Linas.P

Cannot advice on shocks, but I had changed to 18inch wheels myself and first impression was same - the car looks taller and kind of needs lowering. Difference is just visual - between 17 and 18 inch rears is 7mm, so they raise your car 3.5mm. That is very unlikely to have any side-effect on handling or noticeable difference height. However, I understand you point very well, because it looks much taller visually.

I guess we both over-simplifying and over-generalising. All types of transportation should co-exist, but they should not co-exist at the price of other type. As for now cycling and public transport clearly exists at the cost of motorists and that is simply wrong. I disagree that public transport needs more subsidies, because it is already subsidised too much, problem is in ineffective spending and corruption, not the amount of money is spent. Just to clarify my above post, public transport needs to exist, I have never said it needs to be abolished somehow. However, when I say it is "not a solution" - I mean it is not a solution for all the problems and all of the people and will never be. I can say that large issue is the very large static cost of car ownership i.e. when you make a choice to own the car, you pretty much have to stick with it. Road tax and insurance doesn't change regardless how much you drive, as such when you got the car it is cheapest to drive it, the more you drive the less it costs per mile on average. We can make changed to that by introducing "pay as you go" insurance and road tax, or say allowing all road tax payers to use public transport for free, only then combining driving with public transport going to start making sense. Finally, I believe public transport needs to be nationalised and must become significantly cheaper ( say 10 times cheaper), before spending any public money on it. Because current privately owned way simply doesn't work and even worse you cannot even subsidise it without effectively paying bonuses for shareholders. As for electric car charging, the car ownership needs to be rationalised first based on infrastructure and level of infrastructure needs to be made more consistent. For example where I live we only have 30 parking spaces for 100 flats - that is designed not to work and will never work. Just down the street in terraced houses, they have on street parking + converted gardens, so each house has 4-6 parking spaces and at least 2-5 cars. Another 500 meters further semi-detached houses have 8-10 parking spaces per house. With such disparity it is impossible to scale electric car charging and rationalise it. Certain number of parking spaces should be enforced by law (as in any modern country) and on street parking controlled/reduced i.e. no on street parking by default, but if you have converted you garden back to garden, then you can request 2 places for semi or 1 for terraced and maybe 80% ratio for flats.

I can see your perspective, however that is not how it works for me. I live 16miles away from London center, so that is similar to what you have described as "sweet spot". Few typical travels I do in the car vs. public transport: Commuting to work. I have calculated all expenses including, insurance, tax, maintenance (including unplanned maintenance pot), depreciation and obviously fuel. This works out as ~0.16p mile (the more I drive the cheaper it gets), so if I do 16 miles it will be £5.12. As well I pay for parking (sometimes) which is £5/day (yes £5/day in central London!). I don't hit congestion charge zone as office is just outside of it. So my total daily cost to drive in is £10.12. Commuter train peak time fare is £10.40 one way or £20.80 return. As I said if my second half shares the ride, which she does at least twice a week the difference is quite big, £10.12 vs £41.60. Ok.. what about weakly pass then! You see weakly pass is £89 and and I work one day from home, so it woudl work out more expensive + from perspective of family budge my girlfriend would still need to pay for travel, so instead of £40.48/week it would cost £130.6... I made calculation for all possible season tickets and math always the same. Next... I fly to work abroad ~twice a month + fly to holidays + my family comes from time to time to visit me (yes I know.. planes are public transport as well! Sadly I am not yet in position to have my private jet). In short I drive to airport fairly often ~3 times month and on average I have 2.5 people in the car. It is amazing how expensive is to get the train to the airport (flight is often cheaper then train to the airport) + carrying luggage from platform to platform, changing trains, many train don't run at night and if the flight is like 6:30AM, there is literally no way but to go to airport evening before flight (done it few times). So here is math, getting train to airport or train to central London and then bus to airport is ~£40pp return, as I have on average 2.5people with me that is £100 per flight and I do that 36 times per year, that alone would be £3600 if I would use public transport. As for the car, most airports are ~40 miles away from me (rarely fly from Heathrow) and nice motorway miles, very rarely any substantial traffic jams and the cost well under £10 per journey, I do spend on average ~£12 for airport parking, so works out as £792. Next I like road trips.. Get few friends and drive to Scotland, Devon, Wales etc. Last time we decided to go to Scotland the train price was £278pp (cheapest at that time), so for 4, it would have costed £1112.. just for train tickets, not to mention we would have to rent the car anyway to visit places in Scottish highlands. All trip all together costed £340 for 4. 3x tanks of petrol + apartment on airbnb. Even bigger saving was made on Christmas day trip to Bath... train ticket was £780pp. Finally, as I said even if public transport would be free I would still drive to Scotland because I like it - even more, are you suggesting to cover all remote areas like Scottish Highlands with the train tracks? So we stop people driving, but we cover national reserves with train tracks?! I would still drive to airport because of all hurdles changing trains with luggage ... I might take train to work, but only if it would be amazingly clean, quiet and under occupied... which lets face it - is not gonna happen. Free and amazing just doesn't add together. So no... public transport is not a solution, unless you want everyone to be mindless tools only ever travelling to their purposeless work and back, without any free time or any needs to travel anywhere outside of their designated daily route. Sorry for the rant, you can read from here down: As for investment into public transport - there is no need for extra investment, they have enough and even too much investment, the problems is that system is corrupt, money is laundered, wasted and spent inefficiently.

