Linas.P

So you basically called my view outdated, just to rephrase my post and ultimately say the same thing?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".

I will just quote myself: Just to add to it - quality/reliability is certainly "a factor" - but is not the one which defines how Premium/Luxury car is. It can affect used car prices (overall maybe that is more important for used cars), but it does not make them more Premium. Another example - very premium soft leather in Royce-Royce won't last as long as cardboard hard "leather" (probably more appropriate to call it vinyl) in Mercedes or BMW, but Royce-Royce with baby butt smooth leather is still more premium. Back to CL600 (W215 shape) - it was notoriously unreliable car, not only that anything which could go wrong was notoriously expensive to fix, yet it was Mercedes flagship model - "as Premium as it gets".

Claim company is getting paid commissions from car-hire and claim handling fee which is legal fee they can claim from party at fault, that is all - I checked all closes and there are no circumstances where it can backfire - except if I lie about something or if I would be found at fault (both are impossible). The claims company only takes "non-fault" clear-cut cases, which are obvious to win and this way minimises their risk. Basically, I sent them evidence first, they reviewed it and only then approved the claim - if it would have been unclear circumstances, no evidence, potential 50/50 fault (like on roundabouts), they would not take it. Actually, that is my first claim and so far can only see good sides, I will see how it goes - if it works this time, I would never ever use insurance claims process again.

Apples vs. Oranges - we are talking about how Premium car "feels", reliability has nothing to do whit it. Yes I admit - it is nice bonus, but reliability is not what makes premium cars as otherwise Toyota Corolla would be most premium car ever... Yes IS200t blows 320d..320i never been on the same league as IS200t - it was like £8000 cheaper! that is because equivalent BMW is 330i. From new BMW 330i was about the same price as IS200t, but offered more options which are not even available on Lexus - so in the end you could get 330i for more then IS200t, but equally it would have had more options "on paper". In reality I agree new BMW 3-Series feels very cheap inside and Lexus mk3 feels more Premium, BUT if we started making such "Apples vs. Oranges" comparisons - mk2 IS feels more Premium then both, not even considering it is much older model. And equally, try getting any IS mk3 for £4000!

It's performance nowhere near major opposition - poverty line BMW320d does 0-60 in 7.3s. The equivalent to IS200t is BMW 330i (2.0t) and it is much faster - if my memory doesn't lie it is 5.6s, not 7.5s. So sorry for shattering your illusion, but IS200t is not even in the same ballpark. We established as well that it is 8 years newer design and 5 times more expensive, and for that only less then 1s 0-60MPH faster, slightly more fuel efficient ~5-8MPG mixed cycle... "quieter" is that your way of saying "sounds crap"? The interior build and material quality is not as good in mk3. It does not find right gear if you flour it from stand still, and sometimes even if you floor it from the go - it just doesn't seam to choose the best gear for the circumstances. Being fair and balanced - I would say that if you manually select the gear before overtaking it will have more mid range torque and will be faster for overtaking then IS250 and manual gear changes are overall much quicker. However, if you just leave it to do it's own thing either from stand still or whilst overtaking - then my comment stays as is - "it never finds right gear". It is smooth if you just cruising around, don't push it at all - yes it is smooth.. not as smooth as IS250 thought. All in all, if mk3 IS200t and mk2 IS250 would have been both released back in 2006 and both would cost £4000 now - it would be able to argue that IS200t is better car, trade from refinement, to little bit more power, quality to little bit more toys... but that is not the case - IS200t value proposition is very poor. To keep it relevant to "premium car/make" discussion - in my opinion IS200t is the 3rd least premium Lexus ever just after CT200h and IS220d

