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whats are coilovers???? and which ones would you reccommend? thanks ... av never heard of coilovers to be honest. ha Looks good. Not my personal choice for alloys but they individualise the car and don't look silly. Coilovers will lower the suspension to look cool and give slightly better handling at the expense of ride comfort plus give you the opportunity to scrape the car over sleeping policemen, catch the front lip on kerbs in front of you in car parks, prevent you being able to open kerbside doors on heavily cambered streets etc. De-badging - slightly chav and people will think it is a 220D because most IS de-badges are - also people don't know there is an IS350. As for the tints, maybe a touch drug-dealer, but they do look nice on that colour car.

Cons - (1) If you use the extra power, a potential for shorter engine/transmission life and reliabilty as with any power mod on any car. (2) A smaller resale market (3) Worse mpg as an everyday drive. Pros - (1) Fun (2) More fun Check that suspension etc. has been uprated to cope with the extra go and that it doesn't have an exhaust system that is a magnet for every patrol car in your county.

The 220D is not a bad car, but there are better diesels from manufacturers who have pursued diesels further - Lexus appear to have given up. It attracts negative comments and technical niggles like no other Lexus. Perhaps this is because of comparisons to their superb petrol cars - particularly those with auto transmission. So maybe an auto diesel would have been a good idea - masking the inherent limited rev range etc; but is impossible with current Lexus auto boxes which are closely integrated with engine management and require reasonably speedy response from the power unit which diesels cannot deliver. Lexus show no sign of developing an auto box just for diesels. All in all, the 220d is damned by faint praise, and in a poll to decide Lexus's best car is going to come at the bottom. Yet again, another uneccessary Knock on the 220D. Lexus Diesel is an advanced engine, granted, maybe not quite as good as Beamers or Mercs. To put you remind at rest, Lexus have NO immediate plans to stop the manufacture or sale of the current IS-220D range. Lexus have sold a great amount of these models, and having friends who own one, they are of the same mindset as the facts indicate. " A great car with some niggles". Lexus are fully aware of these niggles, and have fixes for all. I do know that where Lexus future lies is in "hybrids" hence the launch of the CT200h in October this year. Shooting from the hip all the time at the IS200D doesn't help people in deciding whether to buy or not to buy. I have become quite friendly with our local Lexus dealership over the years, and, they are quite candid about choice. If you want petrol, then buy petrol, if you want diesel, buy diesel. Once again, there are a lot worse cars you could consider buying. Col... I am sure Lexus will continue to support the IS220D, its engine is quite advanced and it has sold well. As I said, it is not a bad car, and if you want one - go for it. Neverthless, within the Lexus range it is worth considering if there is a worthwhile advantage to "a great car with some niggles" over "a great car without any niggles" which fits the 250 Auto. Lexus's future as stated seems to lie with hybrids, and again current technology is unsuited to diesels in these. Can you imagine silently pulling off in a hybrid and demand making a diesel grudgingly clatter into life?

It is steep, and a 20k service really doesn't involve very much - but dealers need to charge like this to cover overheads, pay decent wages for good mechanics etc., or they just go out of business and their accumulated experience would not then be available to cope with serious or more obscure problems. Nevertheless, they also need to remain competitive, so shop around and expect things like courtesy cars and convenience as part of a premium service at a high cost.

The 220D is not a bad car, but there are better diesels from manufacturers who have pursued diesels further - Lexus appear to have given up. It attracts negative comments and technical niggles like no other Lexus. Perhaps this is because of comparisons to their superb petrol cars - particularly those with auto transmission. So maybe an auto diesel would have been a good idea - masking the inherent limited rev range etc; but is impossible with current Lexus auto boxes which are closely integrated with engine management and require reasonably speedy response from the power unit which diesels cannot deliver. Lexus show no sign of developing an auto box just for diesels. All in all, the 220d is damned by faint praise, and in a poll to decide Lexus's best car is going to come at the bottom.

As above, I emailed BBS to enquire if any "touch-up" paints are available for the dark alloy wheels they make and supply to Lexus for the ISF. I did this via the "contact us" portal on their website. As I expected, they have not responded in any way.

