Nick W858

Both mine, now sadly departed.

No longer got the F but still got this, and this. Still miss the F though.

Please disregard that road, it was built for longevity and the road noise is a well known issue in any car, even my LS400 can't conceal it on that particular stretch!

Agree - I was thinking more the £45k mark which may come a bit sooner.

Funny that, only yesterday I was thinking the same thing, will be interesting to see how the LC depreciation curve works out against the 911 and at what point the values meet, would definitely be a great motor to switch to from a 911, that said I will not feel short changed switching back into an ISF either.

No worries, you too, not sure if you have my first one, white one GX09 FKK, may still be owned by a forum member (Wrocki) looks like it is still going strong with the last MOT in June with 126k on the clock.

Big Rat the one I have just sold was on DF08 FNN, silver with 95k on the clock, not sure if you have it on record or not.

Agree, the dealers are notoriously picky re the warranty, and as you say even if it needs a new battery then it has to be a Porsche one and apparently Bosch make especially weak ones just for Porsche 😀. The upside being that you get great peace of mind and come resale time, it's a big selling point, they cover now up to 15 years of age so I'm less than halfway there. The next service is due Dec 18 as they are on two year intervals as you will know and at the same time the warranty will be up so I will need to have the 111 point check and the beauty of it being under warranty is that they replace anything that needs doing (under warranty) before renewing again, warranty is c£1000 pa and you can do two years at once so I suspect it will be a hefty bill combining the cost of the 111 point check, the cost of the service plus the renewal of the warranty but I knew all this before I bought the car and I have 12 months to save some pennies and if I want or need to sell on at a good price then it's definitely a necessary evil. And yes, I know that on a sunny day on a good road, with the roof down and the sports exhaust doing its thing then it will all be worth it - roll on summer! Happy New Year

Thanks Big Rat, yes I will be sticking around for sure, I have owned Lexus cars for much longer than any other brand and have real affiliation with the cars and the people that own and appreciate them. Spec is not over the top on the 911, it has the active suspension management (PASM), the sports chrono which is the little stopwatch thing atop the dash which I am not sure if I will ever use it but it seems important to the Porsche lovers, it has the turbo alloys which again seem to curry favour but I like all the different alloys to be honest, plus the extended leather pack, the Bose (which sounds weak in comparison to Lexus sound) and it has the PDK gearbox - the chap who took my car was really pleased with the 'box in the ISF. I'll post some pictures once it has been given a clean, it was immaculate on collection and then a 120 mile trip home from Chester soon changed things. Again, black would not be by my first choice, I like the GT silver and also the white but a bit like when I bought my ISFs, I just had to go with the condition, spec etc and largely forget about the colour as they all look pretty good and sticking with the prospect of resale, black seems to do it for a lot of people. If things do go horribly wrong on the reliability front, the warranty will take care of things and the dealers seem very generous with the courtesy cars so on the upside I might get to drive a few other Porsche models should things start to go wrong.

Thanks guys, yes agree the designers have definitely been engaging in some lengthy lunches over the years and it hasn't evolved much and it certainly has its flaws. That said, I think if you have an interest in cars then it's definitely an itch that is nice to scratch. You don't the bulletproof reassurance that you have with the ISF and whilst the 911 is more attention grabbing, that's not really my motivation, although these days I have noticed more pedestrians, passengers and even some drivers have their heads buried in their smart phones to be able to pay much attention to the cars around them. Big Rat, yes it's a Gen 2 and it has always been under the Porsche warranty and will remain so under my ownership. The sports exhaust was a must for me along with a few other nice bits that I wanted to have primarily to make sure it would be easy to resell and hopefully with very little depreciation. So here I am one day into the 911 experience and already looking forward to coming back to an 'F' 😀