Sorry ... where are you from? Surely, not UK... pun intended The rail is awful in UK, amazingly expensive, always late and I am not even joking. In whole Japan in whole year, all the trains gets delayed by less then a minute, in UK every single train gets delayed by more then a minute and price is astronomical. If I compare my driving vs. what if I would use public transport instead... I easily save ~£7000 every year driving vs. single ticket price on the day. Obviously, getting season ticket or booking in advance would be slightly cheaper, but that is limiting factor. When driving I can wake-up in the morning decide where and when I want to go and just go, without season tickets, without early bookings and planning. That is not to mention I would need car anyway and getting season ticket + paying all static costs for car (like insurance, road tax, servicing) it woudl cost even more. If.. and that is big IF as it will never happen, public transport would be 100% free, only then I would even consider using it instead, very likely I would still drive quite often, just because public transport is so awful. Obviously, that is very personal thing, first of all because I hate sharing my personal space (...and germs, especially when others decides to share some) with anyone else, secondly I rather like driving. @Chris Skelton - yes cars are parked 95% of time... but if you think about it.. all appliances are. So maybe we should throw away our washing machines, irons, dishwashers... maybe we should share one with like 8 neighbors.. you know just to be more efficient. Same can be said about clothes, why don't we just throw them all out and just all get practical onesie for all occasions?! Blue ones for man, red ones for woman and pink ones for the rest (you see I am being "inclusive"). What you talking about is totalitarian mind state - where personal freedom is not a right.

There are always going to be people who won't use public transport, or anything public for that matter. I always though we have freedom of choice?! This start to sound like communism for me...

Investment one thing, how about actually manufacturing everything? How about all pollution form installation and manufacturing. After all change is heavily influenced by carbon and other types of pollution reduction, not increase.

Depends what type of business users, the company itself - yes, the employees unlikely. Companies normally buys vans, trucks, tractors, not Lexus IS300h. Company director can theoretically buy IS300h as company asset, but that is minority. On normal corporate schemes you cannot have it... I have not gasped?! I though it is me who is saying it... Not you business and completely irrelevant. ohhh yeah, sure that's and achievement! If ask me IS300h is much better then BMW 320d, so much in fact that almost non-comparable, but that is just my opinion.

Irrelevant, based on same logic - you have driven IS250 in the past, I have driven IS300h in the past and as you don't have IS250 right now, so how can you compare? Sport only changes throttle and makes judder off the line more pronounced and harsher. That is not the point, I can get myself Bugatti, it doesn't change how Lexus IS300h sounds or drives. Again it is great replacement for IS220d, especially for city driving, but not an upgrade for IS250.. that is the only thing I am pointing out. After April 2017 (when the rules changed), the new Co2 limit is 75g Co2/Km. Meaning that only hybrid cars with the tiniest engines like Yaris Hybrid (50g) or PHEVs like BMW 330e (49g), Prius Plug-in (44g) are compliant. Volvo, BMW, MB, Audi all released PHEVs band on target, but Lexus is sleeping. Previously, based on old rules all 300h cars were eligible, because limit was 115g Co2/km. It is not coincidence IS300h makes exactly 114g Co2/km. Anyway, what that means is - you can no longer choose any 300h as Salary Sacrifice, Car allowance or any other corporate scheme, because it doesn't have any tax advantage. Companies can still buy such cars for fleet and pay lower BIK then say on diesel cars, but lets be clear Lexus is not favourite fleet cars anyhow.

