UKPulse

I have heard that many wheel cleaning products are acidic (tho not sure if WonderWheels is one of them), and that repeated use can have a detrimental effect on the metal/laquer. Have a look at the contents on the bottle, if is says it contains acid, then I guess it's a case of using it sparingly or finding something else?

Band new IS200 Platinum Ice...? Good choice mate! :P ;)

What age/model do you have? I have an '02 IS200SE and have had occasional problems when it's very wet. Dealer checked it over but couldn't find any fault. They were aware that the '300 had a problem that had now been fixed (ECU upgrade or something), but that they hadn't seen the same problem in the '200. They did say bring it in if it happened again, because if more than 4 customers report the same fault, Lexus GB will apparently acknowledge it as a fault and do something (??!) Definately worth getting down to your local dealer and having a word.

Interestingly, when you go to a BP garage, you could well be buying Shell petrol, and so on. The oil companies have Exchange Agreements, (quote)... "The agreements form part of each companies attempts to maximise its geographic coverage of the market, while minimising transport and refinery costs". (The Petrol Industry) ...still, I'm all in favour of boycotting to see if it has any effect :)

The aesthetics of a car are so much a matter of taste... case in point - the IS rear lights, some love 'em, some hate 'em. (interestingly they've been copied by a number of other manufacturers now - including BMW!) As to the IS interior, I've heard it described as both fussy/confusing and adventurous (but then as said, I prefer the GS interior). Maybe the new Avensis interior looks a lot better in the flesh - I've only seen it in pics.

Bought my 200SX new in '97 and had the SupaGuard treatment - looked gorgeous then, still looks like new so I reckon it was worth it! :D Going to have the same treatment on the new IS300... (picture taken three months ago - so car is now 5½ yrs old!) B)

The centre console is reminiscent of the IS, but it's rather 'angular' for my liking, and it tapers from top to bottom a bit too much... and I'm not sure about that silver finish - looks a bit out of place seeing as the rest of the interior is dark grey (plastic?). Having said that, I actually prefer the dash of the current GS300 to the IS... has a much more luxurious look & feel ;) What I want to know is why practically every other car on the market can have volume/channel controls on the steering wheel, and yet the IS doesn't! An important passive safety feature I'd have thought...

As far as performance/handling are concerned, unless you're very perceptive or continually push the car to the absolute limit, you probably won't notice any difference between the saloon and the sportcross. A while back I asked to try the IS300 (saloon) as I was thinking of changing. The dealer only had the sportcross on the road at the time, but assured me that I wouldn't know the difference. I drove it, and the saloon subsequently, and he was right... there were no clues in how it drove or handled! I imagine the same will be true of the IS200 variants. The one criticism I did have of the sportcross is that (particularly at this time of year, when the roads are sh*te) the rear window gets filthy real quick! <_<

Thought of a Jam Jar, and it kinda got it with "Jar" (after 27 questions). Some very iffy challenges tho... You were thinking of a jar. You said it is classified as Mineral, I say Other - Glass.... sand.... mineral. Is it commonly used? you said Yes, I say Doubtful - You what??! Jam jars are used every day! Does it come in different colors? you said No, I say Yes Do you carry it in your pocket? you said No, I say Probably - Well I don't carry jam jars in my pockets!

Just sounds like you're starting to enjoy the legendary service for which Lexus is becoming (has become) renowned. When I bought a new IS200SE in Jan 2002, my local Lexus dealer was a tad busy when I went to collect the car on the Saturday morning. The business manager asked if I could return in 2 hours - was I disappointed? No way!! He handed me the keys of their SC430 demonstrator.... strange, 2 hours stretched into three & a half!! Since then, they have given me lifts, fixed items under warranty without any fuss, and gave me a courtesy GS300 while mine was being serviced. I recently test drove the IS300 (hence why I'm now buying one), and during the two hours I had the demonstrator, they valeted my car inside & out ! :D

Gives rise to two questions... 1) Is Hammerite (smooth) definitely the best stuff to paint the calipers with? 2) Would painting them invalidate any subsequent warranty claim on the calipers (although painting them would obviously remove the most likely cause of a warranty claim).