I don't think that should be possible - although I have only tried it with one fob at a time on my ISF. Anyway, just take it as a terrible warning: the phrase "Nice IS220D" is an oxymoron. Well we all can't afford an ISF you know ;-) What is the problem with the IS220d? I had always thought they were a perfectly good car? I really can't go for the IS250 due to fuel economy and I want Lexus reliability - surely the IS220d is a good compromise? I understand the need for economy. But personally I would choose an older IS200 in preference to a brand new IS220D - reliability will be no worse, and you can use a huge amount of petrol for what you save in price, plus the drive is so very much better. The IS220D is not a bad car, but is far from being the best diesel around and rests firmly at the bottom of the list of Lexus's best cars.

The issue of ferrous brake dust with the ISF is well known. I have found that as far as the wheels are concerned, now that the wheels have weathered and the lacquer surface has shrunk and hardened over a couple of years, this dust is much less inclined to embed itself in the lacquer and the problem has mainly gone away by itself. The same applies to the paint on the side of the body which seems increasingly immune to having brake dust embedded in it. I am not sure the ferrous content is from the pads though, and tend to suspect abrading of the discs. However, I would not describe this as as corrosion anyway. What I was questioning was the general issue of Lexus alloy wheel corrosion and whether this is really caused by proprietory wheel cleaner chemicals. Purely out of meaness & because I had a large otherwise useless barrel of the stuff - Swarfega - which had turned to liquid, I have mainly used this for years on alloys, put on with a plastic wallpaper brush and then rinsed. It dissolves tar etc. but does not eat into anything because it is close to being an emulsion of paraffin & washing-up detergent. It leaves a slight oily film which seems to shuck off a lot of the dirt and smells horrible at first - but I have never had any sign of corrosion on an alloy wheel. Mercifully, it doesn't seem to affect tyres either. As for the price for a set of ISF wheels: They may be wonderful and light etc but are not hand-crafted from Welsh Gold, so £5k is taking the p**s because they can!!

Because you are used to a peaky engine like the Civic, your mpg could start quite a lot worse until you get used to the IS200 seemingly more relaxed, less nippy characteristics. Even so, it will still probably remain a bit worse simply because the IS200 is bigger and heavier. Nevertheless, unless you drive like every journey is a Grand Prix, you should manage 30ish mpg for your 40 mile daily journey. I you don't, and assuming the car is fault-free (and it probably is), glance at the little instantaneous mpg indicator as you accelerate/change gear. It isn't accurate, but good enough to tell you how to modify your driving to improve mpg without losing out on pace. Also feel your wheels when you get to work to see if the brakes are hot - if they are, you are using fuel to keep up speed until braking at the last minute, throwing away energy you have just used up in petrol. Easing off earlier and then braking more gently can have huge advantages in mpg.

I don't think that should be possible - although I have only tried it with one fob at a time on my ISF. Anyway, just take it as a terrible warning: the phrase "Nice IS220D" is an oxymoron.

I've just had a new set on mine under warranty, and the Service Manager said they were £5000.00 for the set of four. They're German manufacture (BBS). Recently I stupidly managed to scrape the paint/lacquer from about 7 cm of the very edge of 1 rear rim, and of course the bare silvery metal stands out like a sore thumb against the dark lacquer on the rest of the wheel. I enquired with Lexus about possible touch-in paint, and there isn't one. I also emailed several paint-matching specialists, none of which bothered to reply. Sadly, the tin lids in Halfords are no longer colour samples - e.g. the lids for silver cars are all the same silver colour regardless of contents, so you can't attempt a nearish match by eye. I have now emailed BBS to see if they suggest anything and await their reply which I will put up on here. What is it about Lexus and corroding wheels? They use 9 different manufacturers from 5 countries for their supplied and optional alloy wheels, so this suggests it is probably due to what people are doing to them. Could it be using the very corrosive alloy wheel cleaners from most of the major car cleaning accessory companies? The T***le Wax one comes in a trigger-spray bottle, smells acidic and rots away and jams the pump mechanism, and if you then apply it with a brush from a saucer, will eat the glaze and pattern from that unless it is rinsed. I think maybe a pin-hole or two in the lacquer finish, and it will start to attack the alloy underneath. Some of the newer gel cleaners have a strange organic chemical smell to them, and don't seem to attack metal to the same extent, so maybe the problem will lessen as they become more common??

