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Wot a load of Bol—ock s …….. bring it back to cars please ……. No one’s going to agree on the magnificent health changes. Societal changes, Sadie khan and TFL let alone politics Cars we might know a little about though 🤔🤣 Malc

Indeed we do…well, I have in the past…but with retirement fast approaching, my mobility not what it was, and the desire to buy a property abroad for Winter warmth at some stage in the next few years I’ve realised that the car on my driveway is not actually so important! I’m very lucky to have owned the RX (and the NX before it) but that time in my life has passed. Time to move on, downsize, and spend money on things that are more important…for my situation and aspirations, anyway.

And..,you'll save the over £40k luxury car tax too. It's far too expensive for a small car, but we still buy them. 🙂

Going back to "golden years" of motoring whatever decade is nice to look back on. Based on my recent experiences motoring today is absolutely awful. Cameras, bus lanes, agressive drivers, stupid drivers, ignorant could not care less drivers, nutcases, idiots, uninsured drivers, drugged/drunk drivers at any time of day. It's just not much fun anymore. It sounds awful but you really need to try to keep off the roads at rush hour/school dropping off hour/ weekends/ nighttime/holidays/ when the mad cyclists are out looking for trouble. It all sounds so negative but it really is that bad around here. I think it is time to go and live somewhere sensible and tranquil. I had a particularly close call this week as a nutcase tried to join the sliproad off the motorway at speed and force me out of the way. I could hear his tyres squealing and hitting the noise warning strips as he approached from behind me. He only just missed hitting the armco as he swerved into the slip road. It was a bit of a shock . Next thing he is racing on the inside lane forcing other cars out of his way. All I can say is that he was either mad or drunk or drugged or all the above. It just puts you off driving. Maybe I am getting older and can't handle or don't want the cut and thrust of aggressive driving techniques?? Anyway if the sun is shining and the roads are dry it's out on the bike on a quiet monday morning.. Fingers crossed.

I think most will have their own preference. Some like pre war cars that leave me cold. I like the seventies as cars were relatively simple then, no electronics and the design of that era was just great. Various decades did give us some great motor cars and each to their own. That brings the question what, for you, was the highlight, the pinnacle, the one car that stands out? For me the Citroen 2CV. The sheer simplicity of the design, the lightness the way the chassis worked the undestructable 2 cylinder engine, all a masterpiece of design ( in my opinion).

Yes, I’ve seen the reviews. I’ve no doubt it’s a very good car, but it’s overpriced for what I now need and want to spend. Put it this way. I can buy a pre-registered top of the range 4WD Vitara for £20k. The LBX - and not even the AWD - is almost £40k. For fewer than 5,000 miles a year I’m more prepared to pay that difference, regardless of how ‘good’ or not the car is.

Each and every decade, and the years in between, and outside, have been amazingly wonderful, almost 100% …….. for me anyway 😄 It’s simply an attitude on life and towards people that make for “ the best decades” in one’s life 90’s we’re good for sure ……… roll on the rest of the 2020’s and thenceforth …… just make, if you can, every day count positively ……… But as for cars …….. well the 90’s were great with the production of the amazing Ls400 for some 10 years and a little at the side of that decade too Life's good ENJOY Malc

My car is 2012 Premier with 18' wheels (it's 450H but I don't think this will make a difference) and if I had to rate how smooth the suspension is I would give it 6/10. My dad's 22 year-old E-Class with 16" rides much much smoother, but I will still get the GS because I enjoy the balance between comfort and firmness. I haven't driven a facelifted car with 17's. The ride should be slightly better but still won't be comparable to the LS. The thing with all new cars is that they are trying too hard to be sporty because big wheels and aggressive bumpers sell more cars. It would be great if you could share your thoughts once you drive a car with 17" wheels.

My Lexus dealer removed my NX from Lexus Link+. I then added the car and re-registered my profile on the app and linked the keys to my profile. Everything now works as before - and amazingly all my Satnav favourites and recent journeys reappeared in Navigation.

How about 1985-1995? Perfect compromise.

