tankplanker

Those batteries have to go somewhere. What car are you coming from at the moment? The RX has a bigger rear seating area than a 5 series or an E Class but it can't compete with a large people carrier such as a S-Max or Espace, nor can it compete with the Discovery. While I've not been in the new XC90 I did feel that the old one was tiny in the back as its a 7 seater and feels like it has a very low roof line when you are inside it. Very few cars outside of people carriers can get three proper car seats (ones suitable for 9 months up, not those booster seats) across the back seats, I know because I had the same problem.

I'd suggest paying the extra to get the next model up as you get air suspension as the standard suspension is a bit choppy on bumpy roads. The air suspension and the better leather are about the only worth while extras from the more expensive model but the air suspension I would put as must have.Can't speak for iPhone connectivity but I can speak about the broadly identical iPod connectivity as I have an 80 Gb iPod classic full to the brim with music. It works really well apart from one problem, there is no search either by letter or the preferable option of partial & full name search. How much of a problem the lack of search makes to you is purely down to how many albums/artists you have; I have hundreds of both types and it makes finding anything a real chore as I have to scroll down a page at a time, and a page holds about 10 items, I've taken to creating an on the go playlist on the iPod and then connecting it to the Lexus. The big problem I can forsee if you want to use a dash mounted stand for your iPhone is that the USB socket is under the armrest, you'd need to do a bit of work to feed a cable round without it showing to the dash, the upside is that the USB socket would charge your phone and act as the interface so you'd only need a suitable cradle. However I'm not sure you'd want a cradle as all the track and call information is clearly displayed on the 10" screen in the dash, you don't need to touch the phone/iPod once the car is started, I keep mine under the armrest.

I've not owned both but I have been in a 400h and I currently own a 450h. The 450h won't do anywhere near 45 to the gallon for normal driving (I get between 35 and 38 without too hard trying); if you are driving at low speeds over a short distance you can see this sort of economy, at least till you put your foot down or the batteries need charging. Pretty much everything is improved with the 450h over the 400h but this should be expected with the bump in prices, more power, better economy, more toys, better handling, better fit and finish. My personal opinion is that the 450h has moved up a class and is more than a match for the likes of Merc or BMW in terms of exterior build and interior quality. I'd put the 450h as behind the latest Disco or Range Rover in terms of interior quality and toys but they are newer, more expensive when equipped to the same standard and more expensive to run. I also have my doubts that Land Rover have really addressed the reliability issues that I know a lot of my friends had with the previous models. Handling on the 450h without air is good on smooth roads but choppy otherwise, you really need to invest in a model with air. Both suspension types corner really well for such a big, tall, car and without much body roll.

I get an average of about 35mpg, that's my normal driving style rather than shooting for economy and using super unleaded, which is worth an extra couple of MPG at least for me. A lot of that is sticking below 80 mph on the Motorways, go over that and the returned MPG is rather lower. I can't get anywhere near the official figures, I've assumed that they are like the latest MPG figures from BMW for things like the 1 series, the result of the car being very good at the MPG test rather than having amazing MPG. I think this is made worse by the 450h being a hybrid, if gentle acceleration is used and/or a low enough speed I can see a big(ish) part of the test being done on electric only as if I remember correctly the test isn't exactly long. It does strike me as weird that Car Manufacturers would think its a good long term plan to annoy and frustrate owners with unattainable MPG figures, sure it works in the short term but premium brands are based around retaining owners.

To me the 450h makes much more sense as a company car rather than a private purchase as you get better return on its lower emissions, on a monthly basis I'm paying a lot less for my 450h than I would be for a X5 or Range Rover. X5 has just about to go up in price with the new engines/model revision. Its only a couple of grand but a well spec'd X5 is now much closer in price to a 450h and you never get back what you paid for the options. A year old Range Rover would be the old model? I'd have thought that it would continue to depreciate faster than a new model? The low final payment sounds like Lexus being cautious, just brought a Nissan for the wife and the final payment was about half what current examples of the same age sell at. Having said that I would expect the Lexus to deprecate more than 50% over 3 years, its a big expensive 4x4 with running costs to match.

Try super, I found better econ with super over normal unleaded. I also found that the "square button" eco option gave worse econ when driving normally as you ended up having to use more throttle to keep up with traffic. I tend to only turn that option on when I'm cruising on the motorway at a steady speed.

You guys putting in super unleaded or standard?

Have you set the mirrors to the auto postion on the door window control panel? Mine only go down when its set to auto.

Sorry I meant with the Cruise Control on the BMW you had a digital read out on the dashboard of what the Cruise Control was set to, and if you "flicked" the lever it'd go up or down in 1 MPH increments, holding said lever would do it in 3 and then 5 and then 10 MPH increments. This is perfect if you drive on Cruise Control all the time like I do to stay at the speed limit as it requires very little effort (usually just one click of the lever) to change between 30, 40, 50 and so on. The Lexus has a cheaper Cruise Control (its the same cruise control that was in a Vectra hire car I had between the BMW and the Lexus) that doesn't tell you exactly how fast you are going as its based on the (analogue) speedo so guess work is involved and you have to hold the stick in the appropriate place to increase/decrease while the card slows down/speeds up. I just don't like the element of guesswork or the slight delay in changing speed, or having to hold down the lever for several seconds. I will point out I'm being pretty picking really.

