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Hi Folks! Just taken delivery of a new NX450h+ Takumi in sonic titanium with dark rose leather. So far so good, very pleased with its quality and robust feel. The drive is taking some getting used to after my last car but I’m finding it very relaxing and the economy and overall efficiency is something of a revelation!

Thats correct Linas, the French dont care about cars at all and it shows. Not even sure detailing exists over there. I once had a French agent working for us that always kicked a dent in his new car saying the first one is mine! BTW i always wash my car and my wifes car by hand. Drive 10 mins away from my house nice quiet wash boxes. Takes me out of the house for an hour, like the silence.... My wife tells her friends he needs an hour for himself.

My final update on this.. turns out the caliper carrier bolts weren't anywhere near as tight as they should have been so when breaking there would have been enough slack to cause the clunk noise. All sorted by my indie garage.

Last contact with P&O before I found email address for Paul Ludow (that's amazing in this day and age of do not reply messages) Paul is President of Carnival UK and P&O. The response from guest support prior to this was to tell me to go back to ABTA (we had already done this) P&O closing down any further discussions. So many thanks to Paul and his assistant Lee for sorting out in a satisfactory manner. There was no way we were going to give up, we were absolutely convinced we had a very strong case. Thanks all for support. Bill D.

I suppose mine could be seen as an old experienced drug dealers car, wife sits in the back with the stash 😀

TAKES ME longer than 6.9 secs to get outta bed these days . 0 - 60 ........ stairs would take me maybe 30 mins too 😇 I marvel at the turn of speed my dear old Mk3 Ls400 can achieve .... sure beats hands down most cars I see on the roads these days . in normalish driving conditions Malc

Nope, they actually started off slower, especially the Mk1 & 2 due to less power (8.0 secs). The Mk3 got faster (7.2), 1997 was 6.9, but the Mk4 was the fastest to 60 at 6.2 secs. In the LS430 they were all 6.6 secs, LS600h was 6.2, the LS460 was 5.7, and the LS500h is 5.5. So the Mk4 LS400 was the blip. Otherwise they got steadily faster to 60. Interestingly the LS430 is the same as the Mk4 LS400 over the 1/4 mile. Not that it makes much difference to me. I used to do motorcycle drag racing in my youth and have ridden motorcycles since I was 14 so it's rare anyone beats me off the line. I once humbled both an M5 and a Porsche 996 with my 202Bhp/1900Kg Honda Legend barge. Reflexes and front-wheel drive traction always beats too much power and too little grip. They were so focussed on each other it never occurred to them that the old geezer in the barge was a threat 🤣 By the time their traction control had recovered I was long gone. A friends tuned RX7 beat the Legend easily, but then twice the power and half the weight has that effect. Even my GTR1000 (4.0s 0-60) struggled to beat that thing!

I've seen various figures quoted for the various LSes from 7.2 down to 6.2 secs. I think the best description of it is adequate without being violent.

You are really looking at car tyres when abroad? Linas what is wrong with you! Tyres maybe but maintenance? They bring the car to the garage if its broken thats it.

Welcome to the forum Jason . Sounds a nice car you have. I will be travelling down to Cornwall in the UX 2weeks this Saturday just take my time and enjoy the vehicle. Coming from East Yorks its a long trip usually do a couple of stops and always stop at launceston on A30 go to butchers breaks journey up. Over the years the road to Cornwall has significantly improved. Good for a hybrid drive on A30 keep it out of cruise ease of accelarator on those looooong downhills.

My search is finally over! Managed to pick myself up an 08 mesa for a good price, wasn’t listed anywhere but I posted on the isf Facebook forum and he messaged me! Couldn’t be happier😅

How wrong I was about 50 miles, I scraped to 47. But that is still excellent, I think? Tonights guess is the highest again 57.8/56.7

Tonight's charge prediction marginally up on yesterday with 53.1/51.5 indicated. Actual from yesterday's predicted 51.3 was 44.7 but included around 20 miles of motorway driving. Charge appears to reduce more rapidly as the battery depletes. First leg of the journey was 9 miles but battery only reduced by 7.

Neil just been out to the car,you’re a bloody star played around with the steering wheel controls and bang lovely sounds coming through. Music is my life,I am so. Grateful. Thanks and best wishes to all who have responded.

