glynrb

You'll think this is really stupid, but: Check the state of your battery. I had exactly this problem on my LS430, and it was due to the low voltage on the battery when cold. Battery replacement solved the problem.

I accept that it is unreasonable to compare a £22,000 car with one that cost over £50K new. However, the CT I was driving was a £27,500 car, only a few thousand less than my GS300 bought new in 2001. Also, what shocked me was that the CT was not only inferior to the LS, it was also inferior as a car to a 1.6L Diesel Golf I drove for quite a few hundred miles in Tuscany this year. The Golf had better real world performance, went round corners in a much more orderly manner (and faster) and was relatively quiet when cruising at 140kph. Further, I recently drove a 1.4L Renault Clio from Alicante to Marbella and the only thing the Clio lost out on to the CT was performance. I have to admit I never ever thought I would enjoy driving a small car like the Clio again, but I did! So the CT (from my personal point of view) compares very unfavourably with "inferior" cars from Volkwagen and Renault - That, surely, is a damning indictment of a brand new "high quality" car. Frankly, if you want a "hooligan's" Lexus, I reckon the old GS430 fits the bill. That car goes like stink, holds the road, has a firm but comfortable ride and is very comfortable - I was very tempted by the GS430, and I would have bought one if I had been able to find one in really good condition.

If you think the IS is a bad car (I think it compares well with the BMW 3 series) , try the CT - See the CT forum for what I and others think of it!

To be honest, my wife has a T registration Ford Focus, and it's a far better car than the CT!

Let me start by saying that I have owned Lexus cars continuously since 2001 - The first was a new GS300 that I sold in perfect condition after 10 years and 200,000 miles. The current one is an LS430 that I bought with 95,000 miles on it a year ago and which has just had its 130,000 mile service. I have driven models from the whole range when lent a car by Lexus Guildford during servicing, and all of them have been simply great - including the IS whose suspension seems to me to be as good as the BMW 3 series I once owned. On the LS430's 130,000 mile service, due to an odd set of circumstances I ended up with the loan car for 3 days and about 350 miles. The loan car was a new CT200 F Sport. I really can't understand the raison d'être for the CT200. I'm still trying to figure out how a car that runs on electricity at low speed can have such a noise at 20 miles/hour, and at 80 miles/hour it's positively deafening - My journey from Gloucester to Guildford actually gave me a headache. As for the suspension, it's simply awful - It claims to be "sporty". It's NOT. it's just far too hard. I was starting to think "OK, it's not for me, but I expect someone younger would appreciate the better road holding" when I took a corner on the slip road from junction 12a to the Gloucester Business Park. I normally take this corner at about 50 miles/hour in the LS430 if I'm not in a hurry. If I'm in a hurry I take it at about 65 mile/hour. In the CT200 the corner was "exciting" as the car was jumping around due to the hard suspension. Imagine my amazement when I looked at the Speedo and found (and I am not exaggerating) that I was doing 40, repeat 40 miles/hour! The guys at Lexus pointed out to me that I have spent the last 12 years driving big luxurious cars, and that may have modified my perception. However, in the last year I've hired a 1.6 diesel Golf for a week in Italy and a 1.4 petrol Clio in Spain for week. Both of these cars was far superior to the CT 200 - They were both quiet and comfortable for three people to travel long distances. Although the performance of the Clio wasn't great, the Golf performed amazingly well. When the CT200 is stationery it's a great car - I just cannot see why it should be ruined by lousy suspension and a total lack of soundproofing. If this was my first experience of a Lexus I wouldn't have bothered to try another. In fact the only good thing I can think of is that it showed me just how staggeringly good my LS430 is and my GS300 was. - I can't imagine owning anything other than a Lexus, but it certainly won't be a 200!

I have a 2003 LS430 with (I think) the latest but one disks. I love my Lexus, but I have to say that the satnav is absolute rubbish - So much so that I don't think I'll bother to get the latest disks. Even on roads it knows about it insists that I shouldn't go down smaller roads, even when I pick the shortest route. Its routes for driving into London from Guildford are "interesting" to say the least - It seems determined to take me on the most congested route it can find. On one occasion I told it to avoid the A40 at Monmouth - Sure enough it took me on a circuitous route that led me back to, guess where, the A40 at Monmouth. The Tom-Tom satnav app on my iphone is far superior, and it covers the whole of Western Europe right down to the south of Spain (haven't been to Eastern Europe with it, so I don't know how it fares there). How do others feel about the Lexus SatNav?

Interesting. I bought a 1986 Mercedes 560SEL in 1997 and kept it until rust killed i in 2004. During that time I had it serviced by a Mercedes specialist in Wimbledon (Steve Redfearn who did an excellent job). He was significantly cheaper than our local Mercedes dealer in Guildford, but I don't remember many bills coming to less than £1,000, and there were a few in the £2,000 range. I bought a new Lexus GS300 in 2000 which I replaced in October 2011 with a 100,000 mile LS430. I have always had both cars serviced at Lexus Guildford, and I don't remember many (if any) bills reaching £1000. In fact the bills seem to work out about 20% more expensive than the Independent servicing on my wife's Ford Focus. Whenever I've checked the Lexus Guildford prices against anyone else, they come out cheaper. Of course, one of the reasons for the lower bills is the fact that things tend not to break on Lexus cars anywhere nearly as often as BMW (I had a new 3 Series for a year in 1999) and Mercedes/

Last year, while searching for a GS430 I came across one in perfect condition. I was ready to buy it when my wife noticed corrosion just like yours in the front right hand corner of the sun roof. It's the only Lexus I've seen this problem on, but it does look as though it's not unique to your car. Incidentally I ended up buying an LS430 with 100,000 miles on the clock from a dealer for £4,000. So far it's proved to be perfect apart from requiring a new steering column adjustment mechanism. I've always had fantastic service from Lexus Guildford, and I would be amazed if they acted as badly as your dealer seems to have done. It helps, of course, that my first Lexus, a new GS300 was serviced there for 11 years (200,000 miles) and that my replacement is also serviced there. Whenever I've done a price comparison I have concluded that Lexus Guildford are actually cheaper than anyone else. I wonder, did your LS460 have a full Lexus service history when you bought it, and do you have it serviced at a Lexus dealer. If so, you could use the small claims court (I think it costs about £75) to make a claim against Lexus. Alternatively you might like to talk to your local Trading Standards people.