ALLISTER1965

Hi Allister Winter tyres were a bit of a mystery to me prior to living in France, but really after the first time I used them in the winter, I've been a convert, as have been most of my family and friends. Once you have them in the cold and wet and snow, they are a huge benefit. To some extent give me a 2wd on winter tyres on a cold day over a 4wd on summer tyres. The main benefits are the compounds are designed for lower temperature ranges. They aren't like an "on/off" switch, but they will remain supple from -20 all the way up through to summer temps, where a summer tyre compound will start to stiffen as it cools. Meaning the winter tyre will give you more grip as it will key into the surface and give the macroscopic bonds the ability to form with the road surface. The tread patterns are also different to claw into snow and ice. Our tyres have compounds for a "european" winter (we sell others for a harsher "nordic/siberian" winter), meaning that the whole range of winter conditions will be covered. If you are keeping your RX for a while, you have a few options. go summer/winter with the same size, or what I would do is buy a second set of wheels in a smaller size (what's your options..) as the tyres will be cheaper, and this also keeps your summer wheels free from the salt and grit off the roads. Plus you save yourself £200 a year swapping tyres over. If you have the car over 2-3 years, you won't spend anymore money on tyres/wheels but running a second set (which is the common way of doing it on the continent) if you want anymore help with sizes or a specific recommendation let me know.. oh.. ps.. don't wait til it snows as the small supply of winter tyres will have disappeared by that point if you are going to do it , plan now.. Thanks Jamie much appreciated. I think I will start looking around for a second set of wheels as I'm planning to keep the RX for at least another couple of years :)

Wow, that certainly has been ruined!

Hi Jamie, I currently have a 2012 RX450h and I keep hearing everywhere that it's going to be a really bad winter this year. In your opinion, do you think that winter tyres are really worth the money, especially on a large 4wd SUV like the RX? Obviously on this car it's going to cost me quite a bit for winter tyres so I just want to be sure it will be money well spent before I take the plunge? Cheers

Thanks for the offer Beejay and for Duncan's comments also.... It would seem that I am option 2 of the alternatives I listed which was: 'Am I being a complete idiot, and did I simply not notice this before?' Apparently, it's supposed to look like that and it's normal to see these shiny exposed clips around the front brakes, next to what I'm told is a wear indicator. Sorry for the false alarm and my stupidity! Allister

Thanks for your reply Herkyboy.... I think you're right, I will call down to the dealers later this morning and post the outcome, just in case anyone else encounters the same problem. Allister

Well not exactly the entire braking system, but certainly what looks like part of them! I have a 3 month old RX450h SE-L which has done only 1,300 miles. Today while washing it I noticed what looks like a brake pad and associated clips, and these seem to be exposed behind the alloy wheel at the front, drivers side (O/S) . All the other wheels seem to have some kind of silver plate or cover over this area. Is this normal? Am I being a complete idiot, and did I simply not notice this before? Or has something fallen off the car? Has anyone else encountered anything similar? Many thanks in advance for your comments. Allister

Thanks for that Cliff.... As if I wasn't feeling bad enough! Pointing out that I'm lagging behind a gentleman who is only a stones throw away from a Century is one thing....... But you go even further by providing a full illustration of how I'm actually being completely out manoeuvred. You have now left me feeling truly ancient! :-) Will catch up with you soon on another post Best regards Allister

Hi Cliff Thank you for your kind words. Hopefully my health will begin to improve soon, the doctors have put me on 40mg of Prednisilone for Crohn's disease which I seem to be suffering with.... I'm only 41 years old but beginning to feel about 90! Reassuring it's not just me on the same tyre pressure. You can get good MPG's on that stretch of the A3 near Haslemere, particularly the nice smooth bit up near the Hindhead Tunnel. Hope you got a good deal on your RX from the Lexus staff down on Slyfield, Guildford. I did try them on a pre-reg that they'd got in August when I bought, but they wanted £49K! In the end I got exactly the same car from Lexus Bradford, RX450 SE-L, Obsidian Black with Black Wood and Cream Leather (or Ivory as they call it). I beat them down to just £44.3K the car was registered in the previous month and straight off the transporter with only 4 miles showing on the clock! I think I did well..... However, If you paid less for a similar car then I don't want to know! Thanks once again for all your advice. Best regards Allister

