wivenhoe

Can’t help with best lease deals as unfortunately I bought mine.
The ride is very smooth and the Takumi comes with front and rear performance dampers which seem to help. All RZ’s have Direct Drive which is alleged to be very advanced.

I don’t know whether it’s the Direct Drive or if the car has rear wheel steer (there are conflicting reports on the web) but I find the turning circle is excellent. I had a RR Velar before which was only a bit bigger but the turning circle on the RZ is significantly less and noticeable in crowded car parks. 

I don’t know if the UX has it, but the RZ has a really good size under boot floor storage which takes a lot more than the cable. Which is a good place to store the solar Battery charger for the 12v Battery which seems to run flat if the car isn’t driven for say a fortnights holiday ! I presume it’s the 12v Battery on your NX keeps packing up - a common issue, not only on Lexus / Toyota’s. 

I changed the factory fit Dunlops for Michelin Cross Climate 2’s. They have done about 5k and as part of my first service they were checked and the video guy said they were like new - he said they would probably do 20k+. I found them quieter but John on here (he has had many previous Lexus) found the Dunlops to be very quiet. 
 

I saved the princely sum of £ 30 by taking out a service plant. Still it does protect against inflation. I pay £ 26 / month for 2 A Services and a B. I end up paying in May 2025 but get a service in Mat 2026 and can transfer it to another (very very doubtful) or stop paying and get a repayment if I do get a Porsche Mecan !

You’ll have to ask the dealer about new cars - The issue is fairly recent so no idea about cars about to be delivered. 

Service is every year or 10k. I bought a service plan - about £ 26 / month. I think it sensible to get everything checked every year plus as you say, from 3 years the annual service keeps the warranty. The service plan is for 2 A services and a B service. After having a Range Rover Velar from new at £ 600+ an annual service the Lexus is a bargain ! 

Bit puzzled as you said it’s a 2023 build but new - has it been sat around for over 6 months ?  As it’s a lease how do you know it’s a 2023 build - not questioning, just curious. 
If you haven’t already, I suggest you download a pdf of the Owners Manual as there are a lot of customisable settings !

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/about-my-lexus/manuals

As the photo shows, post update I’m getting circa 220 (44 miles x 5 = 220 as range remaining is 44 at 20%) with occasional heating / ac. The overall average of 3.2 miles / kw reflects my mainly dual carriageway high speed driving. John on here has achieved 3.7 so it just confirms different driving = different consumption. 

The car has done 7k over a year and there is no apparent Battery degradation. 

A 2023 build could have it, if the dealer was on the ball with the previous owner.
See the photo - it shows the % range remaining. 
The range is significantly increased when using the a/c or heating. No idea how but pre-update if I put the a/c on it reduced the remains range by about 40 miles, now by about 7 miles.

I believe existing cars without the HUD can have the update. Cars with a HUD are ‘on pause’ as the current version of the update trashes the HUD. Not sure if all new cars have it. 

As the car is now more than a year old things have settled ok. The 12v Battery issue is common in most hybrids and I think a lot of EV’s. The manufacturers have reduced the size of the Battery as hybrids and obviously EV’s have 2 batteries and so the 12v one really only starts the car. I’ve had a flat Battery once in a year and that was more than 9 months ago. 
The real issue is if you need to leave the car for say 2 weeks. I think I’m the only one on here to have had an issue. 
You don’t need to take the car to a dealers, IF you have a problem Lexus will sort the AA to come and sort it. You couldn’t take the car to the garage as it won’t start !
To avoid the issue completely you just need to turn the car on for about 20 mins every 3 or 4 days if you’re not using it at all. I know this as the AA guy told me and I have a tracker which monitors the 12v Battery (in case thieves disconnect it thinking it would disconnect the tracker, which it doesn’t) and after 20 mins of “on Ready” the voltage is back up to 12.2v. 
If you decide to go with a different EV make sure it doesn’t have a similar issue. e.g. I have read about problems in an EQE, Toyota bz, Kia’s, Hyundai - some have sorted, some have not.
For reassurance you could buy a £ 50 jump starter pack and keep it out of sight in the under floor storage. A bit of a faff but guaranteed to sort it in a few minutes - the issue with EQE had to be sorted by a dealer as the ‘bonnets’ appear to be sealed !

Where did you learn of the Japanese smell test !

No hope of real leather I reckon. Lexus seems to prefer to use recycled water bottles !

According to the manual by default the ‘welcome lights’ should come on when you unlock but only if it’s dark - which seems sensible. 

