Linas.P

57 minutes ago, LenT said:

After all, why not then also consider the many medical advances that have improved the quality of life?  On the other hand, are these counterpointed by the apparent increase in the number of people who appear not to accept personal responsibility for their lifestyle or actions?  Or believe their actions are justified by a Higher Being?

And how much do the obvious benefits of the Internet contrast with the invidious rise - and so often the negative effects - of ‘Social Media’?

Apart from which, I’ve always thought dividing Life into neat decades to be suspiciously convenient!  Frankly, it’s all a bit too introspective for me!  

Agree, but I think by the end of 90s all key improvements in healthcare were already achieved. Yes in practice it took another decade for the hospitals to be retrofitted, doctors trained etc. But hypothetically speaking if all medical achievements would have ended at the year 2000 we still would be in very very good place. Even today I think most of procedures would be possible with 90s technology and we really moved very little beyond that. As I said - in practice it may have looked like it only happened in 2010s, but technology was already available in 90s.

I don't see social media as inherently negative effect, there are negative effects related to addiction of social media, issues related with parenting that leads into bad influences etc. but social media itself is also a good thing if used correctly e.g. I have used social media in 2000s and 2010s and it only made my life better and furthered my social life and career.

Obviously, you can't neatly divide life in decades, but now we can look into the past retrospectively and on balance of pros and cons decide what decade was best and worst. It is like looking at historic stock price - my view is that it was going up from 1950s to ~2002-2005 maybe, then stagnated for maybe 10 years and now are noticeably going down.

Hence, based on observations above it would be possible to conclude that 90s "up to now" was the pinnacle of of humanity. That is not to say that we can't, maybe in 20 years, miraculously reverse the course and achieve another pinnacle (perhaps that how it would have looked for people in 1930s), but to be honest I am pessimistic about that. 

25 minutes ago, LenT said:

family members who I had managed to avoid up to that point!  😊

That certainly not being mother in law 😄 

I still think that 90s where objectively the best times, for example I can't imagine myself living without PC, digital music, compact discs at least, some mp3 and similar stuff. I mean sure - internet was still slow, but it was there, digital media was still scarce, but it existed. I would say in terms of cars 80s probably were the best, but 80s are automatically eliminated by lack of modern technology for me... also in my particular case I would have been still occupied by ruzzian orks. On top of that I think having ABS and even basic stability control is criteria for me still being a alive. I would not be alive driving cars from 70s. So not 70s, because too dangerous, not 80s because of lack of technology and not 2000s, because from like 1999 things started going to shaite... with increasing speed no less. 2000s-2010s was step down in quality of life, 2010-2020s on top of falling quality of life extra restrictions to freedoms were added, and since 2020s we can also add increasingly radicalised society, so no only we losing rights, not only we have to pay more for basic things, not only freedoms were reduced, but nowadays we have hysterical agitation all around promoting ideas of further cutting freedoms and rights and making everything even more expensive. Also people are just becoming less logical and less resistant for that, whereas in 2000 somebody would have said "no way" to current plans, nowadays people are fine with it...

2 hours ago, Alan305 said:

90’s ok for me.

Started with a Citroen XM, then Renault Espace, then LS400 and finished the decade with a new Chevrolet Camaro Z28. (Almost 17mpg from the lovely V8)

For a few years Chevy sold them through Vauxhall dealers (who knew nothing about them at all)

Vauxhall dealer in Bristol did say my Camaro was the only one bought using an LS in part exchange.

I do understand why 😄 

13 hours ago, nadrxj said:

Hey Richard, thanks to everyone who commented in the thread I think I want F-Sport. Seems like it's the most popular spec available too. Waiting for the right one to crop up so that I can test drive. 

I think that is good choice! Good luck with your search!

5 hours ago, DavidCM said:

It's a well known fact that BMW 3 series cars(especially from the 1980's) had a propensity to throw themselves into the nearest ditch,or tree.Hence "tree series".

Nice try, but I doubt it had anything to do with the cars thought... just people driving them.

I think this comment would be fair for 911, especially 911 Turbo of old, but 3-Series was disappointingly mediocre and especially in 80s when many cars were RWD they were similar to any other premium car on the road. 

Well done!

