Bratman91

Thanks, Steve44. However, my satnav colours are not consistent with yours. For example, A-roads are yellow with thin green borders and I don't think that any of my roads are white. I am going to be doing a lot of varied driving in the next couple of weeks so I'll watch and see if any sort of pattern emerges and post back.

What do the road colours signify in the Satnav map - I thought that it was obvious but I am not sure now as the colour of the same road often changes at a junction and, for example, A-roads are not always the same colour? The Satnav manual is no help.

It's an old man's car because old men have the wisdom, experience and pocket to chose vehicles that are well-designed, well-made, reliable and offer effortless, comfortable, high-quality transport. It's the motoring equivalent of a fine bottle of wine and a meal in a 3-star restaurant and not 5 pints of lager and a take-away curry.

Now that it looks as if the trade embargo on Cuba will be lifted, I wonder if they will skip a generation or two of imports and go straight to EV. Either way, I imagine that Cuba's car-related carbon footprint will siy-rocket.

Am I in Groundhog day as there seems to be an identical thread to this one, again started by C McLean, at this link: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/97042-brake-noise/

I don't have experience of going down a slope but going up a steep drive scraped mine directly under the front bumper which seems to be lower than the previous generations of IS250 which gave me no problems.

Would filling up with nitrogen invalidate any gaurantees on the tyres?

When my TPM light came on, it is steady light and it did indeed go out after 10 minutes or so. However, I concluded that this was because the tyres had heated up and, thus, caused a pressure increase. After I got home, I put some air in all the tyres so I can't say whether or not the light would have come on again after starting up the next time.

Lexus cars do indeed have very soft paint. I think that it because Lexus have switched to water-based paints to conform to EU regulations (must save the planet). My first two IS250s came with Supagard protection, which comes with a nice case full of things like shampoo, wheel protection sprays, upholstery cleaner and a non-abrasive paint polish. Lexus's own brand of polish is also non-abrasive. When buying my third IS250, I had to ask for the Supagard protection to be thrown in. The point I am getting to (slowly!) is that, if your car has Supagard protection, then using any sort of abrasive-polish will remove it. Even if it hasn't, an abrasive polish might start to wear away the finish if used too frequently. Personally, I use a non-abrasive polish and accept that this will not polish out small scatches but will not harn the paintwork. Your best course of action is to establish exactly what type of paintwork you have and, if there, what protective coats have been applied and then follow rayann's advice.

I too am retired Richard, collected my 250 in Dec. 2013 and have done 6500 but I may add possibly 2/3 of that is with taking the " scenic route " to where ever I'm going, it is a pleasure to drive. I'm ashamed to say my average MPG stands at 28.3 at the moment, I just can't help myself that V6 is wonderful. D I picked up my IS250 Premium in October 2013 and have just clocked up 6800 miles. My two previous cars were 250 auto transmissions and I was so impressed with them that I felt that a 300h would be a retrograde step. A test drive in a 300h convinced me that I was right. My mpg is pretty similar to yours although on a trip from Gloucestershire to the Lake District (well over 200 miles of motorway or modern dual-carriagway), I just managed 42mpg. Sorry, Simon07, but Sonic Titanium looks bloody awful on a Lexus!

Does this thread throw any light on the matter? http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/96472-sat-nav-screen/

I'm with your wife (not literally!) but my wife thinks that the clock is a big improvement on the one in our previous IS250. I suppose that it's a matter if taste.

The manual for my IS250 Premier suggests that you should be able to do this but it may be different for your model. Do you have a manual for your car? If not, they can be downloaded from the Lexus Customer Portal: https://customerportal.lexus-europe.com/core/index.html#manuals

All three of the automatic IS250's I have had make such a noise. I've become used to it and, when my mind is in neutral and I am daydreaming at traffic lights or stopped traffic, it can serve as a literal wake-up call.

Sorry but this has now gone to a good home. normski, I sent you a PM but I am not sure if it arrived as my iPad is a bit slow today.

Free to good home - Lexus White Pearl touchup paint (small pack consisting of touchup base paint and clear lacquer). Hardly used and not needed after car written off). Just send me a private message with an address and I'll mail it to you.

