Linas.P

Yes have all that.

Sorry - I have to take e few steps back to explain the premise. Basically in one of the goverment acts (it may even be regulation from EU) something like "Insurance Act 2012" (don't quote me on that as I don't remember the details) there was provision that third party companies can manage the claim on insurance policy. This was specifically in response to the fact Insurance companies are kind of "marking their own work" when it comes to assessment etc. As such this provision was added that if you disagree with insurance company valuation, you can go to another company and as them to carry out the claim management for you. As part of that provision third party companies (basically CMCs) can charge the insurance company for management of the claim (because in theory they doing all the work, that insurance company doesn't have to do), so all the cost comes from Insurance Company, basically there is no catch. That is why Insurance companies absolutelly HATE them. Again don't quote me on that but I believe the limit was something like £840 for that management fee. You don't have to pay anything IF claim was not your fault. As such if you in non-fault claim like OP, or like the two claims I had, then you can use CMC for free. If it is your fault then usually it isn't worth, because you have to pay the fees yourself for using CMC, unless the circumstances are expectational. So I don't believe it would have helped you in your case. Most CMCs that I know don't even take the claim unless they are non-fault. Also I know they take cut from personal injury claims and that is usually 20-30% from settlement amount. So those are your typical "no win, no fee" cases, but you have to pay them from your claim amount. However, for car damages they have that provision as mentioned and they charge party at fault insurance company and not you. Also - just one note, make sure you CMC is FSCS regulated, unregulated ones are borderline fraud.

First thing - get yourself a Claim Management Company. You did a right thing, you informed your insurance as per the policy, end it here, you don't need to speak with them ever again, because you only thing you going to get is that you going to get shafted by them. Writing it off, may not be a bad thing if they offer you fair deal. For example I have written of my 2008 car with 200k miles on the clock, but that was because they gave me Cat-N, I kept the car for £700 and they paid me £3,850 and then sold the car for £2,700. So basically I made £6,000 from the car that was worth half of that. And also I could have just kept it for £700, because it was just a scratch on the bumper. The year prior I did exactly that - they wanted to write it off-offered me maybe £2500, I said "no car is worth more, repair is does not cost £2800", they ended-up paying £1,400 for repairs and I kept the car without any record of it being involved in the accident. Basically, it got repaired. But all of that was only possible because I have leverage via Claims Management Company. In my case, both times CMC "pre-authorised" the claim, meaning I got paid right away, not freezing of excess, no waiting for TP insurance to pay out, I got brand new BMW to drive around whilst my car was being fixed (not shaitty tiny car insurance companies usually give) and I had a say in what my car is worth and what I want to be paid for it. If you dealing directly with insurance it will literally take months, sometimes years, especially if you disagree with their estimate it always takes extra 6 month every time you go back to them. With CMC it was simple - they got car appraised within days, then sent me the valuation, then I was like - "nope such cars is not £2875, this is SEL, this has sun-roof, this has ML etc. I want minimum £4000, here are few links from autotrader"... same day I got response "okey, we checked our database and for this model we have valuation spread between £1485, to £3850, so we can do £3850"... fine... done. Insurance company didn't even get any say in, the valuation was simply sent to them and they had to take it... and Car rental of £250 a day is ticking for them... so within 2 days insurance company accepted it. The case was solved within 1 week, car was repaired and on the road in 2 weeks. That sucks... I is probably not right, but I would have tried to accept renewal before reporting the accident, as such it would not have impacted you for another year. But yes Insurance companies sucks like that - regardless if it is your fault or not, the insurance will increase!

Banks indeed have strong IT security nowadays, problem as always is weak link between chair and the system. It is always human error and humans are not smart sometimes... most of the time really... I remember we designed our latest internet banking security and to this day it was never breached (8 years and counting), but we still had few frauds where it looked like client himself paid the money out, but in one case it turned out that they have allowed their kids to have access to to their phone (basically multiple fingerprints allowed and kids had their fingerprints registered), so they basically just transferred the money to their accounts. Other time I remember system alert triggered on suspected fraud and when we called back the client to ask if they intending to transfer £100,000 to ... it was some African country... they told us "no, but there is lovely chap on the phone who is fixing my macbook". Turns out they gave them log-in details and approved notifications to the phone for log-in, notifications about adding new beneficiaries etc. Obviously, there are multiple layers of security, hence these usually get caught in 2nd or 3rd layer of security, but you can always work around security by exploiting social engineering. The first one was the only one we didn't caught, but it wasn't really anything that we could do about it, client breached the rules, allowed unsecured access to their account and I believe fraud team even rejected their claim. The second one was the only genuine attempted of fraud which reached processing, but was caught by system rules etc. The other problem is what I call "friction in the system design/user interface". The typical anecdotal example - when you make password conditions too difficult to remember, then users will write their password on post-it and stick them to the screen! But it is literally true and has happened in practice. So good security should be relatively simple to use from user perspective to be effective... companies nowadays goes way overboard with security measures and promotes such behaviour. For example recent ruzzian intercept of German military call is exactly such example - the German secure communication channel was way to difficult to access (don't know the details, but turns our process takes like 15 minutes to authenticate with way too many steps) for the user under time pressure they just accessed the call via public link... and that was enough! It was legitimate webex link, the only difference it was outside secure environment and that was it! Should he be sacked for that - yes 100% (he wasn't), but also it highlights that their protocols for accessing secure communication are not fit for purpose.

