Leaderboard

Absolutely right! People are rarely allowed into the back of Betsy but a few weekends ago I had no choice but to let my 9 year old granddaughter in. The back of the passenger seat is covered in muddy footprints. She will travel in her grandmother's car next time.

Collecting mine today after having the car for two months.

Thank you, now there is hope for us all. 😀

All they need to do is to run the camera wire down the opposite side to the DAB antenna wire. If they won't/can't do that then put a ferrite bead on the camera wire.

I got my second key today. It took around 15 minutes to process.

Installed "F" puddle lights in my doors 🙂

I was once given a beautiful brand new ES as a courtesy car on a day of filthy weather with rain and sleet. When I pointed out that there were no rubber mats in the back the service manager half-jokingly but not unintelligently suggested I should tell rear passengers to wipe their feet before getting in.

Hello all, I am now in a position to give my view on the standards at the Lexus dealership I bought my RC300H from. I did not want to give full details before until I had given them the chance to rectify (which they have just completed). The dealer I used to have my last Lexus serviced at (Swindon) could not get a used model that i required so I had to purchase from another dealer. At the time I bought I explained I was not happy with the offside rear tyre at all (wont go into the specifics but I have worked in motorsport for many years and had a good reason to not be happy about it. The sales guy said Lexus technicians would not have approved it during the very recent service if it was not ok so I had to accept that. Anyhow I was delivered the car and the driver said 'you do know it only has one key?'. That riled me as it was an expensive purchase and at no point did the sales guy say it was short of a key. Then after the delivery driver had gone I looked at the service book which had not been shown to me before, I was told 3 services done by Lexus and all as they should be. The service book didn't match at all and I spoke to a Lexus contact I had who validated that the service book was accurate which meant that they had in fact not completed any major service at all and it was now 4 years old. Long story short I complained to Lexus HQ and within 30 minutes the dealer principle phoned me to sort things out. He agreed their service department had failed to do the correct service, he agreed that I was meant to have a second key but he said he couldn't do anything about tyre as passed the service. He said I needed to bring it back asap to have the brake fluid etc changed and have the full 4 year, 40,000 mile service done foc plus the second key paired. This dealer is 2 hours from my home and I said I was not prepared to lose time off work and drive over 2 hours each way in my own time to put right what should of been done in the first place. In all fairness to him he was brilliant, he arranged for a really nice loan car to be delivered to me and my car collected for the work to be done. When the service was completed a service person contacted me to advise that lo and behold the rear tyre was close to limit and would need changing in the next month or so and they would do at a special price of £255! I knew that the other tyre on the axle would need changing in next 8-10k so I said there is no way I'm paying for a brand new tyre when I queried this at the start and was told service said it was fine plus they did not supply me with any of the service paperwork to cross reference. They said they would speak with dealer principle and ten minutes later phoned back to say they were replacing both the rear tyres free of charge!!! They have now returned the car to me with all work completed and nothing to pay and collected the loan car. The driver was a really nice person as well and clearly passionate about Lexus. So I am extremely happy with what they have done, they acted rapidly, sorted the immediate issues (service and key / pairing) and also replaced the two rear tyres free! Absolutely brilliant work and I would highly recommend Snows of Southampton to anyone looking for a Lexus and will not hesitate to buy my next Lexus from them.

The 3IS seems to come with some spring system for the tailgate which is not as well refined as having a gas strut. A 3IS owner wanted to retrofit power electric tailgate on his 3IS. I’ve completed the project and the results are amazing. So thought I’d share a video demo showing the finishing result. All the buttons work. The boot is operated from either the interior button, the key button or the boot release. At a later stage, I will be adding the kick sensor to it.

I forgot to mention one very clever one is ; scammers call on your landline pretending to be from your bank. You are naturally suspicious, they say, no problem just call me back on our head office number. You then call on a number you know to be correct, and they answer, the trap is sprung. You see when they call you they do not disconnect the line when they say call us back. You then call not knowing it's an open connection to the original call 😱

I achieved 47 against that guess above. Tonight it's showing 58/56.9

Worth double checking your paperwork to confirm you do have a 12 month warranty, otherwise you will be highlighting to them that the repair shouldn't have been free 😉

yeah its very cool

then the wiper motor was also replaced under their Warranty ? . if not then why not ! Malc

Should be possible - there are big holes in firewall on both sides with rubber gasket... that said the harness going trough them is very thick as well, so I am not sure how much space there is to pull additional wire. Alternative would be running it under the car and using existing holes for O2 sensors that comes just by the side of gearbox.

