Rabbers

Roger Bill-Thank you very much for your illuminating suggestion that the gradual build-up of a Gracenote database could be the cause of the slow but steady improvement in the responsiveness of the audio system. I am sure you are right. I will add the incidental observation that, when the system has the choice of of using either one's own data for album cover art or that supplied by Gracenote, it will invariably prefer the latter. In its chapter on iPod connectivity, the owner's manual in fact points out that artwork provided by Gracenote "may differ from the actual one" (I am translating from the Italian here), which I take to mean that covers often change when albums are re-issued etc., and that Gracework probably has the latest in its database (which, in theory but apparently not in practice, should be the same as in iTunes, Apple being one of Gracenote's best customers). I intend to turn off the Gracenote function and then see what practical difference this makes since I deem all the data I originally imported into my iPhone, iPod and memory sticks, mainly from CDs themselves imported into iTunes, to be both orderly and comprehensive. The consensus emerging from the Apple Support forum (thanks for providing the link) to the effect that the iPhone 4s' Bluetooth connection is "rubbish" (to quote one of the contributing nerds) left me somewhat perplexed. This is not because it is upsetting to hear negative opinions being voiced about what (in the words of another of the contributors) is "otherwise a nice piece of kit", but because somebody somewhere within the Lexus customer-service organization with specialized knowledge of the company's audio systems must be aware of possible connectivity issues affecting given products or brands. And while it would certainly be impolitic and perhaps counter-productive for them to actively recommend against use of an Apple product, they could, through their dealers, usefully mention product-specific bad connectivity as a possible explanation for reported problems rather than leaving customers (and no doubt many dealers) in the dark or hoping for future software "fixes" that may well never come.

I liked Dixgas' image of owners of German cars "sheepishly shuffling away" when caught admiring his 300h in the car-park of a fancy hotel. I must admit, to my shame, that I take a perverse delight in creeping up on people who think they are unobserved when admiring my own 300h. While I generally respond to their comments with what I like to think is a proper show of urbanity, I have nevertheless taken to keeping an adequate supply of disinfectant wipes for the purpose of removing nose-prints and kindred smudges from the side-windows after leaving the car parked in a public place for any length of time. But this is a small price to pay for owning such a great car. I have had my 300h for over two months now and also not seen another on the road here in Italy. This is not too surprising since, according to the small dealership where I bought it, which has the concession for an area of Northern Italy with approximately one million people, sales have amounted to only twelve units since first deliveries in July. While this seems low, it is claimed to be in line with the national target for the first twelve months (which, incidentally, is the same as for France). The U.K. target is said to be 5000 units, reflecting Lexus' higher penetration and potentially bigger fleet business than in the rest of Europe. But even though this means that Richard's and Dixgas' chances of seeing another 300h on the road are five times better than mine, we are still talking pretty small numbers. I do not know how many units Lexus has targeted for Germany, which is supposed to be its biggest European market after the U.K., but can say that not once have I ever seen a Lexus with local plates in the ten or more years that, at least once annually, I have driven the entire length of the country.

Strangely but altogether pleasingly, certain irritating problems I have had with the Navigation and ML Audio system in my 300h appear to have resolved themselves automatically in the course of two months of ownership without my having had to take the car in to the dealer (though it must be said that several telephone conversations with the latter have left me unenlightened as to what Lexus is doing to resolve other not dissimilar "teething problems" reported by customers). Technical illiteracy prevents me from offering any comprehensible explanation, so I must limit myself to a simple description of the symptoms in question and their apparent self-healing. If it sounds as though I believe the system to be inhabited by some kind of ghostly electronic doctor, so be it. 1. While the Browse button on the audio screen used to take at least a minute to light up upon connection of a 16GB pen drive and substantially longer in the case of a 32GB one, the time the system now takes to read the contents before enabling selection from lists duplicated from the drives in perfect alphabetical order has become at least halved and may still be improving. 2. While the system has always immediately read and enabled selection from the contents of my iPod Classic (which occupy 115GB of a maximum 160GB), it would often - maybe one time out of every five uses - suddenly stop playing and present a blank screen. This issue could not be resolved by merely re-setting and re-connecting the blocked iPod via its 30-pin cable, which a passenger could easily do, but necessitated stopping and re-starting the car in order for the connection to function again. The problem, touch wood, has not occurred for some weeks and therefore appears to have resolved itself. 3. Exactly the same glitch used to occur, though less frequently, when music from my iPhone 4s was playing via Bluetooth, and this also appears to have resolved itself. On the other hand, the Bluetooth connection still occasionally fails in normal Telephone mode for no apparent reason. The Vocal Commands system for Navigation (whose basic functions work very well) can be either irritating or, depending on your point of view, a rich source of entertainment. Considering that I was getting no more than a 50% successful recognition rate for even the simplest commands, I was fast developing a complex about what the system appeared to consider slovenly articulation on my part. I therefore thought I would switch the system to English from Italian, Italy being where I live and the only country in which I have so far driven the car. Regrettably, the improvement, if any, was marginal (thus contradicting the widespread view that slurred phonemes matter less in English than in most Latin languages). So, after trying to bark out a few commands having experimentally switched to German, admittedly for my own amusement and not unexpectedly with little success, I then decided to try a combination of English for the Vocal Commands and Italian for Navigation. To my surprise, the familiar Italian voice that guided me for the turns and distances etc., was replaced, when it came to naming the streets, by an English one that pronounced the names so badly as to make them largely unintelligible (thus defeating the whole purpose of vocal guidance). To get the street-names back to comprehensible Italian, I therefore had no alternative but to revert to the original Italian for both Commands and Navigation, thus ending up precisely where I had started (but hopefully with my blood pressure back to normal now that I was linguistically at peace again). When using vocal commands I now lay bets with myself as to whether the system is going to co-operate. And, sad to say, the odds remain against it. As regards commands for Audio or Phone Calls, perseverance has so far yielded no victories, but I am resolved to try again at some future time perhaps after first gargling or sucking a boiled sweet.

