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kns

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    lexus gs 450h s e l wood pack

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  1. I'm going to try that Steve. Someone on the Merc forum said that. Cheers for the advice. I had an annoying squeak caused by clips on a scuttle plate from under the bonnet (a known issue on GS) which was rectified accordingly by my dealer. Apart from that my car is pretty good from this respect with only a couple of small ticking sounds from the passenger side A pillar and from either the passenger door or sunroof seal, and during a spell of warm weather over the summer creaking from the sunroof which I sorted out with a silicone type spray. My experience of car ownership including this my first Lexus and owning a number of Jaguars, is that invariably all cars will have at least some creaks, so generally as long as the car has as you were talking about a quality feel I can live with the odd sound. It may be worth trying a different dealer once more before changing, after all you could replace your IS with say a Mercedes and have similar problems again! Regards Keith
  2. When I took delivery of my car I also complained about the ease with which it picked up marks. Lexus called in an engineer from the OEM paint supplier, who also confirmed after testing the depth and strength of the paint that it was within tolerances. However Lexus agreed to pay for some surface scratches to be polished out by my dealer when the car was new (Lexus Twickenham), who did a perfect job. My car is non-metallic Velvet black which as is the worst colour for showing marks, particularly under strong light. After three years currently apart from some very tiny specs 99% on the bonnet and bumper - about the size at the most of pin head dots- and a couple of small stone chips on the very bottom of the front bumper I am without any major chip on the paintwork. As for surface scratches which are unavoidable (my other car a medium blue Volvo also suffers similarly) again I have avoided any major problem, with only some surface scratches visible in my garage on the bonnet which has a strong fluorescent light shining on it - but become invisible in daylight even in strong sun. Let’s hope I have not tempted fate!!! So you are probably wondering why I agree with your concerns. Well I am obsessively careful with the Paintwork. I only use the softest cleaning products such as a Lamb’s wool mit etc. and the very pricey Zymol range for general washing and maintenance, and then twice a year having the car waxed by a Zymol detailer. I also am careful to leave a large a gap as possible from the vehicle in front on motorways which certainly reduces the risk of stone chipping. Finally the car only covers a couple of thousand miles a year (albeit nearly all on motorways), with the car garaged the rest of the time. Lexus cars do have very high quality even gloss finish, and a dark colour obviously such as black will show marks more than say a silver ( although on the upside touching in a chip on a dark colour is much more successful), I think that finish does make the car more susceptible to marking. As a result as far as I can see the only solution is to take as much care as possible like I mentioned above. By the way for your information all surface scratches can be machine polished out, and many car valeters will shine a strong light on your car to show up these marks to make a case for this. However as soon as you go to wipe a spec of dirt of the bodywork or brush against the vehicle when getting in they will come straight back no matter how careful you are. It all depends the light that the car is viewed in. Regards Keith
  3. Almost three years ago when I took delivery of my GS450h, as part of the deal I got the Samsonite luggage set thrown in. I have to say I have to date never needed to use it, as the boot with if nesecary careful loading is always capable of taking standard sized luggage. Also, I beleive the facelifted 2008 cars have a very slightly larger boot. By the way the Samsonite set if you can get a dealer to give it to you as part of a deal is worth having - although a bit smaller than standard cases they are all superb quality being almost at the top of the Samsonite range. Regards Keith
  4. Malc, About a month ago I was in the dealer I use (Lexus Twickenham - not my most local but I use them thanks to the very good after sales service), and the dealership manager offered me a choice of brand new unregistered LS460 SE-L 's for £50,000, which is a discount of about £25,000.00!!!!!! Lexus are keen to get rid of the non hybrid models particularly a slow seller like the 460. He loaned me his demonstrator for a weekend, and whilst it was very impressive with every single gadget imaginable, it felt a little too much like a car for a company chairman to be chauffeured around in, particularly given the electrically adjustable rear seats and controls for Stereo and roof mounted DVD screen. Apart from a couple of exceptions like the Maserati Quattroporte or new Jaguar XJ, this is IMO a bit of an issue with full size luxury cars. Also given that my own GS450h like yours is nearly 3 years old, it hasn't even covered 6,000 miles and is effectively in brand new condition I was only offered £20,000 in part ex. As my car before discount was £48,000 when I bought it in October '06, its a bit too much depreciation to swallow. I think I will buy the extended warranty for 12 months and look again next year. I am particularly interested in the new Jaguar XJ, but also Infiniti are launching a rival to the GS range next year, and perhaps there maybe some news on a GS replacement as well. Oh and then there’s that little detail about the finances as well Regards Keith
