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About a year ago I posted my thoughts on my first year of owning my first Lexus, a 2008 GS450H SE-L. That was then, and this is now, so I figured a two year report might be a benefit to existing owners as a comparison, or potential owners considering a GS450 of this vintage. I'll stick to the same format as last year, just for consistency. The Car Clearly it's the same car as last year, but has now done around 82,000 miles, around 24,000 more than when I bought it from Lexus Edgware Road. Just to recap, it's a 2008 SE-L, with ACC, PCS and the extended wood package. Fully loaded, oh yeah. Driving Experience Still the same, it's still smooth and fast without being particularly sporty. It disguises speed very well and it's easy to find yourself zooming down a road doing naughty miles per hour having just given it a bit of a squirt. The low speed ride is fine too, and like I said it last time it's fabulous in low speed stop start traffic. Creeping along silently on electric power alone is brilliantly serene, and is a sensation I'll miss if I move back to a non-hybrid car. One thing I have started to find a bit frustrating however is the car, despite being at launch (in 2005) the second quickest car in its class after the BMW M5, really doesn't want to use the power it has. An example is accelerating onto a dual carriageway from a roundabout or a slip road you might expect that a 340 bhp saloon wouldn't hang around, and to be fair it doesn't, but it's not really using its full potential - it's about as brisk as a modern turbo diesel saloon, think 520D or similar. If you DO want convince the various propulsive methods to hustle you down the road in a harmony of 3.5L V6, electric motor, battery, and grinning then you not only have to floor it, but kick down so the magic button seemingly under the right pedal is engaged. This serves to open up the full tine of beans and then it absolutely feels fast, but also like you're on a mission. I appreciate I'm being picky, but I'd like 100% of available power without needing to change the DEFCON level to do it. The infotainment system continues to impress. Having now driven a bunch of brand new Lexus I find their fiddly menus and weird mouse controls a retrograde step compared to the simple clear touchscreen in my GS. I never did bother fitting the £500 GROM VLINE (see why below), but I still use the Lexus iPod adaptor, plus a simple Bluetooth FM transmitter to stream Amazon Music from my iPhone to the car stereo, which with all the Mark Levinson gubbins sounds great to my ears. The Bluetooth phone integration, while not modern enough to sync phone books from iPhones, works really well and is super clear, and 10 minutes spent programming in the numbers you want to call regularly has served me perfectly well. After all, you can still dial from the phone if you need to (while stationary obviously, we're all law-abiding in Lexus land). I still find the fuel tank annoyingly small. 320 odd miles between fill ups is still par for the course for me. An 80 litre fuel tank would be better. All in all though, great car to drive. Maintenance Still glad I bought the warranty... My record keeping has been less comprehensive this past year, but I did have the 80,000 service done fairly recently, and had a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s fitted. The previous set of identical Michelins lasted about 20,000 miles which I think is perfectly fine for a heavy performance saloon. Great tyres too, grippy and quiet, no complaints. The 80,000 mile service was about £500, less a discount for being a LOC member, and the tyres were about £130 each with my Lexus dealer price matching Blackcircles. I had a new set of front brake discs and pads done, that was about £300 less some discount. I had a Lexus/Toytoa dash-cam fitted, that was about £200. Very happy with this incidentally! The following items have been replaced under warranty in the past year. 3 x TPMS sensors Left rear parking sensor Differential drain plug Gearbox earth strap I'm also told that one of my front shocks is "misting" but this can't be replaced under warranty as it's not "failed". I'm miffed about this so am pondering my next move. Fuel Consumption My anally retentive habit of recording my fuel usage petered out when my wife started using the car more. I wasn't prepared to tell her to record the mileage before refuelling, keep the fuel receipt, , reset the trip, then carefully present all data to me for tapping into my app to show strangers on the internet - I don't want to confirm I'm that weird. However, the fuel consumption hasn't really changed. On a long motorway run it'll top 30 mpg, and crawling through traffic it will do about 25 mpg. I'm still averaging about 28 mpg by my reckoning which I don't really mind, but it does perturb me when I see others on here are getting 35 mpg averages in near identical cars. How are you guys doing this?!?! Sometimes I make a concerted effort to drive like I have the Queen and Prince Phillip in the back which sees me just holding onto about 30 mpg, but one 10 mile journey running late and utilising the performance sees the numbers tumbling back to 27.9. Oh well. Owning my Lexus This is where it all starts to unravel a bit. I live in Cambridgeshire and work in Cambridge, therefore logically enough use Lexus Cambridge to work on my car. The past year has seen them decline from their distinctly average quality to something approaching quite crap. I