Agree, but I think by the end of 90s all key improvements in healthcare were already achieved. Yes in practice it took another decade for the hospitals to be retrofitted, doctors trained etc. But hypothetically speaking if all medical achievements would have ended at the year 2000 we still would be in very very good place. Even today I think most of procedures would be possible with 90s technology and we really moved very little beyond that. As I said - in practice it may have looked like it only happened in 2010s, but technology was already available in 90s. I don't see social media as inherently negative effect, there are negative effects related to addiction of social media, issues related with parenting that leads into bad influences etc. but social media itself is also a good thing if used correctly e.g. I have used social media in 2000s and 2010s and it only made my life better and furthered my social life and career. Obviously, you can't neatly divide life in decades, but now we can look into the past retrospectively and on balance of pros and cons decide what decade was best and worst. It is like looking at historic stock price - my view is that it was going up from 1950s to ~2002-2005 maybe, then stagnated for maybe 10 years and now are noticeably going down. Hence, based on observations above it would be possible to conclude that 90s "up to now" was the pinnacle of of humanity. That is not to say that we can't, maybe in 20 years, miraculously reverse the course and achieve another pinnacle (perhaps that how it would have looked for people in 1930s), but to be honest I am pessimistic about that.

Brilliant synopsis of how I too feel and experience todays motoring madness …….. I’m no cyclist ….. I just go for my 30 min 20 lengths swim a few times a week to de-stress from driving …… heaven knows how people cope driving in anything other than a Lexus limo But I couldn’t cope with all that electronic wizadry on a modern Lexus tbh ……. Life needs the simplicity of an aged Ls400 surrounding me 😂 Malc

Maybe an idea while you are at it to check for anything stuck between the disk and the internal weather guard. I got a stone caught in mine this week - made a helluva din until I got it out. More of a scraping noise than a rumbling bearing.

I had of course classified you to be a statistical outlier that cannot be visibly seen on the Bell distribution.

But I’ve not yet grown up surely 🤣 Being adult must be such a chore and responsibility 😂 Malc

Two things to remember when buying these. No replacement for displacement. Young steel seals the deal.

I would suggest you read all the shouts on the software update topic re issues after updates.

Yes sensible money, and similar problems to other cars of that age , seats marked/stained, faded headlamps , curbed alloys . plus cracked front n/plate housing .

Sorry - did I miss something? I didn't realise this was limited to cars! I thought it is about 90s in general, yeah cars were good back then, but it was not only the cars that were good about 90s. Also I have to disagree with this one either. I mean sure - ones perspective matters, but let's say 1940s - 1950s were objectively bad time to be alive. Forget perspective - it was horrible either way you look at it. Although I am not comparing it to WW2, but 2000-2010 was objectively bad time to be alive again, started alright, but ended with everyone being worse off. Same continues since 2010s onwards. It is not about perspective and making it work, it objectively the time when quality of life is getting worse. Now again comparatively - I am sure that anyone in their 20-30s back in 1940s would gladly swap it to 2010s, but it is still undeniable that we reached "quality of life" pinnacle in 90s, plateaued and since early 2000s quality of life is getting increasingly bad again. It is not yet WW3, although considering everything who can say we not going that way, but it is still significantly worse than it was in 90s. Also I do consider that we currently living in war years, there is war in Europe, Europeans die, we are sending (not enough) weapons to defend the peace, we are paying increased prices for that etc. Sometimes you just can't make something "best decade of your life", no mattery how positive is your outlook. 1910s and 30s were objectively bad, 40s were horrible, from 50s to 90s those were good years, 2000s were meh, 2008 financial crisis was objectively bad period for everyone, 2010s overall were stagnant, 2020s onwards not getting better. So be as positive as you want - they are just not good years.

You can remove them to drain water but I wouldn’t leave them out otherwise road water/spray will start to get in.

Potentially the tyre but is does seem to be the wheel bearing from your description.

Yes Brian, when I bought the car from Lexus Newcastle driving it back there was a noise from the rear bit like old bed springs! Derby identified it as delamination of bushes in the rear trailing arm assembly a very expensive fix that Newcastle should have covered under dealer warranty. After some backwards and forwards between Derby and Newcastle someone covered the cost not sure who but it was not me 😎

Quite correct Phil, had I needed a full service I would not have bothered but intermediate is acceptable. I have paid for a HHC last week which means that I have one in hand for 25/26. As this will be the 15th year I don't think Extended plus will be available so my decisions will be made for me.

Back to the original subject, I cancelled my LBX test drive that was due for today. I’m afraid I consider it far too expensive for what it is and, given my mileage is now less than 5,000 miles annually, I’ve decided to either; - go for the new MINI Countryman as a ‘premium’ option as it’s very impressive and usefully cheaper than the LBX; - look at a ‘value’ option such as the Yaris Cross or Suzuki Vitara (which is very good value, especially pre-registered), or; - buy a 2-3 year old car for cash, something like a Honda Jazz. Afraid I won’t be sticking with Lexus, despite having loved my two NX and now my RX. As I approach retirement I’ve decided there are better things on which to spend my money than a fancy car that hardly ever gets used!