Neil and Glyn Wow what a response thank you so much.I really hope the steering wheel issue is the culprit,this sounds a real probability. Good to check the simple things out first.! Will report back on all you have raised. Thanks both once again. Graham.

Thought I would let you know that following contact with chief exec of P&O it is all sorted, full refund of cruise, excursions and travel insurance. Just shows persistance pays. Bill D.

It's a reasonable second car for a young aspiring drug dealer

Looks great 😀😀

Presumably because they believe it is unsafe? No reason to mention it otherwise and I personally wouldn't second guess it..

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.

The best fixes are the easy ones like this!

Welcome. Looks very smart and with mudflaps too (which are reported to be in short supply)!

Yellow is a very rare colour, for a very good reason. It's not at all popular! If you are getting offers to buy it, bite their hand off. You could be waiting a long time for the special person who wants a high mileage, yellow IS200

If it's parked outside, then fit a solar panel maintainer to the rear parcel shelf. They provide enough to keep the battery topped off. If mine is going to be parked for more than a week then I plug it in to the charger I rigged up during Covid. That keeps the battery in good nick.

Well done Essex police! I suppose a new front bumper isn't the end of the world and before it's fitted, an ideal opportunity to safeguard against another canbus attack. Great shame this is happening, and really any manufacturer who leaves this access point vulnerable really ought to be sorting this out with some measure of urgency.

What we need is a steel plate like they’re supposedly thinking about making for the RX. And landmines in the wheel arches. I’m sure South Africa has something we can fit…

I have not used Toyota, but I have enquired about the service and in conclusions they turn out to be same price. As well if you service your Lexus in Toyota, then you won't get Lexus Relax warranty, despite Toyota having same warranty it simply does not apply to Lexus... so it is kind of no brainer to use them. Now to be honest that was back in the days when Lexus had "Essential Maintenance" plan, but I doubt something would have fundamentally changed overall. To quote some specific numbers back then minor service for my IS250 was £285 with Lexus and "Essential" price was £165. Toyota dealer quoted me £225 for minor service, basically oil and filters... and it doesn't come with courtesy car or coffee or anything else, they did not do pick-up, nor delivery and sitting in Toyota dealer whilst they do it was kind of unacceptable either, as they don't even have like a sit down area. In short if you take car with them, then you basically have to take bus home and come later to pick-up the car (well or taxi if you really posh). So even assuming now I would have to pay £285 to Lexus, I would still rather use Lexus for convenience of having courtesy car etc. Last time I called Lexus they said they not doing "Essential Care" anymore (which is real shame), but offered 20% discount. So all in all - the saving by using Toyota is simply not there, or so little that it is not worth bothering about.

Batteries are my problem, the old Celsior must have had 4 or 5 in 16 years of ownership and I’ve just replaced it on the new one. Problem is, as you mention Malc, lack of use, I am averaging 2K a year with just local shopping runs and maybe 4 x 40 mile round trips to the local airport where it then stands again for 2 weeks at a time. Straight pass with no advisories on the MOT again @ 80,000 miles so another year to enjoy.

Given the age of my 2004 Celsior the paint wasn’t in bad condition at all but I had noticed weird marks in the paint when washed, dried and hand polished in certain sunlit conditions. After asking my local paint shop 3 times for a machine polish and never getting it in I began to look into DIY. Many YouTube videos later I was more confused and hesitant by the various stages of polishing, which polishing pads to use, which cutting compounds to use, which polishing machine to use and what speed plus all the methods involved in applying the compound, amount of pressure to apply etc. I ended up buying a £50.00 DA machine, 2 Chemical Guys pads (green for the cutting and red for polishing), a bottle of Chemical Guys VSS scratch and swirl remover and a tub of Armor All polish. Over 3 days I rinsed, snowfoamed, rinsed, clay bared, cut the paint and then machine polished. After reading all the horror stories about paint thickness, hard/soft paint and panel edges I took my time. I wasn’t looking for absolute perfection but an improvement. I think it came out pretty good, the weird marks have gone which was my main concern. OK there are still scratches in the paint if you look closely but overall I’m satisfied with the results.

