rainady

I suppose I have to agree with you Northern Boy. But the car did seem to let go very easily. It still doesn ot explain the awful handling of my car at higher speeds. And if the car is bad at high speeds then it isnt going to be good at low speeds.

Im sorry stoffe mate but I never said I was speeding. Unless of course you think 35mph is speeding. Or am I being a bit too quick on the defensive and you are talking about sercombe. The car didnt come from a Lexus Dealers. I wont say where it came from but the dealer is in Derby,each car with the blue disk on the front and they all used to be made by a guy named Henry. I cant say too much because I'm thinking its going into dispute over this. They dont want to take any responsibility for the vehicle even though its inside its three month warrenty period. But what are they going to do at the end of the day, the bill will be picked up by the insurance companies, they are hardly going to give me a new car as compensation, and would I want to buy from them if they are selling stuff like the Lexus. If I took them to court, what would happen? We all got out of the car with no real injuries, the insurance will pay out and I will get another car. Compensation wouldnt amount to much would it? I guess I just have to accept its my fault, I was the driver and I was in control of the vehicle at the time (OK, control could be considered questionable). Suppose I should just move on. But what car do I replace my dead Lexus with? Another IS200? An IS200 Sportscross. Im just scared Im going to have the same problem.

It isnt great for older drivers either. nearly 40 years old with 8 years NCD with no accidents (prior to this one) that are my fault and the insurance was still anything between £300 and £700. I remember when I was 17, people told me that your insurance plumets when your 21. I got to 21 and they then said it was 30. Got to 30 and insurance was still stupid. At what age do you have to be to get sensible insurance? As I said earlier, I think there was something wrong with the car because it always felt a bit sketchy and could be quite worrying at speed. Above 80mph, I had to DRIVE the car constantly, I really couldnt relax on a motorway. This roudabout was a biggy so it really wasnt that tight a turn, it was off camber comming out of the roundabout and there is a big metal manhole cover on the exit of the bend so I could have hit that. Cant remember what tyres they were but I had two different makes front and back. On the Lexus Safety check, the rears were reading 6mm right across the back tyres but the fronts were quite uneven (4mm,5mm,5mm front right and 3mm,5mm,4mm front left). I think there was something wrong with the car but Im waiting for you guys to tell me that most IS200's will lose the back end far too easily. Its not like the traction control kicked in either, one minute happily chatting to the wife, next minute pulling my feet out of the mangled footwell. The car just seemed to let go. As you said, could be oil or diesel but while I was stood in the rain feeling sorry for myself and looking for my wifes glasses (which mysteriously disapeared after a bit of dashboard hit her on the head), euro boxes were getting round the roundabout without any problems. Saying that, the fire, ambulance and police all said that there were a lot of accidents on that roundabout and the tree I hit did have a lot more dings in it.

Drivers side window bag deployed but that was all. Guess it worked correctly because there was no head on crash. It was all a side impact. And yes, Gap is a wonderful thing, and to think I considered turning it down.

And here is my IS200 on monday afternoon. Lost it on an adverse camber at no greater than 35mph. I'd had the car less than a month and the insurance for that car only 5 days. Im sure an IS200 should be better than that. Is it normal for the IS to be so easy to spin, even when Im just taking wife and child to Ikea. Not racing, not doing anything daft, just going round a roundabout and accelerating out of the junction. I felt there there was something not right with the car and had it checked by Lexus. They stated that with uneven wear on the front wheels it was likely a geometry problem. Suppose I just have to be happy that we all got out OK (me with sore feet, wife with bruises on her legs and a chipped tooth from bits of the dash flying out, and nothing but a bit of a fright for my three year old safely strapped in the back). But somebody tell me that not all IS200's are like that (losing grip on all four wheels just because its raining), because I want to replace it with another IS once the insurance and Gap comes through.

OK, thanks. So where is the best place in the midlands to get this car set up properly? Are the geometry settings that are on the LOC website the settings to go with?

fluff34567, Im in the midlands. Burton upon Trent, not far from Birmingham. Can somebody suggest a place I can get the geometry set up correctly. Are you saying that I have either the choice of a properly set up geomety that goes through tyres or even tyre wear but the car handles like a bag of rubbish? What sort of car have I bought???????

