Linas.P

Not sure in what context you are asking, but the main one that is used for stability control is below the infotainment and some vents at the central console. 

1 hour ago, GMB said:

Over to you Linas - come on admit it, you like them really because they are strange individual beasts.

I agree that from 50MPH up it pulls really strongly, but utility of that is rather limited. I can't really say I like the engine, only in isolation it is slightly more exciting than 300h.

I think my key issue remains that Toyota/Lexus is probably best resourced automotive company in the world and that is the answer they come-up with? 2L turbo engine that uses more fuel than 3L V6 despite having less power?! Just doesn't make sense... I don't like 300h either, I do find them relaxing/boring to drive, but after owning one I am really not sure what Lexus even tried to achieve with 200t?!

Throughout my ownership I felt like driving rental car all the time, that sort of feeling - "it is nice an comfortable car, which sort of does what the car needs to do, but I just don't care about it, the engine is just not exciting, but because it is 'temporary' car I kind of don't mind it"... And this is unusual for me, for many people that is normal, they lease the car for few years, they trade it in, they get another car and never care about what they have. But I am never like that, I do care about the cars and I do appreciate what I have and I like to have that attachment to the car, sort of desire to work on it, detail it, modify it etc. But with RC200t I never had this appreciation for the car mainly because of the engine, I just do not consider it good engine, and especially I do not consider it acceptable coming from the company like Lexus, who can do better, who have better engines. So again going back to rental car driving... for me it was like you rent premium car and let's say it is Mercedes E-Class, so you may get E300 or E220d, you may prefer E300, but at the desk they say "it is that black car on the right, it is diesel, full tank now, return with full tank"... so it is not like you going to start argument and say "ohhh no I don't want E220d, I want E300".... it is rental, it is E-Class, it gives you certain level of comfort and that is end of it, you use it, drop it off week later, you don't care if it had Harman Kardon stereo, sunroof, or what colour combination it was etc. It is feeling of sort of not caring, because it is not your car... and RC200t, specifically the engine in it was such a turn-off for me that I really didn't care about the car, never felt excited about owning it. And I assume same would apply to 300h.

I really wish there would be RC200t on the market today with blown engine for cheap (or 300h for that matter, 300h actually would be better because of £20 road tax)... I probably would go ahead and put some more exciting engine in it and that is what would make that car great... sadly these engines are reliable, not very likely to see one blown at any time soon.

I owned RC200t with the "8FARTS" engine as I like to call it, not sure there is point for me repeating all the detailed stuff, but the summary would be - wrong engine for wrong car, horrible fuel economy for what it delivers (drove RC-F with 5L engine and back to back on the same road it was more fuel efficient), the gearbox is not well adjusted for the engine (so it is indeed hunting for gears, very similar gearbox in RC-F/IS-F works flawlessly, so is not gearbox fault, but the poor paring with engine that had very short power range). Overall, think Lexus could not decide what they wanted to do with the car, they wanted to make it more economical and adjusted it for that, but car has worse fuel economy, yet because it was adjusted for economy it has no character either. So it is economy car that is not economical and sports car that is not sporty...

In particular when comparing with IS250 it is very disappointing, 4GR-FSE is smooth and happy revving engine which provides almost instant response, despite having more power IS200t would be behind IS250 up-to 40MPH and probably only catch it up by 50MPH, to beat it by 0.5 second to 60MPH. So the issue is response compared to NA engine, on you reach like 50MPH and you in right gear IS200t really pull strong to something like 110MPH, but that is no longer practical nor really needed.

Also I have speculated that 3GR-FSE which has roughly comparable power is better engine and now I am very confident about that (after owning GS300), it has more power, it is more responsive and smoother, it sounds better and in the end it is more economical... It is complete mystery what 8FARTS exists as an engine, it really doesn't do anything well, except of maybe beating some theoretical emissions test.

Easiest way to find out is to go an try it yourself... although word of warning, it didn't feel as bad to me when I test drove it, compared to living with it day to day, so if at all possible extended test drive is recommended. 

11 hours ago, LenT said:

best possible exterior protection, you could consider the application of Paint Protection Film - but that’s a whole new level of investment.