Sounds fair... and I would have expected the outcome you got. Paying Lexus £181 was certainly not realistic, so everything they did sounds right. I am just surprised they haven't done that right away and let you go out with broken sensor at first.

3 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

Good advice, but before ordering anything, you'll have to make sure you have an independent garage that is willing to fit customer-supplied parts. Many will refuse to do so.

Never had that issue with independent garages. Dealers and chains don't take parts from outside, but as far as I am concerned - all independent garages takes parts from outside, but then they say "warranty for work only" and that is fair. 

3 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

Simple thing is. You Get What You Pay For.

Pay peanuts you get monkeys working on your car. 

I have found plenty of monkeys working in Lexus as well. I can't say I was really impressed with any particular service with Lexus. It was alright, but nothing more.

Courtesy car is nice and independent garages I use don't offer this at all, but if the difference is 60% in price, then I can deal with that.

The problem with Lexus in particular is that there are very very few independents that know the cars, so normal service - oils and filters... fine, but anything more than that is trouble. 

I used to take Lexus only to Lexus, and I probably will still do this going forward. I mean I took my £1000 GS300 to Lexus last time and it was £280 for minor service, so not exactly good value... and service was alright. I mean sure I can afford it and I like convenience, but I can see how it is actually TERRIBLE value for money and why people would say "nah... I am good". 

Because here is the thing - once car is 10 years old, the dealer service adds no value. I have serviced my old IS250 in Lexus all the way to 200k (I think last service was 186,000) and when it got written-off I got it valued ~£4,000, it would have been £4,000 either way, with service history and in perfect condition or with no service history and in crap condition. Obviously, bear in mind - that was done back in the day when "Essential Case" was the thing, so I actually not spent anything extra, I would even doubt it was possible to get it done cheaper than what I paid at Lexus, but those times are long gone.

Do you mean just F-Sport or actual RC-F. Because yes even between say Luxury and F-Sport there is insurance category difference and to be fair there was bigger difference between RC300h F-Sport and Luxury, than it was between RC300h F-Sport and RC-F.

11 hours ago, Michael Wilson said:

I understand about comparing the Rc f to the the 300h in terms of price but the biggest difference between the 2 is the insurance premiums...the 300h is 32 and the Rc f is around 50 which is a massive difference between 2 massive different cars 

This is massively old thread, so much of the discussion is probably irrelevant anymore. But in terms of insurance it would cost me ~£600 to insure either RC-F or RC300h F-Sport. There may be £50 difference between them. So insurance category thing is really just 1 out of million criteria that impact your insurance premium. 

5 hours ago, LenT said:

Well - and this my personal opinion - if I’ve understood you correctly, that’s £1300 for 1 main and 2 intermediate services, plus 3 MOTs, by Lexus-trained mechanics using Lexus approved parts. All guaranteed by Lexus and at a fixed price for three years.

That sounds like a reasonable deal to me.  In fact it sounds so reasonable that I have been on just such a three year deal, renewed every three years, with Lexus MK ever since I bought my car from them.  In return I feel that the Dealer reciprocates my commitment to them and responds with an excellent level of service. 

But that’s just my personal experience!  😊

Yes, but that was in 2021 on 2015 car, meaning it gives you Lexus Relax warranty. At that point I agree - it is totally worth it.

This is on 2011 in 2024, no Lexus Relax included. In short it was £1,300 service plan on 6 years old car that is worth £12,000+warranty vs. £1,300 on 13 years old car worth £6,000 and no warranty.

Honestly, the main problem is that Lexus discontinued Essential Care, because I remember having 2 year service plans for £500 (£180+£320). That makes perfect sense and in fact independent service probably would cost just as much. The service plan only makes sense when warranty is included in it, else it is certainly too expensive for cars over 10 years old.

Also Lexus "approved" parts is questionable. Any parts are always at extra cost, except of things like air filters and oil filters, so yes they use Lexus parts, but you have to pay for them so I just can't see how is that benefit. You may as well buy the parts at 30% of the cost from US or UAE and bring them to your independent?

22 minutes ago, Vinay said:

I've just collected the second key from the dealer today.

Relieved to know the fob can not be copied to switch on the ignition.

Looks like I'd stay downstairs with the car as the installation doesn't seem too complicated a task. Car's parked further down the road due to engineering works being carried out so no CCTV unfortunately.

