Matthew_McNally

Hi Randyls! welcome to the club - tell us about yourself mate! Garmin do good standalone GPS products. The do have an excellent reputation, but will not look as nice in your car as a factory fitted option :( Another idea is to use a PDA such a such as a Palm Pilot or iPAQ - these are a lot less intrusive in the car. One of our members made an excellent workshop article showing how he did this in his IS B) B)

Hey IslandLex - welcome to the club buddy. tell us about yourself and your car? A newsletter will be sent out this week to all the members, one of the things that will be in it will be a section asking everybody to update their location, so we can start setting up some local meets - something to eat, drink, and maybe a cruise around is always a good night! I am also considering setting up local Meets forums - so for example if there a few guys from New York - I'll set up a New York forum in the Meets forum - so you guys can hang out and sort things out in there. Sound like a good idea to you mate?

This is an excellent tutorial on a low cost alternative GPS system, using a Pocket PC. It has been reproduced here with th full permission of the author Amit Tailor, who originally posted this article in the UK forum. Got an IS200 without GPS? Here’s a way of adding a navigation system for a fraction of the cost using a Pocket PC and a simple installation that hides all the cables. The problem with most Pocket PC GPS navigation systems is the power cable and GPS cable. They really do look untidy. The guide below will illustrate a way of fitting a Pocket PC cradle to the dash taking power from the existing cigarette lighter socket hiding all cables. Components used: Fujitsu Loox Pocket PC PDA £350-£400 (www.dabs.com) Haicom GPS for Loox £80 (www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk) Compact flash storage £35 for 128Mb (www.scan.co.uk) Navigation software £100-£200 (www.tomtom.com) Cigarette lighter socket 99p (www.maplin.co.uk) Wire for cigarette light socket 35p (www.maplin.co.uk) Tools used: * Screwdrivers * Soldering iron * Drill Time: Approx 2 hours in total. The complete system costs approx £500-£600, however this also includes a PDA and possibly a MP3 player Step 1. Remove air vent dash panel. There are a number of different ways to remove this please see this thread for full details. After removing the air vent dash panel I had to remove the felt panel from the dash using a screwdriver. Step 2. Remove the heated switch panel which on the lower part of the console. This is very easy to remove. Simply put your hand under the switch console, get a really form grip and pull toward you. Step 3. Remove the gear stick console - these simply lift out and disconnect the cigarette lighter and ashtray light cables. Step 4. Connect the wire to the cigarette socket and feed the other end for the power from the top dash to the gear stick console. Solder/connect the power wire to the existing cigarette wire connection Step 5 Reconnect the gear stick console cables and re-fit the console. Step 6 Fitting the PDA cradle to the felt dash. Drill a hole large enough got the GPS cable through the felt dash and air vent console. I had to perform some modification to the PDA holder to hide connectors under the dash rather than the back of the holder. Feed the power cable for the GPS through the dash and connect the power. Attach the PDA to the dash. I used two screws, but I guess you could use anything sturdy. I placed the GPS antenna just behind the PDA cradle. Finally refit the air vent console.

Steve check out this thread mate some good stuff on lights in them

I'm here too - probably too much if you ask my missus ( )

Hi this topic has been previously discussed in this thread which you might find useful. Although - magnetics pictures and experiences seem to point to the Catz kit as being a good choice. B)

Yeah - please do - like to get to know the regulars on the board. Although at the time I hated Tesco (the insurers), as it was an accident that was not my fault, and they wanted to put approx £12k worth of repairs on the cars that was £23k new 7 weeks ago. They also wanted to repair a warped floor, and prop up a warped gearbox tunnel, to save putting a new bodyshell on Got my own way in the end, wrote off and a new vehicle - but took three months. Generally though, I love insurance companies, as my real business is running an IT consultancy, and we have worked for quite a few large insurance companies, and charge them a fair old rate too - so on the whole - I really like insurance companies (except Tesco who suck :P )

Hi to all the US Lexus Owners! Thought I would make a quick post just to introduce myself. My name is Matthew McNally (bet you would never have guessed eh ;) ) and I have been asked to help out with the day to day running of the club. If you have any problems or issues with the cloub or forums, please feel free to address them to me. Steve, the club administrator will still be around - but will have his hands very full with other things which are happening for the club. You can of course still contact Steve - but it would be appreciated if you only addressed special / important issues to him, and put any run of the mill stuff to me. Steve is already really busy, and will be getting busier - so I am trying to help ease that load! :) I am 32 and come from Liverpool in the UK - the home of The Beatles (in fact I am called Matthew after Matthew Street in Liverpool where The Cavern Club was). I have an 01 IS200, manual in blue (Strathcaron Blue) with the dark interior. This is my second IS, having had my first on written off after only 7 weeks / 1700 miles of ownership :( One day, if you are really unlucky, I will bore you all with tale of my three month fight with my insurance company over that. :( Anyway - just thought I'd say hello - please feel free to reply back, be nice to start getting to know you guys! I will be spending quite a bit of time of these forums now, as we have big plans to make this club a real big deal - so watch this space! Of course - if you ca any ideas or suggestion how we could make the club better for you - then let me know! B) B)