Highly recommended for front bumper and headlights at very least. Sadly, on most used cars it is already moon-cratered so it is too late, but on new RC that is probably the best way. Next step would be entire front + mirrors + door edges + rear arches.

Second big sad, I remember the times when front of the car protection was £150, entire car PPF was maybe £400... now some companies charge as much as £2000 for PFFing the car... it is ridiculous. Although, that said RC front bumper is very intricate piece so I would expect to pay more for it to be done.

Last time I checked it was more like £600-700. 

Basically when you buy the cable it comes with a version of questionable legitimacy Techstream either way, whenever you use that or rent the software is then down to you, but you still have to buy cable from eBay or similar site.

As for any difference in functionality - I really doubt there is any, perhaps if you working on latest car that matters, but as far as I know even version supplied with the cable goes as far as 2021. 

3 hours ago, Juicedrinker said:

Ha ha you are the same as me.... I will never ever let any dealer wash my car following a service and they are always surprised that I refuse.  I used to visit a local Aston Martin, Bentley and Lamborghini dealership to collect parts for one of my customers.  That is the only place I have ever witnessed a really high standard of car cleaning.  I had a chat with the two people who were working on a Bentley that had just been serviced, they had an undercover dedicated area, with a unit attached.  They had so much equipment available like air dryers, blowers, paint depth checking tools they even used deionized water; They wore gloves and were clearly meticulous.  They told me that before they worked on anyone's car they requested to know what work had been done on it previously and ideally spoke directly with that detailer concerned.  They then used product that had no negative effect on the product that was applied on the car.  There were two staff working at a time all day, 6 days per week.  Obviously the cost was built / hidden in the no doubt exorbitant servicing or repair work bill but at least they were extremely professional.      

Yeah - that sounds proper, however Lexus is really not like that, Dealer local to me has agreement with local hand wash, nut sure what they pay per car, but it can't be more than £2... so they literally just take car to scratch wash. And other dealer I used had dedicated washing area, but basically they just hire cleaning agency and literally the same guy finished moping the floor and then goes to wash the cars. When I want to scratch my car I can do it myself, don't need Lexus to include that into the service 😄 

17 minutes ago, LenT said:

Was that third party only Linus?

Could be a Guinness Book of Records entry….  😊

I don't remember, I know it was cheapest policy available, likely it was fully comp. But even then, even today fully comp is about the same price as TPO and TPO+F, for many year fully comp. was actually cheapest for me as well... Some non-sense about "people who don't get fully comp. are considered more risky", or maybe other way around "people who chose third party only are more risky"... basically there was some excuse to price TPO higher.

I remember making mistake once and providing my actual phone number when comparing the quotes and it was few years later after £36,000 quote, so insurance probably was already like £16,000 or £14,000 by then... and I received the call from the cheapest quote provider asking me to confirm if "I want to proceed with the quote"... and I was like "seriously, have you seen the fffing price?!" and the guy on the other end was actually annoyed and said "OKEY, Jesus... if you don't want don't insure with us then!"... as if the price was somehow realistic for somebody to pay and my answer could have been anything but "ffff-off". To be fair - obviously it was not his fault that the price was the way it was, but also it was almost cheeky to ask if I want to pay £16,000 to insure £800 worth of Ford Focus LX 1.3L - "yeah sure... go ahead then, I am just going to pay 20x the price of the car".  Actually, on other occasion I have said that... and lady casually womansplained to me that "it is not about the price of the car, but is about the risk you as a driver may pose and thus is calculated to cover that risk"... thanks lady, I never thought about that... "now it totally makes sense why ~22 years old has to pay over £10,000 for insurance... simple - it is just about inherent risk they are". 

On 4/1/2024 at 1:28 PM, TheMcSame said:

Try searching for insurance in incognito mode, don't login to your accounts either.

Not saying it'll massively cut premiums mind you, but insurers/comparison sites play the same game as ticket sellers, airlines and hotels. If they know you're looking, up it goes...

Indeed it does, if you keep running same quote over and over again, you will find that price sometimes jumps by £100 out of the blue.

17 minutes ago, H3XME said:

Again, depends on the insurance company. Some don't care about a windshield, that's not classed as a claim in everyone's books. It's not so black & white and that's what's so fkin confusing about car insurance in this country.

