saracen

I saw the console in the US Manual and it is also in the UK manual but alas no console in my car, which as you say is a shame as they would be v. handy for sunglasses.

DAY FIVE Had a million positive comments about the car from colleagues at work. It definitely has the wow factor. Even given one or two a guided tour, although I did have to kick someone out of the car for having mud on their shoes. :P I think someone needs to come up with a proper interface for the iPod, while the connection is great I just keep forgetting to turn it off when I leave the car. I've had two minor problems that quickly rectified themselves. Yesterday the drivers seat belt would not retract automatically but I think I may have yanked it to hard and thus locked it. No matter what I did it would not go back. I decided to start driving and it reset itself once the vehicle started to move. And today for some reason I had to apply a lot of force to the brake pedal to allow me to start the engine. Normally the pedal is very soft and just requires a light tap but today I had to really give it some force before the green light came on that meant I could start the engine. I don't know if this is because I was parked on an incline. Other than that no other problems to report. I am taking the long route home these days just to spend more time in the car. :D Total Mileage: 251 Extra miles added as a result of taking "scenic" route home: 14 :P

Dude, this is a no-brainer. You should complain, like you say it is an expensive car and the rattle was not your fault. I made someone get out of my car today because they had a bit of mud on their shoes, imagine what I would be like if the garage put scratches on the facia. :tsktsk:

Mark Levinson is a brand name, now owned by Harman Kardon, and licenced to others. The real Mark Levinson now runs a hi fi builder called Red Rose. ← Just Googled Mark Levinson and Red Rose - $50,000 for a speaker!!!!!!!!!! Are they taking the :tsktsk: !

The system is made by Denso, who also make a number of navigation systems for other car manufacturers.

Steve, welcome to the club. What colour did you go for? Any pics?

DAY THREE Today I set up the memory seats and programmed the key as well. It works like a dream, if the seats or mirrors have been moved as soon as you touch the door the seat starts to move back into position! Just like magic! Took the car up to Darlaston in the West Midlands. Set the Sat Nav up and it is a dream to use. Not sure why others have found it problematic or unintuitive. First problem! On the way up to Darlaston the motorway matrix were telling us that there was congestion on the M6 around Junction 9, which is firstly the turnoff for IKEA and also where the M6 meets the M5. It is always congested on Sundays and Bank Holidays. Just after Junction 8 the Sat Nav travel warning kicked in and suggested an alternative route(how cool is that!). I touched the screen to accept and the screen flickered and then shut down. WTF! Then the system reset itself and I was greeted with the acceptance screen that you normally see on startup. I touched accept and the screen then said it was calculating a new route to bypass the traffic problem. Hmm strange, other than that everything was fine. On the way back the system performed perfectly. Not sure if I need to worry about it. I will keep any eye on things. On the way back got my partner to drive so I could see how passengers fare. The seats are just soooo comfy, I was asleep in no time! The car is still giving me immense pleasure and got a number of admiring glances on the motorway. Anyway back to work tomorrow so my diary will be on hold for a while but any other notable things happen and you will be the first to know. Total Mileage: 176 Soundtrack: James Blunt - Back To Bedlam

Scott, My experience was as follows: 23rd November ordered car and placed deposit because I was told that a car in my spec was physically in the country. 28th November the dealer rings and says there has been an error and that the car is on a boat and will arrive on the 16th December 16th December boat didn't land 23rd December car arrives at dealers and I collected it on the 30th. I could have picked it up sooner but I was away over Christmas. I think now that more and more cars will start to be sent to the UK so if the dealer can lay their hands on one in the dealer network I would think that lead times would be very short, you could probably have a car in about 2 weeks. If it is more of a specialist order, unusual colour with sunroof for example then this might take longer. When I ordered my IS200 I was told lead times for a vehcile with Sat Nav would be 3 months because they are built to order. It may be the same with the New IS. Check with the dealer they should be able to give you a better idea. Hope this helps.

Has anyone actually tried this?

Absolutely. I've taken lots of pictures as thats how I want to remember her!

