Valkirk

Another Lexus dealer informed me ... must have a minimum of 3mm tread ... is this true?

I would think so as that seems to be the industry norm.

When the time comes for replacing the rears can highly recommend http://www.etyres.co.uk/ they came out to my work and did 2 new rear tyres for £320ish all fitted etc

Its look like gone are the days where they were cheeper than the rivals, and better specd.

There's been a long held belief in the industry that Lexus will never be considered the true equal of BMW and Mercedes until they sell at similar price points. Until they do, the theory is that they will always be seen as a "posh Toyota". i.e have the confidence in the quality of your product to compete on everything but price.

That's the trouble though, they aren't selling the car at similar price points - they seem to have shot well past them!

An entry level BMW 3 Series Conv will set you back £31.2k now even adding in loads of extras will still bring you in under the cost of all but the entry level IS250C. The top of the range BMW costs £41.8k not much more than the SE-L version of the IS250C and for that you get 306BHP and 0-60 of 5.8 sec. Hell £43k for the top model is not THAT far off the price of buying an M3 Conv?!

Very disappointed I had really expected high 20's low 30's as price point for this.

I just point out that's a good thing as it's superbly reliable especially compared to my other car (Mercedes)

The only thing that does annoy me is when you go to the dealers for a service or parts and they definitely won't let you forget it's a posh Toyota by charging you an arm and a leg more than Toyota for almost the same thing.....make sure I drink lots of coffee and eat the pastries to try and make the difference back :)

Thought those in the IS-F forum might be the most interested; the five web TV episode has Vicky driving the prototype:

http://fwd.five.tv/videos/fifth-gear-web-tv-edition-4 (Skip to 6:43)

Looks superb!!! Love the colour and wheel combo!!!

Congrats!

I saw one at Lexus Sheffield in a metallic white, very beautiful. The car on display had a ticket price of almost £44K !!!! How many will sell?

Not very many imo; this will however keep it very exclusive to those who do splash out. Really it is about 20% to pricey....I mean for £6k more you can get the IS-F

They have one at Croydon and it looks superb!! It's in white with white interior (Inc Seatbelts!!)

2 complaints though even without driving it; price is really a bit insane (£40k for entry level?!) and boot space with the roof down is laughable, get more in my SLK lol.

Really? I thought that was one of the reasons why the rear end is so large - and you can still get in 1 or 2 bags of golf clubs (can't remember the number)?

Not with the roof down; Room for 1 golf bag (And that literally will be it) no way you could go away for a few days and ever hope to put the roof down (Not unless you can pack everything you need into the shape of 1 golf bag anyway..or put bags on back seats)

Haven't seen the boot of the new 3 series with metal roof but from reports I thinks it's a fair bit more space - am actually very surprised it got the go ahead from design aspect with it TBH.

Not sure if the Toyota ones have the Boot opening bit; otherwise couldn't they be used instead? Bet they cost a lot less....

I was totally shocked when saw the prices of new models. The IS range starts at about £20-25k I believe; how can the convertible model be nearly twice the price?! It's the same with the new RX entry price of £40k going to £54k is insane.

The RX imho is about 10% overpriced the 250c about 20% (Although even at £32-35k it's up against some VERY stiff competition and when you see how much boot space it has with the roof down it's going to REALLY struggle in sales imo)

With discounts that are floating around now you can get an X5 or ML with most of the kit provided by Lexus for about £40-45k and as for the 250C I ask you this...given you can get an M3 convertible for £48k or an IS-f for £50k would you REALLY part with most of that for an IS250C?!

Lexus are pricing themselves out of the market which even in the good times is dangerous but in times of recession with people looking for better deals it feels insane.....

They have one at Croydon and it looks superb!! It's in white with white interior (Inc Seatbelts!!)

2 complaints though even without driving it; price is really a bit insane (£40k for entry level?!) and boot space with the roof down is laughable, get more in my SLK lol.

Also had a test drive of the 450 at the weekend - got 32 MPG driving normally just in an urban environment.

The Hybrid will never beat a Diesel especially on long runs; however you will basically get around 30MPG regardless of the type of driving you do be it around town in constant traffic or on long runs.

The car was very nice to drive and the HUD was very very nice (Albeit just on the top model - if you can get it on the Prius why can't all of these have it?!)

You do get the benefit of nice low Tax both BIK and Road, along with free entry into congestion zone I believe.

There were things I still preferred about the old model though such as the higher driving position and touch screen nav (Although the new screen and position is very nice for viewing)

Must admit after the drive getting back into the old model it seemed ancient!

Overall I was very impressed and loved it but the price seems rather steep to me compared to other offerings (Even allowing for kit!) I think it could do with a 10% price drop

The roof rails are not difficult to remove, take off corner/end cover and you will be faced with two bolts (IIRC?) easily undone and removed. If you are lucky enough to have mates able to powder-coat then it might be possible alternative to you pressing Lexus to replace them - altho' I am not sure if the material of the roof rails lend themselves to this process?

Let us know how you do get on tho'!

Approved Lexus purchases you can return car within a month so they can either fix or you can hand car back.

If rust moved to bodywork then that would be covered by warranty.

I love the interior of that, except have they ditched the touch screen in favour of an iDrive type controller? Looks too far away to reach and there's some kind of controller on the centre console.........

Argh no.....having used a few Sat Nav's can honestly say touch screen is soo much better (Although the screen tends to have less resolution as a side effect)

result :)

DJ Wozza...have to say I love your sig!!! Awsome! :)

If the cars were cheap to fix I would say it might be worth the risk but given the costs involved with repairs I would suggest leaving that one; if it has lacked TLC you could end up with some hefty bills.

What are they like to own / use as an every day car? Wonderful, wish they had put parking distance front and rear as standard though....camera is all very well but you have to be looking at it. Ride is wonderful, very comfy and lovely to drive.

Servicing costs? Falls down here; if you take it to a main dealer the service costs are massive compared to value of the car (For that age anyway) they wanted nearly £400 for what was basically a glorified oil and filter change.

Cost of parts ? Again quite high.

Reliability? Very good, had trouble starting mine 1 morning (Doesn't seem to keen if cold and damp) but still sparked to life in the end, other than that no problems to report

Running costs? Depends on your milelage really but they aren't cheap to run....you will get about 18MPG Urban and 30 on a long run if careful. Depends on Mr Brown if he decides to be a total a hole and put the tax upto £400 even for cars bought years ago....

Things that are bad ? Depreciation; would prefer the engine to be more eager to spring to life like MB and BMW cars, paint is very delicate...picked up so many scratches and knocks on ours. Price of main dealer care.

Things that are good ? Ride, comfort, versatility, quality.

Common faults / known problems ? Wheel corrosion that's about all I can think of....

What to look out for during the test drive ? The normal I would imagine, check all electrics etc are working and check for details of servicing.

What to avoid ? Having to fix anything...they aren't going to be overly cheap to fix in fact someone was quoted some stupid amount for replacing broken audio unit which was getting on for 20% value of car.

Cost of tyres and other consumable parts. Not bad just shop around......have found these people exceptionally good value for tyres! Event Mobile Tyres

I would have to say if you have had the Battery replaced numerous times and it fails after short periods of time that would indicate a faulty alternator as it is obviosuly not charging the Battery while the car is running.

(Although as the hybrid is slightly more complex in terms of "running" this may also well be a software problem where the normal Battery is not being charged as the car doesn't register when the petrol engine kicks in as I am assuming the alternator only works when the petrol engine is running) either way I would suggest to Lexus they look at this angle rather than just replacing the Battery.....

Sorry I didn't see this earlier; if it was still under 1 month you can just return the car for exchange :(

http://www.lexus.co.uk/used-cars/key-features.aspx

Still very poor service turns what should be a pleasure (Buying a new car) into nightmare......strangely I had the same problem with the service history....took about 3 months to get the book and mine is missing it's first stamp as they couldn't get the dealer who did it to sort.

Many thanks for the advice both of you, will let you know how I get on!

Hi All,

Well don't think there is a single panel left that hasn't been scratched or chipped by thoughtless people in car parks including a very nasty dent and chip from someone wacking their door open into the rear panel.

As the cost of getting just 2 scratches repaired at Lexus was nearly £3k (Yeah I still haven't stopped laughing) I was wondering if anyone has come across and used any decent alternative?

I saw and have enquired about the Halfords service (About £90 per scratch) was wondering if anyone has used them and would recommend them?

Thanks!

£1100?! Even with £450 cont that's still a lot of money not inc fitting. Not sure Lexus has realised but my 4 yr old RX300 is now only worth about £15k not sure the stereo is worth 8% of the entire value of the car. Think they need to work on reducing their 3yr + service and parts costs either that or try and help reduce the depreciation as less and less people will take their cars to main dealers at those costs.

You could always save money on car tax by taking the government incentive of moving to a less polluting car....such as a 2000 4.6 V8 Range Rover.

I emailed the PM (http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page3.asp) asking how increasing the tax on cars bought 5 years ago will lower their CO2 output but still haven't had a reply....

i have a similar model i could tell you what the buttons do if you post your queries

the shift lock is one particular button i have no real idea what this button does

Believe this is for if you need to move the car but can't start it; if I remember rightly if you put the shift lock on and take the parking break off think you can roll the car. (Has been a while since I read the manual though :) )

There can't really be a quiet way to cut a catalytic converter out but would you really want to approach the pykee scumbag who is doing it?

Our Neighbourhood Watch leaflet said they are using pipe cutters to avoid making any noise; so annoying as the amount of money they will get is such a tiny % of the cost of replacing.

Just got the car back from garage after an accident repair and these lights came up after driving for less than 10 miles. The automatic gear doesn't seem to select and change the gear properly as from still the gear shows "4" when changed to semi-automatic. The engine also seems to be generating immense amount of heat that I had to stop and wait for 20 minutes before driving on back home. Now driving with semi-automatic and seems to move fine when throttle's down, however whenever I take my foot off the throttle I feel a thrust trying to slow the car down and hold me back. Does anyone know what the likely cause to be? The garage said that they found no problem during their road test before releasing the vehicle.

When I had a Toyota repaired after someone rear ended it I got a load of lights come on after the fix, turned out it was the computer bit controlling all the systems. Had a job sorting out who was going to pay, warranty people said it was part of the accident and visa versa. In the end warranty covered but don't think the jolt helped it.