Valkirk

When I had a Toyota repaired after someone rear ended it I got a load of lights come on after the fix, turned out it was the computer bit controlling all the systems. Had a job sorting out who was going to pay, warranty people said it was part of the accident and visa versa. In the end warranty covered but don't think the jolt helped it.

Presume you left a zero off there...£250 for a drive shaft would have been a bargain! Have so far owned Lexus, BMW and Merc and have to say out of all of them the BMW has been the best to run in terms of nothing broke and service costs were very reasonable (£400 inc 2 x new rear tyres) the Merc has been back to the dealer about 4 times in 6 months for bits stopping working (Nothing critical but hey still shouldn't happen) my RX300 1 year after buying went in for an Intermediate service (Had the 20k one just before I bought it) they came up with a bill for £380! Basically for changing the oil and filters (Which given they had only been changed the year before and done 4k miles I was not happy with either) in fact the cost of the intermediate was more than the full service it had had a year before. Needless to say a £400 a year service cost + soon to be £400 a year tax and 20mpg has pushed the cost of owning a Lexus (At least an RX 300) well up. What is annoying is buy a toyota and the service costs, spare parts, fixing etc will all be reasonable prices yet they share a lot of the same bits. Seems they just go - hmm how much did the car cost originally, lets just times the amount of anything needing doing by that much. Luckily nothing major broke in RX although have found problems starting in cold damp weather; Lexus said they had a lot of same reports but haven't managed to identify problem. In fact never found the engine easy to start compared to other cars.... Bought a Lexus on the back of all the outstanding praise from owners but get the feeling they have been letting themselves go more and more; hopefully they will rectify before they lose it completely like Merc Benz did a few years ago.

Hi Martin, Very sorry to hear of the problems you are having! How anyone can come up with a figure that high for fixing is a joke, you can buy a new car (Albeit it a very basic one) for slightly more than that. If it was me I would probably end up just deciding to cut my losses, flog it to a dealer and not buy another Lexus - I know it's rare for a fault like that but the costs they want for fixing it would just put me off. Hope you manage to resolve without too much expense!

There was a spec change end of 2004 where the SE got the adaptive headlights and the SE-L and SE-Nav got Bluetooth; other than that the only diff between a SE-Nav and a SE-L post Nov 2004 was the stereo and the Air suspension.

Agree with RX300 doing between 70-80 I get about 28MPG on a long run even with some urban either end.

Buying from main dealer covers you for everything except wear and tear through the warranty so you should be perfectly ok! Only thing I noticed is to check the front seat as they wear very badly from getting in and out of the car.

Well as a newcomer to the marque and having now been the proud owners of a RX300 (Bluetooth) for coming up to 2 months and having done approx 1.5k miles since purchased I thought it would be nice to put down my thoughts both of the good and the bad and see if others seem to share the same views. Purchasing experience - Definately the most pleasant dealership I have ever used and our salesman was superb! Good points - Very friendly, helpful and will go out of their way to help. After buying found the brakes were fairly weak and found the windscreen had a chip in it so they took it back in to check and replaced the discs, bled the system and repaired the screen FOC Bad points - It seems there was a muck up with the Tax Disc which had somehow been sent back for a refund meaning when we picked up the car there was no Tax; then when they dropped round the Tax disc the next day there was no holder for it. Also still waiting for the Service Book to arrive! Driving experience Good Points - Firstly I would like to say to Lexus that whatever they change in the future please please do not change the seats; these have to be the most comfortable seats I have ever sat on. In fact if they could bring out a sofa range for the house that would be perfect :) The car is very easy to drive, the steering is light at low speeds and firms up nicely as you speed up, there is plenty of power if you need it but crusing along is where the car shines and it does it very well indeed! The sound insullation is excellent creating a wonderfully quiet area to be although you might not want to leave it quiet given the superb quality of the sound system! Even with just the standard version the audio is excellent with clear bass notes and perfectly balanced throughout the range. The gearbox does a superb job (Except 1st and 2nd gears) of changing with the smoothest of changes. Versatility is great and short of someone needing 7 seats would allow you to pretty much carry anything you would ever need to and yet the size of the car is not to far from that of a normal saloon. Bad Points - Parking this car is not as easy as it should be, even the new models are not getting PDC sensors front and rear which they should be; the camera is great but in low light levels and for the corners of the car it is fairly useless plus you have to be looking at the screen rather than listening for beebs! The bluetooth is troublesome although this may be more to do with the phone, however I have had system crashes where i have lost all audio capability from the car including radio, cd etc until the ignition has been turned off and then back on again. The climate control system! This has to be my first (and probably only) real main gripe; how this system got through development I have no idea and I expected far more from Japan's finest! If you have the system on Auto it seems to want to blast you with air through the two large vents in the centre console, for some reason these do not allow you to manually turn them off. Even if you turn the system off, when you are driving at speed the draft you get through these vents is very high and unless you go into the climate control and specifically direct them to the ground or windscreen you end up just pointing the vents into the centre and trying to just direct them away from you. Dual climate control is hopeless as whoever has their side warmer the other just gets cold air blown at them again through the unclosable main vents. - If lexus read this then please could they develop more 'Discrete' climate control! The lurching issue in the car is not as bad as I thought it would be and have noticed it really only occurs if you are coming to a stop but before you do you take off again. It just seems to be a bit too aggressive and could do with toning down. Suspension is great for soaking up bumps but does create a lot of body roll in the corners which although I am happy with I do think future models are prime candidates for magnetic ride dampers or similar that can adjust the settings on the fly to give a bit less roll in the corners yet maintain the lovely soft ride on the straight. The engine does feel dated in how quickly it springs to life and how much automatic choke it seems to need for the first few mins; however this may have already been solved in the 350 and the 400 doesn't even start at all when you turn the key :) and all the engines (including the new models) have fallen quite away behind the new BMW range of engines in both economy and BHP produced. However as I did not buy this car for blasting around in but just for the most pleasant comforable journey they are more than adequate - although the better MPG might be appreciated at the pumps :) ! At the moment not sure if the ASL is broken but it doesn't seem to adjust the volume of the audio well enough that I don't have to manually adjust when speeding up or slowing down. Lastly the auto dimming of the display and controls should really allow for a longer period of dark before changing as in dusk or going under bridges etc it actually becomes distracting going dim then bright as it can't make up it's mind (I know you can manually alter but you shouldn't have to really!) and why do I need to open the door to turn off the lights even after taking the key out? I could see a follow me home use if they ust stayed on for say 30 secs or something but to turn off when opening the door rather than when I tun the ignition off, just don't see the point. Oh yes and stop telling us what we can and can't press in the car whilst moving...we don't always drive without passengers! Overall This car is superb - if they could just add PDC (Don't really want to pay £700 to have it fitted) sort out the climate control, and allow passengers to alter the Sat Nav etc whilst moving it really would be truly excellent!

