Daniel Manton-Leigh

Thank you both very much for your considered responses! The tailgate works fine manually, might try to lubricate then pop to the dealer if no joy. There are some quite bad scratches elsewhere on th bonnet anyway which is why I considered a new one, but a respray may work. Thanks for the iPod advice, I have bluetooth anyway so wanted to avoid the parrot, prefer an OEM look so ill check out the VAIS, thanks. I do have an SE w/ Nav, but I saw a 2007 SE Nav w/ ML at a dealer, but as you say must be down to the fact that mines an 05. I wonder how hard it'd be to swap out the Nav and CD deck with a post-07 one with audio button and new graphics? I know I still won't have ML but ill see if anyone has any advice on speakers, to be fair I was slightly glad I didn't have the ML system, I used to have a Prius with JBL and an Audi A5 with Bang and Olufsen and the centre dash speakers on those systems made the rear view mirror shake/distort what you saw, even at low volume, very distracting. Alloys - unfortunately, the plank of a previous owner obviously had the cheapest refurb ever, as they've basically just been painted silver. They look fine, but they never shine/sparkle even when washed, they're always slightly matt in texture and they have lost that slightly chrome look of the factory finish. You can also still see some pitting through the paint. Beware of cheap refurbs!! Thanks guys, appreciate it!

Hi all, I'm a first time Lexus owner (and one of the youngest people I've seen with an RX400h - I'm 25). My previous car was an Audi A5 which was a wonderful car, but I actually prefer the RX for the comfort and standard equipment - cruise control and bluetooth were options on my £35k Audi! The only thing is, I've gone from a 3 year old A5 with 29k miles to a 7 year old RX with 95k miles, and there are a few niggles I'm not happy with coming from a pristine newer car; Tailgate - almost every time I use the power tailgate it beeps, makes a grinding noise, the tailgate kind of "rocks" within its closed position and then it stops. If I press the tailgate button again it opens perfectly. It's almost like its trapped, but then the rocking motion clears it and it works second time round. I dunno. It's obviously had problems before as the cover over the tailgate hinge is missing so someone's been in there. Also, the tailgate button on the dashboard doesn't work, only the key. Bonnet - there are at least 20-30 stone chips on the bonnet, and the ones immediately below the grill have gone rusty - should I be worried? I didn't think cars rusted anymore! I've seen brand new bonnets on the Internet for £150, even with fitting would that be cheaper than a respray on a silver car? Dashboard - there is a small tear in the dashboard (a 10p piece would cover it), is that easily repairable or do I need a new dashboard covering to fix it? Stereo/iPod - has anyone had any luck with getting an iPod connection fitted? What's the best way? Also, I have the Nav system but NOT Mark Levinson (I assumed these always came together but was disappointed not to have it and I'd driven 200 miles to get the car), how easy is it to upgrade the speakers? The stock ones are bassy and loud enough but the clarity is terrible, sounds really muffled. It's the earlier one without the "audio" button on the Nav (and the old nav graphics :-( ) Thanks guys, any help with any of my issues would be greatly appreciated!!!