Steve44

Just rounding the tip of Sri Lanka en route to Suez canal! - http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:369654/mmsi:309108000/imo:9357298/vessel:GLORIOUS_LEADER You'll be watching this every day from now on.....

Do lots and lots of boring motorway miles in straight lines, using what can only be described as Bridgestone "Hard as nails" Tyres! The rears lasted 55k!

I've just had my 4 tyres changed on the IS to Michelin Pilot Sport 4's. The lease company really winced as the lease is up in 5wks! They had got their money's worth though, as the front Bridgestone's had done 70k miles. The rear continentals looked good, but had worn excessively on the rear inside edge, so looks like I was also suffering from F-Sport camber wear, watch out fellow F-Sport drivers! New tyres have transformed the car, it is so much quieter and rides potholes and ridges & gulleys in road much better now.

As other posters have said, your friend of a friend obviously knows little about cars and less about Hybrids! The Hybrid warranty can be extended for a another year/10k miles by paying Lexus £59 for a Hybrid health check. This is up to a further 5 years/50k miles. So that protects any Hybrid battery/motor bits. The details are on the Lexus Website. Battery issues are very rare, there are plenty of old Prius and Lexus running round with greater than 150k miles without issues. Rest of the car is pretty reliable and normal premium exec car, so awkward to get to stuff, could be expensive for bits if it goes wrong etc. However nothing to stop you getting an independent dealer to service it, or doing it yourself with the correct tools/experience, though you might struggle with some of the more advanced technical bits, though that is true for most modern cars now I guess. If I was buying used, depends on your budget, but I'd want a lower mileage, slightly older (IS300h first on market in late 2013 early 2014) approved used car from a Lexus dealer with a full history.

On longish trip from Scotland back to Northumberland tonight, had Traffic info on, updated using mobile phone on Bluetooth and connected services on Premium nav. Turned voice on. Was seeing traffic info on Nav, colours next to roads, signs where there are roadworks, accident info etc etc, plus getting announcements for slow traffic from Nav on breakdowns, incidents etc too. Also getting FM traffic reports from local BBC radio stations breaking into IPod music. i then turned off the connected services bit for traffic in the Nav settings, forced it to RDS TMC and Classic FM. I lost all the traffic flow graphics, any signs on the screen and didn't get anymore announcements from the Nav system for traffic events. FM traffic reports on the radio still worked fine. Re enabled the connected services bit and all came back again. my car is on latest firmware for the Nav system. Can only conclude either it is a bug in the system or Classic FM doesn't transmit any useful info for the Nav to decode.

Mine don't illuminate, I assume it is by design.

Which FM channel? Only certain ones give traffic report using RDS TMC. Classic FM does, as do most local BBC ones. the sat Nav announcements are dependent on recieving either a RDS TMC message via FM, or an internet download via a tethered mobile phone and registered connected services account, though this is I think a premium Nav feature only. Can someone confirm? If you run into an issue but the radio station or ITIS isn't aware of it you won't get announcements. most reliable method is via a connected services tethered mobile on either Bluetooth or wifi.

Another reasonably good review of the facelift. http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/lexus/lexus-is300h-2017-review/

300h models outsell 200t (and before that 250's) by about 10:1. so your used options on these will be very limited, given there were only circa 10k IS models registered in the UK last year.

And what was the average speed to achieve such MPG?

So does the IS version, but I've never had the DAB traffic info. Either stations don't broadcast it (I think this is the reason), or its a bug in the system! My previous car got traffic interrupts when listening to DAB, but it was FM station signals, not DAB.

As I've said in another thread, I know of many Taxi company's using Lexus, Toyota and Nissan Hybrid/EV's, all with more than 100k miles and none have had battery/hybrid issues. I think on this forum, there has only been a couple of issues reported for people with hybrid issues on GS. Compare it to the number of issues reported by other manufacturers with Turbo, DPF, injection system, electrical faults etc, the cars are reliable. Only you can say if the F-Sport or gearbox is not for you, with an extended test drive. You should be easily able to get one from a dealer, up to 24hrs. I don't think it is bad at all, no worse than a dithering VAG DSG. The "rubber band" style of engine rev's I don't mind at all. The drone most mags mention is due to leaving the Active Sound Control switched on. Turn it off and the car is silent. The F-Sport version has slightly worse economy and increased road noise due to the wide and staggered tyres, also ride is marginally worse, due to thin sidewalls and sporty suspension. Again a full test drive will sort it out in your mind.

There are lots of minor detail changes. The Toyota Lexus UK media page has a full press pack which outlines all the changes and updates. As well as all the cosmetic bits, the suspension front and rear is quite heavily revised to improve ride, noise and steering feel.

