Huddy

Mine has an Ipod interface. But it is specifically for the Ipod.

If it makes you feel any better, I have done worse. When I had a Beemer, I was reversing out of a parallel park at the side of the road. I selected reverse, and my passenger asked what the beeping was. I replied that it was warning me about the car behind, but as I was saying this, I carried on reversing into the car behind. No harm done to either car, but my ego was a little dented. It's fine to turn them on, but you then need to heed their warning.

Sorry about all the confusion guys. Lights are lights to me.

I can back up Rob's comments. My previous two cars had zenons, and my current car has HIDs. I can't really say there is much difference, certainly not in terms of light levels. Maybe the HIDs are a little more white, but it's borderline. Save your money for some stylish leopardskin seat covers. ;)

I had this problem. A Lexus dealer had checked my tyres when I visited them to have something small done to the car. They told me they check the whole car, even if I have windscreen wipers fitted. I was warned that my front tyres only had 2-3000 miles left, and I should consider having them replaced in the near future, although they told me they were OK for now. My tyres started to judder as I reversed out of my drive (onto a very, very quiet road ;) ). This behaviour coincided with the onset of cold weather, so I guessed it might be that. It started less than 1000 miles after the Lexus check. But I took the car to a tyre dealer and they laughed because my front tyres were as smooth as a billiard ball, much to my embarrassment. Once I had new tyres fitted, the car behaved normally. I'm now wondering if the tyres wear faster than on other cars.

This is not a problem. As a previous poster mentioned, the headroom is left to allow for regenerative braking. I imagine there would be no point using energy to charge the batteries to the limit, and then having nowhere to store the energy when you apply the brakes. They think of everything.

Sorry I missed that. I'm sure they'll sort it out for you. I almost bought my car from the Derby dealer. Nice people to deal with.

Sorry, I didn't write my previous post very well. I meant to say that the time taken from standstill to say 5mph, should be virtually instant. I imagine this is because the initial acceleration is provided by the electric motor, which is very torquey. Of course, the petrol engine will cut in a few milliseconds after that, but the electric motor should be able to provide good acceleration during the second or so that you say you feel it lagging. I don't think mine behaves as you describe, so why not ask Lexus if you can drive a demo car, so you can judge if yours has a problem?

Malc. The GS450h should accelerate from standstill almost instantly, much faster than a standard petrol car. The only time mine hasn't done this is when I accidently let the hybrid batteries drain, and it was then very slow to pick up. I could be worth taking it into your dealer to have it checked out.

I had this problem only yesterday when I was leaving the car. I pressed the button on the door handle to lock the door, and the car beeped at me. I could see a message on the dash saying "Key not detected". The batteries are new, so no problem there. I got into the car, and pressed the start button so it went to "Ready" and then stopped it again. I could then lock the door. I'm not sure if that's any help, as it doesn't really explain what was wrong. BTW, if the fob battery is low, you will get a message on the dash when you press "stop".

Looks like something off Dragon's Den. Strange it's a UK site written in US English. It's also strange they claim I could be the envy of all my friends. I hope my friends are rather less shallow than to feel envious about a gadget I might have under my bonnet. I have no desire to make my friends feel envious. They are my friends, so why would I want them to feel that way? That gadget wouldn't work on a hybrid, as there is no starter motor as such. I don't see what this gadget is trying to achieve. Does it claim to make the car more secure, or does it save the battery?

I think you need to be realistic. What you are describing is a virtually new car, in SE-L spec, which is hard to come by under any circustances. And you want to pay 10k under the new car price. It's just not going to happen. And you certainly won't be able to buy anything newer than 2008, unless you wait a few months. If the SE-L doesn't come with adaptive cruise, then I'm wondering what the attraction would be above a SE. A wooden steering wheel just wouldn't do it for me. I wanted a SE-L, mainly for the adaptive cruise, but declined because of the restricted headroom caused by the sunroof. The car you describe is best bought new from a Lexus dealer. Under the current circumstances, why not try to get a good deal on a new car?

How much later are you prepared to go?

Mine works exactly as shown in Scott's post. It sounds fine. I have an issue with the Mark Levinson radio, which is woeful, but the system sounds fine when listening to a CD or the Ipod. My only real problem with it is that there seems to be a limit to how many albums you can access. It will move from CDs 1-6, and then show 7-12 as 1-6 again. After that, it returns to the first CD (or Ipod album). What if your Status Quo album is on the 13th CD? You won't get to hear it. :( Can anyone help or advise? BTW, I would prefer the connection to be in the centre console, as I stuggle to reach over and push the plug into the Ipod. The lead is quite short, and it's not always easy to tell which way up it should be when you're reaching over from the driver's seat. I am thinking of asking Lexus to move it to the centre for me.

I don't think the Hybrid Power button makes the car any more powerful. I believe it just makes it more responsive. In other words, you don't need to press the accelerator so far in order to get a response. I'm not sure I could drive with Hybrid Power on for very long. It would drive me crazy. Every slight movement of my right foot causes an almost instant change in car speed. It can be useful for those times when some spotty oik in a souped-up Astra with a noisy exhaust decides to try to take you on. It's quite satisfying to silently leave him standing, while hearing his roaring engine trying to keep up. Other than that, I leave it in normal mode.

