MeOfLeeds

Mine too has this problem :shutit: but not at the corners - just all the way along where the boot lid meets the bumper! Seems like my car has suffered every single problem that the new IS can, has or will have Jamboo - were you the Beta tester for this model...

Sorry #2: You already said what I've just said - I started my reply ages ago but had to break off (work, it's a real pain you know) and should have refreshed the screen before I posted.

I'm not an expert, but this is because the pads now fitted to modern cars are a lot harder than they used to be since using asbestos was (rightly) banned. Instead of the pads being just about wholly "sacrificial", the discs get worn away quicker than they used to. I had to have new discs fitted to my old car (a Ford Focus) after around 30k miles. Of course, your style of driving greatly affects the longevity of components.

I've used my old car (now inherited by 'er indoors) as it's a hatchback to take stuff to the tip etc., it's a fairly bog standard Focus and fumbling for keys has become a pain and when you've been struggling to lift a piece of furniture into the skip and are all hot and bothered, a cool breeze across the old jacksy would be good... You don't know what you've got till it's gone (hey that would make a great line for a song...). All cars are a compromise but IMO the Lexus has managed to hit a lot of the right buttons. There really is only one thing I would change and that would be to have an auto box. Would I have another one, yes, certainly but in a couple of years time when it's time to change, the bar will have been raised and all the manufacturers will have risen to the challenge and Lexus might not be top of the pile then.

I've been in my Lexus IS220d MM for 7 months now and am highly delighted with it. I've certainly not had the problems some of the people on this forum (especially you Jamboo) have had, in fact mine has been completely trouble free. Everyone who gets in it has complemented me on my choice. I've had a number of bad experiences of BMW customer service and when trying to get a price/test drive from my local Merc dealer the experience put me off from ever visiting them again. I looked at the Audi A4 but thought the Lexus was a better deal when you add all the goodies which are included in the price. With regards to your main criteria: Cust Sat - Excellent Reliability - Perfect Depreciation - Fine, the lease deal I got (which is invariably built on residual value) made it actually cheaper than a top spec Passat Build quality - Superb You sound like you've got a lemon which will inevitably distort your view...

Arctic Pearl my :tsktsk: - it's white. My test drive was in an "arctic pearl" IS and, IMO it is absolutely ghastly, even the sales guy said it was a crappy colour... and he's right.

Are you driving this on Damascus Road ???

Sorry Brendan, got to worry about you. I quite like my Lexus, but surely it should read: ...lovely Meadow...park her silver IS250. You definitely got the "lovely" in the wrong place... now there's a chassis I'd really like to get my hands on :winky:

I had the variable servicing indicator on my Beemers and, I'm sorry if I am the sole voice of dissent on this, I think it is a con. Just another way for the stealership to take more money. On the BeeEmm, it always indicated that it needed a service well before the usual 10k, 20k etc. milestones and it didn't have a hard life. It means you have to take it to either a dealer or approved garage that has all the requisite equipment to reset the damn thing and they charge you a fortune for the privilege. Nope, I'm more than happy to periodically check the odometer and know that I'm going to have a "minor" or "major" service at regular intervals.

Black / Beige Leather - classy, not poncey.. :winky: & black is the new black.

Black with beige interior - definitely beige interior, though I could be persuaded to change my mind on the exterior paint colour...

Hope your back gets better soon... My handbrake hasn't failed but from the day I got the car (brand new in February) there was a lot of slack before the handbrake started to bite. I put this down to being disc brakes all around and all my previous cars having drums at the back. My drive is pretty steep and you really have to pull the handbrake till it is nearly at the top of its travel and even then I have to leave it in gear. On a morning I have to keep the footbrake depressed when I start the car - just leaving it on the handbrake would mean I'd be halfway down the drive before it even started. Whilst I have every sympathy for the OP, as good practice, I have always left cars in gear when parked. To prove it's a good idea, some friends who were staying at our house left their car in neutral and his car rolled down the drive only to be stopped when it hit mine (fortunately only rolled about a foot before mine blocked theirs) - otherwise it would have rolled into the road.