My advice would be to take to a car audio specialist (NOT a Lexus dealership or local general garage), it may well cost a few quid, but could save you many, many hours scrabbling around chasing shadows.

I was initially thinking £17K for a 1992 LS400 was a little OTT but having looked at a similar JDM model with a mere 8000km shipped to Southampton for $13,000 plus taxes, plus registration etc and unseen maybe not a bad price after all. That old 1994 I had cost me £3750.00 back in 2006 with 38,000 miles. (Love to know what’s happened to this as it was resold again shortly after I sold it and now shows as MOT expired) Prices have certainly gone up!

We ordered and bought the RZ knowing that the range and efficiency was lower than Teslas (even 7 year old ones). I didn’t fancy waiting over 2 years for a £100k+ left hand drive Model X. According to independent real range reports the Model Y Long Range with heating at 70mph is 2.9 kw / mile. Similar to the RZ in my experience. Some Tesla fans don’t see the reasons why people buy other EV’s - build quality, having a speedo that can be read without taking eyes off the road, a HUD, service centres in convenient locations, residuals that don’t plummet because the maker overnight reduces published list by £10k. I’m sure you’re very happy with your 7 year old Tesla as am I with my 3 miles / kw Lexus. The Tesla I sat in had the fit and finish of my wife’s Metro 40 years ago - it may have been a one off but as it was a demo I thought it representative of the car I would be ordering. A recent survey in the USA (massive market for Tesla’s) found - Consumer Reports recently published its updated reliability report pertaining to the most unreliable electric vehicles on the market today. As has been the case in the past, the Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X are both on the top 10 list. According to Drive Tesla Canada, Consumer Reports issued the Tesla Model S an overall score of 62 out of 100, and a two out of five for predicted reliability, which it considers less reliable than the average new car. Apologies for the very long post but I think the merits of the RZ over the Tesla are just as valid as the critical comparisons with Teslas and other marques.

Sounds great to me 👌🏼

Jason.. A Very Warm Welcome to The group..Should you have any Questions The plethora of Knowledgeable members In this group Will Be more than Happy to Help You...Enjoy Being part of the Team..!!

I think that sums it up pretty well, Linus. And the fact that both systems flourish probably indicates that the ‘average’ motorist is perfectly content with a ‘clean and shiny’ car and less concerned with the finer nuances of attaining bodywork perfection. Having said that, I can now provide an example that demonstrates the point. For health reasons, Mrs T hasn’t driven her Suzuki 4x4 for nearly two years. It’s barely moved off the drive. But now that she’s taking it up again, the need is to remove the many muddy, cat paw marks that it has collected. Which is why we’ve just returned from treating it to the top £10 car wash at the local BP station! What hypocrisy, some might think. But it’s the ten year old family work horse and as long as it’s ‘clean and shiny’ that’s all Mrs T demands. Justifying any further investment involves a degree of debate that is ultimately not worth the effort. Fortunately, she greatly approves of the Lexus, so I can spend what I like on it!

Incremental is the word. every charge from new three weeks ago, a little more. Will it ever get to 50 like you guys? At 21°C my 6th charge 43.1/41.4 standard 13A charge from garage socket.

Many of us stayed in the Premiere Inn which was very close to the Bear Inn where we held the meetings. I think everyone was impressed with both of them and can't wait for the 2024 event. It was such a pleasure to see and chat with old friends and new. No competition just SC430 owners enjoying conversations, comparing notes and having fun! I did not see any Soarers this year but we appeared to have an increase in the amount of SC's present. We must thank Juan for organising the weekend and for appearing to help and assist everyone's enquiries. Thanks to Bill for sharing his mechanical expertise to the needy, even if the use of an angle grinder and sledge hammer appeared excessive! 🤣 Dr Will took drone footage of the vehicles which is available on utube, and we are grateful to him for that and all the others who made long journeys to be there. Finally, thanks to Lexiguy Junior (my Tom) for encouraging the drivers of all cars to park in lines, so they looked an impressive display.