My insurance does not allow to choose the garage, as for claims management company - yes I can get quote from anywhere I like, if I choose to get it form Lexus I can get it from Lexus. I am insured with eSure, but I don't think their service is any different from any other insurance company, previously I was insured with Bell (part of Admiral) and they are exactly the same - it is corrupted industry - there are no worse or better insurance companies - they are all bad. It might sound surprising, but I don't want to inflate the bill for 3rd party above what I consider reasonable cost of repairs and Lexus price would certainly be above reasonable. I had dent on the same panel in the past and asked Lexus estimate - they wanted ~£1200 just to fix that one panel, so damage like this would make it beyond reasonable repair/write-off. As for wheels that is not entirely true, my insurance can refuse to pay for the wheels if they are not standard and were not declared as modification, but that is only true if I would claim the costs from my insurance. In this instance - I am not claiming any costs from my insurance, my insurance has nothing to do with the case at all - they been notified, I did what I have to do under contract and I told them to keep it "notification only". My claim management company will do estimate and just post it for third party insurance to pay without even asking what they think - the only question here is to prove it was not my fault, which was quite obvious from dash-cam footage. Secondly, third party insurance would be under pressure to agree the price and pay ASAP, because rental car costs are ticking every day - the longer it takes for them to agree, the more it will cost for them. + I will not be asking for wheel replacement, only refurbishment (~£500) so really it makes no difference - any 18" wheels would cos the same to refurbish.

Actually if tyres are all sealed properly etc. I would not expect to loose any pressure whilst driving even for 2500miles or more, I would expect to loose pressure whilst car is parked for prolonged periods of time.

There are no IS350 in Europe - US, Middle east or perhaps Japan... but then I am not mental fanboy of Lexus to pay twice the price just to have reasonable car with wheel in the wrong side, and then have no warranty service and pay 5 times the insurance because it is "grey import". This is not like importing '67 Mustang - not comparable cars. IS200t sound like dropping bunch of bolts into the can, the gearbox never find the right gear and they are so rare that any reasonable spec. costs fortune. Furthermore it not that much faster, neither it is fuel efficient... I know same old same old.... 😄 IS300h doesn't look good neither on paper nor whilst sitting inside... It is just unbearably slow car. Again it's competitor BMW330e does 0-60 in 5.9s - still sounds crap, but you cannot argue with performance. Oh and it cost much less to tax, you get government grant to buy it and you can get it on salary sacrifice via work and offset you higher rate tax - Lexus you can't.

Any decent calipers place would replace pins, rubbers, bolts etc. even decent rebuilt kits have all those parts - the only part which stays is the caliper body, sometimes cylinders as well.

Agree - in IS is not as much of an issue it is l4, but more that it is under-powered. I would still take V6 any day, but if Lexus would make IS300h to go to 60MPH in 6.5s I would not complain as much.

Clearly that is because the former make more sense for them financially, so that they can charge extra and then rebuilt your very own calipers and sell them to other customer...

+ @Britprius - hard to tell if it is safe or not. The only people who can tell you are the ones in MOT centre after doing brake test i.e. brake force distribution and power. Generally, when calipers starts sticking your car still brakes, but not as good, because only one pad is braking and obviously you get unequal wear. What is worse is when caliper stuck closed and your pad is touching whilst driving - you could get car on fire! Anyway, I would not play with brakes and would get them fixed as soon as reasonably possible.

No different to AMG63,43 ect. Which doesn't follow MB standard model designation, or BMW M1, M3, M5, Lexus RC-F, IS-F (instead of IS500) so on and so forth. Polestar is Performance car division - that is all it is. Stand alone models, hell yeah - MB AMG GT? Yes all 300h are l4 - and that is very reason I don't like them, they sound meh... very efficient indeed, but that is not exactly what makes car to feel "premium" for me - roaring V8, yes! smooth V6, yes! High MPG - well that is a bonus, but same as reliability not part of Luxury or Premium car.

