braindead

I need to spray the small plastic tow hook cover on the rear of my car having replaced it after loss. Lexus don't do a spray can of the Palladio Silver. Anyone had any success with a substitute that's close? Malc

I t may even be worth taking it to your local government testing station. They test cars for a living and do it properly (probably) Malc

You sure you've not bought a Fiat Punto?

Listening to cricket? Sounds almost as interesting as watching it!

Hello Tony, I paid £129 as I got a 10% discount. I think there are 5 dvd's covering the whole of Europe. The way to do it is go on ebay. I got a new Europe West DVD 08-09 from someone in Greece. They had to buy a whole set of 4 DVDs to get Europe East so then they sell the rest of the DVDs on ebay - you see it quite often. I got mine for £35 inc delivery Then you sell your 07-08 DVD on ebay. The net cost of my upgrade was about £10 Is simples, yes? Malc

Early 50s. Great age to be. Highest disposable income I've ever had, low insurance and a GS450h as a mid-life crisis car. After all, who wants a slow, low, little sports car that's hard to get in and out of and noisy? Malc

It doesn't know about M1 J29A though

I know mine works BUT.... if you think about it, when you sit on the seat your backside and back cover up most of the holes so the air cant get through those holes as they are, effectively blocked. You can feel the air from the holes you don't block. If you get out of the car and put your hand over the seat you can feel the cooling. I think they're better than nothing but not brilliant. Malc

CHILL! Your traction batteries will be fine! Just enjoy your new rocket sled

What does it matter if these batteries do leak power as the 12 volt battery starts the petrol engine which in turn provides energy to re charge them, at worst it will be similar to discharge after running in heavy traffic. I was concerend by these issues until I bought my GS450h but now never give it a second thought. Trust these designers ! Interestingly, its not the 12v battery that starts the petrol engine. The 12v battery powers up the electronics etc which in turn use the traction (hybrid) battery and traction motor to spin the petrol engine which then starts. This method prevents the usual vibration you get when an engine is started in the usual way from a starter motor. This is how the petrol engine can switch on and off unobtrusively. In terms of battery leakage its perfectly normal for the hybrid battery to lose some of its charge when the vehicle is left, even if only for a short while. The battery is constantly charging and dis-charging in use, which is in itself better for the battery. I was told in a test a Prius was left for twelve months and apart from charging the 12v battery there was enough charge still left in the hybrid cells to start the car! One problem I have, is as I leave the car for extended periods, the 12v battery not surprisingly goes flat. As the car is left in my garage which has a power point, I got a 'C-Tek' battery charger which by way of a permenent link just plugs onto the battery and can be left for extended periods without risk. Regards Keith 100% agree

You mean the 12v auxiliary battery I presume? I had a Prius for 4.5 years and now have a GS450h. Only battery problem was with the Prius and that was the 12v one that packed up after 4 years and cost about £50 to replace. The 12v battery does discharge over time due the the alarm circuitry etc but concensus on Prius sites was you could leave it for at least two weeks with no problems. The Traction batteries don't leak power. Never, ever heard of problems with them. As I've said before, I don't believe they are ever full or empty either because the car keeps them in an optimal charge range. The charge display just shows how charged they are within that range.

Pie

Orifice

I think I may well try it when I get a bit of spare time. Secretly I hope I can't tell the difference because I've got around a hundred CDs ripsed to my PC at 128Kb. Don't fancy doing it all over again :( Malc

When I first got the Prius serviced I had a stand-up row with the service manager who said they always use 10W40. In the end I had to get the manual out of the glove box to prove it should be 5W30. £46 for 6 litres of oil sounds typical, having said that they had Magnatec 5W30 in Costco today at £20 for 4 litres. Thanks for the info... Malc

Hi I'm coming up to 50k miles and am interested to know what folks have paid for an intermediate service on a GS450h at a Lexus dealer recently. More importantly, do you know what kind of oil they used (make and grade) and what they charged for it? The reason I asked is that the recommended is 5W30 but they usually put in the bulk 10W40 that they have barrels full of and use in every car. In the end I started taking my own oil when I had my Prius serviced that way I knew they used the correct oil and it was somewhat cheaper. Given these hard times, I'm toying with the idea of emailing all the dealers within 50 miles and asking what they would charge including pick-up and delivery from work....and making sure they can see I've emailed them all. As far as I can see this is an oil and filter change! Could be fun :) Malc

I use FreeRip to rip music from CDs to MP3 then burn MP3 CDs for the car. Here's the sad bit. Each CD has around 15 Music CDs worth of music and I have a certain genre per MP3 CD. I then have a folder for each artist then a folder within that for each album by that artist. Wait for it....the really, really sad bit is that I have a printed menu of music available in the glove box and in the pouches behind the front seats so all the passengers can argue over which of the 70 odd CDs they want to listen to. BTW, can you tell much difference between 128Kb encoding and 320Kb? I've never really experimented. Malc

Time

Not wishing to specify the bl***ing obvious but are you sure it's not in dual mode? You don't have to hit the dual button, someone operating the temp control on the passenger side forces it into dual mode. Malc

I once put a few litres of petrol in a Peugeot 406 diesel. So I brimmed it with diesel and kept my fingers crossed. No problems. Couldn't tell. Have yo say it takes a degree of ingenuity to get a diesel nozzle in a petrol filler though. Probably working on the principle that if it's more expensive it's got to be better :shutit:

Mine had done 40k in two years but I got it at a great price from a Lexus dealer. I work on the principle that if it's done 20k per year it's probably on motorways - just cruising and over large distances. Also, it's a CVT box so no thrashing it through the gears - the computers sort it out so you can't really thrash it....or that's my theory. Batteries and motor - I had a Prius for 4.5 years prior to the GS and subscribe to several "anorak" Prius sites. Not one of them has ever reported a knackerd Traction battery. The display shows them as being full, empty or somewhere in between but the reality is that the batteries are kept in a charge range and never get anywhere near fully charged or discharged. The display just shows where you are within the designed charge range. As I understand it the battery condition is optimised by the computers/software. My Prius had done over 60k when I traded it in an never a problem with the Traction battery. I got a full service history and a year left on the warranty and took out a 3rd party 2 year extended warranty through the dealer. Remember, this is a 3.5 litre hybrid, not a lousy 2 litre BMW 3 series - it's designed to be used and to last. Anyhow, it's your money, do what you think is right ;-) Enjoy Malc

Hippo

Tone

Derby store had plenty....as have I :) BTW, have you noticed they've dropped the stength from 5.2% to 5%? Malc

Got my 08-09 disk and you can now enter destinations whilst in motion though I'm not 100% convinced that's a good idea Anyway, if anyone's interested in an 07-08 Western Europe DVD its on ebay HERE I'll take £27.50 for it Malc