I think it also bears out my view of people in general, in that few can be categorised in a wholly general sense. Often people will say that such and such person is like x, when my experience has been that they're the opposite. We might all have a base level, but often how we behave is a reaction to either our environment at the time, or the person we're engaging with. I know that I can behave differently with work colleagues, friends or family members, for example. In the same way, a service employee can feel in either a superior or inferior position to the customer, or helpful or unhelpful, depending on the nature/behaviour of the customer, and so will act accordingly. Like I say, whlst we all have a base level, how people treat us will be as much about how we treat/approach them as it about their own nature or inclinations.

Hugh, I have a 2021 RX with AVS (not air, just adaptive dampers). I think it rides well. I do notice in sport s+ mode that the suspension is stiffer. Have not spent much time in one without AVS, so cannot compare and contrast. I believe on the F-sport you can additionally get something called "roll skyhook control" with an active anti-roll bar. Have a look here: https://mag.lexus.co.uk/2020-lexus-rx/ The gearbox is also a planetary e-cvt in the RX. Paul

The bottom line is they don't enjoy their work, and it's as simple as that

In the 3.5 years I've owned my GSF, I've always used paddles in my GSF and never tried this (using full throttle kickdown)......until yesterday day that is. It literally changed down in an instant and took off like a scalded cat! No hesitation at all and with the ideal gear for max acceleration selected, i.e. gear with RPM that felt right at peak torque. And that was just in normal mode...well impressed! Although it will probably not be something I use that frequently (once Ive had a good play in sport and sport+!), being aware of this capability to use as required is of great value Pleased I read your post! 👍🏼

My Nextbase dashcam doesn't cause any DAB interference on my 2022 NX. I have front and rear cameras wired with a Nextbase hardwire kit that includes a ferrite bead on the wire by the front camera.

You need another dash cam. Nextbase ones are notorious for DAB interference. Ape-man and Viofo don't cause this especially when using a hardwire kit with a magnet on the end

Hi Frank and welcome to the LOC. These look the same but UK based ( price has increased obviously!) https://tinyurl.com/3xuk7ef3

Not got a maxton eBay one but heard the quality is pretty good. For the price, may be worth a punt.

Carbon build-up is nowhere near as big issue in UK as it is in US, I really don't know why, but in UK (and Europe) IS250 rarely have this issue, at least not to the point where it becomes a problem. I have previously assumed my car has carbon build-up (at ~180k miles) and I did hydrogen cleaning which actually made absolutely no difference. Rough idle could be result of many reasons, throttle body, lambda, o2, gearbox solenoids (especially if as you said it happens when you coming to stop engine almost wants to stall), it could be spark plugs (if you say it seems like it is misfiring - maybe it actually is misfiring?). Many different things can be causing it... for example seizing idlers, or seizing A/C compressor, failing A/C compressor clutch or failing A/C compressor clutch solenoid can cause it as well, there is literally few dozen things to consider. So just assuming you have issue with carbon, because this seems to be common issue in US and generally DI engines is kind of premature. Now there is some good info - 114k miles and full dealer service is good start. Spark-plugs 4 years ago checks out as well. 5k miles since last service is good, but at the same time it needs oil soon. 10k miles service schedule is BS, these cars needs oil much more often (same cars in Europe gets serviced every 10k kilometres, so 6k miles)- I would say at least once a year and no more than 3-6k miles intervals, especially if driven a lot in city traffic. Lexus own service schedule says that 10k miles are "extended service interval" and there are certain things that one has to comply with to qualify e.g. if car "often" is driven for long periods of time at "high-speed" (e.g. 2h on motorway at 70MPH), if car is used for towing, if car is "often" used in city traffic then they do NOT qualify for extended intervals and thus should receive service every 3-6k miles. Other things to consider - O2 and Lambda are rated for 75k miles, if they are getting "lazy" which would be expected by 114k, then you can get rough idling. Same for throttle body and for MAF, they can get dirty and cause rough idling, both can be cleaned. In short - there are several things that you can check, but carbon build-up would not be even in top 10 of my list of the issues to worry about.

Dealer contacted me today and shared video of the car which arrived yesterday. looks great and should be driving it early next week after a 17 1/2 month wait.

It might be worth a mention that Rock are having a sale on some LS430 parts. I think £23 for front upper control arms are as low as you'll get, and I would trust them more than unknown eBay sellers.

