Silver Arrow

Hi mate - the paint looks great, especially in Mesa red, but is very soft; you'll see what I mean when a grain of sand lands on the bonnet and leaves a crater behind....lol

Seriously good cars though

There is now no question that if you have to buy a Lexus, then a Hybrid it is!!

The smell is caused by bacteria, usually...

Comma do an aircon refresher - it's a can that you "let off" in the car. eBay it, you can normally get one for just a few £, and it really works. You might have to do 2 treatments if it's really bad

Like this one

Winters, everytime!!

I knew you'd be in like a shot on this thread, one of your faves lol

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

It is...my secret is out! lol

Seriously though, I've done all sorts in the past with rear wheel drive cars - sand bags, etc etc. The easiest thing in the world to do is lower the pressures to about 22PSI. It increases the foot print of the tyre by 50-100% depending on the size of tyre, but nothing works as well as winters.

People often say that it's too expensive, and it can be if you buy new wheels etc to go with the tyres. I bought some GS300 SEL wheels off eBay for £110, and an SGS trolley jack for £75. Plus the tyres (2 good 2nd hands for the rear and 2 new ones for the fronts - cost £480)...so about £700 spent in total....but what I do know is this:

In summer, winter tyres will wear quicker (the silica compound is too soft and sticky for warm weather)

In winter, summer tyres will wear quicker (as they lose traction and slip about on wet/damp cold roads)

So actually you'll probably find that your tyres will last a lot longer - i.e. cover more miles in their lifetime.

And at the end of it all, I'll just flog them on eBay again and hope to get half of it back! So actually, the extra re-assurance, grip and safety is well worth it. Even if it doesn't snow - the winter tyres work so much better in cold conditions (<7degs C)

This is all coming from a previously self admitting winter tyre sceptic! The type of summer tyre you have and the amount of tread makes a huge difference, it's largely down to that and how gentle you are with the loud pedal (than it being a Lexus IS300h) that will mean you are OK or not in slippery conditions. I've found that applies to any rear wheel drive car; for example my old e60 automatic was OK in snow and ice on non run-flat Hankook summers, when everyone else complained; whereas my manual IS220d on Bridgestone RE040's was atrocious....

PS - www.mytyres.co.uk normally do great prices at this time of year. They deliver them quickly and most Indy tyre fitters will charge you £30-40 to fit and balance all 4...

To be fair, all season tyres are good enough to deal with snow. Obviously, that depends on how much snow you get but the main problem is, its difficult to find them in IS F Sport fitments, dont know about the other trim levels as I havent checked

That is a good point, we've put some Hankook Optimo 4s's on our Golf now - will report on how that goes when it gets slippy out there. In summer they have been superb so far, even in the down-pours.

Winters, everytime!!

I knew you'd be in like a shot on this thread, one of your faves lol

Sent from my Iphone using Lexus OC

It is...my secret is out! lol

Seriously though, I've done all sorts in the past with rear wheel drive cars - sand bags, etc etc. The easiest thing in the world to do is lower the pressures to about 22PSI. It increases the foot print of the tyre by 50-100% depending on the size of tyre, but nothing works as well as winters.

People often say that it's too expensive, and it can be if you buy new wheels etc to go with the tyres. I bought some GS300 SEL wheels off eBay for £110, and an SGS trolley jack for £75. Plus the tyres (2 good 2nd hands for the rear and 2 new ones for the fronts - cost £480)...so about £700 spent in total....but what I do know is this:

In summer, winter tyres will wear quicker (the silica compound is too soft and sticky for warm weather)

In winter, summer tyres will wear quicker (as they lose traction and slip about on wet/damp cold roads)

So actually you'll probably find that your tyres will last a lot longer - i.e. cover more miles in their lifetime.

