The Swede

Agree. Not sure what point he's trying to make here, but bar wasting his time and server space, I can't see the sense of his questionable goobeldigook. Maybe didn't get this is not the place to try impressing women with his cars or driving prowess. There's no sexy women, here, mate !

Class !! I just cannot understand people who keep giving an opinion about stuff they never tried or cars they've never driven. You pull up with a Merc AMG and there always needs to be a tw@t who comments that he prefers the BMW M or Audi RS equivalent. Ask him if he's ever driven the AMG and the Beemer and the answers always is "off course not, but..." ... "But, but,... if you don't know what you're talking about, keep your comments to yourself, wisearse." (EoR) I personally think winter tyres should be made compulsory, just like in Germany, and this purely based on their qualities on wet roads. The UK roads are simply bad and very poorly lit. If you often drive at night, the risk of hitting standing water is really high and the difference it makes to hitting this on summer or on winter tyres is incredible. On summerrubber, you virtually always feel the car being pulled to one side to the other and you're lucky when you're not skating. On winter rubber, you often hardly feel it.

If I'd still live in the UK, I'd be on my way straight away. But here in France Lexusses are rarer than hen's teeth :(

Can you tell me how the rear lights noy differ from the standard ones? And where did you get the dials. Quite like them S.

I wouldn't get scared off. Unfortunately, even (or actually "especially") when you buy a car from the manufacturers that built their reputation on quality (Merc and VW (and its sister makes)), you might get stung with the repair of one of the expensive high tech items. Looking for a car with a 1 year warranty unfortunately won't help as an ECU might well pack up in 18 months or later. I'd rather contact the Lexus dealer who has been servicing the car and check if the ECU has been swapped. By doing so, you will also hear what their views are on the problem. Push comes to shove, an independent warranty afterwards might help.

The Germans sure write with a "double pen" when it comes to certain options. Porsche and Audi are probably the worst offenders with options that cost 8 to 12K The metalic paint on my Merc also came to 4500,-GBP :duh: (fortunately got a discount for that) and when I look at it, I doesn't really look any different to another metalic paint. Sure, you hardly see any in this colour around, but costwise, it's probably been sprayed on the same line.

I find this fascinating. An ECU is in no way an element that is subject to wear and Lexus should replace this for free for any car that has always had its Lexus services carried out, especially as it seems to be a known problem. (Face it, if we know it's a problem, they do.) In the end, Lexus tries to maintain a "high quality" image. I've had the computer of the gearbox on my former Merc S-class pack up after 5 years and 110000 miles. Merc* didn't even ask the question. They just replaced at their own cost saying the computer for the gearbox should not pack up. Simples. * Note, this was the Merc dealer in Belgium where I normally service my Mercs. Not the arrogant and incompetent bunch of MB UK.

Nonono, Ben, sure you're wrong there. I've been driving my 1.7 miles to work every day in my Ford Fiest Van. It took me 40 mins and I was sliding all over the place at 12mph, but hey, that proves I don't need VSC, ABS, etc. All those trafficjams, mayhem and accidents you see on TV when it snows are actually recreated in studio as propagada for the tyre lobby.

I also vaguely heard about this and am interested too. I'd love to know "when" the ECU's broke down. Was this a thing from the first years, and if the ECU survived, it was agood one? Has Lexus quickly remediated to the issue? Or is this fault that only appeared recently that early GS300's would start suffering ECU failures? Thanks.

