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I took out 2 years additional warranty cover when I bought my ISF in 2008, and it has never missed a beat. Nevertheless, when this was getting close to finishing last year, I bought two further years because although not expecting any problems; if a major one arose, another mortgage would be needed because ISF parts costs are staggering for major items. The warranty is after all just an insurance against unlikely events which provides peace of mind even if at a hefty price and sadly will have little influence on selling-price or trade-in value The Lexus warranty may well be underwritten by a third party but is operated by Lexus UK, and all reports suggest they operate it fairly and do not go to the extravagant extent that some other warranty providers will do to avoid paying out. I also bought prepaid servicing at the same time as the car & have extended that to seven years too - it works out cheaper.

Always good to see someone get stuck in and do their own mods and make a good job of it. As a personal thought, temp gauge tacked on just because you have got one looks a bit out of place and is also completely un-necessary.

Rashid, contrary to what you are stating, the catalytic convertors on a standard IS200 impose no restriction whatever on exhaust gas-flow unless they are clogged or otherwise knackered - which after 10 years they could have been. The OEM Catalytic convertors have many more times the capacity the engine requires. This means that if you replace them with new OEM parts, you will still get the same mpg improvement and as a bonus, drive legally and the car will pass the MOT. There is nothing you can do with exhaust systems, air filters, induction kits etc. which will make any significant difference to mpg. The only real difference you can make is care with steering-geometry/tyres/pressures, avoiding use of aircon except when necessary, not carrying excessive weight and above all, driving style.

Don't forget that even with winter tyres, the ISF is entirely useless with any significant depth of SNOW because its low ground clearance just quickly builds up a drift ahead of you which can break the expensive front-bumper assembly as well as stopping you from moving!

Ignoring the "like a supercharger" arguments, the IS200 is not a fast car or a particularly economical car - but it is not as sluggish as it seems because it does its thing so smoothly and without fuss. It competes reasonably well with most 4 cylinder 2 litre car on roads & motorways and gives a quieter, more relaxing, less tiring drive. However, if you want to improve performance, nothing short of a supercharger will make any real difference. Cheap fixes like induction kits, panel filters and "better" exhausts will achieve nothing worthwhile - Lexus had already thought about the basic breathing. As for economy, a straight 6 inherently suffers because 2 more bores and extra bearings contribute higher friction losses than in a four-cylinder engine. A better solution for more oomph without a huge penalty in economy is the IS300

BG44k appears to have changed its formulation to to a Kerosene based cleaner so it's not really the same. Why use a Kerosene based cleaner when Tunap 973 is free from it and is half the price of BG44K? Having explored their site a little more it appears they do a "direct" injection cleaner for sorting out a specific problem with deposits on injectors and valves, and the "973" is for prevention and maintainance. I was given the can of 973 by the Lexus dealership and added it to a full tank of Tesco 95 RON, but it is available for around £8.00 per can, which treats 60 litres of petrol so cost of using it consistently would add around 13 pence per litre. I'm unsure of the current price of BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power, but if similar additives are already in these premium fuels then it may not make economic sense to use the 973. Current price for Tesco 95 after this mornings 2p price drop is 132p a litre, so if I had purchased the 973 it would effectively be 145p per litre. How does this compare to current premium fuel prices? I am sure that these additives do what they says they do - but there is no suggestion anywhere that any type of fuel (Supermarket or otherwise) makes injectors dirty in the first place and if fuel ever does it would be due to impurities in the fuel which are outside the basic specifications applicable to fuels of particular RON ratings. Such contamination is more likely when the volatiles evaporate in garage storage tanks leaving a higher proportion of waxy solids or these tanks are dirty. Neither of these is likely with high-volume sales of Supermarket fuels. It leads to the suggestion that the cleaning additives in "Superfuels" are perhaps there to stop it "going off" a bit due to the smaller volumes sold making it to linger longer in the storage tanks.

There is no proper peer-reviewed evidence that overall "superfuels" produce differences over Supermarket fuels of the same RON rating greater than those produced by daily/seasonal variations in atmospheric pressure, temperature & humidity. There is limited evidence that "superfuels" in some engine/cars can improve performance and/or fuel efficiency, and a smaller number where these are made worse. There is no evidence that any cause harm. Fuel from Supermarkets that sell large quantities and thus have clean tanks is fine for most cars - but for some cars with engines in a range of states of wear and overall condition; "superfuels" may provide modest advantages which can only be found by suck-it-and-see. Everybody is free to make their choice either based on data or personal preference.

