Linas.P

****!!! I don't qualify... what about IS220d drivers?

Very limited. I would have upgraded 2 years ago if I would have any choice... I was thinking BMW 640 2012+, BMW i8, RC-F, RC300h, M4, 430d/i... I want coupe in general, but don't want performance car, but it has to be RWD and faster then 7s 0-60, it would be great if it could be hybrid, but the only 2 I can think of are i8/RC300h... Work can offer me BMW 530e/330e, MB C350e/E350e, Volvo S90 T8 - but no Coupe and the pricing are not great. Hence I will continue complaining that Lexus has no RC350 or RC450h, or RC300h Plug-in which does 0-60 in 5.8s ... I guess

I was thinking to get IS220d or IS200t - two worst cars Lexus made and then moan here about them every day. It is Cat-N, which means I can simply continue driving it as it is....

Sorry, genuinely don't understand the question - too many possible interpretations 😄 Am I looking for new "wheels", you mean car? No, not at the moment - I guess I would take the money and get 4 wheels alignment for £60. Am I looking for new wheels - no, the current ones can be refurbished, they are not bent, nor cracked + I already have 2 more sets of 17inch wheels. You looking for new wheels? - was that questions if I am "parting-out" the car and wheels are for sale? That could be possibility.

So they would give category is Cat-N "non-structural damage", the repair costs of £3847 does not include ongoing courtesy car hire of ~500/week. That is crazy how quickly that gets expensive - I trending towards agreeing valuation, my only argument is that they put it as "average" condition on Glass valuation tool, whereas car is "very good/excellent" condition. Yes it is high miles, but FLSH, still has Lexus service plan with 1 prepaid service remaining, complete brakes overhaul in March, new battery less then a year ago, paint is perfect condition, no stone chips, no scratches etc. I know that all sounds sentimental, but call it "average" for year or mileage is inaccurate at best, I would not find the car in similar condition even for £5000 including ones with 100k miles less, they are generally worse condition then mine despite low miles. However, disputing the valuation at this stage adds no value for me, if they increase the value of the car from £3360, they will increase the residual value from £505, meaning that compensation I will get won't change much if at all... I reckon £3750 would be more realistic, but that means nothing - it would still remain Cat-N, I would still get same compensation... ok maybe £50 or £100 more, but it will prolong the process by few weeks, so it is not worth risking.

Yes you right it is 8 speed auto, not 7. But then it is incomparable with manual gearbox anyway - my point was that automatic gearbox have a choice of 8 gears to use and it tires to predict what you want, but never gets it right (that is the problem). On manual gearbox - you know exactly what you want and therefore you will shift to the gear you want, you are not predicting anything + I guess it was 5/6 gears manual so obviously you had much longer gears and wider power band in each gear to play with. Petrol turbo engine have wider power band then diesel ones, but still nowhere near as wide power band as NA engines. Furthermore, when you see power curve of the engine that is usually done on the engine without drive train (i.e. no gearbox connected) and only from say ~2500-3500rpm to rpm limiter e.g. on diesel engine you would get hp/Torque curve for 2500-5500rpm which disregards gearing etc. and it would look rather smooth (on top they will apply smoothing as well). The realistic power delivery will be much more spiky in entire rev range even within the single gear, never-mind throughout all gears.

I had IS200t for whole Saturday, drove around East, South-East England - Motorways, fast A/B roads and some city traffic in London ~600miles, same for RC300h... as for BMW - I have it now for 4 days, drive daily to work, been to East cost during weekend, did 750miles so far and will keep it for another 2-3 weeks, because my 12years old IS250 is sadly a write-off for now. V6 or V8 has nothing to do with being blokish or antiquated - first of all what is important is whenever engine is NA or forced induction. I prefer wide and late power band of NA engine and I prefer sound and smoothness of the engine and lineal power delivery. This smoothness is what you want in Premium car - not jerky small volume turbo engine which is rarely on power, but kicks you in the head and brakes your neck when it gets there.