And at the end of it all, I'll just flog them on eBay again and hope to get half of it back! So actually, the extra re-assurance, grip and safety is well worth it. Even if it doesn't snow - the winter tyres work so much better in cold conditions (<7degs C)

This is all coming from a previously self admitting winter tyre sceptic! The type of summer tyre you have and the amount of tread makes a huge difference, it's largely down to that and how gentle you are with the loud pedal (than it being a Lexus IS300h) that will mean you are OK or not in slippery conditions. I've found that applies to any rear wheel drive car; for example my old e60 automatic was OK in snow and ice on non run-flat Hankook summers, when everyone else complained; whereas my manual IS220d on Bridgestone RE040's was atrocious....

PS - www.mytyres.co.uk normally do great prices at this time of year. They deliver them quickly and most Indy tyre fitters will charge you £30-40 to fit and balance all 4...

The FSport is harder than the SE, which I would say is "firm" and OK to live with. I struggled with the F Sport - too jiggly for me and that with the narrow feeling seats gave me back ache. You need an extended drive to really know whether it's any good. If you have any doubts at all, and are in the market for a brand new one, then just order the AVS option. I know I would...

Winters, everytime!!

check your Battery voltage....

year to date (end July) there have been 2,483 ISs sold. Things have certainly picked up compared to 2012 when only 1,046 were sold in the whole year however that was from an ageing model. Best full year for the IS was in 2007 with 8,778 sold.

The 6 year model cycle that Toyota/Lexus use don't really work well in the UK, after 4 years sales seem to fall of a cliff.

It only falls off because the opposition are much more aggressive with their 6-7 year cycles. Their drive to make their cars more and more efficient, almost yearly, means that people still get reasonably up to date technology at the end of the cycle.

If you look at Lexus, historically, the evolution is more like step changes every few years as opposed to yearly tinkering, if you know what I mean. Take the CT for example....same drive train for far too long, as is the Prius etc. By which time the opposition have caught and often overtaken the Toyota stable cars.

You really would have expected the CT to have been light years ahead of where it is today (e.g. Lithium batteries, plug in versions, sub 50g/km etc), when others have already started to do that (e.g. Volvo, BMW etc)

It's probably also one of the reasons why Lexus are so reliable....everything is bullet proof, tried and tested.

Ultimately though, just over 2400 IS's sold is a small number, which will get smaller as the germans start getting their cars below that magical 99g/km, which they will within 12 months, I'm sure!

Thats amazing Raayans - I paid £825 for the GS250 for 3 services, which I have to say is extortionate, but they promised me that it was cheaper by £50 over paying for each one, which they said was a fixed price. Since then I've heard people do get discounts if they ask nicely, so I think I was fleeced a bit!

Compared to my previous car - a BMW 3.l D Auto - over 5 years it cost £550 to service!

The few I've driven are OK, though there is still too much hard plastic on the centre console for my liking, which is always gonna be prone to the odd creak as temperatures affect it and the surrounding differing grades of plastic.

The new GS is miles ahead of the previous GS in terms of quality of materials in my view, whereas the new IS is slightly better than the previous IS.

I ditched the IS220d Gen2 IS after 2.5 years because it just didn't stack up to the hype around Lexus quality. It was a bad car (mine certainly was - it was one of the first, and possibly one of the worst of them all). Rattles, limp modes, EGR, 5th Injector, Rattles, Rattles and more Rattles....it spent months back at the garage, but thankfully there are fewer reports of issues with the new one.

When they do the government tests they do them on a rolling road....

I've just accepted the satnav is what it is. I've been a beta tester for TomTom for a couple of years so have always had their latest and greatest (iPhone version, not PND though) and it is like going back to 2003 with the Premium Nav. However I'm more anal about the traffic and their data is good. I did side by side comparisons and I'm happy.

I'm an iPhone 5 on Vodafone and have the downloads set to most frequent and also get more downloads cannot be done more than fresh data, so its not just you, but the data is still good.

TBH I tend to sit with the infotainment screen on the home page so I see what is playing on the ipod because I tend to use dynamic playlists on shuffle the most.

I get the odd freeze from the ipod, and tend to just pull the cable and put it back in and all is good again. I have tried DJPs reset but that will drop my wifi and it won't come back till I toggle the Hotspot on the Iphone (apple quirk not Lexus) which is a little dangerous when driving.

