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The rates are published here: NHS mileage allowance rates | Royal College of Nursing (rcn.org.uk) In summary for the NHS: The national guidance in England is 59 pence per mile for the first 3,500 miles and 24 pence per mile thereafter. This compares to HMRC published (tax free) rates of 45p per mile for first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter. For the NHS rates there would be tax due on the excess payments over the HMRC published rates, but depending on mileage this would tend to zero for higher mileage drivers as more miles would then be done at the lower rate, and their overall compensation would fall within HMRC guidelines. The RCN are trying to get the rates raised, which I agree with as would any other person using their own car for business mileage since HMRC have hardly changed the rates for many years, but this should be the same for anyone that is using their own car for business mileage and not for any one particular profession.

AFAIK the NHS actually pays for private car use over the HMRC rate of 45p per mile first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile thereafter - I think something over 50p per mile now. It's the only organisation that I know of that actually pays more then the HMRC rates. I assume that the nurses getting paid that will pay tax on the excess over the HMRC rates... HMRC really need to review the figures for everyone with the significant increases in recent years running a car (not just fuel but everything else).

No they haven't. For older vehicles they are installing trackers and immobilisers and newer ones have updated firmware in the main body ECU to detect hacks - that isn't anything like implementing encryption across the entire CAN bus.

Found this on a local FB page 😀 “So my car needs to pass an MOT to make sure it’s safe to drive on roads that aren’t safe to drive on ?”

could be worse, apparently land rover & range rover owners cant even get insured because of all the theft.

I wanna think in this paragraph you're referring to the Royal family? They've been on benefits for a long time too, refusing to get real jobs. On publicly-owned utilities, I'll just say you should look up what happened with the privatised water supply in Paris for example. Also, it is not "the government", it is us (as a group of humans forming a society) who need to help those who aren't able to help themselves. A younger society (with children) ultimately benefits everyone.

Nurses are also punished when trying to park their cars at their workplace and charged and fined for the privilege. One friend has racked up over £500 in fines for parking at the hospital. They, and others are refusing to pay.

as above. It should only be used to avoid fumes in your garage or being quiet as you arrive/leave your house in the early hours. Forcing EV mode normally results in worse fuel consumption compared to just letting the vehicle do its thing. The cancelling of the mode depends on throttle, temperature, battery state of charge and speed.

I have the Levinson one in my Takumi and to be honest it is wasted on me. I have always wondered if a high spec sound system in a car is a waste of money anyway unless you are stationary, all the background noise even in a quiet car must drown out all the discrete tones and quality. Bill D.

So how did we go from Insurance companies to Banks? Look I expect this level of naivety and lack of understanding of commerce from some people. I just did not expect to find it here amongst people who are equipped to find themselves behind the wheel of a Lexus. I shall refrain from further participation .

I had a visit from the local PCSO a couple of nights ago, who was checking on a nearby car theft. Came inside and gave me an update on car security measures for our on the drive parked CT, of which to be fair I am pretty much up to speed on. The main points being the crook/disc lock being a worthwhile addition, Faraday pouch for the smart locking key fobs etc and the added deterrent of having my Catloc fitted. I said I had mixed feelings about the Faraday pouch, as I had to consider my preference to waking up in the morning after a sound nights sleep to find the car gone. Or waking up in the middle of the night to find someone breaking into the house to get the keys 😆. Even so he gifted me a Faraday pouch before leaving lol! The real bonus though, he also gifted me a Smart Water kit and window stickers and registered the Ct on the Smart Water traceable vehicle site. Apparently the Chop Shops have made it clear that Smart water treated cars will not be accepted from car thieves, as any treated parts found on premises are now resulting in an over 85% prosecution success rate. I already have put the smart water stickers on next to the Catloc stickers, and will start applying the smart water on various parts/places when the weather is a bit nicer. 😉

It's a problem with all modern cars, especially hybrids and EVs. Some EVs (Tesla and some Kia/Hyundai for example) will auto wake and charge the battery itself if it detects it going flat.

Yes they do, but the OP has an IS250 (non-hybrid).