Do you mean the screen returns to the home page after a period of time? There is a setting in Setup I think which turns off the 'change back to home' setting and keeps the screen on whichever function you've selected for as long as you like. DAB text and FM text has never scrolled for me, it is iffy as well and seems to only be reliable on BBC station. The whole layout of the radio screen is giant waste of screen space to me, the buttons are too big and the info box has a font which is not efficiently using the space. As for why they didn't allow the info to be displayed on the home page when there is plenty space.......

69500 miles in 32 months and only one warranty claim for leaking rear shocks, which I hadn't noticed and dealer picked up at service. Given Lexus service the cars every 10k miles, there is really very little to go wrong. round by me the local taxi company is using various Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicles as taxis, all of which have greater than 100k miles and none have had serious issues. i would say that economy isn't necessarily the greatest on the IS though, you won't be getting Prius(or even CT) levels of mpg. Around town 40-45mpg is probably as good as it gets if you drive smooth and slow.

Great stuff, now i'm looking at the pics on my laptop, rather than phone, the grille is dark chrome and does look nice against the Graphite Black. My dealer had a Graphite black RX in the showroom and the sparkle and pop from the metallic was stunning under the showroom lights. Are you sure the wheels are different, I thought they were the same as before? Noticed yours has Bridgestone ER33 same as my IS300 currently, demo in dealer had Dunlop SportMaxx. The front bridgestones on mine are at 69k miles and only just needing changed! hard as anything, noisy and poor grip. Hoping mine has anything but Bridgestones. Chrome bit on RR bumper is part of protection pack isn't it? Looks better than the black plastic bit before.

Duncand also check in the radio settings that FM info is turned on. The pics you have in op are for Nav traffic info display using RDS data.

Dunno, but when listening to DAB I've never had an FM RDS traffic announcement. On FM, IPod, Bluetooth, CD you get plenty. My guess is it does have 2 tuners but it doesn't break into DAB programme if it gets one. This is the premium Nav version. it will be interesting to see if the Gen2 system in the new IS facelift has this or not, quite a few other things that are new/different with it.

Is it Lexus Nav or Premium Nav? Have you checked the Voice settings and volume, it needs to be on and turned up to at least 1 or you get no announcements at all. RDS traffic announcements are only if you are tuned to a RDS enabled FM station, BBC radio or Classic FM should do it and then are listening to FM or USB or CD. If you are on DAB you won't get them.

Ooooh that looks good, I've got a graphite black FSport with black leather premier pack ordered and due in about 3 wks too! yours will look great with rose leather. That I'll miss. is the grille surround chrome or dark chrome? Looks chrome there, but the red demo dealer had it was dark?!? any more pics to keep me going for another few weeks?

Just washed mine this afternoon, felt guilty having bought a new one , and it hadn't been washed since before Christmas! It was really filthy, but the grey hides it well. I will be more diligent with the new black one, given its actually mine not a lease, and I need to start investing in some decent cleaning products. Will pass the time till it arrives. The white looks great all polished up, good beading. Mine is flat as a fart!

I wonder if there is a price increase due then, thus the extra cost? Apparently there is a cross the board retail price increase for vehicles due 9th Feb. £750 a car for IS.

Now that service plan looks like something that would be interesting, what I've been quoted (but not taken up yet) is £1001 for 2 intermediates and 1 full service, payable up front or in 20 monthly £50.05 payments. That's about £56 more than just paying for each service?!? Even the salesman said it made no sense and he needed to check with the service manager when he came back in this week.

My thoughts on the MY17 facelift - Newcastle Lexus have a Fuji Red F-Sport with black leather, Premium Nav and protection pack in the showroom, plus a Black Advance as a demo car. Loads of minor changes and all look to fix the criticisms owners have had. Boot lid on the one in the showroom "seemed" heavier to me, less springy and more damped, shut with a more reassuring thunk too! F-Sport leather seats are softer than in mine, style is the same but the bolster edges are definitely softer and more pliable. Kneepads come right up and are padded on all models now. Plastic trim in the interior is much better quality, the clock is easier to read, the centre console is better too, cupholder design etc. driving the Advance, seems much quieter, less road noise. Rides bumps very well and steering appears slightly more positive, heavier. Tech works well, traffic sign recognition worked flawlessly with the std Nav, signs appearing on the centre display, as did the lane departure warning, giving a buzzing on the wheel! Styling - I really think it is an improvement. Close look at the F-Sport and the grille surround and chin spoiler is now dark chrome effect, not black. Looks great, as do lights.

Deal done now, waiting on the ship arriving and hopefully nothing going wrong so it's registered before end of March. LexusCare service plans make no sense. Individual costs of 3 services is 50 quid or so less than the service plan. Any idea what you get extra? Salesmen didn't know either.