Wisty

Second this. I'm near Warrington and traveled to Lincoln to see (and buy) the IS I have now. It's worth the journey if you want to make sure all of your boxes are ticked.

I had the extended warranty with my previous IS250 (I've just started another on the replacement car) and they settled in my favour for replacing a faulty folding door mirror and a resonating door speaker. All dealt with with minimal fuss. I have no reason to complain and it's nice peace of mind.

I recently had a '16 plate Merc C220D for 3 weeks as a courtesy car, following someone driving into the back of my IS on the M56. I can comfortably say that if that is an indicator of Mercedes build quality, I will never EVER go near one to own. It only had 7000 miles on it and squeaked, creaked and rattled and had a very crashy ride - this was on 17"s with plenty of sidewall - which looked tiny on the car as it's ridiculously large for a 'small' saloon. Not only that but the diesel engine was dreadfully noisy with no refinement whatsoever. And don't even get me started on the naff shiny plastics on the dashboard, or the enormous intrusive info-tainment screen that is just seemingly stuck on the top of the dash, that has no touch control features. Coming back to a replacement IS, it's so much better screwed together, and a far more pleasant place to be.

Another user of the Denso OEMs from ECP. Both on my (now gone 07 IS250) and my current 09 IS250. Both sets have been brilliant: quiet, effective and not expensive. I can't really ask for anything more than that!

I had this on mine and they replaced a non-folding wing mirror and resonating door speaker with no absolutely no questions. Car was cleaned and vacuumed to the usual high(ish!) standard and they gave me a desk for the morning to work from whilst they did the part swaps. They also gave me food, tea and water. The warranty seems to cover everything that's not a wear and tear item, including electrics. Decent value for peace of mind in my opinion.

It also means you don't end up with that ugly sticky ring mark on the windscreen too. Always a plus! I've found it's not too bad for diverting around traffic (only works if she's giving you directions: they don't just come up if you're on your way home from work. My phone tells me that before I leave though. How did we live before Google?!) - although sometimes it warns me of slow traffic or congestion when I'm already caught up in it. If I could hack it so it showed Google maps from my phone though...

I find the sat nav to be pretty good all things considered - it's particularly good for pointing out when you're coming up to services on a motorway. I find it easier (and less battery hungry!) than using my phone in the car, though I do check the exact location of things on Google maps first and then shift the destination on the sat nav just to be sure!

The luggage space increases enormously when you fold the seats down and that's where an estate really comes to be useful. Having had a couple of Alfa 156 estates (sorry Alfa; 'Sportwagon's) in my time, I can confirm that all of that extra space, even in something as bijou as a 156, is exceptionally useful. My IS250 is the first car I've ever owned where I've had to consider what sort of rack I'm going to use to transport my £4k mountain bike. I'm still undecided. I even managed to get my bike in the back of a Ford Puma...

The road between Lampeter and Aberaeron was always a fun run of mine, as long as you don't manage to find a tractor or Co-Op truck meandering its merry way! New Quay itself is very picturesque (though I second the parking challenges), with some lovely beaches and you can often see dolphins from the harbour wall - pro tip: early in the morning on a filling tide is probably the best time. You might see seals too :) I highly recommend the few miles up the road to Aberaeron for food in the Harbourmaster Hotel.

I used to live in both Aberaeron and Carmarthen! In fact, I worked on a boat that took folks out to see the dophins from Aberaeron too. I'm very fond of the A-roads in that area, and used to enjoy pounding round them in my Alfa Romeo... Happy times On a day like today, with a lovely topless car, that must have been a very special little trip out. I'm very envious!

In my motoring life (since 2005), I've owned one diesel engined car. It was an Alfa Romeo 156 sportwagon 1.9 JTD which I had for 25 months. It was nice to sit in, but every time I started it, I cringed at the clatter coming from such a good looking Italian car. I will never buy another diesel.

You and I have very different definitions of the word 'filthy'

Try here: http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu/Home/Index Whip your disc out and check the number on there and put it into the finder on that site. Then get the appropriate DVD from German ebay. I did mine recently for the princely sum of £68 delivered.

It looks like it was well worth the effort - I'd be hard pushed to not think that the car left the factory looking like that. Top job.

This is pretty much the case with most modern coded type keys. Alfa Romeo wanted £310 for a 156 key when I was after one in 2005, needless to say I managed with 1 key for the 4 years I owned the car.

That's a really good idea! Pay the greatness of this forum forward to the future owner. I'm going to do this too... Although there's little chance of me selling mine anytime soon! Great original post normski. I'll have a crack at doing mine soon.

I'm torn between 3.3 and 3.4, but erring towards 3.4 as it seems to sit better with the IS250 badge.

Another thumbs up for Dodo juice. It left my leather clean and wonderfully smooth and supple after not too much effort. Get a good soft bristled brush though - this will make a big difference rather than using a cloth.

Worryingly for my fuel consumption, above 3.5k is one of my favourite places to visit!

We need to hear how it sounds now... You tease us with your words! I'm particularly keen on hearing how the induction mods sound as it's something I'd consider doing with mine.

I have a IS250, and my (soon to be) sister in law has an IS220D, which she absolutely swears by. She uses it mostly for regular long journeys where the engine has plenty of time to get warm and avoid the associated DPF/EGR issues associated with all modern TDIs. My IS250 is a much nicer thing to travel in though - the auto box is flawless and it goes very well. My advice would be to try both, and think long and hard about what you're likely to do mileage wise. Good luck!

I've had Uniroyal Rainsport 3s and Goodyear Asymmetric 2s (not on my Lexus sadly) and found that the rainsports are incredibly good in the wet. I lived in Wales at the time, so they saw a lot of standing water! As for the Goodyears, I was surprising pleased with the longevity of them (10k last year and still at least 20k left on them), and it's what I've had on my last 2 cars (through some fairly mild and also very cold winters). I'll be looking to potentially go for them when it comes time to re-shoe the Lexus. If I were you, I'd pick the cheaper of the two, or the one that has the best looking tread pattern (as we all know that looking awesome is most important) and you'll most likely not be disappointed.

As much as I'd like to do this to mine, those instructions look terrifying! Nice to see yours are working though. Was the wiring of the Nextbase into the mirror 12v supply difficult? I'm keen to do something similar, and your set up looks impressively unobtrusive. Bear in mind, I'm as much use a chocolate fireguard when it comes to wiring and soldering...

This has been pretty much my experience too. It's not anywhere near as refined and smooth with PWR engaged - stop start traffic can be a bit grating. That said, selecting it just before you boot it onto a busy roundabout is brilliant

*blows the dust from this book* I'd love to do it, but my dog ate my homework...