This week, I called 8 different insurance companies to get a quote on a 2013 Toyota Mark X G's (2GR lump, IS platform). All of them were import friendly. 4 of them refused to insure it because they don't have "tables" for this kinda car. Maybe that makes sense as there's less than 5 in the UK, I can see the logic, fair enough. The other 3 were happy to insure it but differed in quotes. £2100, £2400 & £1000. All policies included protected NCBs, modifications & 8000miles.

They make stuff up as they go. It's frustrating. Was considering a PCP deal on a facelift RC300h too, but the new Lexuses get stolen left right and centre, so the cheapest quote I got was £2700. Who would've thought that insurance would price me out of having a regular car at the age of 28. I pay £480 for my IS250 atm. It's brutal these days.

The point I am making - it is definitely recorded on your file, it does not matter which insurance company you are with today, they will all record it in database, it may not affect you right aways, but it may affect you if you chance the insurance company. 

Exactly as it happened to me, I was with eSure on IS250, paying something similar to you, maybe £560, had windscreen replaced, no jump in price next year, but then an idiot crashed into me, car got written-off and I moved onto RC. Called-up eSure to tell them I have changed the car not expecting anything as I had maybe 2 months left on that policy, I thought if the price goes-up then it maybe £100 at most for remaining 2 months... The answer I got - "sorry sir, but we can't insure this car for you AT ALL, because of 2 claims" (had 1 two years prior as well, also non-fault)... And then when I shopping around I was told there are also 3 claims... and also I was told most ridiculous thing "yes £3000 insurance is justified for such powerful sports car for young driver"... I am sorry - who are you calling young?! I was like 2 month away from 30 back then and RC "power full sports car?" Who are you kidding, bog standard 2L turbo with 241hp... same as entry level BMW 320i... That it has 2 less doors doesn't make it neither powerful, nor sports. So my insurance for RC was like £1,600 in the end, but I found shorter policy, so basically got extra year of NCB in 10 months and also the first claim expired and then insurance went back to normal ~£800 for normal policy for second year.

Also it was brutal as long as I can remember - my first quote at 19 was £36,000 (thousand, not hundred) and I could not afford pretty much any car because of insurance until I was nearly 25, first IS250 insurance with black box was £2,600... I mean sure at that time I could get insurance maybe for £1000 for some Focus or Fiesta, but still...

On 3/30/2024 at 8:23 AM, GMB said:

Dead right. Apparently Lexus think we don't deserve them and won't buy enough to warrant supplying them anyway.

Just my two pennysworth - there is no new Lexus vehicle that I find attractive now that the petrol IS is gone in the UK - Maybe go back to VOLVO but they re pulling out of non-EV cars as well. I will probably just have to keep my old fashioned ICE vehicles - lovely jubbly.

Same here... if money would be no object I may enjoy RX500 + LC500 combo... but money kind of being an object and only having to choose one car to live with I can't see any Lexus in the current line-up that would be both practical, non-SUV and somewhat enjoyable to drive. 

Really hard to tell, some VLAND wanabe cheapo lights, I would consider them disposable and doubt they could be fixed... or rather how much time and money it would require to figure out what they need. I guess doable with some of electrical knowledge, maybe some corroded or burn cable inside. That said these chinese lights are likely sealed (although not much of criticisms as even factory lights are often sealed nowadays), so there is no nice way of opening them-up, fixing and then putting them back together. And if you need to smash one with the stone to get to the point that needs fixing, then they become rather disposable.

From factory these comes with H11 halogen bulbs, what is fitted to your lights is anyone's guess and I really don't know what you would need adapting to what. From what you have described the current set-up on yours sounds like a little bit of fire hazards and at very least good set-up to have blinker fluid refilled on rainy day, which isn't ideal if you decide to drive not at night and in the rain. 

As for MOT - it may or may not be an issue. In theory it should not be an issue because they should not check DLR for cars made before 2018 March (I always thought it was legal requirement from 2012, but seems like not?!), however it is really your luck. I can easily see it coming as advisory on the basis of "should work if fitted". Obviously, you can then appeal the MOT etc. but you don't want to be dealing with it, so easier would be just to fit correct headlights and forget about these, at least that is what I would do (although that is coming from aftermarket headlights hater, so take it with pinch of salt). 

