Connoisseur

Use a specialist for my SC430 - Vanquish in St Neots, which might be close as your in Bedfordshire. They specialise in the likes of BMW/Mercedes/Lexus etc. 450h had a full 60k service last week by Lexus, Cambridge - £399 less 10% gold member discount. Regards Michael

My consumption too. It is a V6 with WARP DRIVE don`t forget! Regards John Hi John, that is an excellent description of the car; you must be missing being able to drive it...Is the Mercedes all ok now? Michael

There is also a bit of fun to be had in learning how to maximise driving time on electric only - I've managed to get over 40mph on battery alone for a period with careful throttle control, which also provides an excuse to then hit the loud pedal.......... As Mark says a warranty would be good, and try to get a car with plenty of the Lexus annual hybrid check certificates. With £12k you should be able to get a good late car, and with just a little more perhaps one from a Lexus Dealer looking to move metal on? Good luck Michael

i have been thinking about the gs450h for a while and its statements like above make me want it even more - im not a boy racer but feel i need a change now after driving the ls range for nearly 8 years. only think i can suggest is try to go for a warranty aswell for piece of mind resistance is futile......... :)

Can't locate a brochure for the final GS facelift, and Lexus don't offer it on their past brochure web pages (up to March 2010 only) but I know DAB radio came in on the final revision which was announced in May 2010. I have only come across DAB on the very late SE-L's. Dealers might know but otherwise a call to Lexus customer services might produce a result. Otherwise a few Lexus owners have fitted the EZI DAB unit from Pure (including myself) with good results. hth

mpg for me, driven sensibly (but no mimsing) is 35mpg in general and up to 40mpg on a long journey. The problem for me personally is that the instant acceleration from the hybrid and V6 together is so seductive and difficult to leave alone -which drops mpg to 30/32 ;) hth

He heh, Failed irony on my part. imo the 450h reliability thing is wound up out of proportion, particularly given the quite costly issues often talked about on here concerning other Lexi. Certainly the battery can be an issue, which Lexus recognised and have supported customers with. The growing industry in independent support for hybrid batteries is assuring, Still, the smooth ride, outrageous performance that never fails to put a smile on my face, all combined with great serenity, makes for a great 'q' car and enjoyable driving. Go on, you know you want to.....

Probably has, but are you sure it's a 450? We all know from reading on here just how unreliable the GS450h is;)

Membership has proved really good value for me. Have saved many ££ on parts for my cars and at Halfords, much more than the cost. Just about to get the car serviced by Lexus and will get circa £50 discount on that. hth

forgive the display of ignorance but, which castle precisely? tvm ps nice car :)

As said above with a Hybrid using Neutral is a big no no, if for no other reason than if I leave my car in N then after a very short time the panel lights up with red flashing warnings, supported by loud chimes and a message telling you to put it in P asap as the battery wont charge in N. Lexus certainly don't hold back on their warnings eh!

Auto windows down on press of a button is a fairly standard feature on numerous cars nowadays so it seems strange that Lexus have had problems with it, tho interestingly not on all models? On the IS250, unlike other Lexi, it can only be enabled through tech stream which means a Dealer visit I'm afraid. hth

Looks a great instal. I put the EZI DAB into my GS using a glass mount telescopic aerial from dabonwheels; reception has been consistently good and I find the unit straightforward to use. The dabonwheels site offers a lot of useful advice and info. in case it helps EZI DAB is purely a DAB unit and doesn't offer any FM service. Regards M

..about 30 seconds. This link gives the longer way around doing the reset but battery off for 30 secs is effective

Tony, Ordered direct from Vaistech in the USA - contacted the named guy by email first. He was very helpful and posted it off really quickly. Several members on here have done the same. You will end up paying custom charges, which puts the price up by circa another £50! imo worth it because it works and is integrated. Using the MML my iPod control is all via the steering wheel or nav unit switches :) Do a web search for Vais MML to read reviews and feedback on their units. In all it took about 12 days for it to arrive. Fitting is straightforward if you are handy - I managed to do it myself!! Post back if you do decide on the MML - you'll get good advice on here about fitting and where to place it...

imo the Vais units are the best for iPod in Lexus, though they do cost more than other units that simply don't work, or don't work half as well...... Have a look here, esp. at the MML unit which will work with your car......... http://www.vaistech.com .....as set out here: http://www.vaistech.com/manuals/SL3i%20SL3U%20MML%20Application%20Guide.pdf hth M I fitted the MML to my GS450, and have never looked back. There are a few limitations depending on model/age, but it will work for you, and not cause the issues you report above

sorry couldn't resist.......... a bit of info that may (or may not) help - on the similar SC430 set up, wheel motor movement is triggered by way of proximity sensing rather than contact i.e. the motors activate with the key a certain distance from the barrel rather than via contact between key and barrel. M

if you can get it to the chorus lines it might just start behaving again......... http://www.madacademy.com/02/2012/childrens-song-lyrics/the-hokey-cokey/

Thanks, the trip was really enjoyable. Sadly no to the Puy de Dome, we had planned to spend some time in C-F but we lost too much getting stuck driving through the centre of Lyon (!) so couldn't. Next time hopefully........ M

Cheers Mike. You should keep trying with the persuasion. It is well worth it! Michael

Hi John, That's the Garabit viaduct in the background of pic 1.... sorry to hear of your troubles, and thanks for the Garabit pointer. What an amazing structure indeed! Enjoy your winter sun and hope the trip back is more relaxing. Michael

to Carrefour at Bayeux for the wine collection - good quality and soo cheap........ just before we got on the overnight ferry at Ouistreham to Portsmouth we literally drove around the corner to see this!! and to end, 30 minutes after leaving Portsmouth we got this: You can depend on a Lexus................

This year our (my) SC430 was 11 years old and heading towards 100k miles so as a present to us, and the car, we decided to take it on a September 3000 mile 16 day euro road trip to Southern Spain via Dunkerque Reims, Dijon, Lyon, Clermont Ferrand, Millefleur, Carcassonne, Barcelona and Valencia. Returning via Zaragoza, St Sebastian, Biarritz, La Rochelle and Caen ferry to Portsmouth. We used a mixture of toll and ordinary roads, and bought the French and Spanish toll tags before hand so we could drive straight through all peages at 30km - was wonderful! Car behaved perfectly; fuel was v cheap, especially in northern Spain (circa 80p per litre) which was welcome given the 30mpg or less we were averaging. The only police we came across was in Spain - a motorway patrol officer in a superb Alfa sports coupe painted blue and white! He was busy with a 'customer' so couldn't get a pic :( Luggage space was an issue, but driving roof down in 30+C most days more than made up for that, and we did find room for wine on the way back. Highlights were crossing the amazing Millau Viaduct, driving through cloud in the foothills of the Pyrenees near San Sebastian, roof down, and the views climbing the Spanish Mountains towards Zaragoza. Very enjoyable driving throughout, with lots of interest in the car, and lots of sunshine. Now looking ot do it again next year, perhaps this time to Berlin and Eastern Europe. Some pics of the best bits: by Gustav Eiffel's Rail Viaduct, south of Clermont Ferrand Roof down over the Millau Viaduct Straight road up into the Spanish mountains and Zaragoza Climbing through cloud nr San Sebastian heading into France on the front at Biarritz Night in a Chateau near Niort, France