Johnny A

I had the same problem with my IS (there was also a slight rattle) after about 6 months and it was fixed under warranty by adjustment of the door as Tango describes. My car was in at Lexus Aberdeen today for warranty replacement of the alloys which had suffered the usual corrosion problem. I'm selling the car to a friend next month when my new Golf GTI arrives but I have to say that when I picked it up washed, vacuumed and with the replacement alloys glinting in the sun I did wonder for a while whether I was doing the right thing!

I've ordered a Mk V Golf GTI which is due for delivery late May. The IS is already pre-sold to a friend. I've enjoyed two trouble free and enjoyable years with the Lex but wanted something with a bit more poke. I drove the Mazda RX-8 and the Golf and liked them both. Golf was more practical, while still being damn quick, so it got the vote at the end of the day.

Interesting to hear from some fellow Aberdonians. Only 2" more snow last night so clearing the drive wasn't as bad this morning and there has been a bit of a thaw at last although there's still about 2 feet in my back garden. As the main roads are now clear I'll maybe risk the Lex to work tomorrow. I've stuck with the RAV over the weekend while taking my daughter sledging etc, although reading Guitareth's post maybe the IS would have been a good alternative to a sledge!

More heavy snow overnight so I borrowed the wife's RAV 4 today. Still late in getting to work, but this time beacause a neighbour had made the mistake of taking out his Porsche 911 which had inevitably got stuck in the middle of the road in our estate. After we failed to dig it out I ended up towing it clear with the RAV. You just can't win sometimes!

Fair point re. winter tyres; when I've been in Austria and Norway during the Winter I note that the local Beemers, Mercs and Lexs don't appear to have any problems, although it's also fair to say that the authorities there do a much better job on snow clearance than those in Scotland where a heavy fall always causes chaos! As I've said though, it's normally only bad enough here to cause problems for a few days a year so it's hard to justify a set of Winter tyres. Re. the snow control, while it does drop the revs, I have to say that, to me, this made no noticeable difference today to the driveability of the car.

Heavy snow overnight in Aberdeen, late for work and the wife needed her 4x4 later in the day, so I unwisely decided to take the Lex to the office. Soon remembered why I normally leave it at home at the first sight of the white stuff beginning to lie! The traction control is totally useless on snowy/icy roads; leave it on and the car just won't move. The only way to make any (albeit limited) forward progress is to switch it off and, as for the "snow" setting, it doesn't appear to do anything useful at all. I did eventually make it to work, and back at night, but it was a painful experience and any upward slopes had to be completely avoided. Nipped down to the shops later in the wife's RAV 4 and deliberately drove up a steep uncleared road that the Lex wouldn't have looked at with no problem at all. I love rear wheel drive in any other conditions but it's a liability for real life driving on snow/ice. Thank **** it's only for a few days a year!

After my recent speeding pull and 3 point penalty, I finally got round to buying a Road Angel. I went for the new Compact which is GPS only (i.e. without the radar function) and I've been very pleased with it. Certainly picks up all the fixed cameras in my area. Updates are downloaded via your PC (USB connection), and it's recommended to carry this out every couple of weeks or so to ensure that your unit is aware of any new cameras added to the Blackspot database. Anyway, although the updates seemed to be working, after 30 days I kept getting an error message every time I powered the unit up in my car saying that the data in it was out of date. I contacted Blackspot and they immediately e-mailed me a software update to download into the unit along with nice clear instructions on how to do this. After doing this, problem solved. :) My Compact was one of the first ones sold, so I suspect this bug has been corrected on the ones that are now available, but if anyone out there has the same problem this is just to let you know that it's easily corrected. Cheers Johnny A

Just fixed up replacement cover which is actually cheaper than the Admiral premium was before the 43% loading!! :) After getting a few quotes on the internet, the best deal was with Elephant...........which is part of the same group as Admiral. Weird!

I recently picked up a fixed penalty and 3 points for an SP30 and declared the conviction to my insurers as required by the policies. I have a full no claims bonus, drive a low annual mileage and before the conviction my licence was clean. My motorbike insurers, Bennetts, issued a new policy schedule noting the conviction - no additional premium. My car insurers, Admiral, wrote to me advising that they were charging me an additional premium because of the conviction which amounted to 43% - yes, that's FORTY THREE PER CENT - of my annual premium. In addition they loaded my wife's premium by 15% because I am a named driver on her policy. I assumed that the 43% must be an error but several phone calls and e-mails later confirmed that it wasn't and that the loading was non-negotiable. Unbelievable!! I'm currently looking to move my business elsewhere.