It seems many people have very short memories here. When there was snow in the winters in the mid 80's, the 90's and the last two years, people DID NOT manage with their cars. The whole fcuking country (pardon my English) came to a standstill because of 2 inches of snow. Why do you think snow does not affect traffic in places like Scandinavia, Switzerland or Czech Republic? They do not clear it any better than here, in contrary, they even leave always some of it on the roads and count with the fact the cars are equipped for it. Our wise man here can cope without ABS, traction control, VSC, etc as he did in the 1970's and 1980's? Sure he can! But if I remember well, my father's "powerfull" Mercedes 300D had 88bhp in 1983 and a whopping 117lbft of torque. Nowadays his diesel has more than 3 times as much power with a chassis that filters all the reactions much more, making it impossible to feel when it will go wrong. Even your average family car (which nowadays obviously has to be a BMW 320d (or a Lexus IS deisel)) comes with twice the power and 3 times as much torque as a powerful car 25 years ago. A two liter diesel has as much power and twice the torque of a 1987 BMW 528i, a car with a reputation of being a widowmaker. Fortunately, in those days only very few people drove such cars and they were often chosen by those who really knew how to drive them... and even they would only carefully use the performance. I assume we forgot the days when the Monday paper always contained a 3 page section with all the deadly accidents of the weekend. In my native Belgium, 2 of the pages were dedicated to BMW and Golf GTi drivers. Nowadays Mr and Mrs Average Britain all have 150bhp and 250lbft under their right foot and they go everywhere flatout with it. Imagine the Monday papers in the 80's if all of us had been driving BMW 325's, 528's or Alfa 75 V6's ! And I am not even starting on the fact that the chassis and tyres of the current cars are set up in such a way (thanks to all our contradicting requirements: performance & comfort & low fuel consumption) that you cannot feel anymore what the car will do. It's "on the road" or "game over" ! Good luck driving in roads that become busier all the time without your ABS, VSC, etc.

Absolute rubbish. You clearly have never driven with wintertyres vs summertyres on icey roads or even experienced the difference when you drive through standing water etc. From your write-up, I even doubt you've ever been near a tyre at all, leave alone are a tyre fitter.

Clearly, you've never driven on a proper winter road in Scandinavia. I look forward to seeing a video on youtube how you throw your scoob in a Scandinavian flick in Sweden. :D

Snow chains are just pointless. The only thing they can help you with is to get through deep snow for a few hundred meters... providing the car does not get stranded when it's too deep. Ideally, get a set of narrower wintertyres in 17 or even 16". In winter, you want narrower tyres for better grip in snow and lower risk of aquaplanning when it's wet (which is generally the case). You also want a tyre that is less stiff than your low profilers as this provides more grip. Issue is that this is expensive as option as you also need to buy a set of alloys. The alternative is to put a good set of tyres on your 18" and keep them on November-March. Less expensive in the beginning, but you need to pay your tyreman 50 quid twice a year for the swap. In both cases, I'd go for a Nokian Hakkapeliitta WR G2 which are much more "performance oriented" than the R and the Hakka 7 which are really for use in Scandinavia. http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyre?id=10360796&group=1.01&name=Nokian+WR+G2

There are plenty of winter tyres available, but my experience of buying them is that they come in a limited range of sizes and only in higher profiles. I suspect that is deliberate and related to perfomance. The Conti T830s that I bought were (AFAIK) only available in 15" or 16" and for me that meant new wheels as well as new tyres. I am not unhappy about that because it makes them easier to exchange back when the weather gets warmer, but I can see why someone with 17"+ wheels might say there is nothing available for his wheels. How do you find the TS830s? I have ordered a set of them with 17 inch five-spoke wheels that are good in the winter (not so much snow stuck in them) for my new IS due to be delivered in a few weeks. Living in Sweden, I don't have any problem driving in the snow, but then my current car is a Saab 9-3 FWD with real studded winter tires. This will be my first RWD car since driving old Volvos in the early 90s. I have tried the IS with real winter tires (Nokian Hakkapeliitta R) and found them to be very good. That tire is a proper "Nordic" winter tire made for snow and ice. The issue with it is that it is not very good on asphalt, which is the surface I'm driving on most of the winter in this part of Sweden. That kind of snow and ice tire is actually worse on asphalt than a studded tire, which is hard to believe. That is why I am going for a "Central European" type of performance winter tire that provide decent performance on asphalt, while not being completely useless on snow and ice (though not as good as a "Nordic" winter tire with or without studs). Another thing I have found with the IS, apart from it being RWD of course, is that the stability control system is very aggressive. When it senses a slip, it really brakes hard, bringing down the speed of the vehicle quite abruptly. My Saab has a very smooth system that gently stabilises the car. Often, the only way I am able to notice the stability control working is the flashing indicator light. I use these on our Lexus IS 300 http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=70420&view=findpost&p=742738 As you can see in the post higher, they're perfect in getting the car even with the traction control up a steep icey hill. For UK, I'd recommend Nokian wintertyres, but then studless, any time. I've tried many makes of tyres on different cars in Finland and the Nokians just beat all of them fair and square. (PS: And NO, I am NOT a Finn )

