard anything as good as this in a car before. I had a passenger the other day who thought I was mad for spending so much money on a car (30% more expensive here in Ireland than in UK remember!). The stero was on very low and she said "Ooohh, I love that". I said "Yeah, it's a great album" (Bruce Springsteen's 'The Rising'), to which she responded "No, the sound! Turn it up!!". In fact, it wasn't the album itself I had in the car, but an MP3 on CD at 192kbits. I have all my favourite albums on MP3 now, so haven't even played a real CD in the car yet.

what though!?

Since yesterday, the aircon system in my 1.5 week old IS250 does not start up after the car is started. Instead, the front windshield lamp flashes for 20 seconds. During that time, I cannot manually start the a/c system, but only afterwards. Functionality seems normal, but I suspect it should start automatically. It did until yesterday. I cannot find any explanation in the manual of what the flashing light means. Has anyone encountered this, or does anyone know what it means?

Did you know... that when I walk up to the front door of my house, I wish I could put my hand on the door handle and it would automatically unlock? Somebody HAS to invent this.

I always think front fogs should be saved for FOG. It is most annoying to drive on regular roads when cars coming towards you have dims & front fogs on.

I have the 250, but asked my dealer about the diesel when I was picking mine up last week. He said he had heard no complaints about it. Then, I don't think a dealer will relay any bad news for fear he might be quoted. I find it hard to believe that dealers are not relaying problems back to Lexus GB or Irl. It costs the dealers time to fix issues such as rattles - surely they have to claim this cost back from Lexus? In answer to your first question, the tank capacity is 65 litres.

Does that mean I'd have to stick an ugly strip of velcro somewhere on the nice wood veneer!? @Nic - no bluetooth! I didn't go for the satnav option - the Lexus satnav mapping is by Teleatlas rather than Navteq, so coverage of Ireland is very poor. Most small towns appear to be in the middle of a very big field! Getting back to the original post, the car seems to be a lot wider than the IS200 - a white van man neighbour parks at the entrance to my driveway, and I have some difficulty reversing out past him! I'm going to have to ask him to stop parking there!

I have to agree on the storage space issue - there is no space for loose change! I put a key in the ashtray yesterday and couldn't get it out without removing the ashtray! There's also nowhere sensible to lay down the mobile phone. I had a magnet on top of the ashtray on the old IS to hold it, but it wouldn't go well on this model (with wood on L pack). Any thoughts?

Yes, the new one clicks open and takes a big push to get it to lift up. I just don't see the point of the remote release if it doesn't swing open fully - if I have to put my hand on it at all, I might as well use the button on the boot instead of the remote key. Does anyone reckon it's possible to have the struts or springs adjusted to remedy this?

The car is 24 hours old! it's not very dirty!

The salesman told me it wasn't supposed to spring open!

Dunlops on new IS250 SE-L bought in Ireland yesterday.

On my new IS250, when I open the boot with any of the release buttons, the lid doesn't swing open fully. In fact it just unlatches and I have to raise it myself. On my old IS200, the boot lid would swing open fully. This was a very useful feature. I don't see any advantage to it merely unlatching and not swinging open. Has anyone else experienced this on the new IS? Is this the correct functionality? Is there any way to alter it?

Thanks Nic, I'll keep you posted on my first thoughts! You wouldn't believe how worried I was when I got up this morning and saw snow falling! Snow! On the day before St Patrick's Day! I did not want to be driving the new car home in that weather. Fortunately, the snow didn't stick! I was, however, stuck in pre-bank holiday traffic (N7/M50/N4) and for the first time in my life, I couldn't give a hoot!

Jamboo / Nicnac, I collect my new IS250 from the dealer this afternoon. After I took a good look around inside and out, he told me the inspection guys had taken it for a very good spin (30km!) to look for the rattles I had previously told him were being reported by numerous people. He said they found none. I didn't have time at that stage to take it for a drive myself before taking delivery. On my long drive home (motorway, and bumper-to-bumper stop/start), I didn't hear one rattle or any wind noise. In fact, the car is extremely quiet. It is significantly quieter than my previous IS200. It is a different car entirely. At one stage, I thought I did hear a very minor rattle, until I figured out it was a stratch on the classical music track they were playing on the radio! So, all is not lost! Let's hope no rattles develop, as has also been reported here.