Wass

It doesn't matter whether it drains the battery since when it is energised it doesn't use very much power. Do you worry about whether the car alarm is draining the battery?

"I had mine replaced last week and it resolved knock. Also had a 14my CT as a loan over weekend. Nice and improved but hated the Sat Nav with a passion." Know what you mean about the Sat Nav.... Never had a car with a Sat Nav which suited me better than a stand alone Garmin. The world would be a dull place if we all liked the same things. Checked the steering... 38K miles and still ok but thanks for the heads up.

Agreed on all points.In order to tell the difference in appearance you have to stand outside the car anyway. I had the no cost either way choice of 16" or 17". I chose the more economical, smoother riding option of 16". The latest face lifted CTs have softer suspension than the earlier models so the 16" should be better still. I believe that the base models use 15" wheels which are even more economical, softer riding but I don't have a clue what they look like or how much the tyres cost.

Thanks for the photos Mark, I shall know how to do it myself in future.( in case of stone damage to the fog lamp or bulb replacement) The upgrade looks really good by the way.

Cambridge Lexus are my local dealer... I go to Lookers in Hatfield. I went to Cambridge Lexus to look at an ex demo which they wanted top dollar and minimal P/ex. The sales man spouted a few inaccuracies which erred on the side of the dealer and made us feel like unwelcome tyre kicking wastes of time. I bought my car from Tunbridge Lexus. they were far more genuine, knew their product as did HatfieldLexus however Hatfield only had a blue one whilst Tunbridge had the white ex demo i wanted.

It depends what you want the new tyre to do. The tyre manufacturers have to market their tyres with a rating of performance.Rolling resistance, wet weather grip and noise. Currently the bridgestone ecopia EP001S is "A" rated for rolling resistance and wet weather performance and is 70 dB rated whereas the Bridgestone efficient grip tyre is "A"rated for rolling resistance, "C" rated for weather performance and 67dB rated for noise. A lot of the grippier dry weather tyres actually have a higher rolling resistance "G" which just to confuse the issue, a high rolling resistance doesnt necessarily mean that its a dry weather grippy tyre , it can just mean that its a cheap and nasty article which is legal but not of much use. Also to confuse matters even more, it is possible to find that the tyre models change efficiency with size. IE the best tyre in one particular size isnt necessarily the best tyre in a different size. might have a higher rolling resistance for example.

If you are going to disconnect the 12 volt battery, you might have to retune the radio and reset the clock. The 12 volt battery doesn't start the car engine, it only starts the cars computer which can then be instructed to enable the high voltage battery to start the engine.

Can you de-ice a hybrid by running the engine up? Yes. Just select defrost and switch the heated rear screen on and the car heats itself up. It will also switch itself off but dont worry about flattening the batteries because it will restart itself as the battery runs down just in order to charge the battery back up. Your fuel consumption wont be up to much however, if that is what you prefer to do with a conventional engined vehicle you will be used to higher winter fuel consumption.

Getting back to the original question,will the Audi concern Lexus? Does it ever? No! Audi buyers will be pleased they don't have to buy a cheap Japanese car and instead they can buy a car that's so much better than a Volkswagon, Seat or Skoda. Just like Lexus CT owners like to buy cars which are so much better than a Toyota.

I am just waiting for the plug in craze to become the sensible norm. Compare the cost of this piffling little Audi to a Mitsubishi Outlander. There is clearly still a way to go in terms of cost engineering. The Audi is overpriced by around £10000 whereas most plug ins are overpriced by about £5000. Lets see what the prices go like when the UK government withdraw the grant. The way I think of plug ins is: They cost more because Instead of the hybrid battery , you get a... hybrid battery Instead of the engine, you get ...the same engine Instead of an electric motor you get.... an electric motor which is probably very simliar Instead of a non plug in electronic control system you get .... a plug in electronic control system Instead of getting reduced space in the boot you get ... very reduced space in the boot. and in addition you get a plug on the opposite side to the petrol cap All in all about £500 tops for having a smaller boot instead of the £5000 price differential between plug in petrol hybrid and non plug in petrol hybrid. The price of the Outlander is the way which the prices are bound to go and I think there might be some red faced Audi owners around in a few years time.

