tom123

There are also companies that are offering to re-furbish the batteries at a much lower cost than a main dealer. http://www.hybridbatterysolutions.co.uk/

They should do a health check when your car is in for the suspension work which may pick up any other issues, but no harm in getting an MOT done. Since you have air suspension I would consider getting an extended warranty through Lexus as this works out at about £500 a year with the current offer. Air suspension long-term reliability seems to be a problem across all manufacturers, but 40K miles is certainly very early.

Took some pictures of the corrosion.

The yearly renewable hybrid warranty is valid on cars up to 10 years old. From the Lexus UK website: You will benefit from an extra 1 year or 10,000 mile (whichever comes sooner) hybrid battery warranty extension with each Hybrid Health check. This is available up to the 10th anniversary of the vehicle’s registration with no limit on total mileage. Terms and Conditions apply, please contact your Centre for full details. The second generation RX hybrid has a regular exhaust system unlike the third generation. Mine has just developed a new hole in the centre box at 95K miles, also had to get a repair done a year or so ago.

Was a passenger in a fairly old Citroen Picasso recently. Glided over potholes and ridges in the road as if they weren't there, put my RX to shame. Also didn't have any rattles at all, not something that could be said of most of the RXs that I've been in!

That's exactly what I thought as soon as I left the dealership! I asked the service manager what would happen if I could produce an engineer's report stating that there was no evidence of previous accident damage, and he replied that he would forward that to Lexus who would then arrange for their own inspection. But now I'm thinking why should I have to spend my own money to prove a negative? Really annoyed that they couldn't even be bothered to measure the paint depth for example to get some objective evidence of this supposed accident damage repair. Will probably phone the Lexus helpline and suggest they arrange for an inspection (at a different dealer) if they want to turn down the warranty repair.

The service manager was just like "since I've never seen rust there before, it must have had accident damage." He couldn't offer me any evidence other than his opinion.

Sure, there is plenty of choice so no reason to pick a car with an incomplete history all else being equal. However, when I bought my car from a Lexus main dealer I just assumed that the service book would have been complete. Turned out that the first owner had chosen to service his car every 10K miles, no matter how much time had passed by, leaving some gaps in the service history.

Have just noticed some corrosion on the near side rear wheel arch. Car is 10.5 years old, just over 90K miles. Bought it from a Lexus dealer 2.5 years ago. Car was in for its service at a different main dealer this week so asked them to inspect the area to see if it would be covered under the 12 year corrosion warranty. However the service manager said that the corrosion must be due to a previous accident repair. When I asked him how he could be sure that this was the case, he replied that he had never seen rust there before so it must be due to accident damage, and that he couldn't see why corrosion would occur in just one place if an accident had not taken place. He didn't offer any other evidence to prove that there had been a previous accident repair. I also asked an independent local body shop to have a look, and they explained that they thought the corrosion was due to dirt from the road accumulating in the lip of the wheel arch, and that it is common for only the near side to be affected as that is the side that picks up mud etc. from the side of the road. Wondering what to do from here, as if the corrosion is due to the poor design of the wheel arch so that it collects mud, I feel that this should be covered under the 12 year corrosion warranty. Also, since I specifically asked the supplying dealer if the car had been in any accidents, which the salesman denied, would I have any case against them if it turned out that there had been accident damage to the car causing the corrosion? I have come across this company who conduct independent vehicle inspections, but seems a lot of money ('from' £199) to pay, and I'm not sure that they would be able to conclusively determine what the cause of the corrosion is. https://www.dekra-expert.co.uk/vehicle.inspections/national.vehicle.inspections.uk/vehicle.inspection.engineers.report

My RX400 had a couple of services that were several months/couple of thousand miles overdue, but I haven't had any problem with the warranty when making claims. I think they would be more interested in making sure that you keep up to date with the servicing after you take out the policy.

