Silver Arrow

+1 for Bilberry to take the dust off easily. It smells soooo good - seriously don't leave it near a child.... Apparently these newer Lexus finishes are powder coated, not merely painted - so corrosion should be a thing of the past.

Don't these additives just increase the cetane value slightly, and a bit more lube? Tried Millers in my IS220d and saw no difference under normal circumstances, except first few fills when I was conscious of it and driving carefully

Pleased yours is sorted - my GS250 was keyed all down one side - 4 panels - even though my local Lex did a reasonable job, the lacquer beading isn't right at all at the edges and they seem to have used too much wet and dry to remove the peel effect. result? A not so perfect finish and a slightly shady appearance. To be honest only I notice it and at change time they probably won't see it unless the sun is direct, so I'll live with it, but it's totally put an end to the days of detailing a car for me - I just won't ever bother keeping it looking immaculate now as the green and envious get upset, and take it out on the car!

Autoglym Wheel Seal, or Mr Sheen!

Mines done 7000 miles since last service and the oil is Extra Virgin Olive Oil colour....not dark at all....and it hasn't used a drop!

What are the service intervals?? 10k miles? If so I'm going to be getting very friendly with dealer, as I'll be there every other month at the mileage I'll be doing! Not that the dealership is a bad place to be - Nespresso coffee, shortbread, free wifi, B&O TV and Stereo etc etc You do realise that we're paying for all that plushness, by way of shorter service intervals :doggy:

Might be like Triggers broom..."I've had this Lexus for 900,000 miles, it's had 2 new body shells, 3 gearboxes and 4 engines"

I agree with pretty much everything on this thread. Having said that I ran a BMW 525d Auto, 3.0l Diesel for almost 5 years, only having covered 34k and without a single problem to speak of. In 2.5 years of the IS220d, it was in over 10 times for all sorts of issues. From my experience and that of the Lexus (Lexus dropped the IS220d in 2011), the car was seriously compromised right from start - dodgy final drive/gearing, 5th Injector woes etc, and I have said it so many times - if you buy a car from a manufacturer buy what the do best. With Lexus that means buy a Petrol Auto or a Hybrid.

They don't need running in - I've asked Lexus, Audi, VW, Nissan, Honda and BMW dealers when buying brand new cars since 2000 and all say the same: It is sensible to drive at no more than 2/3's of the rev and speed range for the first 1000 miles, and with an auto it's hard to labour the engine. So just drive it, but bear in mind there are some new things on the car like brakes and tyres that need bedding in. Running in was when you had the head tightened/re-torqued after 1000 miles, oil change, valve clearances adjusted etc. No more! And yes - they are Bench Run from what I recall....

I paid £34500 for mine at launch, possibly worth £20k tops on a px so I will be keeping it 10 years, so far 14k on the clock, 18 months old and drives better than new!

The gs300h is a 4 cyl (!) 2.5 litre Atkinson cycle engine, same as the is300h if I'm not mistaken. I love my GS 250, the smooth syrupy drive is absolutely wonderful, the car just floats about. Performance is adequate for a big car, but the GS300h is slower to 60, the slightly better torque might help a bit

You do have to adjust it - but systems like the ML need to be turned up a bit to get the best of them. The best I have ever is the B&O in the Audi A8 - with the pop up tweeters. It is the most concert hall like experience I have ever heard - though the MLS in 2IS I thought was slightly better then the 4GS. I think it's the "Green" energy efficient speaker set up - takes a little of the deep bass away. Still worth the extra conga in my book - it is still excellent. It is all relative though....I used to think the standard stereo in my Corolla was brilliant, until I heard a mates Alpine set up in his Mitsubishi Sapporo Turbo.....this is going back to 1990....

I think it's 5w30, but not 100% sure. I too am a bit gutted, but whilst the economy looks OK the performance isn't - 0-60 in over 9 seconds is way too slow in my book, and all those batteries in the boot - haven't driven one yet - but surely a luxury car should have 6 cylinders?? There aren't many naturally aspirated 6 Cyl (or 8 cal) petrol cars out there any more. I think the GS250 will be one of the last....

So sorry about this mate, but just watch the quality of the repair (can't tell if the black is metallic or not). When my GS was keyed last year it went in to Lexus, and even though they did a pretty good job, the newly painted side is way shinier than the factory finish, and the Metallic bits are totally different to the factory finish - it grates on me and hopefully yours will be OK. If someone looks carefully it's obvious, and cannot be fixed unless I have a full respray. Just watch that one. Also, £5500? Wow! Thats a lot!

It uses 2.4ghz, like everything else (e.g. wifi).....so might fail sometimes

Is that the 4x4 Mazda 6? They are awesome!

I think it's referring to the fact that the 184bhp from BMW is "somewhat morewhelming" if that makes sense....(faster, better economy etc) compared to the naturally aspirated 2.5 in the Lexus? Dunno....or were they expecting much more from the 2.5?

Nice write up. There is defo a difference between the IS and GS - one is more suited to wafting about, the other more sporty, and I also totally get what you mean about the GS being big....I still struggle with it 18 months on, even though it's millimterically identical to my old 5 series BMW - driving that through twisty roads was like threading a needle perfectly. With the GS (Lux) it's like threading a needle after a few whisky's...I can never accurately judge the corners and the number of times I catch the near side alloys against kerbs....You can place the IS where you want.

Not the G series, but I have driven a 5 Series Hybrid. It's not too bad, just a little jerky from time to time, and I found the engine too eager to cut in. TBH Toyota/Lexus Hybrids I believe are still ahead.

I think it's based on costs. True the Audi and BMW cost similar to a GS450h, but so does a BMW 535d, and to be honest if you ever drive one, you'll see why people rave about them. For the money nothing comes close, with the right spec. And as far as thats concerned, there are so many things on a Lexus that you probably wouldn't spec if you were paying. They are nice to have... The Torque from the German twin turbo's is mind blowing. The performance is astonishing. I do agree that the ride can be disappointing, but VDC or Adaptive drive on the BMW is awesome.

The other thing is that the batteries never go <20% and never >80%, which should significantly prolong their life - but there are threads on this forum which do indicate some issues with 450h's from 2006 ish.... You shouldn't kid yourself tbh, there are more things to eventually go wrong.

lol No roof gutters....I recall the same was said about the G2

There are reports of problems with batteries on this forum - see here on the early GS450's Also, I understand from the above post that Lexus only give a 5 year warranty on the Hybrid stuff, not 8 years (as Toyota do for Toyota badged Hybrids)

Try THIS

The extended warranty is a confidence building thing- - I think same reason Toyota went to 5 years after all that USA stuff (cars off a cliff)