  5. Excellent result, although these average figures soon drop from my experience as soon as you are off the motorway and get caught in stop start traffic. Because these trip computers obviously calculate against the distance covered the mpg can vary quite a bit with just a relatively short distance of traffic. My GS450h can show 60 plus mpg if the trip computer is reset and the first part of the journey is on mostly electric motor, unfortunately it soon drops to a more realistic figure. The best overall average I have received on a complete long run is 35 mpg. My car has the Adaptive Cruise Control which tends to be a bit heavier on the fuel because of the way the car accelerates automatically. Despite being a hybrid I have never seen 40 plus mpg over a complete long run, so given how efficient the 3 litre engine would seem to be it’s a pity that Lexus GB have dropped the model. Regards Keith
  6. II posted a few weeks ago when the Power Steering failed on my '06 GS450h. My car has covered less than 6,000 miles in almost 3 years, so a warning to any other owners that it can fail at any time and without warning. I had just been to my dealer to have some small warranty work undertaken, drove home and parked locally. I went back to the car an hour later only to find no power assistance. I rang my dealer where the technician explained that it’s a known problem caused by the power steering motor failing. As it was a Saturday and the service department would be closing by mid afternoon, rather than wait for a recovery vehicle I elected to drive the car back to them myself. I journey that should take about 45 minutes at the most turned into 2 hours thanks to road closures and horrendous traffic. All the while with no power steering !!!!! In fact thanks to the traffic I ended up leaving the car at the showroom which is located a couple of miles from the Service, where fortunately the manager was able to loan me a courtesy car. It turns out that because I drove the car to the dealer, I would not be entitled to a loan car via the RAC as they had not recovered the vehicle themselves. Thankfully my car was fixed and ready for collection the following Tuesday. To sum up it seems not even Lexus is immune to major mechanical failure. Also it seems there are quite a few 06 cars that have been missed in any notification campaign, so anyone buying a used car should check whether the work has already been carried out. Regards Keith.
  7. Many thanks for all the responses. I have spoken to Lexus who confirmed the known issue with the Power Steering. It seems as though the known fault is within the motor which is mounted to the rack. I spoke to Lexus Twickenham today who said they would be looking at my car this afternoon, and if it proves that this is the fault they have a replacement rack in stock. Did anyone notice any adverse effects after they had a new rack fitted? Such as alignement issues or the steering wheel being off centre when going straight? As I said in my post luckily the car is still under warrenty as this work is around £1,000.00 !!!! However an exteneded warranty seems to be an essential. Regards Keith.
  8. On Saturday I had to take my car to Lexus Twickenham to have a faulty trim on the driver’s side 'B' pillar replaced. As I have said before the care is hardly used living under a dust cover in my garage. In fact the car will be three years old in October and has so far covered just 5,600 odd miles. On my journey there and back the car ran faultlessly and its levels of refinement show how good the current GS is against even one of its newest rivals- the Jaguar XF which I had tried over the previos weekend.The trim was replaced efficiently by the Service department and all seemed to be well. Later after the car had been parked for about an hour, I got in started, and thought it must have stalled because there was no power assistance. I tried restarting the car a couple of times thinking maybe it was some electronic glitch that would clear itself, but regrettably not. I rang the service department for Twickenham who were still open, the technician I spoke to was 99% certain from what was happening - no assistance just strange pulsing through the steering wheel when it was turned- that it was the motors attached to the steering rack that had failed. In order to get the car into the workshop for Monday morning, I elected to drive the car back to the dealer. I was told it would be safe just very heavy to drive. As bad luck would have it, I got caught in an enormous traffic jam meaning that the service centre in Iselworth were closed when I got there, and then had to drive on to the showroom in Twickenham. At least they were able to loan me a replacement car, an IS250. In 25 years of car ownership this is the first time I have owned a car that has effectively left me stranded, and off course needless to say has somewhat tarnished the Lexus reputation for peerless reliability. Ironically earlier in the day I was discussing the extended warranty (about £860 for twelve months), I think given Saturdays episode I need be in no doubt about whether I should take it out. If after all the power steering should fail after just 5,600 miles, I can only wonder what other surprises are in store!!! I will naturally speak to the dealer today to find out when the work will be completed, but my plans for Saturday were completely ruined and as I said to the technician "and it was all going so well". I got the impression though, that this isn’t the first time this has happened, and am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem. Regards Keith