You should be able to get off your gravel driveway unless it is nearly vertical with absolutely no problems like wheelspin if it is correctly set up - it should just creep up it at tickover until the rear wheels hit tarmac and if you need just a little more, the throttle control is really smooth and progressive - not at all sudden. In Normal Drive mode, the ISF can be a pussycat when you want it to.

With the early cool snap as a harbinger of things to come; it is time to remember that the ISF is completely useless where snow lies more than about 4-5 ins deep. This is not because of the obvious reasons of difficult traction or Auto transmission - decent winter tyres will resolve this and allow reasonable progress on slippery surfaces. However if you live where the roads are never treated - such as most side roads - and the snow either lies, or a central ridge develops due to passing traffic; the ISF's low ground-clearance and its inabilty to act as a snow plough without risking severe and very expensive damage to the delicate plastic front bumper assembly and its relatively flimsy mountings is a show-stopper. Even if you avoid this damage, the ISF will simply stop moving when the snow-mountain in front of grows big enough and you can rarely back off to drive round it. So when snow lies and you can frustratingly see traffic passing by the end of your street; you probably will not reach this road with its free-flowing traffic - and if your street has a hefty camber due years of repairs involving just adding a little more tar & tots of loose pebbles to the middle; you may not get even get out of your drive without burying the nose or a huge amount of shovelling. The essential preparation is to make arrangements to leave your ISF at home or stay there yourself until conditions improve, and to make sure it is safely parked off-road to ensure those in tall 4x4s & enormous pick-ups who incorrectly imagine they have it sussed don't demolish your car on their way to knocking over the street-lamps when unable to stop as they have here in the past couple of years.

A bit late now, but a timely reminder to make sure that when you buy a car it has the two (or three) keys originally supplied. The same (but less important) applies for the jack, wheelbrace, spare wheel and manuals. When they are missing, it makes you wonder what the previous owners did with them or how they managed to lose them - and is never a good sign that care has been taken of the car.

The OEM filter is more than good enough with plenty of spare flow capacity. With modern engines and oils,the filter has very little to do anyway. The posh magnet is not a lot of use because most of the particles which appear are non-magnetic anyway, and those that are magnetic are trapped by the sump plug. All in all, harmless but pointless to fit this unless it costs more.

The main thing is to avoid the IS220d which is quite a good car for a diesel but really only a sensible buy if you get off on disappointment and niggling minor problems plus unreliable economy. The IS 250 Auto with the Levinson MM kit gives a smooth, refined, relaxing and enjoyable drive although lacking the best performance in class. The manual gearbox on IS250's is somewhere between second-rate and adequate but no more than that. If the carpets are beige, make sure you get a set of matching Lexus floor mats so at least you can take them out to clean/shampoo them.

Lexus describe the AFS system like this: "At night, a Lexus with i-AFS lets you see around corners. It estimates where you will be in three seconds' time, using sensors that monitor your speed and the angle of your front wheels, and shines the car's headlights in that direction. The left and right headlamps swivel by different amounts depending on the way you are turning; one swivels by 5 deg, and the other by 15 deg. So when you approach a corner, your lights follow the road ahead rather than simply illuminating the edge of the road. It helps take the strain out of night driving, especially on unfamiliar winding roads." Intuitively I would have thought it must primarily apply to full beam because dipped beam does not (and should not) give you 3 seconds worth of lit distance unless you are travelling quite slowly. At 60mph 264 ft are travelled in the 3 seconds and pro rata. But apparently it applies to the HID low-beam lights. Either way, it doesn't achieve much - just as with similar systems that have popped up every now and then since the 1950's big Citroen's.

Marky46 The traction control will only help if one rear wheel is turning faster than the other by braking the faster spinning wheel until it grips again. It helps if you accidentally lose traction to one rear wheel on wet or loose surfaces - particularly on bends where one wheel lifts. If you drive badly enough to lose traction on both rear wheels it can't help. The snow mode just adds some deadening of the throttle response. Some people with a vivid imagination think they can react faster with brakes and accelerater than the traction control but they seldom if ever can.

