Unregistered_User1

Just paid the £10 thru the Paypal link for a lovely set of 4 chrome caliper stickers. You'll obviously have my postal details available thru paypal. Cheers for this... now need to re-paint those calipers from RED to BLACK..!

I always drive all my cars with the air-con turned on. Not much point in having the luxury of air-con (actually... "climate control" for the perfectionists) if you aren't going to use it!

That eBay seller is only willing to ship to US people... shame.

I take it it's this piccy... http://www.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/alb...01/dash_lights2 The blue looks OK, but does it not distract you from the road ahead? The red color is proven not to distract the eye (which is why Lexus have the deep red background in the first place).

Sports Grill for an IS200 SE painted (Astral Black), fitted and including VAT was quoted @ £248.57 from Lexus Newcastle. This did not include any GOLD discount. fyi... Illuminated scuff plates were quoted @ £262.60.

Great... saves me having to type out the endless list of checks they perform!

I originally thought I would muck-up the job... but as long as you use some masking tape and basically cover everything that you don't want touched then you'll be OK. If you've painted anything before (house walls, pictures) then you'll be OK... I was!!! If you lacquer the calipers that is likely to slow down corrosion since it is heat / cold / salt / water which cause corrosion.

I always protect my "No Claims Discount/Bonus" so my NCB would not be affected. I made the assumption that most people would protect their NCB's? If people choose to pay a higher excess in return for a more favourable premuim then that's their personal choice. If you expect to make small claims, then having a hefty excess will certainly stop you doing so... which is something the insurance companies bank-on! "You takes yer pick" I suppose. I expect to make claims for defects / problems not covered by warranty... stone chips being the biggest culprit in my personal circumstances.

I'm sure I received a worksheet explaining everything that would be changed / checked at each service level. I'll have a look about.

Just phone your Lexus dealer and ask how much it'd cost for the one hour job to push out your dent (assuming it can be done!), and touch-up the paintwork. If you have fully-comp insurance then you'll only have a fifty quid excess, so claim the work on your insurance. That's what you pay it for! In fact, just claim for a whole new door so you don't have to worry about the after-effects of heating and beating a panel.

If the stone chip isn't too big you might get away with just t-cutting!! T-Cut is basically a paint-thinner, and you put a little bit (and I mean a little bit!!!) on a cloth and move in circular motions around the chip. Basically what happens is the paint thins and merges/paints across the chip hole [as long as the chip hole isn't too deep/big!]. Not too pleasant to do on a metallic finish though. If you got some paint from your Lexus dealer why didn't you ask the bodyshop lads to touch-up your car for you? Would have taken them 2 mins!

V. nice... looks good in black. I wish I'd gone for black now instead of red... Eeek. I think I'll be repainting this weekend coming. I wonder when the chrome caliper stickers are coming back in stock..?

I bought a 52-plate IS200 SE from Newcastle in June'03, and the calipers are already "problematic" (they were starting to look rusty). The workshop had tarted them up a little bit when the car was ready for sale, but that effort was a shabby one to say the least! I have just spent the time over the weekend to paint them... first time I tried anything like that (on a car anyway!) and they look OK. I have a black car, and painted the calipers red (and that's quite a bright red!). Used Hammerite (bought from Halfords for a little under five quid) and a normal small paint brush. There are no brush marks... as kev dood says the paint seems to melt in. I'll be taking the front wheels off this weekend coming to finish off the job... wether I keep them bright red or re-paint them black I don't know yet. I haven't got a digi-cam so cannot take a piccy for everyone to see. Sorry. There's a damn good "how to" somewhere... that's what I used to help me paint the calipers and the information contained is extremely useful. This is the link to the "how to paint your calipers" info.

I believe that is illegal... :winky: I remember a friend of mine [who remain anonymous] who was sitting in a big traffic jam heading home, south on the A1 (on the Scottish border). One of the passengers nipped out of the car and took one of those flashing orange lights from the top of a traffic cone. The passenger held the orange light on top of the car whilst he drove down the hard-shoulder. Got all-the-way to the front of the traffic jam without anyone batting an eyelid... but there were some police cars filtering traffic past the accident and he got pulled. He didn't lose his license but got 6 points (I believe)... also saved 3 hours off his journey too! I wonder how impressed a member of the police force would be if they saw you imitating a police officer (which is a criminal offence ). Maybe if you gave them a test drive of your Lexus you'd get away with just a summons to prove the lights had been removed?

