MyronAub

I picked up my new LS 430 today from Lexus Oxford and they reckon the concept car is going to happen and has already been signed off by Lexus, price guestimate to be around £80k. They're going to keep me informed on any progress.

Bragging? I'm just informing fellow users about some of the more interesting features on a new LS 430, ahem. :winky: Sadly it was way too dark to take pics by the time I got home, didn't know it was the rules but was going to show off (sorry I mean elaborate with illustrations) anyway as soon as I got chance. :)

I'm a happy man, proud new owner of a LS 430 (with ACC!) and I think I'm in love for the second time in my life. :D She's a beaut, drives like a dream and has more gadgets and buttons than a jumbo 747! I hadn't even realised it had voice control for most operations and yet it works flawlessly. Best of all so far is Smart Key, after hearing all the horror stories about car jackings (and I really do feel for the few people on here affected), I was hoping this would work just like advertised. Incredibly it does. With my key safely hidden away in my pocket, I can unlock the car, start the engine and lock the car. If four blokes approached me I'd just leg it and there's nothing they can do. If the engine was already running then they'd possibly get a few yards away before the car shut down. This could be the future for car security.

Up until 10 minutes ago when I checked Parkers I would have sworn my car had average mileage. I've always assumed 12k a year is "average", that's the figure insurers always seemed to use, mine was registered March '99 which makes the 74k on the clock average. Parkers however reckons 50k is average for a 99 model - this sounds far too low too me. What thoughts does everyone else have on what's average? Sporran, I've PM'd you.

If I'm driving on my own on the motorway and come up behind someone doing this then I'll often overtake, pull in front and switch my own on to try and get the message across. I know its not big or clever but it does make me feel better! And don't start me on otherwise empty stretches of 3 lane motorway with some idiot in the middle lane.

And thier was me thinking that was a good price for a (99T) LS400 ,Are they realy that cheap that is some depriciation :o ← At the end of the day, everyone's entitled to an opinion. I've not seen a 1999 Silver LS 400 with less than average mileage and FSH for £8750 but then I've not looked too hard either. As that's around the price the dealer was prepared to pay for trade-in and they would only ever buy with a view to making a good few quid on top then I'm sure its worth a good few more quid than that. As with any sale, something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. I paid £15k under 2 years ago, I reckon its worth nearer to my guestimate to the right person. :) In my favour there doesn't seem to be too many around either!

Just realised I didn't actually read your original post properly! :D Sounds like your company has already decided on the contract side of things and you just need to choose the handset. Both the Samsung D500 and Nokia 6230 are very good phones and I doubt you'd be disappointed with either. Depending on which Network you're going with, your supplier may have trouble sourcing the D500 right now or for the forseeable future. Both have Bluetooth, MP3 and digital camera. If you like radio then the added bonus of an FM radio makes the Nokia the winner but to counter that Samsung's camera is a much better quality one and will take photos as good as many proper digital cameras. Hope this helps,

Kazdul, wasn't it an apple in the garden of Eden as mentioned in Genesis not an Orange! :winky: I'm a phone dealer as well, I'm not a big fan of the K700i and neither is O2 as they've just pulled it from their network! To be fair its almost certainly the O2 network that's causing the K700i problems rather than the other way round. The Samsung D500 is of course the most popular non-3G phone by far right now but sadly that also means almost everyone is out of stock. We've got a pretty big order arriving Monday but we've got at least 4 times as many orders as we're getting stock. The most recent Samsung D500s on Orange would also keep Brettster happy as Orange ran out of the silver ones and has been supplying ultra cool black ones just lately. For value for money tariffs you'd be hard pushed to beat 3's Talk&Text tariffs with some amazing phones for free but there's not many who would actively recommend 3 for business use just yet. (That includes us and we're one of 3's biggest dealers - once 3 start offering proper data access and fix a few other things though they could easily start stealing business customers from the other networks.) Another really good all round phone to look at is the Nokia 6230. With camera, Bluetooth, MP3 and an FM radio, there's not much more you could ask for and I'm sure Kazdul or other business dealers could do some really good deals on this phone right now.

Makes sense I suppose, just need to wash it first so I can take some half decent pics. :) I can't find anyone advertising anything similar anywhere so not sure on price. 1999 'T' reg, Lexus LS400, full Lexus service history, sat nav etc. 2000 ones are going for £11495 while 1998 for £9995 so I guess advertise at £10,750 ono? Thoughts anyone? And do the decent thing and let it go for less than whatever I finally decide to advertise it at, if the buyer is a Gold Member. :winky:

Assuming the dealer does contact me tomorrow, I'll be picking up my LS 430 on Saturday and as I can only fit 3 cars in the drive/garage, the LS 400 is going to have to go. Any suggestions on the best place to advertise a 1999 Silver LS 400, autotrader? ebay? here? :)

On the LS 400, yes once you've turned the ignition off - the fog lights don't come back on again until you manually switch them back on.

*** help this country if it ever becomes "sad" to read a book! Thanks for the heads up, just ordered it from Amazon. "story will explain how the Japanese giant went from zero to 25 per cent share of the luxury car market in the space of only ten years" Humph, and there's me thinking I was buying something exclusive. :P Seriously though, 25% market share in 10 years, isn't that something to aspire to!

