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I find my car gets to 60 quicker if I film the speedo whilst doing it. Defo using this trick down the drag strip next weekend see if I can get in to the 11's!!

The one thing I could not believe was just how many Motor Homes there were, being confirmed on Harris by the owner of the guest house we stayed at, that this year they have taken over. Of course they are all big on small roads, but we nearly had a head on smash, when I was doing about 80mph on our way back on a clear long stretch of open road, when a motor home coming in the opposite direction pulled out into our path to overtake a stopped vehicle. I know my LS braking ability , which is excellent and I have newish Michelin’s, and I was literally standing on the brake pedal, and I said to my wife , we are going to hit him. Just at the very last minute he moved out of my path. Believe me I was shaking and nearest miss I have had ever...... but my beloved LS430 lives to see another day. What I also should have said , as Malc has mentioned many times, I did not see another LS at all, and very very few Lexus’s, except on Barra, which is incredibly remote. My planned potential next car is an LC500, ( if I can fit in), when the prices have come down, and I feel the time is right, although not yet driven one. On Barra in front of me is a 68 plate white LC, thought I was seeing things. I have put a notification on the LC forum to see if they are a member but no response yet. My LS430, and all LS’s are truly wonderfully comfortable and perfect cruising cars and I plan to make use of mine and do more, cheers, Roger

CNET: 2020 Lexus RX gets Apple CarPlay and Android Auto along with a host of updates. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2020-lexus-rx-apple-carplay-android-auto-updates/#ftag=CAD0610abe0f Motor1.com: 2020 Lexus RX And RXL Break Cover With Facelift And Improved Tech. https://www.motor1.com/news/351894/2020-lexus-rx-unveiled/amp/ Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk

Saw this and just had to get a copy.

Took the words out of my mouth on the call recording front. Btw... I work for a certain large insurance company... Not mentioned on this thread though 🙂

This is why i just got the seat belt webbing changed due to the electrics...it’ll be for the pretensioner system i changed from beige to red belts

I’ve heard that if you de-tune the engine a little to comply with latest exhaust regulations so that it makes a bit less power, add a big wing on the back and pay for journalists to have an amazing holiday at an international motor racing circuit of their choosing the RCF is much quicker and handles as well as anything else on the road.

When I drive the car a bit spirited I put the heaters on full power and highest temp and put the windows down slightly so it creates a vacuum pulling hot air out the engine, defo adds 25.7bhp 👍

best two tweeks I know for reducing under bonnet temps are firstly remove the bonnet, the second slightly more drastic, remove the engine

Those single track roads in Scotland do drop the mpg. Recently up in Kinloch Rannoch, most of the runnning around in a mates Volvo V40, sure it was more fuel efficient but no way as nice as trundling my tank along the road from Pitlochry to Kinloch, though nearly ran over a red squirrel (maybe LS to quite for them to hear!!!) The run back was Kinloch, to Arbroath (for lunch) then back to Cotswolds via quick detour into Dundee, and though a long drive, felt well less worn out than my mate in his V40.

...I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Azure blue f sport premium pack... expect questions from me in the next few weeks!!

Having been a member of the LS430 club for five years and having had to say farewell to that car I've now bought an IS 300h, reg no ND13 ZHR. I'm the third owner and the car has done 72720 miles. I shall rejoice in the £10 a year road tax and a fuel bill less than half of the 430 bill. I do no more than 9000 miles a year these days but I intend them to be enjoyable in driving terms. I'd be glad to learn what other users think of the 300h and what - if any - problems might arise. AFB

Well just completed the above in my LS430. As expected a perfect trip, with no probs. Did 1150 miles overall, with quite a lot of driving on single track roads, so stop start. Got 27mpg overall and on the 360 mile trip from Fort William mostly at 80 on the motorway, achieved 32mpg, which is brilliant. Now gone over 99k miles and MOT due soon, so keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully will get a French trip in this year, Cheers , Roger

I was going to reply, but I suddenly found better things to do. Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk

I do appreciate this post John. Thanks Brian

Absolutely not. I amazed myself by the speed of my adjustment to the loss of my 430, and when looking forward rather than back I'd already decided to find another Lexus (do most Lexus drivers stay with the marque?). I considered the CT300 but the spec wasn't right for me - I needed a saloon big enough to cope with long journeys without stress as well as saving money in local running around. The Swindon Lexus dealers gave me a test drive in the latest IS300h and it made my mouth water. So here I am - paying only 10 quid a year to the Chancellor, and I already know that by careful driving I can achieve 50+ mpg - thus literally halving my fuel bill. Barring major mishaps the car will pay for itself in 5 years. The ride is great, and though I miss some of the tweaks in my 430 - the steering wheel retracting to make egress easier, the self-closing doors - on the whole I'm content with my new experience. AFB

thats what they say, will get another car in for showroom wth red interior then just do a swapout.

