Leaderboard

^^ Do you really need to see what you are about to drive over?! That’s one big truck…😆 I have had a disability from birth affecting my legs, mainly hips and ankles (weirdly knees unaffected) so the various measures are actually very important and interesting for me. There are indeed some saloons that are fine for me once I’m in the car, but often the challenge is getting in and out! My consultants have, over many years, recommended different cars to try. As I’ve got older SUVs have become the default choice, but different manufacturers offer some interesting options. Volvo and Mercedes are generally good for me - the critical thing on a personal level is the relationship, distance and angle between steering wheel, pedals and seat (after adjustments). As such the Lexus NX is pretty much perfect, but the RX less so as the angles aren’t right and there isn’t enough adjustment to make it really comfortable. The UX has a different issue in that the seat base is slightly too short. However, both the GS and the IS are almost as perfect as the NX, with the exception that getting in and out is trickier due to the lower stance. My Honda Accord was also ideal once I was in situ, albeit I was younger then… BMWs are universally hopeless for me, as are most things from the VAG stable. They mostly have the height I need, but the steering wheel/pedal relationships don’t work, which must be a design thing given Mercedes are almost universally perfect for me. Renault are also good, but Peugeot not. Go figure! I accept my disability makes my situation (almost) unique, but having bought cars for many years it is quite interesting to see the differences. Trust me, it isn’t something you want to get wrong!

Actually the civic generation (9th) he's suggesting has a hip point on par with most crossovers as the fuel tank is under the driver seat. You will be eye level with the Mazda CX-3, Lexus UX, Kia Niro to name a few. Most saloon hip points are in the 50's cm above the ground. Cross overs in the 60's (where surprisingly the civic is), full size SUVs in the 70's and the massive ones just about crack 80cm. Of course I'm not putting vans or full size pickups in the mix, those can get up as high as 120cm off the ground (that's a commanding view, SUVs not so much). So he may not be as dumb as you think. You can check the numbers at www.ridc.org.uk (they do advanced car measurements for people with disabilities, including a database of hip point measurements). Before you ding me for saying that SUVs don't have a commanding view, I owned and drove this for several years so SUVs no longer float my boat on commanding views.

I've just so so enjoyed my relatively simple wandering around europe ( incl Ireland ) from time to time over the years .......... the only concern on occasion was finding a petrol station ............ there was always a B&B or small, or even large hotel to stay at en route ...... that was never ever a problem ....... going off the main roads is the key, wandering the country lanes and mountain roads was always delightful and often full of incredible surprises, some of which I have mentioned here in the past ............. dry mountain passes are wonderful in the Ls400 .... always avoided snow and icy roads coz I know from experience here in the UK that's a " no-no " with the impossible handling in those situations BUT everything else is do-able and so wonderful ............. really hope covid doesn't stop me in my tracks for too long BUT I do think it might be wishful thinking that all this tragedy will be behind us anytime soon Keep on praying eh for the return of sensible motoring adventure opportunities .............. touring the UK is great and there's lots of amazing places too BUT it's going to be full of Brits methinks doing the same Malc

I've had my RX for 6 years now and have done 60,000 miles in it. It's done 85000 miles on a 2012 plate and had it's 100,000 mile, 10 year service today. I had four services over three years at one point due to the 10,000 coming up early! Nothing extra needed doing but what surprised me was that the front pads and discs are still original and have 5mm left on the pads, so I've only used 50% of the material and the discs are fine. The rears are all original too and have 6mm so I've only used 25%. I'm on my second set of Cross Climates (which I bought when the original Dunlops needed replacing), the front Cross Climates did almost 40,000 and the rears (which went on the front for a year) did 50,000 or thereabouts. Apart from the tyres and wiper blades that's it. I got hit in the snow earlier this year and had a plug in hybrid Range Rover Sport as my loan car; couldn't wait to get the RX back it's a totally different experience, refined and effortless. Best car I've owned by far. If anybody is thinking of an RX don't think, do it! You won't regret it. The only downside is there's so little to talk about with the RX in a forum:-) Having heaped praise on my car I'm wondering about changing to a Series 4; any comments gratefully received.

