dipstick

I think Fidgits and I were on the same wavelength. Which is scary for us both, frankly.

"Doesn't Anyone Sleep Around Here?" What are you suggesting?

Yep. It's more of the same really. Can't say the graphics are noticeably much more thrilling, gameplay is much as before. A big part of it is the music of course, which does zilch for me personally, so I turned the radio off within about three minutes. all in all - it's ok, and I'll keep playing it for a while, but I get bored with it in about quarter of an hour. But hey, these things are so subjective!

Sexist? Is THAT why Mrs Dipstick keeps complaining about me stamping on a prostitute's stomach for three dollars? NOW I understand.

You know you can have that behaviour changed so it opens at a quick press? I had mine changed to do that. C-BEST settings. (I'm assuming the settings are similar between IS and GS).

Going to boogie into town in 30 mins and pick up a copy. I fully expected you to say you'd finished the darned thing. It's been out since midnight. Need to finish it before Halo 2 day though - not much time....

"Audi's ... the cars are ok, shame about the dealers!" Not even sure about the cars. Drove an A8 the other day and it was tedious heap. Not a patch on an LS in my book.

Was in Orkney last year; superb place. But didn't bring the Lex - hired a Renault Scenic (which was to my eternal chagrin utterly loved by Mrs Dipstick, who has never ceased since to twitter about it.) Mind you, you're not going to get your GS much above 60 before you run out of road, are you! Lucky you do so many miles on the mainland then.

Welcome to the club mate. Orkney! 'tastic! Must be the only Lex in the islands?

Agreed, Tony. Had Firefox for a week or two but so many sites were incorrectly formatted or plain failed that in the end I trashed it and went back to IE. Couldn't see the point! I know it has its advocates, but features like tabbed browsing aren't that thrilling for me.

I dropped my glasses in the engine once. Sigh.

Yes, I use mine continuously. I started doing so about two months ago and mpg has not suffered in any way - there might even be a tiny improvement actually - but the car is more reponsive, obviously. Just leave it on. 16 mpg? Golly. Even when I'm SUPER leadfooted mine is never worse than 23 mpg, and usually in the high twenties low thirties. But we've dicussed this before...

I've had my GS done a few times at various Lexus dealers and the cheapest it's ever been is about £75, up to over £100, so I think £40 sounds like not the full thing or a mistake.

I had a cover - an expensive one - and one night in the dark I dropped it on the gravel driveway. Thought nothing much of it and put the cover on. Next morning there was a very nasty scratch on the bonnet - I guess a stone got caught under there. So do exercise more caution than I did!

You could always swap for my life. On second thoughts, I couldn't pay you enough.

Blinking brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? Love it. That's right up there with the "press mark as you pass a speed camera and after a few days your satnav beeps at you every time you approach one" method I've been doing for a while, also recommended on here.

"I know that the flying Lady on the RR completely disappears into the grille!" Sounds like Mrs Dipstick making toast. Ah, well if it's legal when the emblem is movable it must be ok - don't suppose a 3m sticky pad will fight much against the weight of a pedestrian.

Isn't there something about these type of badges being illegal now, because of potential injury to a pedestrian in a collision? I thought that was why neither Jags nor Mercs have them these days. Maybe that's a question for the new legal forum though.

No, no, this is how an automatic transmission works. Honestly, kids today, mutter mumble. http://www.allworldknowledge.com/auto_tran...sion/index.html

In case anyone missed it, here's the BBC's story about the new Lexus RX400h. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3685052.stm

Hmm - my last sounded a bit short didn't it! Meant to say that under the current SOGA there is now a reverse burden of proof on motor sales from traders - you have statutory rights over and above any warranty he may or may not have offered you. So: if you bought it and it was made clear to you that the satnav didn't work, perhaps with a reduction in price to reflect that, then you have not a leg to stand on. If however you subsequently discovered it didn't work, then he has to fix it or recompense you appropriately. There's a series of things you can do, each of increasing severity, to make that happen. You may not wish to follow that route at all of course, for your own reasons, in which case forget all this! Ianal.

"I bought the car from a garage last weekend and it hasn't worked since I got it. Its not a new car so has no warrinty" Don't understand that sentence. You bought it from a trader? It's got a warranty and he must sort it. End of story.

Mrs Dipstick bought some material to make a curtain last week, and now apparently we have to redecorate the house to match. In the same way, suggest you just buy the Jag.

Managed to crash the whole car computer yesterday, which cheered me not one whit. Traffic. Thought I could detect the delicious scent of diesel from the car in front. Wondered whether the sensitivity of the smog sensor had got reset at the last service, as that's very unusual. Pressed the button to get into the smog sensitivity adjust screen. Whilst it was there, I had to move forward. It greyed out, like the trip does when you move. But on stopping it stayed greyed, and no amount of prodding at anything would get it back, no map, no audio - just frozen. Rebooted it by turning the car on and off again and all was well. Lesson, children. Adjust ye not thy smoggy sensors whilst undertaking movingery.

300 quid a side for ball joints from Norwich sounds very high. Had my (mark 2 GS) balljoints done at Norwich about a year ago (or less maybe) and I'm sure it wasn't that much. Might have been a tad over 300 for the two. (I probably bored everyone silly by posting on here how much it was, but that means I'd have to search for my own posts, which is far too egocentric to contemplate). Go Gold, Derek, is all I'll say at this point.