I have taken the stereo out of the car many times and I could now do it blindfolded. I kept looking for an obvious mechanical fault without success. I then watched a Youtube video where someone dismantled and repaired a Toyota cd changer. Following his example I applied 5 volts dc to the motor and it worked. It moved the trays up and down. I connected the car's wiring to the partly-dismantled cd changer and it responded to the buttons and loaded and ejected a disc. Another ribbon cable sorted out the display. I reassembled the cd changer and put it back in the car. Power on and everything worked, including the tape player. I can also store radio stations again. What a productive morning.

I've kept well clear of local car washing services, mainly manned by our friends from Eastern Europe, since being introduced to my local mobile valet service who comes to me. A comprehensive 4hr inside & out detail, including a quality wax & seal cost £150 when I bought the car. Since then my new best friend calls every 4-6 weeks to perform a 90 minute "maintenance detail" that costs me £30. Now if I went down the road our EE friends would charge me a minimum of £12.50 for a 15-minute jet wash and cloth wipe dry leaving swirly paint & a buff surface. To keep the car looking anything like clean I reckon the EE effort needs to be repeated every fortnight so after the initial hit it's not difficult to work out that not only am I better off financially but the bodywork is being regularly looked after by a professional ... and it looks the absolute bizzo! 😊

Indeed - this is not EV bash, it is bash on idiotic idea of banning internal combustion before making any steps to build infrastructure which could handle EVs and just expecting everything to sort itself out. I personally have no issues with BEV, but I do believe they need to stand on their own two feet, without subsidies, without coercion... and if people still buy them and they work for them... perfect! Maybe one day they will be so good that people just going to prefer them over "outdated" ICEV and ICEV will naturally decline and disappear (same as steam engines disappeared in the past) - that is fine as well. But every sane person understand that BEVs just don't work for most, so if left to their own natural evolution and adoption they won't get adapted even by the end of this century... what is the solution? Ban people form buying what they want and need... and then expecting everyone will be happy about it?

How do you put negative voltage on to something? Either there is a voltage or there is no voltage. I've not heard of minus voltages.

Yes I was looking forward to seeing you as well as you and I are quite active on this forum but by the time I got round to it you had just left so perhaps next year. Regarding the markers this is a link to ebay. I offered $62 for 4 and they accepted my offer. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284933919161?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=mlJvGx96TN2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=fgLYK3NFS2u&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY I did also buy the bulb holder sockets and wiring as well just in case I ever wanted to wire then into the indicator circuit as I purchased 2 sets of amber LED’s. My car is a preface model but I am not sure if the later ones are the same size. Mine are 183mm wide x 38mm high. Vladimir was at the meet yesterday with two SC’s both silver and he had the smoked ones on his which he had wired in and they where sequential LED’s although I didn’t see them working myself. Here is a link to the bulb holder sockets and the wiring connectors. The wiring connectors were very cheap from AliExpress but they were very tight and had to forced on. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195592157367?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=EgGS6wAyTp-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=fgLYK3NFS2u&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

So i took the brakes apart on Thursday night to clean and relubricate hoping this would resolve my issue. while its much better than before its still not solved. What i did discover was when i had the tyre off on the rear n/s (passenger) when i tried to wiggle the whole suspension/control arm section it was making a strange squeakish clunky type sound, i then checked the rear o/s (driver) and that was solid and no noise. At this point its beyond my tool and skill level, ive got friday off so will be going along to local indie to get to the bottom of the issue. since the brake clean i can replicate issue by: reverse > brake [clunk clunk] > forward > brake [clunk] and then fine for a while. Also see to get the noise when on a downward slope and braking.

Lexus Edinburgh also share the workshop with the Toyota garage next door. Same parent company owns both franchises (plus all the other marques nearby)

Charging in the rain ! Just charging in the rain

Very nice and clean and what a great car to sit in traffic in.

Cleaned an topping up, getting ready for Sunday evening traffic jams

Just switched to an aftermarket (non OEM) puddle lamp, a real upgrade from the original one LED setup . A one minute plug and play job

Bill, if the contract condition is unreasonable, then a claim against that can be made. if you complete the declaration after paying for the cruise, and they refuse to provide the service after you have paid and then completed their declaration. A reasonable contract would allow both parties to withdraw at that point. You suggest others have a similar problem, it would make sense to raise this with a national organisation or newspaper. Hope you find a solution.