Just use Waze on your smartphone---has all the information that you need

What’s your source for that please? The discussions in the Yaris forums (my partner has a Yaris) on this topic are all about whether the 130 variant engine coming to the Yaris and Yaris Cross will also include a balancing shaft like the LBX, because the current 115 engine in those cars doesn’t have one…

The NX is a two tonne SUV, hybrid or not. An SUV was never the right purchase if your priority was conserving fuel. My last two cars were diesel saloons. I moved to an SUV very aware my fuel consumption would increase significantly, and it has!

Thanks to Colin barber on here read a post he put on about us imports from rock auto. Didn’t realise shipping included duty, so bought both sides off there £195 all in. Should be here Friday.

Personally I’ve never been in the market for an NX but, in general chats with my dealer and some of his sales people over the years, I have several times heard that owners have almost invariably been disappointed by the fuel consumption, so much so that the substantial improvement offered by the 350h has become the main element in the sales pitch to prospective repeat customers. It appears, however, that there continue to be less repeat customers for the NX than first-time ones.

Well…I think we can probably all agree on that! 😊

😄😄😄 Quite right, Linas. That was still a decade ahead - and contrary to common stereotype, we got on very well! I see you’ve expanded your analysis into the ‘best decade’ by including societal changes as well as automotive - and rightly so. But it does complicate matters! After all, why not then also consider the many medical advances that have improved the quality of life? On the other hand, are these counterpointed by the apparent increase in the number of people who appear not to accept personal responsibility for their lifestyle or actions? Or believe their actions are justified by a Higher Being? And how much do the obvious benefits of the Internet contrast with the invidious rise - and so often the negative effects - of ‘Social Media’? Apart from which, I’ve always thought dividing Life into neat decades to be suspiciously convenient! Frankly, it’s all a bit too introspective for me!

Plus us lot.

The nose weight is low, which isn't ideal, but as a tow car it's really decent. Pulls well, very stable. I came from a 3 litre diesel auto BMW with air suspension which was fantastic and I was worried the soft spring suspension and lower torque of the RX would be a problem - but it isn't. The CVT gearbox works brilliantly towing.

Took n/s/f front wheel off today and going to refurbish the inner rim. Outside rim is all good but inner is coated in 15 years of brake dust etc. Also gave the front suspension/brakes a coat of Furtan rust converter while I was there 👍🏻

Going to try something a bit different as far as tracking.. range is on the climb like most are reporting. Currently at 48/44.5 (started with 40/38 on delivery in dec) now reseting history every month to allow for more realistic performance against kWh and mpg. February in screen shot, every week has seen at least a 150m+ trip (non stop) twice a week, so challenging to absolutely influence mpg over this distance on the back of EV compensating. but… tracking at 65+mpg over 1.3k with miles per kWh climbing to 2.9. Should start to see 70mpg+ return and climbing over 3m per kWh Real world though? I’m only putting in £35 of fuel each time for a 310ish mile trip. EV cost is literally at 80p over the 85miles I’m getting based on a charge both ways. I charge at home on the outbound (own cost) charge at office for the return (no cost, yes lucky I know..) I’m On an off peak tariff with British Gas and Hive at 9.5p per kWh alongside a new beta incentive to allow the charge to be longer of the full off peak window to support low grid usage.. This reduces the tariff to 5p per kWh hence £0.80p for 48miles. Incredible..!! So, at the moment it’s already running at 8.6p per Mile combined.. far cheaper than a hybrid and would absolutely wipe the floor with a similar sized diesel SUV.

There’s maybe a 95 car coming up for sale at Lytham St Anne’s shortly ….. if that’s close’ish to you see the posts on here about it if you’re interested 🤔 Malc

I think the Terms and Conditions screen will come up when the car does not start up in your profile. It came up all the time when I had no profile loaded, so it was in native "Lexus" as the user. Having just done a complete reset and loaded my profile, it still came up if the car started without the profile loading (happened while I was testing the linking keys function): so the car comes up in Guest mode. By not agreeing to the terms and conditions, the only difference I saw was that it did not record the trips (although I suspect that it recorded overall mileage etc), so that privacy is maintained for the guest (or thief). So if the car is started with a non-linked key or linked bluetooth device, or it didn't register it quickly enough, the guest mode is activated, and the screen will come up. I can see that if you had users who didn't want to see the trips, this could be useful. On the other hand, as an owner, I would like to know where the car has been. Especially if it was taken by a thief. Presumably the data is collected, but not made available on the app. I did notice that when in Lexus mode, the journeys were not shown in the app if the t&cs weren't agreed with, but when they were ticked, the journey was shown.

