krosfyah

Just picked up my car - WOW, i am in love with driving once again! However, i was only given one master key (with boot release), one valet key (no boot release) and the small key number tag. I asked the dealer about the 2nd master key and he said this is all it came with. Now, i want to use the master, as it has the boot release, but i have read here and the manual, and both seem to imply that if i lose the master key, im royally screwed as i won't be able to get another key cut. Is this correct? If so, what am i to do? I don't want to use the valet key due to lack of boot release, but i'm somewhat worried about losing the only master key i have. I gather getting another master key is in the region of a couple of hundred quid from Lexus, although some people have bought blank keys from ebay. If someone could advise me on my assumptions and let me know if this is correct, and a way around this situation so i dont have to fork out a few hundred quid at Lexus, i would appreciate it. Thanks

Merely cosmetic i'm thinking here, but the gear knobs on SE 2000/2001/2002 models seem to be 2 different types - one a sort of chrome ball, and the other, your more traditional leather "joystick" type of affair. Does the chrome ball type of stick come on later model SE's? Thanks if anyone can clear this up for me.

Saw this ad in autotrader....please give me some honest opinions on what you think. Spoke to the guy - had the car since Nov 06, so owned less than a year (alarm bells ringing) - apparently its just not practical for him to own. He is the 2nd owner from new....no major service work needed or done (no cambelt or waterpump change yet, even though its 6 years old). Some pics... Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 2001 (Y) IS 200 SE in Astral Black Price: £7,600 ovno. Features: * 47,900 miles * Manual * BLACK * Petrol * 4 Door Saloon * 1988 CC Full Description: Glossary of Terms Manual, 47,900 miles, Black. ABS, Power Stearing, Air Con, Climate Control, Electric front seats, Heated front seats, Alloy wheels,6X multiplay CD, Full Lexus service history, 11 months MOT, 8 months TAX, just serviced, lovely condition. £7,600. o.v.n.o Book price in Parkers has a 2001 Y in private sale for about £6600 so its a full grand over book, but i guess the miles are low for the year. Apparently one small scuff on the bumper, low to the ground, and thats it. Thoughts really appreciated...

Hi all, been wanting to get my hands on an IS for years, just got a new job and feel like updating my car (which i've had for 6 years now - a 1995 Fiat Punto Sporting). The Lexus IS200 SE is ticking all the boxes right now, aside from the fuel consumption which seems pretty heavy from what i can gather, although i don't drive more than a few hundred miles tops a month anyway, so that's not a HUGE concern. The problems i have, which are hard to really quantify and feed in to the "weighting equation" of the yay or nay on getting the car are this... 1 - i live in an area of SE London that has seen approx 6 combined break in's/vandalism attacks on my Fiat over the last 4 years. This has either been smashing a window and/or pulling the top of the door frame open, or just randomly keying the car, booting it on one of the door panels, breaking off a wing mirror etc - all infuriating things. I have no reason to believe anyone has a personal grudge against me, it's just endemic of the area i live in - which isn't necessarily "the hood" as such, but there are ghetto rats here and there that **** things up for the majority even though they are in the minority. As a result, i've always said i would never buy a nice car while i live in this area. Now, i have taken in the last 18 months parking the car away from the front of the flat (which is where 95% of all the problems happened) and i now park a 5 min walk away in a quiet cul de sac, but still, i think if i dropped £7/8k on an IS, i might find it psychologically a worry compared to my Punto, currently worth about £500 due to all the vandal damage. 2 - i'm unsure of the running costs. I would probably prefer to go Lexus serviced all the way, but have no idea how much it costs to run one of these puppies. If anyone could please give me an idea of average yearly running costs, i would be grateful indeed. At the moment, im getting about £700/year full comp for business use protected NCB insurance costs with 7 years of NCB (endemic of my area) so i know insurance and tax alone is going to set me back circa £1000, but i figure yearly running costs (excluding fuel) could easily be another grand plus if i need parts, say factor in another grand on top of that - so between £2000-3000/year just to run it sans fuel - does this sound about right to you guys? Thanks if anyone can help me weigh things up objectively - im sort of torturing myself not knowing what to do here - i keep bouncing from "its affordable and forget about worrying about the car, it will just be such a pleasure to drive that you should go ahead and get one" to "its going to cost a fortune to run each year, you dont need to drive much anyway, and the local kids will make a wreck of it".