dipstick

My first instinct would be the insurance co will only cover accidental damage, not wear and tear, so it's good they are paying. If they do. Sorry to be cynical, but...

Thanks guys - always helpful as ever. Taking Maneesh's points into consideration, and Colin's counter arguments, plus the geographical arrangements, I think it might be the mark 4. James talks sense of course, and I love Raz' idea - very tempting, but Mrs D would never understand that. Although as she stands quite happily next to silver Mondeos in the car park ("it's silver, isn't it, it must be ours") she'd never notice I expect. Only prob with this LS is is that it's gold! Can't quite decide whether it looks AWFUL or I really like it. Certainly won't miss the bugger in the car park!

98 R plate last of the series 3 LS400s, 11 grand 98 S plate first of the series 4 LS400s, 13 grand. Both are full LSH, from Lexus dealers, etc. Both with approx 85 k on the clock. Is thia a "go for the series 4" no brainer, or is the extra two grand not really worth it? Opinions welcomed. Likely to plunge in the next week...eek!

Dribble! Me too! If only you could get some of those fantastic Post Office films they made in the fifties as well. Not that I remember the fifties I hasten to add. Thanks for pointing this one out mate! If you need some advice: Learn to swim, young man, learn to swim.

Gee guys! Too many sensible replies - like spend it something else! Bleuch - you're SUPPOSED to say, come along Tim, throw your money at a nice LS and be done with it. Sigh. Never persuade Mrs Dipstick like this will I. Another plan backfires. Oh well, saw a very juicy Audi A8 last night... I will provide, incidentally, a Five Pound Booktoken to the first person who can tell me who that person is in my avatar pic. Just because. I will not provide anything other than silent but permananent ridicule for the first person to say "throw your money at a nice LS". It's too late now and I'm sulking.

I guess this waas actually a daft poll - I'm going to get as many answers as there fish in the sea, aren't I! I suppose I should have said it's a toss up between a LS400, a GS430, and Mrs Dipstick, bless her, fancies one of those IS300 things for reasons that I can't fathom, given she can't actually drive. Mind you, I'm swayed by the property idea! An asset that appreciates for a change!

I'm in this position and can't quite decide which way to go after my existing GS300 SE. Be interested to know what most people would do?

I agree with the independent idea Claire. Just had mine done at a local independent, and I've always been a great fan of Lexus dealerships. But the cost did it for me - I had a MAJOR service PLUS wheel alignment done for fifty quid LESS than the cost for Lexus dealer MINOR service. With those kind of figures, as long as you trust your independent (I do) then any slight loss in resale value (as long as the car has still has full history) is easily compensated for. Best I can do for a garage recommendation is to point you at http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/directories/go...odGarages01.htm Anything on there is likely to be a good one.

Thanks for posting that maneesh - enjoyable read and useful too.

They send me things all the time and I've never bought a new one! Must be my winning smile. Mind you the other day I got a very funky expensive looking brochure and invitation to test drive with an all new aluminium Lex in it. Spent some time drooling over the pictures (of the inside of the car, I hasten to add) before I thought - wait a minute! And it turned out to be a Jag. Dunno why that turned up I'm sure, but it is very pretty.

"Clique" counter is my kind of pun. Anyway, I want one too. I'm not afraid to stand up and be counted.

Yes, interesting. If I drive two miles in a year and pay them 58 pence, but am very unlucky and have to make a million pound claim, that money has to come from somewhere. So there will always be pressure to class more and more people as high mileage in order to cover it. This year if you do 15k (like I do) they might say that's high mileage, but next year they might say 12k is, and the year after 9k is. Depends on the actual money coming in versus claims. Indeed, you might find that someone who does 40k a year on 99% motorways is way less likely to claim than someone who does 3k a year in commuter rush hour/schoolrun land. Should the first guy subsidise the second, which is what this will achieve? Secondly, I've always been put off those pcp car purchases because I couldn't bear to be contantly thinking about my mileage (ooh no, we can't go to the seaside this weekend, it might roll us over my allocated mileage at the end of the year and cost me two hundred quid). This feels the same to me.

