Wass

I would doubt that a Lexus mechanic would make a good job of fixing the problem if the condenser coil really does have a hole in it. The air conditioning industry takes 3 to 4 years to train its apprentices. For jobs of the magnitude you describe, the correct procedure would be to recover any remaining refrigerant, pressurise the system with dry nitrogen in order to locate and verify the leak, depressurize the system having located the leak. Depending upon the location of the leak and the component which is leaking, replace or repair the component. Next, the system should be pressurised again with dry nitrogen and left for at least 4 hours to deturmine whether all leaks have been cured since it is illegal to add R134a refrigerant to a system which is known to be leaking. The next procedure is to suck out the dry nitrogen and place the system under a vacuum, leaving the vacuum pump to run continuously for at least 4 hours. ( Some refrigeration technicians will re-inject dry nitrogen in order to try to dispell all traces of moisture and will then run the vacuum pump again for another period) . This process is designed to boil off any traces of moisture left within the system. Finally, the system is recharged with the correct amount of refrigerant and checked through to ensure correct off coil temperatures and running pressures. For this reason, major air conditioning or refrigeration components should always be changed by time served refrigeration technicians rather than motor mechanics with a couple of hours/ days/ weeks training. Disposal of scrap gases should also be fully documented as should the use of new refrigerant. The motor industry has skirted around the ticklish subject of air conditioning for many years, however, the likes of Ferrari do employ the service of specialists as bought in contract labour as and when the need arises. The last time I spoke with the auto systems specialist I know, he told me that the only other people who bothered to do things the right way were ( believe it or not) tractor and combined harvester dealers. Simple repairs to air conditioning is within the realms of motor mechanicing. Repairs involving the handling of refrigerant are not regarded as simple.

I agree with the MPG estimate and the driveability rating. I also echo the suggestion that if you are stomping around the country by motorway,, buy a diesel since its what they're good at.

I think that it is possible to lock the doors of a lot of uk cars when leaving a window open because of those people who wish to leave their pets/ police dogs in their cars on sunny days. I guess it is no different to locking a convertible whilst leaving the top down... the action of locking doesn't just secure the doors, it disables the car systems whilst enabling trackers etc.

A dealer who once said something similar to that got a short sharp shock from his head office when I reminded them of the profit they just lost out on the purchase of a new car when I switched to another manufacturer on the strength of their excellence of service.

If I am sure of there being loss or damage sustained during servicing or work( such as tyre fitting) of any other kind on our cars, I normally find that a polite letter to the service manager or the manufacturers head office does the trick. In the case of my wifes BMW mini, such a letter resulted in a telephoned and then a written apology, all damage repaired and a £200 Marks and Spencer gift voucher.

Prior to buying our CT in early 2012, I had read the reports about suspension being harsh on all models except the sport which had been cross braced in order to stiffen things up a bit! I was given the option of having 16" wheels and took it on the grounds of improving ride quality and cheaper replacement tyres at the expense of looks. I later learnt that 17" wheels seem to sustain kerb damage more easily too. If I run my tyres at the lowest recommended pressure the ride is very good. When I run them at the highest recommended pressure, the ride gets a bit harsh but still acceptable for such a small car. I do hope that Lexus drop the idea of the CT being anywhere near to being a sports car, shelve the sports version and concentrate on making the new CT drive like the luxury small compact which it is expected to be. Leave the sport badge to Toyota if needs be ( since Toyota are better known for sports involvement -lexus le mans being a relatively new development)

A lot of people tried them. The verdict is split. Those who believe that paying more for fuel means getting better value say that they get better running smoother response. Those unbelievers say there is no difference. Premium fuels carry an anti-knock reagent which means that the engine is less likely to pink which means that if it is monitored correctly, it can run leaner before pre-ignition occurs. However, it seems that the CT isnt programmed to sense the fuel which has been put into it and advance its ignition curve and lean off its mixture accordingly., it is simply programmed to run on one grade of fuel ( which isn't premium.)

The space saver for CT200 models is the same regardless of what size the other wheels are. CTs use 15", 16" &17" wheels as standard but the space savers are all the same. ( same as the prius). The different sizes of wheel all have different aspect ratios giving approximately identical circumferences to all types of tyre. The apsect ratio of the space saver is contrived to give a similar circumference to all the other wheels despite the fact that the space saver is narrow. I guess that if you bought a 17" space saver you will need a low profile space saver tyre in order to fit that into your spare wheel well. I am guessing that your space saver doesnt come from a CT or a prius or an auris.