Last week I traded in my IS250 for a 300h "Luxury", this being the name of the top spec in Italy (corresponding, confusingly and with some slight differences , to "Premier" in the U.K, "Executive" and "Executive Line" in France and Germany respectively, and "Plus" in Spain). The 250 was the second I have owned, the first having originally replaced a 200 which was itself the second of two. Thus, the new third-generation is my fifth since the series was launched. Considering that the three generations bear little or no technological resemblance to each other, my loyalty to the brand firmly rests on what Lexus has continued to offer through the years, namely, high quality and proven reliability, good dealer service, and the choice, within the given segment, of not owning a German car. This latter factor does not mean that I begrudge the Germans their commercial success. It merely reflects the feeling of exclusivity synonymous with being one of a small number, and this, in its turn, reflects my own personal vanity rather than any conscious wish to inspire envy or curiosity. However, now that Lexus is way ahead of the Germans in hybrid technology in the saloon segment, there is finally one more reason to prefer the brand. Having been attracted by the prospect of a good deal and immediate delivery, I bought my 300h straight out of the showroom, and while the pairing of an Arctic Pearl exterior with Ivory leather would not have been my first choice, it is elegant enough. It will brighten up the murky winter days before coming into its own in the summer. Reviews of the 300h in the Italian specialist press have generally been very good, with opinions differing little from those I have read from the U.K. and elsewhere. The main criticism concerns the unresponsiveness of the CVT gearbox, although this, for those of us who rarely hurl their car along deserted country roads, is compensated by its graduality and smoothness. Almost all reviews have been based on the F-Sport as the result of Lexus' somewhat unsubtle targeting of younger drivers in order to widen its customer base. While I understand the need for this, I feel that commercials featuring Jarno Trulli driving around the inside of an aircraft hangar in the guise of a videogame character, not to mention excitedly enthusiastic utterances from another retired F1 driver like Olivier Panis, are less likely to attract new customers than alienate old ones. Be this as it may, I admit that I would probably have preferred an F-Sport at parity of equipment had there been one in the showroom. My decision, however, would have been almost entirely based on aesthetics since, during a test-drive, the claimed virtues of the Sport+ mode and adaptive suspensions were not readily apparent to me. The F-Sport in full-frontal view is undoubtedly sexy (though the splendid design of the grille cannot help being marred by a numberplate), and the LFA-inspired instrument- panel is a remarkable technical feat (though its novelty value is probably destined to wear off). The black roof-lining is also a nice touch, and although the sporty seats may not be to everybody's taste, they are perhaps the most comfortable in the entire Lexus range (and there can be no higher praise than this). There are a few surprising blemishes and omissions in what is otherwise a superb cabin (or should we call it a "cockpit" as the Lexus marketing people would prefer?). The door-pockets do not open outwards as in the 250 and are flimsier to the touch. Storage space for small objects towards the front is practically non-existent. Strangely, the front door-sills in my car are plain satin-finish metal strips and lack the back-lit logo to which I have become accustomed. The dealer was as surprised at this as I was, and has asked for an explanation that has so far not been forthcoming. My own suspicion is that the proper components were not in stock on the day the batch of cars including mine came off the assembly line. Another conspicuous absence (that will discourage prospective purchasers of the exorbitantly priced Cool Box in the Accessories list) is that of a 12V socket in the boot. And, speaking of the boot, the swan-neck lid-hinges are downright ugly and do not hide away upon the lid being lowered as in the 250. They may also prevent the lid from shutting properly when the boot is loaded right up to the top. The Mark Levinson sound system is so good I wish I could take it into the house with me. It gets scant mention in the promotional brochures and none at all in the handbooks, which means that anyone wishing to know more needs to research it online. If I understand it right, the system's 15 speakers deliver twice the intensity of sound of normal ones without increasing the consumption of energy. Can this mean that the previous-generation 14-speaker ML system equipping my 250s was constantly causing me to pollute the planet while squandering money? The ASC synthetic- sound device, of which I fail to see the usefulness, is no more than a piece of acoustic bling, and I have switched it off. Some journalists with an over-fertile imagination have suggested that it could be made to provide a choice of supercar snarls and howls at the driver's whim, but I cannot imagine that Lexus would ever inflict this idea on its customers unless the company's quest for younger buyers extends to the juvenile market. I have yet to come to grips with the Navi system, which I am at this stage eyeing in much the same way as a mountaineer gazes at an unconquered peak. I certainly miss the user-friendly touch- screen of the previous system, and the 400+ pages of the handbook are more than a little daunting. The only audio problem I have so far encountered was a blockage of my iPod Classic a few minutes into its first use, and, after a moment of panic, a simple resetting of the iPod resolved the issue. Fuel consumption is looking remarkably good (not surprisingly compared with the 250) even though I have not yet done enough kilometers to precisely quantify it. Generally speaking, the almost dutiful aim of keeping the needle within the ECO limit has had the effect of disciplining my style of driving, which, the 300h has made me realize, was occasionally somewhat lacking in dignity. Indeed, the car is so extremely well-mannered and unruffled in any situation I as to have made me a better road user - and therefore a happier one.