That was possibly the last one of ten – the driver who opted for the ‘Naughty Course’. I think you’ll find that the previous nine were all convictions that resulted in fines. Now whether they contested the accusation or not is rather irrelevant, because it was the production of the video evidence that ensured the conviction. ...because that video in itself proves nothing, it is not valid evidence, because the dates and times on it can't be validated. ...and the quote from nextbase FAQ is total BS. Perhaps I should first establish that, certainly as far as my BlackVues have been concerned, the date, time and global positioning have always been unerringly accurate. So if that’s a problem, then the answer may be to get a better dashcam! The problem I have here, Linus, is that search though I may I cannot find an authoritative statement that supports your contention that the Nextbase quote is BS! Maybe you can. This is a response to that same question by a Dave Yorke - an ex-Merseyside motorcycle police sergeant and Tactical Pursuit Advisor – for an article for a motorcyclists website. Does footage have to have the correct time and date on it, or can you use a GoPro? A time and date stamp isn’t important as you’ll be making a statement around the details of the events anyway, so you can cover any changes in there. That means it doesn’t have to be dash-cam footage that gets sent in; any footage from any equipment – like a GoPro or other action camera – is fine. You can view the original article here: Can you be prosecuted from dash-cam footage? Legal FAQ (bennetts.co.uk) Having typed the above. I see that Doog has provided a much better reply anyway! Now to refer to this quote again: The information provided above just goes to prove what I am saying. 1-2% results in Court Appearance, meaning 98-99% can't be prosecuted. Why? That is because just having dashcam record most often (98-99% of the time) is not sufficient evidence. I thought I’d try to find out how many actual prosecutions have been successfully made with the assistance of video evidence. Again this is just a few minutes of trawling through media reports. 1. A cyclist filed 213 dangerous driving reports to the police in the last two years. All were recorded on video thanks to the use of his bicycle-mounted camera, or “bikecam.” 133 of these incidents resulted in police action, with 22 drivers being sent on driving safety courses, 23 being fined, and 25 ending up in court. You can read the report here: Dangerous Driving Convictions Soar Via Video Uploads To Police (forbes.com) 2. As many as 89 dashcam video recordings of alleged motoring offences were submitted to police forces every day in 2019, according to data analysed by the RAC. A total of 32,370 pieces of footage were received by 24 police forces that accept video evidence of driving offences from members of the public, double the number recorded in 2018 (15,159). Data from the RAC’s freedom of information request also shows that a quarter of these (25% – 8,148) went on to result in prosecutions. Police forces, according to the study, are making it increasingly easy for drivers and other road users to submit camera footage of unsuspecting alleged rule-breakers, with all of Britain’s 44 forces now accepting dashcam video, and the vast majority online via their websites. Read the article here: Dashcam evidence a ‘game changer’ for enforcement, says RAC | Fleet industry news (fleetnews.co.uk) 3. Dated 20/10/20: The National Dash Cam Safety Portal, which allows motorists to quickly and securely upload footage of dangerous driving to the relevant police authority, is now being used by 33 forces, which have collectively received 21,324 uploads in total since 2018, when it was launched. Saving on average eight hours per case, Nextbase estimates that the platform has saved these forces at least 170,000 hours – the equivalent of more than 20 years' of police time. By using the NDCSP system, the public has assisted police in identifying, warning and prosecuting offenders nationwide, says Nextbase. From court cases to awareness courses, or fixed penalty notices to warning letters, 52% of all cases have been taken further by the relevant force. The fact that fewer than one in five cases have resulted in no further action (NFA), demonstrates the success of the platform in identifying the most severe of incidents and linking motorists with police in a bid to crack down on this behaviour, argues Nextbase. Read the article here: Drivers upload dashcam footage to police portal in record numbers | Fleet industry news (fleetnews.co.uk) 4. 27/11/2020 Road users have sent more than 50,000 dashcam recordings of potential traffic offices to police forces since 2017, with one-third resulting in action. Police forces across the UK receive more than 35 pieces of footage every day, according to a freedom of information request sent to every UK constabulary by What Car? Just over 10% of the incidents captured on film were severe enough to warrant a court prosecution and 9.6% resulted in a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). A further 10.5% resulted in the driver being asked to attend a driver awareness course, and 3.0% of drivers were given a warning. The use of dashcams by drivers and other road users has increased by around 850% since 2017, when insurance companies started accepting footage as evidence for claims and the courts first used footage to convict an offender. The What Car? research found Dyfed-Powys Police in South Wales is the most active in using dash cam footage. It has taken action over 81.3% of the videos it’s received, with 40.2% of offenders receiving a warning, 18.6% of them were prosecuted in court and 18.4% were asked to attend a driver awareness course, while just 4.0% were handed an FPN. London’s Metropolitan Police received the largest volume of submissions – nearly 25,000 videos over four years – and acted in 45.4% of cases, issuing court proceedings to 18.9% of offenders, driver awareness courses to 13.9%, FPNs to 9.6% and warnings to 2.9%. Again, the full article here: More than 50,000 dashcam videos sent to police | Fleet industry news (fleetnews.co.uk) My apologies if this is a tedious and long-winded way of getting this information down, but it seems to me that with only a little investigation, it's clear that the UK's police forces are embracing the use of dashcams and securing more successful results than some of the initial figures presented in this thread might suggest.