My spin on this…… Having had people break into my house looking for keys (years ago) whilst I was in the house, I’d rather just wake up and the car be gone. End of. I don’t want some determined bar steward standing over my bed with a baseball bat asking for a ghost code. Visual deterrents are surely the best. Even better friend, the law of averages. There surely can’t be much demand for an LC, and most LCs seem to be that yucky red colour - nobody would want one of those, surely 😜

I doubt there’ll ever be any intention to cancel the NHS it’s enshrined in the UKs DNA 👍 Malc

Exactly this plus the NHS isnt just one organisation from what I understand. While there are some guidelines that are applicable to all each trust is run as its own separate entity with its own rules and schemes / benefits for employees. Given the way things are I reckon eventually the big insurance companies will have their way and all of us will be having the same discussion about how our health insurance has reached crazy heights with them being hand in glove with big pharma.

Oh also spent some money at Lexus parts direct for a set of wheel locking nuts ( the current ones looked nasty and the box has seen better days) so a new set with new box, also replaced brake rubber as the old one was worn , got a set of carpet mat clips and replaced the broken ones driver and passenger side. Small things but looks better. Also bought leather cleaner and protector , gave the seats a good old clean and have come up really well...

There are some truly shocking roads out and around my neck of the woods at the moment. Two examples spring to mind immediately: Firstly, the street next to the one I live on. It's a side-street but is on a bus route. This has been poorly maintained for not far off a decade, now. It's surface-dressed (yuck) but all that done was turn a very lumpy and uneven surface into a coarse, lumpy and uneven surface. Naturally, most of that surface dressing has either broken apart or worn completely away. It was never replaced. Since then, it's had literally dozens of small potholes open up on it. One by one, the worst ones are filled in by the council - so the surface now has a rough 'patchwork quit' effect for much of it's length. It's still lumpy and uneven. Over time, some of those potholes have opened back up and new ones have appeared. The whole lot has needed ripping up and resurfacing properly for the last couple of years, now. Secondly, there's a semi-rural lane about a mile from where I live and forms part of my route home from work (well, the route that avoids the worst of the traffic). Until recent months, there was a 50yd or so stretch which genuinely resembled what I can only describe as a ploughed field and was often swerved around by driving on the opposite side of the lane when possible. I first complained to the council about it's deteriorating condition at least four years ago but was told "it's up to standard". 🤷‍♂️ For a tractor or monster truck maybe, but not a road car. Fortunately that's now been resurfaced properly. However, there's a good quarter of a mile stretch shortly before this which now has now become a slalom-course for motorists. Random holes have been opening up in places. So, the only real way to navigate it in relative 'smoothness' is to drive with a combination of your passenger wheels literally on the white line before the soft verge, and sometimes with your offside wheels just over the centre line markings.

Just a quick update my little indie has checked all discs,drums and pads nothing wrong with them , did say there was a lot of dust/debris which he has cleared out and also put lubricant on so to run and test for now , best part was he noticed one of my AFS sensors had snapped although the sensor was fine so he popped some weld on and reset the code now got working AFS and no error , he did say one of the TPMS sensors was not registering so looking at getting them replaced again something they are happy to do. So going from needing front pads or as I suspected, a clean,some repair work and a general check underneath for suspension etc was all that was required. Total charged £35 , and nothing else to report they said . Well happy with that and with a local indie I can trust. Did ask if he could replace the TMPS sensors and reprogram he said that should be ok so probably get all four changed. Will be going to local Lexus for a battery check and possible an alignment on the steering , car pulling on slightly to the left which just needs a little correction, read on the forums that owner took their car to Lexus and was only charged £80 to calibrate and reprogram the rear steering... oh still love driving the car every day glad I bit the bullet and went for it

Wot a bluddy nonsense all this with more modern cars …….. why put oneself thru’ purgatory and such inconvenience when a more conventional car would suit much more sensibly ……, brill old fashioned Ls400 technology surpasses all this ! Malc