Hello again Cliff Just one more thing..... As I now live in (not so sunny) Sheffield(a City which holds the title of worst roads in the UK!)I decided to reduce the tyre pressure down to 35psi in order to survive the potholes. Do you think this was a bad idea? Allister

Hi Cliff You had me in stitches with your comments about sunny and Yorkshire.... I've nowhere to go on that one. Thank you for all the info on maximising energy in order to improve fuel economy, I'll have a go with those tips. I was interested to read about your range of cars, a nice selection indeed. I'm not suprised that your family tend to leave the drive with the Lexus, which is exactly why we bought it... I think it's probably because it's effortless and relaxing to drive. My wife hated driving our old Range Rover mainly because of it's size, although I absolutely loved it, covering 110,000 miles in just 4 years. Thanks once again for all your info. Best regards Allister

Hi Michael I have an 8 week old 2012 RX450 SE-L which I collected with only 4 miles on the clock. It now shows just over 1,000 miles but has had the same problem you describe since day one! I've just got out of hospital so can't explore too closely yet, but I intend to get into the boot as soon as I'm feeling better and get someone else to drive so I can locate this annoying noise. I'm not actually convinced that it is the seat, I'm wondering whether it may be the spare wheel and the sound of rubber causing a squeak / noise. I've also noticed that there are 4 plastic fixings in the rear passenger side corner under the boot floor panel. These don't seem particularly secure... Maybe the noise is coming from here? I don't know if you've noticed the same? My wife's not too concerned, being a typical woman, she says if she hears it she just turns the radio up! But I find it extremely irritating. Please let me know if you find out what it is, and likewise I will you too. Allister

Hi Hasselblad, hope you're enjoying the new car..... Thank you so much for your very kind offer to meet and advice, until recently I was living in Haslemere, Surrey which would have probably worked well, but unfortunately due to work commitments in the North, I'm now living up in sunny Yorkshire. Your fuel consumption sounds fantastic, I'm not getting anywhere close to that but having read your e-mail I think I may be missing something. In reply to your questions: No I've never owned a hybrid before, and I don't know anything about how to pump back the kinetic and potential energy stored. I know the car has an ECO mode, but yes you're right, I've never used it and don't know when to either. Maybe I need to look at the manual.... It's difficult finding time, my wife and I work 6-7 days a week on our e-commerce businesses and the RX450h manual (as you yourself will know) seems to have more pages than the Old & New Testaments put together!! I feel I can't ask you to explain about the Kinetic energy pump back as it sounds quite complicated and I don't want to take up too much of your time, however if you can forward me any links explaining how this works I would be extremely grateful. Re: the Eco mode, I'll look in the manual for more info. Just one question though, as you sound like an experienced RX owner, have you had any RX experience in snow? If so, how does the car perform? And do you change over to snow tyres in the winter? Many thanks for your previous response / help. Kind regards Allister

Hi Michael Finally...... It's not just me who considers this huge gap in MPG a bit annoying. Once again, it's not that the figures are slightly out or hard to achieve, it's that they're miles away! As previously mentioned, my Mercedes always gets close to what the manufacturer claim, hence my disappointment with Lexus...... In fact only this morning, I returned from London in my S Class, spending most of the 180 mile journey travelling at around 75-80 mph, yet still I achieved 37.5 MPG! Taking into account that Mercedes say I should get 43.5 MPG extra urban! (and this is probably based on travelling at a steady 56 mph) by comparison, I think Lexus should be embarrassed to be getting it so wrong, and to be using these hugely inaccurate figures as such a prominent marketing tool. Let's just hope that one day, Lexus can at least get to somewhere within 20% of what it claims...... Allister