ON when the wife and bairn is in the car. OFF when I'm driving by myself. TRC only stops your wheels from spinning in a straight line. If you are coming off a bend and put your foot down in the wet you'll find your ****-end overtaking you which can be quite a scary feeling... so even with TRC on in the wet you still need to be careful with a rear-wheel drive car!

Yeah, that seems easy... but what I'm saying is I don't want to pay to join GOLD to find out that there's no spoilers there that I fancy. I do plan on joining GOLD anyway... but posting to keep everyone informed. I have looked all the way thru the IS200 gallery, and I don't see any piccies of any IS200 with a high-level spoiler (as in fitted above the rear window). Plenty of low-level spoilers (as in fitted on the boot lid), but no high-level. They do exist don't they???

Could anyone post more details please? I am interested in getting a slim high-level spoiler (with brake-light) fitted to my IS200 SE also. Cheers, p.h.

I take it you mean this one..? http://www.lexusownersclub.com/gallery/alb...lbum01/107_0716 I don't know where they come from, but would definately be interested in finding out..! Who owns this car? Can you "shed any light" (no pun intended)?

A 'V' (2000) will be dropping out of warranty (if not already!). 65K is not bad stretched over 3 years. Full service history means nothing when buying a used car (in my opinion... others may differ!). Remember to fully check the paintwork (bonnet / grill for stone chips) and alloys for rust / marks. Any garage can tart-up a car making it look pretty, but not many owners keep their car that way! Paintwork problems lead quickly to rusting. I would think £12K was a bit steep for a 3-year old Sport. £10K would interest me... £12K would not. Remember that Lexus dealers keep their used-car-prices inflated deliberately... don't let the "non-Lexus dealer" do the same! I suppose £12K is a good starting price for haggling though... especially if your friend can negotiate a deal on a part-ex. Hope this opinion helps.

Now there's some good advice. I hammered down the price of a Lexus IS200 SE, Astral Black, 14K miles, 52-plate from my local Lexus (Newcastle). You should try to visit the dealer nearer the end of the month (they have a sales target to reach), and be prepared to walk away [no dealer will want a 52-plate sitting on their forecourt when the 53-plates are coming out in September!]. I signed my deal after visiting Lexus for three days on the bounce. Don't forget about your trade-in on your Toyota Celica! Don't let them talk the price down... get as much as you can for it. All Lexus will do is sell it to another dealer, or auction it. You may want to register your interest in a Toyota similar to your vehicle's details... as Lexus will check to see what the current interest in similar vehicles are..! If the interest is high, then they'll be less worried about resale and may be more able to offer a decent trade-in. Even if you cannot negotiate a reduction in the "forecourt" price, get them to chuck as many extra's into the deal as possible. Car mats, Supaguard interior/exterior treatment, free servicing, scuff-plates, privacy windows are all extra's that cost Lexus very little. Hope my two-pence makes you at least think about your options. All the best whatever you do... as long as you walk away happy from the deal (with or without the Lexus), that's all that matters!

Yeah, I noticed that too... "S 200"... where's your eye? And can anyone post two piccies, one with a debadged car and one badged... just to see if there really is that much difference!

"I filled my car to the brim with Shell Optimax last night (£47 @ 78.9p!!!). I'll be doing the "ECU Reset" myself tonight." I noticed very little performance increase, although since I only picked up the car on Thursday and filled it on Thursday evening (£47!!) I have no real basis for comparison. Also, I forgot to keep a note of the current mileage and since I reset the ECU I now don't know how many miles I've done on a full tank of petrol. I'll now have to dry the tank, then fill up again, then reset odometer to zero, then dry the tank, just to see what my MPG / fuel efficiency is. Jees... the things you do. In my old (1999) Ford Focus 1.8 I was filling up (£37) and getting about 410 miles to a tank.... works out @ ~11 miles per quid. As long as I get the same sort of returns from the Lexus I'll be happy.

Question still remains... I am after some pricing, as are a few other people it looks like. Thanks for the info. about needing to leave the windows alone for a few days... never heard that one before. Also, are the "tints" child-proof... as in if a little two-year-old started to scrape his finger nails down the window would the "tinting" come off..?

Heh... what a bloody good idea. Cheers mate!

I was thinking about getting a tracking device fitted. Is it true you have to pay a monthly subscription (on top of the price of installation) to enable the GPS tracking / police call..? I'm just wondering if some petty thief can come along, cut the hand-brake cable, and push my car away without anyone even batting an eyelid because the alarm isn't going off..? They'd have to get into the car and smash the steering column though if they wanted to turn it... so I'd be more likely to find it in a straight line pushed into a brick-wall probably. Grrrrr