Lost the silver bullet today, my second ISF, only had this one for around 11 months and aside from some small cosmetic stuff I had done , nothing was spent on it and it has been faultless, pretty much as my previous 09 that went with 120k on the clock. This was 08 with 95k on the clock, still driving superbly. I finally scratched the 911 itch and now have a lovely black 60 plate 997 S convertible sat on the drive, had a good drive to Chester very early this morning in the ISF and then a nice drive back in the 911 which I was somewhat familiar with after a work colleague kindly let me borrow hers last summer. Not the ideal time for a soft top, that said it was 12c and sunny on the way back but I did resist the temptation to lower the roof, I guess I will have to take the short term pain for the payback in the spring and summer. The car is under Porsche warranty and has been so from day one and has only done about 38k so I am not expecting any major issues. Not sure how long I will keep it for but am certain I will be back in another ISF or RCF/GSF at some point in the not too distant future. Lovely chap I did the deal with, he had never driven an ISF before and has access to all sorts of nice vehicles but he is now talking about keeping the ISF as his personal runaround! I'll still be keeping an eye on the forum and still have the LS400 and the RX450h in my Lexus stable. Will be interesting to see how the 911 compares over time.

First ISF ran for 16 months , one minor service was around £300 then a leaking rear shock discovered at MOT cost £330 - all done at the Lexus dealer. Took out the warranty £795, this the paid for a new waterpump £400. Big 60k service done at 120k miles was £900 done just prior before I sold it so I reckon net of £1925 or around £120'per month which doesn't sound so bad. Current ISF - owned for 9 months. - zero cost bar £180 for some minor cosmetic repairs and the roof wrap being removed so £20 per month which sounds great!

Thanks Carl - good to know as I can see the F Sport gracing my drive at some point for either me or my wife, have driven them a few times when my car has been in for service and I really like them. Winter tyres would be a must for me and the small wheels don't bother me, particularly over the worse of the winter months. I have used Vredsteins and currently Continentals TS850s which have been great and tend to come out very high if not top on the annual Auto Express tests but obviously you are more than happy with the ultra grip 8s which sound like they are very goo, reckon this is the last winter I can get away running the set I have currently on my LS400.

My understanding is that you can purchase the warranty right up to the 10th year so in theory you could buy the two year one a day before the car is 10 and you will still be covered up to a day before its 12th birthday, obviously at that point you cannot extend it. On my first ISF I had the warranty, it covered a water pump but nothing else went wrong so didn't pay for itself although I think it helped when I sold the car. Currently on my 2nd ISF and no warranty and as others have said there is little that goes wrong. I do have a service booked in end of Jan and may take out the warranty as this will cover the car until age 12 but to be honest it would be put on to make a sale easier should I go down that route.

Personally I would follow Carl's lead - I think those alloys are off the latest shape Auris but I would be looking at a used set of those, source my own winter tyres and ignore the TPMS (if that is possible) - far cheaper. My local tyre dealer stores my wheels FOC and in return when I need new tyres I always buy from them and they are also very competitive on cost. The Lexus option as usual sounds very expensive although you probably do get a nice tin of mints left in your armrest after they have relieved you of a substantial part of your wallet.

Well I have made it home but it wasn't drama free, serves me right for opening my big mouth, it's dangerous out there in freezing temperatures and packed ice on some roads, took me ages to get back on account of stopping three times, firstly to tow a Defender out of a ditch, then a gritting lorry and finally a snowplough - none of which unlike me were on winter tyres! On a more serious note, I took the LS for a blast round a very empty and icy a Tesco car park, very difficult to break traction unless seriously provoked and tried some emergency stops, no drama, no abs etc, will be interesting to see if the conditions in the morning can provide more challenge.

yes nothing is fail safe and I still drive steady with the winter tyres on - dendonc my 'juggernaut' incident was on summer tyres and prompted the change to winters, the abs issue you state is a non issue as with winter tyres the beauty is that the abs rarely kicks in and I have never been on any hill in any condition in which I could not bring the car to a stop. It's minus 6 here and I'm just about to drive home and famous last words but I am confident I will make it home drama free.