Ho ho:) buy an aftermarket sat nav like tom tom or garmin, stump up for the optional lifetime updating they offer on these and ignore the Lexus unit entirely. Manufacturers havent seen fit to offer lifetime sat nav updates yet since the unsuspecting few maintain a money flow for update works. ( sometimes even updates with out of date material). A cynical view , I know but I know of only one other way which is rumoured to sometimes work and that is to put your money into one of those iffy things they market on e bay sometimes, I am not really sure if they even work or how they work.

Some unusual statements there. Are you upset about something? MOT with a space saver?Nearest tyre shop? (regardless of whether they have a tyre or whether they're open). The law as it stands isn't all that specific about space savers except to say that they are permitted to be used in emergency situations only. Deliberately driving for long distance on motorways at lower speeds is far from comfortable for any driver. I am sure that most would use common sense and choose to drive along routes which would take them through locations which may offer a solution to their tyre with sidewall damage and would drive on roads which are far more appropriate for the 50 limit on space savers. My whole point about space savers is that they give you a greater chance than a bottle of goo. Part of the goo instructions for some vehicles actually has you hopping out of the car after driving a certain distance so that you can see whether the tyre is still holding pressure. ( its already dangerous enough to stop once let alone routinely repeatingly stopping in order to recheck the pressure)Compared to a full sized spare, space savers are a very poor second and the goo is a very pathetic third which barely pays lip service to getting you where you need to be with the minimum of fuss. By the way, in repair terms, even when the goo is properly applied, the repair isn't considered to be as safe as a professional repair. This is really saying something about the dubious benefits of using goo rather than using a tyre which is designed specifically for emergency use. Most people also know that new tyres should be run in in order to ensure that the mould release agents on the hitherto unused tyre are properly worn off. Another reason for running space savers as well as new tyres at 50mph.

When I set out on a journey I aim to be able to reach my destination. During my driving experience I have always reached my destination in the car I set out in. A space saver enables a car with tyre sidewall damage to reach its destination (eventually) even if the owner has to wait for a recovery person to fit the spare wheel for him/her. Goo offers the recovery person no option other than to halt his customers plans for an indeturminate period of time while the vehicle has to be recovered and taken to some place where a replacement tyre may be sourced and fitted. Some people of course have all the time in the world for such faffing about. I dont. Spare tyres will always work better than goo. Space savers are less than ideal but they are better than goo. I actually believe that the entire( no pun) industry is having us all over since solid tyre technology has been around for many, many years.

Whilst driving without a sound system I marvel at the sounds I hear from outside the car. It leads me to believe that any fine tuning of a car sound system is like bailing out the floods with a teaspoon... somewhat pointless.

An interesting observation... looking at the Fuelly website, the best years to buy for fuel consumption appears to be 2011. I guess that all the hypermilers must have rushed out to buy the all new CT200H in 2011 or Toyota/ Lexus somehow made the early ones the most economical in order to boost sales? Who knows?

Clarkson earns his living from cars. New cars earn him good money and he will be attracted to those who pay the most. Why should a professional journo pass anything other than negative opinions on a Lexus when Mercedes pay so well? TBH I like to make my own mind up about cars since I do not believe that professional motoring journos are interested in reporting anything other than what earns them most money.

Don't stop reading that forum, just give it a more critical read. Some good stuff has come from that forum. For example, I was reading that forum where I learnt that cars which didn't leave the factory with cruise control fitted were only missing the switch... all of the other equipment including the software were integral to the original build of ALL Ct200s. I also learnt that the Americans had so little tolerance for the goo tyre repair kit which we in the UK got fobbed off with that very few american CTs came without a space saver and UK dealers claiming that there was no alternative to goo just hadn't bothered to do any research. I think that there are as many wrong steers in the UK forum as there are in the USA forum.

