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I’ll inspect the front end soon… if the weather stays on my side . Can believe the price of Dinitrol ..one can £15.00 …then found a 3 x can deal on Amazon £29.95 😎😎 You never know what you’ve bought until you’ve had a good poke about underneath 👍🏻

I agree about the Honda CRV, I had a test drive in one those and couldn't believe the amount of road and wind noise at motorway speeds. The ES is far superior.

I certainly can’t disagree with your comments, today in the U.K. we have an excuse for a police service. I had incident of vehicle theft and theft from vehicle on my dash cam, with facial evidence of offenders, tried to contact the police, and my call was transferred to E.Bob, whatever that is, and no one answers the phone. After 20 minutes of trying to contact someone, I gave up, if it ain’t important to them, it ain’t important to me, but that is the times we live in! But, god forbid you do 34mph in a 30 and they come after you big style, points on licence, fine, and the inevitable insurance company rub their sweaty little palms with glee as they increase you premium. Rant I’ve, going back to bed 😂🤣

I kept my 1994 Celsior for 16 years and have had my 2004 one for nearly 3 years now, Before these I would keep a car for no more than 3 years before they either needed major repairs or rusted away.

Just had my renewal quote from my insurer (Lexus Motor Insurance) and it has risen from £303 last year to £431. Not too bad I guess - all things considered. Especially so when you bear in mind that the comparison sites (and the usual suspects that don't appear on these sites) were all returning quotes over £1,000. In light of that, I have renewed with them.

Placed a big order last week with Lexus Direct Parts, all being well, it'll come tomorrow and I'll be doing the following jobs: Oil & Filter change Coolant replacement Transmission fluid replacement Engine air filter replacement Pollen / cabin filter replacement Brake fluid replacement Air conditioning system clean Fuel system clean Paint stone chip touch up Spark plugs replaced Quite a 'complete service' incoming for the car. I can't be sure after that initial three years what was done.. to what standard and what parts were used. I doubt it was genuine fluids. It's unclear if they 'topped up' brake fluid or properly replaced it etc... as that said dealer I bought the car from did lie to me on my last car about changing brake fluid I thought why take the chance.. for a few £. They allegedly also changed the spark plugs but did they? and did they use genuine parts.. probably not. Why chance it? This will set it right. Then I plan to most likely take it to Lexus for the Relax warranty for the last 2/3 eligible years. I am tempted to video each of these jobs and put it up on YouTube as a how-to or just a follow along video.

Absolutelly, I just used cheap winter tyres on car in arctic conditions and they were very dodgy (not much choice - it was rental). It was -20C and therefore main roads were dry, even summer tyre could have handled that, but going on slippery side roads was a real challenge. And we talking here about literally brand new tyres with probably less than 100 miles on them. Yes there are situations where even cheapest winter tyre outperforms best summer tyre, but they are very specific situations. Otherwise, same like one can tell shaite summer tyres from good ones in summer, likewise one can tell shaite winter tyres from good ones in winter. If anything it makes more difference in winter than summer, my opinion is that summer tyres are easier to make so if companies can't make good summer tyres, they have no chance to make good winter tyres.

Personally I have never understood the "image" thing in cars or otherwise. I don't want to drive an ugly car but other than that I really don't give a **** what anyone else thinks of it? If you buy a car or motorcycle to impress others then you will be forever disappointed and constantly changing vehicles as fashions change constantly, but hey, it's your money 😁 We have a guy at work who has had 6 different cars in the 6 years I have had the LS430. I spent £4400 on mine plus maybe the same again on maintenance whilst he spent £600 per month on his leases for the same 6 years. That is nearly 5 times what I paid and at the end of it he has nothing whilst I have a car that's worth maybe £3000. Yes, he has a new car every year but his new cars have spent more time in the garage being fixed than my 20 year old 140k mile LS. 🤣

