LenT

A Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker! A practical demonstration that sometimes the old ways are still the best! Fortunately not bought by me but a friend who knew I liked cooking. Used a couple of times and now lost in some far cupboard. Simply not as effective as my fifty year-old large pestle and mortar from Habitat. Unsurprisingly, no longer available on Amazon. Should serve as a warning to any inventor who tries to reinvent the wheel. You’d better come up with something better than a wheel.

As a fellow oldie, Phil, I appreciate your reasoning. It's the sort of purely indulgent purchase that pensions are for and that one deserves to celebrate a life well lived. Best of all, it's not just a car purchase, its become a project with all the detailed examination that that deserves. All the very best and many years of just enjoying it.

Many thanks Paul. You've highlighted the warning signs of a scam very clearly. OK, so fundamentally it's the old 'if it seems too good to be true, then it probably isn't!' scam flag. I can understand a seller wanting cash. It's a feature of that TV show 'Wheeler Dealer' after all, to mention but one of the several car restoration shows. But I agree that attempts to bypass the EBay security transaction system (such as it is) should itself be a very clear signal. I've rarely bought cars privately or off an ad. (Or indeed anything off EBay.) But I do recall one piece of advice for when answering a car ad. over the phone. You only ask about 'the car you have for sale' which helps to sort out the street traders posing as private motorists!

While I have no interest in buying another Lexus, or selling the one I have, I’m curious as to what makes this 2008 ISF such an obvious scam. Is it the price, the description, the knowledge that its been advertised before, the history of the advertiser? Or is it something about the conditions of sale? I just wondered if someone had a moment to spell out what justifies public accusations of what would surely amount to criminal activity?

Perhaps our definition of driving hard is very different, but 9500 miles to about halve the tread depth sounds excessive to me. Maybe there were other factors, such as under or over inflation or tracking errors. I don’t know about Hankook Ventus, but that does seem a very high wear rate. Still, if your criteria prioritise a low wear rate and very good wet performance, then you’ll not go wrong with Michelin CrossClimates+. They feature very well in most comparative tests and they provide a comfortable and quiet ride. We have them on a Suzuki 4x4 and handling is very assured in the wet and even light snow. Michelin has a good reputation for high mileage, anyway. I had two sets of Michelin Xs on a Toyota MR2 and got 40K out of both. I would have had them on the Lexus, but Michelin only did one of the two sizes I needed. Fortunately Goodyear had introduced the Asymmetric 5s in both sizes. They too rate very well in comparative all-season tyre tests, while also providing comfortable, quiet and reassuring handling. Maybe not the mileage delivery of the Michelins, but probably far too soon to tell. But, as I’m sure has already been said, all tyre compounds are a compromise. And as this and all the other threads on tyres demonstrate, opinions vary!! One other thought: If you’re a member of Costco they’re currently offering £100 off a set of Michelins until 28 March, I think it is.

You mean....there's a boot release!!!😲 (Just kidding. I'll get me coat.)

I have seen a YouTube video featuring an IS which claimed that the cat on this model is particularly inaccessible. Pictures taken under the car revealed that only a very small part of the cat is visible, shown to be positioned vertically and covered by a heat shield shroud. The rest is only accessible from above - and again only with some difficulty. Perhaps at the next service, if I go along, I’ll try to have a look when it’s up on the hoist, and check if this applies to my version.

Even this simple option isn’t available for my Lexus. It has different size tyres front and rear. On my model this is what you get when you have the 18” wheels. How common this use of two tyre sizes is in the Lexus range, I don’t know. I presume it’s meant to provide handling benefits - no doubt to compensate for the less comfortable ride!

My Manual seems to devote only two sentences to the subject. One tells you to contact a Lexus dealer. The other tells you that upgrades are available...for a fee! Or you could do what I did. Get yourself a Garmin system and 4 free updates a year. Or a smart phone.

Regarding a tyre gauge recommendation, I would endorse Mike’s reference to this previous post. On it I (and others) named the TireTek gauge, supplied by Odyseaco and fulfilled by Amazon. Used it recently and still impressed. I also recently replaced an elderly Halfords inflator with one called Skey. Instead of plugging into what we used to call the ‘cigar lighter’ it has its own rechargeable battery. The accessory connection on the Halfords unit was proving increasingly unreliable. So I thought an inflator with its own power supply was a better idea. Haven’t used it in anger yet, but a quick test showed it was well up to the task.

The Manual of my IS250 does indeed show a tyre rotation schedule for same size wheels all round, and recommends swapping on same axle if two wheel sizes are involved. However many modern tyres, especially if the tyre pattern is designed for better wet road performance or is asymmetrical, are one directional. An arrow on the tyre wall indicates the direction of forward rotation. Some repositioning will thus have the tyre rotating against the tread pattern design, which will seriously affect its performance on that side of the axle. I wonder what an insurance investigator would make of that in the event of a claim?

That’s a relie! 😊 And the next question is....which all-weather/all season tyre will you choose? Which particular aspect of the ‘Super Valu’ would you wish to improve on?

That’s a relief! 😊 And the next question is...which All-Weather/All Season tyre will you choose? Which aspect of the ‘Super Valu’ do you wish to improve on?

