Linas.P

Did little bit of reading for comparative reasons. One engine which sands out is Ford Duratec25/30 V6 known for being nice, reliable, happy reeving over-squared engine. Same engine makes basis for many Mazda, Jaguar cars and was developed by Porsche, later Cosworth with Ford. Same engine forms part of Aston Martin V12 5.9L (2x Duratec30) as well can be found in Noble M400 and now countless kitcars and swaps. When it comes to specific output 2.5L version makes 170-192Hp, 3L makes anywhere between 195-280Hp in N/A application. So again 4GR-FSE is just bang on the limit what can be expected from non-turbo engine with typical power of 200-212Hp, it is as well over-squared and reliable. The extra power can be due to higher compression ration. If Lexus/Toyota would be into turbocharging game it would be quite promising engine with easy 300-350Hp on stock internals. Generally peaking, entire GR VVTi family is pushing the limits what can be achieved on N/A petrol engines in terms of power/displacement/economy. Anything above that becomes trade-off between power and economy.

I am even being accused of IS250 being diesel because of injector sounds... yet to see the diesel car which doesn't sound bit like tractor. And indeed Lexus did good job on soundproofing the cabin from the engine.

Was there a single Metal, Carbon or other RC-F ever delivered in UK without ML and thus with Pioneer Stereo?! I know ML is technically an option, but I am under impression all RC-F had ML fitted in UK. Finally, it is not like it is hard to see ML logos all over the place.. I like how clueless Lexus dealers makes it like a selling point for clueless buyers 😄

Same story with Fraudfords, used them for re-gas only because they are literally across the road. Did the performance test in winter when outside temp was 7C and said it is blowing blistering cold aka "IS250 A/C creates winter in the cabin"!. Checked myself with re-circulation ON and realised the A/C does not work... like at all. They were little embarrassed and after 2 days diagnostics decided it is high side pressure sensor which has failed. Still failed to the day.. because it is very expensive and I have no confidence it is real culprit of the problem. There are few other check you can do e.g. is your A/C light switching, is you A/C clutch engaging, does the compressor engaging at all. Could be many things, bad relays, bad compressor, bad sensors.

The only LC500 I have ever seen outside of dealership was Yellow as well. Maybe the same one which seems to get driven.

with Pioneer stereo! what? what is that about?

Indeed.. Actually... it is about the same. Not really, it is just as fast as similar cars... had better standard options then most, but at the same time had no Auto gearbox.. which is total bonkers. BMW certainly have better feedback and more precise steering... but that is all pointless - diesel cars never intended to compete on driving dynamics.. And.. illegal, immoral, polluting and poisoning all around you.. That is just not correct, 4GR-FSE "specific output" for naturally aspirated engine is above average (~85hp/L) very few production cars have higher output from atmospheric engines, with exception of epic Honda S2000, you would only start seeing figures like 100hp+ in like Ferarris or Lamborginis and that is in 5-6L engines, not 2.5L. Most of N/A petrol engines sits around 70hp/L... the engine design i.e. V6 or L6, or L4 or H4 makes very little difference, so I don't understand obsession or even mentioning of V6. 200+ hp from 2.5L of displacement is high figure any way you look at it, most of the cars at that or certainly higher figures going to be turbocharged. Overall, IS220d not suppose to be terrible car, but Lexus set it for failure.. first of all it was unreliable (and not only DPF/ERG).. the head gaskets were too weak for 177hp, they only fixed that with IS200d in 2010 by de-tuning it to 150hp. But damage was already done... They made no automatic, which is over half of premium/diesel cars market. If they would have released IS200d with AT/MT option from beginning it would have been cracking car.

That is good point - though no to worry for me, but for somebody on here who posted he link previously. I have forgotten to update post code in Autorader + every time I click on like here it saves new one :) As for RC more expensive then IS.. as rayaans said - it is more 2 doors GS then IS, the only strange thing for me is that they never had 450h option in RC as such they could simply use IS platform. The only reason to justify using parts of GS platform would be - using GS engine options, but they never did... Equally mating it with IS-C would have indicated convertible version of RC, but again they never made convertible of RC. Am I right to think front of chassis was GS and rear from IS-C?