Sigh. There's no requirement under CPS guidelines to have time or dates on videos and if these aren't present it doesn't Invalidate it, its not thrown out and the sky doesn't fall in. The courts accept its impossible to always have an accurate time / date stamp on footage. I know some Police Forces say ideally you should have it on a dash cam but its not a deal breaker in any way, shape or form as long as you can account for the discrepancy as pointed out by Len. The primary evidence is what you saw with your eyes, the video simply supports it.None of us have a time / date stamp in our memory and witness statements aren't Invalidated simply because you got the time wrong, the same with footage. You basically need to prove continuity with video evidence which is done by way of a statement. In other words the approx time you started your car (and the dashcam started filming), the description of the Incident itself with time / day / date /place in other words what you witnessed. The time you concluded your journey and the time / date you downloaded the footage .The footage (in whatever format) is produced as an exhibit. The Police will (if they decide to investigate) send a Notice of Intended prosecution (NIP) and Requirement for name and address of the driver under S172 of the Road Traffic Act. The owner has to respond, if he says he was driver at the alleged time of the Incident then that's evidential in itself, as well as the video and statement of the witness. Quite compelling I would argue dependant on the nature of the offence.

Quite a few cyclists have been successful in using camera footage to support prosecutions against dangerous or inconsiderate drivers. I think the frustrating thing is that there's no common policy across all Police forces. This may be down to resources, budget or force policies. Reducing road accident casualties was always a top priority filtered down from the Government because as I said its an extremely expensive thing for the taxpayer to deal with. That said a camera is ideal in relation to incidents or accidents at Insurance level with no police Involvement where the burden of proof is much lower (balance of probabilities). Oh hang on I've just read two posts up that police have no clue about the law ...

I fully understand your comments as that was what I thought too. I read this though following through to Operation Snap that Len pointed out. WHY DO I HAVE TO BE WILLING TO GO TO COURT TO GIVE EVIDENCE?OPEN OR CLOSE On average only 1 to 2% of all reported SNAP offences result in a Court appearance. There are other disposal methods available such as attendance on a driver improvement course or the acceptance of a fixed penalty notice. The police may not be able to prosecute the offence without you being willing to attend court. If however on the very rare occasion the offence which you report does require a court appearance, then you will be fully supported through the process. The video alone is not enough, the driver has to give a witness statement as to the offence the other driver has committed and give the video evidence to the police. They must also be willing to go to court. I don't doubt that you were willing to do all of that and I am still not sure all police forces will follow up on most of the submissions, but I suppose if just a few start to get prosecuted it might start and change something...

It's not too simplistic, they're the facts I'm afraid although its a decent debate. There's an intrinsic link between speed and road traffic casualties. Reduce speed and you reduce the risk, even if its an idiot behind the wheel , adverse weather or someone with bad eyesight and slow reactions. Its basic stuff and not all victims are idiots. Speed cameras are far more effective than a police patrol and that's the reason RPU's have all but disappeared. You only have to look at fatality rates since the Introduction of this technology to see that it actually works it pains me to say. Here's a few links but nothing exhaustive. https://www.rospa.com/media/documents/road-safety/speed-cameras-factsheet.pdf The first speed cameras in Great Britain were installed in West London in 1992. In the first three years of operation14 , at the camera sites they:  Reduced the number of people killed by 70%  Reduced the number of people seriously injured by 27%  Reduced the number of people slightly injured by 8%. A 1996 study15 found that speed cameras reduced casualties by about 28%. Conclusion The evidence for speed cameras shows that they are effective at reducing speeds and preventing accidents, especially in preventing more serious and fatal accidents. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2018/03/30/speed-kills-new-global-study-confirms-strong-link-between-crash-risk-and-vehicle-speed/?sh=611e6df6529e

