Neil Morphett

Sounds like an unusually (attempted) hard sell from a Lexus dealer originally - when I was looking for used Lexus I pretty much said 'I have £X, so show me anything you're prepared to sell me for £X'. Which dealer was it? Can't advise on the choice I'm afraid - but having switched my Audi A4 for the Lexus I can barely even remember the Audi...

Likewise - if it's a menu function it's got to be one of those cheat code functions we know and love (put gear stick in Park, hold trip button down, turn on sidelights three times whilst holding down passenger window switch, whistle in B-flat and SUDDENLY.... Aaaahhhhh). Quite why they hide functions in there rather than the on-screen I can't fathom. I agree popping off the aircon would have encouraged the car to stay in electric mode a bit longer, but whatever he did was to tweak the car into charging up the battery more, i.e. kick in petrol earlier. I'll book some hypnosis and see what comes out....

The clips are pretty meaty and stay attached to either the car or the panel, can't remember which. Basically there's this moment in the removal process where you say to yourself 'I can't believe it's this difficult, surely I've overlooked a screw fastening or something, why am I doing this?', then a bit more heave, and then they come away with a few big pops. Reassembling is just a case of lining the panel up against the holes and thumping them back into place. The link earlier in this thread has some pictures of what it's supposed to look like, and a couple of tips about reseating the rubber seals etc. Have fun...

They do just clip in, using about eight fairly sturdy plastic clips. It's just a case of gritting your teeth, getting the trim away from the back far enough to get fingers under, then pulling firmly. Then there's a bang and it comes away. It's all a bit tense, though.

Hi - have had my RX400h for a year now and I'm wondering whether a feature that I'm sure I saw on a test drive is still on the car. In about 2004, maybe 2005, I went to a Lexus Open Day where the local dealers were demonstrating most of the range at a nearby country house. I was given an escorted test drive in the then new RX400h. I have a pretty solid memory that, as I was starting the test drive, the salesman commented that the (hybrid) battery was a bit low (due to the amount of electric-drive demonstration that vehicle had been doing during the day), and adjusted something on the dash (maybe in the multimedia console, can't recall exactly) that he said would bias the hybrid system towards charging up the battery a bit more than normal. Very faint memory that there were three settings...? Since new I've averaged 29.6 mpg (peaked at 30.2 last summer) and I notice that, on long runs, the battery is pretty much full and thus there's not much opportunity for achieving energy regeneration and consequently better economy. There are times I'd like the battery to help more, in the knowledge that there's ample opportunity to charge it up again. However, I can't find any such adjustment in my car. I've seen a couple of other threads about people wanting to force the car to start in electric drive mode; I guess this is related but more about adjusting the bias. Does anyone know about any such function? Or is my memory playing tricks? Many thanks

Can't tell whether the link still works (security settings on this PC) but try http://rapidshare.com/files/51447931/Remov...eing__light.pdf

Welcome to the Dark Side (i.e. the back end of an RX...). They are pretty pathetic as supplied. However, there is a little metal shield thing that fits over each of the reversing lights whose purpose, unless I'm missing something, is to cut down the light emitted. No idea why. These can be removed, it involves removing the plastic trim from inside the tailgate and after that just popping out the lamp cluster etc. Takes maybe ten minutes, and causes no damage. Instructions in pdf format are in several places elsewhere on the Owners Club forums - I found a link in a thread titled 'Upgrades To Reversing Lights & Phone Speaker?' which I used and works for me. Best of luck

I just picked up my new discs an hour ago - aah, bliss - that grating (and occasionally embarassing) flaw in the car has finally been purged. Now I no longer have to decide whether to pull over illegally onto the hard shoulder or stop in the fast lane to let "my passenger" select something simple like 'previous destination' or 'find nearest supermarket with fuel'. Ordered on-line, convenient DVD box arrived wrapped in huge envelope that wouldn't fit through the letter box so had to go pick it up from DHL 30 miles away, passing the local Lexus place on the way.... Actually, I'm slightly intrigued as to the logic. So someone in Lexusland has decided that those of us that bought this £40,000-ish car are actually responsible enough to use our own judgement as to whether/when it is safe to use this system on the road - not only can we select an established destination from memory but also key in new ones, browse points of interest, scroll randomly around the map etc. We can even add and edit memos on the built-in calendar as we trundle around (too useful for words, that!). So.... why is the phone keypad still disabled? Actually, the aspect I've never got is that, once over the threshold speed, it not only disables the keypad but also hides the phone numbers on the speed dial buttons. Why? I have a friend's home, work and mobile numbers set as speed-dials, but while I'm moving I can't see which is which apart from trying to tell which of the tiny icons is supposed to look like a house rather than a factory.

I just picked up my new discs - can't comment on whether the maps are any better/fresher but in the 2008-09 set ('86271-0W071' on the disc) they've unblocked the use of the nav on the move which, to me, is pretty much worth every penny in itself. So if your current discs are 2007-8 vintage or earlier, that may be a factor for you. If it makes any difference to the way you order it, the on-line place http://www.lexus-mapupdates.eu/ delivers via DHL; took about four days to arrive (quoted five). Also the 4-disc box (which would have fitted through the letter box) came wrapped in a huge envelope full of bubble wrap which meant I had to drive 30 miles to the 'local' DHL office, ironically passing the local Lexus dealer en route...

Cheers. Found the info yesterday, seatbelt bit worked, other disable functions haven't yet but need to try harder. Vadre - yep, it's the one at LTP. Supplying dealer was Lexus Newcastle, but it's a PCP deal through Bank-of-Scotland Freeway so didn't do much with dealer apart from try to get them to fit blackberry charger cradle (no luck). Turned up on the back of a low loader, didn't attempt to ask the delivery guy to explain the controls....

If you want a Lexus 'virgin', happy to oblige - picked up my first Lexus four days ago, lovely vehicle but have a growing list of 'why doesn't it let me....?' issues compared to the satnav system on the Audi A4 it replaced. Could set up an e-petition....? But, hey, at least it lets me play with the tape deck on the move!

All Picked up my lovely new RX400h Multimedia on Thursday - New England Russett, excellent colour), and have spent the last few days reading through the 800 pages of manuals in half-hour blocks - there's only so much 'Warning - driving this vehicle head-on into large armoured vehicles is not recommended and can cause death or serious injury to occupants' I can take in one session. However, spent Sunday sitting in it trying stuff out, and am now working through this excellent Forum finding help to inhibit the more nannyish safety features. Glad to find this seat-belt one so quickly - will try it later, many thanks, well done. Where on earth is this stuff written down - turn key to this, hold ODO button, hop on one leg, spin round twice, eye of newt....? Next on the list of - disabling the nav screen startup 'Accept' welcome screen; working out the voice recognition for phone dialling (I've turned that woman off on every screen I can find and she still keeps telling me to do things after the beep - just shut up and give me the beep), and, of course, un-disabling all the features that are disabled on the move. Do the Lexus safety engineers have a recommendation what to do if my passenger needs to change the destination on the move - pull over on the hard shoulder or stop in the fast lane? Off to rummage the other forums (fora...?) Cheers