Simon_D

It is a nice enough car but the dash rattles on mine are driving me mad.......... and from what I've been reading, I've got a relatively good one. The dealers have been less than impressive and the whole experience has put my wife and I off the Lexus brand. It is a shame because the 250 is not a bad car, it is just that at this kind of price the fit and finish is dreadful. My only other issue is the dodgy brakes - they're just not up to the job. I knew the car was not as good as a 3 or a C but was hoping that reliability and dealer service would make up for it.......... BIG MISTAKE! I'm just glad I tested the water with a s/h IS. If it was up to scratch my wife would have bought a new RX this year. As it is the money will end up with BMW.

Interesting. I've noticed that my IS250 takes much longer to warm up than any other car I've owned. My Subarus are generally up to operating temperature in half the time of the Lexus. I miss AWD but we still have one Subaru left for when it gets really slippery.

The design and materials used in the dash are pretty low rent and it all seems rather poorly screwed together. Everything flexes a bit when you push it - sometimes it creaks/cracks sometimes it doesn't but there is no feeling of solidity to the whole thing. I'm not saying it is a bad car, just that in terms of fit and finish it is closer to Toyota/Subaru than to the Germans. My Father-in-Laws's five year old Corolla doesn't creak like my 12k mile Lexus.

I agree on the C-Class but prefer the look of the Elegance and the drive of the Sport. My final choice came down to a C280 Elegance or the IS250 SEL with MM. Same age, slightly higher mileage on the Merc, same price. The seats in the Elegance are not particularly comfortable and it came with no extras - not even parking sensors. Trying to find a s/h six cylinder Merc with a decent spec was next to impossible and to spec one to my requirements would cost close to £50k. Too much for a second car used for the school run! Finding a top spec 250 is easy.

Sit inside the two and it is the Audi all the way. The interior is miles ahead of the cheaply built IS.......... BUT to get the spec of a decent IS it will cost a fortune and the IS250 auto in particular has a beautifully smooth and cosseting driveline. The thing that I can't stand with the FWD Audis is the tugging at the steering - I always feel that FWD gives any car a feeling of cheapness. Not really an issue if you are sat on a motorway all day but around town and in the twisties it really shows. The 1.8TFSI feels a lot quicker than the IS because of the mid-range shove of the turbo (it highlights the torque steer though) but if you rev the IS there's probably not much in it. The steering of the IS is VERY sharp and direct but with almost no feel whatsoever - I'm getting used to it but it has taken a while. I was looking at the usual BMW 3, Merc C and IS250. There's no doubt in my mind that the Lexus is third best of the three but in terms of value for money it beats the others by miles - IF the 250 is the right engine choice for you. Otherwise go for something else. I'm pretty happy that I made the right decision for me but once past the initial novelty of all the toys, the build quality has been a major disapointment.

So how far did you have to go away from standard pressures to get 20k out of a set of Toyos? Mine's still on original Dunlops at about 15k miles.

That's where I'm going wrong. Mine's got a hairdryer under the bonnet! :) I did find it surprising though - in our Subaru the front speakers are muted when instructions come through.

I used the Nav for the first time in anger a couple of weeks ago and (apart from the incomplete post-code input) was pretty impressed by it. I was surprised that the radio was not turned down or off when the instructions came through but assumed that there would be a menu somewhere to fix this. I can't find anything on the screen or in the manual that will allow me to do this. Am I missing something?

Well, they had the car for a couple of days and ordered some new parts but the main problem, which appears to be around the vents, is still there. They have, however, been very helpful and courteous which is a refreshing change after dealing with Mercedes and BMW in the last few years. I had a good Subaru dealer but they shut down......along with every other Subaru dealer I have ever used. While looking at a C-Class in my local Merc dealer a few weeks ago I was confronted by a customer who had come to pick up his new car (that they had already taken a deposit on) only to find that they had sold it to someone else (presumably at a better price). They were rushing around trying to fob him off with another car. That combined with shocking incompetence from the service dept has put me off Mercs for a long time. A shame because they seem to be finally improving their cars after knocking out gaudy tat for the last 15 years!

Now that IS definitely the answer. I must have missed that paragraph! What a useful place this is :). ......now back to the dealer for another go at solving the dash creaks!

Thanks for that, you're probably right there. The thing I found strange was that they would adjust up and down, just wouldn't dip when I put the car into reverse. There's so much "stuff" on this car that I have spent ages reading the manual just to check whether everything is working! I guess there is a risk of some items failing and the ownwer not noticing for a very long time because he/she isn't aware of that particular function. Anyway, Merry Christmas to you too.

