wharfhouse

I would run quotes on one (or more) comparison sites. I was concerned over my IS 300h insurance this year, and although my existing provider (Tesco) was asking for 77% more this year than last, I used a comparison site and managed to get renewal for only 15% more with One Click which is with Aegis (I live in Berkshire so not as bad as London but still south-east weighted). Premiums and willingness to insure a particular marque/risk are very insurer dependent.

I've had two replacement screens in my IS 300h - one was Pilkington and the other Fuyao. Both were marked up as acoustic glass and other then the name on the glass I couldn't see or hear any difference between OEM and either of these. Both were fitted by Autoglass - I took the car to their centre to be done as it was within walking distance of where I live. I did notice after the last one was fitted that the passenger windscreen wiper was in a higher park position than before and so I removed and repositioned the wiper arm myself. May be worth taking a photo of where your wipers park now so you know they are put back in the same place. The fitter is right in that windscreens are cracked regularly, especially on today's potholed roads throwing up more stones. It's also one of those "probability" issues - for example on a previous car I had gone for many years with no problems and then had three replacement windscreens in nearly as many weeks...! On my IS 300h, I've had the current Fuyao windscreen in for a few years now but in the first year after it was fitted picked up two small bullseye marks near the rear view mirror. Fortunately these have got no worse and I've received no more (large) stone chips and none are a MoT failure. I don't see much sense in doing anything about stone chips as I know one day something will hit the windscreen necessitating another replacement.

I've actually found that 3rd party sometimes comes out MORE expensive than fully comprehensive when I've experimented before on the comparison sites!

There seems little rationale or logic behind the increases and to me just seems like insurers are out to get as much as they can while they can - in my case here are a few examples over the last couple of months: - My mothers 12 year old Audi A3 (lives in North Yorkshire) that two years ago was about £350 per annum, then last year £510, renewal this month was £933 - so 83% increase (all those years were with LV Insurance) - no change in circumstances other than she is 3 years older (now 86 years old) - LV would only reduce it £45 on calling them - ran comparison quotes and best she could get was £792 with another insurance company so took that. - My daughter and her fiancé with a 4 year old Kia Niro and a 13 year old Ford Fiesta (live on the south coast) and both cars with Admiral insurance multicar saw about a 25% increase in premiums - no change in circumstances except a year older (both under 30 years old) - but on calling Admiral they got the increase in premium roughly halved (so about 12% for the year). - My wife's 4 year old Toyota Yaris (we live in Berkshire) with Tesco Insurance went from £234 to £366 - so 56% increase - no change in circumstances. Ran comparison quotes and got it down to £294 with a different insurance company so changed to them. - My 9 year old Lexus IS 300h with Tesco Insurance went from £374 to £661 - so 77% increase - no change in circumstances. Ran comparison quotes and got it down to £429 with a different insurance company so changed to them. Having seen all of those within a few weeks of each other just highlights how broken the whole insurance market is.

How do you know the hybrid battery will need replacing soon - have you had any errors being shown? If the hybrid health check has been carried out to schedule (which if it's been serviced by Lexus it should have been) then the battery is warrantied for 15 years with unlimited mileage and so should be changed free of charge.

No - IMHO the ES is a totally different proposition to the IS - I'm simply keeping my IS for the foreseeable future and see what happens in the car market in the meantime. Lexus had lost the Dale of at least one new IS from me and soon could have been two.

Until you get bored of BMWs - which I did after quite a few that all seemed to start blending to be the same car even after new models were launched and wanted something left field and so chose the IS 300h which was different enough to be interesting and kept me interested such that I have no idea what to change to - so will keep it soldiering in for a while longer yet.

In D the "gears" are designed for hill descent etc as above to aid engine braking. In S and Sport mode the paddles it gearshift sequential give 6 simulated "gears" that can be used more like a normal gearbox - they work but after a few plays with them didn't see much benefit other than getting ready for a quick acceleration like an overtake - though in practice mash the pedal to the Floor and whatever you're in the car seems to deliver max power from engine and battery together anyway.