My worry would be "position lights", as usually for cars with DLR, the DLR also acts as position light. As such you may fail on "position light not switchable/does not work". That is unless these have separate position light which you can turn on and off, then you should be fine.

Here is excerpt from MOT procedure:

Quote

 

Daytime running lamps
You only need to inspect daytime running lamps (DRLs) if they’re fitted as original equipment to vehicles first used on or after 1 March 2018.

Defect    Category
(a) Lamp:

(i) multiple light source up to a half not functioning
(ii) missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than a half not functioning    

Minor
Major
(b) Defective lens    Major
(c) Lamp:

(i) not securely attached
(ii) likely to become detached    

Minor
Major

4.2.2. Switching
It must be possible to switch on the position lamps from the driver’s seat with a single operation of the switch. The position lamps must light up at the same time as the registration plate lamps and any end-outline marker lamps where they are fitted.

Some vehicles have position lamps that come on automatically when the engine is running.

Daytime running lamps (DRLs) or headlamps may function as front position lamps. If the DRLs function as front position lamps, they may or may not dim when rear position lamps are switched on and may dim or turn off when headlamps are switched on.

The front position lamps may turn off when the headlamps or front fog lamps are switched on. If position lamps are combined with direction indicators, position lamps may or may not switch off when the relevant direction indicator is flashing.

The front and rear position lamps must light up at the same time with the end-outline marker lamps where they are fitted.

You only need to inspect daytime running lamps (DRLs) if they’re fitted as original equipment to vehicles first used on or after 1 March 2018.

DRLs must switch on and off when the engine is switched on and off.

 

On 4/3/2024 at 3:41 PM, H3XME said:

I can confirm this isn't always true, although majority of the time it is. Really depends on your insurance company because I made a claim last year, £50 fee and when renewing this year there was no problems, no questions etc. I did also ask before I claimed it if it's going to affect anything, they said nope.

Usually this comes to bite when you go to different insurance company. Perhaps in my case it was highlighted as I had another two non-fault accidents and then when I got RC my existing insurance company told me they cannot insure me at all. And when I asked why, they told me that I have 3 claims. I was like "what you mean 3 claims, I had 2 accidents where other people crashed into me which was not my fault and what is third", the lady on the phone told me it does not matter who was at fault - accident is accident and the third one was windscreen cover. Point is - they DEFINATELLY have this on their records, depending on insurance broker and underwriter they may or may not count it towards total number of claims/accidents.

On 4/5/2024 at 1:10 PM, gji25 said:

i wont effect your insurance if you have protected no claims

It has nothing to do with no claims bonus, only if you have accident that is your fault or let's say you have your car vandalised (where party at fault is not known), only then it will affect your NCB, if it is not protected.

However, if somebody else crashes into you, or you claim on windscreen, or missfuel, or key cover, this is considered "accident/incident" and that is what you have to declare next year when you quoting for insurance, for the question where they asking if you had any accidents in last 3 or 5 years. Also "notification only" reports counts for that, so if you call your insurance company and say somebody crashed into your car in the supermarket and you won't claim, but just want to update the record (as they require by contract), it will also count for next 3-5 years and you will pay more for insurance for being honest. So if you had say 8 years NCB, you still have 8 years NCB (also many companies now only accepts and protects only up-to 5 years), but now you also have reported "accident" on your policy which will affect the price. Also even if you won't declare it (as I didn't do for 2 years for my windscreen claim as I did not know this counts), your insurance price is probably affected anyway, that questions is more like "honesty challenge" and insurance companies basically just check if you honest and that gives them extra reason to invalidate the cover or inflate the price if you are not. When I asked what exact claims they have on the system and reported them all correctly my cover price actually slightly dropped. Also risk here - if you declare the accident incorrectly i.e. you had the crash on 1st of July 2023, but for whatever reason in insurance records it on the 5th, then their system will not recognise it as the same claim and thus you going to be doubly penalised during the quote - once for claim you declared "incorrectly" and once for one you have not declared.

Insurance is legal scam, which is enabled by government to rip of the drivers and that is what they doing. So when dealing with them always remember that - anything that you say will be used against you.

