cactusmaac

My IS 200 SE 04 reg is up for it's annual service - this time an intermediate one. It only has 27k miles on the clock thanks to me buying it from the estate of a deceased lady two years ago. She'd racked up about 10,000 miles before passing on. Got a quote from Lexus Leeds just north of £200. Lexus Bradford will probably be similar. My local garage (reputable, never had problems with them with any of my previous cars) quoted for the same work at £60 since they know the car and reckon at most it will need an oil filter changing. Will going with the local make any difference to the resale value? I don't plan to change cars until 2014 or 100k miles, whichever comes first. All the other services have been by Lexus dealers.

Put me down as a maybe.

Don't know if I'll be able to make it. I'm in the middle of a major project and I might need to be working on Monday to make the deadline. I'm not surprised not too many people have signed up. People will have generally made plans for the bank holiday and the WIM open day will also be drawing members away.

Chris.S Sparkystav cactusmaac

Cheapest quote I'm getting is £480 from Swiftcover. Make sure you use confused.com and select the highest possible voluntary excess.

We already get taxed on usage. That's what petrol taxes are for.

Looks interesting. Might go if I have nothing else to do on the day.

I'll be getting the car serviced at the end of next month. Does everybody here get their cars done at Lexus dealerships or does anyone opt for reputable independent garages? Does it make a huge amount of difference to the resale value if you go independent? If there are decent independents around, please supply recommendations for Yorkshire and the Northwest. I plan on keeping the IS200 for the next 5 years or up till 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. Mileage is currently about 10k miles per year, although that might increase a lot once I switch jobs. I'd also like to upgrade the windscreen wipers. Currently got the OEM ones. I would like to know the size of the wipers I need and which make I should be opting for.

Put me down as a maybe. I want to come but might be dragooned into driving my mum and gran to Birmingham.

It's worth having one as a cheap back-up spare, but don't use them as regular tyres.

If you're going for the Goodyear F1 GSD3s make sure they're German-made and have a valid E-mark. Some retailers are stocking grey imports from China and Thailand which aren't suited for driving in Northern Europe. I went for Falken 452s and was very impressed with the value for money. Don't think I'll be switching brands in the future.

In Bradford, up for a meet anywhere in Yorks.

Argghhh. Oh well, I'll just have fewer children.

Yeah, that's their first available date. I'll be off to see the Mars Volta in Manchester the same night so I guess I'll just mess around in the Trafford Centre after the appointment.

I'm booked in for the 13th of March. :) Once I get this done, will there be any issues when I go the Lexus dealer for servicing? I don't want them changing the settings back to factory.

Check this website for approved garages that do conversions. http://www.lpg-vehicles.co.uk/lpg_conversi..._conversion.htm I got quoted about £1700 for converting my IS200. I don't do enough mileage yet to make it the conversion cost-effective and I'm a bit leery of having to forego space for a spare tyre for the LPG tank.

I've been meaning to get my geometry sorted out. I had plans to make the trek down to Hemel Hempstead to see the doctor but it seems like I'll be working weekends to help my Dad and brother out until May. So that makes the seven-hour round-trip unfeasible. Therefore I need to go somewhere a bit closer to Yorkshire. I did a forum search for Drury Lane and some of the stories re: their service scared me off. I have been seriously considering going to TDI North but would appreciate some input from members who've been there. I tried searching for relevant threads a while but the search function didn't give me any relevant results. So apologies if the question has been asked and answered before.

Happened again today when my brother had the car. Looks like a battery connection was loose. Well, at least I know I can cancel my appointment with the exorcist. :)

Went out shopping on Saturday and parked the car in Tesco's as normal. When I got back, I put the key in the ignition and started hearing a beeping noise coming from the dash. The car stayed dead and refused to start. Took the key out, beeping stopped, waited a couple of minutes and put it back in. Turned and it came to life as normal. Only weird thing was the digital clock had jumped forward by two and a half hours. Any idea what could have happened? The car's been running just fine ever since and I haven't had any problems with it before.

Put me down as a maybe.

I'm thinking of getting a tracker installed on my IS200. I don't think it will make the insurance any cheaper but there have been a number of burglaries in the neighbourhood. I would like the peace of mind of knowing that anyone who's taken off with the car can expect a visit from PC Plod within the hour. Any recommendations for systems and fitters in the North? LOC Gold members get 10% off from Gap Security but I don't think they're VSIB approved. Will most likely be going for duration rather than annual subscription since I intend to keep the Lexus for another five years.

I like those Superman symbols. Where'd you get them from?

2004 16,589 miles

Falken 452s are the ones most recommended here. Great performance for an exceptional price.

Many thanks for the card and gift, merry Christmas to all.