UKPulse

Gwonthen... ya forced me

I'll certainly be expecting Lexus to replace the alloys, and I agree it's a good idea to wait until the winter is over. Thing is I thought Lexus had actually cracked the problem a year or so ago, and that new IS's were supplied with alloys that didn't rot cos they had a thicker coat of lacquer and more rounded edges? If I keep this car for 5 years, seems daft to end up going back each year to get the alloys changed! If that is the case, then I'd expect each new/refurb'd set of wheels to come with another 3yr warranty. Not good when a B :shutit: W owning friend is taking the p*ss cos the original alloys on his W-reg 325i still look like new with no sign of corrosion! Oh the shame of it....

I thought Lexus had cured the problem of their alloys rotting? Evidently not! After just ten months, this is what my alloys are starting to look like. The car is regularly cleaned with Meguiars shampoo and I've never used any solvents, acids or abrasives on the wheels. I'll be getting the dealer to sort this, but I was sure Lexus had the feeble alloys problem fixed ages ago??

Man sues over fake Lexus

Recently read the article in What Car? magazine where the new RX300 was voted the comfiest car in the UK. To be honest, it's something I rarely think about. I set the seats, mirrors etc. when I got the car and have hardly changed them since. I don't get back ache on long journeys so I figure it must be ok. I've seen one or two criticisms that the IS doesn't have adjustable lumbar support for instance, but how comfy do you find your Lex?

She went for the 1.8T Quattro - I did suggest the 3.0 V6 Quattro but you know what women are like... "Why do I need all that power?" :duh: First up, Audi Brighton simply weren't interested in selling her a car. Visited the showroom... they were too busy. Telephoned several times... they never returned calls. Next Audi Horsham - managed a 15 minute accompanied test drive but that was it. Still, she fell in love with the car, decided the spec (which came to over £30K in the end) placed an order and gave a £1K deposit at the start of June 2003. Likewise they started to not return calls when chased about it's progress. Finally in October the car arrived, but it was the wrong spec!! The dealer blamed the factory, Audi UK blamed the dealer... ho hum. My Mrs rejected the car and said she wanted the right one. They resubmitted the order. In November we called to try and get an estimated delivery date. Audi Horsham was no more - it's now VW only, what's more the salesman had actually quit and gone to work for BMW. They suggested we contact Audi Crawley!! Audi Crawley - went to their grand opening & tackled the sales manager direct. Another week and a half went by... finally after much chasing they put us on to Audi Epsom!!? Audi Epsom - "oh well we inherited this problem, we didn't do anything wrong". Car is on order, but can't give you a delivery date though. Been chasing them for two weeks, finally they've just said the car is in the UK, it's in Derby! They don't know when it'll be ready for delivery, try calling next week. Also, because the wrong car was delivered initially, my Mrs had to hang on to her Honda Civic. It had to be serviced in November, but Audi UK refused to offer anything towards the cost of the service. They also refused to offer any other sort of compensation. I keep saying to the Mrs that if Audi are this bad before you've even got the car, heaven help you when you've got it. So, if you do find a good Audi dealer - hang on to them!

If you're going for the Audi A4 Cabrio, then all I can say is good luck and I hope you manage to find a good dealer. I can honestly say that in my dealings with four (yes four) Audi dealers in the South East, I have never in my life encountered such a cavalier attitude coupled with outright :tsktsk: incompetence! If the other half didn't have her heart set on this car, the directors of Audi UK would have had a piece of my mind by now. She is still waiting for an A4 Cabrio that she ordered back in June last year! Sorry about the rant.... the A4 Cabrio is a lovely car, just let down by the dealers.

The Soarer.... 'chuckable'? Time to see Smiffie & get my suspension sorted! ;) If the Soarer was a girl, it'd be Kylie. If the cossie was a girl, it'd be Jade!

True, the V8 has a lot more goodies than the TT, but then you can but a good TT for a fraction of the price of a Ferrari. If you think the TT is frugal, you should try my Astra 1.4L - no aircon, no electric seats/mirrors, no power steering, just a radio (no cassette/CD), no remote boot release, no dusk sensing lights, no front fogs or turn lights, no central locking, no ABS, no electric windows ... ;)

Unless you wanted to see what's on the other side of the hedge! :o :P

An average human produces enough saliva in a lifetime to fill two standard sized swimming pools. We blink about 84 million times a year. Currently there are estimated to be more $100 bills in Russia than there are in the United States. Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. 35% of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married! The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. A gold razor removed from King Tutankhamen's tomb was still sharp enough to be used. 15% of women in the United States send themselves flowers on Valentine's day. In American military terminology, a shovel is known as a "combat emplacement evacuator". In the 16th century the law in England allowed men to beat their wives, but only before 10pm. "Freelance" comes from the knights whose lances were free for hire and were not pledged to one master. 85% of people can curl their tongues into a tube. Technically the banana is a berry. A 'zarf' is the holder of a handleless coffee cup. The average smell weighs about 760 nanograms.... (?!) There are more chickens in the world than there are people. In his lifetime an average man will spend 3,350 hours shaving (that's over 139 days)! The average person over 50 will have spent a year looking for lost or mislaid items. The average person in America spends 8 years of their life watching TV. 70% of Swedish women claim to have taken part in a threesome. The peanut is a vegetable - it's a member of the pea family. French fries were invented in Belgium. More people are alergic to cow's milk than to any other food. A can of spam is opened every 4 seconds. The worl's fastest racquet sport is badminton, where the shuttleock reaches speeds of nearly 200mph. Horses race clockwise in England and anti-clockwise in the US. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. Crocodiles cannot stick their tongues out. A snail can sleep for three years. It would be possible to boil 30 litres of water with the heat generated by the average adult human each day. Bing Crosby turned down the role of Columbo before Peter Falk was offered the part.