I would get calipers rebuilt instead of buying "new" calipers, you see the problem is that most of the calipers which states they they are "new" actually means they are "re-manufactured", so what is the point to get re-manufactured calipers if you can get it done yourself for less and probably to better quality. As for brake pads - you only need one set for front and for rear as mentioned, Brembos are softer pads and much dustier, Pagid I guess more similar to Lexus OE pads. Very important make sure you keep anti-squeal shims (or get set of new), because otherwise they will squeal. The way to tell between vented and non-vented - look to the brake disk, if it has gap betwen side with vents it is vented, if it is single plate then solid. on IS250 the switch happened somewhere around 10/2006, but that doesn't help much because some cars were pre-registered, some were registered later. Thought that only applies to rear disks - front ones are always vented. When they say your disks are "lipped" what you need to check if they are below or above minimum thickness - lip mean nothing, you can technically have lip after only 1000miles on new disks - so what, do you need to replace them? The only time you actually need to change disks are when they go below minimum thickness. See here (my calipers re-manufactured) - I have chosen premium paint hence it was bit pricey, but it can be done much cheaper ~ £90 per caliper:

Wheel aliment car transform handling of the car - I remember getting my current car first time and it was kind of "ok" handling, did alignment and it was like different car, planted, predictable and wear on the tyres was unbelievably even - Dunlop Sportmaxx RT's lasted nearly 40k miles. As such every time I get new tyres alignment is in must have list. On old tyres however is less beneficial, doesn't stay aligned for long. BTW I am now fooling around in this: If you ask me to honestly tell what I prefer, not considering the price - would prefer my old IS250 over this thing any day! On other hand - what I am complaining about?! what was my other choice? It was Micra!

Volvo Polestar is more like AMG/M-Division, it is not entirely separate brand (although AMG was at some point separate brand - remember Mitsubishi Galant AMG?). Volvo itself doesn't lack "Premium'ness" and they don't really need separate brand to look like Premium. That is mostly to do with 90's safest car image and just simply being distinct and much more expensive then mid-tier Mondeos, Passats and even A6's, but just little cheaper then 5 Series, E-Class. I guess brand image was dented a little bit in late 90's and early 00's with Ford ownership with increased number of small and cheap cars... surprisingly now owned by Chinese Geely Volvo seems tha have refocused on premium cars, because they price are certainly not low and not middle-tier.

Yes - been there, simply trying to sell previous reg models or trade-ins before getting new batch of cars. No special deals, same prices as you would be able to "negotiate" at any other time. On the plus side, you can get yourself free coffee, biscuits and sit around in any Lexus you like without being bothered and put on the spot in otherwise empty dealership. During these events they usually throw-in something like service packages, protections packages lower finance without much hassle e.g. on normal day they would negotiate these things with you and add them as added bonus as part of the finance deal, but during sell off event they add them more like standard which might potentially allow to negotiate better price on car. However, they plan is that people will get competitive on more attractive and interesting models and would almost bid or rush to pay whatever the price is asked before other people can grab them. So they make-up their margins on better equipped more popular models and then they can probably agree lower prices on leftovers nobody wanted in the first place i.e. if you after white f-sport NX you will be worse of, but maybe you looking for red Luxury GS you get real bargain.

Yes.. that is how they roll - I am sick about insurance here, total scam, government protected fraud. Going trough that myself at the moment and decided to go via private "claims management company", because I could not put-up with crap my insurance was telling me - basically using fraudsters against fraudsters now!