You've clearly never driven a scoob in Scandinavia I'm one of the organisers of one of the scoobie clubs... but in winter on ice and snow, it's useless with its slow diffs and chronic understeer. The Lexus is actually used on the South French coast, so studs are a bit overkill, but they were the cheapest wintertyres I could get my hands on and I've had a few people with quattros etc scratching their head why they couldn't follow an old RWD Lexus on an icey Alpine road. :D

The driving of the Mk3 any different of the Mk2 ?

I've had a 2003 STi and now have an Evo 9 in Finland and without winter tyres, these cars are just as useless as anything else once it's icey. I once thought I didn't need to swap the tyres on the scoob when it started snowing and even the 20 year old RWD wrecks overtook me left and right while I struggled to stay on the road ! The tyres I use on the Lexus are actually Nokian Hakkapeliitta 4's which I originally had on the scoob.

This is actually just a cheap runabout we use for "workhorse trips" (e.g. weekends skiing) or to go into the less coshier areas of the town. Girlfriend also uses it for shopping etc. So any complexity is not needed. I just want the cheapest shocks possible that are standard. Any websites that do parts online?

Fair point. To be honnest, I wouldn't be able to comment how a car with wintertyres at the rear and good summertyres at the front behaves. I have only used wintertyres in (to UK standards) extreme conditions such as the North of Finland or the Alps. What tyres have you gone for?

Can I ask what your main reasons would be to go for a MkIII over a MkII? And what does an SE-L offer over anther version? Thanks.

I feel I am going to ask some really stupid questions, but I'd appreciate your advise Two years ago, my lady needed a first car. It was to be used as runabout and reliability and safety were most important. She hence ended up with a Lexus IS300. It had 100K on the clock, had a FSH and has been perfect ever since we got it. I've meanwhile been so pleased with the car that I'd like to "upgrade" her to a GS300 (or GS430). I noticed that, within the price bracket, I could find a nice MkII GS300 (or GS430) or MkIII GS300 with 90 or 100K on the clock. What would be the better choice? An early MkIII (any teething problems?) or a late MkII ? Are the MkIII's as reliable? Does the MkIII still have the straight six engine? Any other big differences? I've driven the MkII few times but never the MkIII. Thanks for the reactions. :)

Just a question, did they actually never make a 4WD GS MKIII ? I thought in the US there was a possibility to have the MK III in 4WD.

The question, stani, is whether you consider your winter tyres as an emergency solution to get some grip on snow for few weeks per year or whether you see wintertyres as a safer option for the wet and colder weather from October til March. If you only want some grip and will pop them off when the snow goes, I understand your reasoning (although I'd never do this myself). If you use wintertyres to their full capability, then the front ones are even more useful than the rear ones in the UK as the very open pattern allows you to deal with standing water (something pretty common in GB) much better and the front ones are most crucial here. On our Lexus, I use the wintertyres I had on my Evo in Finland. They're not perfect anymore to put 400+bhp down in Artic conditions, but they're perfect still for weekend trips to the Alps with the IS. Here's a clip posted elsewhere also. No car got up this hill without snow-chains. The neigbour nicely left his RX300 (on summer rubber) parked at the top of the road. To show what the right tyres can do, I switched the VSC off and drove up :)

Any members ordered an LFA yet?

Sad indeed. But according to the article, he was driving in the left hand lane in a long left hand corner when he hit the BMW head on. I assume he wasn't going around that bend at 30mph.