My IS 250 went back to the dealer to have the passenger door mirror fixed (it would not adjust or dip vertically) but I have subsequently noticed that neither mirror has been dipping when I put it into reverse. I haven't been using it much lately becuase of the weather but got it out of the garage this morning to find that the mirrors are now dipping just fine! The only thing I've done since I last used the car over a week ago is to charge the battery. Could this be a cold weather issue or something to do with the mirrors going through a number of cycles since the dealer disconnected the battery to do the work in the first place (I seem to remember there is a similar issue with the one touch windows)?

I must say I agree with pretty much all of that......but then I did buy secondhand! Had I paid new money for the car I would be seriously disappointed with the downmarket feel that all the creaks and rattles give the car. I can't really comment on reliability yet but the one trip to the dealer due to have squeaks/rattles cured and the door mirror fixed is one more trip than I have needed in the past six years with Subarus.

Sounds interesting. I don't suppose you have a list of creaks and cures do you? I haven't had the cracking noise from the screen (yet!) but have a creaky dash and have a feeling that it won't be the last.

It looks lovely as it is.

I confess that I put the IS in the garage and get the wife's Subaru out at the first sign of snow or ice!

....to be sure, to be sure.........

Is there a service schedule that lists exactly what they do at each service? My experience is that when dealers (not Lexus) quote lower prices they just skip items on the service schedule. It then just becomes a quote for a stamp in the book rather than a set quantity of work.

I had the NS mirror replaced when car was 3 months old and just had the OS mirror replaced b4 warranty expired because of this exact problem. Hope you have a warranty , as I saw the invoice for the first one and think cost was bout £400. Ouch! Mine failed yesterday. I've only had the car for a few days. It's going in to have the creaky dashboard looked at in a couple of weeks - I hope I don't have a long list for them by then!

I had the NS mirror replaced when car was 3 months old and just had the OS mirror replaced b4 warranty expired because of this exact problem. Hope you have a warranty , as I saw the invoice for the first one and think cost was bout £400. Ouch! Mine failed yesterday. I've only had the car for a few days. It's going in to have the creaky dashboard looked at in a couple of weeks - I hope I don't have a long list for them by then!

Diesels are certainly not THE answer (more of a political expediency!) and will be replaced by alternative fuels but certainly not by hybrids. They are a dead end if ever I saw one.

That's what I mean. At 5 years the Lexus dealer says that it is "within tolerances" but at 7 years I'm getting 18 mpg and wondering what to do. A five year warranty on the hybrid battery will also make six year old hybrids take a very significant dive in value - a large percentage of the cost of replacing the battery I would imagine. All very well if you buy new and sell at three years but buying an approved used 3-4 year old example could be a risky. Large petrol engined SUVs are worth next to nothing after a few years. I suppose the RXhs would at least maintain their lower road tax levels even if they were chucking out the CO2 like any other SUV. I'm curious because I would like some alternatives to the inevitable trip to the BMW dealer for a diesel X5 in the next couple of years.

While purchasing my IS recently my wife showed considerable interest in the RX450h as a replacement for her Subaru Tribeca. I've always been sceptical about hybrids and the claims for economy (born out by posts from owners on this site I might add) but my main concern is about the life of the hybrid battery. Presumably its performance will decline over the years resulting in increasingly poor economy. How long do they last and is replacement economically viable?

Very little. A change in tyres will never make a noisy car quiet. I have been down this route with other cars in the past and the differences are tiny if you are talking about road tyres. I've also used sound proofing kits in the past and these are equally ineffective. If you can't live with the road noise then change the car. We will still use the Subaru for long trips away with the family because it is quieter at speed and more spacious - I'm happy to live with the IS for shorter distance work.

That's all very useful. So the boot and parking sensors are a case of "they're all like that"; the creaking I'll get the dealer to have a look at when I get the map updates. Other than that I'm pretty happy with the car. Road noise and creaks aside it is a quiet and comfortable place to be. There is more real world space in the back than road test measurements suggest and the gearbox is streets ahead of other non-German autos. I was tossing up between this and a C280 - I'm happy with the choice. The Merc rides better and the engine is stronger but the spec available for the same money was poor and the dealers are shocking. At this time of year I really miss the bottom end power and AWD of my old Impreza but if it snows I'll get the wife's Subaru out and put the IS away. I really wanted to buy a Subaru Legacy SpecB but I am concerned about the future of Subaru in this country. I have dealt with four dealers in the last 13 years of Subaru ownership and all of them have shut down. I was unimpressed with my first visit to my new one a couple of months ago. Their model range has shifted towards the North American market and it shows.......... Anyway, it's good to find a useful source of IS info. Thanks for your help.