I’ve just seen on another forum that an owner of a 300e in the States is saying he is getting 300+ miles on ‘non highway’ driving. I’ve a feeling Lexus have given up on the 450e as it’s over priced and ‘under ranged’. The 300e in the States is only $ 5k cheaper so I think they will quietly drop the 450e or improve the range to over 300+ miles. The bz is then $5k cheaper than the 300e. 

EV’s and PHEV’s currently not really suitable for ‘road warriors’ neither are petrol or diesels for urban / town driving. I had 4 PHEV’s before the EV and on long journeys a fairly small 2.0 litre engine was carting around added weight in the Battery after about 25 miles. You’ll know what I mean as you drive a 450h. It really is ‘horses for courses’ 

GSLV6 - I have a RZ and agree with some of your points, but my ownership over the past year have shown a few of them to be outdated as things have moved on. 

Zap Map is an excellent App which fully integrates in CarPlay - on the hoof you can get it to display the local chargers, their speed and current availability. It even gives how long a charger has been used for, so if they are all in use you’ll know roughly when the first will become available. You can select a site and then Zap Map will use Maps to Google Maps to navigate you to an available charge. The cost is given as well. Recent EV’s will charge from 20% to 80% in less than 30 mins so chargers become free fairly quickly, not hours.

Tesla have opened up a lot of their Supercharger sites to non Tesla’s so that helps availability. 
 
When I bought my car, Lexus were saying the Battery would be 90% at 10 years or 100,000 miles. I think now they are warranting 80% at 8 years, the change due to an increase in range. My range now is about 220 so 80% would be 180 although if they are warranting that, the expectation will be nearer the 90% announced. 

As the RZ has heated seats and radiant heaters, heating takes little range and even with the Auto on, the range only drops say 10 miles. Even at the lowest temperatures last winter the range drop was negligible - I think a lot of the reports regards significant drops are in temperatures much lower than we generally get in the UK.

I’m sure most readers of this RX forum will not be persuaded switching into an EV but I thought I should just set down my experience. I had 4 plug-ins before the RZ, all of which I bought for tax purposes or for the acceleration !
 

Your dealer definitely shouldn’t charge for the update - in essence it rectifies a major issue with the car ! Good luck getting it sorted - summer is coming and so the increased range whilst having the a/c is very welcome. 

Apologies, I was mixing Range mode up with Eco. My defence is I usually use Sport or Normal never Range.

Yes, like John I have a HUD. Seems like he and I got the update just in time. 

I have just read the announcement in the other post regards the 300e. That was announced in the States some time ago. With it being a single motor fwd it gets very close to the Toyota BZ - they have made the distinction even less by announcing an Urban spec which is a cut down spec compared to the Premium RZ. I wonder what the pricing premium for the Lexus will be.

Toyota / Lexus seem to now have a strategy where they have essentially the same car but marketed by the two marques - Toyota Yaris Cross = Lexus LBX & Toyota BZ = Lexus RZ 300e 

I think the economy drive mode switches off heating or aircon, but I may be wrong.

When did they pull the update ?  Your dealer was well behind others if they only fairly recently offered the update. Mine was updated mid Feb - it’s a May 23 car. 
Regards the new cars vs previously delivered cars update, last year new cars were being delivered from about Sept with the update but existing had to wait until about Feb - I think I was one of the first as the dealer sorted it as soon as it was available - maybe me dealing with the MD might have helped. 
I hope you get the update soon as it really is quite a different car range wise. 

Apologiesif you seen this before, but have you registered with Lexus Reserve yet ? They do seem to be getting that right, I’ve got a RX450h for 10 days in August to go to Jersey in (there is only 2 Ultra fast chargers on the entire island). I even have the registration to confirm the ferry and this will leave me with another 33 days of free alternative cars over the next 2.5 years. 

Gadget - in terms of the update, when did you get your car and does it have a HUD ?
I escalated my numerous issues to the MD of Lexus UK and even then nobody could explain why you have an option to turn off the a/c when selecting Auto but it doesn’t do anything. 

I was really irritated that to de-mist the windows I would see the range plummet. I tried selecting the windscreen defrost button, which turns on Auto and then turn Auto off - didn’t do anything. 

I wouldn’t rely on this myself, but I was told that the update didn’t necessarily increase the range when the a/c or heating was on - it just displays a less pessimistic range. I can’t believe that is the case as they have withdrawn the update as it trashes the HUD (meaning a total removal of the dash etc) which can’t be the case if it all it did was tweak the displayed range. John on here has seen his consumption improve dramatically since the update. In my case, driving on mainly high speed runs my Total Average is 3.3 miles / kw with the heating / aircon as per a petrol car - it was about 2.7 miles / kw before. 