No need to pretend - if it wouldn't have boiled your blood you would not be quoting it over and over and over again... and over and over again... you welcome! 😄

If you quote somebody at least do it right - IS220d and IS-F are basically same car, just one powered by diesel 😄 Never compared IS220d with RC-F even for blind person it would be clear one has 2 more doors! RC200t is your "to go" car for parts... I am not even sure why Lexus made it, probably to support aging fleet of RC-F's with spares... Sadly nobody bite that bullet and 200t are rarer then the cars they meant to provide parts to.

Quite a lot of degradation to your bonnet - can almost see the engine trough it! I knew UV light can weaken CFRP, but didn't realise it is going to be that quick in current heatwave 😄

The only one I know in UK is http://www.theoillab.co.uk/product-category/oil-testing/engine/ I cannot find where they recommend 6k miles, maybe this information was from youtube video or some oil lab documentation. I believe when they send you the vial with instruction they state that it is recommended for oil to be around 6k miles. Europe mostly has 10 - 20k kilometers/year cycles not miles! Still you have to change that oil after 1 year even if you didn't reach the distance. Most "long life" oils are rated for 20k km extended cycles, there are some specific BMW/MB/VW engines which claims 30k km oil changes, but here we need to understand that it only applies to specific engine with specific long-life oil. Furthermore, it is again bit pointless because 1 year oil change still applies, so unless you covering 30k + km per year there are no advantage of long-life oil/compatible engine. Equally, it is not like you drop long life oil in Lexus engine which was not designed to extended life oil and expect to run it for 30k km without any issues. Equally, it is not secret that in recent years most of German makes had issues engine wear... it is not uncommon for say BMW 320/520d to have engine rebuild after 2 years. And yes that is not only oil related, BMW had some plastic parts breaking and timing chains stretching which was simply poor design, but say excessive engine rings and bearings wear clearly has relation with lubrication. Finally, horror stories about 30k km oil changes are not hard to come-by (just picked first on the list): http://totalcarmagazine.com/tech/2013/11/18/30k_oil_change_interval_will_it_ruin_your_engine/ As far as IS250 goes, it is not Turbocharged like Mini, but specific output per liter is quite similarly high, it is as well direct injected which at least according to this article increases soot accumulation in oil passages - sort of consistent with my experience with engine flush.

Cannot comment on Hull or Lincoln, but from my car service history I can see Hedge End has totally ripped of previous owner with unnecessary service items. Not sure... maybe it was the owner asking for specific services (unlikely), but they changed transmission oil at 40k miles, which was total waste and many other tiny and no so tiny things which looked for me like unnecessary and almost fraudulent to change.

Most of oil testing companies recommends to send the oil which has ~6k miles for testing. That suggest for me, that over 6k miles oil would already have indicative amount of metal flakes or other contaminants, which would indicate wear on the engine (the sole reason why one would do oil testing). That as well goes to show that even good filter cannot clean the oil completely, as otherwise why ever change the oil - just change filter and it will clean the oil... right? 1) I agree, it is not a matter of additives disappearing 100% - you would need to run the oil for probably 4years/40k miles (or more) for oil to go back to 20W20 grade. But we have multiple factors here... not only additives. like point 4. 2) I actually prefer exactly opposite (maybe wrongly), based on the point that even cheaper known brand oil (I mean as long as it is not fake rapeseed oil labelled 5W30) nowadays is better then the best oil back in the day Lexus designed 4GR-FSE. 3) That is probably my only concern, but I believe if it is "disposed" correctly, then the oil is not thrown "into river", but recycled for other purposes - lower grade lubricants, fuel etc. 4) That goes to the point 1 and other points and underpins the whole discussion... It is clear filter cannot 100% filter the oil, hence it actually does get dirtier and dirtier. IF filter could filter the oil back to transparent yellowish liquid oil changes would not be necessary for very long time. so in short I justify the 6k miles oil changes on following: 5W30 looses some additives and does not properly protect the engine... I think key for me is 5W cold flow on start-up, not too much worried about W30 in city driving. Solution would be to get 0W30, but problem is that Lexus uses 5W30, so I have to change it after 6 month. If they would use 0W30 maybe it would last me whole year... BUT then we go into point 4 - there are enough contaminants in the oil after 6k miles that they effectively make oil and the filter dirty. That combined with degraded oil, justifies early oil changes to ensure maximum protection. Even from environmental point of view - replacing the engine early (which would basically mean scrapping the whole car) would have much more massive environmental impact then few litres of oil. Your experience is correct - IS250 valve design is definitely flawed, I believe it is something with head flow on cold oil i.e. there is not enough flow, too little passages for the cold oil to flow to the head on the start-up and lubricate lifters. Solution would be to use maybe 0W oil improve cold flow as 5W seems to struggle, especially when it starts to deteriorate to whatever 6W, 8W or something else. I have used few different brands and grades oil with combination of flushing engine and I found that valve lifters starts rattling in the range of 5-7k miles, regardless of oil. Flush seems to add few thousand miles.

