dipstick

That one advertised doesn't have the premium pack (I too thought that was standard by that stage but clearly not) so no massage seats/aircon control/radio control in the rear. Also available at that stage (but not on that car) was adaptive cruise as an option (PCS/ACC models) - never seen one for sale though. That became standard later, but you will pay a premium for that version. You also get TMC (traffic) on the satnav. So I think the possibilities are: 2001-2004 - same car, with the option of premium pack. Early ones didn't have parking sensors (very few cars). 2004-2005 - 6 speed box, camera, active lights, option of both premium pack and/or adaptive cruise, traffic on satnav 2005-2006 - same as above but with adaptive cruise/premium pack as standard 2006 - to date - LS460 Anyone who knows better feel free to correct me! I have a 2003 model and the next stage for me is the 05/06 model, but it's too expensive at the moment.

"BTW, on the warm bum side, it gets pretty hot and only one setting. My old Merc had high and low settings!" No need to go to an LS460 to cure that one - the LS430 has three heat (and three cool) settings for the aircon seats.

The LS460 has a heated steering wheel, so yes, Lexus do one. It's jolly good too.

That's pretty poor - not much future driving there. For what it's worth Lexus are doing a "take a test drive" campaign at the minute - I have a LS460 booked out for the day in a week or two, so it's not hard to get a go if you ask.

It's in the boot, right hand side as you look at it.

It is the same lady in the older GS300 as in the LS430 - but she says new things in the LS. Oh, and you get a different lady for each language you choose on startup - the Dutch one is great, as is the Italian! Takes her three minutes to say "next left".

Not unless it already has a dvd system in - which it won't have if it's using CD now! It's as cheap to put in a TomTom or something if you can bear it, and the TomTom will have loads more features as well as newer maps.

Double post, sorry.

"It's tough old world isn't it?" It certainly is. The discovery and close perusal of a "wash and go" sticker on the windscreen yesterday helps though - lifetime membership too. Take the car to your dealer (prebooked) on a Saturday morning, and they clean it inside and out whilst giving coffee and pastries. All for free. My kind of service! Mind you, I've not tried it. I expect it will have been withdrawn two days after the car was sold.

Just to pick up on an earlier post in this thread - where is the mute button on a (2003) 430 then? Mine has the set button, but no mute. If you program the set button to produce volume zero, sure, it cuts the sound - but then only way of getting the sound back is by the slow old volume up button on the wheel which takes ages, or horror of horrors moving a finger to the volume control on the dash itself. If the set button toggled it would be solved, but it doesn't.

"...as there is no option for LS 400....anybody know where i can get mabey 2006/07 version of the disc?? perhaps somewhere cheaper than the lexus dealers" If you're thinking the DVD version for a LS400 will give you postcodes. I'm pretty sure it won't. I have the latest DVD in my LS430 and even that doesn't have postcodes, the miserable thing.

My 03 gives me 22-24 ish around town and 28-33 ish on a run, averaging 26 overall. Which is actually better than the 3 litre Jag I had previously.

Just to put the opposite point of view: Two points - the Lexus extended warranty includes a year's free breakdown cover with the RAC, at their top level (home start cover, onward travel cover if stranded, travelling in any car, etc), so that's worth about £100. More if you extend it to a partner/spouse as well because that's free. Warranty Direct policies may exclude lots of things that the Lexus one does not. Look out for small print that says they will fix the broken item - but not any damage caused by the failure. At low levels of policy if a belt breaks and the engine goes bang, they will cover the belt, and not even that if they argue it's "wear and tear". To get a comparable level of real cover you need the Warranty Direct Gold policy, from memory (I priced all this last year) and that is within a spit of the Lexus one anyway, and doesn't include breakdown cover. Not saying the WD policy is no good, just that you should be very careful when you check the actual policy documents that the cover is comparable. Like everything, you don't get something for nothing with insurance.

If paid by Paypal they will refund up to the cover limit on the item. I had a similar situation where I was owed £300 for a non-delivered item and Paypal only paid £80. (You can see from the original description of the item what the buyer protection limit is - usually £500 now, but was much less when this happened to me). In my case I'd funded my Paypal account with a Visa debit card, so I rang the bank, quoted Visa rules and they gave me back the remaining £220, leaving Paypal to send their debt collectors after the seller.

If it's like the GS and LS systems, then you've pressed your finger on the little compass icon in the top left of the map screen. Touch it again to flip it back.

How do they get power? Do you have a trailing cable to feed into an auxillary socket, or have you had them wired in some clever manner?

Yep - that one is very nice pictures but a bit light on text. I had a copy and gave it away on here once for it to do the rounds to those that were interested. This other one is much more textual and bangs on about the factories, the selling strategies etc.

is this the black leather book? have you looked in the acknowledgements at the back? ← It's not black leather, the acknowledgments are at the front and they are all Japanese and US!

Just finished reading "Lexus - the relentless pursuit", by Chester Dawson which is up to date as of 2004. Most interesting, being the story of the brand, and in the main, the development of the LS from 1985 onwards. At the end, it talks about projects that are on the drawing board at Toyota, or were last year. Note it also says some of these may not get off the drawing board - but any of them would be rather interesting! One is a five litre GS. One is a "Super LS", sportier than the LS, and costing two to three times the price of a standard LS. This seems the most likely to happen: "It's not a question of if, but when." One is a V12 RX A totally new "top of the line 6.8 litre sports car". Oh, and a 4WD convertible IS is apparently in the works. Great book! Anyone know any later info on these projects?

Call me cynical. I enjoyed it a lot but I don't think (most of) those lights are real, they're stuck on with photoshop or some such.

Poor Claire. Never mind, sell the Honda and buy my Lex! It's a GS300...

If you want to push my buttons, kickplate...

When I first got my GS, I played a bit with the satnav settings. I forgot until this morning that there are other languages in there. I remembered that if you chose German or whatever, the text changed on the screen, but that was all. I was overjoyed to alleviate a dull traffic jam this morning by choosing Dutch - and blow me down but you get a whole new lady in your car! The German one is rather forceful, the Dutch one is gorgeous (but I have a thing for Dutch accents) and I've not tried the French or Italian one yet. The incomprehensible Dutch for "please proceed to the highlighted route, then your route guidance will start" seems to take as long as driving it mind you.

I'm saying nothing. Except, of course, Adam - look in the club knowledgebase article about your very question. http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/knowledge...ge=index_v1&c=2