Jamboo - I've read some of your previous postings and yes, you certainly have good cause to complain. I too had a couple of Toyota's - a Corolla 1.3 which was a superb car, I then jumped into a Carina E, again a very capable car but drunk people kept trying to flag me down I haven't visited the Beemer, Merc or Audi forums, but I'm sure there are a number of peeved owners on there too. Lexus seemed to have made a pretty good fist of it IMO but to a lot of posters on this forum, the 2nd Gen IS diesel has been a hurdle they have struggled to get over. The list of "wants" you would have liked don't rate particularly highly in my wish list and, please don't take this the wrong way, you knew how big the boot was, lack of auto folding mirrors & no auto before you bought the car. My dad always said he would never buy a newly introduced model as they were always introduced only 95% complete and had to have the bugs ironed out of them during the first year to eighteen months of production (and his first car was a bull nose Morris) - just like software as well BTW. Mind you, I don't think he ever bought a brand new car in his life - his best mate was a Merc dealer so he always got first refusal on a demonstrator. No argument from me Jamboo on the hard time you've had and, I for one probably wouldn't return to the marque of I'd had the grief you've had, but I haven't had cause for complaint yet - my rear view mirror shakes like a sh :tsktsk: ing dog when I'm in the wrong gear, but I've got over it and moved on...

I know a lot of people have "issues" with the IS 220D, but from reading this forum, most of them appear to be with the older ones when the car was first introduced. Mine is now six months old and I'm as pleased as punch with it. Okay, an auto would have made it practically perfect for me with my stop/start commute, but it you like stirring the gearbox it's a first rate motor vehicle. Nothing comes close at the price with all the toys. I was in an Audi A4 the other day in Germany and it was, quite frankly, agricultural inside compared to the Lexus - they are going to have to pull their finger out if the new one is going to compete against the Lexus interior. I've always thought that BMW had really great ergonomics, but it looks pretty dull and dated now in the 3-series (and I've a long standing gripe about BMW and Merc's so-called customer service). I'm not sure that a Golf GTI -v- Lexus IS220D is a fair comparison (or even versus the 250 either) they're like chalk and cheese - apart from rear legroom which I suspect are identical!! Quite a few people, especially the motoring press, are raving about the new Mondeo. At least it will be more exclusive than a Bee Emm!!

I thought the IS-F looked okay, but this is the absolute business... 500bhp Lexus Supercar

Lexus in Leeds are good. A friend of mine has had three Lexus (a GS, IS300 and now a RX) all bought and serviced at the Leeds branch and he has nothing but praise for them. He's had the odd wheel corrosion problem, but they have, apparently, sorted this out without fuss - changing the wheels under warranty. PS Just come back from a business trip to Germany using their derestricted autobahns - I wish I had been in my car there, that 6th gear would have come into its own!!

Been away - I've actually seen some sun, almost forgotten what it looks like... I've got black with beige interior and have never regretted it. Think the black interior looks dingy and the grey looks little better. Beige interior makes the cabin very light and airy, though it's a good job I ain't got no dustbin lids!! When I was considering the colour, my supposedly very hip and trendy nieces advised me against Silver, "so last century" and that black was the new black. The car I drove for my test drive was white and IMO is the sh :tsktsk: iest colour I have ever seen (even beating the dayglo lime greens of the early 70s). Got to admit that the paint is soft - I washed mine a few weeks back and whilst rinsing it down accidentally let the hosepipe ride up over the C-pillar which has scratched the painwork, you can see what appears to be light (primer?) paint where it's scratched, but I can't believe it is as that would mean the topcoat is only about 5 microns thick. Will it T-cut out anybody, or what's the best way of dealing with it? Only real issue is the :tsktsk: that let his trolley run into the back of my car denting the boot lid right next to the Lexus badge whilst it was parked in Leeds/Bradford airport car park. Why do people do that???

