Linas.P

As above - cameras for the mirrors have been shown on countless concept cars and have never taken off. I think one important issue is screen contrast in bright sunlight, whereas mirror is not impacted, secondly actual detail of the screen - human eye over mirror is many times more precise then camera over screen (even with today's technology). Then there are practical issues, e.g. if you have drop of dirt on the mirror you still have 99% of visibility, same drop of dirt on the camera and you likely will have it out of focus and dirt covering maybe 30% of camera view.. Finally, talking about focus - your eye naturally focuses on what you care, so you can look to the mirror and focus your attention for that car far away in third lane, or onto to car right behind you, you can move your head a little to see completely different perspective... with camera it is just fixed and focuses mildly on everything, but not sharply on anything in particular you want to see. For some time they will stay just fictional, concept ideas... I guess maybe with self driving cars they will become more realistic option.

@First_Lexus - agree. that is probably similar to my colleague.. no tangible data can changed his perception that his 2017 Range Rover is reliable car, even when he had 4 serious faults with it less than 1500miles apart from new.. Owner surveys are exactly that - owners opinion about how reliable is the car, not the factual data about car reliability. I would add that reliability depends on previous experiences e.g. somebody coming from the previous car which was braking down continuously would rate their new car much higher compared to if they would have had actually reliable car.

well.. and the bonnet is not Carbon

@doog442 In Carbon you mean... Yes... Alcantara is considered "sustainable" alternative to leather, because it is polyester and can be made from recycled plastics... at least it is "green". Not saying RC-F seats are made from tesco bags, but theoretically they can be made form them.. @ColinBarber - you as well... Who said I am serious about it? By the way I said I like anniversary edition, just that I don't feel it will be very easy to sell or that they will be "grabbed in seconds". As for more general Carbon vs. non-carbon discussion.. I believe carbon is great car and I would like to have one, but when it comes to paying my own money I would rather have non-carbon as it is not only cheaper, but from my perspective in every imaginable way better. Nobrainer really..

I have colleague who got 2017 one... If you ask him ... he is very happy with the car... if you ask him again... he says it is very reliable... he said it has never broken down on him... if you insist and ask him 5th time... then he actually says he had it left with dealers for 4 times already and they have almost replaced entire car - the dash with sat nav, front seats, front suspension... but he is still very happy with it and keeps saying how good are the dealer, because he had not paid a penny for all the work.............. Well obviously he didn't... he only covered 6000 miles in 16 months since he bought it. His definition of "never broken down" is ... "he never had to stop and wait for recovery", so he had faulty front air suspension, but it was only light on the dash.. front seats memory stopped working and would reset to the foremost forward position every time, sat nav stopped working and the leather sticking on the dash peeled away.... true - recover was unnecessary in all occasions, but I would not call it "reliable"... It is new car and that is why you have warranty... so it is sometimes a matter of asking right people right questions..

@Flytvr / @mrfunex - not sure what are you on about... both of you. What linen? My issues with RC-F carbon are that carbon is one the car just for looks, it doesn't really save any weight, car is not otherwise lightened or stripped out... so for me it is a bit ricer. Like I don't see much of the difference between just having carbon wrap on standard RC-F... So to put it simply - I am not against carbon parts or bonnet specifically... I am against ricey looks without any real advantage. Secondly, I have much more issue with Carbon roof, because sunroof was not available due to carbon roof panel... understandable.. yet unacceptable. Edit: @mrfunex - do you mean transportation wrap in the first picture?

That is not what they saying officially, but might well be what it actually is in practice.

Ok... so it is just a matter of requesting then.. this year I am going to have minor 90k and going to say - "because you haven't done it last year with full service, can yu please do it with minor service now" 😄

I think the difference was that previously failed mot was NOT equal not road worthy - you could drive the car for as long as you have left (unless it is actually not road worthy), whereas now car with Fail + Dangerous is automatically considered not road worthy and you can be picked-up even by ANPR. Practically, I guess there are no real difference.... people who don't care about car condition will find dodgy places and continue driving with not road worthy cars and people who care will keep cars in tip-top condition. The only advantage is that they no properly check DPF.... well... I say properly... only the reasonable places do... dodgy ones don't even need to see the car.