For a Premium car though the infotainment is by far it's weakest feature.

Agreed - hasn't really changed too much from the Gen 2 IS from 2005....

Seems pretty amazing stuff....might have to try it.

A good 3M type wrap company will remove all supagard etc before applying the film- -to be honest once installed the supagard is useless anyway, and chances are it will wear away in 6-12 months regardless of their sales speak.

I think the newer AMG/Sport models have almost all of the kit of a Lexus - though decent stereo, smart entry and vented seats are still expensive. Nice cars all the same...

3M is the only way to go. Any liquid that you apply is likely to be a sealant glaze - which won't protect against a stone flying into the car at 70mph and it will wear away....

3M is expensive - it used to come tailor cut, but to be honest it's no different to Vinyl wrapping. It's just that it's clear rather than coloured.

The 2nd Gen IS did have quite high road noise unless it was new tarmac - it's not just that the car is otherwise quiet - the noise is high. The same, to a certain extent, can be said for my GS - whisper quiet in town, but on a motorway the road noise is high - concrete being particularly bad. It can be so high that at times you find having to raise your voice. Winter tyres do make it a bit quieter - so I blame the Dunlops' that are the standard summer tyre fitting.

The GS F Sport also has AVS as standard and so it can really be firmed up, which really should have been the case with the IS (and NX).

Once I got back inside my GS though, I realised how firm the ride is in the IS - even the SE with 17" wheels, and how the seats on the IS are made for young people...I can't kid myself, it's not for me!!

True the Hybrid is awesome, but the rest of the car is for a different type of person.

Can't compare old XR3's or GTI's, they were quite soft in comparison, and much lighter cars.

About 10 probably, which is twice the number of GS's....

I agree with Richard. It scares me what the depreciation is like....especially on my GS250...it's probably worth half of what I paid 2 years ago.

Car's in for a service today and I get an IS300h. I immediately thought "Blast, back ache day again.....!"

This time I got an IS300h SE with Nav, and am happier. It has slightly better seats, less harsh ride (I would call this firm but not hard like the F Sport). It has lumbar support too, which I haven't seen on the SE before...????

Managed 76mpg through town on the way home too....so it can be done!! WOW

Some "retro" things on cars are cool, but the footbrake is just daft. The GS has an electronic brake, so I wonder why they didn't put one in the new IS? On newer BMW's you can also set the electro handbrake to set automatically when stationery which is really cool. My GS won't allow that.

Anyway, as far as the Sat nav is concerned then you will be disappointed by the Lexus system with it's remote touch thing. The newer (post 2010) BMW I Drive is much better in my opinion, having experienced it in an X3 whilst in the states for 3 weeks recently. It's so much faster and intuitive compared to any of the Lexus navigation units. The X3 also had a sensitive iDrive controller where you can write letters/characters in with a finger etc. and programming is a doddle.

Other than remote touch/mouse, the look and feel of the Lexus system hasn't changed for years from what I can tell and experienced in the old IS.

Is it really worth getting it fixed every time? Don't get me wrong if this happened to my new car I would be upset but if it costs £200 each time, presumably not on your insurance, it could get very expensive trying to keep the car in perfect condition.

When the car has been repaired is it as good as new with a perfect colour match? Does it affect the value of the car come trade in time? It's the same with the alloys. Is it worth repairing them every time they get curbed?

My wife's jazz has loads of dings in the door from car parks and the odd scratch from the kids bikes. If I got this repaired every time it would cost a fortune. Will you get the cost of repair back at trade in time?

Just wondering if it's worth the hassle.

Paul

I spent my youth successfully getting from A to B in a variety of reliable sheds. Sheds are good. Our Lexus wasnt bought as a shed and I dont want to allow it to become one. I am fast coming to the conclusion that it would be more economical to buy a shed specifically as a shopping tool.

Exactly what we did.....

Lexus servicing is not Cheap....it's the one really expensive thing about Lexus ownership. The extended warranty (on a so called ultra reliable car) is also very expensive.