I wonder how people would quantify 'feeling'? I owned a Skyline GTR33 V-SPEC for a year. While styling is not everyone's cup of tea, it was an awesome car to drive! I guess the same would be true if we asked which actresses have 'class'.... ;)

Special edition IS200/300? Wonder what that'll be.... maybe it'll be the "SportDesign" model from the States? (11-spoke 17" alloys, sports grille, new interior & exterior colours, chrome tail piece on exhaust, black pearl finish badging) ?? :)

Read the info on the 'splashgroup' website. "...removes trapped sediments from the pores of the paint...". Does the paintojob on a modern car have pores?

Whoaaaa.... Take a standard Lexus IS200. Add some styling extras - boot lip spoiler, side skirts, splash fairing (all of which are actually fairly understated) & 18" alloys, and suddenly the car becomes un-insurable??!! Hmmmm... I guess when you're an insurance company, ignornace is bliss!

Well courtesy of the audi.co.uk website, I configured an Audi A4 3.0 to the same spec as the IS300. The Audi came out at well over £30,000 after adding all the xtras that the Lex' has as standard !! As for the Mazda 6, I read a review a couple of months ago that said it was a 'capable' but utterly boring car to drive.

Hmmm, I take your point about the 'cons' - and if rain sets it off then it's gonna be useless about 50% of the time in this country! ;) Well, I shall give the unit a try out on the new car when I get it. If the worst comes to the worst, I can always revert to the good old 'visible sensor' type.

Glad you got it sorted :) The scary bit is that my local dealer quoted me around £400 (excl LOC discount of course) for the new DVD

I had exactly the same problem - 20K miles still on the original tyres. Rears were ok, but fronts were totally bald on the inside shoulder, while the rest of the tyre had bags of life left. Dealer checked it and advised that the tracking was out, and corrected it. Trouble is, the roads in Sussex are cr@p, and there's any number of potholes etc, that can throw your tracking out! :o

Javaboss is right there - it's not so much the car but how you drive it. I run a '97 Nissan 200SX (200bhp, 0-60 7sec, rear-wheel drive) as well as the old Lex'. I have two rules for driving the Nissan - 1) in the dry, nail it! 2) in the wet, drive as though you're on sheet ice, & just let the rest of the world get on with it

Definitely... keep the aircon off! Leaving it on easily costs me around -2mpg in an IS200 :( Or get a bike Mine does 160 miles on a 17litre tankful, and that's with plenty of 0-60 in 3s blasts

If it helps, I have the DVD Navigation System fitted in a 2002 IS200SE, and it has all the features that appear to be missing from your system, so that might not be the cause of your problem. As far as I'm aware, there have been two releases of the DVD disk, certainly for the IS range anyway. Ver 1.0 (January 2001) seems to be the original, then there's a second version that was released in September 2002. This is according to info I received from Lexus by e-mailing Lexusinfo@lexuscontactcentre.co.uk Hope you get the problem sorted.

...and they say these are being fitted to Mercs & Jags as standard. Glad they didn't say BMW (spit) :P Well @ £99 + around a fiver for shipping, this sounds too good to be true! So good in fact, I'm going to order a unit to fit to the new IS300 when I get it in a couple of weeks. Shall post the results here..... fingers crossed! :)

Easy :) Just go to the LOC Navigation panel at the top left of the page, choose Club Gallery, then click Go. Next, choose the gallery you want to add your picture(s) to, then you'll be taken to the first page of that gallery. Top right, you'll then see an add photos link - click on that to see the upload control panel. Choose the number of photos you want to upload, locate the photos on your PC using the browse buttons, and add captions if you want. When you're done, click on the Upload Now button. Voila! B)

Looks interesting, in that the system is totally invisible from the outside, i.e. no drilling or attaching of sensors on the outside of the bumper. Found some more details at TAURUS EPS ELECTRONIC PARKING SENSOR. Haven't found a review of it anywhere yet.... Hmmm, interesting.... if you go to www.parkingsensors.co.uk the TAURUS system is advertised alonside the QUANAN system favoured in these forums. Although you don't get a digital distance read-out with the TAURUS system, I'd prefer it as it doesn't spoil the aesthetics of the car. :) :) Would still like to see a review or hear the experiences of someone who has fitted it.