kns

Very nice, and interesting to see the updates for the '08 model year. As a question does it look as though the new chrome grille surround could be retro fitted to a car with the previous grille? From the photo it would seem the new surround just fits over the existing bumper moulding. Thanks in advance. Keith

Over a year all be it with a very low mileage (only 2,600 odd miles in 15 months!!!!) my car has averaged approx 28 mpg. This is mix of town and motorway. Although my car is hybrid leading most to think that it should be producing the economy of a supermini, as Lexus say its a hybrid to enhance performance primarily, so I am quite happy. My previous cars ranged from a Jaguar S-type v8 to an aluminum body XJ6 averaged 16-18 and 20-22 mpg respectively, so for me the hybrid drive is prvoing worthwhile. In fact around town in light traffic with light throttle the car will run on battery alone quite a bit, and then the trip computer will produce mpg figures up into the 30s!!! Regards Keith

The gauge your referring to shows the amount of energy the car is consuming. Although I think its measured in KW (kilowatts) You will notice there is also a blue section going counter clockwise from -0-. Under braking the needle will move into this section which indicates that instead of consuming energy you are regenerating, obviously the more the needle goes into the blue the more energy is going back into the traction batteries. Also if you select "consumption" on the energy moniter page, it will bring up a bar chart showing a recent history of fuel economy. Within those bars depending on how much energy is being regenerated sections of small green squares with letter "E" will appear, each full square I think from memory shows 50 kw of energy have been put back into the car. Incindently my car is Velvet black with Sutherland Ivory interior which looks to be the same as your car. I had my car treated with Zymol "Titanium " wax at time of purchase,and continue to use the Zymol wax and range of products for cleaning and polishing. which is no easy task given the black outside and cream inside!! I certainly admire the amount of effort put in to produce the results in your pictures. Regards Keith

Likewise I have problems with the voice activation. The otherday I said "Office" so as to set destination on my GPS and it replied "Displaying icons for Coffe Houses". Hmmmm. Maybe it requires a Japanese accent!!! I have actualy got this problem sorted out. By speaking the command clearly but all importantly in a soft voice it will work correctly nearly all the time. A few commands which are short words it will still have some difficulties with. For example the command "map" has to be said precisely. Although to get round that there is also "show current position" which does the same thing and works virtually all the time. But as I say the key is to use a soft voice and off course to have as much quiet in the car as possible. One point, pity the system isnt more comprehensive, my previous cars were Jaguars with voice activation, and they would provide control for dailling phone numbers, selecting pre stored radio stations or a specific CD and track amongst many other commands. It seems crazy to me that on the Lexus, beyond selecting a stored name (a very long process) its impossible to dial a phone number whilst on the move, either by voice or through the screen, let alone being able to voice select a Cd track or radio station. Perhaps the new 'LS' range has now addressed some of these issues? Hope this is of some help regards Keith

I have to say I'm quite surprised at the problem. I have a Lexus GS450h obviously also hybrid. I have owned the car since October 2007 and covered only about 1,500 miles. So off course the car is left for several weeks at a time fully locked, and never had any problems starting. In fact the longest I have left it for is close on THREE Months, and apart from having to use the remote control button (the keyless entry shuts down after two weeks according to the handbook) it started without any problem. The handbook for the car states that in order to mainain the life of the Traction Battery, to drive the car for about 10 miles at least every three months. Finaly since May I have driven the car about 1 mile. I am plannig on driving it in about 10 days time and fully anticipate it start without problem. My advise is to speak once again to Lexus. Maybe you should try a Lexus dealer in the U.S. Its by far their biggest market and they may have a better idea. Regards Keith

Mark, For your information I have seen the same product advertised on a U.S Website, from memory I think it was a good bit cheaper than the site you found. Also you mentioned you bought your car from Lexus Exeter. I too bought my car from that dealership in October '06. May I ask who you have been dealing with? There seem to be only three customer facing staff there becouse they are quite small, and I may be able to give you the name of the salesman I dealt with who seemed very efficent, and may be able to help out. I actualy live in a North West London suburb, but went to Exeter as they were the only dealer to have the vehicle in the colour and spec etc I was looking for with a shorter delivery time. By the way you mentioned Plymouth. Surely if you live there it would be easier to goto the Lexus Exter dealers main showroom which is based in Plymouth? Look forward to hearing from you Regards Keith