  9. What does it matter if these batteries do leak power as the 12 volt battery starts the petrol engine which in turn provides energy to re charge them, at worst it will be similar to discharge after running in heavy traffic. I was concerend by these issues until I bought my GS450h but now never give it a second thought. Trust these designers ! Interestingly, its not the 12v battery that starts the petrol engine. The 12v battery powers up the electronics etc which in turn use the traction (hybrid) battery and traction motor to spin the petrol engine which then starts. This method prevents the usual vibration you get when an engine is started in the usual way from a starter motor. This is how the petrol engine can switch on and off unobtrusively. In terms of battery leakage its perfectly normal for the hybrid battery to lose some of its charge when the vehicle is left, even if only for a short while. The battery is constantly charging and dis-charging in use, which is in itself better for the battery. I was told in a test a Prius was left for twelve months and apart from charging the 12v battery there was enough charge still left in the hybrid cells to start the car! One problem I have, is as I leave the car for extended periods, the 12v battery not surprisingly goes flat. As the car is left in my garage which has a power point, I got a 'C-Tek' battery charger which by way of a permenent link just plugs onto the battery and can be left for extended periods without risk. Regards Keith
  10. I use the Samsung Tocco without problems, although I have forgotten how to transfer the Address book, so I assigned the address book already in the car from the old phone to the new one. Regards Keith
  11. I have a GS450h in Velvet black - which is the same as Astral, they just changed the name towards the end of '06, I ceretainly can't tell if there is any difference. As has already been said it is a non-metallic and is probably the most difficult colour to maintain, apart from touching in stone chips. Under any strong light it shows even the lightest of surface marks. I have the car polished using Zymol wax by a professional re-finisher twice a year, and as he explained it is impossible to avoid surface scratches showing on a dark colour but non-metallic black is the worst in this respect! Although the car looks great in black, another alternative is Nordic blue which is an unusual shade of light metallic blue, and when I bought my car was only available on the GS hybrid, although it is now an option on all the GS range. Regards Keith
  12. I have a GS450h in Velvet Black (same as Astral), and twice a year have the car valeted using Zymol wax. Whilst not cheap (about £300 a time) plus any of the products bought for general up keep such as shampoo etc etc, its is beleived to be one of the best products available. If you go to www.johnswax.co.uk and look in the gallery section there is a photo of my car taken over 2 years ago, but the car today has if anything an even deeper shine - a result of continued application of the Wax. Unusualy the product is applied with the palm of your hand! One thing that is impossible to stop is the light surface scratching visible under strong light, short of machine polishing the car continualy its impossible to avoid. But certainly black is one of the worst colours to maintain, at least as its non metallic any dreaded stone chipping touches in well. Regards Keith
  13. I use a Road Angel in my Lexus without problem. I have the 9000 model which also has navigation or just camera mode and also has auto update, as my other car, a Volvo C30, doesnt have Sat Nav. Interestingly, it sometimes takes quite a long time in the Volvo to pick up a signal. I beleive the Road Angel has the most up to date camera database and because of the auto updates you dont have to worry about pluggting into your PC. Finally the heated elements at the base of the screen should cause no problem at all, as far as I'm aware only cars with UV reflecting glass have a problem, which I dont beleive Lexus use. The only issue with the Road Angel is that at times it can be a little tempremental and if driving through an area with possible multiple hazards in the same location the unit can go into information overload with a barrage of warning repeated over and over again. Regards Keith
  14. It is possible to dial a preset phone number by using voice command. this is done by assigning a nametag to a number in the phone directory. I'm not sure how many name tags can be programmed , I think it maybe ten. Unlike other voice activation systems it is not possible to dial a phone number however. From memory I beleive the command for voice dial is as follows:- DRIVER - "Dial by name" SYSTEM - "Dial by name, please say name after the beep" DRIVER - "Nametag e.g Home" SYSTEM - "Phone dial "Home", please say yes or no" DRIVER - "Yes" SYSTEM - "Please reply dial" DRIVER - "Dial" As you can probably tell its quite a long process , and it maybe easier just to use the speed dial function when on the move which is accessable by pushing the phone button on the steering wheel. All avialable voice functions can by accessed from the screen when the vehicle is stationary, and how to assign a voice tag instructions are either in the main handbook or navigation book. Hope this helps Keith
  15. It is possible to dial a preset phone number by using voice command. this is done by assigning a nametag to a number in the phone directory. I'm not sure how many name tags can be programmed , I think it maybe ten. Unlike other voice activation systems it is not possible to dial a phone number however. From memory I beleive the command for voice dial is as follows:- DRIVER - "Dial by name" SYSTEM - "Dial by name, please say name after the beep" DRIVER - "Nametag e.g Home" SYSTEM - "Phone dial "Home", please say yes or no" DRIVER - "Yes" SYSTEM - "Please reply dial" DRIVER - "Dial" As you can probably tell its quite a long process , and it maybe easier just to use the speed dial function when on the move which is accessable by pushing the phone button on the steering wheel. All avialable voice functions can by accessed from the screen when the vehicle is stationary, and how to assign a voice tag instructions are either in the main handbook or navigation book. Hope this helps Keith
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