I complained about the fact that it took ages for any real heat to come on in winter but then found out all EV’s suffer with this as they don’t have an engine to draw it from ! I always pre-heat the car at home but not when out and about.  

The fan will not operate on its own. I have asked Customer Service and the dealer many times how the fan can be used on its own and they say it can’t.  I tried changing the setting to ‘not turn on the aircon with Auto’ and it made no difference. I asked CS why have this option if when turning on the fan it operates the aircon and they couldn’t provide an answer. I think the only way to get outside air in under a bit of pressure is to open a window !

In my car it is no longer a problem as I am one of the lucky ones with the update. I have the air / heating on Eco (not the drive) and so the range only drops about 6 miles out of 220 which is neither here nor there. It used to drop from 200 to 160 which was a major concern, hence me originally badgering the dealer and Customer Service for an answer. 

My May 23 car looks the same. As John, no issues with that. 

 I follow an RZ forum in USA - https://www.rzforums.com

Whilst it is predominately Americans there are some owners from Europe and the UK. It’s fairly active. Below is a post from a guy in US - bearing in mind none of the cars have the update there, his results are astounding. Also, the US version of Lexus Link+ seems far more informative than the UK version although he may be using a Lexus charger  

Just curious if anyone else has been experimenting (playing) with their car's regenerative braking system? I have, and I believe it does have an impact on range and efficiency. It takes a little getting use to, feathering the braking by using the accelerator pedal, but a little practice and experimenting with the regen level, you can drastically reduce your use of the brake pedal and increase the car's range.

My charge before last was to 80%. I did my normal driving over about a week's time with the regeneration level set to 3 and 4 (3 and 4 down arrows showing on the instrument cluster and HUD). I drove a total of 157.1 miles on the charge, down to 23%. The remaining range showed 50 miles and an average of 4.1 miles/kWh. That would be a total of 207 miles on an 80% charge assuming the car's numbers are accurate. I have a 450e with 20" wheels. My driving was around town (semi-rural) with 25, 35 and 45 to 55 mph speed limits, the AC and radio were always on.

Another interesting thing was the charge data from the Lexus app. - by the way, I got it the next morning this time. It showed the charge using 37.221 kWh to get back to an 80% charge. 157.1 miles divided by 37.221 kWh comes out to 4.22 miles/kWh, higher than the car's average of 4.1.

Attached are shots of the cluster info and charge data. I'd like to hear what others are experiencing using the regenerative braking system?

/d3/attachments/0/549-bc8591c9d5242fdcd7fba31bf708e8d0.jpg /d3/attachments/0/550-e48822d439002eb357f4a26ec70526f2.jpg

3 hours ago, kieron 77 said:

* I heard there was an update and it should show the battery % remaining but I don't have that, just the remaining milage left. I looked at the software update and it says no updates available l. It's version 2050. Is that the latest one? 

They have ceased updating cars with HUD’s - does your car have a HUD ?

* When I put the charger in no lights appear on the charge cap so have no idea if it's charging or not? Should the be a light to let me know the charge situation from the outside? 

Yes - the light above the plug point should be green.  The App should also confirm that the car is charging and state of charge 

* Does the radiant heaters work on automatically on their own or is there a separate button for them which I can't seem to find? Do these work with the auto heating on aswell or does the main heating have to be off for them to kick in?

They will come on if you have the Concierge selected and the temperature is fairly low - so will the heated seats and steering wheel if they are selected as auto (that not the main a/c / heating Auto). The auto above the seats and steering wheel. You can also select S Flow if you don’t have rear seat passengers and occasional front seat passenger  - I’m sure you have found it but if not, then when selected only occupied seats have air / heat

* I guess there is no way to turn off the speed limit warning without having to do it everytime I start the car? 

No - I believe it’s a EU regulation it must always be on by default. There is a shortcut to turn it off in the screen (shortcut icon next to Climate) but it also turns off the speed limit display as well as the warnings 

Many thanks in advance

 

 

Received written confirmation of my booking in August. Nor only did they confirm the model they provided the reg !

I have been told by the dealer the canbus is not as accessible on the RZ as the RX. It pains me to say this - driving an unpopular car does have the advantage that the thieves don’t bother with it. 

On a more serious note, I suspect all EV’s are less of a target as they are not wanted in the Middle & Far East which is where a lot of the stolen RX’s & Range Rovers end up.