.... diesels! Wouldn't blocked EGR trigger some light, like DPF efficiency or something along those lines, especially if car can't even get over 2000RPM. Also wouldn't EGR be just increasingly more and more sluggish, rather than on-off "limp"? I meant actual fuel (diesel) filter, not blocked DPF. If DPF would be blocked to this extent where car does not run above 2000RPM, then I would expect it would trigger the fault code for "DPR performance below threshold".

Is it more like hard limit i.e. car revs freely up-up 2000RPM and then just sits there or is it more like car seems to be unable to reach more than 2000RPM? I mean it could be something like dead throttle body, but that should give fault code. Or it could still be something related with fuel filter or even fuel pump pick-up... it sucks something up and gets blocked.

Is it actually Limp mode? By that you should have Engine + VSC Lights... I don't remember if IS220d also says "LIMP" on the display, but certainly you must have engine lights. Or is it just down on power? Because the later could be caused by blocked diesel filter, or blocked air filter or some other issues which may not give fault codes. The actual Limp mode will give fault.

Correct. For battery you need 12V+ at minimum. 11.63V is considered 0% charged, 12.89V is 100% charged -12.4-12.6V is what you should normally expect for good battery. For alternator - ideally 14V+ (14.4V theoretical maximum, but in practice ~14.2 is achievable), but 13.8-13.9V still good enough. Will suck either way... from below you will have benefit of seeing what you can't reach, from the top you have benefit of reaching what you can't see.

Indeed as I said - it is GOOD deal, just maybe not as good as I would like 🙂 The sunroof is absolute must for me, I know other people hate them, but for me it is basically most important thing in the car. Especially RC which is kind of crammed and sun roof really gives feeling of extra space. I knows it sounds counter intuitive "car is crammed, so I want sunroof which takes extra 1.5cm of the head space". But headroom in front is not really an issue (I am ~6.1/186), maybe it would be an issue with helmet, but I am not looking to track the car anyway and if helmet does not fit then 1.5 cm probably not going to make that much difference anyway. Radar Cruise is definitely nice to have, I agree in UK it is pain with horrible lane discipline, but I definitely expect to have this in GT car... but yes you can't use it in heavy traffic. As for TVD - a yes I agree, LSD is actually more fun, but worse for lap times, but again outside of the track LSD is both, lighter, better on fuel, more fun and totally sufficient. So TVD is not dealbreaker, sunroof is, RCC... well I guess I probably would buy car without one and then I would hate myself for doing it.

You see I was technically right - it won't be un £25k in 3 years time... I was right - it took 4 years. I was eyeing RC-Fs for a while and I know the yare amazing value at £21k. I definitely would never take red one (or any red car except of Ferrari). https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202401105414712 I definitely see above as good value, but for me... I am kind of sucker for "completionism" i.e. it is just basically standard car without a single option. No RCC, no sunroof, no TVD... and for me at least RCC and sunroof are deal breakers, I can live without TVD with just normal LSD, but I would take TVD if its there. But indeed you are right - values does not fall as they used to... when IS-F was 10 years old it was dipping it's toes into sub-10k... not even 10 years old, it was in 2016 when it reached it absolute bottom and I remember to this day there being beautiful 2009 IS-F with 101k miles for £9,800, I was considering it and week later it was gone, later I have seen it popping-up with 168k and for £14.5k! Even £21k is still a lot of money for 9 years old car that will run out of warranty next year.

You likely going to need bonnet as well... which... I also have if you interested 🙂 On the serious note - not sure if aluminium can be can be bent back without braking, seem like quite sharp bend. is it black or blue?

I thought you slot the top first and then clip it in place.

I also have all front pieces, support foam, crash bar etc.

There cars are very unreliable, but to be honest most of issues are injector/DPF/EGR related... sort of typical diesel issues. On top of those issues - cherry on the top is head gaskets. So you get all normal diesel issues + Lexus (Toyota ) special sauce on top. Could fuel leak be injector leaking... yes. Camshaft position sensor failure is kind of random, not sure it is more common on these than any other car, but it is kind of strange that it came up at the same time. I probably would be inclined to clean the codes and drive for a bit to see what comes-up again as they don't look related.

It will be better than diesel in town, but worse on motorway, but yes near 40MPH should be achievable. Still 20*2 per day only accounts for ~8800miles... other driving is then motorway? Well I guess it is not much of an issue in Ireland when maximum speed is even lower than UK... hybrid does okey up-to 60MPH... it is more of an issue in continental Europe where where regular speed is 90MPH.

