Habu

You need to be messaging Lexus U.K. and not the factory in Japan. Lexus Japan will not reply to you and, if they did, they’ll just refer you back to the U.K. Your Lexus Centre should be able to assist you and tell them you’re not on social media so you cannot tweet Lexus U.K. to get details of the ship your car is on. Keep on with this as it’s not difficult for Lexus U.K. to get the ship’s name - assuming your car is built and is getting ready to depart.

When I’ve contacted Twitter in the past I’m tweeting Lexus U.K. and not the factory. Do you use any other form of social media such as Facebook to contact Lexus or worst case see if your Lexus centre can enquire on your behalf?

Ship Finder shows no traffic in the Suez Canal whilst MarineTraffic shows everything. Both screen shots are live right now.

Some previous car journeys. As previously stated use MarineTraffic as other ship tracking apps are useless particularly away from the UK. There are one or two dark areas where there is no signal particularly the leg from Sri Lanka to Africa but plenty where it's completely visible.

It’s always interesting to see the ship that your car is on and where is stops off enroute. Lexus U.K. may need to contact your local Lexus Centre to obtain some order details you may not be in possession of. Last year my ES arrived on the Horizon Leader and stopped off Suez, then Sagunt, Spain before arriving at Bristol. 12 months earlier my NX arrived on the Undine and it stopped off at Suez (they always do as part of the canal is one-way), Sagunt and then Bristol. Previous cars have called into Turkey and Koper (Slovenia).

If the build has started it’ll be out of the factory in the next few days and then onto a boat. It’s 4 straight weeks on the boat from Japan to Bristol and then a few more days to arrive at your dealer. If you tweet Lexus they’ll be able to tell you the boat it’s on and then you can track it home. Helps to pass the time plus it’s interesting to see its course and the messages “armed guards on board” when the ship approaches the Somalian coastline. Use the MarineTraffic app to track the boat. Other ship apps are rubbish.

I think you’re spot on with your first paragraph. Some centres may feel more comfortable and crack on in October but mine were adamant it’ll be late November or early December.

Don’t think they’ll be making a tonne of money. It’s 90 minutes labour for something that is charged at 1 hours labour. Granted, the service department will be doing other things whilst the software is downloading on your car but I can’t see them raking in the £££ doing this.

Please let me know when yours is done so I can go back and say other centres are now fitting it. I'd rather have it sooner rather than later. What's USB position and visible cables got to do with retrofitting AC and AA?

My Lexus Centre are now reporting that the Apple CarPlay retrofit has gone back to the end of November or early December. Cost will be £96 including VAT.

If people haven’t done the maths yet £96 quoted by Lexus Teesside is £80 (quoted many times) + VAT.

I’ve just spoken to my local centre (Lexus Teesside) and they are stating it’s gone back to end of November or early December and price is £96.

This is Lexus’ comments regarding the internal changes... Regarding internal changes, power window switch ornamentation has been added, the steering wheels switch design has been changed, the small item storage at the front cup holder has been increased, the USB port cover has been revised and the multimedia, PWR/VOL and TUNE knob colour has been changed to a satin-plated pattern coating. The website and e-brochure are scheduled to be updated at the start of October.

Well, Lexus UK has confirmed that the MY21 ES models due in October will feature a revised USB cover. So if the photo above is correct do you still need to leave the large cup holder lid open as you currently have to? I’ve asked Lexus to clarify.

https://blog.lexus.co.uk/2021-lexus-es-premium-edition/ As already discussed the MY21 ES is available to order now. Lexus U.K. has published some of the highlight updates but has not chosen to detail the interior changes yet even though I’ve seen the internal circular with details of the revised switchgear and other bits. Lexus “...enhance the appearance and user-friendly design of the cabin.” I’m getting my first service this Friday so hopefully will get some further info.

In a word, no. It's a manual effort via the touchpad - well it is for the 2019 models so probably still the same for the 2020 models. I'm surprised Lexus has never addressed this as it's a fairly common complaint.

I know from my Lexus centre that cars ordered from September 2020 will get a slightly revised ES (MY2021) that includes a little bit of revised switchgear around the mirror and window switches but I noticed this on a Japanese site. I wonder if the revised ES gets a change to the USB cover? This has always been a pet hate of mine that you’ve got to lift the lid to get to the USBs. I don’t know if the U.K. 2021 cars will get the new battery tech.

Hi Vinny. Good luck with the sale. Presume there’s no finance outstanding?🙂 Are you moving on from the brand or staying with Lexus?

You can’t on the ‘19 so I’d be surprised in you could on the ‘20. It’s still a few manual steps to get to the delete button.

...and you’ve got to lift the lid to use it🤬. Why didn’t they put the USBs in the central cubby?

You’re right, it looks amazing (particularly the outside) but then the only engine option being the 2.5 L4 hybrid probably puts people off. It was a pity not to have the option of the 3.5 V6. The car was already engineered to use that smooth V6. I’m not sure where Lexus are going at the moment (obviously electric in the future) if they are planning to ditch the CT, IS and RC. They must have a lot of faith in the UX and ES.

My local centre is the same. Showroom is just UX x3, ES, NX and RX-L. No sign of IS, RC or CT. Ok, the CT is getting a bit long in the tooth but it was the car that got me into the Lexus brand having been a Toyota driver for the previous 6 cars - 3x Prius, 2x Gen 7 Celicas (one very modded) and a modded GT86. I think the RC is stunning (one the finest looking coupes in its price range) but I never see one on the road. Are people put off by the hybrid powertrain? My centre said the ES is outselling the IS by 2:1 and spec-for-spec the ES isn’t too much more money. The IS Takumi @£43k, ES Takumi @45.6k. I will probably stick with Lexus for now as I love the brand exclusivity, centre experience, reliability, build quality plus lots of standard tech. I may go for another ES after my current one and then probably back to a SUV.

I paid exactly £30k for the wife’s GT Sport Tech auto so it’s still at least £10k difference to me. She doesn’t need 4WD. Over the 2 years she’ll have the Mazda it would would need to be heavily drinking petrol to offset the difference with the UX but she averages around 42mpg as the CX-30 is both a mild hybrid and has cylinder deactivation so its fuel economy is pretty good for what it is. Even with potentially worse residuals than the UX, around £10k is still too big a difference for me to consider the UX. I’m not knocking the UX at all but its starting price is practically what we paid for the top spec auto CX-30 which, for me, makes it a no-brainer especially considering the Mazda’s very classy interior and much larger boot. We ruled out the CH-R for its interior styling which we didn’t like but I dare say people will rule out the Mazda for its styling. People want different things in their cars. My wife wanted lots tech and safety features like large infotainment screen, large HUD, RCTA-B, FCTA-B, BSM, LKA, 360 cameras, good sound system and a good sized boot. Over 2 years she’ll do about 7000 miles so MPG isn’t too important so long as it’s not diabolical.

I believe it is but I’ve not seen anything printed to the same.

The interior (especially the door cards) is disappointing for a car at this price. The Takumi is about £41k for goodness sake and has the same cheap plastic door cards. My ES Takumi wasn’t much more money but has so much more in every respect. My wife’s new Mazda CX-30 GT Sport Tech (top of the range) was about £30k. Quality and tech-wise is on a par with my ES. Would I pay £11k more for the UX over the superb CX-30? Absolutely not.