An unarguable point, I would have thought. And yet even on this site populated by the more discerning members of the motoring fraternity, I have come across posters announcing their plans to mix tyre types and brands. Sometimes it’s to replace just one or two as funds permit. Now I suspect this has been a contentious point before. And it’s also the case that in most instances that driver will suffer no consequences- unless such a mix is an MOT fail, of course. But accidents are about the unexpected and that’s when the differences will make the difference! Like others here, I suspect, I grew up when tyres were cross ply and had tubes inside them. And then, in 1946 (long before I was driving) it was Michelin, no less, who introduced the radial tyre. And so gave motorists the opportunity to mix cross ply and radials and have an entirely new kind of accident. I wonder if the people who try to save money by mixing tyres would also countenance fitting cheap brake pads of dubious origin to make a small saving? One thought about the video. I would have been interested if the tyres had then been swapped on the axles to illustrate what, if any, difference that would make. .

Strange offer to associate with tyres. In my experience Michelins are not that noisy. 😊

In 1998 Charl Fourie launched this ingenious device to discourage carjackers.

And the service! Some years ago I ordered a set of Michelins under offer for my Honda Accord. Costco didn’t have them in stock but ordered them from Michelin and gave me a delivery date. Twice they then called me to say that Michelin had delayed delivery. When Costco were finally able to call me to arrange fitting they gave me an additional discount that matched the original offer, for the inconvenience. Of course, first you have to be a member.

Costco currently has a £100 off a set of Michelin CC+ until 28th March!! We have them on our Suzuki 4x4 and they are excellent. I would have had them on the IS250 but my 18” wheels are two different sizes, fore and aft - of which Michelin only do one. But along came the Goodyear Asymmetric 5 which has also proved to be an excellent choice. Of course what is described as an All Season tyre may not suit everyone.

Are your dust caps metal or plastic? Lexus is now supplying plastic dust caps because the metal ones have a tendency to corrode on to the valve stem. I know this because it happened to one of my wheels, while at a BP station trying to check the tyre pressures. The first three were plastic and thus were easily removed. The last one I couldn’t budge. A helpful motorist produced a spanner to put over the cap and in an instant he had broken the valve and wrenched the entire stem off the wheel! Fortunately there was a Tyre retailer nearby who replaced the TPMS valve for about £75. The most annoying aspect was that the regular Lexus servicing included tyre pressure checks and metal caps were supposed to go on greased stems to avoid the corrosion problem. Or now, of course, to be replaced by plastic ones.

Now there’s a name to conjure with. I too grew up in Southgate but went to a different school. And many years later! I would always look forward to my copy of Car Magazine and there were many times when Setright seemed to have written almost all of it! I always enjoyed his prose and literacy, although as I am not in the way of being an engineer his occasional technical expositions of, say, various forms of transmission or engine development, could be something of a challenge. But I think his passing marked the last of his kind. It’s not just that motoring journalists have changed, but their readers too.

Neither could I. First time I only lasted a couple of minutes. Gave him a second chance, but often couldn’t understand what he was saying and was further distracted by by the frenetic arm action. Kind of reminded me of Old Mother Riley (old film character played by Arthur Lucan and currently to be seen on Talking Pictures TV). I gathered, however, that he was a fan of Lexus but virulently hated the current Lexus grill look - so we pretty much disagreed there. However knowledgeable he maybe, he must be a pain to live with. Imagine if you’d just pulled over to ask him directions! Sadly, this shouty style seems more of an American trait and I suppose is meant to convey enthusiasm. That’s a difficult trick to carry off. Only the late lamented Murray Walker knew how to do it. Maybe someone should have a QUIET word with him.

My experience precisely. After a little time spent flapping, I decided that the auto system was so good that I could leave it to get on with the job and just enjoy the driving experience. The manual suggests that choosing you own gears may help you improve economy and, possibly, acceleration, but neither are crucial factors for me. There also seem to be quite a few caveats regarding their use that I would probably discover at unfortunate times. I have occasionally used the Sport mode. The sales rep suggested it was for getting out quickly into a line of traffic. I thought if the manoeuvre was that marginal, I probably shouldn’t do it anyway! The manual states that apart from affecting the transmission, it also “makes the steering more precise eg when descending mountainous roads.” Handy, no doubt, but not so much a problem in Northamptonshire.

Mine was a torque wrench, after I discovered an unfortunate tendency in my early DIY days to overtighten bolts. Removing the heads off some sump bolts was an early warning sign. ☹️

You’re better organised than I am! My most serious rim crunch occurred in the very first week. I was driving down Broadway High Street, in the Cotswolds, looking for a parking place. Suddenly one was revealed on the other side of the road, but almost directly opposite. A helpful motorist coming the other way, stopped and waved me across - holding up all the traffic. Not to appear ungrateful, I swung hard across at an acute angle so as not to hold up the traffic even more. Naturally I hit the kerb. 😩 It took an excellent lunch to make me feel even slightly better about it. 🥩🥩🥩🥩🥩

Hello Richard...I made a mess of my first response!!! Hopefully there’s one below that will make more sense....