Not a view to which I subscribe, but good luck anyway.

Think i've seen this one around too, the reg rings a bell for me, there is also a black one around Reading area I've come across but couldn't remember the reg and my dash cam was not on so couldn't go back to look, seems there are a few GSF's closer to me than I thought! 😄

Just did the NC500 in my ISF a couple of weeks ago. Fantastic. Fort William to Loch Maree via Applecross, onto Drumbeg, Bettyhill and Dornoch. 1500 mile round trip. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Enjoy !!!!

I would definitely buy my '06 RX350SE again. Do not buy the air suspension models. No gain just an expensive pain and I would only renew with Lexus parts. Do not assume just because it is a Lexus it will be rust free. Some are, some are not. It is easy enough to look underneath especially at the rear. To check for rain water ingress you need to remove the plastic tray under the parcel lids at the back of the loading bay.

But do not go anywhere near to a Nisan CVT box!

@Womble72 Trust me, no offence taken on that front. On an insurance front, believe it or not, insurance companies make about 3p profit per £. Obviously all adds up over time. Only takes "the beast from the east" or the car park fire that took out 1000 vehicles to dent that. Premiums fluctuate due to various reasons, the £ against the € has had a massive impact as well. Most spare parts (regardless of manufacturer) and paint is purchased from European stores in € so repairs have become more expensive recently 😞 On a different front, staff discounted premium of £250 a year with £300 excess for my old bird of an ISF goes down well with the bank account 😉

Little know FACT , the staggered wheel size on the ISF are designed to allow the user to use the car for drag and circuit racing simply fit the wider wheel at the front for increased cornering at the track and reverse the process for added traction at the strip !!!!

Dan, ALL and I mean ALL calls are recorded and have to be by law, no court would rule in their favour if they have erased the conversation, all conversation are kept for a minimum of 5 years for reasons of this nature. Sounds more like an insurance scam from a third party and it’s easier for them to just pass it on to you rather than deal with it themselves.....all insurance companies are charlatans and lower than pond scum! Good luck mate 🤞🏻

That's what the owners of the b&b that we stayed at in Saltzburg said, the Japanese come for two weeks but only stay in one place for one day, then it's on to the next.

Mash a traditional auto box and it will eventually swap down some gears and then accelerate with revs jumping up and down in the top third of the range whilst the car changes gear as they near the peak - when you ease off the car will swap cogs up the gears to a higher one for cruising. Mash a Lexus e-cvt and the revs rise to about 2/3 of max and the car accelerates - the revs then hold and/or continue to rise more slowly over the last third if you keep your foot to the floor - if you ease off the revs fall sharply as the car starts cruising at the set speed. That's the way the IS 300h drive train works. Rather than mash the pedal to the floor if you "squeeze" it to the floor over about a second or so then the revs rise a little more in line with speed. Also there is the kick down too - if you don't activate the kick down (so stop before you feel the kick down switch) the revs are more controlled (rather than just maxing out). If you mash the pedal to the floor the car uses the kick down switch for max torque/revs (similar to a traditional auto kick down that swaps to the lowest cog and the engine revs for max torque). I always say that you really do need to drive a Lexus e-cvt car for a few weeks to "get" the way the drivetrain works. A few miles (or even a day) with the car and like anything "different" it feels strange. I had an IS 300h loan car for a day and made my decision to purchase after that but realise how much more I know now. But once you have experienced the e-cvt and get the feel of how it's working unless you drive the car like it's been stolen all the time it is a very refined piece of clever engineering that is more in tune with modern traffic than a traditional autobox - and I come from higher powered BMWs with autoboxes before I got my IS 300h and so have experience of a good autobox to compare it with. Not sure what car you had previously but I also drove a Merc C200 petrol hire car with auto about a year ago for a couple of months and have to say after the Lexus e-cvt it was atrocious - slow to respond, often in the wrong gear and certainly not smooth!