Never had that issue with independent garages. Dealers and chains don't take parts from outside, but as far as I am concerned - all independent garages takes parts from outside, but then they say "warranty for work only" and that is fair. I have found plenty of monkeys working in Lexus as well. I can't say I was really impressed with any particular service with Lexus. It was alright, but nothing more. Courtesy car is nice and independent garages I use don't offer this at all, but if the difference is 60% in price, then I can deal with that. The problem with Lexus in particular is that there are very very few independents that know the cars, so normal service - oils and filters... fine, but anything more than that is trouble. I used to take Lexus only to Lexus, and I probably will still do this going forward. I mean I took my £1000 GS300 to Lexus last time and it was £280 for minor service, so not exactly good value... and service was alright. I mean sure I can afford it and I like convenience, but I can see how it is actually TERRIBLE value for money and why people would say "nah... I am good". Because here is the thing - once car is 10 years old, the dealer service adds no value. I have serviced my old IS250 in Lexus all the way to 200k (I think last service was 186,000) and when it got written-off I got it valued ~£4,000, it would have been £4,000 either way, with service history and in perfect condition or with no service history and in crap condition. Obviously, bear in mind - that was done back in the day when "Essential Case" was the thing, so I actually not spent anything extra, I would even doubt it was possible to get it done cheaper than what I paid at Lexus, but those times are long gone.

This is more for mk2 forum, but that is fine. Do NOT update the maps, the sat-nav is horrible either way, for £410 you can get whole replacement unit with android auto (apple car play if referable) etc. which will freshen the car overall. Also I don't believe latest maps are even available on mk2 (2005-2012), I think last one was like 2018 or 2020, meaning you still going to have outdated maps, just not as much outdated. I probably would be fine giving the keys to electrician, because I assume it works for some company, so it is quite unlikely that he will steal your car. Optionally, you can simply unlock it for him and walk away - he will not need key for anything else. When in valet mode you give electronic key, nor the metal one, so not sure what you mean by "key cloning" - you keep the metal one on your key chain presumably... on one hand it would not make it easier/harder to clone electronic key, because electronic key is not cloned, it is the signal that is intercepted when locking/unlicking the car, so having access to physical key makes no difference. Also cloning electronic key would only allow to unlock the doors, but not to start the car, so it is kind of useless, can't think of utility of that. As for making replacement key - one does not need your key, instead they need "virgin key" (which is like £600) and then they can program it to your car. In short - giving the key with or without the metal part is as risky as valet parking inherently is. I mean yes - somebody can steal the key and with the key steal your car, that is inherent to valet parking. About as thirsty as any car with 208hp and 2.5L engine... in fact probably above average in that regard.

Each and every decade seemed pretty good to me …… it’s only quite recently …… this past decade or two, that Japanese quality cars have manifestly outshone the rest …… but it’s all personal opinion …… Toyota / Lexus Honda. Mazda. Mitsubishi have climbed that credibility ladder throwing the rest of car production reliability asunder imho i think Kia is now amazingly good, even great too …… 7 yr warranties that rarely need to be used ! Malc

Hi Bilal. Instead of re-greasing the slider pins just get brand new ones. Also wrap some sandpaper around a screwdriver shaft, grit around 240, to clean the holes where the sliders go. I had a quick look yesterday for aftermarket opposed calipers for the is250. Nothing came up but except from America and costing £3.5k but one British firm makes them from billets and at about £240 but they're not is250 specific. Perhaps look online and enquire to firms you find. HEL Performance was the firm I found. Look them up. Who knows you may strike lucky or they'd make them special if you mentioned there would be hundreds of fellow is250 owners would want them too.

