Linas.P

On 3/12/2024 at 9:02 PM, Ivacerk said:

Anybody have headlight washers with hoses and front parking sensors wiring

If still interested £100 posted. Washers with all hoses and clips, but no caps (they would be different on ISF anyway), parking sensors (2x in front) with all wiring.

Would be best to move back to GS section.

Can't even find B2621/B2287/B2289 in repair manual, B2785 just advises to check LIN line, if line is good, then it advises to replace all connected ECUs in sequence.

This question really belongs in detailing section as there is not RC specific advice. Sonic Titanium is one of the easiest colours to clean, generally grey cars don't show dirt and scratches as much and metallic paints hide them even better (In this case almost pearlescent), so it should not be difficult to keep the car looking great.

That said - I much appreciate your desire to take good care of your car, that is definitely good attitude to have, but I just want to warn you here. You can easily damage your car more than needed when detailing/cleaning if you do it wrong, it is very easy to cause so called "love marks". So the answer - unless you really want to dive deep into detailing, just regularly washing your car will be 90% as good as it gets. 

So to start with, you need to ask yourself a question - how much you really want to take care of it? You can certainly wash car yourself, but I can assure you that 80% of the owners would make more damage washing their car themselves than they would by just taking it to regular automatic or hand wash. In other words - for 80% of owners just taking the car to car wash every 2-4 weeks will be sufficient and the car will look good after 5 years of ownership. Will it have scratches - yes, washing = scratching, but that is just inevitable.

If you really want to beat say handwash in terms of minimising scratches to the paint, then you need quite a lot of knowledge and experience. I would even say RC is probably wrong car to practice on... because it has a lot of small and trickly details, shapes and Lexus paint in general is very soft (so easy to scratch).

Next question - do you own anything for washing at the moment e.g. pressure washer? How much you looking to invest int into the tools? and what you looking to achieve? 

Because my basic set-up would look something like this:

• Pressure washer, snow foam lance would be nice
• 2 buckets with grit guard
• 50 general purpose MF cloths
• 5 thick drying MF cloths 
• 5 Window MF cloths
• 5 car wash mitts ideally MF or soft wool
• 3 wheel woollies
• 1 tyre brush
• Set of detailing brushes (usually like 6 in the set)
• 2 pressure sprayers
• Shampoo concentrate (Bilt Hamber has great concentrate, but others are aslo good Gyeon, Gtechniq, Koch Chemie etc.)
• 5L of APC, that is chemical that you can use basically for everything just adjust the concentration so just buy bulk and keep it (again Bilt Hamber Surfex HD or Koch Chemie GS are two of my favourites)
• Some protection - I would advise ceramic spray nowadays, unless you want to go into full ceramic, but that is next level-up (even something like Autoglym Rapid Ceramic would be fine for this, generally I avoid Autoglym and TrutleWax, but current generation ceramic sprays are really good)
• Glass cleaner (I use Koch Chemie spray, but Sonax is also good)

Specialty items which you may need from time to time:

• bug remover (explanation in the name)
• glue and tar remover (explanation in the name)
• "bleeding" fall out spray (maybe useful twice a year to move have brake dust that APC can't remove)
• rust inhibitor (good product to prevent rusting, especially on brake callipers, but also suspension, requires application once every 3 years, but can be done annually) 

I get my detailing supplies mostly from https://www.in2detailing.co.uk (you can also use discount code DW10), but sometimes I find better price in amazon, eBay, sometimes directly from Gyeon, Gtechniq or Dodo Juice (i2D does not sell their products).

My cleaning routine would look something like this - pressure wash wheels and lose dirt from body if needed > spray wheels with APC using pressure sprayer > scrub wheels with woollies and tyre with brush > spray car with foam > spray with APC and agitate around badges and grilles with detailing brush of appropriate size > pressure wash the car again > then onto contact wash with 2 buckets (1 for shampoo and 1 for rinsing), dunk mitt into rinsing bucket, rinse well, dunk it into shampoo bucket and wash the car from the roof down. I like to use at least 3 mitts for this (1 for upper half, 1 for lower half, 1 around arches, bottom of the sills, bumpers etc) > pressure wash for third time > wait for few minutes for majority of water to run down spray panel with ceramic spray (most of them are formulated as drying aids and water spot removers), wipe with thick drying MF cloth then buff with MF cloth, go top to bottom and around the car doing panel by panel > clean the wheels same way with dedicated MF cloth for wheels Autoglym ceramic spray can be used on tyres, but you can also buy dedicated tyre dressing (something like Gtechniq Trim & Tyres, or Gyeon)> finally clean windows and mirrors inside and out. I would probably start with interior, but you have not asked about it and it requires separate explanation.

As you can see - quite a few steps involved, but I would argue if you not doing at least that, then it is not worth even starting to wash car yourself. I guess the it is possible to buy just the ceramic spray (detailing spray) and after taking your car to hand wash finish some spots that they miss yourself, but then again you basically not washing your car, just finishing the details. Could it be done without pressure washer - yes, technically you can do it all with just 2 buckets, but then I reckon you will scratch car more than hand wash.

When else... if anything that touches paint falls on ground, it goes to the bin, be it 80p MF cloth or £10 drying cloth or wash mitt, if you try to use it again you will scratch the paint all over. I tend to use MF cloths few times and the rotate them down (top half of the car first, then bottom of the car, then wheels and then maybe I keep it around just as a rag). Never wash car in direct sunlight (water spotting, dried chemicals etc. are not good).

Autodoc is good for generic parts, like brake pads, discs, air filters, oils etc. But they don't have any Lexus specific parts at all.

9 hours ago, H3XME said:

I can confirm that you won't fail MOT on the headlight washers. Not on this car anyway. It's old. My green one had them and when I did a 3IS conversion I had to plug the plumbing to the headlight washers as the 3IS bumper didn't have washers.

@MartinH

I will have a black 08 SE bumper for sale in May. No headlight washers, good condition, but I presume you'll have it all fixed by then. 

NO - that is opposite, you basically did washer delete, that is FINE. Because MOT does not know if your car suppose to have them or not. So if there are no washers they thing car came without them.

However, if they are installed they have to work, because MOT will assume that is they are present then car should have them.

So, they either need to be blanked out or even better is to just get the bumper without washers as you have.  

7 hours ago, MartinH said:

I do agree with Linus that the official cost to repair is excessive. If I were to submit that claim to my own insurer, they would surely write the car off (and in my verbal report to them, they already hinted as much). And this is one reason I drive in a minimum-risk fashion these days (also because, as a bike-rider, keen attention to risk is a survival habit).

All I want is the car put back the way it was, and if that can be achieved at half the Lexus dealer's estimate, I'm happy with that. My understanding is that a primary principle of insurance is maximum good faith; it is easy to lose sight of this. But it is beyond annoying to be asked to do the legwork to mitigate the final cost when one is the injured party. And I don't have any experience of, or appetite for haggling with the motor trade.

Involving your insurance was bad idea, now your insurance will go up by 30%, because you will have record of accident on your record (regardless whose fault it was). So you probably should consider that into your settlement.

As for dealing with "trade" and claims, it is tricky. You have strong case there so they will pay, but if they stop cooperating (if they feel you asking too much, or quotes they themselves are getting are too much), then they may simply drag their heels for years and the only way to force them is court, which is years long headache. I assume you would ultimately win, but it is painful and also you can't claim legal fees (in small claims up-to 10,000), so effectively you have to handle it yourself and it is not at all straight forward. So it would be ideal to avoid it if possible. 

Depends on part, if parts are already available at reasonable cost in UK, then Amayama, Rockauto etc. will be more expensive due to shipping e.g. carpets are £60 from LPD, so there is no point paying similar price +£20 shipping from UAE, or even more from Japan.

However in other cases there are parts that costs £15 in Amayama, but £300 in UK, or they are simply not available in UK at all. For example gear shifter knob in UK is £298, in Amayama £60. Fuel tank strap is simply not available in UK in Amayama £12.

I guess this is usual thing of shopping around for best price. No site is ever best price for everything forever. Also it seems since LDP started selling part in UK we certainly have better availability than before and some parts are reasonably priced.

I understand your point of view - they damaged it so they have to fix it... However, I also believe that at least secondary goal is to get the car fixed as soon as reasonably possible and at the price which is fair for both party at fault and at the same time does not leave you in worse position than you were before the accident. 

Paying £6.5k to fix bumper and bonnet on the car which it self costs maybe £5k isn't really fair amount. Even if the car wash is willing to pay that price, there is still no gain on your side if they overpay for your car repairs, however it is more likely to complicate the repairs as they may feel it isn't fair price (because it isn't) and then simply stop cooperating. And if they do stop cooperating then it will be very hard to change that (only via court).

So at least in my mind it seems that seeking compromise would be best for both parties. In such case I probably would take the estimates for repair and say something along the lines - "look that is what it officially costs to fix the car, but we both understand this is unrealistic, instead let's agree you pay me amount X and I get the car fixed at reasonable price = win-win". What that "reasonable" amount would be is for you to decide, but let's just hypothetically say that repair cost is £2000, so I probably would ask for £2500 for my trouble. Then would fix the car for £1500 and keep the £1000 for future maintenance or some nice modification or upgrade, or just keep the money.