Thank you all very much for your comments and opinions...... I was particularly fascinated by the 'Pulse and Glide' info, although everyone's comments have been both informative and helpful. Firstly just to let you know, I carried out my own test today by driving the car to a town approximately 15 miles away thereby warming the engine. Upon my return, I refueled and drove back at a steady 50-55 miles per hour on a smooth dual carriageway. I did in fact see consumption while going down a slight hill touch 41.8mpg confirming that these figures probably are in fact achievable. I noticed someone commented on temperature also being a factor, so maybe at a pleasant 20 degrees as per manufacturer's tests the petrol may also burn leaner, again increasing this figure further. I take on board what many of you have said about the conditions in which these figures are obtained by the manufacturer and I suppose driving in this manor today and achieving the MPG's that I did, didn't exactly suprise me, and that's probably the whole point to my initial post....... It's not that I thought there was no way on god's green earth that these numbers could possibly be achieved, it's just that with Lexus, the gap seems so vast between maximum MPG and 'real world' MPG, and from my experience at least, the extent of this gap seems far greater than those quoted by other manufacturer's..... and that is my niggle! However, at the end of the day my wife likes the car and feels very comfortable with driving / parking it, size, comfort, etc.... So I guess that's all that matters. Although I personally still prefer driving my Mercedes S Class, I think as an SUV the RX450h was still the best choice for us. In Obsidian Black with Cream Leather, I think the car looks understated and elegant, it has the softest leather I've ever found in any car and a similar spec new Mercedes ML (which by the way felt quite cheap inside) would have cost £20K more! Thank you all once again for taking the time to share your thoughts and knowledge. Allister

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree Duncan.... I'd say 85% of the miles to date have been covered by myself, so I know it's been driven very gently. The MPG wasn't the only factor to influence the purchase, the extremely high level of standard equipment on the SE-L was another, as was the quite petrol / hybrid engine. The Snow Mode and the RX450's AWD capability was also a key factor, (although examples of the cars performance in this area is something that's difficult to find either reviews or footage of). What I have read though seems extremely varied, ranging from excellent to hopeless! I can live with reduced fuel consumption, however it fails abysmally in this area, then I will be disappointed.

Thank you all for your comments..... Interesting what Brian says about economy improving with more miles under the belt, and what Gwyn says with regards to these figures being based on a warm engine, as many of our trips to date have been short and from cold. However, I do not accept Philthy's comments that Lexus customers shouldn't expect to get 'anywhere near the claimed figures' WHY NOT? I also own a Mercedes S Class (S320cdi LWB) which has just turned 3 years old. It has only covered 18,000 miles and as always achieved MPG's within 10-12% of manufacturers claims or better. On 'Urban' Mercedes claims I should get 24.1mpg and 24 mpg is exactly what I get! On 'Combined' Mercedes claims I should get 33.6 mpg, I tend to get around 29 mpg And 'Extra Urban' it claims I should get 43.5 mpg, I tend to get around 37-38 mpg. In addition, previously I had a Range Rover TD6, and once again it always achieved within 10-15% of what the manufacturer's claimed. I understand that the 'Honest John's Review' provide some real world figures. However I suspect that these figures take in to account different driving styles, and this is the key and primary factor in giving the range from high to low. So for example, someone who drives the car quite hard should probably expect to achieve the lower end, whereas the higher end should be seen by someone who drives the car carefully and with a very light foot, which is how I would describe the way in which our car has been driven. Why Philthy seems to think that a 40% reduction in claimed MPG is acceptable and the norm is way beyond me..... If customers can get a degree of accuracy from Mercedes and Landrover, why shouldn't they also be getting the same from Lexus? And in response to Duncan's comments, 'The manufacturer has no choice in the manner in which they are carried and the results can be odd. Lexus has neither misled you nor deceived you'. If Lexus have so little to do with these figures and they do not wish to deceive or mislead, they certainly have a funny way of showing it, as these stats are splashed all over their literature and I'd even go as far as saying that they use them as one of the cars biggest selling points! I'm sorry, but I do believe the marketing by Lexus in this regard is extremely misleading, and for customers to see such an enormous gap between what it widely advertised, and actual MPG in my opinion is not acceptable. Furthermore, I would say that such a sizable inconsistency is certainly not typical or representative of the rest of motor industry. This poor fuel consumption is not the end of the world for me, as my wife will only go to the shops and the gym in this car, so I don't expect it to cover more than 5K miles per year.... However, this does not change my annoyance at being mislead. Allister