Good idea about the auto cuto off to preserve battery. Shall check with the electrician.

I'd be surprised if the annual mileage crosses the 3k mark.. guess we'll know in an year. Mostly for long drives in the summer. I find myself driving in "S" mode to limit to 3rd gear as I found the box too eager to upshift in "D" leading to less engine braking and using the brakes too often. Also higher gears are uncomfortable over speed humps. I'm light on the throttle as it's mostly 20mph near by.

Insurance is an arm and quarter of a leg but it was a very similar figure for any Mazda 3 pre 2019, Auris 1.6, or the old petrol Corolla.T I'm paying £100 more than a workmate with 4 years NCB who drives a honda CRV.  The quote for a petrol Yaris was barely less than for other cars. Hybrid cars (even Yaris, or is300h, Auris1.8) was triple the quoted figures for Mazda 3/IS250. I think it's the poverty tax of not having a garage to properly secure a catalytic converter.

My assumption was map navigation is HDD based as it I couldn't find any reference to DVDs for navigation on the console screen. Good to know the risks involved, and setting expectation that it'll not be the latest anyway. Really don't want to change the console if not needed - so hope Waze/ Google maps works well on longer journeys.

Thanks - the dealership cleared all MOT items so not too fussed. Comes with 1 year lexus warranty so will keep an eye out for the common culprits. Might get the brake pins greased later next month to avoid seizing. Perhaps wax the car too if the weather's nice over the weekend. 

I've been quoted more than £1300 for a 3 year service plan (1 major service) and 3 MOTs.  Will check with Toyota too if they can share a reasonable quote instead. Else, to the local independent it goes!

Also, thank you everyone for the warm welcome!

Any decent dashcam kit should have Battery "protector"...

It doesn't really matter what mileage you are doing, but if you don't drive at least for 15-20 minutes every other week, then Battery will die eventually. Nothing really new - 3/4 weeks and they get low on charge and if you do it repeatedly then batteries ten to die.

I wouldn't use S-mod or bother changing gears, you will get used to it. I was about to say you can downshift from D in facelift, but that is only on F-Sport if memory serves Advance does not have paddle-shifters (although they could be retrofitted).

Also Toyota does not do service any cheaper than Lexus. Sadly nowadays there are no Essential Service and I see why people don't see value servicing 12 years old car in Lexus... as it is really too much when you don't get warranty included. As long as you service it once a year and ideally after no more than 5000-6000miles it should be fine. 

4 minutes ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Oh man 😀 can you read that again?

You say funding goes to NHS, policing, pensions, etc.. and none of those things is any better now (rather much worse!). Schools literally crumbling above children. The money goes to private consultancies milking the public sector (I know cuz I had to work in one of them, it was disgusting) + the oligopolies of privatised-but-subsidised things like Rail companies ("free money" said the Rail fat cats on their powerpoints).

You are drawing this strange line between motorists and the Tories when we are in this situation after suffering them for 13 years; but you still believe they would care "if..."? They only care about themselves mate.
Whoever still believes them deserves to have them elected for another term...

Talk about cognitive dissonance!
Yes Labout have sadly turned into Tory-lite, I know. They distinctly haven't run the country the last 13yrs though.

Where did I say NHS or any other public services are good?

No - what I am saying, people care about them, but not about the roads. Politicians knows this and at least they pretend to make them better. That does not make them better, but at least they have some fffed-up plan, they put it on manifesto, they promise something... at least there is some sort of discussion that maybe that needs to be done, maybe it is not good enough... roads... pfffff nothing, they are not even listed... "what roads... what about them... why are you even driving... are you not ashamed of yourself?!"... because you know it is popular to slag off driver, it is considered almost a "class" thing.... "those disgusting drivers, nothing good comes from them, just polluting and complaining all the time". Roads - be thankful you even allowed to still use them, actually being suitable for the amount of traffic or drivable... forget it!

And yes you right - Tories are doing lip service for motorists at best, but Labour is openly hostile to the idea of personal transportation. that is why for roads to get better we need some sort of convoluted political situation... where Labour is in power, where Tories are in opposition and where Tories propose road rebuilding programme or some shaite they will never be able to complete because they are too corrupt... but then that move the polls significantly. To the point where Labour goes "OMG - that road promise may win the election, we must do something about it"... and by the way they would do something about it, they would set-up some publicly owned company, that would have sole purpose of doing nothing else, but surfacing the roads for 10 years and then would be useless and inefficient after that. That is Labour way - create something useful and then let it lose the purpose and become inefficient over the time, so that Tories can come in and sell it off to their mates. 

