UKPulse

I may be up for selling my '300 Nav next Feb/March. She's a beauty but with 3 other cars and two bikes, I'm running out of space! :duh: (my garage)

Recently went to the IS250 launch preview at my local Lexus dealer - nice enough motor and IF I was in the market for a new car, Lexus would be first choice. They have been trying to persuade me to upgrade, but to get the IS300 Nav spec in the new model is going to set me back well over £30K (remember, the only way I can get HIDs on the new car is to go for the eye-wateringly expensive SE-L option). Thing is my '300 cost me around £30K back in March 2003. I dread to think what the dealer would offer by way of p/x.... £10K perhaps? (The car is mint and has done just 22K miles).

Internal Server Error! Please contact sysadmin Errorcode........... 00 0A FB 06 3A 1F C0 FF MapArea............. Brighton[code=ChavCity] VehicleEntered...... Lexus_IS300[code=Luxury] VehiclePermitted.... Citroen_Saxo[code=Chav],Vauxhall_Nova[code=Chav] [/font] Then I got a popup saying "If you enter the selected vehicle into the above location it will be stolen. Press OK to continue" :winky:

My local Lexus dealer called me yesterday to remind me that my car will be three years old next March. Huh? Why are they telling me this? Then the patter starts... there's a new model IS due out, would I like details? Would I like to drive it when it's available? Would I like to come in and discuss figures for trading in my IS300 when the time comes? I bought an IS in 2001 and another in 2003, and persuaded my father-in-law to buy a GS earlier this year. On every occasion, the dealer took a very 'passive' stance, they provided the test drives, the specs, the costs, but never actively tried selling the cars. Now they seem different. Maybe the higher take-up/advance orders are the result of a much more agressive selling approach being taken by the company?

Good point - my mistake (In that case I can save myself a couple of grand) :D Still comes out £3K extra for the equivalent IS250 vs. the IS300 tho. Would be interested to know what 'an encouraging rate' for pre-launch orders is? One thing the IS can do without IMHO is to become as ubiquitous as the 3-Series... they're everywhere!

I remain to be convinced about the pricing, certainly in comparison to the outgoing IS300 of similar spec. E.g. IS300 £27,102 + Satnav £2,340 + Metallic paint £375 + parking sensors £210 = £30,027 (includes full leather, cruise, HID, sunroof, 5-spd auto) IS250 SE-L £28,000 + Satnav £2,710 + Auto £1,000 + Sunroof £800 + Metallic £510 + Cruise £2,150 = £35,170 (includes HID, full leather, parking sensors) The kicker seems to be that the base price is similar but you now pay extra for sunroof, auto box and cruise control. Sure the new IS has a few extra safety tricks up its sleeve, but do people really go out and buy a car on the basis of it having 10 airbags rather than 8 and a pre-crash sphincter-tightening system? :winky: I'll probably trade up when the current car is 3yrs old, mainly because I DON'T want an Audi, BMW or Mercedes, but the extra £5K is a pain.

Well I took the battery out and trickle charged it over a couple of days. Refitted it this morning (usual story, head under bonnet, connect negative/earth... connect positive... alarm goes off... now deaf)! Anyway, car started first time. Even so, a 2½yr old battery going from fine to flat for no reason isn't encouraging, and the dealer saying it's a common problem doesn't help.

So an IS250 SE-L with metallic paint, sunroof, satnav, auto box and cruise will be a shade over £35K...? That's about £5K more than the outgoing IS300 which is spec'd to a similar level.

Well if Lexus confirmed that an IS350 will come to the UK, I'd pay a deposit now! Might even tempt me away from the mythical GS450h Audi's biggest problem is the bunch of criminal scum who call themselves Audi Dealers (1st hand experience I'm afraid). As they say, in the UK for every new car (SC, LS, RX, GS or IS) that Lexus sells, BMW sells thirty four 3-Series alone!

I thought batteries were supposed to have a much longer lifespan than two years? I know when I had to buy one for the old Astra I had the choice of a £35 one with a 3yr warranty or a £45 one with a lifetime warranty. The receptionist at Lexus seemed to suggest that dodgy batteries was an IS specific problem. I was surprised that the battery in my IS wasn't a "sealed" one - thought they were all maintenance free these days.

Called into the dealership today and explained the cars lack of go. The receptionst explained to me that it's a common problem with these cars. (Excuse me?!) Just charge it overnight and it'll be fine she tells me. News to me I thought, and hardly gives you confidence - never knowing when it will next strand you somewhere. It's due its annual service in a month so I'll be asking them to replace it under warranty, although they might refuse. In which case I'll tell them I may have to reconsider replacing my Lexus with another one next year.....

Cheers for that. Sounds like it's best to haul the battery out then take it down the dealership and plonk it on their reception desk :P Hopefully it's covered under warranty - not good for a battery to curl up & die when it's les than 3yrs old!

Put the IS away in the garage last Sunday afternoon. Nothing unusual, locked it as normal, lights were off etc. Come to get the car out last night and it is completely dead. Remote doesn't work - have to use key to unlock car. Little security light on dash isn't flashing. Switch on ignition - nothing, no dashboard lights, engine won't start. Battery seems ok (makes a spark at the terminal) and connections are tight. Fuses all appear ok. Car nomally sits for a week without any problems, and last journey was over 50 miles so battery should be ok. Anything else I should check before I call Lexus?

I used to run an IS200SE and upgraded for exactly the same reason - needed (ok, wanted) the extra power. Aside from the extras (full leather, HIDs, auto-dimming mirrors, etc) I think the IS300 feels quieter and more refined - very subjective tho. AFAIK the IS300 comes in TWO flavours - without satnav and with satnav. That's it.