If an Englishmans home is his castle then surely his V8 is his holiday home? 🤨

Sadly, there are no simple solutions for that, no "silver bullet" - practice and experienced is the only answer... but in UK there is nowhere to get that. So option 1 - get some winter driving experience, there is training for that abroad, also one can go for winter holidays more often, there advanced courses (although they may be focused on wet driving/aquaplaning in UK, but still useful). Option 2 - not to drive. That is genuinely workable option with UK having maybe 2 days per year of winter it is doable (I know I deliberately taking pssss here, but winter days are few enough to be able not to drive, it is genuine option). 3rd is not really an option in my view - but if one has to drive, like they went to meet family up north, it was 9C, then suddenly out of nowhere there is blizzard and it is -5C at night when they have to go back... and they have to do it because tomorrow they are going for long planned holidays. Then keeping distance, driving slow and taking extra care is the only way. It is not an option, because it is no point of being "mindful" or being "careful" if one fundamentally does not know what to look for. Sorry to say, but most British drivers do not know what they looking for in slippery conditions, that is not criticism it is just a fact and result of generally mild weather in UK. To be mindful of danger you need to know exactly how to deal with it. It is like saying to person "go pick-up that snake", we all know that snakes are poisonous, quick and can bite - still that does not help at all in picking-up the snake. So same with driving on slippery roads - one needs to know how to drive in those conditions and practice it, it is not enough to know it is dangerous. One thing NOT to do - get winter tyres and act like it is summer. Sadly, this is in my experience most common thing people do, not because they are stupid, not because they are not careful, but because with lack of real-life experience people just don't know what they looking for, they think they have prepared they don't all the steps on "top 10 tips winter driving list from Sunday Times", but they don't understand they simply don't have skills and experience to deal with situations they will encounter. Tyres gives you nothing if you don't know how to use them, may even give false sense of safety until it is too late. I am not saying don't get winter tyres, or not put -40C screen wash (by the way the thing is horrible if you driving on motorway at -10C), or not keep extra distance, but with all that preparation one still have to always default to option 3, unless they have completed option 1. How to prepare car for winter, that is separate topic - I like to use some lubricant on the rubbers just not to get them frozen overnight. Other useful thing - if google says it will take 15 min to drive somewhere, just double that and add 30 minutes on top. First of all you need to prepare car after the night (if it was outside), warm it-up first, properly for like 10 minutes, clean it properly, not just little slot on windscreen. Obviously, having right tools helps, keeping car indoors or under the cover even better. Driving Lexus I found that lifting wipers is pointless as all of my cars had heated windscreen, but if you don't have it, then lift the wipers when you park. All this prep takes time, hence just blanket extra 30 min for any trip, because last thing you want to do in winter is rushing. General mechanical prep - noting special, tyres should be good, should be same, should be at the right pressure (in winter pressure could be lower, but must be even), all the fluids should be right and to the right level. Small note on winter screenwash, -10C, -15C, maybe even -25C are alright, but when you get into real winter screenwash with -40C it is alcohol based and alcohol tends to evaporate, so if you driving in real winter (-20C or such) and you try to use it at speed it will internally freeze out of the nozzle and makes amazing icicles, so you need to slow down, ideally nearly stop before using it, but if you doing 70 on motorway, it will freeze. Also remember -10C, - 50C whatever, that is not a problem. Worst temperature is -0C, or let's say between ~ +1C and -1C. That is when you get black ice and that is when no tyres helps. Above that is just wet, any tyres will handle that reasonably well, once everything freezes everything is evenly slippery and below -5C actually dry, but that temperature around 0C is most dangerous. Aslo you can definitely see black ice if you know what you looking for, if not sure then slow down to relatively slow speed, make sure you have plenty space in front and behind you and start braking increasingly suddenly and you will figure out right away how slippery it is and at what point your car loses grip, it is good test to do if you not sure how slippery it is or hoe well your tyres can cope with it. 2 weeks ago I was driving for a week in ~ -10C-26C for a week with RAV4 hybrid (fake-AWD) and brand new, but crappy winter tyres. It was rather scary how bad were those winter tyres, they looked good, but they were unpredictable, obviously being new car with all safety systems it was alright. Today I just got back from snowboarding where rental company failed me in providing "winterised" car, paid extra 90 euro for winter tyres and found Michelin PS4* on the car, then they gave me snow socks as "solution", which is not exactly the same. However, I must say PS4* were amazing, despite -10C and very dodgy mountain roads. I don't know if it was the * (star - BMW special fitment) that made a difference or it was something to do with BMW 4GC which despite being RWD only handled slippery mountains roads like a champ, but I had great time. Did car lost grip - yes of course it did, it was performance summer tyres on icy mountain roads, but it was always predictable and controllable ride. It is true that getting up the mountain is always safer than getting down the mountain (which you can as well consider tip), but I didn't have issues either direction.