Unfortunately yes, all Toyota and Lexus alloy wheels suffer from this problem. They know about it but as it supposedly only occurs here (Something to do with stuff we put on our roads) they have decided it is cheaper to just replace any wheels that get affected no questions asked (Provided in warranty of course) than it is to alter the Alloy composition for their wheels.

Also worth checking to see if there is a firmware upgrade for your handset. Quite a few makes and models of phones in recent years have had upgrades to their Bluetooth as they had problems.

The 3.5V6 is fairly rapid already! :) ......more worried by the extra mirror implying you would tow a caravan with this modded car!

Thanks all; makes me feel at ease! Would have loved to get the 400h just have to wait a while for second hand values to fall a bit :)

Just after some feedback on how long it takes turning the engine over before it catches. Been used to a BMW 325ci e46 and it fires up within 1/2 second of turning the key whereas the RX300 takes a full 2-3 seconds on turnover before it catches (Doesn't sound long I know but if you count 1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi for engine turnover seems a lot). Just wondered if this really is the norm or if there is something not quite right under the bonnet.

Thanks for the update; will have a look at mine and see if the pipes look squashed!

Check the V5 doc. If it was registered before March 23rd 2006 your car should only be BAND F; Make sure they aren't ripping you off!!! Check out here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Ownin...cle/DG_10012524

Have similar problem in the performance of the jets; only reach bottom part of the screen; as still under warranty though letting the dealer sort it out. Will let you know how they resolve.

There have been 2 changes to how car tax works: Before 1 March 2001 it was based on engine size and as you state: Private Light Goods TC11 over 1549cc ... £180.00 for 12 months tax. Before 23rd March 2006 (But after 1st March 2001) it will fall into Band F which with the latest price rise I think will be £215 If bought after 23rd March 2006 (Just for reference) it will fall into Band G and will be taxed off the road... In case it wasn't totally clear; your 2002 RX300SE is a Band F car and will cost (Currently) £205 for 12 months tax and with the budget increase will go up to £215. And as far as your the BMW goes that sounds like MOT emissions test readings which have nothing to do with Tax just to do with whether the car will pass or fail it's MOT (By the look of how close it was it might well need some attention this year to pass)

Have to agree; test drove the new IS 250 Auto and it was gorgeous to drive! However very limited for rear passengers....new GS is also superb to drive and has much more room in the back. In the end for practicality purposes we went for a RX300SE-Nav and are so far enjoying all aspects apart from petrol consumption! However we only do 4-5k per year so the cost implications are ok for us. Dont worry too much about the tax brackets as they will only affect cars built later than 26th March 2006 and if you have enough money would suggest the RX400h as this will avoid the tax hikes on road tax and give you a much better 25-30mpg around town from reports. It is poor having that many problems in a car under 2 years old though! From reports in the industry about Lexus quality though I would imagine you have just been unlucky. Good luck with your future purchases!!

Thanks all for your welcome! New tax laws will only effect Band G cars and only those bought once the Band G category was created which I believe was April 2006. For those buying second hand 'gas guzzler' it should actually boost the value..especially those bought just before the rise!! In theory you could buy an early 2006 car and pay £190 per annum in road tax or one built a month later (after April) and pay the extra!! Just go for the 400h and you will save even more on running costs! Actually looked at the Audi TT for a second 'fun' car and it would really be worth holding out for the 1.8T rather than the 3.2 as it is a full 2 groups lower! Group E instead of G!! Derekyau....I dealt with Iaine; best salesperson have met..very friendly, helpful and actually looked out for the customer!

The other thing to check is that you allowed the connection to occur automatically (Setting on phone - well it is on Nokia's) this will allow the car and phone to reconnect with each other automatically on start up without intervention.

Made the move over to Lexus last week with the purchase of a 54 plate RX300 (05 updates) and am enjoying it immensley!! Haven't had too much time behind the wheel yet though as it's technically the other half's car (Traded in her MR2) but for once it is actually just as nice those times when you are in the passenger seat! Would like to say a big thankyou to Ian over at Lexus Croydon who is by far the best salesperson I have had the pleasure of doing business with! Just need to join the Gold program to get the money off for services :)