The reason I am saying this is not that I want to sell the parts, as mentioned neither bumpers available really suits your needs as your car does not have headlight washers. The holes for washers could be welded/filled etc. (not doing it would cause issues in MOT, even if your car technically does not need to have washers, you could fail because they seems to be present but do not work). So the reason I am saying this is because I know how difficult is to force somebody to pay for repairs if they decide to be uncooperative.

Sorry, but I remain sceptical. There are some genuine information, but also a lot of purely political statements filtered trough PR department. No mention that they were basically negligent leaving CANBUS unencrypted and thus vulnerable to be attacked.

Quote

When did Lexus first become aware of the vulnerability in the security system?

It is not so much vulnerability of the security systems but more so the growing rise in criminal gangs targeting vehicles

The definition of world vulnerability- being susceptible to harm or attack. Which all the models listed are. 

33 minutes ago, MartinH said:

Does this differ in any significant way — most importantly in the attachment points and the foglight mountings? It's certainly a possibility, though my insurer might consider this a modification, and prefer the car to be standard.

It would fit, but it does have headlight washers in it. To be fair same applies to bumper I have. In theory they can be patched by bodyshop (plastic welded, then filled/sanded).

The quotes you got are quite high, when I had small dent on fender I also got quote of ~£3000 form Lexus, so I am not really surprised, but it is still a lot. 

My very rough estimation would be - new bumper, grille and bonnet, new bumper is ~£160, bonnet is ~£600, grille ~£200. Then it all has to be painted say £200-300 per part + blending to fenders, so 4 parts to paint. So £960 + £800. £2000 tops. And you can get used parts cheaper - I certainly would let mine go for £200 + pick-up (there is no way I can send bonnet), so you can potentially get it done for £1000.

11 hours ago, CorkVilla said:

I've since discovered this RC300h has the base audio. Is it really as bad as everyone says? 

Have you tried listening to it? 

For me it is horrible, but maybe I have different expectations that some, it is okey to listen to the radio, but when listening to the music it just lack all objective properties of good quality audio system - clarity, separation, highlights, base, vocals... Also it seems to lose accuracy above 50% of volume. I don't know if you have ever tried running speakers on amplifier which is more powerful and then above certain point you start getting distortions to the sound... so that is how standard system sounds past 60% of volume. Now 60% is certainly quite loud and many people may not listen for music that loud, but the sign of good audio system is that it keeps fidelity all the way to 100%. I had RC with ML and can attests that even at 100% the sound quality is as crisp and as clean as at 10%. Also if I compare it to standard system in IS250 or GS300, they can go probably to 80-90% and the only issue is that past 80% the base sort of fall off, so you can hear the sounds is becoming louder, but it is getting less and less base. This can be explained by subwoofer fitted in the car being weaker than the rest of the system and maxing out before full volume, but you don't get distortions or anything else. 

In short - if you going for test drive, then have a test listen, connect your phone and play music you like to listen at various increments and see how that sounds. For me it was unacceptable, I had the car for long test drive over the weekend (RC300h in particular) and it had the standard audio, and it found it to be unacceptable.  

7 hours ago, Lex_utor said:

I measured it. Battery was under 12V and with the engine running, under 11. But I'm not sure how accurate this is. It's an old multimeter and it's first time I done this. The battery was not freshly charged though. I fully charged it a week or so ago and since then I have started the car to move it a few times. But regardless, if it reads lower with the engine running it can only mean the alternator is not doing its thing right. If the measurements are accurate. 

Alternator is dead. Battery probably is simply low, because alternator isn't charging it at all. Did you say it was changed few years ago?

Even if you have dead Battery (say 11V) when engine is running you should still get close to 14V, it may be slightly lower since the Battery is so dead, but it should never be under 11V. In fact if you Battery was under 12 by itself and it drops to under 11 when engine is running, I reckon alternator is not running at all and engine is simply running on Battery.

Math here is relatively simple - so let's say maximum charge in the Battery is 12.8-12.9V, running the engine requires minimum of 0.3V, so if your alternator is outputting say 13.2V, it would barely charge the Battery.

First of all, I suggest you charge the Battery again, confirm it is NO LESS than 12.4-12.6V. Start the engine again and if you get less than what you measured before starting the engine  - it is 100% alternator. I am already sure it is alternator, but technically you should not even start measuring it unless Battery itself is 12+.

Second thing, you can measure the voltage between alternator plug and body ground. You will see thick positive cable going to alternator and on the alternator there is rubber boot with hole at the top, basically you can stick your positive probe into that hole and that is your alternator positive. The other probe you can touch to clean engine grounding point, anywhere you can get good ground. When engine is running, this again should measure 14V+. MAKE SURE - your positive prove is vell insulated and you do not touch positive probe to the ground, whilst touching the alternator positive terminal, because shorting that will result in blown combination fuse and many other fuses (basically a direct 150A short). Why do this? To confirm that your alternator is still connected properly. Because if alternator is reading 14.4V at the terminals, but under 11V at the Battery then something isn't connected, it may even be blown fuse or something. So it would be good to know this before you start replacing the alternator which may be good.

