MartinH

This led me inexorably here

Yes, my misgivings were based on a close reading of your experience, Linus. Probably better to keep on looking for a 300h... esp one that qualifies for the £10 road tax!

Beauty in the eye of the beholder &c ! To my eye the IS3 styling, with its corporate stylebook detailing, dilutes the originality of IS2.

An 8-speed box should work nicely — I once rented a BMW with the 'legendary' ZF box and found it very persuasive — but several here, and most scribblers, have said the unit fitted to the 200T falls short. And that would be a disappointment after the supreme ease of use of the IS250's V6+6-speed autobox.

I've been looking for a Premier of the right spec, and found one. But it is a 200T, not a 300h. I'm aware that many members of this forum are lukewarm at best about this motor, some indeed very critical, mentioning slow power delivery and indecisive changing from the 8-speed gearbox. I would welcome hearing their impressions from drivers who have driven, or still drive, this car!

Tell us more, please?

ML sounds? It's a nice car indeed, and you're not so far from me

That's a lovely car. Sorry to hear of your situation!

Snows Toyota in Honiton were helpful when I needed the rear disc pads replaced on my IS250. But that is not a specialist job of course.

I found this the other day, but have no other info: https://lexusbreakers.co.uk/lexus-used-parts-search/

Sound, thanks Linus

No surprise, the carpark owner has urged me to use a bodywork contractor of his nomination whose quote comes in a whole lot lower, utilizing second-hand parts. I don't mind using clean second-hand parts from a car that's been parted out (hence my enquiry here). What is worrying, though, is that their quote assumes that the bonnet can be repaired. As has been pointed out, it's alloy which is hard or impossible to manipulate. It must be possible to source one from a breaker? And indeed Linus has one, though he says that cost of carriage makes that a non-starter. It's all such a hassle. Why oh why did I not use the official airport carpark?

I do agree with Linus that the official cost to repair is excessive. If I were to submit that claim to my own insurer, they would surely write the car off (and in my verbal report to them, they already hinted as much). And this is one reason I drive in a minimum-risk fashion these days (also because, as a bike-rider, keen attention to risk is a survival habit). All I want is the car put back the way it was, and if that can be achieved at half the Lexus dealer's estimate, I'm happy with that. My understanding is that a primary principle of insurance is maximum good faith; it is easy to lose sight of this. But it is beyond annoying to be asked to do the legwork to mitigate the final cost when one is the injured party. And I don't have any experience of, or appetite for haggling with the motor trade.

Aren't they? My car is '07 so original foglights. If I were paying for the repair, I'd be all over the parts you're offering, Linas. But I have no motive to spend more of my time to save the perpetrator from the costly consequences of their own failure. We'll see how it plays out!

Does this differ in any significant way — most importantly in the attachment points and the foglight mountings? It's certainly a possibility, though my insurer might consider this a modification, and prefer the car to be standard.

Yes, that is what the both quotes I have say, plus innumerable small and costly bits and pieces, mounting up to £6.5K (Lexus) and £5.1K (decent local independent). As the situation is entirely the fault of the carpark owner, I am minded to let this play out with no intervention on my part. We shall see. But I thank you all for your advice and may yet have to call on you for spare parts!

That is good news. Thank you gents! I am minded to place the work with a reputable coachbuilders (ha!) in Bridgwater rather than accept whatever the local Lexus agent comes up with. I leave you with a snap of the damage. However did the carpark driver manage that?

Are these headlamps OEM fit? I would not ask were it not that I must have the front bumper replaced. So clearly there is an opportunity here to replace the headlights, which are old and feeble.

Can anyone point me to where I might source a complete front bumper assembly? My car has had the front crunched in by a clumsy carpark attendant. Amazingly, this dolt even managed to put a notch in the bonnet's leading edge, but hopefully this can be repaired and a new bonnet will not be required. I think the perpetrators will be shocked to find out how much the repair is gonna cost them!

Well it's a lot of car for £20K, and plenty to choose from!

And how are you liking it? Oh I see you have already answered that

My 07 is still on the original exhaust at 99,500 miles

True the Alfasud was a rustbox but what a sensational drive! I rented one (in Turin) only weeks after its launch and took it for a thrash in the hills. The roadholding and handling were far beyond anything one had experienced previously. Can we get back to heuristics and the early days of the interwebz now please? It was getting so interesting.

If you look at the US election, you will see it is a political rather than an ethical creed

Splendid! A great advance on the self-abusing DPD chatbot story that's been doing the rounds!