Philip

The front edge of the lid (if it's the Toyota armrest) should have a small indent in it which is designed to allow a cable through without squashing it.

Are Focal planning to discontinue the IS165TOY? The speaker upgrade is on my To Do list, so do I need to do it sooner rather than later? Also, anybody know the cheapest place to get these speakers?

When I park in a shopping centre, I normally chose to drive in - that makes the boot accessible when I return with my purchases. But if I'm not planning to buy anything, then I'll usually reverse in. At home, I drive in to my garages, because the layout makes more sense that way. At work, I normally reverse in to a parking space, but (depending on the particular space) it sometimes makes more sense to drive in. When parking on the road, I parallel park. Each situation needs to be assessed on its own merits. The reason that I originally mentioned "reversing in" being the main use case for follow-me-home lighting, is that (as a general rule), when you drive in to a space there's likely to be a wall/whatever in front of you, so the illumination won't be of too much use, as opposed to reversing in, when there will be an open area in front of the car and there will be occasions when it will be safer or more convenient to have that area illuminated by the headlights for a period after getting out of the car. As for stumbling around in the dark using the tiny LED on a phone rather than using the functionality that Toyota's engineers designed in to the car, well that's just bizarre :-)

You're being pedantic now :-) Imagine if it was pitch dark (e.g. during a power outage) - you'd still get enough light spillage to help you on your way to your front door. Or you might park somewhere else (unless all your journeys start and end on your drive, and you never park anywhere else?!) where it could be useful.

But that's exactly the use case that they are designed for! You reverse in to a parking space, in the dark, and after you switch your engine off you can have your have your headlights illuminating your path as you walk away from the car. Hence the term "follow me home" lights - i.e. giving you some illumination as you walk from your driveway to your front door.

Sorry to drag up an old(ish) thread, but just wanted to point out that (1) the web site no longer exists, (2) it is highly unlikely that the map updates were legitimate, and (3) the OP only ever posted 3 times to the forum - all 3 posts promoting that web site.

Has it had its 1 year service done yet? (Needs to be fairly close to its birthday to ensure that the warranty remains valid.) Does it have SatNav? If so, I'd check that the maps are reasonably up to date (which they should be if it's a 2016 car). Check for condensation in the rear lights (especially if there's any chance that the rear bumper issues could have been due to light collision damage). Check the driver's seat outside bolster for wear.

I've been concentrating on the gear change, and I'll accept that while changing into 1st is far from very smooth, it's not as bad as the change into 2nd (either 1 to 2 or 3 to 2). I normally tend to double declutch, and that allows for a reasonable smooth gear change most of the time, but I'm in my local dealers for the 4 year service shortly, so I might ask them to look at it again.

Nope - I'm talking about selecting 1st from Neutral when the car is at rest (e.g. when stopped at traffic lights or roundabouts). I would rarely, if ever, change down into 1st from a higher gear. While it does improve a bit when the car has warmed up (and is much more noticeable in cold weather), the gear change is a million miles away from (say) a 30 year old 944. I'm a bit surprised that Toyota haven't sorted this out on the later cars, which suggests that it's a design defect rather than something that can be fully cured with a different lubricant/springs/bushing.

Changing into 1st or 2nd is the worst gear change of any car that I've owned - despite my local Toyota having had a couple of goes to improve it. I'm willing to live with it because of all the other good things about the car, but given how satisfying a good gear change can be, it's a real shame that Toyota didn't spend a little bit more time on that aspect of the design.

It obviously wouldn't look as integrated as a factory cluster, but a cheaper solution to the OP's needs might be to purchase an aftermarket GPS-based digital speedo? Something like this one on eBay?

That's pretty good. I've just been quoted £995 to extend the warranty on my Lexus IS250 for a further two years, and I paid £1,015.62 for 12 months on the M3.

I want to install a Reversing Camera in my car, and I am just wondering whether anybody has one for sale. Ideally a complete plug & play solution, but happy with the various bits (camera, harness, etc). Appreciate it's a long shot, but thought I'd ask just in case anybody might have bought a kit and never got around to fitting it.

The GT86 comes with a 5 year warranty, so as long as a second-hand car has been serviced in accordance with Toyota's requirements, you should be OK. That said, major issues seem to be rare. Also, many people bought these as second/weekend cars, so you can find older (2012/2013) cars with much less than 30k miles.

