Turbo4

jesus wept

do I know you from EvoOz?

Nothing like the ML sound system, just a brilliant piece of kit.

I didn't truly appreciate how good it was until I stopped playing burnt CD's, and started playing one's properly store-bought and thus properly mastered without cheap compression tools.

I've had 5K setups (including front horns) in other cars i've owned and they haven't sounded near as crisp and punchy as the standard ML system does. The ML system would have been good enough to win more than it's fair share of audio store 'sound offs' only 10 years ago, and would still contend nowadays.

springs will do.

The car's not an Evo or an STi, and unless you're going to be that rarest of 250 owners, it's not going to see a racetrack where coilovers will be an advantage so springs will acheive what you want to achieve.

Just as a follow up here, we had a nasty service shock from Lexus of Newcastle during the week too, and from the same service manager I believe.

Booked the car in for it's 60K service and asked 'Phil' (the service manager) if there was an update for the navigation available given there's been a LOT of new dual carriageway opened up north of Newcastle and the GPS often places the car offroad these days as it clearly needed an update. No mention of any cost at all, just a 'yep, we have version 15 of the Nav here and i'll load it in for you'.

Now, the car's well and truly still under warranty and perhaps i'm naive but I would have thought that GPS disc updates are the kind of thing that a prestige brand like Lexus would include on a 67K car whilst under warranty - Ford include them on upspec Falcons and Territorys for christ's sake! To my surprise, not Lexus. Wife picks up the car mid-afternoon and immediately checks the bill (i've trained her well) only to discover a $325 (!) charge for 'sat nav update'. Now I like the sat nav to be up-to-date, but for $325 i'll live without it. So I rang Phil and rather firmly expressed my displeasure in this, especially considering at our last service they'd somehow put the car in 'limp mode' that didn't kick in until my wife was 50kms from the dealership. Phil offered to remove the update, and remove the charge.... but ONLY if my wife drove back to the dealership that day. Given it was our children's end-of-year school concert that night and we had a lot of stuff to do, that was a bit of an effort, but for $325 we made the effort!!

I love my Lexus, but a few recent service SNAFU's by LoN are making me think long and hard about buying another one off them in the future.

ebay, I got a set of 4 brand new factory Sport 18's a couple oif years ago for less than a thousand $US.

You are ruining your IS250 matey.

Why buy a 50K car and then go and put povvo-spec rims on it? Starcorp are bottom-of-the-barrel rubbish that will quickly buckle when you hit a decent pothole, and with 19's you WILL find your share of potholes. So eventually you'll have a shake thru the steering wheel and need a new rim, or two.

Same with the suspension. Lexus' stock setup is pin-sharp and brilliant thru a set of twisties, and you're going to ruin that with crap coilovers like D2's. I guarantee you'll regret messing with it, but at 18 there'll be no telling you.

In fact, it's only about 3 seconds slower than my mate's evo 8, on a course that takes about a minute to complete. Now that says something!

Yes, it says your mate is a crap driver, or his VIII has a few undiagnosed problems.

I own both a 250 and an Evo VIII MR, and the 250 - whilst a brilliant drive - isn't a patch on an Evo dynamically and would get walloped in any kind of speed test.

Bring on the 350.... 3 years too late. I wont be buying one so late into a model cycle.

Well the IS-F wasn't out a year ago so I think you could put the house on it being the stock Sports one. ;)

I guess i'm thinking moreso of the resale, it's likely if you sell an IS250 in the next 2 years or so it's still going to be a 40K car and no bored north shore housewife - the main buying demographic of the IS250 - wants a car with garish modifications.

I'm even wary of chucking on the Tanabe Sustec for this reason, even though i'm partial to them.

Just fyi, I bought my spoiler around a year ago from Sewell Lexus via ebay and Lexus Newcastle happily fitted it for me free of charge(!) at my first service. I showed it to them when I went in, they were amazed at the price, and I asked them if they'd fit it for me fully expecting there would be a labour charge of a couple of hundred on the bill for doing so, in fact I thought they'd probably rape me on the labour considering I didn't buy it from them.

Well lo' and behold they did it for free, I was so bloody happy and can't recommened their service department enough after that effort. :)

Personally, I can't understand why you'd buy a Lexus and then modify it! If you want a sports car with get up & go that handles like it's on rails, buying a bloody Mitsubishi Evo. A standard one will dominate even a modified 250.

BMW wont drop their prices until people like us stop buying their cars. Audi, Merc, and BMW massively overcharge in this market simply because they CAN!

Hate the rear exhausts though, and the fact that they are not connected.

I agree. Oh so very Korean of Lexus. :o

IS350 will arrive late next year, I reckon it's almost certain.

Just like the IS200 was on it's lonesome until sales dropped, and the IS300 perked them up again. Same will happen with 250/350.

IS-F will come too, Lexus divisions everywhere need a performance flagship that's not a complete barge.

12/06 Prestige and no roof rattles.

same, 12/06 model - with enhancement pack - and no rattles whatsoever.

8,000kms up. :D

I strongly do not recommend any buffer machines as they will easily create swirl marks. Can't vouch for any overseas products but what's available here are a no no.

If you value your car as much as me, we would only use good old fashion labour to clean/wax it.

agree totally.

I bought one of those Supercheap buffers thinking it would be a labour saving device. I used it one, and then threw it in the corner of the garage never to be used again. What a piece of *BLEEP*, and it's cover was lambswool.

Any good detailer doesn't use machines, so why would you?

because they look good with the car?

so what if its from tempe tyres??

same principal as the 18 year old who buys a $3K car and puts 6K worth of stereo in it.

You don't buy a 60K car and put rubbish quality wheels on it imo.

Also a tip is to buy the rims with a good set of Donlup/Bridgestone/Pirelli tyres aswell. The tyres are significantly cheaper in the US. Have them shipped fitted to the rim.

If you do that you'll pay a whole lot more for freight, as they obviously wont fit in the standard boxes the wheels come in. Whether the saving on tyres is worth the extra freight is debatable imo.

I'm also pretty sure that fitting imported US spec tyres is actually illegal in Australia - that's why Jap spec imports have to be fitted with Australian-spec tyres when they're complied. Your risk in an accident...

I just bought mine from a private seller in Atlanta, Georgia. His feedback was excellent and there were no probs. I paid $US600 for a set of four 18 inch Sport rims.

Organise your freight thru UPS or FedEx. I used BAX Global (a mate's account) and only paid about $US 250 from door to door. :)

why oh why oh why would you put Tempe Tyres crap on a Lexus IS250?

do what I did mate, buy a set of ebay (US version) and import them yourself. Cost me less than 1K for a set of factory Sport 18s.

anyone out here wanting to sell you theirs (and there likely wont be anyone) will want at least 2.5K for them considering Lexus want 5K for a set.

The IS250 is the wife's car..... that I really like to drive.

I've had the windows tinted for her, and chucked the 18s on to make it look sportier.

But it's not my car.

What's everyone else drive? Is the Lexus yours, or for the wife? And if it's for the wife what do you get around in? :P

fair enough :)

I'd imagine any good Jap parts importer, particularly ones that specialise in Toyota bits. Maybe try a Supra forum and look for vendors?

Got no rubbing on mine with the 245/40s.... is you car lowered palms?