BosniaLexus

Hope everyone had a good Xmas and best wishes for 2010. I find my IS250 Sport MM (06) to be appalling to drive when there is snow or ice. I think its those 18" sport wheels, combined with a rear wheel drve. I took it to an tyre place today and they say that the Continental MultiWeather tyres on it are "OK for all weather", and winter tyres are not available. The car simply cannot climb any hill with snow, and is prone to back slide. It is easily overtaken by nearly every other type of car on the market. I would be grateful for your experiences, especially if you are from NW UK, or Scotland or NI which had a lof of snow during the past 10 days. I got so stranded in my driveway on 22nd Dec. Is it the tyres? Any recommendations on what I could put on this car to give it more grip in snow and ice.....!!

There is a standard 3.5mm audio plug in the centre armrest that can take audio from any source incl. iPod or iPhone, apart from all other gadgets that can store and output audio via what is, essentially, the headfone socket, u must press the aux button so that system can put audio thru car sound system. U cannot control iPod or iPhone via touchscreen or any other function however, so lexus not really iphone comparable. It would be great if it was possible for MM system to properly connect to iPhone and possible to see movies stored on iPhone on mm screen, and also control iPhone via mm screen, as it was the iPhone screen............ You could put collection of mp3 on DVD or cdroms, load up all 6 of them and have better quality and bigger collection in car, without bothering with iPod etc

This is an excellent thread and relevant to everyone who takes their car to Europe, even for holiday. Pity u had to pay so much for so little ,only consolation is that ur carwill outlive most of the other junk they drive in Spain and eu, especially French cars!

Thanks for the advice Roger, I am glad you like the SEI, as there are few enough with this car on this forum. It is interesting that you pointed out that the changeover cost is equal to the depreciation, I never thought of it that way....I will let you know what I do...

Good luck with the car Cathal - that VRT is a savage tax, as is the annual road tax in Ireland, which is EUR 2000 for the IS250 (new). The only thing to watch for is the date on the invoice when you do put IE plates on it, as the taxman may deny you the lower VRT that comes with the lower Jan 2010 valuation. In the meantime, keep a low profile as the despicable Irish Tax Mafia customs cops watch out for UK reg cars that spend a long time in IE.

I had the same problem with my DVD on the IS250 sport (06) - every other function on the MM worked, execpt the DVD playback - I got sound but no picture. Lexus LPL said that this was a parental control setting - someone put in a 4 digit code to stop kids playing with it. I never believed them, and asked them to fix it in 07, 08 and 09 service. They did get it working this week (in 07 and 08, I just accepted theior excuse re parental lock) - technician said that the cables at the back were loose. Though just out of warranty they did not charge for the few hours fixing this. However, shortly thereafter, fixing the DVD playback created a new problem - the Satnav decided I was around 30 miles away from wherever I was. It was funny driving on the M62 near LPL airport and the Satnav tellling me I was in Bolton. Another (free) hours work at Lex, and that was fixed too. Maybe worth asking one of the techies at Lex to have a quick look at it (without booking it in), as some of these guys could be able to fix (or know what is exactly wrong) in a short time.

Dear all Mine is a stunning green IS250 Sport (April 06) with multimedia, 18" alloys and all the other nice gadgets, and has 45K on the clock. I was offered by a dealer a new IS 250 I (not L) , automatic, with free upgrade to full-map sat nav for my own car plus £13.2K? What do you think? It is hard to work out the differences between this new SE, SEI amd SEL. The SEI has the leather seats, but not the ML premium sound - the MM upgrade provides the sat nav, but without dynamic route guidance. I would welcome comments on whether you think this is a good deal or not, and what your experience has been with the IS 250 SEI. Thanks

It looks absolutely awful.....on looks alone, it will die, unless it can do 155mph and return more than 40mpg....

Update - I took car to Lex Liverpool today and both remote batteries replaced, after which all was OK and working again. It is worth knowing how to get into the car and start it when the remote control is dead: - remove the small triangle shaped cover to the hidden keyhole, located on left hand side of the main drivers door handle (there is a tiny hidden hole in the base of this cover, which you can put the key into, to get the plastic cover off. This reveals the keyhole - use the metal key (which itself is hidden in the keyfob) to open the door of the car. The alarm will go off. - hold keyfob right up against starter button, with your foot on clutch, and car will start (press the start button!) - drive to dealer or a battery outlet to get a new remote battery thanks for your comments on this thread

Thanks for comments guys I wish I knew. Car now 2.5 yrs old, has not happened before. However, it was not driven for 6 weeks, and when it did start the main battery showed no sign of weakness. I drove it around for 30 mins to warm up, and i locked it by pressing the black soft-button on the door. Of course, could not repoen with remote (and had both with me as I thought battery was gone in one of them). I remembered that there is a slot for a key in the boot, and put the key in keyfob into it, which triggered the alarm - that was painful, outside of PC World, and neither remote would shut the car up! Radio interference less likely as the fault happened in 2 different locations. And, i never had problem with mobile before (same mobile etc)..... Why do Lexus put uncesessary technology into cars when untested? Reliability scores are useless when stranded with a car that 2 remotes cannot open!!