I wish that would be true, considering the market could only accept maybe 10... 190 extra anniversary editions would flood the market and make all RCs.. very very affordable. I mean Lexus would probably need to sell new ones from dealership for ~£40k to make such amount shift somehow. As well it would be most "mass produced" F car ever in UK market 😄

I feel like it is almost pointless to wrap the car like this. I mean they attend such events to advertise the car, if it is not ready yet then don't bring it. Now it just misrepresents what the final product would be and actually make negative impression for themselves... I completely don't get correlation between Supra and IS-F to completely different cars for completely different purposes. Maybe competitor for LC, just with more performance and less luxury. Supra used to be large GT coupe, but this new model seams to be much more compact, almost like Celica.

I mean all fine all to their own, my only questions is that you say you going to stay away from Castrol oil, but I didn't see any reason you mentioned anywhere. I am not even saying it is valid or invalid reason, but if you claim it is not good oil at least say why you think it is not good and what is better then. As for mileage... I don't agree. Reason being any multi-grade oil degrades. Don't quote me on that as it is more general statement, but any say 0W30 or 5W30 starts as something like 20W20, then oil additives are added to improve the flow when cold to make it say 5W at 20C, other additives are added to control the flow when hot so that oil stays below W30 at ~100C. The oil doesn't degrade, the additives does and additives degrade not only with mileage but as well time ... that means after 6 month and 6k miles your once 5W30 becomes 10W25... until eventually getting back to 20W20 base oil grade. Hence I am saying 12k miles on single oil change in 6 month are probably ok, but 12k miles on single oil in 12 month are not. Now again you mentioned yourself that in general costs of car ownership oil is very cheap, so why cheap out on it and keep it for 12 months?! And here I agree, however I don't consider Castrol as cheap option, but it becomes very good value for money when discounted. Secondly, you say maybe change filter twice but oil once, which again contradicts what you saying - if I am already changing filter and generally oil is minor thing in car ownership, why not to change the oil as well?! As specifically for my IS250 with 180k miles my hydraulic valve lifters stars sticking and rattling around 7-8k miles if engine was flushed and around 5-6k miles if not, so for me oil change at those intervals are just necessary.. and probably goes back to what I said above - oil loses additives over time and by the time it is 6k miles cold flow is not sufficient to lubricate valve lifters to prevent them from sticking. However, I have heard this happening on much lower mileage cars as low as like 40-60k miles, so it is not car thing it is to do with oil degradation.

It is indeed. Desirable colour is obviously subjective, I personally like white and objectively it is second most desirable colour at the moment. Black and white was exchanging places for last 5 years and currently black is the most desirable. Still miles ahead of say blue or one of the least desirable colours like red. One thing which doesn't suit the car in my opinion is black interior, I am fan of dark rose Lexus had for these cars, or to be honest for white car any other would do better then black. Recently, there was another white RC300h, with black interior, but it had ML and sunroof and was priced at £26000 with 8000 miles. Now the car is gone, but it wasn't quick sell it was on AT for over 2 months at what I though was excellent price. So based on that comparison would I have had car which is fully loaded with 8k miles for £26k or one which partially loaded with 80k miles for £24k... It is no brainer. Price certainly doesn't represent excessive mileage on this car, 80k miles are equivalent to 10 years of use it isn't just number on the dash.