@ganzoom - it makes no sense. Certainly there are people who are against any change, but in this thread I haven't seen anyone who sad they are against EV's. Being stuck and avert to change has nothing to do with objectively reviewing the facts and making objective and informed decision. If I would live in detached house with garage I would install charging point and I would be more then happy to drive PHEV, or if I have option to have 2 cars then EV and PHEV. Optionally, I would be happy to have PHEV if there would be possibility to install charging point in my underground garage, I am even happy to cover all the costs.. sadly that is not the option I have and it has nothing to do with resisting change. Equally, it is fact that Tesla quality is not that great, it is not being against EV it is just objective truth.

Certainly does, I have been ridiculed by my friends when few times for claiming it. As for car not liking certain types or batches of fuel, It happened only twice for me. Once on Tesco Momentum 99 and once on Shell standard. Funny enough my car has best MPG on local ASDA fuel, which consitenly gets me ~0.5MPG more for tank average. As for long term cleaning, premium fuel only reduces/slows down build-up of dirt, so instead I prefer saving money on fuel (or any generic products) and then spending it on proper engine carbon cleaning with hydrogen (or similar) once every 2 years. Finally, any fuel.. cheap or expensive, supermarket or branded.. have and will meet minimum standards required. Don't forget fuel is very cheap (almost same prices as generic bottled water), current price ~122p -20% VAT - 57.95p duty ~ 38p/L, so for supermarket buying in bulk it makes very little difference what fuel they order with what type of additives - it only becomes expensive for us, end user. I reckon it often exceeds standards "just in case", because if say Tesco or whatever other supplier would be found selling sub-standard fuel, the negative publicity, never-mind legal liability would far outweigh benefits of cheeping-out on fuel. Most of "branded" stations are actually franchises and BP station might not even get BP fuel, there is nothing stopping them from shopping around as well. Finally, except of specific cases where refinery of specific brand is nearby, very same tankers of Shell, BP, Esso, Tesco will be getting their load from same refinery.

I am not sure what is your problem, yes traffic is road condition and is result of criminal negligence of road infrastructure by the government. It is not normal, as is potholes, or other deficiencies of infrastructure, but yes it is the conditions we have and have to deal with them - nobody suggest to do 50MPH in standstill traffic here. What I am saying is that on empty road, in perfect weather, on perfect road, with full tank, with mechanically sound car and in good mood.... I do not enjoy driving IS300h as much I would enjoy IS250 in exactly same conditions. On my daily commute without breaking any existing law or rule, but driving harder, I enjoy IS250 more then I would enjoy IS300h.

Ok... let me clarify - I want to be the one who decides how I drive, when road conditions permits. IS250 allows me to do that (could be quicker), IS300h doesn't. I am not even talking about speeding, usually my driving involves speeds between 30-50MPH except of motorways, still I enjoy IS250 much more on situation involving stand still acceleration and I do quite few of such accelerations in London. @Comedian - no, this is specifically German thing (maybe other countries as well), that insurance can decline your claim if they can prove you were driving in excess of speed which was deemed to be reasonable. That could even be 80km/h on icy road or simply 300km/h on autobahn where generally accepted safe speed is 130km/h. But it doesn't mean you going to lose insurance if somebody crashes into you doing 180km/h. Still first questions always going to be - whose fault it was. It becomes more relevant when you simply lose control and no other party is involved.