Thanks for the replys guys. Tyre pressures - Checked all four and they were each around 38 or 39 psi, so I have dropped each down to 33psi. Will 5psi make that much difference? It never really seemed to on other cars. Tramlines - yep it did seem to do that especially on the slow lane on the motorway where there is a bit of a groove from all the HGV's. Accident damage - I dont have any accident history but nothing came up through the Lexus database at the Birmingham showroom. As I said, its going in for a safety check this weekend so I will see if they can give it a check. As for the handling in the wet, I guess I was sort of expecting it.

Hi, Im new to this forum because I have only just had my IS 200 SE for a couple of weeks now. Previous to that I have been driving a Rover 75 Conn SE which was lovely and comfortable to drive but lacking a little in the power and handling department. But I feel there is a handling issue with this car and would like some feedback so here goes. At normal (legal) speeds, the car handles very well and feels like its on rails round the corner, if a little harsh at times. Go up above 80mph and things feel to go a bit iffy. The steering feels very light and the slightest undulation in the road seems to knock the car off track. I assume thats a feature of very low profile tyres, but this can be quite unsettling. I sometimes gets to the point where I cant relax driving the car because I have to be constantly correcting the steering. Sometimes, a correction of the steering can sort of lead to a sort of delay in the correction resulting in a correction in the oposite direction which gets worse and worse. The car really doesnt feel confidence inspiring, I cant relax at any time. It makes a longish journey quite tiring unlike the Rover which I could drive all day and never feel like I have been behind the wheel. I know its a different style of car but I bought the IS200 as a sports saloon. The Mk 3 Hyundai coupe, which was similar spec'd with wide low profile tyres was again a lot more relaxing to drive. Is this how the IS200 drives or do you guys think its the tyres. Im asking this before checking tyre pressures etc, and the tyre pressures could be all wrong, causing the problem but just wanted to ask you people with more experience. The car is going to Lexus Birmingham this comming weekend for a free safety check since the car was purchased from a Ford Dealer and wanted some ammunition to use if I could. Keeping on the topic of handling and wheels/ tyres, are all IS200's a bit skittish in the wet. After many years of front wheel drive cars (and the rear wheel driven cars being things like Spitfires, Capri's, Sierra based 7 style kit cars), the increased power through the rear wheels has been very interesting with 'interesting lines' comming out of roundabouts (and missing one junction all together because the backend skipped out too much). I thought the TC was supposed to stop all that. I dread to think what it would be like with the TC turned off altogether. Another question, but not nearly as worrying. All the info says the IS200 SE has eight speakers, but I can only see 6, two tweeters near the wing mirrors, two speakers in the doors and two speakers on the rear parcel shelf. So where are the other two? Please be gentle on this new IS200 owner. Front wheel drive has made me quite lazy in the driving stakes. Andy

Hello all Andy from Burton on Trent (Midlands). Collected my 03 IS200 last Saturday after 3 years with a top spec Rover 75. Missing some of the more fancy gadgets on the Rover but boy it the IS so much more fun to drive. The car has to be driven very differently to the Rover as well. Without the revs spinning the IS200 is quite slow. After my first drive back from Derby, I was a bit upset because it seemed no faster than the Rover and such a hard ride (driving a 75 makes you an old man). But chatted to a friend who suggested that I need to use the revs and the gearbox more. Went out for another spin and what a transformation, great fun. Im slowly getting used to the 6 speed box (keep forgetting that last extra gear) but I really dont like the warning buzzer when getting into reverse. Anybody know how I can disable that buzzer. Cant seem to stop myself pushing the car a little bit harder to find the limits. Sorry, I know it sounds boy racerish but its just so different to the Rover. In all my years driving, I think this is only the third rear wheel drive car an there is so much more power to play with (first car a 1500 Spitfire, and a scatty old 1600 Capri), I cant help myself wanting to play. Shame its costing me a fortune in petrol though. Hopefully I will get this out of my system soon and try and save some cash. Anyway, hope to be on here more often now wit lots of questions. Speak to you all soon Andy