There is no need to use Dropbox or resort to emailing. Once you have located the relevant document in the portal, and opened it on your iPad, tap on the top right hand corner and a small box should open with the option to "Open in iBook". Click on this and the document will open in iBook and be saved for future use. By the way, this works for a wide range of on-line manuals for things like washing machines, cookers, fire alarm systems, TVs and so on. Just Google for the product name or model number, and add "manual" and, if there is a PDF file, you can open it and save it into iBook.

Ray, you got it - 91st. See my private message to you.

1. Satnav - check that Search Area is set to the UK (or NL). 2. Rear view mirror - check that the automatic antiglare is set to "On". Sorry if 1 and 2 are stating the obvious but you will know the old RAF slogan "Don't assume - check". 3. Ride - the ride in my 2013 IS250 is definitely harder than my two previous IS250s. I know that your car is an IS300H but I think the suspension is the sqme or at least very similar to that of the latest generation IS250. Also, the seats are harder, which accentuates the hard ride.

Any design change which alters the behaviour of a part, will be sold as a different part (with a different number). For example, lexus specify a 5000 mile service interval for the IS in the USA, but 10k miles in the UK. To keep costs down, they specify a cheaper, lower-performance oil filter in the US - however, it has a different part number allowing you to tell the difference, and is labelled as US model only. Tax isn't an issue. HMRC will charge VAT and import duty as applicable on private imports; some might slip through in private mail, but generally anything sent by courier or insured will get caught and you'll be charged for it. I do wonder if it was just a business decision by Sewells. Dealing with international sales is more expensive, more complex and prone to higher risks (e.g. credit card chargebacks, lost deliveries, etc.) However, it is the case that lexus parts are relatively difficult to get in the UK, except though dealers, and aftermarket options are limited. Some parts which are used on a lot of popular toyota, mitsu, nissan and subaru models are easily obtained in the aftermarket (e.g. IS250 MAF sensor which is used on dozens of models - £75 for a denso sensor, £170 for a lexus sensor). However, things like O2 sensors which are only used on the IS250 and a number of US only models of toyota/lexus are basically not available in the aftermarket. Expect to pay about £180 per sensor from a dealer, or you can get an aftermarket Denso sensor (i.e. the exact same sensor from the same factory but without the toyota name) from the US for £65+postage+duty+VAT - comes to about £100 each. A good point about part numbers - but are all overseas dealers/suppliers as rigorous about them as, say, the UK or US? The OP said that the US supplier said that they no longer shipped "overseas" so this may be a problem not confined to just the UK and US. Again, HMRC may (and I did say "may") be very efficient but, having lived in various countries around the world, I know that tax enforcement can often be, shall we say, capricious.

Rabbers, you make a fair point about accessories - I guess that there might be difficulties on Lexus' part in deciding which were purely for aesthetic or whimsical reasons and which were not. It's probably easier for them to ban everything but, as you say, it does go against the principle of free trade.

Sorry, I meant "keep prices down", not "keep prics down" - must be something on my mind!

"I had to order two sensors from the USA as they weren't available over here except from the dealer". That sounds like exactly the sort of reason why Lexus might want to disuade the US company from shipping here. Presumably the sensors were much cheaper from the US source or you would have bought them from the dealer here, and this rather begs the question of how the US company can undercut the UK dealer enough for you to want to use them. OK, there may be a greater volume of sales in the US to keep prics down, but this would be offset to some extent by shipping costs. A far more likely reason is that VAT in the UK adds 20% to the price whereas sales tax in Texas is just over 6% and is less in some other states. Comparisons between US and UK prices often forget about the effect of the different tax regimes. Of course, I don't suppose that any British Lexus owner would try to evade paying the tax due on any items they bought so I wonder if the advantages of buying from the US are as good as they might seem.

There are some potentially reasonable and legitimate reasons why this company was told to stop shipping items overseas, if indeed it was. Parts may be slightly different for cars sold in in the USA to those sold here, it could involve claims against Lexus if the parts failed or caused an accident, it makes it harder to gather data on the reliability of parts, there may be legal implications concerning tax or import/export issues, and so on. On the other hand, the reason you cited is very plausible but it might be very difficult to prove and even more difficult to do anything about it if you did. Maybe it's a good reason for a US holiday or finding an American girlfriend!

Ah, but actually it was the CHIEF Inspector's car. Anyway, I accept that it was a 3rd generation IS and that I need to read more car mags (if I ever get the time).