It is quite difficult to prove AFS works. It only functions when the car is moving at above 12 mph and is only noticeable on high beam, so cannot be proved with the car stationary unless you can safely jack up both rear wheels to mimic driving above 12 mph. You need a long dark stretch of road with a bend and nothing coming the other way, so that you can drive with it both ON & OFF to see the difference which is slight and only vaguely useful - which may be why it was replaced by DRLs on later models with restyled headlights. If the car has been set to AFS OFF for a long time, the controlling motors may well be stuck and it won't work. The aim of the HIDs can seem to be set low. This is because they can easily dazzle oncoming traffic because of their much higher brilliance. This low setting is usually the correct setting and raising it may well result in MOT failure and a lot of blinded drivers flashing you.

It is a shame that after more than 30 years of cars being crammed full of electronics that those who service/repair them receive no meaningful training on how to repair them. In general, even manufacturer-linked repair-shops know less about the electronics in their cars than they do about brain-surgery or nuclear physics. What is shameful is that this not tremendously high level of electronic complexity costs very little when not fitted to cars, but replacement car-units are at totally ridiculous prices - devices like digital TVs or laptops would cost 10s of thousands of pounds if they were essential parts of cars and Currys & Dixons would immediately go bust if they had to price products on the same basis. Manufacturers, including Lexus should really act responsibly to provide economical repair facilities for their elecronic assemblies - but these could prove difficult to staff and as a sensible alternative, provide replacement assembles at much, much lower and realistic prices - I would suggest that as an equivalent to most domestic electronics, a complete refurbished service-exchange MM/Satnav unit should cost no more than 400 GB Pounds plus fitting, with some sub-assemblies available at less, to reflect the actual cost of such units. At any higher price either Lexus, customer or both are being royally screwed.

Thank you for that F.A. I have noticed how white the light is, was on my 220d too. It's the discharge bit that I don't understand. I thin that there is AFS aswell but i don't think that I have that on mine. I think that that is where the lights tend to move a little on bends etc. i don't think that I have that either. Thanks again for your help. Most headlamps work with filaments - thin metal wire that is electrically heated until it is white hot - giving the light. Quartz halogen lamps are filled with gas which prevents the glass from blackening as the bulbs age in a smaller envelope made from quartz glass which can stand higher temperatures. Simplifying, HIDs use a high-voltage from a separate generator (inverter) to break down trace gasses to form a plasma which is what you see - a bit like a controlled spark. They are closer to fluorescent tubes than filament lamps, but do not require the coating that fluorescents have to make the plasma (or discharge) visible. Higher efficiency is achieved and they give a much brighter, whiter light for a lower current from the battery.

Don't forget that the Sport has completely identical performance to all the other versions of IS200 - it just looks a little different because fractionally lowered, has rear tints and has LSD & perforated pedals - neither makes any difference in most situations. The sportiest thing about the Sport is the badge, but they still command a higher price which is something to consider with your budget. Plus if an IS200 is well-worn and hard-used; it will be a Sport although there are plenty of good ones..White is rare, so a decent respray is a sensible but expensive option. For trouble-free extra performance plus all the toys, think about an IS300. Being an Auto does not stop it being very much more sporty than the IS200 "Sport" and a bit more unusual.

This is what I did with my 220d. I made myself a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel and recorded all of the fuel purchased along with the reading from the odometer etc. etc.etc.. I found this to be a great help. I am pleased that I did this because as I mentioned in some of my earlier threads, the mpg I was recording when I first got the car was pretty abysmal, then I cleaned the EGR Valve and demonstrated what a worthwhile excercise that was. It isn't easy to make accurate mpg measurements. The car calculates it from the outputs of a fuel-flow sensor (needed for the ECU) and the odometer. Neither are precise laboratory instruments but are usually consistent; so are fine for trends etc. Better results are available from continuously recording amounts of fuel bought over distance travelled - but these are subject to errors in forecourt pumps & odometers, which however tend to even out over time. You would have to be very, very lucky to achieve better than 3 or 4 percent absolute accuracy.As you say though, it is better just to enjoy the car and only worry if mpg becomes noticeably poor.