DAY TWO And Big Brother has set the housemates another task...oops wrong programme. :D DAY TWO Decided to take my better half out for a spot of Sunday lunch, well any excuse to take the car out Went into Rugby and then came back home via Coventry :P Stopped at a nice village pub and I parked up in a spot that mean that if anyone parked next to me there would be a lot of space between me and them. We both had a roast dinner and then I came back to the car and I couldn't believe it, some idiot had parked so close to my car I did actually struggle to get in. I was worried that the paint would be marked but everything was OK. I think the car looks great but I'm gonna be very conscious of where I park it due to the lack of side strips. Anyway, I have now taken the car up to 80 and up to 4000 revs. But not at the same time. When the orange rings come on they look great (mine are set to 80mph and 4000 revs). I also set the cruise control which was easy to operate. I think that ACC would be a nice to have but I get the feeling it might make you even lazier (concentration wise) than cruise control alone. Just a thought. The left leg/transmission tunnel is not so much of an issue after I had fiddled around with my seat position. The iPod connection is good but I now wish it did have a proper interface. After stopping off in Rugby I forgot that I was playing the iPod and left it running while we were having lunch. I have a charger for it in the car so it's not big deal and to be fair the battery does last 20 hours, but it would make the whole set up more elegant. Observations - the car "knows" which side you are on, so that the doors would not open for my other half until I had opened the doors from the drivers side. The illuminated Lexus sign on the door sills look fantastic! You can only enter pre-set desinations into the car navigation system, it will not allow you to enter a new desination while driving. I now think this a good idea as everytime I was fiddling with the screen, the car started to drift, much to the annoyance of my partner. One review of the IS said that the dials were difficult to read - poppycock, they are chrystal clear. Road Noise - there is some road noise I have to admit but nothing that would cause concern but it depends on the road surface rather than being there all the time. It also might be more apparant because of how quiet the car is. The car is definitely quieter than the old IS. Total mileage: 77 Number of times illuminated dials came on: 7

Dan welcome to the club, you got yourself a great car there...

Oh and one of the engine

Some pics - first time I've done this so be gentle with me!

The voice command system can be used to set a destination that is already on the system such as your home but you cannot use it to set up a new destination such as 12 The Avenue, Townley. I hope this makes sense. The manual says that the audio system may not play the following: DVD-R DVD+R DVD-RW DVD+RW DVD-RAM DVD-ROM but it will of course play DVD Audio and DVD Video. It does say that it will play MP3s on a CD-RW which is cool. I would definitely make use of that. It would have been great if you could burn MP3s onto a DVD RW (either plus or minus) but I have the iPod so not sure whether I would use that feature. I agree with the Tom Tom comment, although its a good system I hate any kind of aftermarket device in the car. I think it spoils the lines!

Hmm I think that I will just put up with it for the moment, I thought about it last night and I would have a few problems if I bought a new phone. At the moment all my numbers are on my phone so I would have to transfer them to the SIM and because the SIM does not support multiple numbers against a name I would have to rearrange them all once I got the new phone. I might as well just add the numbers I use the most into the memory of the car.

Toys, toys, toys, where do I start: The way the mirrors tilt down when you knock it into reverse, the rear blind also goes down, but does not go back up!? The voice control The smart entry and start, which is way cool. "Look dude no keys!" On the SE-L the steering wheel moves towards you when push the Start button. And moves away from you whenstop the engine. The ventilated seats are a great idea and will be very nice in the summer. If you hold down the unlock button on the keyfob all the windows open and vice versa if you hold down lock. Useful if you forget to close the windows or in the summer when it is hot. According to the manual this also happens if you have the sunroof fitted. The EMV - Electro Multi Vision display unit is a joy, chrystal clear and the maps on the sat nav are amazing. I could go on but I fear I might be starting to bore some people. Just to answer your question about the iPod, there is no way to control the iPod via the car stereo system. The only thing that you can do is change the volume on the stereo. And just to say what a fine stereo it is. It is a shame you can't do more but for now I'm happy. Someone will come up with a way of doing this I'm sure. Imagine a dear friend going into the Witness Protection Programme. When you meet up a few years later, physically they have changed but inside they are still the same person. That is what the new car is like. Very familiar but very, very different too.

DAY ONE And today I have been to.... absolutely nowhere, mainly because I've had a lot to do in the house. Did spend some time programming stations into the Audio system and testing the phone system. I have a Nokia 6230 and it connects seamlessly every time but I wish I could transfer the entire phonebook in one go. And for some reason it had trouble transferring more than one number from a name. Lost patience with it in the end (and partner lost patience with me as I kept ringing the house to test the Handsfree system!). I decided that I would just add a few numbers into speed dialling as you can only use these while the car is in motion anyway. I'm considering changing mobile phones to one that allows the entire phonebook to be transferred. Koshime mentioned that you can dial the number on the phone and the system will pick this up but I need to try this out. I do know that it is easy to transfer the call from the hands free system to the mobile phone. For Christmas my Dad bought me a cable to connect my iPod to the Aux and an iPod car charger. I connected both but while the audio cable works great the charger is too big so that the armrest cannot be slid back into place, ah well. I will leave it in the glove compartment for now, might see if there is a smaller one or will just use it with the cigarette lighter. The iPod, however, sounds fantastic! I also had a play with the Voice control. When I have had demo cars for some reason I had to repeat myself a number of times to make it do what I wanted. But so far no problems understanding my northern brogue yet. I love just saying, "Destination home" and the car doing the rest! I also managed to add some POI into the memory of the Sat Nav which was quite straight forward. Had a play and found out that I am over 600 miles from John O'Groats! The other halfs Dad came round to look at the car in the afternoon and was blown away with the amount of technology, "A camera in a car, what will they think of next!" I took the manual to bed with me last night but boy is it dull! And long. I mean there is a quick guide, an owners manual and then a manual for the Sat Nav, which is 300 plus pages! Information overload... I will add some pics but I took some on the night I picked it up and they ain't so good. Will try to do some tomorrow, I want to capture it while it still looks new. Total mileage: 34 Enjoyment: 10/10