2 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

They take a cut and this is one of many reasons why insurance premiums continue to go up - everyone is making easy money.

They do not take a cut from you in non-fault accidents. 

As for insurance premiums going up for everyone - yes I guess that is true, but what is the alternative, to get shafted by insurance company in accident which was not your fault and take a fall for everyone else? 

47 minutes ago, normski2 said:

They should not be writing off your car for such small damage. No doubt your own insurance company will instruct a claims management company. CMC's can be tiresomely slow in the extreme.

From my own experience it is highly likely your insurance company will pay out for the repairs and then will seek those costs from the other party's insurance company. This can be slow and protracted. It's a PITA, but it's how insurance companies work. They sometimes resort to threats of court action to get the money from the guilty party's insurer. I have experienced this myself just last year. My insurer said it was fairly common practice ... somewhat alarming!! They were on the point of paying me for my time to attend court. It got as far as me having contact with their firm of Solicitors. The other side then yielded and paid up.

Don't take your insurance CMC... that is like worst thin ever.

Hire your own CMC who stands for you, basically you don't care about insurance company - you are their client, they work to make you happy. 

Now you are right - insurance companies can also assign their own CMC, that is particularly true if both cars are insured by same insurance company, meaning they have conflict of interest and I believe they are even required to step aside... and then they have like these "partner" CMCs that really are almost just another department within insurance company. Don't use them.  

47 minutes ago, normski2 said:

From my own experience it is highly likely your insurance company will pay out for the repairs and then will seek those costs from the other party's insurance company. This can be slow and protracted. It's a PITA, but it's how insurance companies work. They sometimes resort to threats of court action to get the money from the guilty party's insurer. I have experienced this myself just last year. My insurer said it was fairly common practice ... somewhat alarming!! They were on the point of paying me for my time to attend court. It got as far as me having contact with their firm of Solicitors. The other side then yielded and paid up.

And that is why you use your own CMC. I don't even get my own insurance company involved. Because quite often, you will have to pay your excess upfront and then they refund it when they get paid, which I just don't want to deal with and it could take months.

As I said in my experience, if there is no doubt about who is at fault the CMC even "pre-authorise" the claims... and you get paid right away... and they get that money reclaimed eventually, but that is not something you need to deal with.

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. 

18 hours ago, markeyszoo said:

I was involved in an accident today. Sideswiped by an ambulance who was trying to get out of the way of a blue light police car.

Minor ding and scuff on front wheel arch but when i spoke to my insurers they were quick to say 09 reg, old car,  could be a right off.

Is there is no end to the insurance companies greed.

I see a battle looming.

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.   

4 minutes ago, markeyszoo said:

it just got worse. my renewal premium starting next week, just got increased by £151 for newly reported accident

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.  

4 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Nope, the only way to manually start a cleaning cycle is via TechStream.

Usually you can tell when a DPF cleaning is running as lots of smoke comes out the back!

.... 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"?  

8 hours ago, H3XME said:

Do these not have like "DPF Cleaning" dash light of some sort? Some diesels are good and they tell you when it's cleaning the DPF, some diesels even let you clean it manually like a Land Cruiser. 

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.

20 minutes ago, Lex_utor said:

For the battery you measure the battery poles with the engine off and for the alternator you measure the battery poles with the engine running? 

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.

16 minutes ago, Lex_utor said:

Probably better from the top then, under these circumstances?

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. 

3 minutes ago, H3XME said:

For £21k, and still under warranty technically, it's a not an awful deal for today's climate despite the mileage

Indeed as I said - it is GOOD deal, just maybe not as good as I would like 🙂 

3 minutes ago, H3XME said:

I don't mind not having those options. It's got M&L and that's enough for me. Radar Cruise is effing annoying, not because it's a bad system, but because even on the shortest distance there's a gap big enough for some c#nt to comfortable get in and your car then keeps slowing down and speeding up resulting in ***** mpgs.

As for the diff, I'd take a regular torsen (mechanical) LSD over electric one. Arguably not as good, but less to go wrong when you're looking at 10 year old cars. Applies to many other luxuries.

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. 

51 minutes ago, H3XME said:

Now's your time 🤣

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202310132944563

The prices aren't dropping as much as the mileage is rising unfortunately.

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.

On 3/9/2024 at 6:57 PM, McShmoopy said:

Funnily enough I have my 2010 F Sport bumper available as I've just done a 3IS conversion if you were wanting to purchase that. In good condition just the usual age related marks and what not. 

is it black or blue?

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