I've had a similar problem with my RX400h. First of all I noticed that the vent on the driver's side of the sat nav screen was blowing warm air whilst all the other vents were cold. After a month or so, all of the other vents started to blow warmer air as well. l had it re-gassed at a main dealer for £50. A few months later, it was blowing warm air again. I took it to a different dealer, who re-gassed it a second time but also put dye in the system to look for a leak. I ended up having to get the condensor and some pipes/valves replaced, as the dye was picked up by a UV light in these areas. The quote was £920, but I got it done under the warranty. A year later I've noticed the same thing developing again - warm air from the vent to the right of the sat nav screen. I'm just waiting now for the rest of the vents to start blowing warm air and I'll take it back to the dealer for a look.

I remember reading somewhere that the high voltage batteries will be about 80% efficient after 10 years. I would go for the SE-L, as the price won't be much higher and you will get a lot of useful extra features. The consensus seems to be to go for younger higher mileage cars.

I think I posted that actually... CP-0017L-0110-EN_IR TSB Lower Control Arm Bushes (1).pdf

The £700 quote was for one arm replacement with new bushes. A second Toyota dealer actually quoted slightly higher than Lexus did. I'm not sure about the ball joints, but I don't think mine were replaced. Because of the labour costs, most garages will just replace the whole arm with the bushes already fitted. I think the part (arm with bushes) on its own was about £225 from Lexus if I remember correctly. There is a step-by-step walk-though guide with pictures on one of the US Lexus forums if you search. Replacement of the control arms is supposed to be a bit of a bugger, so most recommend leaving it to a garage to do.

The Michelin Latitude Tour HPs are much nicer tyres that the Crapstones.

Mine were marked as 'amber' by Lexus Birmingham at 86K and about 9 years old. The next time I had the looked at approx. 3 months later, a different Lexus dealer marked them as 'red' (needing immediate replacement). See my thread above, picture below. I noticed that the steering felt much tighter after they were replaced. Lexus quoted about £1100 for the repair, and a Toyota garage about £700.

No rivers lol. Also forgot to mention that I have just had the rear tailgate struts replaced as they were not as strong as they once were. I was quoted £330 if I was paying cash. Like Dan said, having the warranty means that you can get things fixed that you might not otherwise have been bothered to. For example, I'm sure the previous owner of my car had noticed that the air con wasn't blowing cold (I bought the car in the winter), but I expect that they thought twice about spending £920 on a non-essential repair on an eight-year-old car. The main reason however that I got the extended warranty was the potential £7000+ cost of replacing the hybrid system if it went wrong. The peace of mind is easily worth £500 a year to me.

Is that for American cars? In the UK it is recommended to change at 100K.

I've had leaking rear taillights, a leaking water pump, an air con leak, and a seized brake caliper fixed under the warranty so far. All faults came to light <80,000 miles. Lexus play the 'wear and tear' card much less often than any other warranty company that you could find.

'Cost price' is a con. It doesn't take into account all of the manufacturer kick backs and bonuses etc. that dealers get.

I had the exact same problem when I picked up my RX400h from the dealer. It had been sat on the forecourt so he had to put a new battery in when I went to pick it up. When he was demonstrating the controls, the salesman couldn't get the volume to work on the radio. The sat nav voice was fine. Thing is, I can't remember exactly how I got it fixed unfortunately as this was over 2 years ago. I had to call the AA out as it had another flat battery 2 weeks after I picked the car up, and I mentioned the radio problem to the guy, and he managed to fix the volume in about 30 seconds. He said it had to do with the dealer changing the battery. Sorry I can't be of more help, but rest assured it is a very easy and quick problem to fix if you have someone who knows how.

Front lower control arm bushes, leaking seals on tailgate lights letting water accumulate around the hybrid batteries under the boot floor, stuck rear brake caliper pins, water pump leaks. Generally a reliable car but most issues will cost a lot to fix. Check that the inverter recall work has been done if necessary. Expensive services due at 60K and 100K miles.

Just to confirm, the dealer you bought the car from is paying for another garage to do the work?

The Autoexpress feature used the 2.0 diesel XC90 in the comparison, not the T8 Hybrid. I couldn't find the in-gear times for the XC Hybrid, but the diesel XC90 0-60 time is 7.8s compared to 5.9s for the hybrid, so that give you an idea of how much faster the Hybrid Volvo should be from 30-50/50-70.

Just turn them on then. Wow, thanks genius.