pgg450h

That's a hefty bill, I'm considering buying a 7 year old GS300 for my mother on the basis that it hopefully won't sting her with any big bills given that she will probably only do around 2-3k miles a year. Not so sure it's a wise move now..

No still not, Toyota are getting left behind in the hybrid stakes by refusing to move to new battery technology. There are definitely some performance and safety concerns with Li-ions but I think the benefits outweigh them. I'm reading that longevity is a concern though.

That's about the best I'm seeing too if I'm being careful. I would have thought your new one could get close to the 50mpg if your trying? Have they moved to Li-ion's now with those?

That's welcome news, thanks. Just a curiosity this one, noticed some owners have reported up to 50mpg on long runs, are you getting close to that at all? Wonder what speeds that was at and I'm guessing it's dependant on a lot of regeneration. I know I'm being a bit greedy with all these questions, just want to get into good habits with the car early on..

Mind if I ask, are you doing anything over and above routine servicing e.g. interim oil changes etc to get that great trouble free mileage from it?

Great thanks, that's put my mind at rest. Last thing I want to do is keep driving it if it's an early warning sign.

Had the car just over a week now, really enjoying it. Just a query on the normal sounds at start-up from cold. Noticed the petrol engine sounds quite tappety until warmed up and can be a little lumpy. Is this normal? I believe it has direct injection which has a characteristic sound but when cold it definitely sounds like a more pronounced tappet sound and to my mind unusual for this type of car. I don't recall a GS300 I started from cold sounding like that, though I realise that is a different engine.

I bit the bullet and took out the warranty, knowing my luck if I didn't I'd be sod who beat the odds!

do you have air suspension? These systems are expensive and not the normal in terms of Lexus reliability. I simply know it as adaptive suspension - sport/normal settings etc.

That was my view too esp. along the lines of shearing stresses over time. Looking on some of the US forums though the Toyota (I'm assuming that Lexus just use a rebadged version) synthetic 0w20 is reporting good viscosities and wear life after lab analysis and aside from a potential increase in mpg can't see a reason why Lexus now retrospectively recommend this oil grade now even for the older hybrids unless it offered sufficient protection over the 10k interval?

I understand the dealer's are using 0w 20 fully synthetic now

Thanks for the comments so far. Leaning towards setting the funds aside and taking a chance without a warranty. Are items such as the shocks trouble free for those big mileages too? Hear they are very pricey if they go wrong. I'm likely to be doing 20k plus miles a year so just trying to get a feel for what wear and tear items may be on the horizon. As an aside, has anyone been running their car on Mobil 1 (0w40) at all, found it was very good with my BMW.

Afternoon all, Just picked up my used 56 plate 450h today and wanted to join the club to add a comment too. I held onto my e39 BMW 525d for as long as I could, simply couldn't find a car I was happy to replace it with...and now I have. What a machine. 6 years old, 53k and it drives superbly. Just a little rattle from the glove box but aside from that, I couldn't be happier. Question to those who have owned one for a while, I am planning to pop into Lexus Coventry on Tuesday to put a Lexus warranty on the car (for 2 years). It's nigh on £2k for the 2 years, wondered if anyone can comment on whether it is money well spent or should I perhaps bank it over the 2 years and shell out if something goes wrong? There are good and bad stories out there but, in my mind, knowing my luck I'd be in the latter camp if I didn't. On a real high for now though..