I must confess although I have owned the car for six months I have only done barely 1,000 miles, and as such have only needed to fill the car twice....!!!!!!!! But in awnser to your question on the current tank which now needs re-filling a little over 300 miles, but this off course depends on the average mpg over the tank. According to the trip computer its showing an average of just under 26 mpg, in reality I would thing its nearer 23.. the trip computer being a little too optimistic. That reperesents a mixture of driving biased towards town driving in some cases in very heavy traffic. One thing, even when the range shows '0' miles in common with most cars there is still about a gallon left in the tank. Regards Keith

I took delivery of a GS450h SE L with wood pack in October last year. My previous car being the current shape Jaguar XJ6, in fact I had been a Jaguar owner for the last 10 years having had two XJs and two S-Type 4.0 litres. I would agree with the comments about the ride which is certainly quite harsh around town, but given the state of our roads particularly in and around London mean that in any car you will feel the bumps to some extent, even my previous Jaguar felt harsh at times partly as a by product of the cars Air Suspension which at slower speeds isn’t so good at reacting to poor surfaces. When running on electric motor alone the Lexus is absolutely silent (its also excellently refined when the petrol engine is running - except during warm up when the petrol engine always runs for the first five minutes or so, where its a little more noisy than you would expect), and with a very gentle right foot you can get a fair bit of driving on battery and see some incredibly good mpg figures from the rather optimistic trip computer. However as has already been said this is not an economy car, rather its sold as a performance hybrid, hence if you get caught in very heavy traffic it wont take long for the traction battery to run flat, and then on petrol alone it becomes as thirsty as any other V6 executive saloon. The worst I have seen is middle teens and best low thirties mpg averages. If like me you like gadgets, and spend the time reading the handbook there is an almost endless list of features, one example is the rear parking camera, which can be set to either bay or parallel parking and then by means of guidelines on the screen direct you into the space. As for any problems, my chosen colour -Velvet Black- is a nightmare to keep clean, and my dealer had to polish out some light surface scratches visible on delivery. All cars pick up light surface marks but the non metallic black shows everything, particularly under the fluorescent light in my garage. The voice activation is a little hit and miss, although I find by talking quite softly seems to achieve better results. The only other issue is a trim rattles - I have a tick from the dashboard and more occasionally a squeak which will need attention. Trim rattles seem to be a known issue with the GS range in general, somewhat at odds with Lexus image for quality. All in all, I am pleased with the car, and in the colour combination chosen black with beige interior certainly looks very eye catching, in fact I have had a fair few people come up and ask me about the car when filling up at the petrol station, and finally given the way the car tax and congestion charge rules for London are changing I think the will certainly be real advantages for having a hybrid. Regards Keith

I would be interested to know if anyone has been experiencing problems with the Voice Activation function? This is a feature that most owners, unless they there interested in reading the handbook often overlook, but can make life easier, as well as impressing friends and relatives :winky: by switching things on by mere voice alone. Howver some functions seem almost completly unrecognisable by the system. Commands such as 'Radio' 'Map' and too a slightly lesser extent 'Audio' amongst others rarely if ever work correctly. Also, a slightly different subject regarding the track display information function on the In Car Entertainment system. Has anyone found they can display track information from a normal shop bought CD? Thanks in advance for any feed back. Regards Keith

I too purchased a new GS450h, in my case taking delivery of an SE L in October. My experience of fuel economy ranges from low 30s mpg on gentle motorway driving to around 17 mpg in heavy London traffic. In moderate traffic low 20s is acheivable. It should be remebered that although a hybrid, this car is marketed as a performance car with the hybrid technology there to enhance the performance. That said I have found that in light traffic some incredible economy figures can be seen, at some points up into the 40s mpg and beyond according to the trip computer. The problem comes when the traction battery runs down in heavy traffic, which with a range on electric power of only about a mile happens pretty quickly. In stop start driving you cant build up enough speed to rechaarge the cells so inevatably the car switches over to the petrol engine. Personally I am not that dissapointed by the fuel economy as with any car official figures are rarely acheivalbe in normal driving, and when the performance is taken into account, any direct rival would certainly be worse. My experience from owning two Jaguar S-Type V8s was at best low 20s mpg on the motroway. Although a couple of other observations. On the two occasions I have filled the car (I am imbarressed to say I have only done a little over 700 miles in 4 months!), I have a lot of trouble with air locks in the fuel filler neck making it difficult to fill the tank. Also it seems the displayed mpg figure on the trip computer is over optimistic showing around 4 mpg better than when doing a manual check of measuring the mileage over a complete tank of fuel. Hope this is of some help. Regards Keith

