PhilipK

41 minutes ago, RNUK said:

That's what I thought. But there is a lot on the trader marked as SE-L but without parking sensors. I thought the SE-L was fully loaded

When I bought my SE-L (which does have front and rear parking sensors), there were a lot of cars listed as "SE-L" that were actually "SE-I" or lower spec. I found that the best clue was the presence or absence of the Electric Rear Sunblind switch, if the photos in the advert showed that part of the interior.

As far as mileage recording goes, both the listings for my IS250 on MyLexus and for my GT86 on MyToyota differ in mileage for some entries from the documented paperwork that I have from the dealers. I've also had the mileage written incorrectly on the service history for my M3 by a BMW dealership (got them to provide and stamp up a whole new book for me), so it's not totally impossible that there's a genuine explanation for the OP's situation.

On 13/06/2017 at 2:19 PM, NemesisUK said:

Then add the cost of repairing the car you neglected to insure properly, i.e. didn't inform your insurer you were taking it on track!

But the Nürburgring isn't a track - it's a "private toll road".

It's a dealer pretending to be a private seller (so that he can dodge his responsibilities under the law). Just Google his mobile number and see how many car ads it has been associated with. 07521280209

Don't walk away from this car - run away!

Given that a car with a full MoT would be much easier to sell (and at a higher price) than one with only a month's MoT left, and also that the ad is on Gumtree, you would need to be very brave and/or very lucky to even thing about buying it.

Were there any advisories on the last MoT? If so, they may have turned into full-scale MoT failures by now, especially if it has done 20k miles since then. You can check this at the government web site

I've done 22,939 miles in my IS250 in just under 3 years, and have averaged 28.64mpg over that time. Mind you, the average has been dragged down somewhat since my wife has decided to use it as her daily driver!

On 10/10/2016 at 9:03 PM, Wisty said:

Second this.  I'm near Warrington and traveled to Lincoln to see (and buy) the IS I have now.  It's worth the journey if you want to make sure all of your boxes are ticked.

I live in Hampshire and bought my SE-L in Wolverhampton (and my BMW Z4M in Glasgow!)

2 minutes ago, rynd2it said:

Philip I do wish you could read & understand English before replying.

Yup - an ad hominem attack is always so much easier than admitting you were wrong.

Then again, for somebody with a gazillion years experience in IT, you don't even appear to understand the difference between a digit and an alphanumeric character, or the difference between a single disk or a 4-disk (or was that a 3-disk?) set of maps, or that UK and Finland are contained on separate map disks...

I'll let you get back to asking Lexus for the moon on a stick for your 9 year old car.

I don't know where you get the idea that the map set for Europe ever fitted on a single (or even 3) disk - it has been a 4-disk set for many years now, which is why I have repeatedly referred to "Western Europe", as that is the disk within the 4-disk set which includes the UK.

As far as I know, Finland is on the North Europe map, so your argument is somewhat specious.

20 minutes ago, rynd2it said:

I said the LAST 15 years - the previous 25 before added a bit to my experience. Storage is easily managed in numerous simple ways.. All it takes is will power and a bit of imagination but I've also learned that people who continually say something's impossible are almost always wrong in the end. 

Well, yes - storage can be managed, but what exactly would you suggest that Toyota should do? Issue a separate DVD (with all the additional costs involved) just for the UK? Remove some of the metadata for other countries in Western Europe so that they can fit the UK post codes on? Compress the data, with the concomitant performance impact? Issue a recall to install a hard disk based system in everybody's car?

It's not that it's impossible; it's just that it makes absolutely no commercial sense for Toyota to design and implement a new solution for the small (and decreasing) number of people who will actually purchase map updates for these car. As the cars get older, people will simply live with outdated maps, spend the money on a PND, or download an illegal copy from the dark web.

14 minutes ago, rynd2it said:

As I spent the last 15 years of my working life updating and modernising computer software (starting with the Y2K refits) I have some experience in software development and what is and is not possible. The change would be relatively simple especially as they already have working code for it in the later versions. It's a pure marketing or commercial decision.

I have spend significantly more than 15 years working in IT, and as I said above there are space limitations. The 8Gb DVD disk has to hold all the mapping metadata for Western Europe. The UK postcode address file is around 0.5Gb, so would use over 6% of that capacity to provide full post code lookup just for the UK (where 4-character partial post code is already available).

13 minutes ago, rynd2it said:

Size should not be a problem, nor licensing - my Garmin had 32 GIGAbytes on a tiny card.

Yes, but the DVD-based system that the OP is talking about only has a (circa) 8Gb disk, and that has to hold the addresses and mapping for all of Western Europe. So allocating around 0.5Gb just to allow full 7-character post code entry for the UK is probably not warranted.

It's easy to be blasé about small 32Gb disks (my FiiO X5 MP3 player has a pair of 128Gb microSD cards in it), but back when these cars were being specified and designed, 8Gb was regarded as a huge amount of data.

As well as licensing issues, there's also size (the Postcode Address File - PAF - contains around 1.8 million addresses and 29 million locations, and takes up around 428Mb). There's also the processing power required for the satnav to find a post code in a reasonable time.

<PEDANT>UK post codes do not comprise of 7 digits. They contain 7 (or fewer) alphanumeric characters. US ZIP codes are numeric, and consist only of digits.</PEDANT>

From the AA web site which describes the MoT changes from 2012:

"Tyre pressure monitoring systems fitted to vehicles first registered after 1 January 2012 must be working correctly and not indicating a malfunction."