Things you might not like about a CT. Some people will accuse you of driving a milk float. Some people will try to convince you that he CT is the same as an Auris. ( mostly Auris drivers) The CT handles like a small car because it is a small car don't be surprised if it doesn't act like a bigger, more expensive car. If you like to spend a long time complaining at the dealers, you will be very disappointed with a CT. People in supermarket car parks like to target our CT So far the count stands at 5 supermarket hits in 30 months. CTs seem to come with an externally mounted nit wit magnet. Personally, I can live with all these things apart from maybe the nit wits who run into our car and then try to run away as if nothing has happened.

Use of the horn is probably what the authorities would approve of since it is just supposed to mean " I am here" however, in modern driving conditions, it seems to be taken as some sort of rebuke which ranges from impatience to gross personal insult. I find that turning on the radio and turning up the volume gets pedestrian and cyclists attention without questioning their parentage. I still get the strange looks but this time they wonder what it is I find so fascinating about the weather forecast (or whatever else happens to be on radio4).

Citroen cactus? But its so not a CT. Citroen need to package the concept considerably more attractively, they could start by moving design, engineering and production out of France and into say er Japan and then work in conjunction with a well known local outift in Tahara, Aichi, oh er say Lexus. The Citroen idea is mildly attractive but I think that the self preservation thing was perfected some time ago with the concept of the series 1 landrover. A series 1 landrover would clearly solve the supermarket parking expert issue but it still isnt a CT.

Disabled bays..... Hmmmm.... by rights both myself and my wife are entitled to disabled parking registration. Neither of us use that option because we both consider that these permits are too easy to obtain and in the most part arent needed. Where I work theres a person who drives a manual Mazda MX5 and she has a disabled sticker for no apparent reason since she briskly walks a couple of hundred yards to her place of work in the hospital from her "reserved"spot in the disabled car park. To my mind disabled parking is widely misused by people with disabled stickers. There are many who give the few a bad name.

I spent my youth successfully getting from A to B in a variety of reliable sheds. Sheds are good. Our Lexus wasnt bought as a shed and I dont want to allow it to become one. I am fast coming to the conclusion that it would be more economical to buy a shed specifically as a shopping tool.

I did suggest to her to buy a child seat from the nearest car boot sale. Perhaps this is the way to go.

Tried that years ago John, didnt like eating stale food.

Our white CT has just sustained paint damage for a third time in a supermarket car park. The damage has always occurred when my wife drives the car. The average cost of the paint repairs is just over £200 a time and we are on first name terms with our local body shop team. ( One stop in St Ives and they do a very reasonable and good quality job too) I tell my wife to imagine getting a £200 fine every time she decides to park too close to a clot's car. The way to avoid this is to keep away from 4x4s, children/people carriers and park as far away as possible from the supermarket entrance alongside expensive ,unmarked and quite obviously looked after cars. If there were to be a change in the hit and run mentality which entailed being able to bring both parties to account instead of the damaged party just paying up for parking next to a disappearing clot there could be some improvement, however, this would involve some of our "model citizens" having to admit their own faults which doesn't seem to be in-keeping with modern goody two shoes values at all.

Stolen /recovered? There's always a lot of profit in breaking newish cars provided that the initial purchase price can be kept low...eg a category c or d

There really is a lot of stuff one can opt to fit to ones car. Some of it enhances safety, some of it enhances appearance, some of it improves convenience, some of it improves various aspects of performance. Isnt it a pity that the leach - like insurance companies seem to regard it as good sport and fair game to charge increased premiums for every little improvement? Whilst they also threaten to void insurance if there are any modifications away from standard spec which you didn't tell them about? I often wonder how they would stand with the case that someone bought an already modified car thinking that all of the upgraded items were factory standard? Will they be introducing further statutory tests to ensure that no modifications have been carried out? Since insurers of vehicles were given the backing of the law they have become ever increasingly annoying. People are now even worrying about fitting tyre sizes which the car never came with but are listed as a factory option for that vehicle. I once had a mini which was very modified in both performance and appearance. I listed all modifications in a lengthy document for the insurers and paid a premium which exceeded the price I would have had to pay to drive a car worth twice as much as my mini with twice as much power. Pimp my ride? Pay the PIMPS!