I bought the PIAAs from Auto Performance Products in the sizes recommended by Gareth. Standard 19" for the passenger side and Super Sporza 22" for the driver's side. Look good and work even better. :)

Mine had an irritating driver's door/window rattle when new. The dealer fixed it under warranty by adjusting the door hinges to pull the door tighter into the seal. Said he'd had a couple of cars in with the same problem. My car (1 year old) is in at the dealer again at the moment to get the door frames re-sprayed under warranty. I noticed a slight "blueing" on the top edge of the frames which looked like corrosion. Again he'd seen a few ISs with the same thing and said it was a clear warranty fix.

Thanks for the size info; I had PIAAs on my last car and they were brilliant. The originals are leaving some streaks now after a year's use so probably a good time to replace.

Slightly off topic, but do you guys who have bought tyres by mail order find that local garages or tyrefitters are generally happy to fit them and, if so, roughly how much will they charge to do so? I've bought motorbike tyres mail order for many years but fitting isn't an issue as I can do it myself. Cheers

Thanks mate. After asking around, I took it to the local bodyshop that is an accredited repairer for Lexus, Porsche and Mercedes so it should be OK on that score. They've been doing all the Aberdeen area work for the "great Merc defective paint scandal" that you've probably heard about so they've had plenty practice recently!

My IS was keyed last week; nearside rear wing, right in the middle of the panel. BAS***DS! As the car's metallic, only a year old, otherwise in excellent condition, and I intend keeping it for a couple more years I decided to take it to a bodyshop rather than going for a SMART (Chips Away etc.) repair. I can't complain at all about the job which is really excellent but it doesn't half pi** me off having to lay out the best part of £300 (not worth an insurance claim), because of what some cretin did, no doubt "just for a laugh". I hate these people more than I can put into words. Johnny A

We've also got both in our house - my 200SE and the wife's RAV4 GX, which I often drive at weekends if the family is going out together. The only thing that I don't like about the RAV4 is the daft design of the rear tailgate hinges which do not allow the tailgate to open open as far as it should. Other than that, well screwed together, good cabin, fairly nippy with the 2 litre VVTC engine, and drives well for a 4x4. The wife's last car was the old model RAV and, while it was a good car too, the new model is much better, particularly the interior.

I test drove both the IS200 and the RX-8 when looking to replace my Evo 6 and eventually went for the Lexus, mainly on grounds of practicality, although I did also get a better deal on the trade-in. In my opinion, the RX-8 looks and drives great and sounds wonderful when wound up but it is thirsty and it does use oil. I may be getting lazy in my old age but the idea of having to check the awkwardly located dipstick every second fill up (unless you want to risk knackered rotor tips) is a real pain! I've now had the Lexus since December 2003 and I have to say that I like it more and more as the months pass. Definitely the right choice for me...........

bacon

Thanks for the replies; finally got round to filling up this morning after about 30 miles with the light on. John

I've had the IS200SE for about 6 weeks now and I'm really chuffed with it - except when there's been ice and snow on the roads but I guess that's only a few days a year! :) So far I'm getting 24-25 mpg, mostly round town driving. Does that sound about normal to you guys? Also, can anyone tell me how much petrol is left in the tank when the low fuel warning light comes on, or roughly how far it is safe to carry on after you see it? Cheers John

Recently sold my near standard Evo 6 which had around 280 bhp. I reckon it could have handled up to 350 bhp without any major mods but it was 4 wheel drive, very stiffly sprung, and fitted with AYC. I think 200-250 bhp would be fine on an (unmodified) Lexus.

Tony Sorry about your shunt, but good to hear from someone who's made a similar decision. Very little outside of real exotica could come close to the Evo when really booting it down a quiet country road but how often do you get the chance to do that - not often in my case. I also forgot to mention the frequent and expensive replacement of warped Evo discs - I won't miss that!

Hi Folks Just joined up having bought a new IS200SE in late December to replace my Evo 6. :) I miss the performance of the Evo (and the 4 wheel drive in bad road conditions) but not the insurance costs, high fuel consumption, superunleaded and hard suspension round town! A great car that I've enjoyed owning, but time to move on. First impressions of the Lexus are very positive. Quality build, smooth, comfortable, and well equipped. Steering feel is very good and handling seems fine, although it's a long time since I owned a rear wheel drive so I've not got a lot to compare it with. Only niggles so far are the weird location of the handbrake on the 'wrong' side of the transmission tunnel (which I guess you get used to soon enough), and what seems excessive misting up of the rear window if the weather has been frosty/very wet. Is this worth taking up with the dealer or just something you have to live with? Cheers John