My calculation is rather simple - I consider claim to be 20% increase for next 5 years. So if you paying £400 for your cover, then it is well worth it for the windscreen. Say £50 excess for ~£400 increased premium due to claim is still cheaper than ~£600-800 for windscreen. However, if one is paying £1,200 for insurance then we can quickly calculate that it would be cheaper to simply pay for windscreen yourself, rather than having it on your insurance.

Finally, I guess it is more of an issue for younger drivers, as many insurance underwriters have extra rules for those under 25 and under 30 e.g. do not provide cover if diver has more than 2 claims, so it is not so much that you price increases, but more that you lose cheaper insurance option i.e. your cheapest quote would have been £800 from certain provider, but now you can't see it at all as they refuse to insure you for 2 non-fault claims you have, and the next cheapest underwriter who is willing to accept you is simply more expensive at £1200. It was always more expensive, it is just that you had more options before. Again for example when I was insuring my old IS250 (and also now) I get quote from maybe 70-80 providers, so of them stupid price of course, but a lot of brokers match their policy for me. When I had RC after having 3 claims, I would get total maybe 18 providers appearing on the search all together, so I was missing on maybe 50 providers who would not want to insure me. once one is over 30 it is much less of such requirements and it affects the price less.

Regarding the damage - hard to say where they pulled the wires and where they looked for the tracker. I would assume it would be rather minimal in driver/passenger footwells... and I assume car would still be drivable as otherwise it is not good for them either. But hard to say without seeing it.

That said car still be written off for damages as replacing wires, dash etc. may be very expensive, so this is what insurance will have to decide, but also obviously a lot depends on you - some people really want their car back and demand it to be repaired... considering it is relatively new car I believe it should be possible (to negotiate with insurance to repair it), other people don't want to take stolen car back, both for practical and emotional reasons and still demands for cash settlement. This is something you will need to negotiate with insurance. 

In principle all things related with logbook, recovery, keys etc. All these things the insurance will have to arrange and resolve. 

I understand that impound lot won't release the car without logbook, but also I am not sure there is any benefit for you picking it up with the damage, so just contact insurance and arrange for them to deal with recover.

In mean time I cannot see any reason why you cannot go to impound lot and pick-up your personal items, police should allow this. Also if you decide to take cash settlement and leave the car for insurance to deal with, then you still have right to pick-up your personal items.

Once you get the car back to you fixed, the normal things will apply - you will need to insure it (unless you still have remaining insurance on it and they continue to cover it), pay road tax if payable, do MOTs etc. 

These wheels are just alloy, no covers for them. Do you mean like "kerb protectors"? @H3XME maybe able to advise on those.

Otherwise those wheels can be refurbished to look like new (powder coated), but there are no plastic covers for them.

On 3/27/2024 at 12:38 AM, Mr Vlad said:

Have a word with your insurance company and chat with them about how a claim for a new windscreen affects your no claims bonus and quote. 

It does not affect NDC, but it is counted as any other claim on your policy, insurance company will never tell you how it would affect your policy. So you can simply go to make a quote, making 1 declaring claim and other one without and see the difference. The rule of thumb ~30% increase for next 3 years.

On 3/27/2024 at 1:19 AM, J Henderson said:

Does a screen replacement also not require something else - such as the plastic trims either side of the glass, or some clips or whatever to be replaced too?

Usually they include moulding around the windscreen, but it is questionable quality and not colour matched, just matte black plastic. As I had black car that was fine for me.

2 hours ago, zoricib said:

Any idea if they'll replace the exterior clips on a typical windscreen replacement? 

As above - they usually do, most of the time mouldings break when they remove them and clips ALWAYS break, so it is kind of impossible to replace windscreen without replacing them. 

19 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

Done on site so I'll be watching like a hawk, and subsequently checking for water ingress and wind noise.

Water ingress and noise should be alright, they doing those windows every day, so I am sure they know what they are doing. In my case automatic wiper also worked just fine, but one thing that didn't work was windscreen heater. To be fair they gave lifetime warranty for work and guy came like year later to check it and told me that if I want I can book replacement, but to be honest I never bothered to replace screen again just because of windscreen heater. 

15 hours ago, Spock66 said:

But does it have the Can Bus issue 😉

If it does... hopefully the access is below the water line!