Had a free-ish weekend so spent a few hours fitting some new rear discs/pads and wheels to the Lexus. I picked up some Tesla Model 3 wheels with 4 almost new Michelin Pilot sport 5's on for a steal, I quite like the design of them without the standard wheel covers, fitted the style I was after on this car. The tyres are 235/45/18's slightly bigger than I'd have wanted, but couldn't pass up on the deal. The ET on the wheels are slightly better than standard, the rear may benefit from 20mm spacer to get them perfectly in the arch, but for now I feel they look far better! Reason for doing the rear discs was after a trip up to my brothers I noticed the rear left was very hot, thought it must be the slider pins. Turns out the slider pin that usually causes issues was perfectly fine, fortunately someone has definitely looked after the car in the past. I left the bottom pin in place, cleaned and applied plenty of new grease, the top slider on both sides I replaced with a new pin and boot. The left caliper piston had been pretty tough to push back in, I attempted to free it up as much as possible without actually taking it out, after a short trip with the new set up I noticed the disc still get very hot, so the piston's definitely sticking. New rear caliper is on its way, gives me a reason to change out to rear lines for a braided set I got with the car and to get some new fluid in the lines, hoping to have that sorted this weekend. Fair to say the old discs had served their time 😄 The next issue to sort with be a CEL I've sporadically had since owning the car. Of recent its been a P0420, but has also been a P0137 both for Bank 1, sensor 2. After doing a bit of research it could well be a leak prior to or around the downstream sensor and my mid pipe to cat exhaust flange isn't looking great at all, for how well preserved the underside of the car is, the exhaust flanges have taken a beating haha. Thinking it may need to go to an exhaust shop to get them to cut and weld on 2 new flanges and the cheaper option, or I get a custom mid pipe made at the same time. That being said the cars driving well with the new alloys/tyres on, it's already eliminated a pulling to the right I had with the old alloys. Still going strong at 157,000 miles!

In which case it will probably benefit from a weekly drive out into the country to get the engine, exhaust system and transmission up to an efficient working temperature once a week. And speaking as a north London lad myself, I always looked forward to getting away at weekends. And what country pub car park wouldn’t be enhanced by the arrival of a nice Lexus?

Ordered CMS C27 (8X18, ET35) in "Titan gloss" so now its a waiting game...

And no doubt Lexus could do something similar if they could be bothered....

I can double check. But as far as I am aware when you work in the community, the role requires you to have a car as you do around 4 - 5 visits a day. The only thing you can claim back from the NHS is the money you spend on fuel. I don't know what the exact rate is but they pay this out based on the no of miles done. Unless this is what you are talking about too and you're saying the fixed rate they pay is not for fuel only but for personal car usage? Even so the rate per mile has stayed the same for several years. I remember them complaining about how bad they were hit at the peak of the energy crisis. The NHS do not cover any additional costs like insurance (they have to buy business insurace which costs more) or maintenance. So they would often end up being out of pocket on an already not very high salary.

The Lexus dealership I use replaces the batteries in both keys on every service. And as these batteries only cost pence, then one can always replace them oneself every six months (if one wishes) just for peace of mind. Think of it as 'preventive maintenance!'

I got a warning on mine. Didn't react to it at first and the reminder message didn't appear again for a few weeks. Have since changed the battery and all good.

You need a physical deterrent - none of the immobilisers etc will prevent them damaging the car before they realise it's a non-starter. Make sure your vehicle is too much risk to touch vs others in the area. Locked garage with something else in front, bollards, etc etc.

Educating your children is mandated by law. Owning a car is not, and therefore insurance isn’t mandatory and shouldn’t be state provided. The problem is we’ve been too generous bailing out those making unwise life choices (e.g. those on benefits see a financial increase if they have more kids, courtesy of other taxpayers; whereas those earning & paying their way typically see a big decrease in their household finances if they have more children) that it’s now become expected that the government will solve all problems. Any sense of personal responsibility is sadly gone. I fear too many people aren’t aware of how bad nationalised companies were. I suspect we all may have a refresher course in the next few years.