But look at the starting prices for other models that we can compare. ES starts at 54K, compared to 40K here. The base UX in Germany is list 42K so I would expect LBX here to be £30-40K be great if they can keep the top model under the luxury tax threshold

I decided to tackle my badly applied paint on the rear bumper, based on the theory that any subsequent rectification would be easier. I started off dry sanding with 500 grit, followed by wet sanding with 1000, 2000 and 3000 grit. Then I used a DA machine to apply cutting compound and then polish. I haven't got the deep shine I was hoping for, but it's certainly a lot better than when I started. I must admit I was half expecting I would need to repaint the bumper. It would certainly have been quicker than the four hours I spent flatting and polishing, and that's just the top! The start of the process: Finished, hopefully!:

The problem is Charles we blithely go along thinking all people are as intelligent as we Lexus owners are but it's simply not true. Just imagine the average person then realise that 50% are more stupid than that. 😱

A bit of dirt or mud or perhaps something like a wet leaf momentarily blocking the radar? I’ve had it happen during heavy rain and even light snow, in which cases the explanation is more obvious.

Its not that long ago when some sat navs allowed you to put in famous voices - it was quite funny for a short period of time having (for example) darth vader telling you that you had "gone over to the dark side" if you took a wrong turn but in the end they were just a passing trend that seems to have long vanished.

Solved The Problem At the third attempt I managed to sort it out. It was a silly mistake. Because the new pads were black, I had got the 'black anti squeal shims' mixed up. On one side I had put a stainless shim on each pad, but I had put two black shims on one side and none on the other. Oops! All quiet now. John N

When my current car became 10 years old and I could no longer get a Lexus warranty on it, I had to get breakdown assistance for myself. I went with the Lexus Roadside Assistance version. It has been well-priced and offers the full thing, including relay, european cover, onward travel and everything. Just over two years ago I paid £230 for two years. I decided to sell my current Lexus myself, but rang up Lexus Roadside Assistance to see if I could transfer the cover to my new car. No, was the very simple answer, and nor could it be delayed til the cover on my new car ran out. Maybe this is the modern way with breakdown people, but I know in the past the AA and the RAC were very happy to delay and restate cover. It turns out though that the car itself is the thing that is covered, and it cannot be delayed or transferred. The breakdown assistance goes with the car and not the person. So if you're buying a car, it's worth checking if there is residual cover from the last owner, and if you're selling it on, then it could be something worth mentioning to buyers. I bought my first (of five) LSs in 1998, and in 25 years I've only needed to call them out once, and that was to deal with a problem caused by a Lexus technician. It does make me feel it's a bit expensive, but I think I'm probably just repaying the debt I owe for all the early callouts I needed earlier in life. Many's the time I arrived places in a yellow lorry with an old volvo estate on the back : o )

We just px’d the wife’s Honda against a new Toyota. As part of the deal when we bought the Honda 2 years ago we got 5 years free servicing and warranty. As you say, the remaining 3 years go with the car - I asked how the new owner would know and was told that when they booked a service they would be told then - I’m not sure that would happen !

Good luck with the MOT, Glyn, and thanks for the update. As I'm not a 'hands-on' motorist with any knowhow on DIY, I find the reports of other members of great interest. I must at some point have missed any explanation of such a low mileage on a 2004 car—that sounds like an excellent find! I've had a lot of different types of car over my 67 years of driving, and this car has made me realise what I've missed in not having a cabriolet. Unfortunately, ownership has coincided with a degree of health that limits my range, because I'd love to have owned this in the days when I toured in France and Germany. Take my advice and make the most of it while you're able! The old saying is right: "You regret the things you haven't done more than the things you have!"

It’s quite some time since I did an update to this build thread so here’s what I have done since the last one. I installed the rear quarter window mod as sold by Satoshi Sasaki in Japan. The install was very easy and I love the line of the rear window when it’s up as it flows into the line of the boot. I particularly like being able to have all the windows up with the top down. When driving with all the windows down and the roof up is not that practical as it gets very blowy at higher speeds. It does look stylish when stationary though. It reminds me of the pillar less coupes from old by BMW and Mercedes.      Next up was to replace the orange side marker reflectors to clear ones. I bought them via ebay as well as bulb holders and wiring in case I ever want to wire them up to the indicator circuit as they are orange LED’s. I would have liked some rear clear fog light lens and put red bulbs in them but have never been able source any.    I have now taken the Lexus Motif of the grille again which you can do on pre facelift grilles. I don’t mind it but I think it is a cleaner look without it which I prefer.  I bought a different Throttle controller to replace the SC430mods one I had and sold it to another owner. There was nothing wrong with it however I found you could fit one that has a lock function so when you remove the display if the car is started it won’t accelerate passed idle. As my car is parked in the road I wanted this extra security feature on top of the Disklok I use. I know I am sad and obsessed in that I also bought a gold coloured 1/18” scale MotorMax SC430 model.and set about making it a replica of my real one. I stripped it all down, sprayed it the correct colour blue, changed the wheels to the same as mine and even painted some of the interior black to match. It was an absolute pain to do and is not as good looking at it close up as I would have liked.   Following driving up to Coventry I have put the original muffler back on now as I realise how much I enjoy how refined the SC is as a tourer is on longer journeys. Having had a couple of other sports car I can’t believe what a wonderful and comfortable car the SC is and as good as my RX450h. I would love to take it on a long road trip around Europe. One thing personally I think it for me would improve the driving experience is a smaller diameter thicker steering wheel or a tighter lock to lock. The only other mod I want to do at the moment is to colour code the silver part of the grille and chrome on the bonnet similar to the photos below but I can’t decide on whether to do the slats gloss black or leave them as they are. I will wrap them first with some vinyl I have just ordered so it can be restored to OEM. I will post pictures when done.   At some point in the future if a system is ever available I would like cameras around especially as I am very conscious of kerbing my expensive alloys. Finally the mileage is now 9600 miles so it is never going to be a high mileage car at this rate. MOT is at next week so hopefully no issues. text 2.txt