Generally, all Lexus dealerships uses Castrol for standard service, but some cheaper oil for essential maintenance. As for 0w30 .. that seems to be Scotland thing, colder weather I guess - IS250 will happily run on 5w30, 0w30 or even 0w20. @Ben01 - I am a bit confused. What is you problem with Castrol oil then, based on your own post it seems that Castrol would be just about average oil for average price when it is priced @£40/4L. Which makes it good value for money priced @£23/4L. Is there any other objective issues not to choose Castrol then which you haven't mentioned or I am missing some point here? if not Castrol what are your suggestions then. Finally, I am of an opinion that oil has improved so much over decade, that today even cheapest oil you can get would match the one used in F1 races back in 2005 when IS250 was made. As such any oil you can get would meet and exceed factory specifications and it is only matter of changing it in time. Long service intervals like 20k miles are stupid and designed to reduce fleet management costs, but definitely doesn't do any good for the engine no matter what oil you use. + we use retarded imperial units, whereas everyone else uses metric. IS250 has metric service interval of 10000km, which is ~6000 miles.... like most of the cars on standard oil. For 10k miles you already need "long life" oil because that is 60% over normal service interval and I guess Lexus in UK uses grade of oil which is suitable for extended service intervals.. but again we going back to the point that "long-life" oil and "extended-service intervals" are thing for fleet buyers and do no good for the cars.

That is not great advertisement for most reliable car brand in existence.. At least it is not a total lost it seems.

That was my worry as well, if one broke.. what are the chances of them all giving their way, was tempted to change all 20, but for £5.78 a piece I though it was excessive. As well I was surprised how easy it was to brake it... I have pretty much hand tightened it and it didn't take any force at all on the torque wrench... just felt soft. I broken the rear one, same steps as for the front one, didn't need to touch drum parking brake or anything, probably little bit less room to fiddle the stud in.

Quite extraordinary miles so of these cars do, more then even typical high mile subjects i.e. BMW 420d https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201807098266221?model=RC 300H&advertising-location=at_cars&postcode=ba11rj&radius=1500&make=LEXUS&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly New&onesearchad=New&sort=price-asc&page=1 I personally see no way it is selling for that price, maybe for ~18k, there are plenty of car in just 1-2k more with 8 times less miles.

I found the review pretty fair, I liked it. Not sure I agree with everything, but few point ere very decent e.g. that "F-marque" is little bit soft, very limited number, very limited exposure, little follower-ship... it is not even true performance, it is more of luxury-performance which is very niche. Most people either want Luxury or Performance and then complain that they would like to have both in single car, but never actually buys cars which offers that like for example RC-F. This reminds me discussion of manual gearbox - everyone says they wants it, but when it comes to buying nobody buys it. So same her with RC-F everyone says they want luxury performance car, which is fast yet doesn't brake your back over speed bump, or luxury which isn't total boat in the corners, but when it comes to buying the car they still buy M4, because it is 0.1s quicker around the track and MB S-Class because it has cooled cup holder and electric glasses holder cover, but won't buy Lexus because it is just exactly in the perfect middle of luxury and performance.

It is called collaboration, it is done because it is more tax efficient in this case. In global supply chain it is cheaper to co-develop and co-build the car with BMW, because that means BMW can sell car with lower tariff using Toyota parts and Toyota can do the same with BMW parts where each of the companies have better market share e.g. Toyota in US/Japan/Middle east, BMW in EU. It is not really replacement of IS-F though, more for previous Supra. I am not big fan of inline engines, but that sounds like throwback to 2JZ-GTE! More boost!

I long term ... yes I agree. If you leave that petrol there for a week or drive excessive mileage before realising. As for running trough few litres of petrol and then emptying it - certainly not. If you would put even a dash of diesel in say IS250 (or other petrol injection car for that matter).. that is bye bye car.. Fuel injectors will be stuck straight away, the lines, the pump and the tank would need to be changed due to contamination... to effectively prevent injectors from getting stuck from left-over diesel. Total write-off. Maybe nowadays misspelling specialists have some kind of cleaners to clean diesel out of petrol system, but it would be major job. For non injected petrol, probably not as much of the problem.