But I doubt it would ever happen, British people despite of still being dependant on the car (78% of all journeys in the country) are the most fundamentally anti-car culture people in Europe. I don't know why, bet individual transportation is for some reason are really looked at negatively here.

2 minutes ago, Newbie777 said:

Oh ok that makes sense, but they should sort out your loss

That we agree on... 

I believe 2 of the 6 could be, rear blind, ASC... maybe one more option. Never all 6 of them.

Remembering one more - windscreen heater!

38 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

If anything like Mercedes, the total mileage will also be recorded in different control modules and if a second hand cluster is installed before zeroing the mileage on it the cluster will simply display ------- once connected and powered up. A previously reset cluster will adopt the total mileage as recorded on other control modules.

On Lexus it is stored in the cluster. Not sure about all Lexus, but confident on 2014 IS and IS before that, also GS... it is only cluster. Also RC until at least 2018. Even A/B - Trip information is stored on cluster.

31 minutes ago, ahmedali44 said:

 Is urs dvd or sd card ?? As sd version more expensive 

2011 will be SD card.

10 minutes ago, Stever750 said:

Any recommendations or links? 

How difficult is it to install? 

Just search for Lexus IS Android sat-nav - this is how they should look in principle https://www.u-buy.co.uk/product/4RKVED0IY-android-10-system-10-25-inch-1920x720-blue-ray-touch-screen-radio-8-core-4gb-64gb-gps-navigation-for-2013-2018-lexus-is250-is300-is300h-is350-is200t-f just shouldn't cost £800. Up-to £500 is the price range. Likely you will find best price on something like AliExpress or Alibaba.

I can't recommend any particular one, but you need to compare specs and buy the one with best specs (they go something 2-8GB RAM, 32-256GB ROM 4-8 cores) and ideally with newest possible android version (Android 12+ would be a ideal, Android 10 is already obsolete). Also they are all made in china and all are of similar quality, so just get latest Android version with best spec. for as cheap as you can get it.

Then you will also need to know which unit do you need - there are 6 versions in principle: 3 each Pre-FL and Post-FL - base radio with rotary dial, premium sat-nav with joystic, or premium sat-nav + ML. The seller will ask you which one you need and it is very unlikely they will even agree to sell anything to you until you confirm. Sometimes they even ask you to remove your unit and take pictures of how it looks, so getting wrong is quite unlikely.

Installing it should be plug&play, but depends on your skills... for me it is like 30 min job max, so I would say easy. Just need some patience, tape to protect dash corners and few panel clip tools. 

16 hours ago, Stever750 said:

The first challenge to overcome is sat nav. I'd really prefer not use maps on my phone as it buggers the screen with burn after a while, so am thinking of using a tablet mounted somewhere on the dash. Wonder if anyone has already come up with a workable solution. 

Just put aftermarket android unit, much nicer than table flopping around and probably even more functional. Also they look just like original FL screen, so nice upgrade for car. 

4 minutes ago, Notamech said:

Lots of aftermarket chinese carplay / android auto solutions available but might cost a bit to install if you dont fancy doing it yourself. The units themselves cost anywhere between £300 -500 + installation. I personally feel for half that price £150 -200 you can buy a decent large screen mid range phone that you can use only for your car if you dont want to use your main phone for maps in the car. A tablet is another solution but tends to be too big for the IS given is compact interior. 

Personally I just use my main phone for maps as spending 350 400 on stuff attached to the car which does things my phone already does and which will yield no salvage value when i sell the car did not make sense to me. Id rather use that money towards upgrading my main phone when needed.

Having it integrated looks much better, also less likely to find windows smashed and cheap phone stolen, plus it integrates seamlessly with other car features. So I would definitely go with integrated unit. 

46 minutes ago, LenT said:

Tyre caps?!  What was I thinking of?  🙁

Dust caps, obviously!