Colin is bound to know the exact answer, but I believe the DVD versions were built in from July 2000 and the cars first registered in October 2000. This info is for the LS though, so may be different for the IS.

Frankly, I'd buy a product called "The Moleculator" simply for the joy of having that name on the box. Fantastic!

Have a good time mate, and don't burnham.

I've always got on very well with Campanile. They do an all you can eat buffet in the evening that's cheap and scrummy, or did last year anyway. http://www.envergure.fr/campanilefr.html And there's an English language version of that site there as well.

As a very rough guide, using a little extrapolation from various figures culled from the net, (I should be renamed "I Is Your Google Bitch" I think) BMW are selling about 90 to 100 thousand vehicles a year in the UK whilst Lexus are selling about 12 to 15 thousand I think. So there are a LOT more BMWs.

Best enjoyed with a bag of fizzy shrimps, Claire. Or of course the infamous jap desserts.

Frankly I reckon I'm insane to even consider this, what with my notorious clumsiness and gross ineptitude, but heck, yes, I'll come along. Either day at the minute should be ok.

Ok squarehead, if you want it, you got it. Private message me your address details and I'll reciprocate.

Cos I'm a Nice Sort of Bloke, I've decided to do another free giveaway. However, this time there's a little twistette. Thre goods are (the good is?) a hardback copy of The Lexus Story, by Brian Long. (Note, this is NOT the new book not quite yet published by Jonathan Adler, also confusingly called The Lexus Story). If you don't know this one, it's a book about the history of Lexus (up to about 2001 from memory). Chock full of colour pics of all models, loads of technical data, pictures of old sales brochures, ads, sales figures - geeky stuff with pretties. Cost you about 20 to 30 quid to buy this one. Anyway, we don't have any sort of Club Library, so this is a (first?) contribution to it. Here's the twist. I'm prepared to post this book out for free to anyone that wants a read. All I ask is you paypal me the postage (be about a fiver or less I think). I'd really like the idea to be that when you're finished with it, you say so on this forum and pass it on to the next person that wants a look, again just charging postage. Effectively that means it costs you nothing cos when you pass it on you get the postage you paid to me back from the next person, and so forth. Anyway, if there's any interest in this cackamaney scheme then first to squeak here gets first shot at it.

HB Steve. Be a present in the post for you this week mate.

I'm sure you're right for newer models Colin - but for my part I'm glad I checked. Always assumed it would just be covered, no ifs or buts. Lucky I was feeling cynical about insurance this year.

If you don't have standard Lexus satnav, forget this post. My insurance is due. They want £615 this time. I shopped about and Esure came up with £420. However, I then asked about the satnav - it's standard factory fit, so I assumed if something horrible happened it would be fully covered. Not always so. Turns out that for my existing insurer (Frizzell) they view factory fit satnav as standard equipment, and so cover the full replacement if someone renders it inoperable by smashing the screen, nicking the head unit or CD/DVD drive from the boot, whatever. Obviously you pay your (in my case) £100 excess. But for esure, they had to check very hard, and then decided that it would be viewed as car audio, and they would cover only £250 worth of it. Clearly it wasn't a standard question, and they had to ask the claims department for clarification. They were then prepared to extend the cover to a full repair/replacement costs(dread to think how much, but I bet it's nearer £2500 at a Lexus dealer) for an extra premium. In fact, that extra closed the gap so much that I've stuck with Frizzell now, as they've always been very good. If I hadn't specifically asked I wouldn't have known, and might have been caught out. Point of this long winded post is to flag that your insurer may NOT as standard cover the full cost of standard Lexus satnav repair/replacement if in their opinion it's actually audio kit, so check that small print now before it's too late!

You don't want to have it off with the windows open. You'll get nicked. Sorry. It's Friday.