Has anyone experienced the hybrid system hunting? Sometimes at low speed, typically below 10mph, I can hear the engine revving, probably every second or so. The car still performs normally, and the revving doesn't affect the speed of the car, but it does sound very odd. If I pull over and press the stop button, on restart, the problem will disappear. Can anyone explain this?

My SE also has ventilated seats, and I thought it was standard. If you need to know what spec you have, there is a plate on the driver's door pillar showing the exact spec.

Autobahn I don't know if you've actually driven a SE-L. I have, and I couldn't live with it. The sunroof makes the headroom too low for me. I'm 6ft on a warm day and there are people taller than me, so I thought I should warn you. I had to opt for a SE, which has everything you list apart from the adaptive cruise control and the wooden steering wheel. I did quite fancy the auto cruise. Someone mentioned the six speed box (on the 430). The hybrid version doesn't actually have a six speed box. It uses a CVT, which works very well. The sequential shift function isn't a gear change as you may be used to in other cars. It reduces the ratio relative to the speed the car would have chosen had it been left to it's own devices. Using this causes the regenerative braking to come into effect. You can, (as I have often done without realising it ), drive around in a lower ratio and the car still operates normally, varying the ratio as you change speed. I sense that over time, if you had selected a lower ratio, the car raises it back to normal if you don't change it yourself. Maybe someone else can confirm this. Yes, it will have sensors and rear camera as standard. That wasn't a huge selling point for me at the time, but now I have it I can't live without it. The camera allows you to reverse out of your driveway while your back window is misted or frosted up. It's actually easier to reverse using the camera than using the mirrors. But you need to watch you don't swipe something with your front wing as you steer in reverse. I believe the Mark Levinson system is standard on the SE and SE-L. I don't rate it so highly. I don't enjoy listening to music on it, as it sounds flat. I also find the speed-related volume control is less than effective, and I'm constantly adjusting the volume when I stop at lights. I've heard better systems in run of the mill cars, and it irks me that Lexus make such a big deal about it. It certainly doesn't match Merc and BMW systems. You should get a decent car for much less than 30k. Try outside London, as I understand buyers are travelling north to buy their cars up here, as they are cheaper. We don't have the congestion charge up here. Yes, Lexus do tax the car for you. I think it's less than £200 anyway, so it wouldn't break your 30k budget. Good luck.

What rattles, it's not an IS250... :) :) I had some rattles. One was behind the dash, and a very creaky driver's seat. I could almost live with the dash rattle, but Lexus at Sheffield were like a dog with a bone. They seem to have gone to great lengths to get to the problem, even after I said I could live with it. They took the whole dash out and re-insulated and touching plastic parts behind the dash. I think it was maybe due to a previous dash removal that hadn't been put back properly (not by Lexus Sheffield, I should say).The seat creak (very annoying), was apparently a known problem, and they fitted a part to the seat. I now feel like I'm driving a luxury car. I hadn't realised how much effect the background creaks had been having. Well done Lexus Sheffield.

The GS has had a facelift? I didn't know that. Those parking lines are essential in my opinion. I can't see any reason to discontinue them. When you select reverse, there should be an icon at each bottom corner of the screen. You can select parallel park or bay parking by pressing the icons, and I think you can toggle the lines on and off. Mine works OK, so if you really can't live without it, I am prepared to swap my 06 for your 08. ;)

Good call matey!!! No need to spend too much to get it looking good. The car looks in mint condition. An afternoon spent polishing and waxing will have it standing out from the crowd.

I think it's worth talking about the gearbox in the 450h. I'm sure everyone knows it's continuously variable. But before I drove the car, I imagined the sequential shift function would use predefined ratios, (6-speed), as in a normal auto box. It took me a while to realise there's more to this than meets the eye. When you push the stick over to the right, it immediately selects ratio 5. (you can move it back up to 6). But I found it will do this no matter what speed you are travelling. If you are cruising at say 30mph, and you push the stick over, it still selects ratio 5. It seems what's happening is that each step is a percentage of the ratio the car would use at that speed. So when the box selects 5, it is always changing down, which is what you would want. Changing down further, say when going downhill, when the engine would always be idle, the car uses the electric motor to generate, and the kW meter goes well into the blue. Very clever. :)

I have the SE (I can't fit in a SE-L). To my surprise, it does play DVDs. Mine is May 06.

The aerial may stay extended to maintain the RDS traffic message function, and if you have satnav, it may be staying up to receive TMC info. You could see what happens if you turn off the TA function.

Mike. The boot was a potential issue for me. Coming from a 7-series, with a boot large enough to house a small family along with their pets, I was concerned I may not be able to live with it. I recently had to transport a larger than normal suitcase, (30in x 21in x 11in), and I thought I'd have to put it on the back seat. To my surprise, I was able to lay it flat, and there was still room for plenty more. It's probably the size of Ford Focus boot. I have to agree with Duffman's comments regarding fuel consumption. 33 is possible if you drive like a vicar's wife, and I could get that from a BMW 530 if I drove the same way. It is currently showing 26.5 mpg since the last tank fill (the GS resets the MPG gauge when you fill up), and this is for a mixture of short motorway driving and around town. I got the same figure for the 7-series on the same regular journeys. 35 plus is possible on long steady journeys, but unlikely. Having said that, it would probably be fair to compare this car with a M5 than a 530, and the M5 achieves low 20s MPG.