#metoo for some reason I read them as centre caps, which would indeed be costly (£40 each). Lexus dust-caps for F-Sport (the nice shiny grey ones with logo) are like £2 from LPD.  

4 hours ago, Newbie777 said:

Oh I see, well the garage is insured for these things and so should compensate you the full amount, good luck.

They would NEVER use their insurance for that. That insurance is reserved for worst of the worse cases, literally death of something similar, maybe a garage with 10 cars burn down, only then it would be worth claiming. Also business liability insurance, like most other insurance products have excess, which I assume probably be at least £10,000. If you start claiming £181 job mistake on business liability insurance, then you will be uninsurable business right away. No business owner would ever do that. 

3 minutes ago, HighlandJohn said:

I'm pretty sure my 2008 SE-L has the original satnav disc in it, would changing it for one from [say]2018/9 > 2020 be sufficient to get the updates to that year be OK? I did some reading and put off doing so for fear of 'bricking' the head unit which I understood could happen?

I am not sure, because in my mind that is all not worth it, considering how outdated the sat-nav is and how much better is to simply used google maps. 

That said I know there is some final year for updates, it may be 2020. So that sat-nav is officially EOL and can't be updated anymore past that point.

If you using original disk meant for that unit, then no it should not brick it, and also if you put faulty DVD, then simply putting back the old one should resolve all the issue. The bricking is only the risk with newer HDD based sat-navs, not DVD ones.  

12 minutes ago, imran79 said:

I just forgot to put correct diagram, What is PN stands for. Thank you very much for your help.

Part number... yes now that looks right. No problem. 

15 minutes ago, imran79 said:

My car has digital cluster. Let me attach screenshot. 

In which case you can change it all via menu, except ODO - that will stay KM.

Also note your part number above and pictogram shows analog dash (note two dials). So if you looking for digital dash it is likely going to be different PN.

12 minutes ago, imran79 said:

Don't you have double measurements on your speedometer by default?

No, My car do not have double measurements. May be because it was very first vehicle from 3rd generation.

No - must be Japan thing. Also I think US cars only have MPH... so it is only British ones have dual measurement, because we technically metric country. 

15 hours ago, Newbie777 said:

so raise taxes and do a proper job on the roads like they used in the 70's and 80's.

Really? Government raised £40bn (or there about - 37, 38, 39 in recent years) from motorists and only spent ~£4bn on the roads. 

So they already raising 10 times more taxes than they spend on the roads and solution is "more taxes"? NO... 

This is purely the prioritisation problem, they know they can shaite on roads and drivers, it is socially acceptable to do so, so that is where the cuts are made first. In countries where road quality is big deal and politicians are elected on the basis on how good the roads are they always find fund to fix the roads. That is not the case in UK, because their election does not rely on road quality, I would say in UK more voters are swinged on the basis of NHS funding, maybe policing reforms, pensions in particular, taxation etc. roads don't even come into top 10. And until that is going to be the case they will always be shaite. It is not lack of taxation, it is just matter of prioritising. Also let's just face it - there are no alternatives, Tories are already a party in favour of private transportation (consider fuel duty freezes), so the only alternative to them is Labour, who are strictly ANTI-motorists and would defund the roads even more and cancel all the road improvement projects (they say so in their manifesto). So there is simply no political pressures to do anything. Because let's say Labour would be in power now and Tories would say "if we get into the power we will rebuild British roads"... and somehow that would resonate with society and there would be noticeable uptick in polling... only then something would be done because it would look like that could be political matter. Now there is simply no reason, the alternative government, if anything, would be worse for roads and motoring overall. I guess what I am saying - it is almost beneficial to get Labour into next government and then let Tories to put pressure on them, that is politically probably quickest way to get attention.

And yes I know many roads, especially local once are looked after by local authority, bet overall guidance still comes from national government, also overall voter trends... and currently there is no incentives. Fixing roads does not win the votes, so the roads are increasingly shaite. That is the reality.

The Odometer will stay in kilometres, but the rest should be possible to change to miles via menu option. Else - you should be able to replace whole thing to the cluster from IS300h or IS200t - they are identical. From the pictures it seems you don't have LFA style digital cluster? In which case you need to look for same analogy cluster. But UK cluster will work on your JDM car regardless, even if it is not from IS350. I think even US cluster should work, although I have not checked that.