LexIS200Sport

lol slim pickings mate.

But hope you find your ideal car. Would consider one myself if I had the garage space. They do look very comfy!

There's one on eBay?

2 hours ago, Malc said:

maybe NOT and that's why the points mount up everytime they get caught !

Malc

Do insurance companies even provide cover for these people?

I got mine from Lexus Parts Direct who were the cheapest at the time.

Other members have also sourced shocks from Nippon Autospares in Derby and FCS in Birmingham. The latter two both have eBay stores and currently have GS450h shocks listed on there.

Thanks for the update @Stew-R, exciting stuff. Hope the white one really is Grade 4B material.

Just curious - how would DVLA then determine the tax amount for the car? Would they use the emissions from another comparable 3.5 V6 car as reference or "scale-up" an IS250's or something else?

11 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

There's one on ebay now at a very reasonable price which is tempting. 

Is it the white one? Does look tempting indeed for that price. 

Laurel

I think you've done very well to find one with such low miles! Do you have any photos of the interior? I've never seen a GS without leather seats so quite curious.

Yes, mine is a 450h SE-L that I've had since 2014. It has it's quirks, but overall a nice car  🙂

Compared to yours though it has done 138k miles and the headlights have a lovely yellow tinge on them lol

Hi Kevin, lovely car and welcome to the club.

Real shame about what happened to your Mk1 GS Sport.

Here's to many more miles of smiles in your new GS300  

On 11/12/2020 at 4:50 PM, Mossypossy said:

So are we saying that the extra weight of a hybrid GS does not warrant a stiffer shock?

On 11/12/2020 at 5:17 PM, Britprius said:

No it uses stiffer springs to take the extra weight. The shocks only dampen the movement, and in no way actually support the vehicle. 

John.

I think there is more to that, John. For a given ride frequency, the force exerted by the damper is a function of both the spring stiffness and mass of the body.

If memory serves me well the GS450h is about 200kg heavier than the GS300 (with most of this added weight probably biased to the rear). Installing the shocks from a GS300 may cause the car to be underdamped, as the shocks don't exert adequate force to dampen the movement (and thus dissipate the energy) of the stiffer spring and heavier body. May not be an issue if the car is normally driven solo, but when loaded with 4 passengers + a full boot, I'm not so sure...

Speaking from personal experience, a good chunk of a vehicle's development time is spent tuning the springs and shocks as a matched pair.

I have quite a few too... and I'll start with this...  

Sorry to hear 😞

How/where did you find out the certificate of destruction?

2 hours ago, Sherra said:

on my 2009 model there is an aux socket deep in the armrest console adjacent  to the "cigar lighter" socket.

I think that was available on post-facelift cars (2008 onwards?). James appears to have a pre-facelift car.

The 2nd facelift (2010 onwards) then added music streaming over Bluetooth as well as DAB radio (and deleted the cassette player).

7 minutes ago, Gentleman said:

If I may ask, did you sort the shocks out at an independent's or Lexus? Also, how have you managed the maintenance, servicing etc for the last years?

All main dealer, bar the aftermarket exhaust and wheel alignment. Which reminds me, another thing that let go on mine at 120k miles was the exhaust.

Welcome to the club, James. Excellent choice and lovely car  🙂

Mine's also a 2007 GS450h SE-L with ACC. I've owned it since 2014 and 68,000 miles. It's at 138k miles now and still runs well.

Shocks started weeping at ~110k miles if I remember correctly. It may have started before this as I only found out about it when it was in for an oil change.

For music connectivity, I went with Grom Audio. This link will show the installation that I carried out on my former IS200, but I carried it over to the GS. I can stream music from my iPod via the apple connector or from my phone via Bluetooth.

This car just keeps getting better.

Really look forward to see this beast in person someday. Brings back memories of @sparkystav and @ormi's IS200 (turbocharged and supercharged respectively).

When it's all done, you should take it to Lexus for an oil change just for laughs  😛

On 2/11/2020 at 11:41 PM, LexIS200Sport said:

The implementation of VGRS and AVS, however, leaves much to be desired. It feels like technology for technology's sake and they were rushed to production before they were perfected. These systems, being as complex (and expensive to replace) as they are, achieved neither the comfortable ride nor the sporty handing that they could have offered, in my opinion.

On 2/11/2020 at 11:41 PM, LexIS200Sport said:

Lexus could have made the GS a masterclass in chassis engineering with these systems, but alas.

In normal driving mode, the steering has too much turn lock-to-lock. Great for the motorway but not so much for twisty country roads. Yes, flick the Sport button on and the steering tightens, but so do the dampers, and the car becomes comically stiff.

Just drove a CT200h as a courtesy car the other day and all is forgiven!

Apologies for bumping an old post, but seriously, why is the CT200h so stiffly sprung??

4 minutes ago, Vince Donald said:

My wife had a Nissan Micra with a stretched chain at less than 40,000 miles, when looking into it seems not that uncommon unfortunately.

Vince

Was it a diesel engine?

5 hours ago, simonsm said:

More often than not the problem is simply that the fuel filler cap is not seated or tightened sufficiently or the plasticky rubber seal just inside the cap is worn or kinked.

What he said. I replaced my fuel filler cap with a brand new one and fixed the check VSC problem once and for all. This was on a 2007 Mk3 GS450h @ ~110k miles.

Several thousand miles later I then had the "Cat efficiency below threshold" error (P0420) and that was fixed by replacing the PCV valve, which was all gunked up, and fixing a leak in the exhaust just ahead of the secondary O2 sensor.

30 minutes ago, Herbie said:

Not being funny but are you sure?

I've never heard of any car in my 40-odd years of driving that can do this. Every car I've ever seen or owned, including my 3RX450h (2013) will stop mid-wipe if you turn off the ignition.

In our Nissan Leaf, the wiper always returns to its rest position regardless of when the ignition is switched off. True story.

On a separate note, @stringbender please let us know how effective WD40 is at cleaning the wiper blades. My initial thoughts is that the WD40 residue itself would smear across the windscreen?

Very nice! Welcome to the club.

I bought my GS from Lexus Hedge End back in 2014 and I'd say the overall experience was pretty decent. They also offered the best part-exchange value of any dealer for my IS200. Have never used them for serving though.

UnSORNed and drove my GS for the first time since the initial lockdown in March. Car started up with no dramas at all, like it were just driven yesterday. 

Took it to Lexus for service and hybrid check-up. Apart from the bizarre experience of walking into an empty showroom, the car was all good and released with a clean bill of health (yay).

Drove it back home via a slight detour just to spend some "me time" with the car. As corny as it may sound, watching the sun set on an empty stretch of country road with this playing in the background really felt like falling in love again. Car never felt so smooth and serene. 

Arrived home with a huge grin on my face. Reversed it into the garage, hooked it up to the trickle charger and shut the door. Till next time, buddy 🙂

Looks great. Welcome to the club!