Just because your vehicle wasn't part of the recall it doesn't mean you couldn't have an unrelated one off fuel pump failure. If it got to the point where warning lights were displayed, and errors codes generated, then your dealer will hopefully have an idea on the cause and look to fix it - if you have had a Lexus dealer service in the last 12 months then you Relax warranty should be covering any issue related to the engine or fuel system.

Just to add a few variables: Throttle position, road gradient/rolling resistance, wind direction, temperature/weather conditions fuel tank full or not, passengers in car, etc, etc… As @rayaans said, just let the car do its thing, but if you really want to ‘overthink’ it https://mag.toyota.co.uk/hybrid-driving-tips-for-best-fuel-economy/

Depends on a multitude of factors. Let the car do it's thing. No real benefit to using EV mode apart from if you want to travel in stealth

I just found this on the US forum which sounds exactly like what happened to our car last week. https://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/94700-my-fuel-pump-issue-~-rx-450h/ Have sent a copy to Lexus MK for their information. JBP

I feel the insurance companies ( and finance institutions often ) hold general public over their barrel and there’s no Ombudsman or Govt Control that’s effective to protect us all against the potential greed of some ……. sure some insurers are having a bad time financially probably but others are probably doing very well indeed, too well maybe ……. that’s their Management and Board for the Shareholders ……. poor judgements often too in risk assessment …….. and it might be that some Lexus drivers are indeed poor risks …… their driving skills, easy theft cars, anti-social areas by where they live …… and more ……BUT the oft feeling by very many is that we are simply being ripped off …… and that’s a bad feeling to have and some Ombudsman / Authority whatever should be taking due notice to investigate why and suggest remedy ……. Sitting on their backsides just won’t cut it I’m afraid …… a revolutions a’coming 🥵 Malc

Ooh the level of judgement. You shall refrain from further participation? Ooh no! we're going to miss out on all the condescending comments. Its laughable that you think you're better than others because you drive a Lexus. Goes to show the size of the peanut where your idea if your "expertise" comes from. Also since you're such an award winning expert on commerce you should know these business are all intertwined. The best example is AIG that tanked and was bailed out at taxpayers expense. But you already know that since you're a baller award winning, lexus driving, rolex wearing commerce expert 🤣

Thanks. It's very frustrating. Be careful of sending messages blind though. My recipients get "what do you want" at the other end lol. Might investigate the beta version.

They say things come in threes. I hope the third is of the Good Luck variety!

Itll be the injector or fuel pump. Had the injector on mine but was sorted under warranty

That was for the series I NX which had three audio grades. The current NX only has two grades, both good quality with separate amps and a sub.

That part is not allowed on this forum, please remove 😀

Well….I do Stephen! I never let my tyres get below 3mm. Apparently that’s the point at which performance deteriorates rapidly. On the other hand, my annual mileage is so low that the problem of new tyres may not be my problem!

I fitted tyres for a while when I was a lad and plug repairs are perfectly fine. I would actually prefer this repair method over a normal patch since the stem of the plug also fills out the entry wound. Meaning there's less chance of the steel belts inside the carcass getting corroded from water ingress.

Are the drains at the bottom of the door blocked?

Cannot see anything wrong with engine bay... not that engine bay would be telling anything about the maintenance of the car anyway...

When I bought my 2009 car I too was concerned about muck traps and possible hidden corrosion, so what I did was clean the underside with a lawn sprinkler (nothing but minor surface rust) and apply some rust protection (Dynax and ACF-50). I also removed the wheel arch liners to see what the state of things was under there. I doubt they'd ever been removed before, as there was a lot of built up mud/muck, especially on the rear. I cleaned all this off with one of those plastic/rubber brush drill attachments and was pleasantly surprised to find the paintwork underneath to be like new. I then liberally spayed these areas with Dynax before refitting the liners. Once a year (just before winter) I spray the underside with ACF 50 and apply some corrosion block grease to the inside lip of the wheel arches. So, in my exprerience, the rustproofing seemed pretty good compared to my previous car (Jaguar). Like you say, prevention is easier and cheaper than cure, so I'd get a good look at as much as you can, clean it up and apply some rustproofing. It's also worth having something like clear nail varnish to hand, to apply to any stone chips, to prevent them from rusting until you get round to a repair.

