Rabbers

Peter, I truly feel for you. I had what appears to have been similar damage involving replacement of the rear bumper and the boot-lid of my RC - see my RC Forum post “Rear-ended in Copenhagen”, started 1 July 2020. The total repair cost was €3400 negotiated directly without my involvement by my insurance company with the repairer, an authorized Lexus body shop. Presumably a new tailgate for an RX will cost more than a boot-lid for an RC, so, considering that other component and labour costs will also have increased since 2020, I guess you will be looking at £5000 at the very least. Looking back, my own irritation was compounded by the slowness of communications between insurance companies in two countries. I realize it’s not much consolation, but at least you won’t have this problem.

I recently drove from Denmark to Italy, all motorway, starting with a full tank of E5 (which is the grade I customarily use). The low-fuel warning light came on after 806km. I then filled up with E10 and, having driven at much the same speed on the same type of road in much the same weather and traffic conditions, the light came on after 742km. This indicates that E10 is 8% less economical than E5 - and I presume this figure is somewhat understated since my tank must have contained at least 8-9 litres of E5 when I put in the E10.

Actually, Steve, now you mention it …

I am reminded of a company which, to my intense disappointment at the time, didn't offer me a job. This was in the early eighties, and the job was as a member of a small London-based team working directly for the Chairman and CEO of a highly profitable pharmaceuticals/medical supplies company and tasked with monitoring the performances of its overseas subsidiaries. This the team did from a magnificent Georgian building located between the Strand and the Embankment that otherwise served for board meetings and as occasional offices for senior managers. The property, containing superb period furnishings and art, enjoyed sweeping views over the Thames, and was permanently staffed by a butler, a housekeeper, and a cook. My sixth and last interview for the job took the form of a dinner with the Chairman and four of the directors, and although I thought it had gone well when I returned to my room at the nearby Savoy, where the company had put me up, it obviously could have gone better. Since no explanations were forthcoming about my failure to get the job, I was obliged to console my bruised ego with the thought that I might have kept the port decanter for too long or maybe passed it along in the wrong direction. Anyway, I strongly suspect that the sort of conspicuously self-indulgent management style I witnessed no longer exists or has become very rare, more's the pity, partly because of probable objections from shareholders but mainly because top managers these days seem to strive to appear democratic, shunning pinstripes in favour of rolled-up shirtsleeves. The directors of the aforementioned company appear, in retrospect, to have been among the last representatives of a breed that hid a steely-eyed attention to the bottom line behind a languid elegance of demeanour which stated that opulent fringe benefits were not a subject for debate but something to be taken for granted as long as the business prospered.

So do I, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I believe them.

Another item of archaic office technology that inspires almost as much nostalgia in me as the Telex is the Dictaphone - not, I hasten to add, the small and sleek portable types that used dinky-looking mini-cassettes but the earlier and clunkier models that worked with floppy plastic bands (?-"Dicta-Bands") and occupied most of one's desk surface. My experience of one of these latter contraptions was brief but memorable, and involved a typing pool consisting of a small regiment of young ladies whose collective disregard for correct spelling and punctuation was only partly compensated by individual levels of comeliness well above the company average. Among them was a spectacularly bouncy Barbara Windsor lookalike called Cynthia who, on a recent holiday in Mallorca, had enjoyed a fling with a waiter called Enrique whose subsequent letters to her were in Spanish, thus evidencing that the basis for the relationship had been less verbal than physical. This I immediately understood from a cursory reading of the first of what was to become a series of weekly letters she rather touchingly asked me to translate and dictate onto one of the aforementioned bands which I would then mark for delivery to her personal attention down in the typing pool. While unremittingly cringeworthy in style and content, the letters nevertheless provided amounts of mildly titillating adult entertainment of a quality sufficient to secure my best efforts as translator and editor. While ironing out the many asperities in Enrique's prose and where possible toning down some of his more outlandish flights of erotic fancy, I also cultivated and developed a deepish baritone combined with a breathlessness of delivery that I deemed appropriate to Enrique's intentions. In short, I thought I did Enrique proud. All this diligence on my part paid off handsomely in terms of the speed and efficiency of the service my departmental colleagues and I now received from the typing pool, but my greatest reward came at the company Xmas party when, much as I struggled with my conscience, I was unable to resist a slightly tipsy but fully functioning Cynthia's treatment of me as an Enrique substitute. Sadly, Enrique's letters became less and less frequent and then finally ceased altogether. Not that this appeared to upset Cynthia, who remained as perky as ever. The last time we spoke she said her next holiday was going to be in Greece.

