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Unity

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  1. Yes, it's an interesting car. From what I have seen: Boot space is poor (probably due to batteries) Expensive for the brand If you can't plug it in you get ~50-60mpg which is normal efficient diesel type figures these days. (ref WhatCar)
  2. My journey is a commute around a small market town in the morning for about 25 minutes and then a 15 mile A-road journey at 40-60mph. In the summer I get 35-36mpg pretty consistently and in the winter about 31mpg. I haven't reset the trip computer since July and it is now reading 33.5mpg having covered ~6000 miles. If I'm really careful I've had 38-40mpg but you really have to try hard to get that! I think you need the right kind of journey to get the most out of a hybrid car. A bit of urban is fine as long as its had a chance to charge up during braking etc. Where I used to live, I just crawled around a small (congested) town to do the school drop off and get to work, and in the winter struggled to get ~22mpg.
  3. Check the bumpers for scratches, even small ones. They should agree to repair them. Also, and quite importantly, check the tyres, particularly the fronts. Check for uneven wear on the inner or outer edges. If present get them to agree to reset the tracking/geometry and if necessary replace the tyres. This is a common and quite expensive issue to sort out. Unity
  4. I believe that no RX400's have air suspension. It was never an option on this model. Also, they do have Cambelts that should be changed at 100,000 / 10yr according to the service schedule. I would treat the advice of this salesperson very sceptically! Sounds like she is making it up as she goes along. U
  5. Hi, I've had my Rx400 for over 4 years now. It was just under 2 years old when I bought it and had 48k miles on it. I took out the extended warranty after the final year of the manufacturers warranty ran out as I was concerned about the technical complexity of the engine and drivetrain. I've done an additional 35k miles on it over the time of my ownership. Absolutely no faults whatsoever during that time... Nothing... Which is making my extended warranty look a bit expensive! Sometimes I'm willing it to go wrong to make my warranty worth having! I think they are generally pretty reliable but when they do go wrong it costs a lot to repair them. Hope that helps, Unity
  6. I'm trying a Michelin Latitude Tour HP before swapping all my Dunlops to the new type. It seems fine, lots of tread, looks good and was cheaper than the Dunlop Sport SP270's. I believe it is an all season tyre so it might be ok in the winter too. Cost me £160. Also I got the garage to re do my tracking which Lexus "did" twice but both times it was still wearing the outer edges badly. After the independent garage has done it it seems a lot better and is wearing evenly now (no sign of edge scrubbing after 3000 miles).
  7. My 06 Rx400h also makes a clunking noise when going over low speed bumps, particularly when turning. Not impressed by the "Pursuit of Perfection" on this one. In fact I rue the day I got bored of German brands and bought a re-badged Toyota!
  8. Hi, Take a look at this : http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/lexuscare/service-your-lexus/fixed-price-promise.aspx It was new to me and I saw it linked in the post about servicing which is fairly current. If the Rx400 is priced similarly to the Rx300 then I wouldn't touch Kwik fit with a barge poll. Actually I wouldn't use Kwik fit anyway after an experience with them years ago. They seemed to have the level of ethusiastic amateur which isn't great when you're paying for the service. U
  9. Hi Dan, One thing to consider is dealer repair and service costs which can be really rather steep, to the point of being outrageous for some things. As a long term bet many people turn to the extended warranty to avoid unexpected bills but as a reflection of the labour rates/part prices this is also expensive compared to other "prestige" brands. For example the 2 year extended warranty on an Rx is £1850 compared to Audi's £1335 for a Q7 which is a car of comparable value. Unity.
  10. Great that you've posted a positive experience with the battery issue. It will help the LOC community put the problem into perspective. Since mine was changed I have not been let down and the car has been left for about 10 days. Having said that I do carry a RAC battery starter with me just in case... The Ebay battery looks interesting. I think at 70Amph, it has a bit more oomph compared to the ones that Lexus fit as standard which I believe was a 45Amph. U
  11. Hi All, I can only speak for my own car obviously, but I believe that real life economy is highly dependent on what kind of journey you have. My journey is probably about as bad as it gets for the hybrid system to work efficiently, i.e. cold start straight into traffic (the hybrid system runs the engine to lubricate itself and get the Cat up to temp), then lots of stop/start driving through town and no speeds above 40mph, total journey distance 6 miles and the car is just getting warm when I arrive. To work efficiently the traction battery needs a reasonable bit of charge being put into it by regenerative braking from 40+mph, which I don't get on my drive. When I have done longer journeys through quiet A roads at mixed speeds I have got 45 mpg! Recently I did a 200 mile trip on M1/M25/M23 during the day (lots of roadworks on the M1 and av speeds of ~50-60mph) and got 38mpg. So it can be quite efficient on some types of journey. I think you should, if possible, test drive one on your daily commute to see if it works well on your drive. In the winter the engine runs to warm the interior heater (switching the heater on starts the engine if your in traffic and the engine is not fully warmed up already). I can improve my economy to about 26mpg by turning the heater off and driving around in full winter gear but the novelty of that wears off quite quickly. Overall, I do not question that it's a good car for serenely mile munching and can be reasonably economical on certain types of journey, but for me on my particular journey I don't get the benefit of the hybrid system and gives me about the same economy as my previous car (Audi S3). U
  12. The auxiliary battery is on its last legs (the one under the bonnet that starts the electronics of the hybrid system). Tell the dealership you're very unhappy about it and want it resolved immediately. It happened to mine when I first got it. First day after I got it home, I went out to it for a drive and it was dead. The dealership took it away and changed the small battery under the bonnet and its been ok since (3 yrs). Not the best start to my Lexus-ownership experience though! Cheers, Unity.