You're a girl, curiousity is in your genes... or is that jeans? :winky: There's no secret, ten years ago I was driving an Austin Montego (5th owner - blue mostly with a custom stippled effect due mainly to rust), since then I've just worked very long hours building up my business. About five years ago I was driving down the M6 with my then girlfriend and the most awesome car I'd ever seen overtook me - I was so smitten (with the car ), I didn't even notice what make it was at the time. Later I worked out it was a Lexus LS 400 and I set my sights on buying one. It took me a couple of years but eventually I picked up a '99 LS 400 and it was everything I'd dreamed of. My girlfriend had left me by then but, heh, you can't have everything. And then came that fateful day a few months ago, while waiting for my 400 to be serviced I started idly flicking through the LS 430 brochure... those guys really know how to sell a car and I was hooked. The rest you now know. :)

Cheers, I am - but not got it yet, another 6 days and 14 hours to go... :) I'm thirty-something, scarily some of my friends do have daughters that are old enough to drive but sorry I'm not quite ready to be a dad yet. :) Lexxy, now you're talking, where have you been all my life? :D We've just got to make sure my girlfriend doesn't find out or else the new 430 may suddenly acquire a custom look - probably caused by every conceivable panel being struck by a heavy blunt object. I have to be honest, I was covering the brake pedal throughout the entire time I had the ACC activated... just in case! We did ask about testing the PCS (Pre Crash System) but the sales guy wasn't too keen. For anyone that hasn't heard of PCS - when the car realises that you're simply going too fast to brake in time to avoid an object ahead of you, it goes into "scare you witless" mode: it throttles down, changes gear, applies the brakes, adjusts the suspension and tightens the seatbelts - now that is cool!

Well I finally found time to see the real thing and take one on a test drive, wow was I impressed. If you like your gadgets then you'll be in heaven with a LS 430 - the number of controls now available on the steering column is just mind boggling. I used to get confused with those on the LS 400 so I'm not sure how I'll get on with what must be twice as many on the 430 but I do know its going to be fun. :) In all we spent a good few hours at the dealership, mostly with me going "wow" as each new gadget revealed itself while my mate relaxed in the back of the car having his back massaged. :D The drive seemed even quieter than the LS 400 and that is really saying something. Everything was smoother and more refined, the 6 speed gearbox makes a big difference although I missed the power judder you get when you kickdown in a 400. And then we get to the ACC... oh my *** is it the coolest thing ever! Activating it is simplicity itself, exactly the same as normal cruise control, except you get this neat icon on the dash showing your car with a radar emanating from the front. You set it to say 70mph and the car smoothly accelerates while there's nothing in front of you, as soon as there's a car ahead it shows up on the dash and then the ACC kicks in and slows you down. The best bit though is that if the car in front turns off so you've a clear road ahead then the ACC starts accelerating again. Forget all that turning cruise control on and off on the M1, ACC is the only way to go. So I'm sold, I know I have to have one, we get back to the dealership and then the bombshell. There are no new Silver ACC LS 430's in the UK (except for one with a beige interior - yuk) and won't be for 3 months, Lexus aren't even starting to build any more until March. In fact I'm told there are only 4 LS 430's with ACC in any colour currently available in the UK. There was a glimmer of hope, the dealership does have a demo Silver 430 with ACC that's been registered just a couple of months but the price they're asking is only a few £k less than a brand new one. I decide the price difference isn't tempting enough and for now I can wait. A day or two later I get a text message, Lexus are offering me a revised deal on the demo model and this time the price difference is sufficient to sway me... so I've now paid the deposit and will collect the car in a week. And the only fly in the ointment, the day after I collect it I'm away on holiday for a week, what a bummer! This means friends looking after the house while I'm away will be playing with my shiny new LS 430 while I'm stuck in some hotel in St Moritz. :winky:

Great find. The Pre-Crash System sounds both scary and fun at the same time! "The ACC/PCS option ... can be specified on new LS430 models ordered from Lexus Centres now." I can't imagine anyone buying a new LS 430 wouldn't want this fitted. And you just know one of the first things you'll do is jump on a motorway and try it out. :) I finally managed to get a price out of drivethedeal.com after a lot of fiddling about, I'm sure most people with pop-up/ad blocking software would just have given up and looked elsewhere. I'm normally a big fan of ordering online (for the first time ever this Christmas I ordered all my Christmas shopping online) and I could save over £4k (i.e. effectively ACC fitted for free) but using the site was so frustrating that it didn't inspire much confidence. I've also found allbrandsnew.co.uk and broadspeed.com, anyone know of any other brokers?

Ah, thanks for that, I didn't realise the ACC was so new, that'll explain why there was so little info about it anywhere - couldn't find it at all on the Lexus UK site. I'll check out the broker's site properly later, my pop-up blocker is blocking ads from the site but also causing the pages not to load properly - very strange.

I've had a '99 LS 400 for over a year now and while dropping off the car for a service, made the fateful mistake of picking up an LS 430 brochure ... Reading the brochure was like being a kid at Christmas again, I got more and more excited as I turned each page. The list of features and gadgets is just incredible. :) So I think I'm at that time in my life when I ought to buy my first ever brand new car. Never having done this before, what sort of deal should I aim for? Its going to have to be silver, will I have to pay full MRP or is there a standard accepted discount on the list price? I'll be paying cash so no extra margin on the finance for the dealer. Adaptive Cruise Control looks really cool, anyone here got it? Does it work well? Thanks in advance,