Climate control doesn't sound quite right to me. I have always just leave mine on Auto (with A/C on) and all vents open. I point the side vents to the side windows and the centre vents towards each other in the centre of the car and slightly up (unless I went it to my body). Never felt anything blowing unintended on my body that way but the Auto does what it needs to in order to maintain the set temperature. I generally set it to around 20C in warm weather and 18C if it gets very hot outside. In cooler weather around 22C and if it's really cold might up it to 24C for a while. There are some settings for climate control to do with how strong the fan works at (mines left on default) which if someone has altered it may play a part. Also when the car is in Eco mode that puts the climate control in an Eco mode too (automatically). It's more powerful in Normal and Sport modes. There is also the S-flow button that controls whether the rear of the car gets air through to it or not - worth reading the manual for all of that. The mpg sounds spot on and so everything with the engine / hybrid sounds like it's working as it should. There are a few averages you can look at for consumption. Each time you restart the car, per fill up and over all time (since a reset). These can be displayed on the instrument display by scrolling down the different windows but not all at once. Also the display can be customised to show the different averages (they are not all there by default)). You'd need to read the manual to decide which averages you want to display. I set mine up when I first got the car - did an overall reset - and haven't touched them since, just scroll up and down to see what I want to. DAB takes a bit of working out - again best to read the manual (a couple of times) to work out how to get the channels you want programmed in. It works in Ensembles (collection of stations) so you select an ensemble and then a station from the ensemble. The BBC national radio stations are all on one ensemble. Once you put one of those on your favourites it will find it anywhere in the country. Also there is a useful FM link function too (I think that needs switching on in the audio setup somewhere) which for the BBC national stations means that if the radio loses the DAB signal as you drive around it will switch to the FM signal for the station and back to DAB when the DAB signal comes back - all seamlessly. That way you don't get DAB drop outs (which are common otherwise, particularly in hilly areas did to DAB not having the same coverage as FM.

It's a worldwide common issue, although not seen as much in the UK. There are two issues, one is the EGR can become blocked, the other, which is likely your mate's issue, is the piston rings which get coked up, cannot rotate and cannot drain oil correctly. It ultimately wears the cylinder bores so even if you free the rings it will still consume oil. It's a design issue that has affected several engines - my son's 2012 1.3 Yaris suffers the same issue - possibly because the previous owner didn't do regular oil changes with quality oil. In 2014/15, Toyota fixed the issue with resigned pistons and oil control rings which have larger holes and different tension. He could try using engine flush before each oil change, and possibly move to 5W30 oil which may help consumption but will increase petrol usage somewhat - essentially manage the issue. Otherwise it needs more major work to decoke the engine - provided the bores aren't damaged. If they are damaged then you need a new block as I don't believe you can successfully rebore that engine. If you search for the issue against the Prius, which uses the same engine, you will find more info as the number of those sold is much larger and hence more cars with the problem.

Definitely not a milk float and definitely looks lovely. Congrats and welcome to the Lexus forum (if you weren't here already) @MedicalFlyer

As long as the car is covered under relax, you will pay the service cost regardless, plus any not covered items eg wear and tear. Any additional work covered under Relax warranty will be parts and Labour FOC. Of course any pre existing failed items before the Lexus service started, may not be covered. Think of it as getting your car up to scratch, then getting a year on year warranty with every service. To be fair not many cars stack up to CT's reliability in the yearly ratings. It's always been there or thereabouts. Perhaps why Lexus are prepared to stand by them for 10yrs, while benefitting from the service income.

I'm in a very similar position to OP (also with a 2017 F Sport). This will be my first Lexus service, although last year the car was serviced with Lexus, so it has the 12 month Relax warranty. Let's say the service itself uncovers that additional parts and thus labour are needed - stuff that is covered by the Relax warranty. Would these parts and labour be covered under the warranty itself, or are any problems that are detected during service not covered under the warranty? In other words, are out of pocket expenses beyond the service cost itself possible? Thanks!