won't bore you all with the full details, but there have been issues where what I've asked for during the booking in process has not been done, consistent time overruns, very poor quality washing, having to chase them up for answers to questions or reports of progress, and on one occasion money (about £4 in parking coins) was actually stolen from my car. I reported this to the service manager, complete with photographic evidence and they duly fired one of their car cleaning staff. I did receive an apologetic phone call from a senior dealer bod which was nice enough but given the Lexus reputation I was expecting a bit more contrition. It was especially galling that not long after this episode I had to book my car in for something else and STILL had to chase them up. Not cool, not fun, and not why I bought a Lexus if I'm honest. Lexus Cambridge verdict: Must try harder. 3/10 I'm minded to try a different Lexus dealer, but apart from it being less than sensible finding a dealer when there's one 5 miles from my work, all the dealers in my area are part of the Steven Eagell group, so I'm not sure I'd be getting anything different aside from a whole new level of inconvenience in going further away. Final thoughts. I wouldn't be quite as miffed with Lexus Cambridge if I didn't have to deal with them so often, which I wouldn't have to do if the car had fewer problems... Lexus reliability anyone?! Will I keep my Lexus? This part will be as much a life update as a car update. The answer to will I keep my Lexus in the long term is almost certainly no. The reason why is principally this little guy. That's my number three child, who was something of a happy surprise! This means I currently am the registered owner of a seven year old, a five year old, and a 6 week old. All three of my offspring legally require car seats, and as such it is obviously necessary to own a car capable of accommodating the whole family. Daddy, Mummy, and Cost Centres 1, 2, and 3. This was achieved in part by getting rid of our Toyota Prius earlier in the year and replacing it with a 2012 Volvo XC90 - a seven seater SUV my wife barrels around in, propping up the profit margins of Shell and BP. The Volvo manages to fit all three child seats in the middle row, for now, and when the baby needs a bigger seat we'll bring the third row seats into play. It's a good car to be honest and I enjoy driving it, recognising it weighs 2.5 tonnes fully laden and only has 200 bhp. You might imagine that the GS, as a fairly large car, would also be able to fit three child seats in the back. You'd be wrong. Due to the shape of the seats there's really no way to get all three of them in, let alone doing so safely, and until my children reach the size where they can sit in a car without needing a child seat as a family we're now in a position where only one car can carry everyone which feels a bit risky. While this is probably going to be okay for now with my wife on maternity leave, it almost certainly will be limiting in the future - no giving lifts to friends, no spare family car if the Volvo needs work, etc, and if I'm minded to change the Lexus anyway then I'm going to choose to replace it with a car capable of fitting my whole family in. This coupled with my distinctly underwhelming dealer experience has thus affected my view of my Lexus. I won't get rid of it while it's still under warranty and I'll want to see how family transport is shaping up, but I am likely to move it on in another 12 to 18 months. Therefore I'm not going to fit a VLINE, I'm not going to respray the few stone chips on the front bumper, and I'm not going to imagine it's the car I'll own for the long term, which was not necessarily the case a year ago. Thoughts on Lexus as a brand Not positive really. My dealer experience hasn't helped with this, but neither have the new vehicles I've used as courtesy cars. Thanks to frequent service and warranty work I've driven a couple of CT200s, an IS300, and two NX300s, and find them all bit lacking. Aside from the aforementioned fiddly infotainment there's a sense they are over-styled, with a lot of angles and 'design features' for the sake of it. I'm also not a fan of the fact that all the models seem to have flappy paddles, sport modes, and other 'performance' guff which is purely cosmetic. Why do you need flappy paddles on a car with one gear? Why bother having a rev counter when the car doesn't change gear? Why is the knob that changes the driving mode bigger than the knob that turns on the stereo? Why all the sporty nonsense on a car that is blatantly not a performance car?! To be fair I don't for one moment think Lexus is alone in this. I see enough humdrum 3 and 5 Series with M SPORT badges and stripy grills, and S Line/AMG Line seems to be the default choice in for otherwise perfectly nice normal cars the UK. I just find it a bit disappointing that the virtues that Lexus do/should have, like comfort, reliability, being different, and so on, seem to take second place to this pseudo-sporty lifestyle claptrap. On this basis I don't really like any of the new Lexus models and can't really see me owning a Lexus again for a while, at least not until the seven-seater RX450-L comes into my acceptable price bracket. Would I recommend a GS450H? Yes! It's a good car, and it's honest about what it is. I wouldn't say mine has been especially reliable, but in reality probably no worse than the equivalent German car of a similar age. Here's to another 12 months. Thanks for reading.

