DAW

I liked my standard 10 spikes but if were able to choose I would probably go for the mesh design ....umm.....or the American spec......umm 😉

I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure 😎

54 minutes ago, Stuno1 said:

Agreed I have lost count of the times I have had to tell people German cars are not the most reliable and have not been for a very long time. I then have to show them the liars if most reliable and unreliable cars. Had this very chat with my dad last night. 

 

I am not loyal to any brand be that cars, watches etc BUT I am starting to be with Lexus. I had my isf, I am buying an rcf next year and my wife would like an nx. Amazing cars and I love the Lexus brand and all it stands for.

Spot on - totally agree with all you said👍🏻

Hi Dan,

1. Yes
2. Just 1 car, mine
3. Just 1, me
4. I have no dietary requirements

I remember back in my youth when most cars on the road were either Ford or Vauxhall & the likes of BMW/VW/Porsche were the niche car manufacturers (even then with a reputation for being expensive to run).   I also remember when the Japanese cars started showing the buying public that owning a car didn't have to mean putting up with unreliability, forcing all the manufacturer's to up their game.  All things Japanese at that point for me were synonomous with quality, be it electronic or otherwise, so naturally I bought a Supra over a Sierra Cosworth/911 back in 1992 and for similar reasons to owning an F today.  I had it for six years and it stayed in the family for a further 6 years without missing a beat.  Back then you were spoilt for choice if you wanted a Japanese sports car until most of them disappeared after the recession in the 90's and the subsequent vacuum was filled by the German performance cars.  People need to be reminded that there are alternatives to the Germans (albeit pretty limited at present) and to that end Lexus should continue developing ever better F models and keep plugging away with the marketing, product placement (movies/TV) and promotion of their presence/successes in the GT racing series.  Hopefully the new Supra will also help further raise the profile of Japanese performance cars in the public's consciousness, although additional performance models from Mazda, Nissan etc would certainly help!!

Now the Germans are the mainstream manufacturer's and have become the norm, I can't help wondering if there might be a shift at some point toward people wanting something different;  in a similar way that peoples aspirations changed towards owning German rather than the likes of a Ford or Vauxhall.  I'm sure a big part of the interest I see in the RCF is due to it being different from the usual German stuff people see every day - its styling clearly resonates with people.  I have never experienced this level of positive interest in any car I have ever owned previously and  people constantly stop to tell me what a great looking car it is, and ask about it.  Last week even had a guy stop his car & park up next to me just to ask about it - maybe the shift has already started?

Obviously it makes sense to want Lexus to be more successful in the UK as it would certainly be helpful to have a greater choice of dealers & a larger supply of parts etc.  However part of me also thinks it would be a shame for them to become too mainstream.  I like the fact that with the "F" I am part of a pretty exclusive group of enthusiasts who drive very rare cars and who have made their ownership decision based on a cars merits not its badge.  I'm not convinced I really want that to change too much as the pros seem to out way the cons IMHO!!  

The one thing I would be happy to see change is the way our cars are being reviewed with this inbuilt bias which has already been discussed.  It would be refreshing to know that a review of an F, or any other car for that matter, had been written impartially without the influence of any other agenda, but I suspect that's not going to happen any time soon!!  It's a shame because I used to be an avid reader of car mags, but owning a Lexus opened my eyes to this issue, and as result I have little interest in them these days.

23 hours ago, tomRCFcarbon said:

Lexus does sell in quite respectable numbers as a niche brand. If we're talking why Lexus doesn't sell in BMW or MB numbers then I think there are loads of factors here. Below comes from personal experience, as I used to work for the marketing agency that did all Lexus UK marketing, and my best friend made the LC500 launch film so knows the advertising team quite well. Beyond that its just my opinion:

- We have a v.traditional and v.established car market in the UK where 'new' is not seen as a virtue
- UK consumers are some of the most brand conscious consumers in the world. Furthermore our peculiar flavour of brand-centricness (not a word!) is closely aligned to heritage and history
- For this reason no premium brand has made any kind of dent in the market...except at the mass/budget end of the market (Smart, Hyundai, Kia)
- Product development takes place in Japan with American and domestic tastes as the basis of the brief. The resulting products are therefore delivered as a fait accompli to the UK, and are therefore often a little alien looking to the average household
- The UK car market is one of the most valuable in Europe, therefore the established European brands guard it jealously
- Historically cars manufactured in Japan have been subject to a 10% import duty to the EU, wiping out much of the profit and money that could otherwise be spent on marketing/advertising
- Partly because of this and partly because of the influence of BMW/MB, Lexus haven't been able to break into the hire car market in Europe. Hiring a 'Premium' or 'Luxury' car in Europe will rarely result in you driving a car with an 'L' on the steering wheel. This is an enormous market and accounts for a large proportion of inventory coming out of Munich or Stuttgart, and how many business customers come to experience these cars
- The German car industry have made it their business to 'control' Dennis (Auto Express, Evo, Octane) and the other magazine publishers by block buying the most important advertising space in the magazines (inside front, outside back pages, etc)
- Lexus hasn't been good at 'playing the game' with the publishers and haven't been generous enough with the launch trips they organise. It is a bit of an industry joke that the reason the RCF didn't review well initially is that the journalists were 'only' flown economy to NYC for the launch, couldn't take spouses and were only put up for a weekend...whereas when Porsche (or MB or BMW) create any kind of iteration of their cars, they offer week long trips with WAG's to private estates and also allow journalists to jump waiting lists...interestingly Lexus fixed this for the LC500 and took the journalists away for a whole week, first class, with spouses and really showered them with hospitality - as a result reviews were a lot more generous
- Outside of GT racing recently Lexus hasn't been near the track and haven't understood the link in European minds between success in F1 and Premium...in Japan motor-racing at any level is used purely to show sporting prowess, nothing more
- Japanese products don't have much of a cache as premium products. Jackie Chan in the Cannonball Run didn't help. Nor did Infiniti. Nor does the newest Civic Type-R. Or Casio watches or anything else that the average UK Joe associates with Japan...rather than the reality which is: an attention to detail that borders on obsession, a natural affinity for craft, materials and engineering, a commitment to science being able to transcend art and a genuine culture of having petrol in the blood 

Nice post - very informative 

Went to Goodwood in a friends 2017 M3 with the comp pack & one of the things that impressed me most was the ride quality and comfort - very refined.