I bought my current car just over a week before a VIP event with every discount available/special finance etc. The price I paid for my car brand new, not yet delivered to the dealer, is less than I can pick up a pre registered one or even an 18 month old one just now. They were then REALLY busy over the VIP time so have no real need to make you a decent deal. Best time to buy a car is always when they have stock, not enough footfall and near the end of a month.

Stick with the almost new one and get them to upgrade it to Apple Carplay/Android Auto, which, I believe, is only available for the 2020 and newer RX (certainly can't get it in my 2018 RX). You can then use voice commands for almost anything such as choosing and playing music, using the phone and, of course, you can use any map/nav that you want to, such as Google Maps, Waze, Sygic or whatever.

It's too simplistic though to say that speed is the cause of death in one third of fatal accidents - as I was trying to say in my post it's not speed per se it's idiotic driving in many cases - yes they may have been speeding by some arbitrary speed limit but more often than not the accident occurs through the driver making a stupid manoeuvre or losing control. Simply lowering a speed limit further still will not stop the idiots. Neither will more speed cameras or vans. A few more patrol cars actually out on the roads might help more as they would stand some chance of stopping the idiots before they actually cause an accident. I appreciate the police are pulled from pillar to post and have a lot of respect for what they have to do but until we simply stop dealing with the symptoms and get to the root causes where do we stop lowering the speed limits? In my 4 days in Devon (including travelling there and back from Berkshire) I didn't see any police patrol cars but did witness some shocking and downright dangerous driving.

Could owners of the NX model years 2018 onwards please tell me what they personally are getting in MPG? I just want to get an idea of what the approximate average might be for local running around and longer motorway journeys. I know it's been mentioned on here but a search for NX MPG came up blank! Also I would be looking to buy a Luxury or Premier or whatever they now call the later models. (Luxury would be fine for me but I would have to forgo the memory driver's seat positions and that's the only reason why a Premier would be a consideration. Also when did the specification names change to NX, F-Sport and Takumi?

Read an interesting article today stating over one third of Councils already had 20 mph speed limits and there is a aggressive campaign to make them country wide and if that wasn't bad enough some Mways are going down to 60 to lower nitrous oxide emissions 😱 Don't know about you but I find 30/70 mph hard enough most days. Maybe it's time to use an old tractor 😎

For once I agree completely with Linas. Emission tests on diesels prove nothing. Presence and correct operation of all emissions equipment is key.

Do you use Carnauba wax on the car? I found on my silver Merc waxed with Carnauba wax the flies loved it, absolutely covered it!!

Yes, a Lexus Dealer 🙂

An excellent piece of research @LenTand thanks for having the patience to write a clear and concise summary with links to back it up. My speciality (if you can call it that ) was covert video surveillance and the myriad of hoops one must jump through in that regard including RIPA (just don't go there :-) Notwithstanding the study and examinations required to reach a certain rank certainly puts paid to the assertion by our learned friend Linas that 'the police have no clue about the law'...extremely insulting for those of us who studied and passed several detailed examinations in 'evidence and procedure' amongst other chapters of brain jarring tyranny (Video footage is evidence as we all know) Its refreshing to see that Police forces are utilising dash cam evidence (I'm long since retired) and any defence solicitor worth his salt should tell his client to just admit it if the evidence is blatantly obvious rather than look for technical reasons to buck the system. Luckily the courts are wise to it. The bane of my life were the hard core of solicitors who would rather take a client to trial (and risk a much stiffer sentence) simply because it financially benefited the practice - and then tell them to admit it on the day. That said if you genuinely believe you were Innocent then plead not guilty and let the magistrates view the evidence. Don't forget that if it reaches that stage it would have passed all of the necessary CPS criteria to offer a realistic prospect of conviction.

It's not the pass/fail on emissions that makes the removal of the EGR illegal but the fact one has modified part of the emission control on the engine.