I took an ES on a 24 hour (well... 30 hour!) test drive. It was an F-Sport model with Takumi pack. I have to say that, while the colour scheme was under-whelming (silver/black), I was impressed with the car. The (+)... - Very smooth, quiet and comfortable - Excellent ML audio - the larger screen and the HUD display - I was impressed by the Tahara upholstery - the laminated side windows - the brilliant adaptive headlights - economy far better than that of the NX I currently drive The (-)... - the central armrest was very creaky - the all-black window switches are not as plush as the ones used in the face-lifted NX - the boot lid sensor seems far trickier to use than it should be. I was also surprised to see that the car is much cheaper than the equivalent NX while being better specc'ed (laminated side windows, larger screen, electric rear blind (I know... could not fit this onto the NX), and offering better performance and more space.

Just to keep everyone updated on the saga. Lexus Battersea first of all told me they had no record of the car - gulp - then confirmed it from the VIN as it had been on a private plate. Which I had suspected because of the MOT fail on letter spacing. So the service history is confirmed, as is the timing belt replacement in 2014. Meanwhile the guy who missed out on a local 430 recently and has already had a ride in my current car might be coming to look with a view to buying. The dealers offered me £3k as a trade-in, and I have said I will take that rather than holding out for a better price. So my current plan is to buy the car, let Osaka climb all over it as they are better than a main dealer imho, and identify anything that needs doing, then enjoy it for at least a decade. Wish me luck! Jon