The closest to a "near miss" I had was when I'd only had the car a couple of days. I live just off a dual carriageway and to get to my house, you have to do a U-turn in a cut-through in the central reservation when coming out of town. In my old (petrol) car, you just indicated right and if nothing was coming in the opposite direction, tug the steering wheel to the right in 2nd gear and perform a smooth arc to travel down the opposite side. 1st time in the Lexus, tried to do the same thing. 2nd is too high a gear, the thing stalled on me with car stuck in the middle of 2 lanes of traffic and cars bearing down on me. Fortunately had the foresight to dump the clutch to let it coast to the far side of the road with me desperately searching for the non-existent key to restart it whilst tugging on the wheel as the power steering had gone. Before I could do the manoeuvre in one sweeping arc, now I have to slow right down and come to a practical halt and put it into 1st.

I've not driven the petrol, so it would be unfair of me to comment... Hey, when has that ever stopped me. If the taxman hadn't advised me to have a diesel, I would have loved the 250 petrol. For the amount of town driving (or wafting if you like) I do, I too would have probably gone for the auto box but it wasn't an option The perennial problem of colour... Originally wanted black with grey interior but couldn't put up with the wait so ended up with black paint & beige interior and boy am I glad I did. It makes the cabin so airy and light. I don't think it's too much of a problem keeping it clean. It gets washed once a fortnight/3 weeks and looks good when done. We've no kids and I never sit in the back so the lack of rear seat space is not a problem either. A rather nice looking new GS passes me going in the opposite direction (sort of tan/gold colour) on the ring road every morning and I have to say that it looked damned smart but I don't need the size or space and, I'd be paranoid about parking it at my local Sainsbury's on a Saturday, as it appears that every Reginald Molehusband in Leeds shops there on a weekend. Gunther: Go with the heart, life's not a rehearsal - sod it, get an IS-F.

Nice one Matus. But no BMW M5 touring - ticks most of the boxes for me. OH YES THERE IS: M5 Touring Spyshots Dream on :shutit: And Here Jamboo - I know, saw it on the chav/poor mans version of Top Gear the other day (though that foxy VBH has that little je ne sais quoi...) and it looked pretty damned good. It ticks just about all the boxes for me, but my previous experience of customer service at BMW always leaves me wondering that if I had the thick end of £70k to buy a car would or could I forgive them enough to buy one. In answer to the OP's question though. NO !!

Nice one Matus. But no BMW M5 touring - ticks most of the boxes for me.

I have a SE 750i which pairs perfectly with the MM system. Recently got a Nokia 6300 and transferred all the numbers from the SE to the Nokia using the SIM. Paired the new Nokia with the MM and it works perfectly, signal strength and battery displays and the "old" data transferred using the SE works fine in the car using the new phone. Very impressed.

I have to say, the memory seat/steering wheel function is something I wish I had. I'm 5'10" and it took me a little while to get the seat and steering wheel into the perfect position. Wife is 4'11" and took the car out for the first time the other week. She was bricking it in case she damaged it, stalled it twice and because she's so short had trouble depressing the clutch all the way down to get it re-started. Apparently there was a queue of traffic behind her all beeping their horns and giving her the finger. Came back and threw the keys at me using very unladylike language!! Upshot is, it has now taken me another few days to get my perfect driving position back.

Is there any update on this one - seeing as its not speed that kills, but the inability to stop! :duh:

I've got the 4th Generation iPod and haven't experienced any problems. I turn the volume on the iPod up to full volume and then back a couple of clicks and the sound is fine. Like Tango, with the charger plugged in (in the cigar lighter socket as I can't find a charger small enough for the one in the arm-rest) there is a lot of "noise". The main problem I've got is that I've got a couple of compilations with about 200 songs on each file, I keep forgetting to turn the iPod off when I get out of the car and if one of those compilations is playing, the iPod battery is flat next time I get in. I should reall burn a load of MP3 discs, but can't be :tsktsk: as it means I'll have to burn everything twice - once to the iPod for my summer hols and again for the car...