OK after a few weeks of hassle I finally picked up my new IS250 SE-L Auto with Multimedia in Argento Ice last night from Lexus Leicester. Pre-delivery: I've had a few hassles surrounding the delivery time, car availability and the dealer wanting me to take the car in December rather than January. We had a few tense negotiations to make my taking the car in December worth both our whiles, and they made up with it in terms of offering me a few token gestures (cufflinks, umbrella, wallet and a first free service). Part of me thinks that I might be a little demanding but I'm the customer right? Overall I'm generally happy, but if this was a report card I would be saying, could do better. Arrival at showroom: Pulled into the showroom in my old IS and I could see my new car waiting in the handover bay bathed in beautiful soft light. The car looked magnificent. I mean absolutely stunning. I was kept waiting a few minutes after announcing who I was but then the Dealer Principle came over thanked me for my custom, apologised for any problems that I might have had with the order and then started to say what the cause of some of the problems might have been and then gave me a cheque to cover any inconveniece. At this point I am more than happy! Paperwork: I had a few bits of paper to sign, selling my car to the dealer, sorting out the log book etc. This is the bit that I hate because I just wanted to get to the car. By the way if anyone does buy my old car you will be one lucky guy, it is in mint condition and looks pretty new inside ah well, she is gone now... Introduction to the car: I was then led to the car and given a thorough tour of the features but I wasn't paying much attention but I was being blindind by how beautiful the car was. The handover took about 40 minutes then the Dealer Principle came back in to say another thanks and hoped the car gave me many years of pleasure. Then the doors to the bay were opened and then I was able to start her up and drive off... I must say that these handover bays are great because it was raining very heavily when I was ready to leave. First impressions: The car had done 6 miles when I pulled out the dealership and I was fiddling with buttons etc so my partner told me to drive to a Supermarket and have a play and then drive home before I crash the car, which I did. Set the Sat Nav up to take us home, paired my phone to the car and added some stations to the audio system, played with the parking sensors. Then set off home and the Sat Nav was brilliant much better than my old SmartNav system mainly because that system did not have a screen. Two things I was concerned about - wind noise and the rattle that has been reported on here. Glad to announce that no rattle is present and wind noise is minimal but I haven't taken her above 50 miles per hour or on a motorway yet. Summary: What do I like: Sat Nav, parking camera, stereo - so loud, the other half could hear it in the house! Sat Nav, car colour, it is so silent, quality of the interior oh and did I mention the Sat Nav? Basically everything about the car I love! What don't I like: If I have one niggle it is that my left leg presses against the transmission tunnel but that is only a minor thing and I will have to see how it progresses over time. Took the car out for a spin later in the evening and stopped off at the bank to pay in my cheque, a group of guys walked past and couldn't stop staring "Nice car" one of them says. "I know," I smiled back...

I have to agree although I am still going to have one but I must admit since the launch I have only seen one on the road, not including demonstrators. Are they really selling that well?

Your car looks stunning Koshime!

I was thinking that it would be better to have it done in January, I'm gonna tell them tomorrow to register it in January. Like you said why should I do them any favours? Plus doing a quick search on here, Supaguard is not that great.

Without boring everyone with the tale of ordering my new car, put simply it has not been straightforward. Anyway the car is now in the country and I was going to take delivery in Jan as I am away until then, but the dealer is asking me to register the car in December, presumably to boost their end of year totals, rather than in January when I pick it up. I did mention that when I come to sell the car that it might make a difference in the price I get. They think it will be about £300 difference and to combat this they are going to Supaguard the car. Are they having a laugh or should I just tell them to register the car in Jan? Will it make a difference to the value of the car in three years when it comes to selling as it will still be a "55" either in December 05 or January 06.

Is it not possible to say a number using the voice control with the new MM pack. For example can you not say "Dial 01234 567 890"? I had a look at the US manual for the IS and I thought that this was possible.

I am soooo jealous. I ordered mine a few weeks ago believing there to be one in the country in my spec. The dealer then told me the car would arrive on the 16th December and then its just a matter of getting the car to me, but they would know more when the car arrived at the docks. 16th came and went with nothing from the dealer. Saturday I rang them to be told that the boat didn't land when expected and they would let me know more about a delivery date on Monday. It is nearly 3.30pm and still no call from the dealer Sigh! I spent so much time debating about the car and now I have ordered it I just want it!