Surely an email to info@hornicox.com would give equal pleasure, or didn’t they survive the Telex Age?

The British were once famous for moaning when there was little to moan about. Part of the nation’s charm, I always thought. Nowadays, to judge by this thread, there may well be a few genuine reasons for it. I too remember the Telex Age with more than a hint of nostalgia. The machines were usually housed in their own rooms at the end of corridors, and when they started clicking and clattering you got the impression that something requiring immediate attention was happening somewhere in the company or with your customers. Also, for reasons I was never able to fathom, the “telex room” was, in days when personal and social sensitivities were less acute, the place where unprofessional behaviour involving secretaries was likeliest to occur - although of course this depended on the level of discipline and sobriety characterizing the individual workplace.

Not a bad idea, and likely to appeal to German Lexus owners whose appreciation of the autobahn network is not primarily based on the enjoyment of sphincter-tightening rates of deceleration as the natural consequence of driving flat out. Observing the behaviour of big BMWs and Audis (in particular) on the autobahn I have sometimes thought that their cruise systems must be calibrated to allow much closer pre-overtaking distances than those of most other comparable cars. Where a one-bar ACC setting won't bring my RC closer to a preceding vehicle than an estimated 60-40m depending on relative speeds, the aforementioned German marques often give the impression when approaching fast that they are going to collide with the preceding vehicle before braking violently and easing to something like a 20m distance. To me this looks alarming but, obviously, alongside the drivers' apparently unexercised choice of "softer" settings, their systems are perfectly able - and are officially homologated - to handle such tight speed/distance ratios. What, unfortunately, the systems cannot do is to monitor the state of the brakes and tyres.

My opinion of the Conti SC7s after twice driving the length of Germany in recent weeks remains high, their performance under frequent hard braking having been more than satisfactory. As usual at the start of long autobahn drives I set the ACC at 180kmh, not in the realistic expectation of frequently reaching and maintaining this speed for long stretches given the density of the traffic and the numerous 80~120kmh limits, but so as to quickly regain speed after being overtaken by cars travelling at 200>kmh. In situations of strong or very strong deceleration caused by slow or slowing vehicles ahead, I found myself initially obeying what remains, despite my long familiarity with the ACC, an instinctive - and personally rather embarrassing - impulse to "help" the deceleration by using the brake pedal, thus disengaging the system and retaking human control. Why I feel a need to do this is not easy to analyse but, clearly, an objectively unjustified mistrust of the car's stopping capability in situations with potentially catastrophic outcomes has something to do with it. However, my confidence in the ACC's ability to do its job without my feeling the need to interfere always returns as the autobahn drives proceed and I become re-accustomed to high speeds. On these recent drives my confidence undoubtedly returned more quickly than it usually does, and although I have no means of quantifying if and to what extent this might have been attributable to the feeling of effectiveness and stability transmitted by my tyres during hard braking, I was nevertheless certainly pleased by it.

..... Two months later I'm in Denmark parked next to a Polestar 2, of which I've been seeing quite a few around. Don't have much to say except that I hadn't seen one close-up before. Comparisons are rather meaningless, but I will comment that, despite its age, I find my RC better looking if only because it's a coupé. The Polestar's owner let me take a peep inside and I was perhaps less impressed than he was when I subsequently returned the favour with my RC. The quality of both cars is visibly high but Lexus' is higher - though, in fairness, it must be said that the Polestar's cabin is probably ideal for anyone looking to balance minimalism with a good degree of space and comfort. This entry-level 270bhp version gets to 100kmh in just over 6' against the RC300h's 8'+, making it a nippy car though the owner admitted that he and most other Danish private customers buy it less for performance than for its spaciousness and claimed Volvo-like solidity and probable long life compared to Tesla. The guy added that he would have preferred to buy the sleeker and more luxurious SUV-type "3" Polestar but couldn't afford one at not much less than twice the price of the "2".