On 3/26/2024 at 6:47 PM, marok said:

"Perhaps get a valuation online"

Do you mean We buy any car?

As for photos, I'm a 77yr old technophobe.

Anything after daguerreotypes are a mystery to me 😃

Well - at least description of any sort... options, mileage, condition... that sort of thing. Without it I can only say that 2006 GS300 SE (-A?-L?) is worth anywhere from £500 to perhaps £4000, unless there is something exceptional about the car. So not much of the guidance, but £500 for high miles car in poor shape, £4000 for car in amazing condition, perfect paint, less than 100,000 miles, no mechanical faults, full service history etc. Basically, perfect car + some reasonable wear and tear. 

23 hours ago, DavidCM said:

Well it looks a lot better than that stupid Transit van thing with a pair of armchairs in the back and a Scania truck grille on the front.

Honestly, not much of achievement to beat LM on the looks... Even the actual Transit van in it's original form looks more classy!

5 hours ago, johnatg said:

Surely your IS250 has alloy wheels and so does not need wheel covers? 

Indeed... I am a little bit confused about the question... although some alloy wheels have special covers, usually they have them on electric cars and newer hybrids for air resistance reasons.

@Joolsd - if you looking for plastic wheel covers... then your wheels are not compatible with them, you can't fit plastic covers on alloy wheels, unless they are specifically designed for that.

Sorry to hear that...

Regarding Insurance - don't forget windscreen cover still counts as claim on your insurance, so it is worth doing some math to see if it is worth claiming it from insurance or just paying for it upfront. 

Yeah seen it... not a big fan of that extra scaffolding which seems to be afterthought, just kind of ruins the whole design (if I say so myself sitting at home in dirty sweatpants). 

I think original Marquis Yatch looks better without extra bits

Yeah... that will be complicated. But you can look-up cars with similar size wheels and somewhat guestimate the ballpark. I can say ~40PSI sounds about right. For example Lexus RC runs 235/40R19 in the front and 35PSI, 225 will have lower load rating, so will require few more PSI, so yes ~40PSI should do. But really one can only provide you with educated guess at best. You will need to try it yourself, see what you like (too hard or too soft), check the tyre wear, to see if they wearing more in the middle (overinflated) or both sides (under inflated) and adjust from there.

Basically, what I am saying - you can only do it by feel, trial and error. That is short answer. My guess would be something like 35-38 (front/rear).

If you actually want to calculate the load, then there is calculator, but the problem is that it doesn't give you correct ratings most of the time https://tiresize.com/pressure-calculator/ e.g. standard IS250 R17 tyres have load rating of 90, but calculator only gives rating for 91 or 94, so your calculated rating and PSI will be also wrong e.g. in this case if you choose 91, it will say you need to inflate new tyres to 40PSI or if you choose 94, then it will say correct pressure for new tyre should be 38PSI

As such you can also refer to Load inflation tables e.g. here https://www.toyotires.com/media/pxcjubjs/application_of_load_inflation_tables_20200723.pdf (p34 - it is in lbs, so divide by 2.2 for kg). To calculate the safe pressure you will need to know your tyre load rating, your car curb weight and weight distribution for your car (most of the times tyres have loads of headroom, to save you the headache, safe rating for IS250 would be 23PSI front and 22PSI rear). However, if you just want comparable pressure to OEM sizes, then you just take OEM load rating and PSI, check what it requires e.g. IS250 standard pressures for 225/45R17 is 36PSI, standard load rating is 90 and according to load table they expecting the tyre to hold 1179lbs, 225/40R19 has load rating of 93, meaning to match OEM you only need 33-34PSI. The rear is different story - IS250 has way way way overrated tyres for rear... 245/45R17 with 95 load rating and 38PSI, so if we go by what Lexus is suggesting, then you would need to match 1389lbs which would require 41PSI on 93 rated tyres.

I am pretty sure all modern cars since late 90s have some for of protection, so yes IS250 definitely will have something. Doesn't mean you can't do it, but it will not be straight forward.

4 hours ago, Daniellllll said:

Is there any easier way of getting  ID ECU out or need to take whole dash off?

No - dash out only. It sits behind the HVAC unit in the centre.