Thank you @royoftherovers! I am buying it from a dealer.

It's amazing how posts on this forum always seem to morph into something else:-) I didn't realise I would be starting a discussion on rainfall in China and climate change. That's one of the pros and cons of Lexus ownership; we are (and I don't want to tempt fate here either) the owners of reliable vehicles and there's a limit to how much you can talk about nothing going or very little going wrong, whereas some forums for other marques have pages and pages of chats about dealing with problems; otherwise referred to as 'they all do that'. I'll have a look at the NX when I go to a dealer event tomorrow (only out of curiosity at this stage!) and I hope my battery lasts as long as yours Ray. Is 'I spotted Rick Wakeman in his 2004 RX' a first for the forum? Maybe time to launch a celebrity spotted driving a Lexus page!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-point https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a33926390/four-years-testing-seat-height/

You sir are talking a load off rubbish,we have a 3 year old Toyota CHR and a 1 year old Lexus UX,and they are like chalk and cheese.Forums are a dangerous place when you have so much misinformation.

Here is content from his site, commenting on the BBC blaming the terrible floods in China on climate change. BBC quote Zhengzhou saw 624mm of rainfall on Tuesday, with a third of that amount falling between 16:00 and 17:00 alone, which "smashed historical records". Facts based on data from the Dutch Met Office KNMI ... 624mm in a day is nowhere near a record. Typhoon Nina dumped 1631mm over the area in a single day in 1975. Over Zhenzhou itself, 804mm fell in a day. However, three years later, on July 2nd, an amazing 1894mm of rain fell there. Rain appears to have actually reduced

Actually Dave, weather isn't getting more unreliable as people imagine as a consequence of fake news and pseudo science. Look up the GWPF for more reliable data

Probably shouldn't say this as it might be tempting fate My Rx400h was first registered in 2007---some thirteen and a half years ago. I know from this site that loads of people seem to have problems with their 12 volt batteries but mine is still on its original 12 volt battery and I have never had a problem with it.

I have looked in F-Sport Takumi when it was launched, so I assume 2019 model and I have looked into Takumi which is on dealership floor now so I assume 2021 model and both of them have exactly same quality which was very disappointing in my opinion. As well I note that you owned GS mk3 in low trim (SE) and my comparison was with mk4 in high trim. I have never tested low trims on any Lexus so I really don't know how bad they get, for IS300h I only ever tried F-Sport (probably 5 different ones) and GS only Premier and F-sport. I appreciate that owning car for extended period of time can help you with - 1) finding less apparent issues with it and 2) just learning to live with it as it is, but if the car has unsatisfactory martials and build quality whilst sitting on the dealership floor I just can't see how that could improve after X years of owning it. The previous gen Lexus (GS mk4 2012 and IS mk3 2013) were already step down in quality of the cars they have replaced and ES is step below them, to the level where I don't even see the point of having Lexus badge on it. I am sure there always been some hard plastics in Lexus if you go looking for them, but at least around the driver and in obvious places it was all soft-touch material and padded corners everywhere. ES has hard and rattily plastics right in your face and it took no more than 1 second for me to pick-up on them. I mean sure - people can selectively ignore it and pretend they are not there, so that is certainly your choice...

