Carl911

I also own both the gs450 and the RX450 and I still feel amazed at how smooth and quiet the GS is even compared to the RX. as has been mentioned, it's a hard car to beat as a excellent all rounder.

All sounds strange, the gs450 has very little in the way of wind noise, certainly not unless your doing over 100mph and even then it's quite minimal, so I'm told...lol through the door sounds like a poor seal somewhere, maybe around the window. Perhaps check that none of your seals have come away or been damaged. Also check door lines are good and no signs of previous accident damage etc. as for top of dash, again, has windscreen been changed recently, These are bonded in but if for some reason the glue missed a spot I suppose it's possible for some wind noise. Maybe check wipers are down properly when in their parked position. this is all speculation but as mentioned, wind noise on m car is very low and I have never felt it to be intrusive. Carl

I don't have dab so can't comment on that but no issues with normal radio. The hardwiring does come with a magnetic shielding block which is optional whether you fit or not.

They added an additional cigarette lighter socket to the later model, mine only has two in the centre console and one in the boot.

I bought the hard wire kit for my dash cam a few months back. I initially wanted to get Lexus to fit as the idea of pulling trims worried me slightly. however, the thought of paying £150 meant I plugged the cigarette lighter power setup for the time being. however, this looks untidy and certainly not what one expects to see in ones RX, lol. so I managed to fit it today and too be honest it was relatively easy. your best friend in this job is a metal coat hanger. now I will say I thought the fuse box was on the driver side as this seems to be indicated in the manual and is also the case in my GS450 but it is in fact on the passenger side foot well area. not bothering to check that fact I fitted my wiring along the ceiling and down the drivers side a-pillar but aside from that the technique used would have been the same for the passenger side. firstly remove the little plastic trim found next to the small window on your dash. Use a plastic pry tool and this pops out with ease. You need to pull the a-pillar trim away from its fixed position. It doesn't take much force and only allows you to pull it away about 20mm as it stops any further on a special retaining style clip. The trim is quite flexible and coupled with the space now created this is service. with your door open you need to remove the trim at the side of your dash, this also takes minimal force with a pry tool to remove. You should now have a few areas of access to not only feed wire but also see to some extent what you are doing. using the metal coat hanger which needs to be unbent into a straight piece you need to feed this down the gap next to the small window on dash until you see the end come out in the footwell. This may take a little feeling about but it went down quite easy for me. Dont let the coat hanger fall all the way through so either bend it to stop it falling or get someone to hold it. Now, tape the plug end that will eventually plug into your dashcam to the coat hanger end. you can now pull the plug up to the top of the dash. now you need to feed the wire plug up through the apillar trim. I found that this was best done by feeding the wire now at the top of your dash back down and out the side of your dash where you have removed trim. To do this, remove the coat hanger and feed by hand as access is easier here. once out the side you need to retape the end back to coat hanger and push up vertically behind apillar trim. You need to take care as there is an airbag in here plus other wiring. that said, with the trim now pulled slightly off you have enough space to feed up and you can see by looking from the outside of your car through the windscreen the gap behind the trim and hopefully the end of your cost hanger. Once you have fed the wire up enough into the apillar trim , you need to push it out the side slightly so that you can grab the end with your fingers. Once yo have the end, untape the coat hanger again and remove it. You should now be able to pull the wire up to the correct length to reach your dash cam. You now can tuck the wire behind the roof trim and push the apillar trim back on. replace the other two dash trim s back into place and everything should be as good as when you started. you now have the power end of your wires on the floor. this just needs feeding behind the floor carpet then connecting to the fuse for cigarette lighter and find a suitable bolt head to screw the earth behind, there are a few down there to use so no need to start drilling holes anywhere. there is another trim on the passenger side that comes away by pushing four little push tabs, dead easy to remove and just gives you easier access. as I say, I went down the driver apillar then tucked the wires along the carpet line from the drivers side to passenger but obviously thus won't be necessary if you go down passenger side. anyway, the point to all this is that it's actually quite easy to do and no reason to be concerned about damaging anything if you take your time. carl

Apparently they looked but said there was only one camera and he wasn't on it. Camera in wrong place. Always the way when you want the evidence.

Lol, this guy was literally shaking with rage anyway. My main worry is driving an RX isn't exactly discreet which makes me a bit of a target for a repeat attack if he frequents the same route to work as me each day. I think I'll take the GS for a couple of weeks, maybe I will see him and take his number plate for the police to have a polite word.

I had one lightbulb replaced today at Lexus dealership. Free drinks, biscuit, car Valeted and all for £1.21 catl

Yep, doors on auto lock. Sadly I agree that the standard of driving and the aggression is getting worse. I'm pretty good normally for letting people in gaps and so forth but I guess sooner or later you get one like this.

Believe me when I say this Neanderthal probably sprayed that stuff on as deodorant.