No "top quality", but it could be considered Luxury/Premium - same as Jag - for long time they were one of the least reliable cars in existence - still "Premium". Quality and Reliability has nothing to do with perceived Luxury. I am sure that any Toyota or Honda is 10 times more reliable then Bentley or Royce-Royce, mid-90s, to mid-00s Mercs were notoriously unreliable cars - visualise CL600 most of which had massive defects whilst waiting on the dealers forecourts for potential buyers - are they not Premium then? In other hand I can objectively compare my current courtesy car (2018 BMW 3-series with 700miles) to my old Lexus IS250 - and it is day and night, BMW feels cheap inside, all knobs, handles, covers, vents are similar quality and feel to some rental Toyota Auris I drove abroad recently. However, that is same feeling when I get into any courtesy car from Lexus dealer e.g. CT/IS/RC - they feel cheap compared to previous generation Lexus'es - not "Dacia cheap", but probably "Toyota cheap", wheres older Lexus feels whole class above any other cars in the segment. Hmmm so what I am trying to say here - currently Lexus feels more Premium then say equivalent BMW, but not as Premium as it used to be. @Ben01 - interesting points about Japanese culture and I tend to agree with you on the culture, but I tend to disagree with you on this culture being applied for Lexus. First of all Lexus is not that Japanese - the brand is more American (not European certainly), main markets are US/Middle east (not EU or Japan) so I tend to believe "master culture" is limited on Lexus. Secondly as for JIT - most car makers are JIT now, see Brexit dialog about how important is timing for car production Nissan, BMW minis and 1/2-Series built in UK... still Mini's have one of the most customisation of most cars - that is called "mass customisation" (MC) in production terms and in mass customisation JIT becomes even more important. I don't believe Lexus/Toyota cannot scale their JIT to enable MC - I tend to believe they are just getting lazy and profit driven. As for parts on shelf - they do have them and it has nothing to do with JIT or culture e.g. US delivered RC/IS has much more interior colours, wheels selection, optional extras etc. How to explain that?

Yes detailing the new cars are now very common practice, I said to myself that if I would buy a new car I would put protective film at very least on front bumper and bonnet, but maybe even entire car, because stone chips will ruin it very quickly. As for good vaxes etc. I think you need to decide for yourself - either you are planning to detail your car yourself and you get all the tools, vaxes, polishes etc. or you don't and you leave it to professional detailers once or twice a year. Half-a*** approach of slapping some cheap supermarket wax after £6 romanian hand wash adds nothing except of "love marks".

German options list is thing of the legends and not in a good way - I think I mentioned that E9x M3 had optional dimming and folding mirrors and for me that is unimaginable to buy modern premium performance car for £60k and have 80's style knob on rear view mirror and getting out and manually folding mirrors with hand. That is bad and stupid - certainly there are things which are universal accepted as norm and therefore they should be standard - period. In some way I like Lexus simplistic trim levels - my point was that there should be balance e.g. RC has like 9 exterior colours and 4 interior, but Dark rose is not available on most Premium trim (Premier) for no reason what so ever, and that is not illusion of choice, they are identical seats in identical car but Lexus would not let you have Premier with Rose seats, equally they won't let you have ACC/PCS (until 2018) in F-sport - so if you want car with red seats and dynamic cruise you are basically stuffed. The options I am talking about which I believe should be offered would be: "Digital Pack" - (I think that is the way Lexus call in US) which would include things like wi-fi hot spot, phone integration, wireless charging and maybe F-Sport instrument cluster "Convenience Pack" - say soft closing doors, gesture opening boot, 360 camera, ACC/PCS and HUD "Protection Pack" - is self explanatory and already exists As you see that is not 100 options, that is 2-3 self explanatory packs and maybe 10-15 individual features which are common place nowadays * items in the red does not exist for RC, but otherwise are present in other Lexus models so why restrict it? Again I understand that if you want to add something completely different in single model it requires a lot of testing and cost a lot just to sell for 2 customers, but Lexus have all these components on the shelf, already working on certain models so why not to all customer to spend few more kazylion coins. On top of that restriction of certain colour seats, or wooden inserts in doors or certain style of the wheels is just unnecessary - maybe certain people like or dislike specific thing e.g. some might hate or lower back or red interior, some might hate wood or CF, some might not like Premier style or F-Sport style wheels ans these are just so simple things to change around.. even if that is dealer who has to do final customisation on things like swapping wheels. Certainly this level of customisation is the least I would expect from "luxury" car.