Linas.P

Car can be listed as asset in your balance sheet and there are certain percentages you car write-off as depreciation per year. As your company assets going to effectively depreciate you can offset the figure from taxes partially. Depending on the circumstances i.e. how much profit you make etc. it might nullify or significantly reduce the impact of depreciation on you (your company technically).

Today refilled full tank (59L brim to brim) got me 397miles/31MPG, mixed London traffic and some motorway ~ 50/50%, last tank was 31.7MPG as well. Best tank figure ever ~48MPG on my car, best ever seen from IS250 owner - 51MPG (but that was like 230miles, not full tank), seen claims that ~55MPG is achievable at around steady 50-60MPH, which is probably true as I have seen like 60MPG momentary figures, but not realistically achievable unless you driving at constant speed and always down the hill. Normally get ~40MPG@80MPH and ~26MPG in the city, long term average ~(18000 miles since battery replacement) is now 28.7MPG (damn you London!). The trick - never brake, use inertia as much as possible, predict traffic in front of you and if somebody unfortunate jumps into your way just run them over!

Certainly not in UK, in continental Europe the depreciation is much lower ~ 10%/year for first 7 years and then even lower. Whereas in UK rule of thumb is 20% first year, 15% second and 15% third and 10-15%/year thereafter. So say 7 years old car in Germany are still likely to preserve 30% of value (or more if in good shape) and in UK you are looking at ~10-15%, basically completely depreciated to the bottom. Otherwise, yes I agree - either money is not a object (I sometimes use same example - winning the lottery) or buying on the company, in which case depreciation is not an issue.

I guess that is what makes it ML then. The question I have - where did they arrive with the conclusion that system is Pioneer when (at least I believe) there are no single sticker anywhere indicating that it is Pioneer and 10000 stickers staying it is ML? Did they opened the amp and inspected the components and decided it is actually manufactured by Pioneer? 😄 Furthermore, I doubt (obviously I can be wrong) that any other part except of head unit is actually made by Pioneer. Mark Levison is part of Harman International which is subsidiary of Samsung. Harman International owns few dozen of high end car audio manufacturers (JBL, Bang & Olufsen, Harman Kardon.... to name the few) and it would make sense they would manufacture parts for Mark and Levison rather then Pioneer/Sharp who are effectively are competitors.

And certainly not IS220d as that would be even worse, the answer would be to get a hybrid for low miles and city. So if you want IS mk2 the choice is pretty limited.

Major damage would be covered by insurance, the smaller scuff etc would be covered withing "wear and tear" policy. The only thing to worry about is what fall in grey area and as always read T&C carefully. When I got that estimate I thought it is pretty stupid and it would only make sense as "tax vehicle" for the company, cannot imagine sensible private person signing such deal.

Or they put "balloon" payment which exceed the used car value several times e.g. I was quoted £690/36 Month+10% deposit for £69k Volvo S90 and £46k "guaranteed value" payment after 3 years. You would think you paid in £41k and you will be about half way paying back the car, think again. The point here - they would make me pay for car's depreciation, for them remaining value will be £28.4k, which will be somewhat more realistic used car price.

I don't think IS300h is bad or that interior is poor, however as both of you said IS250 felt better inside. IS300h materials feels light, feels fragile... which gives that cheap feeling. I am sure IS300h is just as reliable and well built, but it doesn't feels that way, in some ways it feels more comparable with Korean cars (overall lightness) i.e. more luxury Kias, Hyundais etc. In other hand I was appalled by build quality and materials in E350E I had for testdive... it felt cheaper then IS300h. So here I am not sure are you saying C350E is better built then E350E? Or that is my spoiled opinion comparing everything against IS250? As for leasing, you still pay for depreciation, you just pay more lease - certainly leasing company doesn't just write that off.

What are the groceries for?

I do, but I cannot swallow £20k depreciation over few first years of ownership. High depreciation in UK just drives me mad and I don't understand how people justify that cost. It is one thing having to spend money on car up-keeping, maintenance etc. and completely another just understanding that you are loosing money into thin air for nothing due to depreciation... and that is on top of actually paying for the car, maintenance etc. I think the only way is possible to "justify" it is employing tax loopholes getting car via company and offsetting depreciation against tax... so that basically society pays the depreciation - completely legal, but not-exactly moral I guess.