Well zero puoins for this fool who took a BMW 5 tourer sans chains right up the mountain to Avoriaz ! Thank you to the skiers who pushed the last few hundred yards. If getting up was tough getting down was the stuff of nightmares! How do you say in French 'get some barriers up for Christsake'. If you live you learn.

One thing I've learned from having an LS400, LS430, and now an LS460 is that they won't go up even the slightest incline if there's snow or ice on the road. Now I always carry a pair of snow socks in the winter, they've got me out of many a tricky situation where otherwise I would have had to leave the car and walk home. https://autosockdirect.co.uk/

For anyone interested, was just in Costco and the Prestone concentrated screen wash (the blue one for up to -23C) is about 8 quid for 5 litres.

I drove through France and Belgium with a straight piped GS430. The car was even checked over by police at a services as it was on airride and decked at the station. It only had admiring attention and one of them recorded me leaving. Leaving Belgium, the police attention was high due to the event we were at and we had no issues. Bar the obvious (speeding and being an ASBO in built up areas), which I'm assuming you don't, you'll be fine, trust me.

If you are on your own, then I'd suggest getting an automatic tag for autoroute tolls. On a return trip to the Alps I managed to kerb a wheel trying to get the left hand side of the car close enough to lean across and collect tickets or pay. I heard a neat summary from an expat that explained why the French are so keen on having lots of rules. It means they can feel good about themselves and their independent spirit when they break a law. They also get a thrill of righteous indignation when someone else breaks the same law.

No - not an issue. Think of literally 10s of thousands of cars driving from UK to Nürburgring every year. They are barely road legal, nevermind OEM. Yes France has stricter laws regarding modifications, but they apply to French cars only... with exception of what I said clearly and obviously dangerous mods. So as long as your car does not look something like this: ... you will be fine. Germany also not an issue, it is more relaxed than France in a sense that you can certify mod on your car, rather than needed national certification of each mod for each car model. Not sure about Switzerland, but again - the strictest country in Europe is France when it comes to car modifications, it only get's better after that.

Problem with the original exhaust fake tips is they have a habit of falling off when the spot welds corrode, so if u do manage to find any, probably worth getting the welds re done. They are some £400 per corner new from Lexus as they also have a resonator cone assembly as well. There is a picture in one of the threads on here somewhere. When I had my ISF, losing exhaust tips was one of the few issues that came up occasionally and when faced with the replacement cost it made changing to the H&S system an attractive option when comparing the overall costs. if u wanted more sound it was a no brainer, so was popular!

No brainer, go fo the model 3. By far the most economical of all, no maintenance, plenty of room inside for 4 adults and the absolute fastest out there. If you have solar panels on your house visiting a petrolstation is a thing of the past. Also super reliable and practically unstealable. No comparison with the rest. Test it and you will find out

You cant freely take modified British car to France. Yes - France does not allow unauthorised/uncertified modifications. Down to things like wheels - you just can't put aftermarket wheels on car unless they are specifically model certified. The way it is dealt with is via similar process as MOT in UK i.e. if you take modified car without certification it will simply fail. However, when it comes to foreign cars France would rely on country of origin to inspect the cars. So if you car has MOT in UK, then it is good to go - it is none of French business what is modified on your car, it is not for them that are certifying it. As long as your car is somewhat road legal they not going to pick on modification. By "somewhat" I mean no stupid camber, no flames shooting out of the bonnet and similar. For them to take action your car would have to be obviously unsafe for public roads. In short their rules do not apply for cars registered in UK and just visiting, expect of things like tyre thread depth which you have to comply when visiting. My assumption would be that exhaust should not exceed certain noise levels as well, but possibility of you being pulled over for that is non-existent... unless you stop in front of police and start revving the engine.

Given what you said then I reiterate what I said earlier: 'Go for it'! I doubt that you'll be wanting Sport+ when on the autoroute as you won't need the additional responsiveness and the sound might get a bit tiresome at 130k+ hour after hour. In towns, normal mode, or even heaven forbid granny mode if congested. Up in the hills on some 'interesting' roads Sport+ would be fun. The only potential issue there is not scaring cyclists (this is taken very seriously and a requirement to leave at least 1.5m clear when passing) and you may find a lot of them on the interesting roads. I haven't been over that way in a few years but some Departements have a non-autoroute speed limit of 80 km/h. Not where I am thankfully, though a bit further south it applies, I'm lucky as I'm allowed to roll at 90 km/h. Things can get really exciting! I was caught speeding in my 1947 Alvis once 🤣

A friend tried for me and although they came out ok, painting them was just not realistic or effective and im not spending £££ on a specialist type 3D print haha. The hunt continues, may end up just measuring with calipers and find some generic ones to whack a Lexus badge on.

