Linas.P

I am well aware how it is, I guess what I am trying to say it is simply wrong (the way it is). And I completely agree with the rest i.e. if you have rare car you better of get additional protection, because Insurance is guaranteed to leave you with massive shortfall. I probably wouldn't bother with GAP cover on IS-F, but certainly on fully loaded RC-F. For me it sounds almost like you pay for electricity, but on to of that you have to get "electricity interruption cover" - just in case they have network blackout. Kind of silly, especially considering that we are legally obliged to have one. @DAW - as for being sorry for owners, that goes without saying. My first though was like - "poor guy" not only he had his car stolen, but now will be (sorry for language) raped by insurers.

I think you mistaken. Yes all Lexus has glass sunroof (to be honest almost any modern car), that is what was called moonroof before. But it should not be confused with full glass roof: I think closest we have in Lexus range are RX and NX with panoramic roof or LC with half-glass, but none has full glass roof which is quite common on French cars, as well Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda, Skoda/WV and Tesla does them.

Who said that they say it when you walk-in - you just assumed I meant it? I had 24h test drive in RC300h and it happened exactly as you described. However, I was very clear that I outright didn't liked RC300h, the sales man still talked me trough special offer. What I found strange that in Lexus Woodford they were very keen to make good deal as long as I take car on Lexus Finance, not so much if I use my finance or even if I take it outright by cash. Then subsequently I had recall and service and similarly discussed RC-F. Discussed GS450h with Lexus Sheffield, they made decent deal by giving very good P/X value on my car, but somebody on here snapped the car before me.

Yes you right @DAW, but I think insurance should pay or get you the car like for like, so you don't lose in any way - that would be just fair, in fact the minimal what insurance must do. But as we know in reality you not only have to pay for overpriced insurance, but on top for GAP insurance, because insurance will always try to trick you and that is fraudulent. And you right that is different discussion all together, but I always get frustrated reading how fraudulent insurers are...

Supaguard is not bad product in itself, it is more of the problem how it is applied and rest assured dealers simply slap it on the car without any consideration, decontamination, polishing or anything, so end result it doesn't work as it should @Flytvr - that is good point, I often found that you get better offers when you are in position to leave any time. If you travel from far away and if you excited about the car then dealers will feel that and get every penny from you.

No don't even try, as much as I have experience getting car painted it is never done to anything near original paint (and that is plain black, non metallic). Furthermore when talking about painting bonnet, you need to understand that panels needs to be blended it. Now considering Lexus 5 stage painting process I have little confidence regular paint shop would be able to properly blend it either. So basically instead of having stone chip eye sore you going to have whole bonnet eye sore. Obviously, there are good painters, but then the price and time it takes will make it non-financially feasible.

That is pretty much my experience as far as RC-F, RC300h and GS450h goes. They usually start the sentence with "we have special offer for you", which "is we look at the numbers" is ~1-2k off from posted price + sometimes some freebies, like discount on service plan or extended warranty. From there (if you want more) it seems easier to agree higher P/X price for your car, then to agree discount, but in the end it is same thing. Whenever they value your car 10k and sell their car for 35k, or value your car for 7k and and sell their car for 32k. In short after initial offer they won't budge much more, they can only offer more discounted services.

You could help him to make his Suzuki Swift little narrower by removing his rear view mirrors - "every little helps". Sadly cannot advise on paint matching, as metallic are always pain to match, however "soft paint" in general is less likely to chip, so I would not blame the issue on the softness of the paint.

For me quite a big minus is E for fuel economy. I agree Pirelli are usually overpriced, but somehow I don't see P Zero Nero GT XL for ~£67 being worse seem at least equivalent to Falken. At the same time Dunlop SP SportMaxx RT 2 XL for same £67 or Uniroyal RainSport 3 FR XL for £62 are better by any measurable way. anyway I think key here was "I needed to fit tyres quicky as I had a damaged tyre and an imminent roadtrip" and that is valid reason. Anyway, by no means I meant to say that Falken's are not good, just kind of reinforce my point, that tyres considered "mid-range" are not cheaper then the ones considered "premium".

That is not really true, if you talking about white one. The value of the cars was arguably around ~18-20k, the owner wanted the price he has paid ~22k, which wasn't realistic market price to begin with. He got first offer of ~14k and then negotiated around 16.5k. That was more exceptional case where insurance was particularly "hard-balling" and I personally would have sued them. So in the end he got less then market value, but not 10k less, more like 1.5-3.5k less. Still not great, but not that bad. Don't forget insurance is fraud and only exists to make money out of you, they will do anything to pay as little as possible.

For me is must have, or even better glass roof - sadly Lexus doesn't really do those. Never had the car where it wen't wrong and it always been key positive thing about the car, especially when you go from one which has it to the one which don't. Performance cars with 4 doors are always less desirable then coupes, just reality... and even if you want one you don't need to pay £28k for it, you can happily found one in perfect shape and low miles for £18k + GS-F is much better value for money anyway... even if it is more expensive.

Yes, but you can just buy 2010 IS-F which will be fully equipped for £8k less, or go even cheaper on 2009 - reliability is not an issue and you can still get extended warranty. As for RC-F the one for 29k has TDV and Sunroof, so only missing thing is ACC/PCS, it as well has 16k more miles, but it is 3 years newer car with 8 year newer design. For me personally Sunroof is more important then ACC/PCS.. so nobrainer really, but that might be opposite for other. I remember speculating what impact falling RC-F prices will have on IS-F market. So far it seems there were no major impact, except of cases like this - late IS-Fs in perfect shape selling for same price as early RC-Fs which are still pretty much perfect shape. Any IS-F selling for over 25k will struggle, because they are getting in territory of RC-Fs. I cannot imagine somebody making such choice and going for IS-F over RC-F at this price point.. but that is just my opinion obviously.

It being 2013 (last year of production) doesn't help either - I mean it is relatively new car, but looking relatively outdated - that makes price relatively high. One can get cheaper RC-F for that price and obviously everyone will make such considerations. Unless you really really really want specifically white 2013 IS-F for some reason... which will be very rare.

I don't think they are "worth" much less, but the demand is not as high. So they are probably worth more, but outside of Lexus lovers group nobody is willing to pay it.

Yes... but for £75 I could have fitted almost any tyre, except few UHPs... So why Falken?

I am happy with this explanation, so where is the problem?

Not sure ~2.3-2.5k RPM would be my guess. But then.. do you mean indicated on speedometer or actual/GPS speed? What size wheels? 16/17/18? 1645kg might be IS300h weight, not mk3 IS250... One way or another adding more weight on the car which in my opinion needs little bit more power for full joy won't improve anything.

Always funny to see snowflakes gasping for air after somebody dares to have different opinion (in this case about beloved 300h). Nobody is obsessed with 0-60 times, the matter is about the feeling. Even though @dutchie01 seems to have tired to direct shots on me, his summary of two cars is quite accurate and doesn't seems far away from what I am saying: In my opinion 300h chassis is slightly better at most (not light-years), acceleration from 10 to 30 is probably faster on 300h (not way, but just), but not from 0... but that is not key. What is key in my opinion is smoothness and build quality vs. more modern and efficient car. Everything after that are just personal values - if you value fuel efficiency more then you will be happy with 300h, but if you after smoothness and build quality then probably IS250. My only point was that IS300h is not upgrade for IS250 in all aspects, instead it mostly boils down to fuel efficiency and generally being more modern, somewhat not surprising when comparing 2005 and 2013 design. However, if you like me found IS250 lacking power already, then IS300h is even worse in the aspect - that seems to be some sort of taboo or childhood wound to mention that on IS mk3 forum. The only opinion allowed here seems to be politically corrected one - IS300h is in all aspects, in any way and by far, by light years better then IS250... why?! just because.

I haven't tried Pagid personally on IS250. I would not say either Toyota or Brembo are bad, it is just that brakes on IS250 are generally under-sized which results in excessive wear on pads and disks. The only real solution is to upgrade brakes all together, but for most that is simply not financially viable. You can even get Toyota "low dust" pads, which will reduce the dust. However, neither wear on the pads, nor dust is an indicator of quality. You can get very hard pads and they will sequel more and eat into the disks more. It is sort of trade off - you can have more dust, but better pedal feeling (more progressive braking) and more wear on the pads, or you can have harder pads, less dust, less wear on the pad, more catching/squeal and more wear on the disks. Obviously it would be ideal to have best of both words or at least to find golden middle between wear, dust etc. From my experience both Brembo and OE are on the soft side. As well I had Mintex pads in the past, which were harder and made noticeably less dust, but I would not call them better.

Pretty much the same, both are soft, wears quicker and you get a lot of dust. If anything Brembo seems to be little softer then OE, but not by much - so expect slightly more dust and few less miles. As for braking, both are fine, brake feeling is fine. Brembo comes with Integrated anti-sequel shims, but it is rubbish and pads still squeals, OE ones have no shim at all and you would need to reuse existing ones or buy shims kit separately.

I think here we need to be quite specific. Yes indeed Debica, Sava, Dunlop and Goodyear are all owned by the same company. I have checked and my Dunlop tyres are made in Poland, Debica is Polish brand... coincidence.. I don't think so! Same can be said about Michelin and Uniroyal. I do believe they are same tyres just branded/marketed differently. As for the price I have quoted average price per tyre for 4 tyres, so yes rear tires are usually more expensive at least that is specifically the case for 225 vs.245 on R17. The bigger is the tyre the bigger is the saving going for lesser known brand, but say on 225 R17 there is literally no difference. Knowing how well Dunlops last (38k miles) and how quiet they are I would b confident getting Sava and Debica as well, if Avon, Kuhmo, Hankook, Nokian, Falken can offer me tires for 30% of (and that would be £40 range) then I would consider them, otherwise what is the point? Especially when Debica, Sava and Uniroyal are available for ~£55.

About same experience as above, works reasonably well, but won't last on windshield. It seems wipers just cleans it off. So good for side windows, but only lasts week or 2 on windshield (depending on how often you use wipers).

Can you share the price? My problem is that from my experience neither Hankook, nor Falker, nor Avon (nor any other brands considered mid-range) are selling for what I consider "mid-range" prices e.g. you can get "Premium" tyres from Dunlop, Goodyear, Continetal in the range of £70-100, so "mid-range" then should be sort of £40-70, but I haven't seen them selling for such prices. Finally, even if you can get mid-range tyre for say £62-65, then it is no-brainer not to get more premium tyre for say ~£72. So basically many "premium" tyres are now have mixed into high-mid range niche and there are no longer distinction. We now kind of have low-end "no-names" selling at £40-£60, from where "mid-range" have merged into "premium" £60-100 and finally only very few true "high-end" tires (mostly Michelin and Pirelli) still selling well in excess of £100. In short I am struggling to understand the point of getting "mid-range", because they are no cheaper then (loosely applied) "premium".

I always like creative adds, just spotted this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183242817331?ul_noapp=true my favourite part: I wonder what SE-L and the actual Sport stands for?! F-sport? anyhow he seems on another planet, because the only IS220d I know has 177hp, not 172, nor 200.

Cannot advice on shocks, but I had changed to 18inch wheels myself and first impression was same - the car looks taller and kind of needs lowering. Difference is just visual - between 17 and 18 inch rears is 7mm, so they raise your car 3.5mm. That is very unlikely to have any side-effect on handling or noticeable difference height. However, I understand you point very well, because it looks much taller visually.