It is probably down to a design committee decision. Everyone understands 12 hour clocks but some people don't understand 24 hour clocks. Leaving the option for the user to choose would have been nice; after all, :hocus-pokus: this option is available on 20 year old cheap digital watches isn't it?

I would be interested to see the pictures Adam, I was thinking of buying parking sensors and fitting them myself but would like to know the extent of the work before I decide whether to go for it. I am guessing that you had to refit the bumper properly because someone had fitted your sensors but not bothered to refit the bumper properly prior to your buying the car?

Unfortunately I suffer with this on the RX400h, especially on the rear doors. I had one, never did it fall off the roof and onto the car. Someone please tell me how to turn this bing and boing noises from the satnav off and how to stop it beeping continuously when in reverse. Its driving me mad! Its not a truck! The drip issue is easy to put to bed: old fashioned cars had vertical side windows and so the rain didnt fall onto the interior from the door frame. Modern cars have doors which incorporate window which slope inwards and are more inclined ( pun) to drop water directly onto the upholstery. All of my cars have done it at some stage from around 1999 onwards. My mini and my stag and all of my old jags never did that but the mini and the stag used to allow the water to flow through the car in other areas though! Its coming from the roof though. It drips straight from the roof onto the seat and its not even the edge of the seat, its slap bang in the middle. I probably wouldnt mind with a leather interior but on beige fabric its noticeable! Yes , it comes from the roof where it meets the top of the door.

Unfortunately I suffer with this on the RX400h, especially on the rear doors. I had one, never did it fall off the roof and onto the car. Someone please tell me how to turn this bing and boing noises from the satnav off and how to stop it beeping continuously when in reverse. Its driving me mad! Its not a truck! The drip issue is easy to put to bed: old fashioned cars had vertical side windows and so the rain didnt fall onto the interior from the door frame. Modern cars have doors which incorporate window which slope inwards and are more inclined ( pun) to drop water directly onto the upholstery. All of my cars have done it at some stage from around 1999 onwards. My mini and my stag and all of my old jags never did that but the mini and the stag used to allow the water to flow through the car in other areas though!

I had a similar problem. I had worked abroad for some time in a country which very much encouraged the driver to regulate his speed to the road conditions ( I'm no being sexist when I say "his " because at that time in Saudi, women weren't allowed to drive). The way I solved the problem worked very well. I went to my local BSM ( british school of motoring) and asked them to train me to pass the institute if advanced motorists test. The test lasted for 2-3 hours during which it is almost impossible to pretend that you are a good driver whilst hiding a myriad of bad habits. My instructor gave an initial assessment which was quite flattering stating that I was a good safe driver but who had absolutely no regard for speed limit signs and would drive with purely the road conditions which I could see to regulate my speed against. He gave me a very simple exercise which I should carry out whilst driving: I should direct my eyes following the pattern ROAD>MIRROR>ROAD>SPEEDO>ROAD>MIRROR>ROAD>SPEEDO. I should never ever look at my passenger whist talking,I should alternate which mirror I looked at. He would test me by suddenly asking me to identify the colour of the car following me without taking my eyes off the road. Another useful thing he would suddenly ask me to do would be to tell him what the last 2 road signs I passed said. ( they could be a blue P sign, a bus stop sign, a road narrows sign for example) This would be so that I wouldn't pass from a 40mph zone into a 30 mph zone without noticing. Whilst there may be electronic speed reminders on the market which work very well, my somewhat limited experience of them as a passenger is that they get very tiresome; I would imagine they aren't exactly enjoyable as a driver either. I do love to smile at police people with hand held speed cameras ( especially when it's raining) or camera van operators though.There I am, not getting caught for speeding and holding up a queue of other people who won't get caught for speeding either! How frustrating it must be for them who should dedicate their efforts to be policing criminals rather than softer targets !