I think you missing the point. Yes if offender voluntary admits to the charges it is all great. They may as well go to police themselves and surrender, you actually don't even need video in that case. So the Dorset show video just shows occasion of somebody admitting it without challenging it. Regarding your second point - again, it is has part of truth in it, if offender admits the offence it may not need to go to court. But at the same time you are wrong - it says in only 1-2% cases the witness attendance was needed, not that witnesses only attended in 1-2% of times. Now I take your point, majority of public have no legal knowledge and police will pretend in the interview that they have valid evidence against them, which is not at all the case. Don't forget police is legally allowed to lie to obtain the evidence and that is what they do to scare people with video which is meaningless. If they get admission this way then all is great, but if culprit wisely say "bugger off with this crap" then it takes police nowhere, because that video in itself proves nothing, it is not valid evidence, because the dates and times on it can't be validated. Final point, and the quote from nextbase FAQ is total BS. You can say anything you like on your witness statement, but what you say there is literally your word against word of the suspect. If you say that time stamp on your video is incorrect, then congratulations - you have just made your video invalid! Any half-sane lawyer will use that to dismiss the evidence, the defence in this case is extremely simple "the witness alleges that I was in location X on the time Y, but I was not in that location and the date/time on the video is incorrect, or does not match with the date on witness statement" - end of story, you case cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt, because it can't prove that defender was there at the time/date you allege. Maybe it actually happened, week, month, year before or after and the car was owned by different person at the time?! They have committed the offence in the car in your video, but without valid date/time it can't be enforced. If you have actual person who can be easily identified in the video then it is much easier, but if you have just a car then it is next to impossible. Don't forget that RTA does not apply here, so there is no such thing as car keeper having to give you the information of who was driving the car. They can simply say - it wasn't me and it is CPS job to prove otherwise (presumption of innocence)... it is hard enough to prove it using evidence provided by public, but it is completely impossible to prove it evidence itself contain such inaccuracies as time/date being invalid or not present. In short using dashcam footage to police the streets is very optimistic, it may work if you get onto fool and they just admit to everything, but as soon as it is challenged it is very difficult to prove in court. The standard for proving criminal offence is very high and dashcam footage is simply not enough.

My work is done! ☺️

Dear me - that sounds like a poor experience of VIP. As for your summary of the ES, you are wrong. I went into my ES after 5 years in a GS450h and in most respects the ES is a better car. I have also owned several Lexus models and over my years of Lexus ownership driven almost all the range, sometimes for weeks at a time as courtesy cars, if not ones I owned for years. The ES is every bit a Lexus and is not full of “cheap hard plastics” - my GS and IS’s had far more, and my Avensis has plenty. The Camry, which I have also test driven and spent time in, is nowhere near the quality, spec or car of the ES. It is much blander inside, lower spec and cheaper plastics.

I have been on couple of those and it is frankly a joke. So last time I got invitation I filled in the form and receive the call from Lexus GB, lady on the phone took my details and asked what cars I am interested in etc. I said RC-F and LC, she then set the time for me for Saturday 2PM and said she will make sure both cars will be available for test drive... so far so good. What I was expecting - glass of Champagne, maybe some snacks and dozen or so cars (not LC obviously, but in total) which they want to get rid of and which they willing to agreed good deals for. Came Saturday, I got to my Lexus dealer and there is nothing special about the day... sat in 7 people queue until receptionist came to me and I explained here why I am there. It took literally an hour before salesperson came to me saying "what car you are interested in?" He had no clue FFS! So I had to explain him again why I am there. He looked like he is literally hearing this for the first time in his life and then explained that they do not have either of the cars available. Thanks for wasting my time I guess. In the end we gone through few option they have available in franchise and all of them were exceptionally bad deals. Eventually, dealership MD came around and he had LC500, so I was offered a test drive, so I guess that was the only positive, by complete accident. In the end they sort of took note of what I want - in nutshell higher miles car where mileage is represented in price (I am just cheapskate like that) and it has to be black/white with red interior...They said they will call me when they have something in stock... this was January 2020 and I haven't had the call since. I assume no care came to match mi criteria 😄 In short - what are "Lexus VIP events"... just fancy name for semi-warm calling people they have on record as Lexus owners and trying them into dealership. There are no special deals or anything like that, they just want you in the dealership, because higher "footfall" means statistically more purchases. Now I am sure that if I wanted IS300h, or CT200h, or NX/UX they would have had something more to offer. Secondly, it was start of Covid conditions, not yet full lockdown but maybe that is what made it unusual. As for ES... I am very critical about that car as frankly it isn't even Lexus and it is very obvious. Cheap hard plastics inside, overall build quality not bad (it is Toyota after all), but it does not feel luxurious at all. Ride as well is are one would expect 300h to drive, but both IS300h and GS300h are far better cars form driving perspective and more luxurious. If you really interested I have recently seen ES300h Takumi (I guess that is what you mean by Premier) in Lexus Reading. Not sure regarding the price as it is new car on their dealership floor, 200 miles on the clock.