Third Party Insurance

My car was deemed uneconomical repair... The cost of repairs is £3847, whereas estimated value of the vehicle is £3360 - they reckon "at its current condition" vehicle is worth £505 😄 I am trying to understand what this suppose to mean in real terms, but probably that means - they pay me the difference between remaining value and and what it is worth (£2855) and I would keep the car with salvage title, presumably Cat-C. I am trying to get my head around this now and calculate what is the best solution, still need to approve the valuation and claim....

I guess this is part of Pennzoil Trailer series, more can be seen here:

So you basically called my view outdated, just to rephrase my post and ultimately say the same thing? I know people who considers Golf as Luxury or Premium... so what? BTW I realised today what is wrong with IS200t gearbox - it is not gearbox problem at all, BMW320d does exactly the same thing (with it's 7 speed auto) - the problem is in tiny turbocharged engine which has narrow power band, meaning that you are never in the right gear to be on power and gearbox keeps trying to put-it in the right gear... but because power band is narrow, by the time gearbox sticks into say 4th, you already off the throttle and then by the time there is gap again in the traffic it already has it in 6th - never gets right.

I think the easiest way to answer is to simply state that "badge is what it makes it premium" aka "public perception" as such BMW would be premium, Mini would not be premium even though they might be similar in value. Otherwise, it is not really possible to agree universal rule. Some will say reliability, I will say it must bet at least V6 and must be RWD, some other people going to have different views...

I guess depends on the situation .. who was at fault? You? They? If it was you why your insurance declined the claim then? Is this not fraudulent and unlawful? They not claiming anything from my insurance or me, there is not even any clause like that as a possibility. If TP insurance going to decline I will simply sue them, sue TP and if CMC going to try to pass costs back I will sue them as well... I am actually quite happy to sue people and do it quite often (real story :D). Furthermore, I have reported TP for police for failing to "stop and report", so that is other avenue which I can pursue if the rest fails.

Actually, once I hired a car Full size luxury saloon which meant to be "C-class or 3-Series equivalent" and when I arrived to Portugal they game me Alfa-Romeo 156 Estate... I am like "what the hell is that" and they looking surprised "yes we consider Alfa as premium"... I am like "for***** sake - so what if I go to Russia - they will give me Lada because they consider it 'Premium' or in India maybe they will give me a 'donkey'..." after a bit of discussion they would not budge and in the middle of the night in the airport I didn't have much leverage - either to take car or walk away. So partially to answer your question - I do not consider Alfa as premium, nor I guess most of Britain, but it could be argued that is "premium Italian" as Citroen is "premium french" . @st4Good point about reputation, maybe reliability affects brand reputation, but not how premium it is? Now think about very public Lexus airbag issue (which wasn't even Lexus fault at all) - imagine how that looks and sounds to average Joe and what brand image it creates - "those Lexus with exploding airbags" - people don't do research, don't do fact check are ignorant and I am certain most would still answer that Mercedes is one of the most reliable cars or that German cars are reliable even though it is factually incorect.. More reliable then French and Italian - yeah perhaps... In short - what you think are facts.. is not necessary common knowledge and what makes car premium is Public perception which will always be ill-informed in reality.

You know, the forum is made for discussion and not all the people have same opinions - opinions doesn't need to agree and there are no reason to be offended. As I said reliability is a factor in general for better or worse car, but not for more premium or less premium. It can certainly make car more or less desirable, but not more or less premium. Some more premium features can make car less reliable and some reliable parts can make car less premium. In fact it is almost opposite with vintage/collectable cars - the less reliable ones are more expensive, because there are less of them left! @st4 - you getting the Merc in the first place just adds to my point, you picked it-up because it looked and felt premium when new, in long run you realised it wasn't the best choice. Does it make the car less premium - no, it makes it less reliable, less desirable (when mid-age, but probably rarer when old)... Overall, premium cars are not most frugal choice and people who care about reliability are probably the ones who don't buy premium brands anyway - and I am generalising on the global sales respective, it might not be right for every individual. It is not even right for my... I would summarise that there are reliable and unreliable Premium cars/makes, nevertheless they are all Premium. As there are reliable and unreliable performance cars - yet they are all performance. It is not like only reliable performance cars can be considered "performance cars".