Oooh yes, don't be tempted by the first one you see. I ended up looking at seven or eight, and was tempted by a maroon '91 TT for under £3K! Did consider it as a 'project' car but the guys here soon put me straight. A Soarer in bad shape will roger your bank account without a second glance! Settled on a '94 TT that I bought from a retired doctor. Spooky...! What is it with doctors & Soareres?

Hmm, what do people really mean by 'exciting'? Most of the time I'd guess they mean "two seconds". It's two seconds faster 0-60 than something 'boring'. That's it. Would the cossie be exciting if it could only manage the 0-60 dash as quick as an LS? Don't get me wrong, I'm not preaching here. I've got a Soarer TT and I figured it was more 'exciting' to drive than my IS300. But this thread prompted me to wonder why. The TT is slightly less refined (well it is 10yrs old now), the suspension doesn't seem as good, it's a bit noisier, the steering is less responsive, gun it in the wet & you'll end up in a hedge and I'd never hussle it down twisty country lanes because it weighs as much as a ferry! What's more, the world is full of gatso's, mobile speed traps, potholes, horses and kids on push-bikes. BUT.... it accelerates like a thing possesed - so, I figured it was more 'exciting'. Would my IS suddenly become exciting if it could sprint as quick as the TT? Yes, I guess that's all it would take

Oh how I wish I could send that to my CEO!

Very interesting thread. What I always find interesting are the rules (dogma) that religions seem to require. So often it seems that one is measured by how strictly one follows these rules - for instance - go to church every Sunday and you're a 'good' boy, go once a year and you're not. But I've always felt that it's what you feel in your heart about yourself and others and the actions that follow that count, not just parading the badge that goes with your chosen religion. Be kind, compassionate, understanding and tolerant of others. Above all, don't judge an entire nation or community on the actions of one or two individuals. :)

Spammers - lock 'em up & throw away the key! Good f'nuthin varmints!

Would have hung on to the Nissan 200SX for longer. Then an S4 Quattro ...or a Saab 9-5 2.3 Aero

Would love the new RX, but then I'd have to flog the IS, the Soarer and maybe even the Astra to pay for it! (That would please 'er indoors tho) :P The only thing I wasn't so keen on is the front bumper on the hybrid. In the pictures in What Car? it's a restyled bumper as it doesn't look as good as the current one

Unfortunately the marks I had weren't residue or discolouration, the paint was actually pitted . Did think about touching it in, but decided it would end up looking worse :(

I agree that more could be done to help & support the victims of crimes, but surely the financing of such support should come from the perpetrators? If the intention is that an extra £5 or £10 on a speeding fine goes directly to helping victims of crimes comitted by speeding motorists, then ok - but I suspect that's not the case? You'll get nobbled doing 55mph in a 30 zone, pay an extra tenner & it'll go to helping a pensioner who was mugged by some youth... You're right, this is a "Victim Support Tax" and the long suffering motorist is just an easy target.

I spent a good hour or more having a go at it, but the etching looked really deep, was worried I'd end up cutting the lacquer Sounds like I should have persisted.

Here's a pic of my boot lid after removing the Toyota badge. The larger "L" badge from the SC430 covers the three holes a treat - my problem was that the paint was partially etched around where the old badge was. This pic was taken after lots of elbow grease, Meguiars Scratch-X, Meguiars polish, etc. This etching shows thru the new L badge, but the intention is to have a complete respray (in black B) ) some time later this year, so it'll have to do until then. Sorry, 2nd one was just an underline not a link. Have taken it off :)

See in this month's What Car? (Feb 04) Supplement there's a short piece on the new RX Hybrid. "...quicker than a 3.0-litre BMW X5 (0-62mph in seven seconds) yet able to match the fuel economy of a mid-range Toyota Corolla. Predicted emissions of 150 grams per kilometer..." "£32,000 (est)"

Well I'm glad to see the RX300 getting the recognition it deserves. So often I read road tests comparing it with say the X5 and heavy footed journo's saying it's "unexciting" to drive. I mean, what is "exciting" these days? With a forest of gatso's, potholes everywhere and endless congestion, the last thing you want to be able to do in a 4x4 is **** a rear wheel in a corner, right? Anyway, well done Lexus! Had a 24hr test drive of the nex RX and loved it, and so did the other half - even she said it was the comfiest car she'd ever driven. So why did she go out and buy an Audi A4 Cabrio?? Women.... bah! :duh: Haha, just read this back and the censor-bot has taken a dislike to a word that could also be construed as a male body part! Well I can understand that. I'll give you a clue - you might **** a gun before you fire it, alternatively it's a shortened form of the name for a male hen

That ad is a classic example of picking a bad location for your photo! It's been up for sale before, several months ago. The Mk1 GS definately more muscular looking, but my 2hrs behind the wheel of a current GS430 - such a nice car to drive B)