I specifically had RC200t, it is horrible on petrol any way you look at it, not because it is straight petrol, but just because it is bad engine, for wrong car, not well integrated into the platform and the car is also rather heavy. It is more fun to drive than RC300h, but all in all more compromised car than RC300h. As both are slow, but RC300h is at least relatively economical. RC300h is not amazing on fuel either, really depends what type of driving you doing, if it is city driving (or any driving up-to 50-60MPH), then the yare good, for motorway driving it is no different from 2.5L simple petrol engine that has to haul heavy battery in the boot. Any speeds over 60MPH it is not amazing and similarly sized petrol car would be same or even better on fuel consumption. Honestly, if you doing motorway driving and 17,000 miles a year, then you need diesel. Hybrid is not even close to diesel, particularly not RC300h F-Sport with 19/35/265 tyres in the rear. 40MPG on the motorway would be as good as I would expect it to get, you can get higher if you don't go past 60MPH, but I tend to drive little bit faster so 36-40MPG was what I have seen on RC300h (RC200t was more like 24-26MPG, in the city 20MPG). Can't say if 32,000 Euro a good price or bad price, as the prices in UK are different... it would be RC-F money in UK to be fair with you. As funny as it is RC-F also has better fuel economy from it's 5L V8 than RC200t - go figure!

No doubt - you are free to run your car any way you like 🙂 I am just saying it isn't the same price and there is no risk of damaging the engine.

It doesn't make £5 difference in MPGs, E5 is ~1.5%, for simplicity let's say £2 per tanks. Also E5 is ~14p more expensive on average, so that makes it ~£9 more per tank. Also it doesn't make engine healthier, ethanol is actually common additive to clean the injectors and even carbon build-up. If my memory serves - the only part at risk was 1 or 2 o-rings in fuel tank. But again 10% of ethanol is too low concentration to cause any issues (in my opinion), I have run my car extensively on E85 without issues, so I can't see how E10 could hurt. Besides many cars in Europe run exclusively on E85 and there are no reports on anything failing.

I honestly don't know what were the techniques used in this clip... not sure how scripted it is (somehow not sold on the idea of thief showing his trade, so I suspect it was "reenactment"), but I think key thing here - forget CANBUS, forget relays... they apparently don't even need that anymore. Apparently he didn't even clone the key (which it looked like from the video i.e. following the car waiting for driver to use fob and intercepting the signal from key). So my assumption would be - it was intercept and release of signal (which is kind of old trick and should not work on keyless) + CANBUS via OBD2. Yet it is still unclear to me how they did it without any antennas etc. Starting the engine was CANBUS, that is simple enough, but I am not clear on how they opened the car - I assume some new mode attack beyond which is not yet known to wider public. In either case - apparently that is how easy to steal JLR made vehicles, can't imagine it is much more difficult to steal any other similar car. Not sure what solution would be here... sorry if I caused further paranoia for already stressed Lexus owners, but it is better to know ugly truth than not know it:

Cannot see anything wrong with engine bay... not that engine bay would be telling anything about the maintenance of the car anyway...

I assume there is still fixed cost for work of fixing it? Then the warranty is on top? What are the options? 6 -months, 12 - months etc.

So what would be normal price for this repair? Assuming 2 modules are bad + the labour to get battery out and checked?

As above I would advise to check the car has service history and qualifies for warranty. There is nothing really known to break on these cars, but they are getting older and being expensive cars when new even small things can cost a lot to fix. From my experience - check driver side bolster, at 90k I would expect it would have loads of wear on it (could be a point to negotiate the price or ask for it to be fixed). My car in particular had seat motor failure (although I have not heard of anyone else reporting it), it was fixed by warranty but would have costed arm and a leg to fix outside of warranty. I could see it being trouble area as being coupe you need to move the seat to let the passengers in and out and mine just got very slow and weak (I would need to pull myself forward when adjusting the seat for it to move forward as motor was too weak to move it). As for general expectations - again as above, it is comfortable commuters car, it looks like sports car, but it is not sports car and you will be disappointed if you try to drive it as sparts car. If you look at it like a Prius with very pretty body panels, then you it is great car for that - quiet, comfortable etc. just don't try to push it. Also Eco mode is worst mode for driving and actually uses more fuel, keep it in normal or sport. Sadly, Pre-facelift car won't let you set suspension separately, which is kind of an issue because adaptive dampers pretty much comes in hard, harder and hardest settings, so where you want to be you want to be in Comfort for dampers and in Sport for engine, but to be in Comfort for dampers you need to be in Eco/Normal for engine. Post-FL car allows them to be set individually. Finally, if car has rotary dial for audio system, then it is base audio... it is quite horrible in my opinion, but ha a listen and decide for yourself. I would say Premium Audio is minimum acceptable for this car (will have touchpad controls) or car may have ML if you lucky. ML/Premium both good, Standard audio is just like cardboard being kicked. It doesn't... if one has any needs in the back then probably not the right car. Although load capacity is very functional with rear seats folded.

No sadly I don't have covers from under the car.