Wass

I had to smile at your use of the word "downgrade" when the choice of 16" over 17" improves ride quality at a cost of marginal loss of handling performance only in the more extreme circumstances. Downsize... yes. fit an optional size.... yes. Downgrade? Is it? When you say that Lexus dealership and customer service confirmed that 15" are not recommended, would that be Lexus Cambridge?

I use the same model and size of tyres on our CT. For our pattern of usage and style of driving we have the pressures at 38psi front and 37psi rear. I am not particularly interested in the tiny amount of fuel consumption improvement but am more interested in obtaining even tyre wear across the width of tread. Standard pressures resulted in wearing the edges off the tyres and leaving the centres of the tyres relatively unworn. These pressures seem to encourage more even wear across the entire width of the tyres.

This confirms my own somewhat more limited experience. These hybrids seem to go wrong by exception. I guess that they have to be more engineered than the older designs of vehicles because there are a multitude of Clarkson-like characters waiting to pounce upon the slightest weakness in reliability.

I had a choice of 16" or 17" and chose 16" on account of not being bothered about the looks of 17" because I can't see them from behind the steering wheel. The ride quality of my car with 16" wheels is better than the demos I have driven with 17". Never encountered the 15" but 15" CT wheels will fit any model of the CT.

all models including the base model have bluetooth.

The Ct 200s share a lot of the same parts as the Auris and Prius . All models seem to be running higher mileages with little or no issues... says a lot about reliability. If you arent bothered about looks or performance, we had an overengineered generation 2 prius t spirit with leather seats which was easily as comfortable as the lexus,just about as well loaded,more spacious, so absolutely bomb proof that the taxi drivers love them and are significantly cheaper than a CT because they are older and more depreciated. If you are a dealer you would probably pick up a leather 30,000 miler at much less than a CT (which is nowhere near fully depreciated) would set you back. Just a thought, if its toys, leather, reliability and lack of depreciation you are after.

I have always preferred to hear the engine. They used to say that you could hear the clock ticking on a Rolls travelling at 70mph. I find it a bit un-nerving. However, Rolls Royces used to be so quiet because of the unstressed nature of the engine, the huge capacity, massively silenced exhaust system and of course, lots of sound deadening felt and very thick carpets. The little lexus engine will always get a bit stressed because it has to work comparatively hard, it is difficult to fit bigger silencers into your exhaust system without throwing the ECU out of kilter and so you are stuck with thicker carpets and more sound deadening felt. On the plus side, the 1960s Rolls designers didn't used to have as much experience with silencing by body design as modern car manufacturers and used huge quantities of metal in order to dampen sound whereas modern manufacturers can design a body shell which is naturally more quiet and doesn't need so much sound deadening or outright bulky metal to keep the noise down.

I like the standard wheels but out of the two you have chosen, I would prefer the DOTZ

very reliable and only just possible to achieve published fuel consumption figures ( ideal weather- warm but no ac, ideal road conditions- empty, ideal pattern of acceleration and braking- very gentle, well disciplined and experienced hypermiler driver) Buy the car because you like it, don't buy it banking on 70 plus mpg.

Drivers who drive too close to the back of my car are a distraction to me and a danger to me and themselves. The aim of my intent is to deliberately and legally frustrate them in order to sharpen their wits. There is no law about having to match the speed limit at all times in order to placate a nit wit.

No, never had this problem Paul, I do play music from the USB stick quite a lot on my 2011 CT. Might it be the stick itself?

A slight variation on the theme from me, I don't show the brake at all, I slowly decelerate by 5 mph and the accelerate by 5 mph. This causes the nit wit to brake and then causes the nit wit to accelerate. eventually, the nit wit gets the idea that I am deliberately doing this to make the nit wit concentrate more on their driving and then I don't have to do it any more because the nit wit keeps their distance or overtakes. One day the nit wit was someone who I worked with and I asked him how he liked being forced to keep his distance, he replied that he disliked it very much; to which i informed him that I disliked tailgating very much...