I still occasionally use Voice Command for Navigation, getting an estimated 60% first-time success rate with my commands. This is far from satisfactory but an improvement over earlier versions of the system, which were a total disaster. For some unknown reason, and after long periods of perseverance, I have managed a slightly higher success rate with Music commands, though I am currently back to working the touchpad after repeatedly getting Little Richard Greatest Hits upon asking for Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations, which is something I would hitherto have thought phonetically impossible.

I’ve been following this thread with interest but without quite understanding some of the complaints about noise. I’ve twice had an ES as a courtesy car, totalling some 6-700km on all kinds of roads, good and bad, fast and slow, and must say I’ve rarely driven a quieter car. I don’t remember what brand or brands the tyres (19” both times) were, but since the cars were practically new they would as likely as not been OEM Dunlops or Bridgestones, neither of which impressed me from an acoustic standpoint when I had them on RC and IS F Sport models. So go figure.

I bought a set of locking wheel nuts (Toyota brand for Lexus) about twenty years ago for my first Lexus, an IS200, and have transferred them from one car to the next six times thereafter. Frankly they have become something of an annoyance with every seasonal change of tyres, but although I keep intending to discard them I continue not to. Something to do with superstition perhaps.

Could be, I suppose, but I read it as a possible solution to a crossword clue like “A county west of London populated by a synonym for idiots” (which, of course, would not reflect reality).

Glad to hear it, though I had the impression that several Tesco forecourts over a wide area were affected, implying a mishap at the refining or distribution levels.

I recall visiting the U.K. by car a few years ago, mainly the Surrey/Sussex area, and seeing warnings on TV about Tesco petrol after numerous customer reports of breakdowns due to clogged injectors. Presumably the issue, which appeared quite serious, was satisfactorily resolved. Not that it can have done Tesco’s reputation much good.

Not only them. I used to enter the U.K. with an Italian ID card. Post-Brexit I need a passport, which, it so happens, I have always had mainly for travel outside Europe, but I know few people who will bother to get one for the U.K. alone.

What saddens me, when I think about it, is my increasing tendency to go out of my way to praise courtesy and efficiency when I would once have considered them normal. As specifically regards Lexus, I must say that I have had very few complaints about my dealer’s courtesy and efficiency over almost two decades, though I have noticed signs of declining standards largely due to personnel changes. In this connection it could be argued that customers being asked to comment on their dealer’s performance after servicing etc., is itself an admission on Lexus’ part that we might be less satisfied than in the days when it was considered unnecessary to ask.

I make it a rule not to remain on hold for more than five minutes unless credibly messaged that I’ll soon be put through, preferring, if I so choose, to try again later. Incidentally, I remember once being told by someone in the hold-music business that the worst possible tune in terms of potential customer alienation risk is Ravel’s Bolero. The effect of the crescendo is to create a feeling of frustration which, if prolonged to excess, is likely to generate anger and loss of customer goodwill.

Hopefully it was a busy time, because if it wasn’t, they (and you) have a serious problem.

As a rule of thumb, if you don’t receive a fine by registered delivery within 100 days from any EEC country you probably never will. And should you do so and the date of issue is beyond 100 days from that of the claimed offense you can feel free to tear it up.

Being a law-abiding person but mainly, I must admit, because I considered it a cheap way to avoid prospectively getting hassled by French traffic policemen (which is something I can do without both intellectually and out of personal sensitivity), I bought a Crit'Air vignette for my previous car, which was also an RC300h, some six years ago. I have been in France twice in my present car, including one stay of more than a week inside the Périphérique in Paris, without having bought a Crit'Air, simply because I forgot until it was too late before i could receive it through the post before leaving. The Paris trip was nearly a year ago, and I feared getting a fine through the post courtesy of an electronic eye, but this hasn't happened.

If by “newer versions” you mean the 2019 facelift, the answer is no, the tail-lights having been redesigned in both size and geometry for this version (which was the second and last).

Comic for some, nostalgic for others, and probably a bit of both for many.