Great story - I imagine that was one heck of a smug grin on your face 😀

I made my feelings about and my love of winter tyres very clear a few weeks ago when I challenged dendonc to a race (albeit a very slow race!) up and down my street when the snow hit. It really is a horses for courses situation for me, if you live in a place liable to snow and ice and you feel you need to get around and feel safe whilst doing it then winter tyres will do the job. Make no mistake, as grantwils has said, this is nothing to do with size of the car/engine/fwd or rwd or experience of driver, it is down to the tyres and the guys in Scandinavia & North America who deal with far worse than the UK weather prove they do the job. I did like the video of the fishtailing LS but it would terrify most people and ultimately will lead to a collision. My wife is scared to go up our street because although the 4wd of her Rx450 will get her up, it will be sliding all the way which to her is not fun, equally when she comes back down the street and her car won't stop, she doesn't enjoy that either. It was minus 2 this morning and my hilly street was covered in packed old ice plus some bits of fresh snow and I passed my neighbour clearing the screen of his new A4 (not Quattro) and I went straight up my street with no fuss or drama in my winter tyred LS. When I turned out onto the next side road I pulled over to clear further snow/ice from my windscreen. I then turned round to see the A4 unable to clear our street so I went over and made a smart remark about the wrong tyres before pushing him on to the side road. I then carried on dropping my kids at school coming back down the hill and parking up with no drama whatsoever. For me personally that is important but to others depending on where you live or whether you have to be certain places then it might not. Please though, do not confuse your own need (or lack of need) for winter tyres with the question of whether or not they actually work, the folks who buy and use them would not bother to spend their hard earned money if they didn't work. There are some current posts on the RX/IS forums at the moment which illuminate the benefits the tyres are having for some forum members as well as tons of other example across the web. My car as it stands is the best car by a country mile in winter conditions I have driven in 32 years of driving, it's nothing to do with the type of car I am driving, it is merely down to the different compounds of four pieces of rubber the car sits on. I have got 25 years of summer tyres under my belt and the dramas of winter driving using them, I now prefer the no drama/get where I want to go option but I do appreciate they will not be necessary or justifiable for some. Drive safe and arrive safe is the priority and if you don't feel you can do that then no problem stay at home and put the kettle on, it always thaws in a few days anyway!

Thanks Big Rat - one for me to think about, good point about the timing of the purchase. Think I am right in saying you can fit 18s to the ISF but nothing smaller?

Very useful thanks Carl, I love winter tyres and have had them on my LS400 for around 7 years, in the snow/ice we always prefer the safe feel of the LS on winters over my wife's Rx450h on summers. I did look at the 300h F Sport a while back but struggled to get a straight answer as to whether 16 inch wheels would fit - seems like they do and they look alright too. Big Rat. - do you have a set of different (smaller wheels for the ISF) or is it just the tyres you swap?

Thanks Big Rat - not seen that one round these parts but I definitely prefer the silver!

No not for Christmas but finally summoned up the courage to have the roof unwrapped. Car is silver and had the black wrap on the roof when I purchased it. The vendor was very trustworthy and assured me there were no gremlins being hidden under the wrap. In the pictures on Auto Trader I really didn't like the wrap but in the flesh it looked good, I guess with the benefit of hindsight I would in future insist on it being removed prior to purchase but was mightily relieved that bar one small stone chip the roof was in A1 condition. I'm guessing that when the time comes to sell the car, any prospective purchasers would have the same doubts I did so made sense to have it removed.Whilst the car was in also had a couple of minor scuffs that were present when I purchased the car painted so all in tip top condition now and the car looks great in all silver, some say it's the best colour but to be honest they all look good to me!

I'm a massive fan of winter tyres and living in a hilly part of the midlands I see them as essential in colder months. I leave early and come back late at the coldest times of the day and the temps are often 7 or below, however I use them on my LS400 but my wife with her RX450h is not interested in the perceived expense or hassle of swapping her wheels. I love the way the LS stops on snow/ice, it is more efficient/safe than anything on summer tyres. However, even in the worst of the snow/ice the RX has never got stuck and I have deliberately taken it out to test it alongside the winter tyred LS to see if I could get it stuck! I store my other wheels free of charge at my local tyre garage and they swap them over for nothing and in return I buy my tyres from them. I do love winter tyres and if I ran an RX myself I would think about getting them but not sure I would be anywhere near as bothered as I am about the LS in seeing them as a 'must have'. As rayanns said, extra care and attention combined with 4WD might do the trick for most but equally I would not blame anyone for going down the winter tyre route as circumstances may dictate this is the best course of action for you.

Ha ha - Mrs W has driven mine twice for short journeys only - she says it's too noisy and she doesn't like speed anyway so it is wasted on her. She gets really grumpy if she has to drive the 19 year old LS400! She can do what she wants with that, it appears to be indestructible and has a few minor war wounds anyway.