Greyanglia

Not sure how to go about selling my Winter Tyres (Yokohama W.Drive 235/55 R19 101V). I do not want to breach any Forum rules here but I cannot find a market place section unless it is ok go into price/condition details in the Tyres section. I have recently sold my Lexus and I would prefer to deal with someone from the Forum in selling them rather than some of the crazies that pop up on Ebay! Thanks!

See what you mean now! I also had a brand new demo for the day amd I was pleased to see the mpg was no better than mine at 30 ish to the gallon. The differences only seem to be the grille and inside a couple of really minor differences that were different but not necessarily better. The centre box lid opens to 90 degrees which is good and the layout in the storage box is improved. The slightly thicker steering wheel with the EV button easily accessible is better but that's a personal preference and clicking the mouse in a different way is neither here nor there. I think the only mechanical difference is with the F Sport which gains a small tweak in bhp plus 'sport' like goodies. So all in all as a private buyer I am pleased that it should not knock the residuals as much as a major facelift can do. If it ain't broke etc etc!

Out of interest what is the significance of the 'spindle grille'?

l have a '59 reg SE-I at 32k mls and the rear nearside seat has developed an annoying rattle which is noticeable on all but the smoothest of surfaces (and there are not many of those left given the state of our roads!). I can see the seat juddering in my rear view mirror when I am on my own in the car although obvioulsy not when one of the kids is sitting on it. I know the Lexus is extremely quiet anyway which means the rattle/judder is all the more annoying and more reminiscent of driving an old van. If I get hold of the seat and give it a good tug there does not seem to be any movement in it until I am on the move. Lexus have looked at it and say they have repacked the bolts and also fed the leather (!) saying it might be the leather creaking but all to no avail. To be fair they have obviously given it a go and given me a loan 2012 equivalent for the day which was eerily silent compared to mine. Has anyone else started to have this problem two or three years in or should I just put it down to the car entering mid life when rattles tend to appear? Thanks Michael

Hi Alister, I have a '59 reg 450h with 33k on the clock which I have owned since June. The previous owner never reset the fuel consumption and it shows 29mpg over the life of the vehicle so far if this helps. This morning I picked up a loan 62 reg facelifted 450h from my local dealer with 1800 mls on the clock and the total fuel consumption figure shows 31mpg which gives some confirmation of typical mileage by different drivers and styles. I do think it is unfortunate that the 450h does have such a wide disparity between official figures and real life for all the reasons raised in previous posts. The 450h is by no means not the only car to suffer in this way although it does p*ss me off a bit to see Lexus trumpeting the fuel consumption figure of 44.1 mpg combined in their current ad for the facelift model. I know they can legally do this as they do not come up with the figure but they know full well no owner has a cat in hells chance of getting anywhere near that in real life! Shame as it is a great car and I am really enjoying it so far. I guess you just have to think of the 450h as 30mpg vehicle plus a bit more if you drive really carefully but enviromentally friendly compared to its rivals (!!). ps. for all pre facelift owners I was pleased to see (from a resale perspective) that apart from the front bumper, slightly different steering wheel, a couple of buttons and a centre console that actually opens to 90 degrees there is no apparent difference to the previous model! Michael

I think the only issue would be the warranty. If it is less than 3 yrs old you should get it in writing that Lexus will honour what's left of the manufacturer's warranty as they usually insist that the car has been serviced at the right date or mileage and only have a small margin of error if you do not comply with this. If it is a pre Sept '09 then it is probably irrelevant and a good service from the dealer should suffice. Mine is 3 years old in December and I have been meaning to enquire about a Lexus extended warranty which I had on my wife's Verso when it hit the 3 year mark. I understand Warranty Direct and others have a poor record of paying out when you need them. Having said that we kept the Verso for two years on the Toyota extended warranty at £30 ish per month and it never missed a beat so I guess you pay your money and take your choice. Best of luck with the 450 though - I am still in love with mine!

Hi, I bought a 59 reg SE-I from a private seller back in July and I am well pleased with it. It has done 25k mls and the only things I really wanted to make sure of were verification of the mileage, Lexus service record, previous accident damage and general condition (no dings, decent tyres etc). I like to think you can take reliability for granted with Lexus and it is good to have a bit of warranty left although if you are looking at a 60k-er I guess there are other replacement items to be taken into account. Other than that I always try and get as much spec for as little as possible. Mine came with rear DVD's, roof rails, rubber bumper protectors and a full set of rubber floor mats. Having said that the SE-L comes with a bit more spec but I could not find one within the budget. Overall a great car and an improvement over the much earlier '05 RX 300 I had a few years ago. Only word of warning is the fuel consumption - mine has settled down to about 30mpg which is not bad but nowhere near the claimed 44mpg!! Happy hunting!

Hi Jon, I do not know if increasing the tyre pressure could make you more likely to pick up a puncture but I have just noticed you live in Essex so stay clear of the A13! I have just had my second puncture of the week and had to have two new tyres fitted which is maddening given that 4 new Conti Cross Contacts were only fitted a couple of months ago when I bought the car. Part of my commute is on the A13 which is full of skip lorries carrying demolition crap from the rest of London out to landfills in Essex. The amount of metal crap strewn on that road is unbelievable and almost everyone I know has suffered in the same way although two in a week is harsh. I am not sure if I am going to have the luxury of monitoring uneven tyre wear as my tyres are not likely to last long enough!! Having said that it has forced me to drive at 50mph with the space saver fitted on my 80 mile round trip commute and I have seen the magic 40mpg pop up a few times although this is scant consolation.

HI Jon, I have recently bought a 2010 RX 450h which has done 25,000 mls and the previous owner had just fitted 4 new tyres. I thought this was a bit premature but I was pleased at having new tyres however now I am not so sure now. My previous 2009 Volvo XC70 bought from new had covered 48,000 miles with the original rear tyres still on it and I only replaced the fronts in January. Love the car though despite Lexus taking the p*ss with their claimed fuel consumption figures!

I am referring to original CD's and I have tried recently purchased and older one's from my collection. The last few cars I have owned have had CD players that list the name of the CD and identify track names so I am only concerned that I may have a unit that is faulty. Duncan, I do not really understand your comment as you seem to imply it may be a safety issue in wanting to look at what track is playing on a CD in a vehicle that has the most spectacular and distracting on board computer/navigation/ICE package on the market and is by any standards pretty complicated and comprehensive in what it offers the driver. (Which I do love btw but want to ensure it is functioning properly!). I do an 80 mile round trip commute that is made up of around 10 miles of small A roads at 40-50mph, a 20 mile run on a motorway/dual carriageway at 70- 80mph and a 10 mile crawl in traffic where I try to switch to battery only so I suppose expecting much more than 30 - 32 mpg is probably unreasonable. .

I have just bought a '59 Reg RX 450h SE-i which I am really pleased with so here goes with the first posting. One liitle niggle is that I cannot seem to get any CD info (track names and listings etc) when I play CD's. I have tried both new and old CD's which worked well on my previous Volvo XC70 but they do not work on the Lexus. When I connect iTunes via my iPhone4 I can get all the track, artist information etc so is this a quirk of the system or a fault with the unit? Any advice would be appreciated. Great car BTW and a nice step forward from the '05 RX 300 I had a few years ago although I am a little disappointed with the mpg which I cannot seem to get above 31.5 mpg despite being careful and driving in ECO mode but I gather this is par for the course with what the manufacturer claims and the real world. Thanks,