All versions are good. Colour is whatever floats your boat. I like the midnight blue. The LE is the best equipped but is only in darkish metallic silver & has HID headlamps. The sport has LSD and is a little lowered - features which are not really worth extra money. Very late SE's have leather or part leaher seats. Look for FSH and good appearance inside & out, everything working properly, no nasty clunks or noises and reasonably evenly worn tyres plus a sensible reason for the owner selling. High mileage is not a worry. You will end up with a smooth ultra-reliable car with looks that have aged very well - but do not expect high performance nor great economy - neither of which you can improve except at high expense. If you want a bit more performance, go for an IS300 - very good Auto only, it is not massively worse for economy and is even better equipped.

All true, but the Lexus Diesel niche has only ever existed in a few countries within its Market - particularly not in the USA - and that is declining as Companies no longer feel the need to supply Prestige cars, and increasingly do not wish their staff to inefficiently spend their valuable time traipsing across the Country. Similarly, employees are (if possible in the current situation) now increasingly seeking lesser commutes in favour of lower costs plus a better quality of life by working nearer to home. Add to this that by slightly premature release; Lexus turned their Prestige Diesel into something of an oxymoron; it is no surprise they have abandoned this foray and are investing in what they see as the coming technologies. The niche is therefore handed over to the competent diesels from Toyota, and Lexus seem unworried that these do not have Lexus style and cachet and the effect this could have on sales. They may have in reality made a mistake in doing this; but probably see it as likely a lesser potential mistake than embarking on the diesel route in the first place. Time will tell. Other manufacturers have not adopted this view.

I sympathise with your position. Even if Lexus had not tied their flag to Hybrid technology, future diesels would have required design and development of a very different auto-gearbox to fit into their range and image. This gearbox would have required more ratios to captalise on the diesel's inherent narrow power band rather than fiddling with engine's injector-control to "artificially" widen the power-band, plus be linked to gearbox electronics to accomodate this as well as coping witht the relatively ponderous engine-response to provide smooth changes and good efficiency without excessive efficiency losses through torque converters. Lexus's current auto boxes are tailored and coupled to control of the very different petrol engine and although one just for diesels could be achieved; even ignoring the massive development costs would result in a car which cost far too much to fit into the fleet cum luxury-drive-on-the-cheap sector presently occupied by say the IS200/220D.Maybe other manufacturers will choose this different route, but must be concerned that making diesels drive really well with low emissions fritters away their economic advantages in increased manufacturing complexity/costs and reductions in fuel economy. This has already happened to an extent in that today's refined diesels offer a much better drive but are significantly less economical than old, noisy, black-smoking clunkers. Few would now like to drive an old 90's 1.9 Astra-Van with how crude it seemed but might be surprised how very frugal it was even when (as it usually was) heavily laden and pushed to its limits up & down the motorways.

It will hopefully not turn out to be too Draconion. Most of the things you quote are already illegal for road use like ECU mods that make it churn out excessive emissions, Mega wheels that stick out a lot, Giant engines that are not then registered to the vehicle and/or actually make it unsafe - in fact all really major changes that even now require the vehicle to be type-approved and re-registered because effectively very much no longer the vehicle originally registered. I am sure people will continue to enjoy an interest which exercises skill & imagination - but the few who go too far beyond their abilities may be prevented from using deeply polluting death-traps.

Of course not to de-badge. On a car the age of an IS200 it just looks like the badges dropped off. De-badging used to be a bit of a fad - but that was 10 years ago. But if it makes you happy & makes it easier to clean the back end, go ahead - its your car. Just keep the badges for the next owner.

On the plus side, the IS300LE is quite rare and a nice colour. On the down side, most the things you have done are just listing what people expect - standard servicing & maintenance. On the plus side, it is clearly in fine condition. On the down side, 3 litre engines are a bit of a turn-off in a recession. On the plus side, there is a niche market for the IS300 because it is such a good, reliable car, great to drive & not a lot worse on fuel than the IS200. On the down side, not many general buyers know what an IS300 is. You need to research what others are going for and hope when the time comes, someone is specifically looking for an IS300 plus a sensible reason for why you are selling such an A1 car