Ian, I recently took delivery of a GS450h SE L also in Black with Beige Interior (Velvet Black with Sandstone as Lexus call it). I would be interested to know if you notice whether the paint picks up any light surface marks? My car spent a week with the dealer having some light surface scratches polished out, as well as a couple of tiny (one the size of a head of a pin head) stone chips on the bonnet dealt with. What concerns me is the ease with which the car can pick up even the slightest of marks, allbeit that they will polish out. Ive been told that black is a colour well known for showing up any surface marks that would be invisible on a lighter colour, and whilst I accept there is some truth in this, I'm wondering whether the non metallic black Toyota use is far more susceptable - I have a relation who has a Prius in black who also seems to notice the same issue. Regards Keith

I too recently took delivery of a new Lexus A Lexus GS450h S E L with Wood pack in Velvet Black with Sutherland interior. Although I lve in Harrow in Middlesex I ordered the car through Lexus Exeter, as after extensive searching they were the only dealer who at the time (August) had a car with the colour spec etc I was after with reasonable delviery. In fact delivery was brought forward by a few weeks to the beginning of October. I have up until this car been a Jaguar owner for the last ten years, my last car being the current shape XJ6, however for various reasons not least of all the fact that the XJ' is just too big, seemingly designed for the U.S market where size of car is not a problem, I started to look around for something a little smaller which would not sacrfice the features of my XJ, such as adaptive cruise control voice activation etc etc. I have followed the Lexus range for a number of years as it offers many of the qualities that are found in Jaguars, and I particularly admired the styling and technology of the current model GS. After the introduction of the hybrid and after a lot of test drives I deserted the Jaguar brand and decided to go ahead. My initial impressions of the car are very good, from past experience you realy need to read the handbook in detail to full yappreciate all the cars functions, and the Lexus is the same, in fact invariably there's always feature large or small that you didnt know the car could do!!! Also with a very gentle right foot around town the economy is already proving very good at around upper twenties to low thrties mpg , and with a gentle throttle some quite high speeds on battery alone can be achieved I have seen almost 40 mph all be it on a slight downward slope. And off course being able to drive through central London with no congestion charge as a bonus. Although I would mention if stuck in very heavy traffic for a long period the battery will run down and then its back to petrol again, but as Lexus say the hybrid is primarily there for the performance side of things and not economy, needless to say, having tryed the performance on a test drive thats one department this model is certainly not lacking in!!! 0-60 in under six secs and still economy into 30 mpg from a large petrol car certainly puts it ahead of any of its rivals, to say nothing of the averall refinemnt. Regretably a few quality issues have put a fly in the ointment, and I'm waiting to hear from Lexus GB about them. Regards Keith Keith, you making any progress with Lexus GB since we chatted?? Hello mate, No news yet, they are having a meeting at Lexus GB on Thursday, and they will come back to me following that. I will off course let you know the results Regards Keith

I too recently took delivery of a new Lexus A Lexus GS450h S E L with Wood pack in Velvet Black with Sutherland interior. Although I lve in Harrow in Middlesex I ordered the car through Lexus Exeter, as after extensive searching they were the only dealer who at the time (August) had a car with the colour spec etc I was after with reasonable delviery. In fact delivery was brought forward by a few weeks to the beginning of October. I have up until this car been a Jaguar owner for the last ten years, my last car being the current shape XJ6, however for various reasons not least of all the fact that the XJ' is just too big, seemingly designed for the U.S market where size of car is not a problem, I started to look around for something a little smaller which would not sacrfice the features of my XJ, such as adaptive cruise control voice activation etc etc. I have followed the Lexus range for a number of years as it offers many of the qualities that are found in Jaguars, and I particularly admired the styling and technology of the current model GS. After the introduction of the hybrid and after a lot of test drives I deserted the Jaguar brand and decided to go ahead. My initial impressions of the car are very good, from past experience you realy need to read the handbook in detail to full yappreciate all the cars functions, and the Lexus is the same, in fact invariably there's always feature large or small that you didnt know the car could do!!! Also with a very gentle right foot around town the economy is already proving very good at around upper twenties to low thrties mpg , and with a gentle throttle some quite high speeds on battery alone can be achieved I have seen almost 40 mph all be it on a slight downward slope. And off course being able to drive through central London with no congestion charge as a bonus. Although I would mention if stuck in very heavy traffic for a long period the battery will run down and then its back to petrol again, but as Lexus say the hybrid is primarily there for the performance side of things and not economy, needless to say, having tryed the performance on a test drive thats one department this model is certainly not lacking in!!! 0-60 in under six secs and still economy into 30 mpg from a large petrol car certainly puts it ahead of any of its rivals, to say nothing of the averall refinemnt. Regretably a few quality issues have put a fly in the ointment, and I'm waiting to hear from Lexus GB about them. Regards Keith