Never heard if the NC500 until this post, but looking at it it seems like this is a 5 day journey with lots of breaks to soak up the views (or the haar), why would you want to rush around in a day or two. Reminds me of many years ago while at the Liverpool Garden Festival in 1984, staying at a B&B in Chester and there was this American couple who had planned this trip Day 1 - Heathrow to Edinburgh Day 2 - Edinburgh - Ben Nevis drive by - Stranraer Day 3 - Northern Ireland Day 4 Southern Ireland to cork Day 5 Swansea to Chester (they were looking a bit ragged by now) and they reckon they could not find an castles in Wales (for real) Day 6 Chester to Lands End Day 7 back to Heathrow Nothing like watching great countryside just fly by the window😵 before getting back on a plane

Had a similar problem myself a few years back, AFAIK the air suspension struts on the 300 are not the same as those on the 450 and are one-piece items. Independent mechanic I spoke to said that they could grease it as with yours but not replace the top bearing separately.

What a mess. Hopefully, to give you some peace of mind, Bailiffs can only be instructed by a court, I haven't seen any mention of a court summons being issued at any point then Bailiffs cannot knock on your door. It would be in your favour if it did go too court as you could then show the court all your evidence after which the judge has found in your favour AF will end up with all the expenses and any damages the court may feel you should be paid for damages caused by stress and worry caused by them.

Yup I use it , brilliant

I think what's happening is that the computer is making the best judgement about how to deliver the request you've made through the accelerator. If the accelerator is pushed to the floor your message to the car is to deliver maximum power. This means get the engine to the highest revs possible, where the engine delivers maximum power, But this is limited by the fact that the electric motors can only spin so fast without damage. So the computer adjusts engine speed and gear ratios to achieve the maximum power you're asking for through the accelerator. By contrast, in a conventional car, pressing the accelerator has traditionally meant feed more fuel into the engine. Here the concept is a bit more computer controlled. This seems to mean that you can only get the engine to maximum revs if the car is going fast enough to accommodate this without damage to the electric motors. Here's a video of the IS300h that shows how the engine revs only increase as the car gathers speed. (Thanks Herbie for explaining how to embed video in the forum! Pretty simple!) So if you ease off the throttle, the rate of acceleration will slow. But depending on the circumstances the engine may not reduce revs yet. However, the good news is that the advice for good fuel consumption is to accelerate fairly hard and then coast. I suppose this is because the engine is at its most efficient at high revs. The other good news is that when cruising on the motorway (on the IS300h at least) the engine is generally turning at around 1200-1500 rpm whatever the car's speed. This makes long journeys very relaxing.

Actually I travel at 80 on speedo , which in reality is 72 mph, still over I know . The parked vehicle was quite a way in the distance and could quite clearly see me coming, you don’t expect somebody to pull out in front of you, actually. However I do get your point and it is all chastening, but I am a pretty cautious driver, cheers, Roger

I don't think you're being overly fussy, I wouldn't put up with this on a new-ish car either. You're well within your rights to expect they resolve it. However it is true that reproducing such issues can be difficult and if a tech can't reproduce a problem they can't do anything about it. Hopefully you can demonstrate it to an independent tech and get a diagnosis.

Thanks Les. No, I'm not very appy so will have to look into that. How do I get it ? The supplying dealer is just glad that I live 100 miles away but I wouldn't want to go back there anyway. My reply to Mark is more up to date. Alan

Thanks Mark, We're away up north next week so will try an independent when we get back. The whole issue has totally sunk me. I thought I was getting somewhere when Jenny offered to replace the silencer and rear tail pipe. Whoopee ! but then I realised she meant the final tiny silencer box and last bit of pipe. I've got a 24 hour test drive booked with Mitsubishi (PHEV) but the RX has so much more spec. The first half hour test drive in the PHEV was totally serene but I hardly got the engine to cut in. Yes, I am fussy, but I know this car is doing something that it shouldn't and I wish there was some way of measuring/ recording the vibration and deep low frequency rumbles. You'd think a brand like Lexus would want to investigate this to make sure that it was eliminated from the build process. I'd love to know what a main section of the exhaust and boombox silencer costs to actually make from scratch. But no, there are pennies to be saved and who cares if a customer of over 15 years isn't happy? Alan

Thanks Piers, Two friends and my wife have felt this problem. As usual the only people who can't detect it are the highly trained Lexus technicians. Alan

All as it should be as the computer is keeping the engine at it's most efficient/powerful for the load placed upon it? The ratio changes are all happening seamlessly as the electric motors increase/decrease their contribution. When you lift off slightly the load demand has dropped and the revs drop to the new most efficient rev range, again the electric motors contributing in the background. It is a little unnerving initially but after a short while you'll just be enjoying the seamless acceleration. Wait till you start playing with the transmission S mode and manual 'gear' changes using the paddles, great fun!