I know how you feel. Years ago had a Rover 2.6 that started to shake like a jelly at 1800 rpm. To keep a long story of expensive investigations and fruitless replacement parts short, the problem turned out to be the stop on the dipstick (which was just a circlip) working down its length, causing me to overfill with oil enough that the big-ends dipped into it. It just needed the excess oil draining off! When you have found this sort of problem; you feel such a fool and have a big hole in your bank balance to prove it. You just have to put it down to experience - but sadly will never come across it again!

You wont like the roughness and crudeness of the 220D's drive after an IS200. If you have to go for diesel for economy, consider Toyota or Ford which are at least as good but cheaper - or BMW which may be better if just as expensive. You wont lose out on prestige, because alone amongst all Lexuses, the IS220D doesn't have any. Where the IS200 was introduced as a small, smooth and sophisticated quality car to complement their range of larger models; the IS220D was a cut-back (more or less cheapo) version of the second generation smaller car - the IS250 - aimed to penetrate the Company Car Market. It is good and has its fans; but it is not great and the Lexus diesel concept has not been followed up at all. Other manufacturers have continued to develop diesels with better results both in terms of driveability and economy.

The IS200 is not and never was a "high performance" car. It is so smooth, comfortable and effortless that it deceives you into thinking it is maybe a bit sluggish compared with other 2 litre cars of the same size - when it isn't. It can seem less "involving" and if driven agressively like a hot hatch, using max revs in each gear; it will return considerably less than 20 mpg without getting anywhere quicker than driving it properly as a car with a six cylinder engine, just using your right foot to squeeze out the power you need in each gear. If driven for what it is, well over 30 mpg is easily achieved on a decent journey without ever lagging behind the rest of the traffic. However, three factors are important to remember: (1) The engine/ECU design is over 10 years old, and newer designs tend to be more efficient. (2) 6 cylinder engines have more inherent cylinder/camshaft/bearing friction than 4 cylinder engines, so are generally thirstier. (3) If you like a car you have thrash to get the best out of it; the IS200 isn't for you.

Thanks for this. It is a useful and timely warning to remind us all that information on goods for sale may be misleading, and it is perfectly sensible to enquire here to see if it refers to some unusual option for the IS200. As it happens it doesn't and is for the IS220/250, and since it is faulty, is not all that useful anyway except to strip for part of it, so may be a tad expensive.

The 220D was Lexus' first venture into the salesman's car market & I think it is telling that it has not been followed by any other diesels and it doesn't look like there are any in the pipeline. Whilst it is my view that the 220D is the only nasty Lexus with an engine whose characteristics do not match the gearbox etc. very well; this is from the viewpoint of their superb petrol cars - and particular their automatic transmissions. The downside of the reputation of the 220D is much because its users spend huge amounts of time driving them, and thus notice every fault & foible - many of which are generic to diesels. What I think is clear though is that the 250 auto MM is the Lexus 2 series car of choice unless you really need the extra economy of the diesel and are prepared to sacrifice everything else in its favour. Other manufacturers have concentrated much more on diesels and unsuprisingly have produced better ones - but I would caution that this only means that they are slightly less unpleasant to drive. I believe the diesel is an evolutionary dead end in cars, and a good idea is to stick to petrol until newer emerging technologies mature.

A buffer is what professionals use to get a reasonable finish in a reasonable time for a reasonable charge. It is a commercial replacement for the time and hard work to do a superb job by hand which does not leave the swirl-marks you already have unless you are very kack-handed.

If the mirror lips are so hard to maintain, and because they look a bit naff anyway; why not have them refinished in black to match the rest of the wheel when you get them refurbed?