I'll be buying a new hybrid just before they are banned unless a) fuel cell cars come forward at a sensible price b) BEV get significant reliable range and much lower charging time and reduce in price, and c) the EV infrastructure improves dramatically. I'm sure I can't be the only one thinking like this...

Well done Richard, I'm impressed! My unit is not right currently, all of a sudden CD's do not play. I play CD's frequently and therefore miss this function greatly. I could remove the unit but delving into it to locate and repair a fault is, I feel, outside my comfort zone. Would you consider helping other members who are having problems as many, like me would truly appreciate it, and also be happy to show our appreciation! Anthony

Yes, I'm keeping my current 2014 IS 300h going now as long as it's economically viable - it's done 133k miles so hopefully a few more miles left in it yet. Bought it for cash for a really good price when it was 2 years old and 40k miles and if I can get eg another 100k miles out of it reliably over the next few years then compared to buying anything new or even used (at today's prices) it will be comfortable and very cost effective motoring.

yup agree with Ala, lots of cheap hard plastics that shouldn't really be there on a 'premium' car.

Once the initial excitement of change had worn off, It didn't take me long to realise that the interior quality of my IS300h wasn't up to my Gen 2 IS250.

It appears to be throughout the range. There is someone local to me that has a stunning looking new LS and l managed to have a chat with him today on a supermarket car park. I expected him to be full of joy with his head turner, but no, he said it wasn't a patch on his old one in many ways.

It may be somewhat unfair to compare the ES with a Camry (no longer available in UK) since it will undoubtedly be better built and insulated. The more fair comparison is with the old GS and I can tell you the interior on the ES is not a patch on the GS. Corners have been cut everywhere which are both visible and apparent in touch. This is why the interior also cannot get close to a 5 series since both the 5 and the old GS were superior cars for build. The ES is still a great car in many other respects, fine ride, smooth and improved cvt, quiet, economical (all better than GS in my experience), just not the interior build, that is all.

There are increasing numbers of complaints in various LOC forums about poor dealer service, including some real horror stories. I think we are witnessing a natural generational change for the worse in the level of customer treatment provided by Lexus dealerships, not merely in the U.K. but throughout Europe. The main cause, in my view, is the inevitable disappearance of many or most - and perhaps in some cases all - of the people who operated the dealerships when Lexus was a young brand. Both management and staff were motivated by the need to constantly try harder than competitors, with the result that they collectively succeeded in giving Lexus a reputation for offering the best service in the industry. This reputation, alas, is showing signs of deterioration alongside the dilution of the image of exclusivity - which was itself a motivational factor for dealers and customers alike - deriving from the compound effect of higher sales and an ever increasing number of ageing cars being brought in for servicing.

Hilarious and one to remember.😂 It's one thing to be scammed but believe me it's another to try and report a scam. A (sadly) known to me individual who lives on another continent opened two accounts with a well known UK bank using an address to which I have a connection. He deposited a 6-figure sum by effectively using a false address. I wrote to said bank by e and snail mail upwards of 6 times, and phoned them on 2 or 3 occasions to report this "scam". Each time I was promised they would be in contact "within 24 hours", but I never heard from them, not once. Even their head of complaints department couldn't be bothered to reply to my letters and my entirely justified concerns. In practice, I suspect the individual was trying to fool various authorities by suggesting he lived in the UK and milk the tax/benefit system for all he could. All duly reported to the HMRC and the DWP, given the bank simply didn't want to know. Now, call me old-fashioned, but perhaps the bank had north of £100K on account and simply didn't want to know its origins? Just a thought........

I’ve just read about another scam which this time involves the “card reader” given out by some banks to customers and used to confirm identities and payments. Apparently scammers are now sending these out to people then ringing a few days later pretending to be the bank and asking for confirmation of receipt of the reader. They then ask the customer/victim to put their card into the machine plus their PIN. Result is an empty account!