New Kid On The Block, Hello, Spacesaver.

[zippyone]

Hi to you all,

I found this site about a month ago, now. After spending much time looking through the forum and finding how informative it is and what a bundle of fun all you fella's are, (oh! and gal's), I no longer feel alone with my CT. I have never used a forum before so please, point out and excuse me, for any bad manners.

I am an ex-pat living half way between Milan and Bergamo in Italy, just a few minutes from the A4 Turin /Venice motorway. I am a semi- retired podiatrst. My CT is called 'Mr. Jingles', and can be found on the 'fuelly site', ct200h year 2013.

I would like to start by making a small contribution to the forum. I enclose details of how I resolved the spacesaver problem, with pictures.

I set as my brief: simple, functional, low cost, light weight, to cause as little damage to the vehicle as possible. There was also a need to retrofit the original parts when/if I sell the vehicle on.

Parts used: EN 4261121290 - wheel hub £67.57, EN 6193176010 - hub securing nut £9.92, 125/70 17 Continental tyre £70.63, total cost £179.63. (I payed €208.51).

The box EN 6499376030, comes in two forms, flat bottomed and angular bottomed neither was suitable for the job and they both needed cutting up and modifing to fit. The price tag for the box was around €220.00 so that was a definite no go.

Do you get £200 in notes from the bank, then chop it up to fit in the slot of your piggy bank?

As you will see the edges of the cork are not quite flush, needs a swift run over with a sander, if that. I fitted the spacesaver two weeks ago and as expected, the weight of the cover keeps the cork in place - no need for gluing down. The cover fits quite flush, even the mumsahb was impressed. ( got an extra spoonfull of sugar with my cocoa!!). As a rough guide, with the bathroom scales, I estimate that I lost 5.5kg and gained 12.46kg, so I am now about 7kg heavier than before. - also the CT!!That I feel, is nothing to tell mumma about. Hope that the enclosed information is of use to you.

Michael.

[IHgs300]

Hello and welcome to the club. That is a nice mod and functional too. Great post.

[ChrisIS200SportTTE]

Hi and welcome. :)

Great work there, makes you wonder why Lexus just didn't do this in the first place?

[zippyone]

Thanks,

we must remember that Lexus is a money making machine like all companies, their engineers live in a different world and are incapeable of seeing the small details, the silly things that will convince you and me to buy their cars without a quibble. They are certainly not time served submariners either.

I am very happy with my overpriced CT, don't get me wrong, but when I look through the forum and see all the little things that members have had to do themselves, to improve on what should be part and parcel of such a pricey motor, it amazes me.

To fit these things during production would cost Lexus very little. In fact it would be more profitable for them to have less versions of the same motor, simply build 'for, but not with', they would save a fortune on tooling and labour etc.... Then if you or I want to add a navigator, or some other gizzmo at a later date, we do not have to pay also to have the front of the car adjusted, we just plug it in and become happier bunnies.

The bloke at Hatfield always gets good write ups and seems, by all accounts to be good, but when I saw the parts list that he came up with to fit the spacesaver I nearly fell of my perch, also the circa £600 price tag. I even had to revive my parrot with a wee tot, but we all have jobs to do I suppose.

I joked with the guy at my dealers in Milan, " every few seconds they stamp out a box, they don't count 1,2,3,4, but £200, 400,600,...in the till". ( they are probably made like paper cups really). He laughed in agreement and said that I was the first person that had changed from the 'goo'. I think that shortly there'll be lots of unhappy Iti's out there.

Not a gripe, just an observation.

Michael.

[ColinBarber]

if you were too concerned about price you wouldn't get a CT. The Toyota Auris is much cheaper, has better spec and a much better warranty for essentially the same car and now that it has been face lifted it has the revised suspension too. You have to pay quite a bit to get an L on the front instead of a T.

Unfortunately the little cost savings add up to quite a bit of money in the accountant's eyes when you multiple by the tens of thousands of vehicles sold. Shame they couldn't at least offer this as an option, as you say the cost during manufacture would be much less than the cost to retro fit.

Great write up be the way, thanks for sharing. :)

[TheOldGit]

Hi Michael

Well done.

You fitted yours almost identical to the way I fitted mine, only I used strips of plastic. Great job, and still a useable space around the wheel.

I had cruise control retro fitted for £168.00 (to me it should have been included in the original build for 'that' extra cost, as it wouldn't have put me off buying it added on initially) (I bought a used previously car).

Keep the info coming...

[zippyone]

Hi Colin,

thanks for the info. on the Auris, we did look at one of those, before settling for the CT. I spoke to a taxi driver in Milan this morning who had a new one, he was as pleased as punch with it, - he had a Prius before. Mind you taxi drivers get special rates. I was not impressed with the plasticky finish though, so I'll stick with the CT. - I love it really. :heart:

I understand your point about 'accountant's eyes', my old dutch is a semi retired chartered bean counter.

Spacesaver as an option is a step in the right direction, however, my personal thoughts are that the 'goo', should be banned. I feel that the European motoring organisations should carry out rigid tests on its use, safety....... and lobby Bruxelles to have it banned.

Michael

[zippyone]

Hi OldGit,

nice to know that I'm not the only one on the forum! Thanks for your comments. You, like me, probably used odd bits left over from other jobs that were cluttering up the garage, my cork tiles were originally bought to act as spacers behind Ikea kitchen wall units, that I fitted in my 400 tear old mountain hide away, four years ago. Simple is good eh!

I do not have much luck with cruise control, this is the first time that I've used it. My 16 year old Impressa didn't have it. I set the cruise control to 100km/h and relax, then, low and behold, I'm sitting behind either some silly old fogy doing almost 40km/h - quite legally, or at the rear of an 'elephant race', which as you know, can go on for several miles/km. I have come to the conclusion that for me, the cruise control is only of any real use after 10ish at night, until 5ish in the morning, or maybe I'm not using it properly.

100/120km/h bye the way, is my normal cruising speed on the motorway, after six months the CT is averaging about 4.8L/100km (59mpg)

Michael.