Had mine a few months now, previous car was an E61 525D SE that had a LOT of toys added onto it by BMW (ex press demo car), which I'll use as my reference point for this. This is my first Lexus as well so I can't compare to other models. In general I am really pleased with it, its comfy on long trips (I make a couple of 100+ mile of these each week on average), and returning around 35 to the gallon using super unleaded (worked out by what I put in the tank rather than the on-board computer). I can get to 40 if I drive carefully (I have a few 40/50s into 70s by me and I normally floor it for these assuming its safe). I find that using normal unleaded that the econ drops of by as much as 4 to the gallon. The sat nav is very good compared to the BMW, I particularly like the split screen option on the motorways so you can see the junctions/service stations on one side and the map on the other. Voice control also works really well (once you turn off the nanny option for it). Performance is also pretty impressive for a car of this size when compared to econ, its not massively quick off the line (about the same as my remapped E61) but it does shift once moving. This is the first new or nearly new car I've had that hasn't had a single fault on delivery, everything is very well put together. Running on electric and electric+petrol is seamless, can be a bit hard to do only electric if the traffic is stop start and people move off promptly, you need to coast in a lot more to get the most out of it. I can get up to about 50 mph just on the electric motors if I'm careful. What I don't like is the iPod integration, I have a full 80 GB iPod that I have for the car, and it makes me scroll through all the albums one at a time. The Dension iPod adapter I had for my E61 allowed me to search alphanumeric. I've worked round this by creating an on the go playlist before I leave, less than ideal. I also don't like that the Bluetooth isn't Multipoint, a pain if you have a couple of phones like I do. The cruise control is a pain as its the cheaper sort set by the speed on the dial rather than a separate digital read out, and there is no simple way of decreasing your speed by 1, 3, 5 mph increments like on the E61, I tend to drive by the cruise control due to all the speed cameras so its a bit set and pray at the moment. Niggles that I knew before I brought the car: You can't adjust the temp of the vents in the back, my E61 had advanced aircon, so I miss this a lot You can't set a timer for the aircon to heat/cool the car before you get in No option for TV screens in the UK at the mo' (as far as I'm aware), I used to use the video out of my iPod adapter via the for the kids all the time in my E61 No option for a large sunroof

If I remember about CVTs correctly the car works at a more or less constant revolution, there is no traditional "rev range" to display like with a normal gearbox. The power dial is more a guide to how much effort the engine and/or electric motors are producing: In the blue section and you are coasting, the battery should be charging up. First green section is normally electric only depending on speed and to a degree how steep the road is. Second green section is normally petrol only. The white is petrol and electric, again dependant on speed and how hard you press the accelerator. You're meant to use the power dial to keep your MPG up, the more you keep it in the green section, preferably the first green section the better for MPG.

I believe the SE-L and the SE-L Prem both have the same seats, so that puts it at about £50k. Personally I think the Prem is bad value, it doesn't offer enough over the SE-L to make it worth buying unless you really want the adaptive cruise control, the pre crash system and the (tiny) sun roof, otherwise the SE-L has pretty much everything else on the option list. When I priced up a X6 the other day it worked out about the same as the SE-L as it needed leather, pro nav, blue tooth, heated seats, usb interface, a speaker upgrade, etc. to match the spec of the SE-L - I will point out I did this with the BMW configurator and that I've found this to incorrectly mark standard features as cost options before now. What I don't like is that you (in the UK) can't get the pretty decent rear screens, nor does it have 4 zone climate and the sunroof is too small, my last two cars have both had very large sunroofs and this time I was hoping to get a panoramic sunroof if I could. I'm not sure that there hasn't been progress, power is up 10% to 295bhp, but fuel economy improves by 23% to 44.8mpg and CO2 emissions fall from 198g/km to 148g/km, really they should be offering this version of the engine on the GS.

You can turn the current road box off in the options, pretty much everything with the sat nav can be customised, its way more flexible than the pro nav in my previous car, an e61. Completely agree with the handling and performance, BMW are class leading in the exec sector pretty much across the board, if you want a sports diesel exec get the BMW. Only the XF comes anywhere near close to a BMW and the diesel S is a bit soft compared to a M Sport. Econ for the 35d is way better on a long, straight run, round town I'd give it to the Lexus if you can be careful, 35 to 40 is possible with a little effort, it does depend on driving style. Short journeys always used to ruin the econ in my BMW. As for cost of ownership the RX 450h makes the most sense if its a company car (like mine) due to its lower BIK (I save about ~£300 net a month compared to a similar spec X6) and its higher standard spec (once you are past the basic model) as options seem to be dead weight on the lease cost as the leasing company doesn't seem to adjust the future value of the car upwards to reflect £5k of options on the BMW. All in all I'm saving about ~£450 a month net with the Lexus compared to the BMW, or more than half as much again what the Lexus costs me net.