Well... nothing new, BMW are ultimate drivers machines, nothing comes close to steering feel and directness... What about materials and interiour built quality? The only one I tried was a month old and 800 miles when I got it (not M3 though) and it was paradise of squeakiness and very cheaper very hard plastics, hard very grainy slippery leather and overall felt cheap. Other thing - body at least on ordinary 3 series lacks stiffness e.g. going of the kerb at 45 degrees you can feel and hear body flex - my mechanic even shown me where BMW left gaps in panels to account for the flex. I guess M3 is stiffened.. just wonder whenever you found it not to be as stiff? I understand when focus is on power and driving dynamics, things I noted above takes back seat, but for daily driving I found it nowhere near in terms of luxury and premium feel (what a surprise).

Last year I had 80k miles major service - no word about wheel alignment or any results of such check being performed. To be honest strange - I should have requested the results of it as it is quite beneficial to know. In other had I knew that wheels were aligned few months ago so .... maybe they checked found them fine and did not advise i.e. maybe they only advise, provide print-outs when they find wheels being out of alignment?

And... I kind of doubt. With so many nearly new RC-F's with £20k discounts I don't see anyone spending full £69995 on RC-F... Surely, getting nearly new LC500 would be better option, than "special edition" RC-F. The only difference from Special edition and normal is that at first few year it will depreciate significantly more... Yes probably in 50 Years time it will appreciate more, but before that there will be 100s of opportunities to snap these cars at massive discount - so certainly not ultimate collectors item like LFA either.

I thought GS-F wheels are slightly wider? 9.5J and 10J? I really like GS-F wheels - they would look good on almost any car.

It is literally like that.. last time I tried to use them for A/C re-gas (which they failed miserably) and at the same time I asked them to carry out free checks... they advised me to change rear tyres because of uneven wear and asked for £180/tyre, noted that battery cell is short and needs changing £160, that rear pads wearing thin ~£80 pads +40 labour, one parking light is blown £22 and that rear calipers are stuck £260/caliper + £80 labour. Now the tyres were definitely fine, I brought them with wheels little bit worn on inner edges, but across 75% of the section they had ~4.8mm left, battery was Halfords brand with warranty (which when mentioned they obviously would not honour), rear pads were virtually new ~2000miles and to be fair calipers were stuck, parking light they replaced for free when I refused to pay 😄 So in short... mixed bag, wanted to charge me £360 for tyres which were perfectly fine, £120 for swapping my new pads.. but correctly noted that rear calipers were stuck. What I haven't told them was that I have just refurbished calipers at home ready for fitting and it was ~£500 for all 4, not £260 per caliper. Got parking light for free.. so £22.... aham £0.20 bonus! Obviously, all lucky because MOT was not due for another 2 months back then... Be that "free MOT"... I would have had a choice to pay £1000+ or have failed MOT. Edit:.... ohh and they missed cracked front stabiliser link rubber for which I subsequently failed MOT... take it as you wish - it wasn't cracked back then? or they were looking for more expensive parts and could not bother with checking links? or maybe during MOT other garage just failed me for links hoping to make money out of it (asked for £200 for single link)... ?!

edit: sorry didn't realise this is zombie thread..

Have you watched my video? Is it any different from yours?

I thought it carbon roof - similar to US spec. where it has carbon boot spoiler and roof, but not the bonnet. And the seats are leather and not made from recycled tesco bags, which is very nice as well.... Still sunroof or glass roof would be better.

My experience - Halfrauds only do "freebies" where they expect to get extra jobs on you... So you can go in for free MOT and then be hostage to do £500 works on car else MOT fails. I found them very useful to do pre-MOT checks - go there pretend to be fool, book list of their "free checks" -brake, safety, summer, battery, tyres... whatever they have and then when they come back with 1000 items list say you will think about it - as you have no obligation to do anything and they cannot fail you for anything. But I would be worried to do MOT with them... Maybe Hyundai Getz goes past as they expect person to have no money, but they always find something wrong when they see Lexus (prey) coming along...

Except of very recently... no... doesn't seems so at least. 4 weeks ago lady has tried to knock me of the road... and knocked front alignment out, still dealing with it at the moment. But all 3 snapped bolts were on the rear, 2 on one side and 1 other other. What you saying.. yes that makes sense - over such long period of time there could be more serious issues, but still not very confidence inspiring when every time I change wheels I snap bolt without even trying.

