Linas.P

As I said - colour is kind of personal choice, bu I can see benefits of black wheels. Cheap to refurbish, easy to match colour if refurbishing only one, easy to touch-up, durable finish .... so there are some specific benefits. Just to clarify regarding price - normal wheel refurbishment process usually includes acid striping (and sometimes sandblasting as well), then wheels usually are powered coated and the powder coat is usually black. So if you just want black wheels that is where it ends - no further steps required so you can quickly save yourself £20 per wheel. Powder coat can

Yeah, but for the price of colour change, that is already half-price of new set of wheels you like, and considering your ones should be worth something when you sell them, that is price of whole new set. Just seen another set of F-Sports on eBay, quite expensive thought - £990... but seems they require no refurbishment. Black alloys is matter of the taste and indeed they suite some cars. I think they looks great on lighter colour cars, like whites and light silver colours. Sadly every-time I see black alloys my first though - "somebody was on the budget", because black is always the

I agree.. I don't know either. Just saying - I see what they were trying to do there? Unlikely to succeed, not that sort of car, not that sort of clientele etc.

...and I don't know if I have unreasonable expectation. Lexus dealerships do their job just fine, nothing exceptional and nothing bad either. I guess my point is that, there are people who say "yes... but the experience is Lexus dealerships is on different level"... and he I can say - No, that is not something I have experienced! Again... I appreciate that some small dealership chains, family run.. or whatever... could do better job then others. But then it is not Lexus achievement, it would be the same for any make. And when somebody says Lexus dealership experience is exceptional, then

Not by public thought, usually these more special cars are bought at massive discount by dealer reps and principals. Which makes them excellent value for money when few years later they appear on second hand market. I think it makes sense in a ways, or at least I think I know why they did it. Basically, those are "rare" cars so they can always make excuse - "there are only two in UK and this is the price" and they will be right you won't even find another one for sale if you wanted to (the reality is that it seems nobody does). And then they have very reasonable strategy - make i

That is pretty much my experience from the begging. Obviously, I am too young to remember good old days, but it never felt exceptional from the first time I used them ~2012. And I bought brand new IS250 for the company... so I wasn't the sort of frugal, shrewd and nasty negotiator as I am now. Times and times again I was unimpressed with level of service and despite me telling them exactly what to check on the car, they still left impression of generic and rather clueless service centre. Maybe just the dealership I use, but they never impressed me... in neither knowledge of their own

I had K&N filter... no difference to be honest. I could not even say intake noise was better, maybe on F-sport. As well I suspect I may have oiled it wrong and that caused MAF issues and had to clean it etc. If you ask me - not worth having.

Makes sense, especially as potential buyers may not appreciate "mods". If a keeper then I highly recommend this mod, but if you already planning an upgrade then obviously just a waste of money.

My first insurance with Bell had 3 months black-box. At the time I was 25 and it took insurance premium from £2800, to ~£2200. But after that (very first insurance) there are no difference whenever it is with black-box or not. So yes, for younger driver and for first insurance it could reduce premium, but not as much as they advertise. As well my blackbox was just plugged into cigarette lighter / 12V socket and it is only powered when engine is on or ignition is on. So I expected no parasitic drain from it - I would have never agreed to hardwired box.

Yes they are not the easiest to source in UK. I believe mk3 GS300 calipers where the same and are the easiest to find (they look slightly different, but all dimensions are identical).

Yes indeed - standard alloys for pre-facelift cars (have set of these myself). It is nice that you have them refurbished as these were notorious for bubbling-up and pealing away (issue with primer). If done properly your alloys should last you forever (or until you kerb them). In terms of your allows - I would say they are just black, maybe they have little bit of metallic flakes in them... just cannot see in the picture. In this case they would be black metallic. Anthracite in my books would be looking like this: In terms of costs - Anthracite used to be considered "prem

Few members on here had, they noticeably bigger and 4 pistons (actually I have same on my RC200t). Just note that you will need different disks - for IS 350. And indeed if you looking to refurbishment it would make sense to do upgrade now rather than later.

Do you have picture of the car somewhere? I can clarify that fairly quickly for you 😁

Have you considered any coatings designed specifically for matt paint? And to Peter's point - there are coatings which can moderate the gloss as well i.e. some can make paint more matt. Wheres if you applying wax then I guess it always going to make paint more shiny (although maybe nowadays there are waxes for matt pain specifically, I just never came across such product).

Yes, I know that is officially what it says everywhere. I guess because some chip tuning companies are claiming extra power by just chipping the ECU, then the questions comes where they get the extra power from and speculation is .... that 17psi is the maximum what turbo can do, but not necessarily what it actually does from factory. My opinion... I think it boost to 17psi and that is all the little turbo can do... and that chip tuning companies may be not exactly realistic with the claims.