They say there's lies, damned lies and statistics but in my opinion, Lexus with their RX450h mpg figures have been plain dishonest! In August 2012 I bought my wife a brand new Lexus RX450h SE-L for what was a discounted price of £44K. We chose the car because we liked it's understated appearance, it's soft leather, and it's all round high level of standard equipment. We were also extremely impressed by the mpg figures claimed (see below): RX450h - Urban = 42.8, Extra Urban = 47.1, Combined = 44.8 In particular, the urban of 42.8 sounded great as my wife would largely be using the car for shopping and other local trips. However, we have not seen anything close to the figures shown above and claimed by Lexus. Both my wife and I drive the car very steadily, yet we're only seeing about 24-25 mpg with local / urban driving, and combined around 28-29 mpg. I suppose I never expected to achieve the manufacturer's claimed MPG, as of course I understand that these are achieved in certain conditions, but to see a drop of approximately 34% combined, and 42% around town is disgraceful and unacceptable...... I feel completely mislead and deceived by Lexus. Has anyone else had the same problems or is there something wrong with our car? It's only covered 900 miles, so will these figures improve as the car wears in? Your comments would be appreciated. Many thanks Allister

Firstly, thank you all for replying, and for taking the time to post your comments / help and advice. I think I've decided to hang fire and keep looking for a set of original 19 inch alloys on e-bay and then add the tyres. I spoke to my local Lexus dealer today, and reading between the lines of what they said, as the car and tyres have only covered 300 miles from new and won't be doing a great deal more in the coming months, the impression I got was that they thought the car would still perform OK, although Winter Tyres would improve things. As the car has just cost me £45K, spending a further £3k (total wheel and tyre cost if I buy new) right now is something I would rather avoid if I can.... For the information of Stephen who left his opinion above, I believe I have found a stockist of Continentals if you want some. It's a company called mytyres.co.uk who I believe ship from Holland, I have previously bought tyres from them for my Range Rover and found them to be great to deal with. Please see link below: http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details=Ordern&cart_id=64818414.110.11944&kplz=&Cookie=froogle&typ=R-153821&dsco=110&ranzahl=4 Thank you all once again for you help and comments. Kind regards Allister

Dear All I have just joined the Lexus Owners Club so I hope that I'm posting this question in the correct place. I am looking for some advice on winter tyres for my RX450h, so any help that members can offer would be greatly appreciated. Last Friday I picked up a brand new RX450h from my local dealer, I think I got a good deal as it was the out going face and on a pre-reg, it saved me thousands on new and only had 4 miles on the clock! So far I'm loving the car..... but I'm not sure what to do about winter tyres. At time of car collection I was told that it may be worth me ordering winter tyres as there was a shortage last year! If I'm honest I didn't think I'd need to change the tyres..... Is this really necessary? or is it just a dealers attempting to extract more money? If I do need winter tyres, I think I'll probably be better off buying them online. I have found a few different brands currently being offered and I'm not sure which to go for. Please can you tell me, has anyone tried these brands, and if so which do you think offers the best performance and least increase in road noise? Falken HS-439 235/55 R19 101V (with or without Rim flange protection) £154.00 Vredestein Wintrac 4 xtreme 235/55 R19 105V XL (with rim protection ridge) £175.00 Hankook W310 235/55 R19 105V XL VSB £195.00 Bridgestone Blizzak LM-80 235/55 R19 105V XL £203.00 Michelin Latitude Alpin 235/55 R19 105V XL GRNX £217.00 Yokohama W.drive 235/55 R19 101V RPB RBL £185.40 Once again any help that anyone can offer on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards Allister