The MPG not displaying properly as reported by the dealer probably refers to the MPG read out needing to be paged through to display MPG when the cruise control is activated. If you don't take any notice of the mpg while the cruise control is activated is doesnt matter since the mpg automatically reinstates its display when the cruise control is de-activated by pressing the brake pedal or cancel button. The dealer didn't report accurately in saying that it causes issues. It doesn't cause issues. 200H correctly reports that your mpg read out is inaccurate in its standard format as with so many other vehicles trip computer read outs. This is more noticeable on cars which are being sold as being fuel efficient since the inaccuracies of the display enhance the vehicle raison d'etre somewhat more obviously than it would on a more thirsty vehicle. UK Lexus dealers are mostly in the dark about this little modification since Lexus haven't chosen to train them on it. When Lexus Hatfield did mine it was their first and they were genuinely surprised that it worked straight out of the box with no software modifications necessary.

cost engineering by manufacturers. The lack of socket in the boot is because someone decided not to put one there. Retro fitting an ignition switch contolled power supply there is as cheap as running an extension from your existing socket or as expensive as paying a qualified auto electrician to take your car to pieces in order to run in the feed properly. My guess is that there might be wires in the loom to provide power to heated seats ( even if you dont have them) you might be able to use that feed... you'd probably have to install a relay in order to connect onto the power.

On my previous car it was easy to check the self levelling by checking the headlamp beam cut off level on the horizontal slats of my garage door. They were always at the same height irrespective of the load being carried in the boot. Had the height differed from one day to the next, then quite clearly the self levelling wouldn't have been working. In my case, it always seemed to be constant.

Sorry....... I hadnt read the previous posts.. mine is a base model with adjustment... If your self levelling isnt working I would wait for your warranty to expire.

There is a headlamp beam adjuster which is situated to the right of the steering wheel and lower down. Just give it a tweak until you are happy.

In the snow and ice, I just try to avoid anything other than the smoothest application of the either the stop or go pedals and also the steering wheel. Traction is the key at all times. The 4x4 crowd make me smile sometimes they know they have 4 wheel drive but forget that we all have 4 wheel brakes. Four wheel drive helps you to go but is only of limited use in helping you to stop. M+S tyres seemed to help in the distant past, the modern day winter tyres definitely help with traction due to better coefficient of friction. I have never been able to afford the expense of winter tyres; you pay to put them on and you pay to take them off, they wear out much quicker and are only actually needed only a small percentage of the time. If I had enough money to spare, I would use them, if I had enough money , I would just own season dedicated vehicles...... Snowcat anyone?

I wouldn't be so disappointed to be honest. Sure you use more fuel than some other people may use but you obviously drive in a different manner to other people.... and your manner of driving presumably suits your preference. Some people aren't happy unless they're towing a caravan. Thankfully, this is something you wont catch any CT driver doing. I would imagine that if you had a less economical car you would use even more fuel than you do with the CT. So you still probably make economies on fuel spending....possibly larger economies than someone who has a more economical driving style. The logic is as follows: when you make a 10 mpg improvement to 30 mpg you make your fuel last 33% further. When you make a 10 mpg saving on 50 mpg, you make you fuel last 20% further.

Rainx works better than nothing on the rear window but it still isn't as good as a wiper. I am guessing that mud flaps increase the drag coefficient, hence their absence on CTs ( and a lot of other cars too).

I got close to the published figures on more than one occasion. I ignore the onboard computers approximations and calculate from tank full to tank full. On all good results the journeys were of prolonged duration on slow , single carriageway A roads, following heavy lorries doing 40miles per hour with no chance of overtaking, on warm days, without air conditioning, tyres pumped up to the maximum and whilst using pulse and glide as a method of breaking the boredom. I have to say that I think the term feather is more apt than glide. Glide implies no throttle however I have noticed improved figures by using a very light "feathered" throttle during the "glide " phase. To get the published figures is possible but it is very hard and slow work which most of us dont have the time for.

We have an 11 plate with 40K miles. No issues at all. Replaced the goo in the spare wheel well with a space saver. Retro fitted speed control. Had 16" wheels as an option, havent experienced any harsh ride issues mentioned in the press. There is one very great advantage which the Lexus has going for it.... Jeremy Clarkson hates them!

Had the same issue with our car. I agree, its a really easy fix and much less trouble than a round trip ( or even a telephone call) to the menders.

Scratches on the insides of windows...... diamond ring wearers? or just a myth?

If the wrong sort of people want anything which belongs to anyone else, they will eventually find a way to take it. I rather like some of the more intricate solutions some individual systems employ: allowing the vehicle to move but only for approx 100 metres before activating a passive GPS tracker thus allowing the busy police to make arrests with the minimum of police work. When all is said and done stopping people from stealing other peoples possessions has to start with improving conviction rates/ increasing deterrent for any given type of theft.