I cannot account for 100k miles before my ownership, but since I owned the car alignment has been done every year, particularly when new tyres were fitted... So alignment is certainly fine. Tyre wear is even as well.. last set lased nearly 40k miles and I did alignment 3 times on that particular set - once all 4 wheels when fitting, second time after 15k miles after fitting new brake disks, then third time only fronts after fitting winter tyres/re-fitting after winter. @JonP - normally online and get local ATS to fit them, they are actually quite good - over-tightens least of all places I have used and as well the only place which manages to do alignment properly and in one time. There were 3 occasions when bolts were over-tightened significantly - once when I have refurbished my old wheels, the garage refurbishing them had hammered nuts so hard they could not undo them without meter long barker bar. The reason I know is because they fitted 225's on one side and 245's on the other... interesting approach to wheel "staggering", so I asked to swap tyres and wheels and it was amazing to watch (just to note they actually did amazing job refurbishing the wheels, so maybe just not good with the spanners! 😄 ). Second, I have re-fitted summer tyres, because those were used tyres I already had I have to resort to dodgy place to put them on - nobody fits used tyres. I made mistake not watching the guy closely, after that I had to weld-out locking nuts as no conventional method could undo them. Finally, now - it was insurance shop with refurbished all wheels for me and fitted all tyres, they snaped one bolt fitting them and glued it with sealant... tells you part of the story of how good they are... Anyway.. my plan now is go back to insurance and simply state that nuts were over-tightened and as such bolts got damaged and ask them to replace bolts at the shops expense. As for "non-significantly" over-tightening.... that is pretty much every single time... including Lexus Woodford during the service. Any time I tried undoing wheels myself with standard short Lexus wheel wrench - it is nearly impossible. Every bolt takes 5 minutes of hard labour to undo.. and in theory that is already wrong, because one should be able to undo bolts with included wrench.

It is not question about me knowing the correct torque and using the torque wrench. When you have to undo wheels with breaker bar, that is long too late for that... it is kind of explained in the name - breaker-bar - breaks bolts!

No... my plan was to get the bolts so strong that nobody can over-tighten them ever... or at least maybe it would damage the nut before snapping the bolt, however it is clear that plan is not going to work.

Yes "should"... or they "should" have brains as well... but they don't.. Nuts are certainly cheaper to buy and easier to replace, then bolts/studs... I am replacing bolts myself, but normally it is £30 to replace one by the cheapest mechanic and probably like 1h rate at Lexus (£80). other thing (generic rant)... ok let's say I cannot undo wheel with standard wheel wrench, I go to garbage - they bring 900mm breaker-bar (if air wrench fails) and bolt brakes.. never-mind. I guess just the matter of using breaker bar on wheels mean the bolts are due for replacement anyway.... and what if I have puncture in middle of nowhere - how I suppose to undo those nuts? And finally back to the topic - are there anything I can "upgrade" with... or is it simple matter of buying 5 spares and just changing them when one snaps? Checked titanium ones £80/piece and has lower tensile strength (~880-920MPa vs. standard ones 940MPa+), there are some racing ones for Supra/IS mk1 (same part) with 1310MPa - that is literally as high as the spec goes (12.9)... are they worth it?! I guess if I could easily source them then why not ($35x5 ~or £107 for set), but as always nothing is easily sourced in UK..

You better be careful, some things cannot be unseen! Hardly audible, if you turn everything off e.g. A/C, ventilation, seat cooling, wipers .... it is probably just still quieter then injectors ticking. I guess best way to hear it - do not turn the engine on, simply press start button twice to turn the ignition first and see "needle dance"... and you should do it on quiet day as well! 😄 edit - best way turns out to be: > press start twice for everything to turn on, then turn everything off so it gets completely quiet > press start to turn ignition off > press start once and wait until everything stops e.g. steering wheel retracts > press ignition second time and then you can hear the sound - note the buzzing sound of complete quietness just before and how loud is retracting steering wheel just after: 20180911_211930.mp4

noooo... I checked it is definitely IS250 and not IS220d (which would explain it), hence I settle on issue being the power of air wrench in the hands of monkey... which as we know is greater then the power of all Lexus cars ever made put together... nobody trumps money with the air gun!