Most of the time pitting isn't in the alloy itself but in the surface applied to it - which is basically paint. In your case, by the time you have cut through the pitting, you will probably be back to the natural silvery alloy, which will then look even worse and need refinishing to get it back to black. The best solution is to find a Wheel Refurbisher company and let them do it properly - although it won't be cheap. I am sure someone on here can recommend one in your area.

I haven't done any measurements, but it looks the same size as those on IS220/250. Of course it has the full set of buttons for MM etc.

First measure your mpg accurately tank brim to tank brim against the odometer. If this still works out poor, reset ECU. Changing the air filter can make a significant difference if it is well clogged, but the oil etc is not going to make a huge difference. The IS 200 was designed over 11 years ago, and the ECU etc gave the best compromise of performance, driveabilty, emissions and longevity that could be achieved with the technology of the times - which looks a bit poor now. Also remember that 6-cylinder engines are inherently silky smooth but have higher friction from the two extra bores than a 4-cylinder engine so will always be less economical. From my experience over an average 20 mpg should be easily achievable and over 30 mpg is virtually impossible.

If you have a slippery uphill drive and get a lot of snow, the ISF is not the best car - even the latest version with LSD - unless you are prepared to mess about fitting winter tyres. The ISF just doesn't have lots of traction in these conditions although no worse than other RWD cars with plenty of power and wide tyres. It also sits low and cannot plough through snow deeper than about 15cm. If you find your speed humps an uncomfortable experience with the GS, the ISF is jarringly worse unless taking them very slowly or you will need an osteopath to sort your spine out after a while. These factors suggest the RX, but you will definitely notice the lack of grunt and indifferent handling by comparison. So alternatives: Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne, BMW X5 etc - these will keep you going in speedy comfort in the snow and over the speed humps; but for the rest of the time, the ISF will give you all you could ever want plus style, reliabilty and the bonus of lower running costs.

All manufacturers seem to be suffering from this problem. I have been reading some research that although it is something that car manufacturers and the makers of alloy wheels should maybe take into account; it is mainly a problem arising from a driving style involving regular and frequent last-minute heavy breaking from high speeds rather than planning ahead a bit. I am not suggesting that is so in your case, but if you have to replace your brake pads and tyres more often than most, it could be. Frequent very heavy braking raises the wheels to temperatures which makes the paint/lacquer on the wheels bubble, and there are no sufficiently decorative finishes at the moment that can withstand these temperatures. An anodised finish would achieve this and is very tough but just doesn't give the look most people want.

It is well worth looking absolutely everywhere for the best quote which is unlikely to come from comparison sites. For me it turned out to be from Direct Line where I had been insured for several years - and although it has risen each year, still is. My renewal at the end of February was £499 to include unlimited mileage, business use and £625 excess. Protected no claims discount, legal protection & guaranteed hire car brings the total to £640. In my case, none of the specialist insurers could get anywhere near this, and most were at least double this figure and demanded huge excesses. If you intend to keep the ISF for a while, it is worth looking into Lexus Prepaid Service Plans and separate, but quite cheap insurance for tyre damage. Another small point: The ISF ride loses a lot of its initial harshness after a bit of use. Enjoy! Hi just a point did you have to have a tracker fitted in order to get cover for thieft with direct line thanks I looked into insurance while waiting for my ISF to be built 2 years ago. At that time, none of the reputable insurance companies would consider insurance without a tracking device fitted, so I had one fitted predelivery. Maybe things have now changed re trackers.

It is well worth looking absolutely everywhere for the best quote which is unlikely to come from comparison sites. For me it turned out to be from Direct Line where I had been insured for several years - and although it has risen each year, still is. My renewal at the end of February was £499 to include unlimited mileage, business use and £625 excess. Protected no claims discount, legal protection & guaranteed hire car brings the total to £640. In my case, none of the specialist insurers could get anywhere near this, and most were at least double this figure and demanded huge excesses. If you intend to keep the ISF for a while, it is worth looking into Lexus Prepaid Service Plans and separate, but quite cheap insurance for tyre damage. Another small point: The ISF ride loses a lot of its initial harshness after a bit of use. Enjoy!