Glad to see that it's up and running on LPG John. If that website ever goes down, there's also https://www.filllpg.co.uk/ and you can get it as an app here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onthefencedevelopment.fill_lpg

The information provided above just goes to prove what I am saying. 1-2% results in Court Appearance, meaning 98-99% can't be prosecuted. Why? That is because just having dashcam record most often (98-99% of the time) is not sufficient evidence. Yes in my case it was accident which caused damage to me personally, so obviously I was willing to attend the court, but I feel CPS made multiple procedural errors in the way they handled the case. As I said, video captured by public is not great evidence, if there is solid case against suspect then video is just a cherry on the top, but if there is no cake to begin with, then there is no point in having the cherry 🙂 Where dashcam works however, is in opposite way - proving that you were not at fault (as per LenT example, and I had 2 incidents like that myself). So if in the case I mentioned above, the other driver would have stopped and accused me of being at fault, I would have won the case with ease. But the other driver didn't bother stopping and made it very difficult to prove it the other way around. The lesson I have learned in this case - don't bother with police, because they are useless unless there are injuries. What I should have done, I should have gone straight to claims management company, because it was clearly non-fault case... and they would have simply taken all the damages from Third Party insurer. Police just wasted my time and then buried the case in their incompetence.

An interesting pov, Phil. You seem to have discounted the original function of the dashcam, which was to provide evidence in case the owner was involved in an incident. I acquired my Lexus because my Accord was written off by a wayward HGV driver. His insurers, Aviva, were being somewhat tardy in addressing my claim. When presented with my camera evidence, they settled in full within a couple of days. So fitting one is first and foremost a matter of self-interest. I was surprised that it's taken so long for car makers to offer them as a factory fitting - although I do wonder how many owners will bother to reformat the SD card every two to three weeks. Chances are that when they call upon it, it'll be full! Addressing your concern that the police will take no action when presented with video evidence, I think that too is misplaced. When I was treated to a display of dangerous driving, I found that they went to some lengths to track the other driver. This included identifying the relevant force, who then located the car owner, to whom an officer then paid three visits in order to catch him in and confront him with the evidence. On a national scale, if you look at your local force's website, you may find that they are part of what is called Operation Snap. As the name suggests, this is a facility by which you can submit examples of dangerous driving for possible prosecution. Alternatively, Nextbase has a couple of pages by which you can submit videos to any force, and not just from their cameras. https://www.nextbase.com/en-gb/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/ https://secureform.nextbase.co.uk/ Finally, if I've managed to get the technology right, I present for your entertainment ten examples of Dorset force obtaining driving convictions from submitted videos, to demonstrate that it often is worth the effort. I should add that 'Other Force's videos may be available'. This was just the first one I found. I hope the links work! https://www.facebook.com/dorsetpolice/videos/operation-snap-traffic-offences-caught-on-dash-cam/314802406299286/

and I buy their brand engine oil for both the Ls400 and the Honda Legend ...... sorry, shouldn't go off-subject ....... it's too tempting, sorry Malc

Exactly what we used to in pre-children days. Most of that was camping as we were on a limited budget, but we never booked anywhere and just found somewhere at the end of each day, occasionally ending up in the luxury of a hotel if there was no campsite to be found or the weather was dire. We packed up the tent each morning, looked at the map to see what roads looked small/interesting and had some attraction marked and just drove where we fancie, with a vague of heading in a certain direction. One year we'd intended going back up thw est coast of France, but we ended up going east instead via the edge of The Alps.

You need to look at the new NX interior design to see how RX may transition in the very near future which may affect second user values unless of course you can stump up 50k for a new one? Either way should you wish for an environment that cocoons you from the nasty old world out there the RX is the only way to go

I'm looking to keep my 2014 RX long-term, good to hear from someone a bit further down the line with theirs how happy they are with it. There aren't that many other RXs around here, but any I do see (including the previous-gen model) usually look to be smart and well cared-for. Saw local celebrity Rick Wakeman out in his 2005 RX the other day! I bet the 4th gen RX is lovely, so much so that I don't want to try one if that makes sense?......

