I ordered a new RX400h SE-L for my wife, which was due to be picked up yesterday (1st March). The car was not ready though - being fitted with an upgraded ICE system (rear DVD screens) by Lexus GB. We were shown one car which had arrived at the dealer, and we were both shocked by how ugly the new system was.

It might well have more features and a better quality display, but the whole thing looks like something you would buy out of Halfords, and worryingly, it makes the car more of a target for the opportunist thief who may break a window to try and rip the units off the back of the front seats.

At least with the old system the screens were discreetly embedded in the headrests, and there was a neat cover which could be slipped over the headrests to hide the unit.

We have told our dealer that unless we get our car as originally ordered (with the old ICE system) we will cancel the order. I really hope that Lexus can supply us with the previous version.

You know those were my exact same thoughts when I read the article (as posted on this site)- the system just looks awful and then there is the theft issue. it might indeed be well anchored into the seatbacks - but the way it looks, an opportunist thief might try to steal it only to realise they cannot - but after many hundreds (thousands?) of pounds of damage to your car in the process.

I had a retro fit system put in by a company in Reading, it was all through Lexus so they sent it off before I picked up the car. Its an Alpine system that the dealer felt was better than the original Lexus system. I have to say IMHO it was a wonderful job the done, they are fitted flush in the head rests. Not only that the wireless headphones are brilliant quality, very impressed.

I had the same concerns as you have mentioned here. I looked at a 335 BMW and wanted the rear entertainment system which BMW would not fit and the one they could get fitted by a company was horrible!! It was sort of plastic mounts that sat behind the headrest and was bolted off the back of the seat!

I picked up my new 400RH on 04/04/08 with the Alpine screens and system in. My dealer said that if I wanted the new ICE screens I would have had to wait until June for delivery. IMHO i prefer the Alpine system with the screens fitting flush in the headrests. The new screens look like a cheap purchase from Argos !

interesting, wonder if anyone can tell me where i can get this done? if possible can you all post some pic too. does ur rx come with navigation system?

I purchased my RX400h SE with Sat Nav, Bluetooth, mark Levinson audio and reverse parking camera. If i wanted the new ICE I would have had to wait but I saw the old Alpine screens on another car and they fitted the two screens and player under drivers seat for £1640.00. The new ICE costs £2200.00 ( book price ). So i saved money as well as the screens look better. The car is now under a guise of a SE-L

Thinking about ordering this but again am very much put off by the new style ICE

Mr Pants -- Could you please provide the name of the dealership who were willing to arrange for the Alpine system to be put in ?

Martin - was your system fitted by a separate third party or was it through Lexus ?

Also question for the OP - did Lexus agree to factory fit the old system in the end ?

Cheers !

When I ordered my RX400h I had the choice of waiting until June and the new style ICE would be fitted or pick the car up sooner and have the old Alpine screens fitted. I decided on the old screens as one I wanted the car asap and the other that they looked better than the new ICE package. There is a slight drawback in that the new ICE can play different DVD's on each screen whereas the old system will only play the same DVD on both screens. There is a way round it that the screen behind the drivers seat takes a PS2 ( red,white and yellow connections are installed in the back seat pocket ) and you can then watch DVD's via the PS2 console rather than play a game. I have some photos on my Blackberry if someone can tell me how I can attach then to this thread. The system was fitted by the dealer ( Lexus, Woodford ) before I collected the car.

After threatening to cancel my order. Lexus GB agreed to sell me the car without the rear screens fitted. They simply relabelled the car as an SE with Multimedia, instead of an SE-L. I picked it up on 17th March, and so far am quite happy with it, though it doesn't compare at all to my LS460 SE-L :-)

I have since ordered and received 2 replacement headrests with DVD players, memory card readers, and game consoles built in (cost only £60 each + £45 delivery from China) in black faux leather. They look fantastic and I am having them installed by Lexus Teesside on the 21st of April (having front and rear parking sensors fitted at the same time).

The DVD player headrests I received can be found on the chinavasion .com website if you click on the car video link on the left side of the page, then click on the headrest/armrest monitors link.

Thanks for the reply, that seems like an absolutely amazing deal

Will this have any impact on your warranty ?

It's possible to fit them without any effect on warranty since the old headrests pull out and the new ones drop in without any cutting. You could wire them up to a cigarette lighter adapter (about £3 from maplins), then swap them back with the original headrests if you change cars or want any warranty work done with no clue that the car had ever been modified.

I am having them fitted permanently to the 12v accessory power to have a neater job, and to keep the cigarette lighter socket free, but since the dealer is doing this for me, I don't foresee any problems.

These headrests are significantly wider than the standard RX400h headrests. This only has an impact on the cloth covers which you can buy from Lexus to hide them. Right now I don't know if the standard ones will fit these headrests. If they don't fit, I will just have my mother-in-law make some from black cloth for me

I got the car back today after having the system (and front and rear parking sensors) fitted. First impressions of the new DVD headrests are that they are good but could have been great but for a bit of tweaking.

The headrest poles do come with 12mm adapters which are necessary to fit properly in the seats without wobbling. These adapters have to be dropped into the seat first, and positioned until they click properly otherwise the ratchet function does not work.

The Lexus DVD headrest covers do fit over these wider headrests, but it's a tight stretch.

Picture quality and sound quality are absolutely fine (480 x 234 resolution) with bright, crisp images, reasonable sound from the built in speakers, and clear sound using the FM transmitter built in, playing through the car speakers.


I tested the system with 2 movies : The Fifth Element playing on the front passenger headrest, and Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie, playing on the driver's headrest.

Now the bad news:

1. When you play the movie through 1 headrest and view it via the AV in on the second headrest, the volume controls on the 2nd headrest are frozen out. You can get around this by setting it to play out via the FM transmitter on a frequency you are not listening to.

2. When you play a DVD and select a menu option, for example to play the movie, it doesn't choose what you selected. In the case of the Fifth Element, any menu choice would play the movie trailer, but at least after skipping chapters you get to the movie proper. The Fifth Element DVD I used is over 10 years old and maybe the menus don't work in quite the same way. When I tried the same thing in the movie "Bean|", initially the same thing happened, but at least when I pressed the "Title" button during playback of the trailer, it jumped to the proper menu and then correctly to the movie.

Update - after playing with the setup menu on the units, I tried this again, and this time it worked perfectly

I've recorded a short video of the DVD headrests working. it can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c0BnfkC-JA

Thanks for reporting back on this

They look fantastic & given the price, how could you complain