Aircon

lexus have mis worded their write up. it has nothing to do with the speed of the LED technology its to do with the BRIGHTNESS of the technology. The driver may REACT sooner. but the light doesnt get there sooner to alert you sooner. its brighter to alert you better.

No they havent. They actually come up to full brightness faster.

Here's one landslide that was dropping rocks onto cars minutes before I got there.

i have a drive day coming up on the Great Ocean Road in 2 weeks, hopefully car run in more by then and see how it goes =)

a group of us did that this weekend in a variety of sports cars. floods..landslides...you name it, we drove through it! it was still fun, but I hope the weather is better for you!

I was just looking through redbook to see how, historically, resale would compare for the IS250 v IS350 using a 2003 IS200 and IS300.

surprisingly, although there was $10k difference in the new price, the difference today is $2k. interesting.

That leads me to believe that the resale value of the IS250 will not be adversely affected by the introduction of the IS350. if anything, the IS350 will do worse in both $ and %age terms.

Ok... this recall thing starts to really piss me off...

Why would they recall a 5 year old car..!! Took them 5 year to realize... (oh... we got a problem over here..)

why they did not do it sooner...

Toyota... oh toyota....

T_T

another car I own had a recall recently...and it's 15 years old! amazed me.

There is a mention about radar cruise on the IS350, on the website.

I need to learn how to read!

Active Cruise ControlIn addition to conventional cruise control, the IS 350 Sports Luxury model features a vehicle-to-vehicle distance monitoring technology known as Active Cruise Control (ACC).8 Just enter your preferred cruising speed using the touch controls on the steering wheel and the IS 350 maintains this speed until the radar detects another vehicle in your path. ACC then reduces your speed accordingly, automatically applying the brakes if needed.

according to the lexus website in Melbourne driveaway for an

IS350SL $89,484.70

IS250SL $84,234.70

I can't find any mention of radar cruise on the 350...surely it would have it.

Only 5K more than 250??

Awesome!! :)

Makes sense though, the car is essentially the same, just different donk...

have you seen how much Mercedes charges just for a different donk??? hooley dooley!

Huh? The standard care package only gives you the 15K service for free, not the 60K service. You must have obtained a bonus service offer (like what they're offering right now on new Lexuses).

Yep just checked the contract - had 3yrs/60k service so this was the last freebie.

Bonus!!!

I note the 2009 models now go into sports mode without the need to move the gear shift into the Sports position.

In other words, with the gear lever in Drive, downshift with the left paddle and you are in Sports mode. Moving the right paddle higher than 6th gear, cancels Sports mode.

A truely welcome and sensible change from earlier models.

Does ANYONE know how to change the firmware chip(s) to accommodate this change?

On a similar topice, does anyone know of firms that undertake firmware changes or have knowledge of the firmware for the IS250 style Lexus?

I noticed the same damn thing!! Why weren't they smart enough to do it like that in the first place?

Just got my car back from its 60,000km service at Lexus of Perth - great service; picked it up from the office in the morning and I was fortunate enough to be driving the loan car ('09 Prestige with EMV and a lot of hailstone damage!) when the call came in saying the service was done. Dropped off the loan car and hopped back into my cleaned and serviced vehicle - all within the span of 6hrs, now that's efficient!

Noticed the '09 nav system was a lot more responsive than my '07 version but no biggie.

Felt sorry that the severe hailstorm back in March damaged around 120 of their cars; kind of was hoping to test drive the RX350 but also received a call from them during the day to say that the IS350's are just about to be launched!

Keen as mustard!

cost?I just paid $600 for it.

oh, and yeh, getting a free loaner is heaps good, even if it is a no option IS250, better than walking/public transport aye

Definitely. I wasn't complaining...just commenting. Still exactly the same to drive...really nice.

What a funny coincidence. I also just took my sports luxury in for service tpday and got a basic IS as a loaner. BOY OH BOY do I miss all the gadgets that I'm already taking for granted. Rear cam, GPS, sensor wipers and radar cruise control were the main ones. Funny how I'm already taking things for granted that 10 years ago we hadn't even thought of!

oh...i forgot....the headlights...oh my god...the headlights!

What a funny coincidence. I also just took my sports luxury in for service tpday and got a basic IS as a loaner. BOY OH BOY do I miss all the gadgets that I'm already taking for granted. Rear cam, GPS, sensor wipers and radar cruise control were the main ones. Funny how I'm already taking things for granted that 10 years ago we hadn't even thought of!

ps> V16 is out now btw...

and sadly, already out of date!

Most E10 fuels are 91 octane. But Subby points out that United's E10 fuel is 95 octane, and Iggy notes that it represents "at least 13 cents' saving [per litre]", rather than the typical 3c/L discount one finds for most 91-octane E10 fuels. Now I agree that's good value! In fact, I'll be sure to fill up at United myself next time. I hope that that blend will remain in the market, at that price point, for years to come ... I note that Shell is phasing out its 94-octane E10 in NSW, to offer a 91-octane product with no change in price.