It’s been around a year since I purchased my GS450h. I figured it might be useful to others to do a review of what a year of owning one of these cars is like. My Car It’s 2008 (MKIII) GS450h SE-L, with ACC (adaptive cruise control), PCS (pre-collision system), and a sunroof. This means it’s the top model, with every option ticked. It’s black with light grey leather, and piano black wood including wood inserts on the steering wheel. At the time I bought the car it had approximately 58,000 miles on the clock. It’s now on about 72,000. I bought it from Lexus Edgware Road. Driving Experience I’ll get to the point, it’s fast. When the battery has charge and the 3.5 V6 is warmed up it’s very quick, especially above 50 mph. The rate at which you can gain speed when you floor it once you’re already moving is incredible. Off the line it’s quick without being ridiculous, and if you find yourself in a situation where the battery is depleted (say, having crawled through slow traffic for a mile or two), outright full bore acceleration is blunted as you’re relying purely on the V6 to haul 1900 KG of car and driver up the road. While undeniably quick, I wouldn’t describe the GS as ‘fun’ to drive on a twisty road. It’s certainly competent, and between point A to point B is probably just as rapid as the obvious competition, but I do have the sense that you’d be having more fun in a BMW 5 Series. The handling is predictable, grip is good, but you do get the sense the car would rather you stopped being silly and drove properly. The flip side of this is that it’s outstandingly comfortable when driving at 7/10ths, and is quiet, comfortable, and competent. So, it’s fast, but it’s not sporty. I also find myself missing the soundtrack of a car accelerating through the gears, but that’s mostly because I’m immature. The rest of the time when you’re not driving like you're qualifying it’s a very smooth and comfortable drive. The radar cruise control is absolutely excellent, as is the stereo and infotainment system. Following a few weeks of driving brand new Lexus courtesy cars I was glad to leave their garish graphics and contrived menus behind and get back to the simplicity and elegance of my decade old GS450. I’m half considering a GROM VLINE to bring connected apps into the car, but at £500 there are more pressing uses for my money. I do with the car had a bigger fuel tank. With my fuel consumption (see below) I'm generally needing to refuel after about 320 miles. An 80 litre tank would make my trips to the forecourt far less frequent. The silent running when stuck in traffic (as I frequently am in Cambridge) is really enjoyable, as is the feeling of cruising along burning no fuel. This is an addictive quality of hybrids that is hard to appreciate if you’ve never driven one before. Obviously subjective, but in terms of looks I think it looks best from the rear three quarter view, and overall it’s not as good looking as a Mercedes CLS or properly specced BMW 5 Series. Maintenance Since I bought my car from Lexus, it came with a 12 month warranty. In the 12 months I’ve owned the car the following things have been replaced under warranty (remember this is a relatively low mileage car with a full Lexus service history, bought from a Lexus dealer). TPMS sensor Water pump Offside rear shock absorber Driver side washer jet Passenger side washer jet Driver’s door mirror Front passenger seatbelt and mechanism I’m not quite sure what this lot would have cost had I been paying myself, and to be honest I probably would have sorted the easy ones myself, but I’d say it’s comfortably in the £1,200 to £1,500 range. I had an issue with my brake light switch which was resolved by the AA (cover included as part of the Lexus warranty). I’ve had the car serviced once in my ownership, that was relatively cheap at around £250, including the Lexus Owners Club discount. My next service at 80,000 miles will be a bit chunkier at around £500 but that’s some months away. Last October I bought four new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres to replace the budget tyres Lexus sold it with. The Michelin PS4s were around £650. Tyre wear is predictable and I expect the Michelins to last about 15,000 to 18,000 miles. I’m perfectly happy with this as this as the PS4 is a high performance tyre and they’ve barely lost traction in the entire time they’ve been fitted – money well spent. I’ve had one wheel refurbed following a close encounter with a kerb, which was £85 from Lexus. I bought a front wiper blade at around £20. I’ve not spent anything on the brakes since ownership, though I will need new discs and pads front and back in the next few thousand miles, for which I’m looking at £700 ish. I’ve taken the two year Lexus warranty which is £1095, which I’m paying off at 0% over 12 months. This seemed like a no-brainer given the relatively high number of issues thus far, plus for peace of mind. You don't need much to go wrong on a decade old £50K Lexus before you comfortably cover the warranty outlay. Fuel Consumption This is where Fuelly comes into its own. Every time I’ve refuelled the car I’ve (very anally) entered the details into the app. Screen shots below. In terms of outright fuel consumption it’s not what you’d call economical, but it is pretty good relative to its size, weight, comfort and especially performance. To put the 28 mpg of my GS450 in context, over the same sort of use in my BMW E46 330i I was getting 23 mpg, in a Toyota Prius 1.8 I get 46 mpg, and in a Volvo S80 D5 I was getting 38 mpg. It seems I have a heavy right foot, or I’m just a rubbish driver, or maybe both. As stated above I wish it had a bigger fuel tank. 320 miles between fill ups isn't ideal. Owning my Lexus My local Lexus dealer - Cambridge - is also essentially the same as my local Toyota dealer so I see them a lot between warranty claims on my Lexus and regular servicing on my 20,000 miles per year Prius. I’d say they are pretty good, but hardly exemplary. The staff are lovely when you’re there, the coffee is good, and they have the option of collecting my cars from my office and dropping back, which is really convenient. I have needed to escalate and push to get things done in a reasonable time, and I’m not sure they are really that switched on when it comes to customer retention. I’ll carry on using them but I’m not sure I’d chose a car because of them… Will I keep my Lexus? In short, yes. I certainly plan to run my GS450 for at least another two years while it’s still under warranty and potentially more if it seems to be holding up well. I’m not entirely sure on what to replace it with anyway. My experience of modern Lexuses have left me a bit cold, and aside from a MKIV GS450h not much else appeals. I’ve looked with interest at the Infiniti M35h but an E Class convertible appeals despite the diesel engine. Thoughts on Lexus as a brand I’m not sure I necessarily see myself as a dyed in the wool Lexus owner. I really like my car and appreciate its virtues but the current range of Lexus cars doesn’t really stir me, and the absence of non-SUV Lexus estate means when I need to replace my family transport Toyota Prius with something bigger I’ll end up looking at E Classes and 5 Series which is annoying as something like a GS300h Estate would be ideal. As a Lexus driver there is a slight feeling of being in a Toyota with better quality materials and finish, which isn’t really surprising but may not be what everyone wants from their luxury motoring. Would I recommend a GS450? Hell yes! Brilliant car and if you buy well/have a warranty/are lucky then it’s also very cheap to run. In my view I’m running a £50K car with almost all the peace of mind of a new car but at a far reduced cost. Thanks for reading.