Yet more fiscal drag...

Your IS 300h probably isn't worth that much now - keep running it until it gives up? I'm in the same position - really like my IS 300h and just can't see what else to move to at the moment that would give me anything more so for now it's cheap motoring to keep it...

Changing something part way through a test certainly wouldn't help with setting a benchmark. Given I do a lot of miles I have been able to do some pretty exhaustive testing comparing E10 to E5 over many thousands of miles on the same roads, same weight in the car (hybrids seem sensitive to weight, even the contents of a full tank compared to a near empty tank) and weather conditions (very important, especially to a hybrid as air temperature can make a lot of difference to the battery efficiency and how much it supports the ICE / runs in EV etc.) to try and remove any placebo effects (I'm not one to be drawn in by the petrol companies marketing claims). My tests have been mainly done comparing Sainsburys E10 (95 octane) and Sainsburys E5 (97 octane) all bought from the same fuel station with a high turnover of fuel (using the same fuel station with a high turnover is important as different E10 and E5 brands will produce inconsistent results, old fuel vs new also, and even different fuel stations of the same brand can). I am confident that under the same conditions that E5 delivers between 5% and 10% better fuel consumption than E10. This of course comes from a mix of the lower ethanol content and the higher octane rating of E5, though which contributes the most is anyone's guess. A few other points that I have noted are: a) The car runs more quietly and smoothly on E5 compared to E10, especially at higher speeds and accelerating hard. b) I haven't tested for any performance gains with E5 over E10 and I doubt they would be measurable in a hybrid, but just noted as in a) above. c) The improvement in fuel economy seems to be better with E5 at low speeds (there seems to be better pulling power from low speeds on E5 lowering the amount of throttle needed) than higher speeds - hence my 5% to 10% span for improvement as it does seem to vary a little depending on what sort of journey is undertaken. d) As the fuel in the tank ages the difference between E5 and E10 become more noticeable - so E10 left in the tank for a couple of weeks seems to deliver noticeable less mpg whereas E5 doesn't seem to anywhere near as affected. Since doing most of my comparisons I have now switched to using Costco fuel and did a few tests with that which largely bore out what I found with Sainsburys fuel. So my rule of thumb now is that if E5 is no more than around 10p per litre more than E10 at the same fuel station (at todays prices) I will be saving money or at worst breaking even using E5. More than 10p per litre difference then it will cost more to run the car on E5 (putting aside other less quantitative benefits such as smoothness and noise etc.). Given that Costco E5 is as cheap as the supermarket E10 and much cheaper than any branded E10, and the car appears to run very well on it, that is now what I use wherever possible.

Yes brakes and various other consumable / wear and tear parts aren't covered as you say. A TPMS sensor I'm pretty sure wouldn't be covered. The 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty is pretty comprehensive (better than 3rd party ones) but is more for the bigger things that could fail and shouldn't in the time/years of the warranty. BTW if you didn't know - it also includes Lexus Roadside Assistance within the annual cost (LRA is around £155 per annum and so makes the overall circa £500 of the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty better value still).

I don't quite understand your question but will try and answer best I can. If there are any outstanding issues on the car before the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty is requested then these will need rectifying before you will be able to take out the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty. After that the car must be serviced by Lexus as per the schedule (12 months or 10k miles whichever comes first) for the warranty to remain valid. AFAIK any other work doesn't have to be done by Lexus but if there is then an issue with that work I would expect any warranty claim to be turned down.

Yes, I get close to 600 miles from a full tank - which I have needed many times and I couldn't have been stopping for the few hours extra that would have been needed (at least with today's EV tech) to complete those trips.

Yes, I don't do it on a regular basis - usually refuel at around 1/4 tank and before the light comes on but had a few more miles to do this time than I had planned for so it was one of those moments that I probably won't experience again so thought I'd see what numbers it presented when refilling.