How you came to that conclusion? Who is outraged by electric cars? The general sense is that majority of population have no access to facilities to charge these cars and they make no economical sense. Second main theme is that Tesla feels cheaply made and not up to the level of luxury cars we expect in Europe. I would love to have PHEV coupe, because EV range would cover my daily commute and petrol/diesel would give me desired range when I going away from London on weekends. Pure EV is great in the city, but they simply not going to match ICE on range anytime soon. Is that an issue.. no I don't think so, because I don't see myself driving EV for more then 30-50 miles a day. However, that means I will need second car for weekends for any foreseeable future unless somebody comes-up with 1000miles battery, or at least 250miles battery which can be charged in seconds + network of such chargers. That brings me to another point @ganzoom - I don't care about EV range as long as it is more then my daily commute ~30 miles or 50 miles just to be on safe side and account for battery capacity degradation over time. For PHEV it can even be something like 22miles as it would simply revert to ICE after that. I would never do any longer journeys in EV until recharging is going to becomes as quick as refueling i.e. I care more about how long it takes to charge, not the range. As such for me there is no difference if I need to charge Tesla after 310miles for 30 minutes or Golf-e after 180miles for 30 minutes, the charging time of 30 minutes is equally unsatisfactory.

0 - because since April 2017 they no longer eligible. @wharfhouse - not sure where you got impression that I am angry. I have simply corrected you that you won't lose your insurance cover in accident if it is not your fault, even at 200MPH. However, it is true that your cover becomes conditional when traveling well in excess of recommended speed, that is if say your tyre blows or if you lose control yourself and there are reasonable grounds to suspect you were traveling well in excess of recommended speed - insurance can decline to cover damages, burden of proof is however on them to prove it. It doesn't even have anything to do with autobahn, it applies to any road and recommended speeds can be anything. Obviously, autobahns are affected most because allowed speed is unlimited and recommended speeds is usually 130km/h. As for "driving like pensioned" - you can get offended if you like ("snowflake"), though I reckon the pensioners are the ones who should get offended the most, because not all are slow drivers. I am sure that you know very well what I mean. There is nothing wrong with driving "carefully and slowly", but I want to be the one who decides when and how I drive. I can drive carefully in IS250 and save 30% of fuel, but if I want driver harder I can do that as well. Secondly, I described my behaviour in IS300h... and it is not necessary bad thing, it certainly makes me more efficient driver and after driving IS300h I certainly feel more relaxed, but at the same time I like it less and it is less engaging. As for the car, I don't want to get LC or RC-F, because they are performance cars and have undesired maintenance and running costs. It was discussed times and times again, there is gap in Lexus UK line, no middle ground. The choice goes, either "slow" 300h or "performance F". That is because 350 is missing. What I want is that either Lexus plug that gap with RC350 or make RC300h performance acceptable. I mean look at BMW 330e - 0-60 in 6.1s, that is plenty fast for me, yet without any undesired performance car practicality issue. The obvious answer to buy BMW and I might do, but at the moment I don't want BMW. @Jules PF I have never said you have to move out of my way if there is a queue, but in my experience it is very different, even when traffic is low I can see everyone scattered across all the lanes - simply lane discipline is very poor in UK. As for 100MPH, modern cars are designed to do such speeds and there is nothing unsafe about. If I am not in rush I usually set my cruise control to 180km/h (~111MPH) in Germany. I am not saying everyone needs to be driving at 200MPH all the time, but 70MPH flat limit nationwide is outdated and obsolete, 90MPH would reflect the times better.

You are just different driver or something you have above and I don't think you even know what "refinement" means. You know that outside lanes are for "overtaking" so it doesn't matter what speed you are doing, if you not overtaking you have to move over - I don't understand why British drivers don't get it. What cars you had makes no difference, what makes the difference is what kind of driver you are and what are your needs, if IS300h is enough for you - fine. But don't claim IS300h is enough for everyone. For me it is slow, for me IS250 is too slow as well, if I would want something more from the car it would be quicker gear changes and few less seconds 0-60.. still better then IS300h. 1. That is incorrect, you never going to be accountable for crash if it is not your fault. However, if they believe that excessive speed caused the accident which is your fault, the insurance company have a right not to pay you out, they will obviously pay out the other side. There are no criminal accountability for that (unless obviously under some influence), but you will get nothing for your own car. 2. Yes you need to drive IS300h very carefully and slowly like pensioner. I did got used to it and I had RC300h for 24h as well, same story for CT200h. Experience is that you get relaxed and sort of dull.. In other car you would think... "oh let me overtake this guy", in IS300h is more like ... "a nahhh never mind.. I just slow down to his speed". IS300h simply punishes you for driving faster, so after a while the brains starts working to maximise efficient of hybrid drive instead of enjoying the engine and the car.