That was the best decade not even from Japanese car perspective, but arguably overall in terms of quality of live. Sadly, I have not really lived in the time to benefit from it.... 😞

I get what you saying, but also - Lexus response was absolutelly unacceptable. As far as I know they haven't even admitted there is any fault. So sort of - "ok we learned a lesson at your expense, we promise to be better in future". And to be fair I don't blame Lexus too much, I think this should be some government body to chip in, like diesel gate. I don't know - some sort of consumer protection agency i.e. car brand left an major vulnerability, as result cars lost value, so they either compensate for that, take cars back or they fix it. When buying new NX I am pretty sure it does not say in sales brochure that your car comes equipped with major flaw which means any teenager can connect to your CANBUS under the bumper and override it in seconds. I guess sadly it is sort of grey area - everyone understand this is not how it suppose to be, but there is no specific law to say what to do and what are the rights of the parties involved, so this perhaps should be deal with class-action lawsuit type of deal, but in UK we don't have such legal mechanism. Also, I guess Lexus defence could be - "it is not our fault that UK has absolutelly shocking criminal situation and abysmal police support, cars are fine unless somebody maliciously attacks them". And that would be very true - in UK car crime is basically decriminalised, car thief has more protections than motorists just driving on the road, the way laws a laid out car thieve looks like some sort of vulnerable group. In the end of the day, flawed security design on Lexus side and total ignorance from police side leads into situation we have now - where you can't have a nice car because it will get stolen. And that is not only Lexus, I am sure we all seen how Bentleys, Ferraris and McLarens are being car jacked in the middle of the day in the centre of London. And as far as I know they don't have CANBUS issue, point is - police allows for thieves to get away, owners have no way of defending themselves either (no guns allowed), so thieves are getting more and more brazen with their craft in such power vacuum. Ohhh... and finally insurer, they are there just to drain last ounce of blood... few cars got stolen, say £2million write-off for them... so now they going to jack the prices for 10s of thousands of owners, and make 100s of millions out of it. Just nice excuse for profiteering.

This has gone a bit off topic but, the GS is a different character of car to the IS. As previously mentioned it's bigger, ever so slightly slower, slightly less economical (it's even heavier) , less practical (no drop down rear seats and the boot whilst same volume is wide, deep and shallow in GS due to battery placement behind rear seats), arguably better built and finished, with some spec differences/improvements around lights, Infotainment and seats. You really need to drive one to appreciate the difference in how it feels. I had the same choice when I picked my IS. I drove the GS first and liked the GS, but it was a much bigger feeling car, with compromises in practicality and cost for me, so I went IS.

The 300H GS will be slightly slower, slight less economical, and I suspect not quite as easy to throw around a B road. But otherwise its the better car, you get alot more for your cash. I wanted my wife to get the GS instead of the IS initially but she thought the GS was too big for her, so that was the end of that idea :).

As someone who's almost going to buy an F-Sport (hopefully), I became a bit conflicted after I found out there was a GS300H on the market. I wasn't even aware of the model, I thought the GS had only the 450H which is way over budget, until I saw one at the dealers when test driving an IS300H F-sport (firm but doable). Sadly I didn't have enough time to look at the GS300H properly, so I took a very brief look. Since there wasn't any price difference between similarly spec'd F-sport models (the IS did have ML though) and since I was under the impression the GS is the big brother, I am now a bit confused why I'd choose the IS over the GS at the same price level. Based on the assumption that the GS300H is the better car (better materials? better finishing? huge screen?) the only thing the IS300H F-sport going for it seems to be the LFA dash and the more pronounced design. Can anyone comment about this? I can't really find any proper comparisons between the two. I am talking about the F-sport models in particular. A link to a side-by-side pros and cons for the two should be enough.

My engine starts up EVERY SINGLE TIME whilst I am still on the drive. My wife has a Toyota Yaris hybrid and it makes no difference what the weather is, day or night, every time we/she starts it up it is always in EV mode and, if I am sat in my study and she is going out, although I can see the car, I NEVER hear it. I think that I may have mentioned this in a previous thread but can't be sure.

33.8 was one fill so you have to look at the average which at over 40mpg is perfectly acceptable. Depreciation over 4 years and 32000 miles with the NX300 equated to less than £2600 per year (albeit the covid effect of inflated used car prices helped) and current insurance on the NX450h+ is £348 per annum enhanced fully comp. At over 70mpg for the 450h+ I am quite satisfied thank-you!

Don't agree. I had a NX300H for 4 years and recorded every refuel from day one. Averaged over 40mpg which for a 2.5 litre SUV is quite impressive. Lowest ever was 33.8 (winter) and a high of over 46 (summer). Current 450h+ is giving an equivalent of 70mpg.