I am going for "goodyear efficient grip performance". They are A rated for rolling resistance and A rate for wet weather braking. I have just about worn out the previous set of "goodyear efficient grip" ( note that I didnt write performance because these are actually a different tyre which is about 2 year older technology but was A and C rated) The wear rate for them was comparable to the OE bridgstones IE about 30,000 miles. I do rotate tyres so that they all get worn out at the same time and I end up with 4 matched tyres. I suppose that Rayanns might have a point about oversteer,however in my limited experience I have only ever experienced annoying factory set understeer on front wheel drive cars. I did used to get my rear wheel drive cars into oversteer on occasions but that was just through having a screw loose somewhere in the grey matter! While I have the wheels off, it gives me a chance to check the discs, pads, steering balljoints, suspension units, wheel bearings and so in my case, rotating the wheels in order to keep the tyre wear ballanced serves more than one function. However. given the choice, I would always choose not to run the tyres down to the point where they would aquaplane. I normally change the tyres at 3mm and routinely increase the gap to the car in front in rainy conditions just in case of hitting a patch of sheet flood ( often found on motorways)- even new tyres will aquaplane when driver through enough water.

"Uhm" the poster is talking about a CT200. The CT 200 makes a little whirring noise as you approach the car and unlock it. It makes the same noise as you just walk up to the unlocked car and open the door.This is the brake servo activating itself.This is the mistake which people make which results in high reset/ recovery costs. Before working on the brakes this system has to be disabled. Switching the engine off has little to do with it. Because the brake servo it designed to work with or without the engine running, it really makes no difference at all whether the engine is running as to whether the servo will work. Some other hybrids do not have this system but CT200 and Prius models do. The message is still the same. Make sure that the people who are working on your car know what they are doing with CT200 models. Having worked on another type of car braking system does not automatically mean that they know what they are doing with the CT200 system. There is an article on youtube from america which details one of the solutions to this issue , however, I believe that Lexus have another technique which involves plugging the car into an expensive piece of equipment in their workshop.

Be careful about getting a non lexus/toyota source try to replace the brakes. If they don't know what they're doing the hybrid brake system will effectively lock out the system and result in a hefty recovery and reset charge by Lexus/Toyota. This is because the hybrid system accounts for the fact that the brakes need a servo even though the engine might not be running. changing the brakes whilst not totally disabling the system results in the lock out/ lock up. A surprising number of "experts" don't know about this and need those in the know to reset the system for them.

Comparing a BMW325i to a CT200 sport. The Lexus would be nowhere near the BMW in any way shape or form on the performance stakes. You could use a lot of fuel in the Lexus trying to keep up with the BMW ( and failing). If you trid to drive both cars as economically as possible, the Lexus would trounce the BMW in terms of fuel consumption. The BMW ride quality is better than the CT200 on all surfaces except maybe for snow and ice ( where the lighter , front wheel drive Lexus would win through). I agree with Rayaans on this one, the IS range rather than the CT range would be comparable or better than the BMW in terms of sporty performance. Both the IS 200T and the IS250 look capable of being the BMW 325i equal or better.

On board computer is optimistic to approximately the same degree as the speedometer. I have a scan gauge 2 plugged into my OBD socket and receive a live stream as I drive. I also have a garmin satnav plugged in too. The scan gauge would typically read 56 mph , the sat nav would read 56mph and the speedo would read 60 mph. If the car computer uses the speedo reading to calculate the fuel consumption, this would explain why the fuel consumption figures on the car computer are just as inaccurate as the speedo. The car does in fact know its true speed because the OBD data scan device tells me 56mph when the car speedo says 60 mph. Furthermore, the mileage of the car is recorded accurately from the OBD data source since when I travel at 60 miles per hour ( as shown on the data scan and the sat nav) the speedo mileometer registers one mile per minute. Our Prius was the same. I even went so far as to check the mileometer over a stretch of 16 km using the motorway marker posts which are set accurately at 100metres apart. There was a little bit of mathematics but at the end of it all, the milometer was showing 9.95 miles ( it changed to 10 just a few metres after the 16km post) which is very close to 9.94194 miles calculated ( less than 1% error). The reason for having an optimistic speedo built into the car is so that the manufacturer can avoid being cited as being the cause of speeding offences. Toyota/Lexus aren't the only ones who do this, I think that they all do this to some extent. The most accurate speedoo I have come across is the one in my wifes BMW Mini which has a speedo which reads 60 while the datascan and sat nav read 59. I guess that the software writers could have easily selected the more accurate figure with which to calculate the fuel consumption on the Lexus and the Prius but perhaps the lure of some reputation gain associated with artificially high MPG figures was just too much of a temptation. I once encountered a jibe about being an "interesting person" to know due to my interest in getting to the bottom of engineering issues such as this. I'm not an overly interesting person to know but I'm not going to spend my money on something (LexusCT200) which I don't know how it works and then bleat pointlessly about it not working. I am just an engineer and not a lion taming accountant with "John Snow" levels of comprehension. To date I have discovered that absolutely EVERYTHING must be ideal in order to achieve the manufacturers figures..but they are achievable. To achieve manufacturers figures, one has to drive under ideal circumstances for at least 30 miles. average speed 30mph no stops no overtaking ambient temperature of 24C no wind or tail wind eco tyres pumped up to about 39psi no ac windows closed no sunshine ( because the solar gain will temp you to either ruin aerodynamics by opening a window or you will switch on the air conditioner) no excess weight. (no shopping, cases,passengers) smooth roads no rain no sharp corners pulse and glide technique anticipation of potential causes of braking which would not entail recycling power back into the traction battery very little traffic. I exceeded the figures once by following lorries which were restricted to 40mph with absolutely no chance of overtaking ( so I got a little bit of slip stream affect), It was late at night and I had to keep the windows shut because of the smog being belched out by the lorries. I wasn't in much of a rush because I was returning from a call out and I as being paid travel time anyway. Having done that, I managed to stay patient on my subsequent journeys to continue with that tankful in order to equal the published figure over the tankful. Driving was tedious and wearysome but at least it wasn't me holding anyone up due to the speed of the lorries along that particular route.

