Cotswold Pete

I can see the appeal of an IS250, but for long runs the bigger the better. If I had a bit of spare cash I would probably get one myself, take my 400 off the road for a few months and get it back to looking great, but no spare cash (spending loads on getting house tarted up - 20 years living in a 250 year old house means all rooms in need of more than just a lick of paint. Anyway enjoy the 250 and saving up for the 460

My Lexus chap takes his cars to Lexus Swindon, so when I had new suspensions parts, a full re-align was £60. So maybe that is standard Lexus dealer price. And they should know what they are doing -thank heavens.

Just be aware of the fact you need the lead out of the cassette body to be near the mouth of the cassette bay. If I recall from my experience I had a Sony cassette adaptor which did not work in the Lexus (but did work in my old Omega). I think I got my current one from Maplin (though they have changed the model they sell). It was a bit more expensive than the ones on ebay, but at least if it did not work I could have taken in back. Some adpators get confused by car stereos that have auto-reverse, so maybe buy a cheap one of ebay, if it is not capable, then off down to Maplins (would be my suggestion)

Someone who is engineer first (or at least thinks like an engineer) and mechanic second is to be trusted more than a vanilla mechanic. My problem is that I got a degree in electronics (did mechanics in year 1), and I get frustrated when I have mechanics querying my thinking, even of they think they know the LS (or any other car inside out and back to front). The company that did my gear box oil drain and refill were engineers - you could tell by the way they talked. On tyre scrubbing the one thing I have learnt with the LS is that if it pulls either left or right even on a road with a slight camber, you have an alignment issue, though not so sure about the camber and how that impacts the feel of the steering. At my last tyre change I had the fronts both toeing out, and the car wandered either to the left or the right depending on camber, so lesson learnt there. I am thinking of going a bit OCD and buying a tyre depth gauge to be able to spot more quickly this type of problem, especially given the off-road nature of the A46 where I live and it's pot holes within pot holes.

Sounds like the Smart Car Radio is so smart it is stupid (and same for the Honda) Bring back 8 track I say.

I use a cassette adaptor for my MP3 player, way better quality than a wireless transmitter, also means in the background the tuner is tuned into Radio 1/2/3/4 and I cans till get the Traffic reports,which you cannot do with a wireless adaptor. Just a thought

Also make sure heated wing mirrors work, and be aware that the mirrors will appear to move when turn ignition key. This appears to be dirt in the mirror sensors, and just means about once of twice a week you need to fold the mirrors in to reset get them to point where you wan when folded outt. As far as I know it can be fixed, but a bit of a faff, so never bothered. Check the CD 6 pack works, as I hear they can some times go, and also is there a Sat Nav CD installed in the boot unit (otherwise you have problems with some of the system settings (the Sat Nav is pretty naff though- now 15 years out of date and not upgradeable to new road maps). But I would add the Mk4 is a lovely beast, and IMHO worth spending money on if you get a good one in the first place and look after it. I think the only fault with the Mk4 is the naff fog lamps, which compared to my previous Mk2 are almost useless.

If I wanted to attract that much attention, I think I would rather pay Angelina Jolie a few quid to stand naked out of the sun roof of my 400, sure more fun than driving that purple road shovel.

I often wonder the same thing. Bit like the days of driving an MG many moons ago, when it was a friendly wave or headlight flash. But maybe that was more a 'If you break down around the corner, you might find me at the next pub if you need some jump leads', where as the Lexus wave would mean, 'Just like me you knew what car was 100% sure to get you to the pub rather than a 2 hour wait for the RAC having stalled at the traffic lights'.

There are a few LS around my neck of the woods (near Stroud), I know within 5 miles of me there is a bronze Mk4, silver Mk3, and Blue Mk3. I see a GS300 most days on way to work in Cirencester, and I know there is a green MK2 or 3 LS around about Cirencester. On the other hand a few weeks back did a round trip to Chester and same week a round trip to Salford and saw no LS (plenty of 200s). I would say in the lane at the back of my house there is a RX450, IS200, and GS300H, so when I park up my LS, it looks like Lexus city. I guess you went to the Pepperpot Campsite, not been down those back roads for a while, sandwiched between the M5 and the railway line, cannot imagine it to be that quiet!!