I think my point was simpler then that, some cars have really ugly seats - BMW and MB particularly comes into mind with cardboard hard leather whatever is called "dakota", which in my opinion doesn't even qualify to be called leather. Whereas Lexus uses more premium leather (bar polyester "Alcantara") and I would probably agree - top of mass produced quality. As such I would not mind re-trimming say seats most BMW or MB's because using average workmanship and material would probably improve those seats, but to at least match RC-F leather quality you would need to source the leather quite carefully, then you would need to find one of the best trimmers in town... and that is just matching the quality. To exceed it even more difficult and expensive. Here argument becomes even more two sided - so even when you find somebody who can do decent job... how much that is going to cost and isn't it easier just to pay few grand more and just get it in right colour to begin with? I am certain standard £1000 job would neither match the leather quality, nor certainly the detail on RC-F seats...

That would be just crime to re-trim RC-F... think about all selective pure virgin holy baby cows who had to be killed to trim it in first place and all that to waste. I understand re-trimming some rotten, cracked, 12 years old leather from vomit colour to something human being would be able to sit on. I would feel bad about messing with mine (which is 10 years old black leather, but in good shape), never mind something as beautifully crafted as RC-F seats. I guess it could be re-dyed, but frankly it would be very difficult to dye black interior to say red or certainly to white, maybe white to something else, red to black maybe... but finish would never be the same. The point - you have to wait until you find the car in the right colour... inside out. I guess outside can be wrapped, dip-sprayed... but again I doubt you would go against Lexus "Structured Blue" with sand paper and spray it any other colour without feeling guilty of genocide?!

I was saying that for ages - my guess is that UK is too small market for Lexus to bother to comply with the local rules. Otherwise it makes no sense - new BMWs and MBs are faster, more fuel efficient and more affordable/available then Lexus. As well not sure about how did you come to conclusion that depreciation on MB C350E will be lower then running cost of IS250. I did same calculation and depreciation on new car is like 5 times more then entire running cost of IS250... that is pretty much the only reason I am still sticking with IS250 - I cannot stand depreciation. My calculation - new C350E with decent options is ~£40k, the depreciation over 3 years going to be 50%, so only depreciation on the car will be £20k or £6,333 year, add running cost and whatever minimal fuel necessary , £140 basic road tax so say, £1k for insurance £1500 year and running costs + depreciation and new car will cost £8000 a year to run. IS250 costs depreciation is probably £200 a year nowadays, because it is already at rock bottom prices, ok fuel will be £1500, insurance is about the same in my case, road tax is £305... so we get around £2000 in running costs a year... still at least 4 times less then new MB and that is not even counting you actually need to pay for new car is doesn't comes free somehow. If anything for year depreciation of MB C350E you can buy reasonably equipped IS250 and run it for 3 year and still have money to spare. @jackcramerr - no IS300h doesn't have air suspension. I don't thing any saloon does, with exception of like S-class, some old 5-series BMWs... Air suspension is mostly SUV option.

Seen it and thought it was pretty poor deal at £37k, completely base car no TVD, no sun roof, no ACC/PCS. A year ago same cars were selling for £32k with same mileage. Maybe they made £10k discount.... or RC-F is really in high demand.

Yes, but IS-F has completely different gear box and with 470hp it is completely different beast. The only one I know failing was Australian IS-F which was modified and regularly tracked, even then I am not certain whenever it was rear diff which failed or the gearbox.

Life expectancy depends on how car is driven. If it is predominately city car with a lot of short journeys I would give it 60k/6 years, if the car is mostly high miles motorway (where exhaust can fully warm-up) 100k+/10 years is certainly possible. My car is still on first exhaust (180k), but it is certainly not rust free, few tiny holes around. In summary IS250 exhaust last just as much as any other car, which in my experience is ~8 years, unless SS systems were used in factory. The only issue is that OE exhaust costs over £3000 new, but that is bonkers - nobody pays this amount. You can get rear and middle sections custom made from SS between £600-800, add another £400-600 for down-piles and exhaust manifold. Generally, you most likely find issue with rear section and that can be replaced for £300-400.. I would modify rear part of middle section at the same time and would order rear section as proper dual pipe (in OE the 2 exhaust merges after cats, goes into single resonator and then splits again into 2 silencers).

Tempting... proposal. Sadly, very little of the parts are would be interchangeable, which in long run might prove to be expensive mistake. There are nothing better then knowing you can always go to any scrap yard and salvage half of parts from IS220d..