Is it possible that BOTH remote control batteries can fail at same time? My IS250 refused to allow me in with the key (or spare) today. Eventually, thanks to a salesperson at Lex Liverpool, I prized off the false keyhold cover near the doorhandle and got it started by hoding the keyfob next to start button. However, though it started, the "cannot detect key" light and buzzer stayed on. The spare remote was equally useless - no reaction from car. No lights inside or on dashboard (as usual) when I sit in and get ready to go. Has anyone else had this? What do you think the problem is? Afraid to use it in case same nightmare happens again with alarm etc, and in case also I hopd keybob against startbutton next time, and nothing happens? I would welcome any ideas, thoughts from fellow IS users

Victor -come back , come back....... Please, for the sake of LOC members who read this once a week, can you please give more info. Your BMW post was very interesting, but what is an E60? is that the current or the old 5 series? Did you trade youu lex and how did that go? How reliable is your E60? Yes, we love lexi, but we love cars too, so I am sure many lurkers where would like to know more. Also, if the car and dealer was what you expected I(good car, mean dealer) you may also find that the forum will be full of expected (different kinds of people - bmw drivers!!) The great thing about his forum is there are no (or few) obnoxious typs of people, and the amount of interest in cars, knowledge of lexus and support is unbelievable. I hope (but doubt) you will find the same on BMW, as not enough lexus men have defected there to civiilize them!!! Best wishes in new car, and hope it works out well

This was a good review- very fair and highlights some real problems with M/M. The autolocking is not a major issue - that can be done manually (!) and it requires reading the lexus manual to make it work automatically On fone, the lack of UK postcode is very painful. Problem is that the M/M system is so good that we note its flaws. For example, the other cars (unreliable Merc, temperamental and underspecced BMW) simply do not have these options, so we expect the funtionality to be as good as the reliability and appearance. Phoning on the move is easy once you upload your fonebook to car, except the problem of scrolling forever through fonebook to find numbers. IS250 great for receiving calls, and only easy to make them if you have just one screen of numbers. Its a superb looking car that will depreciate heavily in 2 years, but then last forever. Nothing looks as good as the IS - and it will always start, so you have made an excellent choice, good luck with it

Sickening - and a beauty of a motor too that you kept looking great.... I hope the person that did this suffers.....

Coupe would look nice, but they are right about the power gap. The IS250 is not powerful enough, and the IS-F is mad. We need an IS300 here, twin turbocharged, or the IS350

The IS upgrade will not make the current IS model look outdated. All BMW3 owners must be disappointed that the hitler-style tasher (straight bonnet lip) will be replaced with something that makes the front of the car look a little better - Joe Soap will have no problem spotting new versus the old.

Excellent service. Whatever about any other quality the Merc has, I think the IS looks far better. The Merc looks like the old rover 75 saloon from the side!

Good luck with new car. Can I ask you, did I read it right? You paid £20K for your IS and a few months later they offered you £13K? This sounds very poor. Also, did you trade in with Audi Warrington, and if so how much did they allow for your lex p/x

Hi Doc, do not know of any real world driving simulator, which sounds like what you need. Try another track - the DVLA driving test fetures a theory section in which the tested candidates are asked to react to the specified hazards in a timely way. There may well be driving simulators aimed at learner drivers that can be "played" on a PC, and thus do what you need for your research. The DVLA test features excellent real world footage of normal driving on UK roads and the usual range of hazards.

What is the annual irish tax on the IS250 manual (07 registered)? Did you say EUR2,000? The prices and taxes for lexi in Ireland are unreal.

thanks for this link - revised 3 looks slightly like proposed new 5 series. I do not think is250/is220 needs a facelift before it is replaced, as looks are terrific. However, it would benefit if lex (a) offered BMW-style more power/same mpg or (B) more mpg or © a more powerful and reliable diesel, such as a 3.0d like bmw's

The Sport Manual 250 is a good car, with no gearbox issues. SOme drivers initially complained that all IS250 manuals had less precise gear change actions compared with the IS200. I have not come across an IS350 sport here with gear problems. Its a good car, though lowered suspension and flatter wheels means a more sure, but firm drive.

Nice car, enjoy. The ML 6CD shanger can play CDs with WMA, MP3 etc on them. If you put your entire collection of favourite tracks on a CD or DVD you would not need to bother with IPPD etc

Work of art! Looking forward to the next mods.........

Why are so many people thinking of ways the Government could tax pre-2001 cars? This weekend the good people of London booted Red Ken out of office as Boris declared the congestion charge to be a nonsense scheme designed to raise money and has nothing to do with the Government. Brown and New labour's attitude is very anti-driver. They have failed to build roads, criminalized the masses with parking, cameras and other tax raising scams and have relentlessly increased all forms of car tax including fuel. Until the last revolt, they were dead set on making motorists pay for roads that they paid for in the 60s and 70s through taxes. We need a motorists party, but most important, we need to boot New Labour out of the Big Brother House of parliament. What's the point of having North Sea oil if we pay more than any other country in Europe for juice?