So 3,000kms in and with the sunroof rattle addressed (fingers crossed), there is a good car in there. Likes: Serene drive, and very smooth and quiet now. Adaptive cruise control is superb and coupled with the speed limit reading on the dash means no stress of cop-watching. Acres of rear legroom so the kids don't kick me anymore. Bluetooth works quickly for music. Far faster than wife's 2016 A6. Memory seats. A boon when you are 9 inches taller than said wife. Responsiveness. It is 100kg heavier and about 5hp down on my old IS300h. But is faster and quieter off the mark in suburban sprints. Gearing matters. Dislikes: Infotainment screen binnacle could look nicer and be trimmed better. Basic speakers are a bit basic. Turning circle on 19" rims is worse than wife's 20" rims. And I thought that was bad. The IS was like a black cab. Touchpad. So what is the ES and who is it for? The BMW 5 is nicer inside. The new A6 has too many touch screens. I hate Audi's DSG box in traffic almost as much as I hate filling the damn thing with Ad Blue. Mercedes look too bling inside. I like the S90 but their hybrid is extortionate, as is BMW 530e here in Ireland. Lexus are much cheaper to PCP. Like 200 € a month less. BMW was worse. And it is a big car. The Superb and Camry are Taxis. I hate the Passat. So if you hate diesel, want a premium-ish big car that is very easy to live with and stress free to drive, and don't want to be accused of having no imagination (5 series) and don't want to be fleeced for a hybrid elsewhere, then there is a compelling case for the ES. Final comment on performance. Wife's A6 190bhp quattro is faster once it wakes up at the lights, remembers how to change gears, lurches through the first 3 cogs and then regains its composure. The Lexus just glides away and is as quick up to suburban speed limits. So unless you are drag racing on the motorway, decorum wins.