I did a review of my French trip in the RX here: At the time I didn't realise I'd need to hold onto those pleasant memories for several years because we couldn't go again! The place we stayed at in 2019 was so nice we've booked it for next summer, maybe it'll eventually work out?.........

ah, the aircon was rather old fashioned .......... open windows all the way ..... breeze thru' my ( non-existent ) hair ........ wot a glorious day it would have been in, if I had one, a RR or Bentley open-tourer ............ yes the Ls400 is a most marvellous piece of engineering 💖 Malc

I think we will have to agree to disagree over some of the data - there are lies, damn lies and statistics as the saying goes and vested interests will prove whatever they want. I am not against strategic speed cameras at proven accident black spots and when they first appeared the initial data I am sure backed up a reduction in fatalities - but we all know where this led to as the quangos took control and lost the plot. The end game if one follows these arguments is back to the man with the flag in front of each car - and even some of those will get run down as someone's foot slips on the accelerator! As I said when I first commented on this thread after many years and hundreds of thousands of miles of driving I've given up with trying to reason with the unreasonable and given up enjoying driving like I used to (which was always safely and considerately) which means the car industry has lost my money and I take my enjoyment now from other activities (and spending my money there instead).

I think you just spoke for me Phil. What's more i think we are probably the same on driving experience. You've took your time to post this well-done. I have something to add regarding camera's so i think i will start a thread in the lounge see what debate i can stimulate. Watch this space.

How true Steve. Near my town the A614 runs through it goes over a motorway flyover outbound its 30 to 60 coming back its 60 to 30. The thing is coming back the 30 starts about 20 or so mtrs from btm of the flyover. Just so happens this is a safety camera partnership area. Piggybank springs to mind.

Sadly I don't think they are!

Speed is a cause of death in one third of fatal accidents. So that's 1200 a year. All fatalities are Investigated in an extremely complex manner so that conclusion is probably accurate. We can argue over what's 'acceptable' but to me this figure isn't. (Trust me I'm a natural petrolhead and can't quite resort to an IS300h so have no desire to quash things down to zero) 20 mph limits are totally justified in certain areas, schools etc. My lad lives in Devon and we visit quite often, even last weekend . We must have done 200 miles and I'm not sure I saw a 20 mph limit unless it was warranted. So why people are getting their knickers in a twist is slightly beyond me, I'd move there tomorrow. ...

In terms of voltage, those values are minimums. Chances are nothing on that board exceeds normal car voltages so anything above 16v for the one rated at 25V should be fine. The 5V one will be on a part of the circuit that only deals with signal level voltages, so any voltage 5v or above will be fine. Get as close to the uF value as you can, but as Steve pointed out the tolerances are pretty wide on Electrolytic capacitors. Electrolytic Capacitors are polarised, so make certain that you get the -ve in the correct hole. Physical size is only an issue w.r.t. if it will fit on the board.

Update. Car all sorted out now thanks to Richard at Hybrid Battery Solutions. I cannot recommend this guy enough for the work he performed which included Repair and reconditioning of the hybrid battery pack, supply and fitting a brand new 12v battery, supply and installation of a brand new OE Aux Trans Oil Pump plus fluid (which I knew there was a slight leak on a couple of years back but didnt know it was knackered to the extent it was) and also sorting out a couple of niggly faults that kept popping up errors on the display. Oh and he even got the car cleaned for me as well. All the above for a massive reduction (less than half) on what Lexus would have charged me. Thanks Richard and thanks forum members for the help and advise. Regards.

Why would you recommend anyone to buy a Lexus diesel? He could buy a IS250 and have a far more satisfactory experience. It's not just egr problems - there are several other potential problems with any Lexus /Toyota diesel - head gasket, dpf and so on. There's little or no fuel consumption cost advantage, then there's the potential problem of being barred from cities.

I found a guy up in Yorkshire a couple of years ago who was a good engineer and would tailor-make a system, but I used a guy in Manchester that I've known as a customer for years. I trust his work although he's solely BRC. Too far to the Yorkshire guy for me this time. So I've got a BRC system with the electronic lubrication system fitted alongside. I picked it up yesterday morning. In the evening, after Tae Kwon Do, it wouldn't start. Turned over busily but no hint of firing. Oh, how I cursed Karl (lpg fitter guy). So I called Green Flag and settled down to wait/freeze. Finally I worked out it was a problem with my key! Got the spare out - fortunately had it with me - and vroom, vroom, off we went. Sorry Karl for doubting you.

Hi all this button removes the ability to use remote locking as well as manual locking by pressing the button to the right of steering wheel. It is just located on the inside of the glove box, towards the outside on the right hand side. When enabled, remote and manual locking works. There is also a service key hole to the left of number plate, hard to spot but it’s there.