olliesgrandad

Try sitting on the side of the road in a Mercedes with the bonnet up from hitting a low flying seagull at 5pm on a Friday trying to find the reset instructions on the dvd. In the end a dealership call fortunately sorted it.

I drive from Gloucester to Telford, Wellington and Shrewsbury at least once a week. Ideal roads for the Lexus hybrid as little traffic and the car is constantly in and out of EV mode. Part of the journey from Gloucester to Worcester North is motorway and computer always shows average around 46.9, although I n reality it is just over 43mpg. Bear in mind I have the F Sport which isn't as good on fuel as other models.

My phone app indicates that my last tankful exceeded 44 Mpg. Suspect that the warmer weather is helping as I do similar journeys most weeks (mixed motorway /urban).

Last weekend I was in Lynmouth and set the sat Nav for home. After circling the vicinity for half an hour and passing the same locations twice I ignored it and successfully escaped. I have the latest software and mapping. I do wonder if the hilly terrain blocked the GPS signal perhaps. I have premium navigation.

Many thanks for your help. Now updated. Les

Bought my car during GMT. I notice that although I have changed the car clock, the Satnav insists on giving me a GMT arrival time which is an hour earlier than it should be. I've looked at all the setting options and can't seem to find a way to change it. Can anyone help please?

Love my IS300h F Sport.. I came from owning 2 Mercedes in the past 2 years ( A C Class 220 AMG Sport and an E250 AMG Sport Cabriolet) . Lexus is streets ahead on comfort, refinement and build quality. I have done 11,000 miles since 31st October last year and this week have done in excess of 500 comfortable business miles. The only issue I've had was yesterday when the key fob battery needed replacing :)

Is it a Japanese import? Isn't 4 wheel drive available in other markets?

I agree -I never buy new but many people do. Think it was priced yesterday at around the £38,000 mark.

Paul, I think that you have explained the hazard far more eloquently than I did. From what I overheard the combination of the damp and the unsecured rubber mats were probably the cause of the accident.

Whilst waiting for my car to be serviced I earwigged a conversation between a customer and a member of staff. The customer had the protection pack on his new RC and the rubber floor mats were over the plush mats. He was expecting visitors to his home and it was a wet evening. He got in the car and started to manoeuvre it in a very confined space -you guessed it wet shoes vs wet rubber- his foot slipped and he hit the garden wall. It cost £2000 to rebuild the front of the car.........

I was at Lexus Cheltenham today getting my car serviced. They have a number of brand new cars in stock with around £2,500 off list price including some IS. They have a fully loaded IS F Sport in the showroom in pearlescent white. If anyone is looking for a new car for delivery before April it might be worth giving them a ring.

A few times lately when starting up in the morning a message has briefly appeared on the centre screen ' Validating SD card' or similar. Does this mean that the car is checking that the sat nav micro SD card is kosher? Mind you yesterday the sat nav guided me away from an overturned lorry on the M5 and tried to put me back on 2 junctions further up where the problem was !!

VTEC was created by the Devil. Back in the day I had a 1990 Honda Civic which was one of 400 homologation specials imported for a racing series. That was an absolute beast as it almost took off when the VTEC cut in. Trouble was they had removed the power steering and within a short time I began to get shoulder ache from parking. Great Q car though.

Thanks Steve. I thought it was probably the case. On my Mercedes they were lit which is why I asked the question.

My car is booked in for service. I notice when the car lights are on the drivers door handle id gently illuminated, but the buttons for the 3 positions and 'set' for the memory seats aren't. Is this deliberate as I know the seats don't adjust when the car is in motion. Information gratefully accepted. Thanks

On previous cars with high end audio systems when in DAB the display has indicated the title of music tracks playing or other info about the programme. On my Lexus it does sometimes display some information , but seems quite random. Also if the audio display is full screen it makes itself smaller after a short period of time. I always understood one of the big advantages of DAB was the ability to display text information about programmes on the screen?

I have the settings set to give traffic announcements on my premium system but don't receive traffic info when using DAB.

Personally I never let the car idle before driving off. I was always taught that it was bad for a cold engine to idle. I am averaging just over 42.5 mpg at present. I tend to drive in eco mode unless overtaking as I find the performance quite adequate. I never use supermarket fuel. When my father as alive we at one point owned 2 identical cars and experimented with fuel. We found that we always got better mpg and performance from 'branded' fuel.

Glad you found one. Colour is lovely.

I've not experienced this with my car. However my last mercedes had a similar problem. This ended with a total failure of the parking brake. I bought that car during the floods last year and it came from Carlisle. It would appear the car had been in flood water which contaminated the brake shoes causing them to disintegrate..

I never use Kwik Fi having had a bad experience many years ago.. My local tyre company I use in Gloucester (Chris Mullins Tyres) has the full works and I got him to do a full 4 wheel alignment and geometry check when I bought my car. It was all spot on and done for free. He knows I will be back for tyres .(He is ex Protyre and his prices usually are a couple of pounds per cover cheaper). He tells me that Lexus usually run with a slight negative camber. Regarding the traction control it is far less obtrusive when it cuts in than any other car I have owned.

Very surprised you are having grip issues with the IS. It is in my opinion one of the best balanced rear wheel drive cars I have driven. The worst I have ever owned was a 2.8 BMW Z3. Pull away too sharply on a dry road and it was a big sideways experience!

I had these tyres on my Mercedes E250 cabriolet when I purchased it. Same size wheels. Awful harsh ride which seemed to pick up a washboard effect /vibration from the road surface. Changed to Pirellin PZero's and it transformed the car.

Before my Mercedes E250 cabriolet I owned a 63 plate Mercedes C220cdi AMG Sport . I covered in excess of 20,000 miles in 10 months with it. Bearing in mind the wheel and tyre sizes are identical on both vehicles the ride comfort is streets ahead in the Lexus F Sport. I think some of the extra comfort is due to better seat design in the Lexus. Mercedes seats are definitely firmer these days - I had 3 Mercedes in the 1990's and the seat comfort was fabulous then. Certainly my passengers comment that the Lexus ride comfort is much better than my last 2 Mercedes. In fact I was starting to suffer with back ache and that has now all but disappeared since I have been driving my Lexus. I have driven new Mercedes C Class on standard suspension (loan car) for about 4 days and the ride was so wallowy that had I been a passenger I am sure I would be car sick. At the end of the day a good long test drive on mixed roads is the only way to judge (My Lexus Dealer was very good - my test drive was over 40 miles).