Undoubtedly a good car performance-wise, although I'm never sure about the '4 seater repmobile on steroids' look. Biggest let down is that it's an Audi - no matter how good the car is, the dealers will bend you over and f*** you :o I'll save my pennies in the hopes that Lexus release the GS450h over here one day :P

Really sorry to hear about your prang mate, hope you're fit and back on the road soon (and that the clown who rear-ended you picks up the bill for the car he pushed you into aswell).

Jo, you have a PM.

I just did the calculations. If Mr X is a 30K miles a year man, then that's 2½K miles a month and his tyres went from brand new to 'lethal' in about 2 weeks The measure of any company is how they respond when things go wrong, so the dealer and Lexus GB should have gotten off their collective butts and done something. Can't blame him for losing faith in Lexus.

3 points and a £40 fine for doing 37mph in a 40 limit that was temporarily reduced to 30 for road works. Also got an IN15 when a mate borrowed my bike and crashed it - he wasn't insured. The copper came round and gave me a choice - shop your mate and say he took the bike without your permission, you get off scot free & we chuck the book at him, or say he used the bike with your consent, he gets done for driving with no insurance and you get done for aiding and abetting. Couldn't shop my mate even tho he did write off my bike!

Typical motoring journalist - totally out of touch with reality! 1. Who cares if it's not quite as frugal on the gas as the manufacturer claims? At least it's a significant step in the right direction. Unlike BMW & Mercedes who seem hell bent on offering larger and larger gas guzzling engines (I mean you can buy a 4.8 litre X5 that BMW claims does 20mpg - BS! especially as all it does is take kids to school & back) 2. Errr what exactly does "inspiring to drive" mean. It's a 4x4 not a frikkin race car! You get in it, turn it on and it goes where you point it. Quietly. Comfortably. Without fuss. Without falling to bits. It looks nice. It makes you feel good. It uses less gas than it's counterparts & produces less CO2. It doesn't ram it's image down everyones throat. Oh, so that's not "inspiring" eh? And I suppose the gas-guzzling, look-at-me, get-outta-my-way, every-mindless-twerp-has-got-one X5 is inspiring? In that case, give me uninspiring any day! 3. Give that motoring journalist the rest of his life and he still couldn't come up with a car that was even 5% as good as a Lexus. But hey, it's fashionable and it makes him feel big to drone on for paragraph after paragraph of how dull a Lexus is. 4. "its CO2 emissions don't even qualify it for a reduction in vehicle excise duty". Excuse me, that's not down to the car it's solely down to the thieving bar-stewards who pretend to be our government, ditching incentives so they can make more revenue. 5. "We don't like - interior space"??? What? Three adults in comfort across the back? Look, the RX does what it does - if you want a bus, go buy a bus!! For that matter if you want off-road prowess, go buy a tank! 6. How lame is it to criticize Toyota for i) trying to develop greener cars, and ii) testing the market by first releasing them in its Lexus range where, if anything, customers are even more critical and discerning? Token environmentalism? Ok, let's all stop recycling plastics, paper, glass etc., because after all what each individual does is only a "token effort". Let's conveniently ignore something called 'cumulative effect'. At least the corporate conscience at Lexus has seen fit to look at the environmental issue, do the work and make a start. I suppose he'll be slagging off the GS450h too when that appears. Ok, I am not a tree-hugging eco warrior and my IS and Soarer both chew thru fuel like there's no tomorrow, but at least I don't publicly knock those who chose to try and do a little to help the environment - it's not clever (unless you're Billy Connolly) :P Rant over... (crikey, I must be bored today!)

How could any self-respecting human being come up with such a moronic idea - oh, sorry we're talking about our beloved transport secretary - Alistair "I don't even have the brains I was born with" Darling! The government's attitude to motorists in this country is an UTTER JOKE, as is their pathetic and ill-conceived transport policy, (in fact it's just a sham to call it a policy)! After decades of little or no investment in a decent public transport infrastructure, we are left with a rail network that's the biggest joke in Europe, and a bus network that totally ignores the needs of rural communities because they're not profitable. If I drive to my nearest office which is 21 miles away, the journey takes me 25 minutes and costs less than a gallon of gas, plus a tiny percentage of my annual Road Tax, insurance, etc. The same journey on the train takes 2 hours 10 minutes (with 2 changes) and costs £14.10..... HA frickin HA! The bus journey also involves 2 changes, costs £8.70 and requires me to walk about a mile at the work end. So both alternatives cost more, take longer and have the added inconvenience of having to travel at set times. I do around 18,000 miles annually, mostly on major roads, and assuming I pay an average of 65p a mile (about half way between the 2p min and the £1.34 max), that works out at a whopping £11,700 a year !!!!!!! What's more, the news article I saw said they weren't going to abolish Road Tax as part of this ridiculous scheme, they would merely 'reduce' it. Yet again the government takes the approach of trying to price motorists off the roads rather than provide a viable alternative. This is the carrot and the stick approach, only the goverment has never offered the carrot, they've simply beaten the cr@p out of the donkey (motorist) with the stick. Well let's just hope that this particular donkey collectively turns round and bites the government in the :tsktsk:

Having the LCA bushes replaced on my TT cured the noise (clonk/squeak). These cars are transformed by having new bushes so I'm going to get the LCA, ARB and steering rack bushes done on this one asap.

Clarkson? What? Buy a Mercedes (E Class presumably) rather than a GS? Well if you like average build quality, average reliability, sales staff so arrogant they have to be seen to be believed, parts assistants who keep you waiting ages and a car that every other brainless wannabe exec feels obliged to drive, then go ahead, join the pack ... buy a Mercedes, and leave the those with taste and the ability to think for themselves to buy the GS. I thankyou :winky: