Paradroid

It's funny to hear people saying how the IS200 is nowhere near as refined as the new IS, flippin eck the new IS must be as quiet as a library. I've only had my IS200 a few months and am blown away by the refinement compared to my previous cars! One thing I would say to compare the two is the interior - I was quite surprised when I saw the new IS interior, it's nice but it's quite bland compared to the older IS. But with the older IS it was a bit love/hate so I could see why they did that.

You're calling the car a lemon but haven't described any actual problems with it? A missing key and no service history is an inconvenience but hardly makes the car a lemon.

Is your IS200 an auto or manual? If it's a manual I'd expect it to be at the top range of what Wozza has said above. I get 200 miles to 1/2 a tank on my IS200 manual and that's mostly round-town driving, so a motorway run should be better.

I thought it wasn't likely to be you with it being Manchester, not exactly your neck of the woods :) But I've never seen another IS with that style of alloys!

The windows were bending in and out a bit actually This car had a private plate on it but I can't remember what it was.

Hey mate you weren't in Manchester today were you? I thought it was a bit(!) out your way but I saw a silver IS200 with IS250 wheels. Made me think of your car :)

It sounds a lot like the rattle I have. I was certain it was coming from the instrument cluster or behind the dash, but I took quite a bit of that apart and found nothing. When I checked closely it seems to be coming from inside the steering wheel. Try tapping the bottom of the steering wheel with the side of your hand, and see if you can hear it then. This is what's happening on my car. I've been meaning to take the steering boss off and have a look inside but haven't got round to it, too busy getting suspension issues sorted :( Register on photobucket if you want to upload a pic, you can then copy a link to it from that site and paste it in here :)

Autoglym do a "Autoglym Stain and Scuff Kit" All you need from that pack is the white foam sponge, which you can buy separately at Halfords for a couple of quid to save money. But be careful with it, I've removed some scratches from my IS200 interior, but it can be quite aggressive and you can wear away the finish if you are too enthusiastic with it. Just keep rubbing a couple of times with water, then wipe clean to see if the scratch has gone.

Yes I have, but mine is the IS200. It seems quite common on the older shape car, there's quite a few threads on here. Things to check could be: a) brake pads moving, common on IS200's apparently B) worn upper suspension bushes c) if it's only on full lock it might just be the stopper that prevents the wheel from turning too far. They can make noises on some cars, I'm not sure if this is true for the Lexus but I'm going to get this checked on mine

Sorry to hear about this, what a ****ty trick letting you go at this time of year. Hope you can get something else sorted.

This is interesting, I have a similar problem :( My car has been damaged on the front right corner by the previous owner (suspension only not bodywork), I've had quite a few suspension components replaced, but it still has some suspension noises from that corner. In normal driving it is fine. But when I drive off my drive and down the ramp onto the road, I hear one or more quiet clunks. If I put full left lock on then I hear noises when I brake to a stop. Is this anything like the same? I have spent a fortune on fixing things, but there is still a problem and I think it will be a pain to get to the bottom of it :(

The RS200 engine is very impressive getting 200bhp+ from a NASP 2.0, but it's going to need revs to do that and in normal driving it might not feel any quicker than the IS200. Obviously when you can keep your foot down and use the top end of the rev range it will fly, but what I would be wondering is how often do you really get chance to open the taps when you're on the road? My last car was very quick from 5k to 7k RPM but I was very rarely able to use it on public roads, 7k RPM in third gear gave you over 90mph so you can see the problem :) If the supercharger for the IS200 boosts the torque right across the rev range then personally I'd prefer that over the RS200, but everyone's different. Good luck with your choice :)

I'm surprised by those prices, because the IS200's with beige interiors normally fetch less when I've been looking at buying. A few times I've seen what looks like a bargain, then I check the interior shots and notice it's beige inside. The beige looks nice but it's not for me and I think in general it's less popular than the darker interior. One thing to bear in mind about silver is it's the hardest colour to touch up so if it's got any scratches or scuffs you might want to be careful.

Wish it was that easy on my car, I've not got to the bottom of it so far!

Fuel tax has been increased to counter-effect the cheaper VAT. But the VAT decrease is only for 12 months, so when that ends, we're paying more for fuel. Bet half the country hasn't noticed, but the Govt are pulling our pants down there! And for 2001-2005 Lexus owners they've battered our residual values with a tax increase which is now looking unlikely to ever happen. Thanks a lot Labour :(

From what I've read this is a reprieve, and the £400 a year crap will come into effect but in 2012 - as it stands at the moment. But they're going to make it even harder for people to accept that, in 2012 a 2001 car will be 11 yrs old and a 2005 car will be 7 years old so I can't see how they can start taxing the hell out of cars that old, the owners won't be able to pay. As others have said I just hope this is a first step in a full climbdown. Either way we've got 2 yrs. The sad thing is I know people who got out of cars like the IS200, MG ZS180 etc because they couldn't afford to pay £400 a year. Now they've sold their cars for nothing. The other sad thing is the hammering our cars have took in value, I doubt prices will recover.

One tip for you - give your windows a good clean, and buff them with a clean towel to get rid of any residue from cleaning products etc. This should help quite a bit :) You might be surprised how much grime comes off and it should cause less misting

Agreed :) I miss the subscribed threads view (with updated threads since last visit in bold) even more. Its quite hard to track threads on here.

What a collection of cars in the gallery there :) I really that grey Capri, it looks stunning!!

It depends what you want it for. If you are at the lights on a dual carriageway and something pulls up alongside you then the IS200 is definitely not the best car to be in. If you're the sort not to bother with that stuff then it being slow off the mark won't matter. When you're on your own in the IS200 on a good country road and are just having fun, not trying to race anyone, then I think it's plenty quick enough :). The handling and brakes are good which helps a lot. I think it feels quicker than the 0-60 time, bear in mind it won't crack 60 in second so there's two gear changes needed. But like others have said off the mark it's not great, mainly because of the bad 1st to 2nd gear change. But once you're moving it pulls well and really smoothly.

Thanks mate that's the kind of thing I was after. That doesn't sound like my car. I'm starting to think the ball joint is knackered on the drivers side. It wouldn't normally be at 56k miles but then it has had a knock to the wheel.

Has your car always done this mate or has it only started recently? How old is it? Funnily enough I heard something this morning coming off the driveway, dropping down the kerb ramp onto the road. A kind of knocking noise. I wasn't touching the brakes either, so maybe it isn't them after all :(

How would you tell the difference between the issue of brake pads moving about, and ball joint problems? I've got a bit of a downer on my car at the moment, as you might expect after buying it and then discovering £500 worth of suspension damage on the front offside. I've now had the lower arm, tie rod and bracket replaced, and everything should be fine but... On a full lock left turn with the brakes on I hear a kind of clicking/scraping noise. It will sometimes do it with just a little bit of left lock. I can't make the car do it with the brakes off. It's very hard to diagnose problems over the web, but is it definitely the brake pads moving? How could I tell for sure if it was the ball joints? To be honest I'm not that happy with my car right now, it's cost me a lot of money and I've got that niggling doubt that even with all the money I've spent it's not perfect or there could be other issues. Basically I'm prepared to take it in the garage one more time and spend money making it 100%, but if I'm going to get messed about any further then it might be curtains

Looks really nice, the nicest GS I've seen I think :)

He he, at least we know Lexus drivers have taste :)