@Big Rat Hi Paul sorry to hear about the caliper issue,  but looks like a brilliant result all round & completely agree with you - the orange looks really smart mate.

Lexus Cheltenham yet again showing how it can be done - brilliant stuff 👍🏻

Ps -  lots of pictures 😉👍🏻

Congratulations on your choice, they are a great car 👍🏻

just to keep it current👍🏻

Love the Supra having owned one back in my youth 😢

Afraid other car is family runner so nothing very interesting.but pleased with it all the same.

Might be worth having a chat with @Peter P18 as his set up felt very good & better than the suspension on my late model ISF.  Managed to be far more pliant over bumps whilst still being flat in the corners.

Good luck with the mods👍🏻

@Big Rat one day mate 🙏😉

@Big Rat Paul me too mate & I would love to be more rural, but it will have to wait a while yet 😉

Absolutely but unfortunately I rarely find I can enjoy the flow of the car on a nice road in my county.☹️

Still, hoping to get more of that in the Peaks next month 🤞🏻😉

6 hours ago, Womble72 said:

For me personally, I’m after a car that feels well built is powerful for overthinking manoeuvres and has reliability with it, motorways are irrelevant, B roads are an importance BUT no matter how fast or quick the pick up is there’s always the car coming from the other direction to consider, many times I’ve been passed on B roads by a much faster car than my daily BUT a lot of the time there’s been no consideration to on coming traffic coming round that bend ahead.....think a lot of people fail to realise that when buying a performance car, something age brings to the table, for me personally it’s build quality, reliability and performance when I need it......not the risk factor of ......“my car can do this that n the other”......I wouldn’t say I know my cars limitations but I do know mine and they fall short of the cars potential, I can live with that 👍🏻

I find the sheer amount of traffic on our local roads makes overtaking simply not worth the risk in most situations.  You only end up behind another car anyway and no amount of time saved is worth the risk.

Can see the draw of the Cup 2 if you are going to use the car on track, but doubt the expense is worth it for every day road use.  Suspect the advantages would probably only be really noticeable under track driving conditions anyway, but interested to know from those with experience whether that is the case.

Shame they didn’t do an on road comparison for every day road use as well, even if it was only a similar summary description /table.  It’s where most tyres spend the majority of their time unless it’s on a dedicated track car.

I only ever use cruise control if I start getting cramp on very long journeys & prefer not to use it generally - never used it on the ISF at all while I owned it. 

But having decided to look at the RCF on a bit of a spur of the moment whim I hadn’t realised the cruise control wasn’t radar as standard like the ISF.  This isn’t really a big issue for the reasons above, but I would have liked the emergency braking aspect of it as it’s a great safety feature that should be fitted to all cars imho.

3 hours ago, rayaans said:

I disagree.

Last time we had a puncture in the family was in 2009. In that time our cars have covered over 200k miles.

So getting a puncture is a very rare occurrence actually unless you drive too close to kerbs or something where all the crap lies

In my experience punctures are mainly down to luck. All the punctures I’ve had have been due to nails or screws picked up while driving around and thankfully they are mostly in the middle of the tried so are usually repairable.

We all need to park close to kerbs and I suspect this is the most likely place to get a puncture.  I’m very careful with my wheels and where I park & on average I get a puncture on one of our cars at least once in a 5 year period (maybe a little longer).

@Nikki & @K2HKS welcome to the club.

Always exciting to be picking up a new car and I’m sure it will be a fun drive home 😉

I’ve not seen the grey carbon combo much but think it just might be my favourite 👍🏻

When I compare cars I am far more interested in the relative PWR & torque, which generally gives a far better benchmark to judge. 

I had a Williams Clio back on my youth and it used to surprise a lot of more powerful car such as BMW E36 328’s etc. Never forget pulling up behind a Sierra Cosworth at a set of traffic lights & thinking it would be interesting to see the difference - he was clearly curious as well. We puledl away from the lights & I could honestly have overtaken him had a lane been free until his car finally got into its stride at much higher speeds. The look of surprise on his face was priceless!

Possibly another plus for the F being less well known🤞🏻

I had red leather Recaros in my V8 Audi S4 & it always made it feel like being in something different & special somehow

Couldn’t agree more about there not being enough of a difference between the LC500  & the RCF hence my comment about waiting for the LCF.

If I were buying the AMG I would personally go for the C63S coupe with the carbon trim.  The S is a great drive with loads of torque, making it feel much quicker than the RCF (not that power is everything). I would definitely recommend a test drive even if it’s just for the experience - after I drive one I found myself looking on the Merc approved used site, but for me they seem very expensive for an extra 30bhp (all be it with  a lot more torque). Looking at the AMG prices made the RCF values seem like a bargain!!😂

Exciting times whatever you decide & hope  you enjoy the drive when you get the opportunity👍🏻

I love that colour combo - including the  red leather.

LC & GSF were also in Marvels Black Panther movie & GSF had red leather if I remember correctly.