autobahn

^ I understand all of that, but it doesn't negate the lack of confidence of the dealership in the cars they sell and also the blatant lies that they told me. No car should suffer depreciation of £1K per week.

I think the main issue is that the dealer isn't even prepared to buy the car back from me and I think this is down to the missing service stamps. This is despite a verbal reassurance that this would be no problem. Plus the fact that i've never suffered from this level of depreciation. It's kind of ironic that the very same salesperson who sold me the car in the first place, after telling me that the car had done most if its depreciation already, now tells me that the larger Lexus models suffer from very heavy depreciation, just 7 weeks later. I feel i've been misled somewhat.

It appears i've been properly stitched up by my dealer. I bought the car (2005 LS430) with the two missing service stamps 7 weeks ago and the dealer provided a full Lexus Warranty with the car. He also said that there'd be no issue buying the car back in the future and that most of the depreciation on the car had already ocurred. I contacted the dealer earlier this week to see what i'd get for it and he's not interested in buying it back. I then contacted a few other non-Lexus dealerships for part-exchange prices and the best i've had offered for my car is £9K. The car was originally advertised at £17K and I paid £16K for it just 7 weeks ago! That's depreciation of over £1K per week. It's truly mind-boggling. Lexus: never again.

I have a 2005 LS430 and have all of those options, if that helps.

I'm looking at an IS-F or a GS450h. Each car is from a different dealer. The cost to change for me would be very similar for either car. The GS450h is a 2008 model and the IS-F is a late 2009 model. Which car would you go for if the cost to change was very similar (within a couple of £K).

I've currently got a 2005 LS430. However, i'm finding that it's far too much of a car for me! LOL. I only use it to get to work and back and it's really a car to be driven in rather than to drive. So, i'm already looking to 'downsize' to a much smaller Lexus that is more driver-oriented yet still retains the luxury of the LS. Which Lexus model would you recommend for me? I reckon i've got a budget of around £20K for a used Lexus purchase.

^ Will do at the weekend. I did drive in torrential rain yesterday morning but it was just fairly cold in the evening when the fault occured. However, there is a specific fault message saying something like, "Clean Radar Sensor" for debris I believe.

My radar cruise control failed yesterday with a "Check Cruise System" warning. It was a royal PITA as I use it daily. After I got home I restarted the engine and the warning went away (I was able to arm the cruise control system). I'm hoping it's not a terminal problem but, if it is, the car has a full Lexus warranty so it'll be another thing that needs fixing. Has anyone else has the aforementioned warning appear on their cars?

I called the dealer and they'll just put it through as a warranty claim and order the parts. The time required is 1.5 hours so it's just about a while-u-wait job.

I've checked all the settings - the selector is in the left or right position. I first noticed it when I selected reverse gear and the driver's side mirror dipped but the passenger side mirror did not dip. I then tried to adjust the mirror position using the joystick control on the dashboard and it moves left and right but not up and down. I can hear a very feint clicking when I try to move it up or down so it looks like power is reaching it but the motor is dead.

I need to get my side mirror mechanism replaced as it won't go up and down (passenger side mirror). It'll be done under warranty but I was wondering how long the job will take? I'd rather get it done while I wait if it's a quick job.

I'm pretty sure there is air intake as each of the front seats has an air filter element so air must be passing through that. I guess I could turn the heating or cooling on so that the seat fans are running and spray some disinfectant spray close to where the air filter box is. As I understand it, the heating and cooling is provided via a Peltier system and is electrically controlled (rather than using a refrigerant).

Does anyone know where the air intake is for the air-conditioned seats? When I cool down or heat up the front seats I get a bit of an odour from them. I guess that the porous leather facing allows sweat and body oils to seep into the seat filling material. My car is a few years old so i'd like to disinfect the seats by turning on full heating or cooling and directing a disinfectant spray into the air intakes for the seats so that it is blown through the seat filling material and out of the porous leather facings for the seat back and seat squab. However, in order to do this, I need to locate where the air intake is for the aircon system for the front seats.

I'm very impressed with my Lexus LS430 which i've enjoyed driving for the last few weeks. I bought it just to try out the Lexus car ownership experience. It has confirmed my decision to buy a newer Lexus in around year's time. One of the downsides of the LS430 is the fuel consumption, but I knew it was going to be bad before I bought it. So, I was wondering whether the hybrid models (GS, RX, LS) have significantly better fuel economy than their petrol-only counterparts? I would need to see at least a 15-20mpg improvement in real-world fuel economy before it made a significant financial difference to me. What sort of fuel consumption figures are you guys achieving on your Lexus hybrids?

Correct. Did mine today £435. The road tax on my 2005 LS430 that I picked up 3 weeks ago was £245. Cars registered after March or April 2006 are taxed on CO2 emissions.

I'm warming to the nav system in the LS430. It is extraordinarily difficult to master and quite cumbersome to use but, given the hardware limitations on an older car like the LS430, it does a fairly good job. I think very few automotive satnav systems can rival Tom Tom. I haven't tried the LS430's system abroad so I'm only judging it for UK navigation and just a couple of weeks of using it. So far I have had a 100% success rate for, I would guess, 30-40 different addresses. I really like the feature which shows you, quite clearly, the current road you are travelling on. On previous nav systems it wasn't that clear on the map display. However, this is an option you have to enable in the setup. The automatic re-routing works very well, as does the TMC function. Inputting destination addresses is quite simple. The downsides are related to the hardware for me. The nav display resolution and colour depth is very antiquated. The user interface reminds me of home computer software from 80s! Overall, in my opinion, it has been acceptable for me so far.

Okay, I see. 'Suspend Guidance' will keep a log of your recent destinations whereas 'Delete all destinations' will delete them from memory.

The service manager simply said that the steering/wheel alignment was slightly out and a wheel alignment was carried out to correct the problem.

"Delete all destinations" works fine!

All fixed now. Steering wheel is level when driving in a straight line. Car collected, fixed, washed and returned by my Lexus dealer.

Thanks! I'll give that a go.

All being (hopefully) sorted tomorrow by my dealer without charge as wheel alignment with supporting documentation was a pre-condition of me purchasing the car. I should be able to report back on Thursday whether or not it's a 'characteristic' of the LS430 or something that can be sorted out with a wheel alignment.

I quite like the looks of the current Lexus LS600h-L model. Which Lexus models look the best in your opinion (LFA excepted)?

How do I cancel navigation? I can't seem to find the answer to this in the owner's manual. I know how to suspend the navigation, but not to cancel it.

When I receive an incoming call on the car's Bluetooth system (2005 LS430), all I get is a message stating that there's an incoming call. I don't get the caller's name displayed even though the caller's name and phone number (in international dialling format: +44 7.............) are in the car's phonebook that is in use. Any ideas why?