One for the Antiques Roadshow 2056

John, From my previous experience I would always found VW diesels to be pretty rubbish both on fuel and oil economy. Once had a new 2 litre Passat as company car for a year, it would get through a litre of oil every 1500 miles, and my Tech Director said that was about average from his experience. I also found Passat like sitting on park bench rather than LS sofa luxury. Good economy seems to only be with Peugeot diesel, just a shame electrics and french cars do not go together. Good luck looking for a proper car (LS of course)

Mine passed with no advisories last week, a mere 16 years old and still good for a few more. Mechanic had a good poke about and told me he thinks the front end control arm etc were fitted just before I bought it 4 years ago, and I have had all the rear running gear sorted. This car almost by the year gets cheaper!!

Been off line for a bit, but I love this model. So next weekend I will be getting the angle grinder to mine and getting rid of the radiator to shorten the bonnet (probably going to go for air-cooling on the old V8.) Once all that is done I will photoshop to make mine as good as this.

Not ex-Army, but used to have many different MOD sites to look after in my old computer days, and always loved the look of the 432, and amazed at the speed they could nip along at. Would have liked to have had a go in one, but never got the chance.

What on earth hit that LS, looks like it hit a wall, rolled and then got run over by a FV432. I passed a smacked up IS200 on A417 this week, looked like it had rolled, but nowhere near as bad as this.

That's the LS for you.

Just had a quick look on Falken web site for USA, and they do a ZE950 in the right size for LS, but not able to find these in UK. As I am happy with the Nexen, okay for the time being, unless they are not as long lasting as the Falkens.

Just had all four tyres done. (well fronts this week and rears 8 weeks ago) Previously had Falken 912, and could not get replacements (or 914) quick enough so punted go at Nexen N Blue tyres. Surprised at how they go. They seen a little quieter, dry grip is fine, and wet grip is good enough for me. They seem to be okay with cold weather as well (well down to -2Centigrade). The one thing is that went for a long motorway run yesterday and absolutely no tram-lining, I was expecting a bit after previous experiences in LS with wide range of other tyres, but they were fine, and also noticed today with the puddles that the Nexen seem to suffer less from aqua-planing, which with the Falkens was the only fault I could find with them. The one thing the Nexens are not quite to good on is roads with a lot of ridges, they seem to make a bit more noise, but strangely enough they seem to be less 'crash-bang' than the Falkens when handling the cr*p roads around the Cotswolds. The Falkens were good for 19000 miles on the rear and just over 22000 on the front, so be interesting to see how the Nexens do, but it will be a good 18 months before I can report on that. All four tyres fitted were £320 so credit card is pleased, as is the missus.

My 400 looks like that when I fill the boot up with beer

Paul had something similar about 2 years ago. Got in car drove 200yd downs road and noticed radio had not kicked in, the display looked fine but nothing happening. Pulled over and stopped engine and then re-started. Hey presto all fine, and never happened again. Maybe some of that dark matter or a Higgs Boson had just passed through the system and it needed a reset.

Is the leather more likely to stretch due to the perforations. Maybe not have air-con seats is better in the long run, though £45 and 3 hours work seems like a worth while investment.

I agree with David, the price is over the top. seems like at 34K the car has been not up to much for it's life, so I would not see such a low mileage as reason to have such a high price. Not sure what I would pay, but probably under £5K. My LS was 11 years old on purchase and that was only £2,250 with average mileage of 120K

I would also see how clean (or dirty) the throttle is. Though if the idle settles down well I would think throttle is fairly okay. Also agree a LS needs a good motorway run every couple of months if it does mainly town driving.

That Bose system would make a heck of a difference to my ride everyday. I assume with advances in magnets and motors a modern version would be lighter than one developed back 10 years ago. But this would give the government an excuse to never bother re-paving the roads