HA ha Possibly: with a fully plumbed in bathroom suite too :)

Air conditioning blows though! Air conditioning uses a pollen/wasp/butterfly/fly filter whilst windows and sunroofs don't. Yep! nothing like fresh air and a bit of performance in the summertime which is why I use a motorcycle with a power to weight ratio far superior to any car which I could afford. Air conditioning is one of the advantages of being a cager in the summer. Getting back to the original post, I think that the sunroof / weight issue is salesroom propaganda.I have read the owners handbook and there is no restriction on the weight of the adults which one is able to transport in the CT200 and that having been established, absolutely no issue at all with the extra few kg of spare wheel. "Weight issue" is what salesmen tell punters when they want a sale "like now!" and don't wish to faff about ordering a space saver spare on the off-chance that they may make a sale when it eventually turns up. Cynical? me? ...yep! guilty!

Remember to leave the booster battery in the passenger compartment when you park the car or you will have to scramble over the front seats to extricate the battery from the boot. Excellent point about reverse polarity by Britprius. You will also need to read the owners book to find out where the underbonnet jumper terminals are located. I also carry a tiny little torch in the car just in case darkness has descended or I am parked in a dimly lit multi-storey. There are those who would sooner not carry a booster battery and would prefer to wait for the rescue services to attend. The solar cell idea is a good one but you really need to connect it at the right place since the cigar lighter isn't connected to the battery while the car is just parked and locked up ( the jumper terminals would be connected to the battery at all times but then you would need to find a way to get the wire into the car for the solar cell to be left in a window).

I left our old prius in a long stay car park for 2 weeks in the winter and the minor items which still run while the car is parked had flattened the 12 volt battery. I had taken the precaution of purchasing and charging a booster battery prior to leaving and after opening the car with the key ( rather than pressing the button on the key fob), I took out the booster battery from behind the drivers seat and connected it to the jumper connections under the bonnet. Having silenced the burglar alarm, I started up the cars computer which in turn obliged by starting the engine with the traction battery as it would normally do. The traction battery is well capable of holding its charge for long periods but the 12 volt battery is light duty because it doesn't do very much work. (it never starts the engine) and so it can more easily go flat.

My nearside strut needed to be replaced last year at about 4 years old 45000 miles because it was leaking( but wasn't noisey). I did it myself and its a really easy and quick job ( which came as somewhat of a surprise). I discovered the problem shortly after it had passed its MOT. I was surprised that Lexus had not spotted it and at least put an advice on it. I sourced a second hand replacement from a breaker so it wasn't the financial disaster you may have expected. Had the car have had a 5 year warranty it would have been an FOC fix but the warranty on the 2011 car expired in 2014. The offside strut has been as good as gold, no noise, no leak so I guess that there is just the occasional glitch with front struts.