braindead

I found Lexus Coventry were good to do a deal with. Tips: Research. Know what yours is worth Get your finance lined up so you can confidently make a deal without their lousy finance deal. BTW, if you have a good credit history you can even haggle with your bank by telling them you can get a better deal on moneysupermarket.com - I got my rate down from 10% APR to 7.2% by doing that. See how keen they are. Make them an offer via the web site. If they ring back in less than an hour they're gagging for it. Haggle on the phone before you've even seen it. They need to be keen to get you to the show room. Make them a stupid offer Don't get embroiled in what yours is worth. Tell 'em you'll give them your car and £x,000 for the one you want and that you have a loan ready to go. Now is a good time to start - it's month end next week. They have to meet their numbers. Be friendly After haggling, get down to the showroom - they'll say they need to see yours to value it but say it's a long way to come if they can't do the numbers you want. Then make them invest time in you. Spend ages looking the car over. Go for a real long test drive. Stick to your guns on the price. Salesman will then say he needs to talk it over with his manager. Enjoy the free coffee while you wait. He'll come back and say the boss won't let him do it. Look disappointed but smile, shake his hand and thank him for the test drive and compliment him on the car. Tell him you'll hang on a month or two as prices are falling. Walk out, go home. Give it an hour or two and the phone will go. Start the haggling again. Bottom line is that they can't give gas guzzlers away. Coventry have 3 in stock when I checked a minute ago all under £24k and all over priced. Start at £19k based on the parkers value of yours plus cash. BTW, when they do give you a deal then go for extras like mats, fuel etc. That's the way I got my GS450h - I started on them on Friday lunchtime via the web and clinched the deal late Saturday. Hope this helps. Malc PS - Don't bother trying to do a deal at Derby - like platting fog!

BTW, it's not for me! I'm more than happy with my GS450h. The question stemmed from a conversation at work today. Malc

lol

For £15k and less than 18 months old?

You've got £15k to spend. You want brilliant acceleration, reasonable comfort and reasonable economy on a run. Car can be up to 18 months old. Doesn't have to be a Lexus. What do you get? Malc

Yep, I was in there about 3:20. Black suit, white shirt, grey hair and a beard looking angry (because of work not Lexus)

Just had the rear caliper pin and steering rack "recall" carried out at Derby. As usual the car came back spotless inside and out and, this time, with £20 worth of petrol added! How about that? The reason I put "recall" in quotes is that someone at the garage said technically it's not. They call it a "service inspection" or something similar. That means they just inspect the car and replace any parts that may be suspect. Sounds like a recall by any other name to me, but I think it does mean they don't have to register it with VOSA! Could it be Lexus don't want to wash their dirty washing in public Happy with the service again Malc

Yes, each time this has happened I am at least 50 miles into my day, and have driven 100 miles on the motorway network so the batteries have done no work Hi Malc, thanks for your reply, you clearly believe in this system and that is good to know, does your GS ever show 100% charge on either display? even after a long motorway run mine will not illuminate the top bar. I am under the impression the hybrid warranty is 60000 miles only which is only 1 year in my case, my car was purchased from Lexus Bracknell. Thanks again Tony I don't usually watch the state of charge display having owned a hybrid for over 5 years (Prius then GS). You are very unlikely to fill all the way up unless you use the hybrid system for braking. Try this. Find a long steep down hill with a low speed limit. Make sure your battery is at least 2/3 full. Go down the hill using the gearbox in S mode and in a low enough gear to keep you within the speed limit using only hybrid system for braking. It will fill the battery to the top in no time. Malc

reindeer

Yes, each time this has happened I am at least 50 miles into my day, and have driven 100 miles on the motorway network so the batteries have done no work Having owned a Prius for near on 5 years and now a GS450h I've found that the car will deliberately run down the NIMH batteries and recharge them. I think this is done to optimise the life of the batteries. Also, if you look in some of the Prius forums I seem to remember that folks state that the car keeps the batteries in a narrow band of charge and that the display in the car shows 100% charge at the top of that band and zero at the bottom rather than 100% being 100% of the battery capacity in absolute terms. Also, the hybrid components are covered for 5 years so no need to worry :-) Malc

Oak

Why the debate? Petrol for cars, diesel for tractors and Peugeots. QED Malc

I think Tony now recommends the F1 Asymmetrics now that the GSD3's are discontinued (I will be getting some F1A's fitted on Saturday). The T1R's are still a good choice. Discontinued? I just got a pair of GSD3 245 40 18s on the rear. Got them from a local dealer but they seem widely available on the net. Malc

Nothing on the VOSA web site as yet

Ignore me I have a GS and think it's the best thing since sliced bread but then I'm a sucker for Hybrid technology. I can't really make a valued judgement never having owned an IS. Malc

Why compromise? Go for the GS Malc

When I had recalls carried out on my Prius a year or two back I usually got a bottle of fizz for the trouble. Do Lexus do the same? Malc

Yep, My GS450h was in last week and they asked me to book in again for the recalls Malc

When I got my 2 year old GS450h from Lexus Coventry they said they would refurb the curbed alloys before I picked it up. They didn't have time as I wanted to pick up in a few days. So what did they do? Put a brand new set on!!! I was made up. Go for new ones!!! Malc PS Offer them £13,500

According to THIS LIST you should be OK. When I did a bulk transfer using my Sony it was a fiddle but I can't remember exactly how I did it. I'm sure it dropped the bluetooth connection like yours did. I have a feeling you have to have the car and phone not connected, set the car up to receive, then send using the handset. Malc

Yeah, I got some for my sons Beemer at a good price but the 245 40 18s seems to be silly money

They have several branches I think - all Derby based. The one I always use is on Upperdale Road MAP I've been going there for years - I always get other quotes but they never beat ETS. Nice bunch of people (no I don't work for them lol) There is one just off Sir Frank Whittle Way on Alfreton Road - about half a mile fro the A38 Little Eaton roundabout. Malc

Thanks for the info. I've ordered a couple of the Goodyears from my local dealer for £126 each. Given that the Michellins are around £200 I'm happy to have second best :) ETS (Eden Tyres) in Derby always come up trumps. Best price I could find for the Goodyears on the net was £128 at Blackcircles.co.uk. ETS beat them despite having to buy them in specially. Malc

I need two new back tyres for the GS450h. Which? rated several tyres as good including the F! Trawling the internet shows the F1 to be the cheapest of their best buys, the others being a Michellin SP2, Continental Contact3 and Bridgestones. Any thoughts on grip, noise and wear please? Malc

Took the car into Derby today and was treated like royalty. They updated the software that controls the gearbox apparently. I have no more detail than that but it seems to have sorted the lag. Time will tell. The car was washed and vacuumed. I got driven to and from work. They've told me there are two recalls it needs for the steering and rear brake callipers. The implication was that they're about to be generally announced. Parts have been ordered so I just need to book in again. All FOC I am very, very impressed! Especially as I bought it from Coventry which is a different dealership. Malc