New Gs450H

[Gra56]

I everyone. It's been a long time since I posted on here but having just bought a new GS450 thought I would pass on a few comments.

I have now covered 1500 miles in the first month and the car is very comfortable, very swift and with excellent (so far) fuel consumption which as averaged so far 38MPG mainly motorway miles. Have to say though that I have not really explored the full performance yet and I expect that to drop considerably.

There are though a couple of niggles. Firstly there is no way you can set the doors to auto lock either when you put in "D" or indeed reacha certain speed. Although I was told it could be done, Lexus now concede that you can't. You have to manually lock the doors but you can set it to unlock when you place the car in "P" This is a backeard move and I cannot understand what Lexus is playing at.

Secondly the Marl Levinson CD player only holds one CD wheras all the previous ML systems I have had hold 6. Whilst I accept there is a facility to connect an IPod/ MP3 player not everyone has them including me. I was therefore expecting a hard disc recorder (as in some cars) so that I could copy CD's over but no such luck. This to me is a backward penny piching step especially with a car costing £51 grand.

Anyway I will keep you updated with progress as I expect to cover a high mileage over the next year. If anyone else has the new 450 would be interested to hear of your experience

[Silver Arrow]

Finally - I make it three owners with the new GS on here or so.

OK - so mainly motorway, not hard driving and 38 is lower than I would have thought...mine is averaging 32-34 (actual at the pumps), on a mainly motorway run but of course I have much less performance as well....

I found that just getting a micro USB stick is perfect for music, like THIS which works perfectly. It's as good as a hard drive. It's so small that it takes up no space in the arm rest - just the rubber flap stays slightly ajar. Just copy MP3's, WMA's etc onto it (and in folders etc) and they work really well. The system allows you to sort into Album, Artist etc and the speech recognition allows you to just say "Play album Thriller" and hey presto! You get Jacko!

The door locking thing or lack of is really silly on a car like this. I was told you could too....but alas NO!

You can also connect to the internet by creating a dial up network account, but I can't still as I am with EE (Orange). Vodafone and O2 are a doddle to set up.

How good is the adaptive suspension???? My budget wouldn't stretch to the Premier, which is what I really wanted!!

[Gra56]

Thanks for info but I would be interested to learn about the USB stick. You see I copied a CD on my computor into 2 different formats, WMA and MP3 then copied to a USB stick. Put this in the car but it would not recognise them at all. Any tips to what I am doing wrong?

[Silver Arrow]

Just rip the original CD onto your hard drive (Computer hard disk, not a CD) using iTunes, Windows Media player, or Roxio etc, then using windows explorer just drag and drop the whole folder/Album with the MP3/WMA files in it onto the memory stick.

Simplest way.

The MLS will read all your folders.

[Gra56]

Thanks for that i'll give it another try in a moment but I'm sure I did this last time.

Just a quick question on the phone system if I can. I have tranferred all my contacts over from a Galaxy 2 without any problem. However when I receive an incoming call all I get is the number coming up, not the name. In my IS 250 the name came up. Any ideas?

Many thanks

[Gra56]

Ok many thanks now got the USB working and it is very good. The original (old) USB I used must have been naff because I tried another one and it worked right away.

Just another update, I did 100milee cross country round trip yesterday all A/B road and put it in sports+ Must say it handled beutifully and felt really taught. I'm also impressed by how quiet the car is particularly when cruising. all in all very pleased and it will be interesting to see how I feel over the next year and 25000 miles

[Silver Arrow]

The serene quietness is what helped sell it to me. The pillarless Audi A7 was too noisy around the B Post and the 5 series just rode too hard. The Merc was closest, but the E Class didn't seem that modern or well made.

Where Audi are gunning for BMW, it seems Lexus are gunning for MB

[royoftherovers]

Sorry to butt in ,but are all of the 6 comments above relating to the MK3 GSh rather than the MK4 ?

Thanks

John

[Silver Arrow]

Mark 4.....latest shape

[ZXSpectrum]

I thought there was a way to sort the auto locking out. I was actually reading about it a little while ago. I cant recall the exact term but its a service that is provided and can be done once for free as long as the car is still under service interval. Will try and found out what its actually called. Maybe its only doable on the MK3 but i definitely remember that it could be done.

[Silver Arrow]

Can't be done on 4GS. I started a thread a year or more ago, Wendle and myself had quite a discussion, spoke to Lexus too. It can be done on USA versions (and probably everywhere else in the world!), but not UK versions.

It is probably the most annoying thing and to be honest a silly oversight from Lexus, and I still forget to lock the doors, even over a year on!

[Lexmanic]

I understand that t.he auto locking is not just for security but also adds to the vehicles integrity in the event of an accident. So 'I'm surprised its not a fuction on a new car.

I also recall that when I bought a New 2004 Discovery it had to be programmed in by the dealer

[Silver Arrow]

It really is a bummer. The USA handbook has all of the instructions in the customisation section - the UK one doesn't. When I placed the order, the dealership glibly stated that it did have the function....and were equally surprised that it doesn't!!