I am pretty confident about that as well, can be V8 Turbo maybe... but certainly not V6

Maybe above is little unfair.... but what we have here?

That would make sense... maybe finally they going to release RC-F Carbon, where Carbon is not only for looks but actually reduces weight. It is speculation at best. I don't see how would Lexus shift LC-F with V6 Turbo, when LC500 is V8..... and yes yes ... of course you can make 3.5 V6 turbo with 700hp, but LC is not "tuners" car, not GT-R competitor... in the high-end GT cars segment small V6 with turbo will always be considered inferiour to V8. In which case V6 Turbo would be somewhere in the middle between 500 and 500h. I would guess more likely V8 turbo, V10 maybe.... yeah I know - only in wettest dreams 😄

This one at least looks riced... maybe finally going to convince some Calibra owners to upgrade!

Automatic Gearbox in IS250 is indestructible, it is not recommend to change oil (Lexus claims "lifetime" fill, which probably means ~10years/140k). However, dealerships can "top-up" oil, which basically consists of taking same amount (~0.5-1L) of old oil and replacing it with exact same amount of new oil (certainly not DIY). I know quite few people here have done "top-ups", but they definitely not necessary for at least first 100k and I would say 60k thereafter. There are plenty Mk2 in US with over 300k miles with gearbox oil not touched. Finally, I never heard of single 1 of these boxes failing in over 12 years in this model...

I think the key here is exactly what you said... Hankook were simply better tyres then Conti, but if you take exactly same tyre in XL and non-XL form then your quote sumarises it - XL's will be harder, noisier and will consume more fuel. All boils down to your priorities - if you want more comfortable tyre and you mostly commuting, then look for non-XL. If you drive aggressively, often at high speeds (70MPH is NOT high speed!), if you load your car or have 4 passengers often.. then you probably should consider XL. Bare in mind some sizes of the tyres are only available in XL's, so not much to choose there. Specifically, on R17/45/ 225-245 configuration and on IS250 I found non-XL tyres to provide much more comfortable ride... that applies to some Pirelli, Dunlop, Continental tyres... however it is possible that maybe Nokia, Hankook, or whatever other XL tyre can provide good level of comfort as well. There are no point comparing different XL and non-XL tyres as it becomes apples and oranges.. again general trends are summarised in your qoute, but I would disagree with "lasting longer claim". There is much more to it, then just XL. If two tyres have exactly same compound and thread depth, one is XL and another non-XL... I don't see any reason why XL would outlast non-XL.. assuming both tyres are on correct pressures etc.

Downgraded Alcantara or I like to call them - "plastic bag" seats (because alcantrara is made from poliester) were only available and the only option on F-Sport, don't mix-up with Se-i Normal audio system looses 1 speaker, which is center one in front, if anything normal system feels more "bassy" then ML, I believe the biggest difference is on vocal/instrumental clarity around mid-range. On non-ML system there is even little grille in front where speaker can be retrofitted if one wants. The other differences are speaker positioning on ML. Standard system has 3 speakers in each door + subwoofer on the back window sill. ML has 3 speakers in front doors, 2 speakers in rear doors, 1 central speaker in front, 2 coax on the sill and sub in the boot. If anything I prefer non-ML layout... but obviously layout and placement of the speakers in no whole of the story - the clarity comes from ML sound processor, wattage is as well irrelevant in comparison.

IS250 mk2, only had 2 stereo systems 13 speakers standard and 14 speakers ML. ML really shines from good source i.e. original CD, but if you listening music say from .mp3 then difference is minute, I would even say ML amplifies imperfections more. 8-speaker system has never been fitted in cars sold in UK, I believe there was some sort of poverty line option in US. Sat-Nav is waste of time, had cars with it and without it (as well with ML and without it) and can say that Sat-Nav is real horrible and slow. Turned it on, confirmed it works and never ever touched it again. If it has HID, then headlight washers are standard - if they are not present I would look for evidence of frontal collision and shoddy repair work. It seems to have F-Sport rims which were not standard for SE-i, but might have been fitted as an option by dealership, or as replacement for badly corroding original wheels. Only SE-L had rear blinds, so no need to look for that in SE-i I would only care about service history and actual conditions, mileage means very little on Lexus as long as it is maintained properly, even more higher miles cars are likely to have had easier life on motorway, whereas low miles ones were probably driven on short distances in the city. Furthermore, there are nothing expensive which can go wrong on IS250, so I would not bother to spend extra on low miles car.