So, with that, I won't bore readers with my calculations of how the average driver (driving a car suited for 91 RON, and not visiting United) is about 2% (sorry ... precisely 2.2%) worse off using E10.

Maybe things are different in other states. Clearly if E10 becomes 91 octane (in Melbourne shell E10 is 94 octane), then the goal posts change. HOWEVER, as it is, we're getting the correct octane rating out of E10 at a savings of 13 cents per litre over the 95 octane fuel and even though some note a loss in efficiency, my tests with freeway driving showed totally NO difference.

Maybe the best reason for not boring us with your calculations is because they're wrong and/or they don't apply to our cars which require 95 octane fuel, not 91.

Could you more experienced Lexus owners please clarify this point for me?

I've got conflicting advice from the people at the dealer's. The salesman said that you could use ethanol-mixed 95 octane fuel quite safely, while the service bloke advised against this.

Haven't noticed any major difference in the engine behaviour between United's 95 Octane ethanol-mixed vs Shell's 95 Octane....however, I think I was getting better mileage with United compared to Shell.

Haven't tried 98 Octane - the price differential seems significant.

Would love to hear what your experience has been.

Thanks

Subby

(IS250 Sports Luxury - 2007)

You can certainly use it without problems. It says so quite specifically in the usual places on the net....I've used it and found no difference in performance or fuel consumption. (fuel consumpion on freeway..never tested urban..too many variables)

Mine certainly doesn't do that. Sounds very odd to me. Try closing the windows above 160kph :)

Yeah, some routes it chooses are not the best. What I've noticed is that some roads, which can be considered to be not major, but close enough to major, show up on the satnav as your normal local suburban roads. Perhaps herein lies the problem, as it ignores them and chooses a major road, as opposed to taking a shortcut.

I mainly use the satnav if I am heading across to the opposite side of the city, and when I need a specific address or something. If you know your rough way around the city, you should just drive there how you think it's best, and the satnav will readjust itself,a nd let it guide you properly as you come closer to your destination. That's what I do anyway.

well, the other day I was going from Toorak to Ringwood. satnav decided the default route would be toorak rd onto monash onto eastlink (tolls) and then off at canterbury rd.

35km and 33 mins it said.

option 2 was via Kew and eastern freeway (more tolls)

28km and 36 mins

The last option was straight up Toorak Rd onto Springvale and along Canterbury Rd.

22km. 25 mins.

Now if anyone can make logic of that, the please explain it to me! :)

Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous routes you'll get as default? I find it's imperative to check all routes and manually choose.

So right.

In the Navigation setup, you can change the average travelling speed on suburban roads, major roads and freeways. Changing the default values may give you more appropriate route choices. Although, we all know that the average speed on different "major roads" can vary widely between 23 and 80 km/h ... Herein lies the real problem.

Someday, all sat navs will use statistical averages of travel time for major roads at given times of day, to determine more appropriate routes for the desired time of day for travel. I know that Intelematics (providers of SUNA) are working on this. (I'm not sure if this can be retrofitted into current model Lexus DVD systems, but here's hoping.) For now, though, all we can do is tweak three numbers ...

well, I have a number of satnavs....the others aren't even nearly as ridiculous as some of the routes chosen by my lexus. anyway....it's easy enough to check them before you move, so no big deal. was just an eye opener the first time i noticed.

Has anyone else noticed the ridiculous routes you'll get as default? I find it's imperative to check all routes and manually choose.

i have bought(leased) my first Lexus, i am about to pay the price of such a decision,

this IS2(cold inside)50 does not deserve a position in the luxuary car market.

The "alledeged" "climate" control is mediocre, its not much better than that in my daugher's 1985 corolla.

Lexus Service advisors don't want to undertand the problem, then again , they don't get paid a lot to fix warranty issues, B) <_<

Impossible. Lexus' don't have issues. You obviously just don't know how to use it.

Just sell it and buy a BMW.....they're luxurious and 100% faultless.

*cough*

google was and is always my first point of call...

but had great difficulty finding Aussie v16 maps...

ill give that first one a crack and see what happens, have downloaded 2 so far and neither worked...

edit: correction, both worked but were not australian maps... even tho the title said australian

Just got it. it STILL doesn't have all the westgate upgrades, which makes me wonder what else it doesn't have.

There are bits that this car has that are lacking in the current IS

Like?

I was calling Lexus dealers in Sydney for a 30K service quote today & mentioned that my car feels like it wants to stall when idling at times... I was describing this issue and the first thing he asked was what fuel I was using??!

This car has only ever had V-Power & done 22K

Then he goes that if you use E10 it will go away! All the cars they have there are all fueled up with E10 & don't have this problem.

I was thinking to myself WTF??

What do you guys reckon?

try it...it can't hurt