I presume that the MoT Testers' Manual will explain to testers exactly how to check for this on various types of cars.

13 minutes ago, AmbroseJohn said:

Having driven without TPMS for nearly fifty years, it's not something I'm likely to miss but the warning light on the dash could get to be a pain.

Nice pragmatic solution. Be aware, though, that for cars registered after 1 January 2012, a faulty TPMS is an automatic MoT failure.

4 hours ago, Sybaris said:

You can supposedly say "Go to audio" or "go to navigation" to jump between screens 

If it's anything like my IS250, then saying "go to audio" will invariably get a response like "turning air conditioning off" or "switching radio to AM" .

To be fair, the voice recognition in my BMWs is no better, so I never tend to use it.

Thank you so much for all the information and the helpful advice.

I've just bought the "used" brembo 09.A717.11 set (they look like vented fronts) - there's a 30 day return with amazon if there are any issues, so there's no great risk. I also bought a set of RedStuff pads at the same time.

I'll report back on my impressions once they've been fitted, but it may be a little while as I'm off to Le Mans next week (not in the Lexus!)

Thank you for the links. I hadn't thought of checking amazon, although the brembo sellers there all seem to be in Germany.

Any idea what the difference between brembo disks 09.A717.10 and 09.A717.11 is? They both seem to fit my car, but there's no mention of what the difference is.

(As an aside, I see that amazon are selling a "used" set of 09.A717.11. Who would put used brake disks on their car?)

Aaagghhh - too many choices

Thanks for the responses.

I don't really want to go down the upgraded calipers route - and there don't seem to be any brembo disks or pads that will bolt straight on to the IS250. I'm just looking to replace the stock front pads and disks for the MoT.

Notwithstanding @rayaans comments about RedStuff, I've not seen any other negative comments about them (other than long bed-in times), so my current proposal is to go for:

Redstuff pads - £85.83 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311319344401

Pagid disks - £64.78 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331803918200

I'll wait another day or so before I order them, in case anybody can persuade me that there is a better solution (or knows of a cheaper suppliers for these parts!)

11 hours ago, rayaans said:

Redstuff pads are rubbish - I know many owners who have had redstuff pads disintegrate, crack etc

Thanks - that's not something that I've read about. Do you have any links?

24 minutes ago, Linas.P said:

There are no upgrades for standard IS250 brakes. Many options?! - not sure what you are talking about.

[...]

Now your only real option is to upgrade for IS350 brakes

[...]

other thing you might need to do is to upgrade to 18 inch rims to accommodate bigger calipers and rotors

I think that I said many "opinions" rather than "options"

Car is already on 18s. I should have mentioned that I'm not really looking for a full brake update (I also have a couple of fast cars - the Lexus is meant to be my slow comfortable commuting car!), but as I need front disks/pads for my next MoT, I was looking for something that will just bolt straight in but might give me a little bit better braking than the Lexus ones.

No love for Mintex yet here. Does that mean that I should stay well away?

My 2008 IS250 SE-L is due its first set of front disks and pads at 35k miles. I drive reasonably enthusiastically, using the performance available to me (and am no stranger to the red circle on the speedo ). My primary criterion for choosing which disks and pads to go for is braking performance - I'm really not that bothered by noise, dust, looks, surface rust, etc.

Trying to decide what disks and pads to go for is very difficult  there are probably as many different opinions out there as there are cars!

Based on everything I've read so far, I've provisionally decided to go with RedStuff pads, but can't decide which disks to go for. Any suggestions?

For info, current eBay prices are: Mintex disks and pads - £66.09. Genuine Lexus disks and pads - £175 (or, fitted by my local dealers, £336.24). RedStuff pads (no disks) - £85.83

Sounds like Lexus themselves are confused, because (as you doubtless know), "you can control the gear the car is in yourself through moving it forward or backwards" is incorrect (all you can do is to constrain the highest gear which the auto box can choose).

I also struggle to see how they can regard it as a "sequential" mode.

Also noticed that the manual cars have a snow mode, so that mode probably does have a throttle map to de - sensitise

How does Snow mode work in a Manual?

My IS250 Auto has a snow mode (so starts off in 2nd,etc), but I don't think I've ever seen anything similar on a manual box...

I am wondering how you achieve the best 0-60 time in an is250,

Sell it and buy a sports car? :-)

I read somewhere - cant remember the source - that s stands for sequential.

The S mode is certainly not sequential, as it can/does jump gears. There are not many road cars out there with sequential gearboxes.

I've just bought an E93 BMW M3 with a (non touch screen) sat nav fitted. There are a lot of marks on the screen, and reading the BMW forums this is a common problem, caused by a fragile Anti Reflective Coating which is easily scratched. The only solution (other than replacing the whole screen, which is not cheap) is to use a product like Novus Plastic Polish to remove the rest of the coating, and then possibly to install a screen protector (like the ones you use on your phone).

This got me thinking - what should I use to clean the touch screen on my IS250? Normally I would have used a screen wipe (like I'd use on a computer monitor), but after seeing the issues with the BMW, I'd like to be sure.

There's a white 2008 with 42k miles which has just been advertised over on M3Cutters at £19k. (I've no association with either the car or the seller.)

http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=134754