italiafirenze

I had the Civic Type-R it was a very quick car, much quicker than the Lexus. The Lexus is mostly for business use, I'm doing miles up and down motorway and the Type-R wasn't really suitable. I drove an Accord Type-R they are pretty quick too, bit more refined than the Civic, the engine isn't as raw. I think my favourite thing about the Lexus so far is how smooth it rides. After a lowered Type-R it's like riding on a mattress! So smooth and comfortable, just what I need for 4 hour drives!

The tax is only a "planned" increase. I'm in the car trade and have studied this rigorously as it will severely influence what we buy and what's likely to sell towards the end of this year and start of next year. I personally have specifically bought an X plate car because of this. Not too many people are aware of the planned changes yet and they could still change in the next budget. If they do change however it is most likely to target the pre-2001 cars (X reg and older) is an increase in the tax of the pre-2001 X plate or older cars. They can't tax these cars based on emissions as they don't have the required data, but a more likely increase would be to introduce a greater number of bands based on engine size (data that is available). Either this change takes place or we will certainly see a situation where an X plate car is worth more than a Y plate car of similar age. If I had a Y plate I'd be worried. 02,52,03 cars will probably suffer a bit but will still be worth more because of the age difference. As for the cost of it, if you believe in the environmental thing and global warming you have to believe it's for the best. If, like me I hasten to add, you think it might all just be part of the natural cycle of things and I'll be long dead before it really affects me anyway then you have cause to complain, but nobody is listening. It's really not cool to be anti-environmentalist, just ask Clarkson, and no government in the world can be seen to be such. I asked my girlfriend this question the other day when she complained that the diesel for her car cost £1.16 per litre; "How much would it have to be before you stopped buying it and got on the bus, or walked, or cycled, or car-shared?" She couldn't answer it. The price could be £2 a litre and she'd still pay it, as would I, as would most of us and we'd complain in the pub and maybe vote the other way but nothing can break the scarcity value of oil. There is no real alternative. The same applies to the car tax. Ask yourself "How much is too much?".

I might just do that! Where about is the meet being held? What goes on? I joined a MINI forum once but never went to a meet. Bit new to all this. As for the Sat Nav system, the factory fit are usually crap but Lexus is supposed to be one of the best. I got TomTom as a backup, I had a Sat Nav in my Type-R (very rare I hear you all cry) and it didn't even work, common problem apparently so it must be better than that. I love how it pops up and then goes back down, that's the kid in me.

Sounds like a good deal, cars tend to be a bit cheaper up that way too. Is that what you find? From my experience K&N panel filters aren't really worth the bother. If you want an induction kit the best ones are worth the money (real cold air induction) all the others are just for people wanting to spend money on something.

Hey John, nice looking car, similar to the one I've just bought? Whats the mileage on yours? Trying to compare to see if I got a decent deal or not!!

There is a school of thought particularly amongst high performance vehicle owners (ferrari, lamborghini etc.) that you should fast idle the car to warm it up, before placing the engine under any load. As in run it with your foot on the gas at 4-5k. But I think this is more for very highly strung engines. Some race teams like to rev the engines quite high into the range for a few short blips of the throttle to allow the oil to circulate right to the top of the engine before placing the car under load. Something I followed with my previous car. There isn't much wrong with revving cold engine at a stand still (some mechanics seem to make a living from it) in terms of the damaging the engine but the catalytic converter will suffer because of it's low temperature and the unburnt fuel due to having no load on the engine. All in all I think the best advice is that in the manual. Set off straight away and don't go mad until it's up to temperature. Thats what I always do.

Hi I'm a new IS200 owner, just purchased this morning! I was considering an IS220d on lease but having weighed everything up preferred to own my own car for much less money, it's not as flash but at least it's my own! It's a 2000 IS200 SE with Navigation. Are these usually okay? Is there anything I ought to know?