Rabbers

The picture you paint is bleak but generally accurate, Barry. Still, it was not long ago that buying a Lexus was so idiosyncratic a choice as to border on eccentricity. A wave or nod or flash from a fellow owner would therefore have been interpreted as a confirmation of the goodness of that choice. It might even have provided a small measure of comfort, if comfort were needed, that you were not alone in having made it. For sure, you knew that any hypothetical further contact you might have had with the fellow owner would not have required you to suppress the sort of self-congratulatory smugness you regularly felt when explaining your choice to unenlightened friends and neighbours.

On the subject of being saluted by people in uniforms, one of the most extreme irritations known to man consists of being stopped by Italian police who, according to regulations or long sadistic tradition (I don’t know which), honour you with a military-type salute before asking to see your car papers and hitting you with a ticket. I am willing to swear that the smartness of the salute is proportionate to the amount of the ticket.

Specifically for insect splatters - and if you have the time - fill a spray bottle with plain warm (preferably) water, then copiously spray and gently wipe with paper towels at one minute intervals as many times as it takes to remove them all. As regards bird droppings, the sternness of the chosen method very much depends on their extent and severity, but the most important thing at all stages of any cleaning process is to loosen and lift potentially scratchy residual solids so as not to risk pressing them against the paintwork.

Difficult to tell who is and who isn’t these days.

Actually I’ve seen maybe three or four RCs on the road in the seven or so years I’ve had one, and they were too far away to be waved at or be waved at by.

I have recently noticed an increase in the frequency of friendly waves from other Lexus drivers encountered on the road. Such greetings were an almost automatic reflex in days gone by when encounters were rare, but, apart from natural exchanges of civilities between same-model owners, the custom had seemed to be disappearing apace with cumulative increases in total Lexus numbers. I don’t know if my observation of a mini-revival is purely accidental or if it evidences a more generalised rediscovery of pride of ownership. As an incurable optimist I like to think it might be the latter.

Or, as a journalist perceptively once remarked, the RC300h is not for the sort of buyer who drives around wearing a reversed baseball cap. Not that the trousers-on-fire comment isn’t equally apt, David. Indeed, so civilized is the car that even the heated seats are calibrated to gently warm rather than burn.

And there was I thinking the LC500’s sound was mainly designed to keep out the noise of waves along the Californian coast. Obviously it can also keep rattlesnakes awake in the hills.

Brett, the video put me right off the LC500 … (I’m joking, of course) … Does it sound like that from inside the cabin too? I mean with the windows closed.

For one man’s comments on the two versions see my “2019 v. 2016 RC300h F-Sport - First Impressions” posted on the present Forum on 27 September 2019.

Each to his own, but I’ve never quite understood why anyone driving on public roads and not a racetrack should want to suffer poorly filtered ICE noises rather than bask in the barely audible purr that traditionally typifies most Lexus models regardless of their power source. The noises made by ICEs do not exist in Nature and, as such, are to be deemed alien to human ears, a principle well understood by Lexus engineers.

“La Grande Abbuffata” in the original. Saw it with a girlfriend and couldn’t face going for a pizza afterwards as planned.

I hadn’t noticed that. I can’t imagine what the warranty might cover. Maybe it’s a simple ploy to convince buyers that the glasses are unlikely to fall apart for at least three years. Or maybe they simply figure that a small percentage of people spending €40 might, if asked, easily be tempted to spend another €4 !

Pursuing your tangent a little further, Bill, I recently read about an apparently not dissimilar energy-saving remote control that activates toilet flushes. This caused me to wonder about the domestic logistics of potential customers for one, until, reading on, it became clear that the product is designed for professional lavatory attendants intending to flush multiple toilets at the same time (hopefully not when in use).

I may be wrong, but am I beginning to detect a certain intolerance among EV owners towards anyone who even mildly suggests that their choices may not be beyond criticism and are simply targets for misinformation?

I received the SIGHTNIGHT glasses last Friday after ordering them on Monday, which is not bad for mail from Lithuania. The frame is not marked, so I can't say if the glasses were also made there. They came packaged in a plain throwaway box, and lack a protective case, which is rather stingy. After a couple of night-time drives I can say the glasses do what they are supposed to do, namely, improve visibility and therefore safety by reducing glare from headlights, brake-lights, illuminated signs, neons etc. I haven't tried them in rainy conditions yet, but don't doubt they will help with the additional glare. My depth of vision seems better, and details are sharper - by which I mean that I can pick out greater numbers of objects at longer distances than before. To what extent this is a subjective impression is hard to say, not that it much matters since any improvement to one's confidence in night driving can only be welcomed. I can't say if costlier products do the job better or if cheaper ones do it worse but, in the absence of points of comparison and evidence to the contrary, I find the price of €39.99 acceptable. As regards daytime use, the glasses appreciably lessen the irritating strobe-like dazzle from intermittent bursts of light within stretches of shadow, but I find that darker lenses give better protection in consistent strong sunlight. In other words, I would not generally consider them a replacement for "proper" sunglasses, though I expect they may well be useful in reducing possible eye fatigue during long drives on bright sunless days. My sole complaint concerns not the lenses, whose effectiveness I can't fault, but the dubious quality of the thin blackened-metal frame. It looks good but feels flimsy, and as such requires more care in handling than, for example, is the case with the similarly light but palpably sturdier frames of premium aviator-style sunglasses such as RayBan or Revo etc. Also, having asked my wife to try on the SIGHTNIGHTs over her daintiest pair of reading-glasses, I can confirm my original pre-purchase suspicion that, contrary to the seller's claim, they are really only suitable for wearing alone - not, of course, that this is a problem for those of us who drive without prescription glasses.

Great photo. Looks like a face-melt special effect in a horror movie.

Yes, I imagine a lot of people would be rather p**sed off.

Unless cat-prints and bird poop are a joint presence on my paintwork, in which case they get equal shares of my hatred, I consider the latter to be the greater evil, largely because it is a potential health hazard. Therefore, when muttering to myself during cleaning operations, I seek comfort - scant as it might be - in the thought that birds luckily seem to target cars (and statues) much more frequently than they do us.

Unfortunately so do I!

Be thankful it only hit the side when it was probably aiming for the middle.

Completely agree. Also recommend SPORT mode as per Bluemarlin above. I hope you realize, John, that over-stimulation of the gastric juices can result in loss of driver concentration, especially on mountain roads.

The name certainly rings a bell. I think I had a pair of yellowish-brown AMBERVISION glasses a long time ago - maybe as far back as the 70s. I used them purely as sunglasses and it never occurred to me that they might have been good for night driving, as indeed they very possibly would have been. Regrettably it came naturally to me to take them off around dusk.

We can only hope the glasses live up to the claims. Having Vlad, generically, plus a Swiss cab driver, brand-specifically, as testimonials, I am optimistic.

I wasn’t talking about Ray Bans, but “classic Ray Ban style” glasses. Try www.sightnight.io or, failing that, www.techfibrr.com for the supplier’s full catalogue.