Thanks. Unfortunately the Fensport kit is quite pricey and, more worrying, doesn't get very good reviews.

I'm also thinking of getting some Valentis, but I guess that any saving in postage from the USA would be swallowed up by the cost of getting them from you to me. As for not paying import duty - I hope that you never need to use a hospital, school, fire brigade, police or any of the other services that our taxes pay for!

I don't think that there are any "factory" sensors - these were a dealer fit when the cars were new. According to MyToyota, there is an entry for "sublet repair paint sensors" before my car was delivered to the first owner, so I assume that most dealers probably didn't even do the work themselves but just passed it out to their local body shop. I have a feeling that they cost about £350 as an option - well worth it, as a single bump into a low bollard or wall could be more than that to repair.

I'm afraid that your local plod is incorrect (he's not the only one) - if you were to challenge him to show where the law says this, he wouldn't be able to. The restrictions on touching a screen related purely to hand-held devices - once it is in a cradle, a phone is no longer regarded by the law as hand-held, and the same rules apply as if you were interacting with a built-in stereo or satnav. For example, the Government's own web site says: It's illegal to use a handheld mobile when driving. This includes using your phone to follow a map, read a text or check social media. This applies even if you’re stopped at traffic lights or queuing in traffic. It is also illegal to use a handheld phone or similar device when supervising a learner driver. You can only use a handheld phone if you are safely parked or need to call 999 or 112 in an emergency and it’s unsafe or impractical to stop. If you’re caught using a handheld phone while driving, you’ll get 6 penalty points on your licence and a fine of £200. Points on your licence will result in higher insurance costs. If you get just 6 points in the first two years after passing your test, you will lose your licence. Using hands free (e.g. for navigation) is not illegal. However, if this distracts you and affects your ability to drive safely, you can still be prosecuted by the police. You'll note that these all of these (apart from the last one) relate to hand-held devices rather than hands-free. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2003 at Regulation 2(6)(a) say: a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function. The BBC web site also has some advice on this, including: Can I use my phone's sat nav? Yes - as long as the phone is mounted in a hands-free holder. If it's in your hands, it's illegal. What counts as hands-free? A dashboard holder or cradle, earphones or a Bluetooth connection. So, as I said above: As long as your phone is in a cradle, then it is not regarded as a "hand-held device" under the law and (provided that it does not affect your driving) you can do whatever you want with it - answer calls, change your satnav, etc. You can treat it as you would a built-in satnav or stereo and you can press as many buttons as you wish. If the phone is not in a cradle, then it is a "hand-held device" according to the law, and you cannot interact with it in any way while driving.

Just read this thread and there seems to be a huge misconception by many people. As long as your phone is in a cradle, then it is not regarded as a "handheld device" under the law and (provided that it does not affect your driving) you can do whatever you want with it - answer calls, change your satnav, etc. You can treat it as you would a built-in satnav or stereo and you can press as many buttons as you wish. If the phone is not in a cradle, then it is a "handheld device" according to the law, and you cannot interact with it in any way while driving. (As people have said, none of this is new; it's only the penalties that have changed).

Thanks. Don't suppose you know what the screw size is for the connector (e.g. M5, M6)? - I'm wondering about trying an 18" or 20" from eBay and seeing if that helps.

Can I ask how the Perrin 4" compared with the stock aerial for reception? 90% of my listening in the car is to Radio 4, and there are a couple of places on my daily commute where reception gets very noisy, so I'd like to try replacing the stock aerial with a better one. I don't care what it looks like, just what it sounds like, so if anybody knows of a better aerial, regardless of shape or size, please let me know.

I just bought a set of these on Amazon (£4.65 for a set of 4). They arrived today and I haven't had a chance to fit them yet. My main motivation was that they claim to "Reduce noise and vibration when closing the door." As I have a wife who appears to be congenitally incapable of shutting a car door without using all of her strength to slam it, I am (marginally) hopeful that they may help things a little bit.

Appreciate that it's a long shot, but I'm looking for a set of VALENTI Sequence Indicator LED Tail Lights (Red lens/Chrome) - like this:

Your GT86 has rear doors???

Daily driver (60 mile round trip commute) for me - and I'm finding it much more fun to drive than my toy/weekend M3.