Sorry washing my hair on what ever day you had in mind ! 😉😉

At least they managed to quote on your Lexus! It seems from these forums they will not even quote anymore on RX450h.

I got it fitted as part of the protection pack. Its basically a thin transparent vinyl strip which isn't nearly as robust as the phase 1 aluminium version. That said it appears to be doing the job after 22 months!

Have you ever considered the virtue of a 'busmans holiday' in Preston? Got just the job lined up for you with all the AAA baking you can eat to keep your energy levels primed.

The spec of my car attracts lots of attention regardless of the exhaust anyway, yes it is loud and I don't like revving on streets and all that but yeh on the motorway Sport+ mode and paddle shifters do give me shivers 😄 and I do enjoy it honestly! On daily basis I drive on normal mode which is okay for me or my ears are used to it now 🤣

If there’s nothing in the Manual - and my Manual was ambiguous and misleading when I was replacing my main bulbs - I would take it to a convenient Lexus dealer and ask them to confirm what bulb / bulbs were in place. Mine were D4S specification and I replaced them - just one in each unit - with Osram Nightbreaker Laser, which were a considerable improvement. I didn’t think that LED units were fitted in 2016 models, but I could well be wrong about that!

Good work down under. Will be doing similar at some point soon. Also have Dinitrol black spray. I have some of this left over for prep...

They seem to offer it as an accessory now something that is not really needed but you can use it to achieve enhanced protection. Something like a plastic wrap around your suitcase at airports, or ceramic coating to protect your paint. A recall is normally only done if there is a safety concern and it looks like Lexus does not really know how to handle the situation. It is not a UK problem only but its spread worldwide in both Toyota and Lexus vehicles so Toyota Legal will have a major say in this as well and they could be afraid that if they recall all cars it will be seen as an admission. This will open the door to numerous claims from insurance companies and private individuals alike. I really feel they want to keep this under the radar as long as possible but you what happens with a smoldering fire don't you? So far for putting customer first and the relentless pursuit of perfection, all seems a long time ago. This will bite them hard if they don't fix it.

Done all can do on the top of the car, now it’s time to get down and get under ! Put it on stands and had a good look and poke about …..conclusion very pleased with the underside😎 . Put FERTAN rust treatment on some suspect areas I could reach, then a mix of gloss black spray and DINITROL 4941..although that was short lived as the Dinitrol can has run out ☹️ Put some silver grease on the exhaust joint just to hold the rust at bay. Tank shield needed a little rust treatment but just surface . Nice to see some of the work Lexus done defore I bought it ..two new driveshaft to fix the reluctor ring problem. Right let’s get some more Dinitrol ordered 👍🏻

What is 56000 Feet in miles!

Reminds me of a great film with Louis de Funes called cabbage soup. A pity you can't get subtitled versions. When the doctor asks him at a health check how much wine he drinks, he says about 5 Litres. Doc says well that's not too bad after all this is France and 5 Litres a week is not unusual. No, I mean 5 Litres a day. Louis and his pal make home made cabbage soup and sit in their garden every night eating the soup and drinking wine. They then proceed to produce a lot of wind ( like blazing saddles ) . A passing Martian spaceship picks up the noise and investigates..... It just gets better from then on.

I’m flabbergasted a whole one litre of wine lasted you 20 years ……. 😴 Malc

Believe me you are not. Stephen where are you? in truth I must own up to that award. BTW did I ever tell you about...Aaaaarrrgggh!

The last few new specs I have had were supplied with an anti glare coating (extra cost of course) I've never been totally convinced they make any difference to be honest but not had the opportunity to do back to back tests. My specs are also vari focal with photochromic action, never been sure whether they are as good as plain vari focal for nightime driving. Any thoughts guys. Bill D.

I have to say, our Electrified Genesis GV70 has been fantastic. I was extremely wary of leaving the Lexus brand when replacing our RX family car, instead of purchasing the RZ, but I think we have dodged a bullet 🙄

He said he should be able to do it next week as the updated software comes with February's releases. A lot quicker than l thought.