So I'm driving to work or rather stuck in very slow moving traffic in my lane still when a Bmw flies up from the outside lane and try's to ram in front of me. In front of me with half a car at most as a gap, what he was actually doing was to ram me out of his way as there clearly wasn't a space big enough for him to move in front safely. On top of that he come from knowhere with no indicators. My gut reaction was to swerve away but continue on my current path. This clearly didn't sit well with said BMW driver who now at the side of me started hurling profanity and spitting all over my car. I would also add that he was a rather big chap and quite violent looking so I certainly had no intention to antagonise the situation further. however, the driver continued for about half a mile shouting abuse and at one point when the traffic was stationary got out his car and was trying to pick a fight. I ignored him and after and he got back in his car after spitting over my car a bit more he attempted to ram my car two further times before I was able to turn off the main road. im not ntirely sure how I stirred the devil himself but it was a very unerving experience I dont wish to experience any time soon. just to add salt to the wound I have a dash cam which on this occasion never recorded as the sd card had popped out and as I thought the reg of the other driver would be on video I never took it down. so bottom line, I can't even get the police to track the man down. on the plus side, neither my self or the car had any damage other than the the need for a car wash and a strong coffee when I got to work. carl

Mind gets driven everyday into Cheltenham being a local Gloucester owner. As you say, there is a certain exclusivity with the GS. i have owned mine for about 2 years and it's never missed a beat. when i am not just relaxing in the quite , refined comfort I am putting a smile on my face with the performance that never gets tiring. carl

This surprises me slightly. I have a gs450 and the difference between normal and sport is huge. With both sport and power mode switched on the car feels like it's on steroids, it just wants to go at the lightest throttle where as in normal mode it's a much more laid back and lazy drive. If you think you can't feel any difference then I can only presume something isn't working correct because the difference is very noticeable.

I noticed eBay selling a few of these underun trims for the rx300 at pretty decent prices if someone wants to spruce up there RX. Look at this on eBay LEXUS RX 300 FRONT LOWER BUMPER COVER FINISH SILVER GENUINE PZ415-K0951-00 Carl

I've seen them on a few advanced models. carl

Nice! Do you have the front as well or just the rear?

Guilty, that said, I agree it's silly money for what it is but I don't drink or smoke so I kinda justify the expense if it's on my car which is pretty much my only real luxury. Carl

Yeah, my old is220 was the same colour and I quite liked it as it's a bit different and like silver hides the dirt a bit better than the darker colours.

Just lexus plastic😉

Yes, I agree it's a lot of money for what is in effect a shaped piece of plastic. I paid £259 for the part. some times you just bite the lip and do it.

I know these are not everyone's taste but I always felt, from the rear at least there was too much black plastic at the bottom. I think the silver trim breaks it up and also gives it a slightly cleaner look. It was a bit more effort to fit than lexus said it would be as you need to loosely fit and mark where holes will be, then remove existing black plastic under tray. Once off you drill elongated holes and fasten new trim loosely to it with the provided bolts. You then refit your original under tray with new trim loosely attached as you have to tighten two bolts which will be under the new trim. Once the original trim is all bolted back up you offer new trim up to bumper with the 3m tape strip that adheres to existing bumper along its top edge then tighten four bolts to keep everything nice and tight. its not a difficult job but does require a little bit of thought and care. anyway, I'm pleased with the result. I may consider the front underun at a later date although this cost nearly £500 and I'm not so concerned about the front look of the vehicle as this looks ok. carl

It's interesting your comments on the LS460 being too eager and thus making it less relaxed. I can understand where you are coming from and this is where performance has it's place for certain models. take my GS450, it's something inbeteeen and I think it's performance adds a certain excitement to the drive. The car is fairly firm anyway and seems to lend itself to the extra eager throttle response. My RX450h on the other hand I feel is the complete opposite. It really makes me drive much more sedate and you feel cosited about. Despite being the same slightly detuned engine it feels quite lazy in comparison to the GS. if I'm honest I feel it could do with just a little more performance to make it a perfect balance, sometimes I feel the weight which indicates to me the necessity for a little more from the engine. i liken the LS in drive to the RX in that it should also be driven in a sedate manner but when needed and only when needed have the power delivery on tap. it should not be a case of the lightest touch of the pedal interfewrs with an otherwise tranquil ride. sounds like lexus are forgetting the heritage for relaxed, comfortable drive and compromising it for handling and performance BMW style rides. carl

I find my tyres very good so far. They are Pirelli scorpion verde 235/55/19 105v all season. I don't think they are the quietist road tyres due to the tread pattern but I imagine they are good all rounders. how they would fair in the mud is another matter.

I mùst admit it's unlikely I will ever need to go off road but I just wanted to believe if push comes to shove the RX could get me out of a sticky spot. maybe I should lower my expectations to just deep puddles. carl

Even after many years of Lexus ownership I still cannot understand how some parts cost so much. Surely there's a cheaper solution somewhere? other than the price of parts, well done on doing an amazing job carl