I trust AF BUT maybe not so much their Claims Handling guys nor their Insurance company client ( is it Trinity lane ? ) I'm having a very serious issue right now where they simply have failed, in my opinion, to have looked after me, their fully comprehensively insured client, in what to my mind started off as a fraudulent claim by a 3rd party ................ and gravitated to a suggested and booked Court Hearing date, which I so much wanted and to which they bailed out at the last minute Long 2 year story but the upshot is I must now refer it all to the Financial Ombudsman to review, my option, and I'm deciding whether to go thru the Malta one or the UK one as the Insurance company is Malta registered Doesn't help you at all BUT if any of these companies are in your scheme of things then BEWARE , they will possibly NOT look after your best interests, just their own in the end But i did get on well with the AF guys for sure and they have helped all they can I guess ! Good Luck with your issue, they may want to accept liability on your behalf whether or not any of it was down to you, just to make life easy for themselves ...... veritable Bas...ds Malc

I also came from a BMW 330i (a bit newer than yours and with the straight six petrol and auto) to the IS 300h. I can echo what Jason said above. The BMW 330i was an impressive car and I loved the straight six (I'd had a number of BMW straight sixes before and pretty much bought BMW for that engine more than anything else). It was certainly fast and handled well but actually I was finding compared with earlier BMWs it was starting to feel a bit sterile and I dare I say it "common" and becoming out of touch with what most drivers need 80%+ of the time. Combined with the lack of opportunities on todays roads to really get anywhere close to maxing out the BMW I decided it was time for a switch and after a lot of contemplation (and a day's test drive) I settled on the IS 300h. IMO the IS 300h is an ideal blend for today's roads, especially in this country. Yes, there are a few places left where you can have a bit of old style fun, but even those are disappearing fast or festooned with speed cameras! The IS 300h may not be quite up with the 330i when those odd occasions arise (however it does make a good showing still) but only you know how you weight those opportunities in your selection. The IS 300h is a very accomplished car. It's built around a well-balanced rear wheel drive chassis that feel nice to drive rapidly - it's not a point and squirt rocket however but more of a grand tourer and treated like that will cover many miles quickly, quietly, refined and in safety and leave you getting out the other end refreshed. Acceleration feel is certainly different to the BMW and the E-CVT takes a little bit of getting used to (but no where near as much as the auto press make out) as there are no gear changes which after many years (even with auto boxes) have subliminally embedded themselves in our brains as markers for speed. But once you move past that (and it does take perhaps a couple of thousand miles for the brain to relearn) and treat the car as a grand tourer and not a hot hatch you start to enjoy the seamless take-off and power delivery. In fact after going back to cars with traditional auto boxes I now find all the cog swapping a real turn off in them. The different drive modes allow you to choose what you want from the car. I run mine in Eco a lot of the time simply because I am often in a stream of traffic - either busy motorway or motorway road works or A roads in a line of traffic and for the most part there is just no sense in doing anything else. If I am not able to make any faster progress than the line of traffic in front why waste any more petrol than I need to! On open motorway I also use Eco and cruise control - in that case you are not altering speed but cruising (at whatever speed you think suitable) and so might as well let the car sort out best economy. If I want a burst of performance (overtaking, or the odd chance to make rapid progress on a A/B roads etc.) then Sport mode blends the battery/electric for performance rather than economy and delivers sensibly brisk and seamless progress (but at the detriment of fuel consumption) with very little lag - in Sport mode you can also use the simulated 6 speeds to pre-select a lower "gear" for overtaking if you feel the need which means pickup is pretty much the same as any other auto box. Or just leave the car in Normal if you don't want to think about it. I have to say that since having my IS 300h (for 2.5 years now) I don't miss the BMW 330i. In fact, in my pecking order of best cars, I always held my 1997 BMW 528i E39 as my top car (above the 330i) for its sublime blend of performance, luxury and ability to cover long distances with no stress (I did over 200k miles in that car) but now put the IS 300h alongside that 528i for similar qualities. I enjoy getting in the IS 300h and driving - especially when the journey will be a few hours - oddly something that I had stopped doing in the 330i which was a great sports saloon but actually not that great for long distances (that is where my 528i was actually much better than the 330i). I don't drive to max fuel consumption but where it makes sense (as above) I feel I might as well get the best consumption where progress is constrained by other factors. Fuel consumption in my IS 300h averages (on the trip computer) around 48mpg (bit lower in winter). On a long motorway run will easily do 50+mpg and on free flowing A roads at 40-60mph and driving calmly 60+mpg is possible. Sport mode tends to knock off about 10mpg - but then I would also be driving more briskly otherwise I wouldn't be using it! The great thing with the hybrid is that when you come the inevitable motorway 50mph roadworks or sat in traffic jams the economy actually improves...! A small consolation for sitting there. And in stop start motorway traffic it is at least a serene experience as the car will stay in EV mode a lot of the time with none of the stop start judder and cog swapping of normal engine/gearboxes (which can become tiresome and irritating). Of course there is no substitute for a test drive, however a spin around the block will not give a true feel for the car in day-to-day use - you really need to get one for a day to get anywhere close to that and in all honesty even that is too short - it takes a couple of months with the car to truly appreciate its depth of qualities. About a year into my ownership I was involved in an accident (not my fault) but there was a possibility they might write the car off. Without hesitation I was looking for another IS 300h to replace it and at that time if I wasn't convinced it was the right car for modern traffic I could have changed - in the end the car was immaculately repaired (by Lexus) and I was very pleased to get it back.