Hi Odysseus Interesting read for me as i have just brought a 450h sport 2008, I did read your last year report, because I use the M4 motorway with all the roadworks for planned smart motorway and speed limit of 50mph i am getting 41mpg so far, road works should last a few more years so pretty happy with that

How time flies hey Andrew, it doesn't seem that long since your initial review. The GS still looks great and it's obvious that you've taken good care of her* (or 'it' for those folks that are sensitive to such endearments). It's such a shame that your local dealer didn't step up to the mark set by their inflated prices, from your comments they've clearly tarnished your experience. Regarding mpg...I average 35 across a good mix of roads/speeds but steady cruising at or slight above the legal limit sees high 30's/low 40's. If I drive around town all day with lots of stop/start, especially in winter then my mpg's will get pulled right down. I don't hoof it everywhere but do give her a good prod every now and then. Driving style, roads, traffic, etc will all play a part so we're bound to see quite different figures. The sport and power buttons in my car definitely make a difference to performance, even in normal mode it's no slouch. But I hear what you're saying about how other vehicles drive e.g. diesel's, they feel very different with plenty of low end grunt. Some are quite comical tho as the surge can run out after 1k rpm and then all you experience is lots of noise but little else. Your repairs seem pretty typical for an older vehicle and I'd wager that it's been much cheaper than if you'd had a BMW/etc. Anyhoo, it's always good to hear from you and fingers crossed to the next 12 months ownership and Lexus dealer #2. Oh and congrats expanding your Cost Centres aka ankle biters, CC's made me chorkle.

Yes I did. Clicked on the link and went from there. Dealer got back to me within 24 hours early last week and arranged for me to pick up the car up on my way to work Friday morning and return it Saturday lunch time.

If you find a well worn baseball hat in the boot and wires for an external sub woofer don't say I didn't warn you 🤣 but having proof of the cam belt is a good thing and I must say I did slightly jump at my own car as it was the only one available at the time (and even now there are none for sale over here) good luck and happy motoring

You're better off with these, Jonathan. It may never be this clean again! https://www.stellarmotorcompany.co.uk/used-cars/lexus-ls-430-4-3-4dr-bolton-201905228219778

Good luck! Make sure you post some pictures when you buy it.

Sounds like a plan all round, and if you sell onto chap who just missed out on the recent local 430, then even better. I wonder how many of us are around Glos area for a social gathering. Mind you my 400 looks like rather tatty compared to these pristine 430's being talked about

All the best

certainly do Malc

Thanks Andrew. You have written what seems to be an honest assessment of your experience and circumstances. Lexus Cambridge do not come out of it well 20,000 miles from a set of Michelins is poor by my standards, but your fuel consumption figures are in the Parish of mine.

Hi Connor, thanks. After posting here, I found your thread on the car. What a nightmare. I’m really sorry about your experience. Lexus Carlisle sold it to me with the problem but with a full Lexus warranty. They fobbed me off a bit at first, presumably hoping that as I was 100 miles away, I’d get it fixed locally. I took it back to them and asked them to sort it. They couldn’t really argue. It seems they took the gearbox out and sent it to transmission specialists in Glasgow and claimed on the warranty. The warranty company refused to pay because it was a pre-existing fault. Lexus Carlisle must have paid (with or without help from Lexus GB). I guess Lexus Carlisle absorbed the labour in slack workshop time - I was without the car for two months. It wasn’t great as I missed some great dry summer days but the outcome is that the car is fixed. As you say, the car was faultless in every other respect and had clearly been respected by its previous owner. i needed to drive to work meetings yesterday so instead of taking the train to work, I took the ISF and had a great afternoon on some of North Yorkshire’s best open roads. Today, I’m wondering why I ever thought of selling it!

Thank you very much, sure enough it was that. Now I have to find the knob who pressed it, oh wait a minute, it could have been me.

Have you checked the glove box, my IS300H had a boot disable button to the right as your opened the glove box. My daughter use to press it all the time, fun and games!

The 98 has an OBD2 port (95 or later have OBD2, earlier have OBD1). Should be near the bonnet release lever with a cover over it. (Image is a left-hand drive car!!) You should be able to get an ELM327 bluetooth OBD2 reader and access it with Torque via Bluetooth.

I’d agree!

Please tell us more! 😉