Mustang mach e, I know yet another SUV. I wouldn't trust a VAG TSI motor after all the timing chain and then belt issues crapping the bed just out of warranty. Honda civic, economical hybrid but prices are insane. Same price as the ES, and an ES it is not. Honda CRV, expensive, noisy in comparison. All the VW IDs. Horrendous driver controls. Genesis and hyundai ionic 5, very swiftly stolen. They don't even need to pull the wheel lining. Done by remote. Mazda cx60, another suv. Merc EQE. Uncomfortable seats in base trim, expensive, poor visibility. Merc EQC, cramped shoulder room compared to ES. VOLVO S90, V90?

Older Ls400s very inexpensive motoring V8 fun fun fun for many many simple motoring years without too many tears Your Sc430 will work out similarly if you take a sensible practical approach to maintenance and spending only what you have to spare on her ……. and I’m sure that’s the way you’ll be the way forward is simply to enjoy all you have as best you can and ENJOY As I enjoy my 1932 Triumph Southern Cross Sports Tourer ….. that’s me as the passenger just before end of last year …… jeez it was sooooo cold that day nr. Newmarket 😂🥶😂 Malc

There would be damage to the nearside front wheel arch and possibly bumper if a canbus attack. We are fairly sure that the NG NX 2022 onwards is not susceptible to canbus due to using the Toyota Security Key (TSK), however we have contradictory claims about earlier NX models (which don't have TSK) and Lexus will not make any definitive statements on the issue. Most NX models can be vulnerable to key cloning, but we know of ways to avoid that threat. Even without a faraday pouch it's possible to temporarily turn off the signal from our keys to avoid this.

John. I am sure there is something amiss with your charging / battery. If it’ll help, I’ll keep a log so you can show Lexus your car is not providing the range it should. I shouldn’t, but on our local dual carriageways (about half my journeys) I drive at 70(+) preheat and then only have heat on for demisting. I have set the auto seat heating at +2 and find that with the auto radiant warm enough - luckily no back seat passengers or drivers. The Cross Climate 2 tyres haven’t seemed to effect the range - they certainly feel to provide a lot more grip.

It probably does require a plate, but I’m afraid Lexus haven’t produced one - they are only available for the RX.

Anti-glare a must, espcially as you get older. I prefer polaroid coating over polychromic as they cut down glare rather than cut down all light and they (IMHO) are better for when you are one minute driving in sun and then cloudy conditions, as polaroid will only filter out a max of 50% light, and next to 0% if the light is all in one plane. So I carry clear set with anti-glare and polaroid set with no anti-glare with me

My NX350H booked in next Friday 2nd Feb for 2nd keyfob AND locking wheel bolts ! Fingers crossed.

I always used to have any reflection / glare coatings on glasses but started using contact lenses more and so on a pair of glasses for occasional use I decided to skip the anti glare coating - big mistake... I continually noticed reflections in the lenses which were distracting and I hated driving in them for that reason as I kept seeing reflections in my peripheral vision. Next pair I got the coating again and all good. The only downside is that the coating is easily marked such as putting the lenses gave down on a table.

I have varifocals and have the photochromic coating along with the anti-glare coat. The later I thought was on the inside (facing one's eye) surface to help eliminate reflected glare, not that from oncoming lights? I find the glasses work well enough and haven't noticed any detrimental effects when driving. The modern photochromic coating actually works quite effectively behind glass, older coatings didn't react at all..

It's all common sense really - or rather, it ought to be. Gentle acceleration. Gentle braking where possible and smooth, fluid steering input. I generally keep my washer fluid topped up anyway so mine very rarely gets low. However, last Friday my washer jets had frozen solid and I had to look through various arcs of smeared road dirt on the way into work when I thought it was safe enough to use them. That was...interesting. I'm pleased to hear no one was injured. That could have been very nasty. This reminds me of our works' car park - which for much of last week resembled an icing rink barring a small 10ft or so length beyond the entrance gates. I almost ended up doing the splits walking away from the car last Thursday morning. 😬 The chap in the warehouse who usually salts/grits the car park at this time of year did eventually get round to it - but only about an hour after everyone had already been in and 'skated' their way to the entrance door!

Yes, ironic really don't you think?

Electric SUV of the year apparently https://media.lexus.co.uk/lexus-rz-450e-named-suv-electric-car-of-the-year/