m'ladys husband

Hi all, Have had a call from Lexus GB tech department this morning to arrange a visit to try the car. Apparently though, this will be a bit longer than expected as the Belgian team have been told not to come across due to the London bombings! I live in the New Forest and don't honestly think theres much chance of us being targetted but I guess we will have to wait a bit longer. The chap I spoke to was a little surprised when I told him that there were a number of cars with the same issue which could also be available for them to try. He actually told me that as far as they were aware ours was the only car with the issue as none of the dealerships have reported that anyone else is experiencing this. I politely sugested that he read the forum about it to see that others did have the problem. PLEASE call your dealers and tell them to escalate the complaint then maybe the techies at LGB will start to belive that this issue - in an otherwise brillaiant vehicle -does exist. I will post agin when I have date from LGB . Best regards to all. Michael.

Hi LexusJohn, I too drove the new GS and agree with you it is a great car. Iactually want to buy one of these to use on the days I dont want to take the DB7. BUT, I won'tbe parting with anymore cash to Lexus until they sort out my wifes RX for us. Its a great car the new GS and I must say I found it very quiet at speed and really very smooth to drive. The dealer did try to get me to try the bigger engine option butwhen I asked he said that 9 out of 10 buyers were happy with the 3.0 litre. It seemed to be m,ore than adequate for most people . I hope you enjoy the car............ its very good and the one I drove had no gear change issues (yet)! Best regards. Michael.

Hi All, Have been away and am still awaiting the contact from Lexus GB to arrange the drive in day. I am assured by LGB that they are getting an enginneer from Belgium and one from the UK to look into this.......but when? When I last spoke to LGB they said that they were not aware of any real problems and that he number of people registering this issue on the forum was not too high.........well, it seems to me that a few more have started to register the issue. I think we all need to keep on to our dealers as well as LGB - if enough feed back gets through they will have to listen to us. Meanwhile, our car is getting older and we still want our money back if it is not fixed once and for all. I am aware that the problem does/did exist on the GS300 as well so maybe its worth opening the issue to the GS300 users as well? Any thoughts? Best regards to all. Michael.

So if they just changed the change points mapped in the ECU then this wouldn't happen. I don't understand the reluctance here as clearly Lexus are able to make other cars with auto boxes that don't do this. Far from ideal of course because this is meant to be an auto box but does at least reduce the number of occasions that my passengers and I have to experience the discomfort of poor implementation. Amen to that one Damian! I await the response from Lexus GB to tell me what they intend to do next and then we'll go from there. I am still highly suspicious that hey are too bothered about the issue ansd as a result do anticipate it being necessay to have an action group before we can finally get them to admit to the problem. They have done something about it for the USA so why not for the UK and European markets. Anyone out there from Lexus care to comment? Away for a week due to a surprise birthday holiday from my wife so will look at Forum next weekend and update with any info from my end then. Michael.

Hi all, had a call last night from Steve Settle who is the head of Lexus GB about our lurching RX300. He has promised to talk to Japan and come back to me early next week. I'm not holding my breath for any positive outcome from this as Japan say it is not a safety issue! Seems to me that when a premium brand, high value car, has a gearbox issue and a reluctance to respond to input from the throttle this is a safety issue waiting to become an accident. We are continuimg on the trading standarads road and will get rid of the car (reluctantly) or change it for a hybrid if we can hack out the right deal with Lexus. I did tell Steve Settle that there were over 300 viewings on this site of the issue and that 12 other owners were also having the same problems. He didnt seem too bothered by these numbers until I suggested that perhaps this is the tip of the iceberg as a lot of owners may not have looked at the forum yet. Will let you all know what happens next. Regards to all. Michael.

Hello all you Rx300 owners with lurching gearboxes. Had a frank discussion with my dealer principal today about our gearbox issues and am promised a conversation or a meeting with the head of Lexus GB soon. It seems that hey are still saying its a live with it situation but I will not give up easily as this is our third RX300 and the second with this problem. If we need to get a group together to attack in force I will post a message to this effect and email all those of you hwo have shown interest so far. I managed to drive the RX400 today - its quite brilliant if a little weird at first. There is no surge, no lurch just heaps of progressive power and whilst theres no engine note like my factorty prepared DB7, it does get a growl when pushed hard...I have to say I quite liked the car. The interior is a bit bland compared to the SEL RX300. No wood, just brushed aluminium on this car. No air suspension due to the electric motors apparently but on the SEL you get a mark levinson sound system as on the 300 models and 2xdvd players for the rear passengers.............just the thing to trap my customers in the back seats and show them corporate DVD's! I'll post again and let you all know what happens if and when I have my meeting with the big man and trading standards. Michael.

Hello all, Thank you for your numerous contacts and support for this crazy situation....such a great car in all other respects. Absolutely right that disconnecting the battery is the common fix but to be honest that just makes you go away but it soon comes back, sometimes in a day or so and sometimes in about 2-3000 miles. Its not the answer, nor is the 05 ECU upgrade that they did to our last car. When the fault was still there, they thought it might be an 04 one fitted by mistake hence the loan of a car for three weeks. However, the 05 car is just the same! I have again spoken to my dealer this afternoon and he tells me that they are now taking the situation more seriously and that I can expect some reaction early next week. About time too! Trading Standards are taking the issue very seriously and we have a meeting with them also next week - this seems not to have had no effect on Lexus GB at all. I will keep in touch and let you all know whats happening here and if we get anywhere with our approach to Top Gear about raising the issue with them. My wife sent an email to them and we have a chum of our sons there who is a researcher for the program............perhaps if I offer to loan my DB7 to Clarkson for a day, so that he can fulfill his desire to go and see Kirsten Scott-Thomas in a DB7, he might sit up and listen more readily. I wonder what Lexus would think of that sort of coverage of a problem that does not exist? Oh well, off for a scotch in the last of the sunshine and forget about work and cars. Best regards. Michael.

Hello All, I'm back! You may recall that I posted some time ago about the lutrching problems on my wifes RX300 SE-L MY2004. We eneded up having a loan car from Lexus GB for three weeks in which they told us the new 05MY ECU would solve the fault. It seemed ok so we paid another chunk of cash and changed the 04 car for a new 05 car. One month and 1600 miles in its happening all over again. We have now informed trading standards and have written to our dealer in Southampton rejecting the car and asking for our £39k back......they have replied telling us that its a known issue and one that we basically have to live with as the benefits of the intelligent gearbox far outweigh the problem! I am told by the dealer manager that, in the States, Lexus have had to rewire the ECU/gearbox interface to wipe the memoruy when the car is turned off as they have had so many complaints from owners - the issue there is called 'Multiple Driver Syndrome'. I wonder if there is anybody out there intersted in getting a group approach to Lexus GB to take their heads out of the sky(!) and talk to us unhappy users about a once and for all fix on what is otherwise a really good car? Michael.