Hi Alan. Have you got the car on the 'My Lexus' app. That should show all work carried out on the car especially if it belonged to Lexus. I know that due to the latest data protection laws the previous keeper no longer shows on V5c and that those details will not be in the service book(My car came with a fully stamped replacement.) I am sure that if it belonged to the importer they would confirm that. Have you googled the reg number. Interesting what that can bring back. If Lexus themselves used it. Was it a press loan car perhaps? What does the supplying dealer say about this issue as they sold you the car. My car I bought unseen based on description of condition which wasn't correct as the car hadn't been cosmetically prepared to Lexus standards and they had it back for 2 weeks for paintwork rectification. They collected and returned it with a round trip of about 250 miles...

Even at 12 months you still have rights, and if the car is under warranty all you need to do is prove the fault. I would do this: 1) Invest the relatively small amount of money it will cost for an independent toyota specialist to diagnose the problem for you. 2) Take their report to Lexus and demand satisfaction. Explain that you've been messed around for 12 months, you're really unhappy, and you've about had it with Lexus and will likely never buy anything from them ever again. And you'll try your damndest to make sure nobody you know does either. When presented with evidence of the fault I'm pretty sure they will back down, and you can then argue for compensation for the money you had to spend getting a diagnosis that Lexus themselves were apparently unable to provide. I doubt they'd reimburse you the actual money but you could ask them for some free servicing to compensate you for your loss and frustration.

Yes https://www.mercedes-benz.co.uk/passengercars/mercedes-benz-cars/amg-range/amg-35-range.module.html

The issue sounds like they think you have a policy and you don't think you do. There is a UK system of record that all insurance companies keep up to date with whether a car is insured or not, that will be where the other insurance company of the accuser will have got the details from, so something isn't right. You'll have to provide all evidence now to convince them, in absence of a policy cancellation letter which you should have got. So, DVLA confirmation of when you sold the car would be a starting point. Ask them to retrieve a copy of the phone call, and if they can't provide that then ask them what their data retention policy is for call recording, the should be keeping records for as long as is necessary to provide a service, also ask for notes on all systems and accounts. If they won't do this informally through the complaint procedure then raise a "data subject access request", as is your right under the GDPR, make it clear what you want a copy of and for what reason as a justification , this is to ensure it doesn't come across as excessive, which is the only reason they can reject a request. I'd also raise a complaint with fos in tangent with this on the basis they haven't treat your existing communication as a complaint (from what you've told me), they should be capturing and logging all "expressions of dissatisfaction". I'm not an advisor by the way, just a fellow car man giving my two penneth on a subject I'm very familiar with. You should of course take the course of action you feel comfortable with....

I got lucky with black and black interior, the cream upholstery doesn't age well IMO. Really like the dark grey and dark blue in them. Silver would hide a lot of the scratches and swirls that black really doesn't!

I’ve found the RC to be quicker if I have a friend in the car with a name that begins with an F. However the car feels a bit twitchier and gets quite exhausting if I have a friend in the car with a name that begins with an M. The weirdest one was when I gave my friend Antony Michael Gregson a lift - my car became really expensive to service...but the exhaust sounded amazing. Weird.

Not really a tweak but a useful tip in the spirit of the thread, I've found that urinating in the final bucket when washing your car (use of gloves recommended) it deters cats and dogs from cocking their leg against your wheels/car. I hasten to add this theory is, on the whole not fully tested.

Took my spark plugs out at the weekend and it started raining. Put them back in..... And it stopped. Give me a shout if you want guaranteed good weather for any upcoming barbeques 😜

I had Lexus discs, pads and handbrake shoes fitted within the last 12 months on my 1997 car, and like Pete’s no squeaks or clunks on it now. It passed its MOT in February at 227,000 with no advisories - happy days.