  13. Hi, You are correct in what you are saying. About 1 mile if you're on the flat and the ambient temperature is warm. Fuel economy is very dependent on what sort of journey you do. Lots of sitting in a traffic jam + stop start driving and you'll quickly run out of juice. I must admit that I've been really dissappointed in the hybrid system on the Rx400h. I bought it on the basis of improved fuel economy and it's not delivered. I get about 21 mpg in winter and about 30 mpg in the summer. Not absolutely terrible but not worth running the heavy maintenance costs of the hybrid system (servicing and repairs). Next car will be a diesel! I've been in a few recently and been impressed by the refinement and economy. Unity.
  14. From the Lexus website: "All vehicles must have less than 140,000 miles when the extended warranty is taken out" So you'll be ok on that front. Presumably the car has a full Lexus service history that you'll need to be able to start the extended warranty. £995 a year for a warranty is quite steep though. If you did go for it then I would definitely recommend taking out the Lexus warranty as normal dealer repair costs seem to be totally INSANE!
  15. I asked the dealer when I first got the car and after a bit of head scratching they came back to me with infra-red LED's for the wireless headphones that work in conjunction with the rear screens. So they should only be there if you have an SE-L or optional rear TV's. Cheers, Unity
  16. Hi Greggster, If you search for crash tests for the Rx300/350 which is the same body shell and safety kit you will find crash test info from the US and Japan. From what I remember it is reasonably good (probably equivalent to about 4 star in Euro NCAP). It was not quite as good as a Q7 or X5 for example. Don't forget it is a "Toyota Harrier" in Japan. Hope that helps, Unity
  17. Hi, I have a 2006 Rx400 SE-L with rear screens and IR headsets. When I play a DVD using the underseat DVD player then it works fine, but when I use the auxilary inputs (yellow, white and red inputs in the seat pocket)and switch to the Aux2 input on the screen, I get the video from the input but the sound is still whatever was playing on the DVD. Does anyone know how to get the sound from the auxiliary input to play through the headsets? I've fiddled around with it to no avail. There is not a A/B switch on the headsets. Any ideas gratefully received.. Thanks, Unity
  18. There are lots of things I don't like about my Rx400h SE-L. Most of them practicality and cost based but.. the ML stereo does sound great. The stereo is quite old tech (just 6 changer CD and FM radio) but the sound quality is extremely good and it can be turned up to a VERY high volume without distortion etc.
  19. Hi Kt, Thanks for your response. It seems that mine would cost quite a bit more than yours (presumably due to mileage which is now 50k). It quoted me £600 a year for franchised dealer cover which isn't too far away from the Lexus extended warranty which also includes RAC cover (at £800 ish). One thing it would be good to check is whether it covers all the hybrid equipment in the car, ie traction battery, motors & CVT gearbox as these are the pretty expensive to repair and I didn't see them mentioned in the "what's covered" breakdown. U
  20. I've been thinking about whether the Rx400 is a good "long term" car to keep running into old age. Or whether, due to the Lexus dealer rates it starts to become prohibitively expensive when things start to age. Difficult to know, I realise, but I thought it might be useful to know if anyone out there has had any really monstrous bills during their ownership. Mine is 4 years old and is still running under the Lexus extended warranty which isn't cheap! Cheers, U
  21. I reckon the dealerships in the South East/London seem to charge more for their cars and hence you might get a better price from them. Probably worth an email or two..
  22. I'd have thought it would improve things as that is how the car is designed to work. However, before spending more money on tyres you'd probably be best phoning a couple of dealerships to see if they agree. It would be a pain to spend more cash and not fix the problem. Cheers, U
  23. Since the RX is a four wheel drive vehicle I'd imagine that the internal components of the drive mechanism are set up for all the wheels travelling at the same number of rpm. Changing the profile of the tyre changes the rpm of that wheel so I guess at speed the strain between what the drive mechanism is doing vs what the wheels are turning at becomes noticeable. My last car was an A4 quattro and I definitely remember being told that if the rear vs the front wheels differ in size (even by the front tyres being new and the rear worn) you can get weird noises, driveshaft wear and poor handling. Hope that helps, Unity
  24. Hi, You might find this thread useful: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...ic=56758&hl I'm seriously considering the setup as described ie Westfalia + bike rack. Cheers, Unity
  25. Mine does the same (2006 RX400). The auxiliary battery (the small one under the bonnet) has a very low Amph rating and can start to drop the voltage quite quickly if it the car is not fully turned on and "READY". When the engine is "READY" the big traction battery under the back seat is connected to the auxiliary and charges it (the RX400 doesn't have an alternator). Basically this is a little "feature" of the car but you can get over it by having the car in the "READY" state if you need to do lots of fiddling with the nav. I did exactly the same a few days ago. Unity
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