Northern_Si

One thing I love about my GS450h is the Jekyll and Hyde personality of the car. Drove from Bolton to Hull yesterday sticking to the speed limit, it is the best cruiser I know (also did 47mpg which isn’t bad considering the big hill I drove over). Coming back I drove via Scarborough and Whitby mostly in Sports mode, making progress on the country roads including some satisfying (and safe) overtakes of up to 3 cars at a time on some of the straight inclines (I love the power on tap)... finding myself on the Leeds ringroad before returning to the M62 (maybe using the shortest route wasn’t the best option) ... final indicated MPG ... 43MPG.

For quite a few years it has been. The GS250 was dropped around the time the GS300h came out. I really don't see the benefit of the GS350 when the GS450h offers better performance and a lot less CO2 emissions. At the end of the day, it is about the CO2 emissions with new cars. That is why 540's are nearly as rare as the GS on the road.

So after a week with my initial Bolton to Milton Keynes drive hitting over 50MPG, I did a little more driving. My hotel just outside of MK to my customer site in MK MK to Hertford - avoiding the motorways as I couldn't face the M1, M25 and the A10 on a Thursday night Hertford to Bolton via the M25 and M42 due to issues on the M1 (I wish I'd gone up the A1) My 'Since Refuelling' indicator is saying 47.5MPG over about 450miles. Range is showing about 150 miles and well over 1/4 of a tank of petrol. Can't really complain with that, 2 things come to mind .... Firstly with the CVT gearbox, it is poo on a track due to the noise. Why you would want to take a hybrid executive saloon onto a track is beyond me. Saying that, I've seen an Italian video by Lexus taking folk out with a test driver on the track with heart beat monitors connected. If you can find it on YouTube it is very funny, Secondly, the motoring press have no idea how to drive a hybrid. You do have to adapt your driving style. Being smooth is king. My car goes in for the 70K mile service and MOT on Friday. Other than my rear brakes which the 'visual inspection' has flagged as amber for the past 30K miles, I don't expect any problems.

My old E350cdi would match it, but the Lexus is a nicer experience. Actually most of the components of the hybrid are quite simple ... a lazy 3.5L V6 and an electric motor. It is just the things which connects them which is complicated.

Dunlop Sport Maxx RT 2's all round.

During the roadworks near stoke my MPG went from 43MPG to 48MPG. To be fair, driving from Hertford to Bolton up the M1 and M62 with less roadworks, I will manage 47/48MPG

I think the M6 basically being a 50mph zone might help things.

Bolton to Milton Keynes. Sticking to the speed limit. Over 50mpg, over 600 mile range So what is the advantage of a large diesel?

Hi, One of the reasons I bought my Lexus was the customer service experience. I've owned BMWs and Mercedes but I always felt like a number to them rather than a person. Overall, I've been very impressed with Lexus customer service over the past few years but I'm just starting to feel some corners are being cut. I won't mention who my local dealer is, but has been my experience with my latest Service/MOT booking. I was contacted about my MOT through the contact centre (which was useful as I had forgotten about it). Decided to book the MOT and an early service at the same time. It seems the new system no longer sends out a e-mail/sms confirmation to the customer. As they called when I was on a customer site, I did not write down the information as I'm use receiving an e-mail confirmation. Just seems stupid to replace a system with less functionality as the original one. My car is booked in for two weeks time. I called today to see if a loan car was available as I've been asked to attend a customer meeting the day it is booked in. The only cars being offered are the CT. Okay, I might be a little snobbish here, but driving a GS450H, a £50K+ (when new) car, I would have hoped for something a little better. Maybe an NX or something? Mercedes always offered me a C-Class Estate or E-Class. I know these seem like 1st world problems ... but when Lexus are trying to compete with other marques in the same league, every change is noticeable. On the positive side, I already know the car will pass the MOT with flying colours and the only issue during the service will be an observation that I need new rear discs .... but they have been saying this for the past 30k miles. SW

Exactly... which is why on my average for this week over 320 miles is 48mpg (according to the trip computer) ... which isn't bad for the size of engine. It is interesting watching how the electric motor is used to supplement the engine at 70mph on slight hills.

Prestige had a fantastic reputation when I used them many years ago. I have no idea what they are like now but would be interested as one day I will get my curbed wheel sorted.

The only other GS450h I saw on the whole trip was in the centre of Porto. I did see a few 300h's but the GS is a rare breed.

3.5k miles completed and my road trip has come to an end. The final indicated MPG is 41mpg with an average speed of 58mph. I’m well impressed especially as this was a total mix of driving including driving 1.4k meters up a mountain to find the road shut.... although the battery was fully charged by the time I came back down. This biggest thing for me was how comfortable the car is and how I was able to get out of the car after 6 hours driving and go sightseeing.

Yep, it is l/100 km 😀 If I drived more sensibly and to the speed limit, my expectation is that it would be 43 / 44 mpg. Toll stations are just an excuse to go from 0 to 80 mph as quickly as possible.... I just can’t help myself. Still love the feeling overtaking cars on 5% descents with the petrol engine turned off. Beats the VAG valve deactivation technology 😀 But it does make the GS a great tourer. I would struggle to go back to a V6 diesel.

Weather in Northern Spain was horrendous, heavy rain and fog. I was glad I had new wiper blades fitted the previous week. Regarding speeds, let’s just say was making progress and staying with 15% of the speed limit most of the time. Some of the legs I managed to reduce the estimated travel time by 20%. Driving into the centre of Porto was pretty bad and makes London feel quiet. Once I got down south, the sun did shine, the temperature did increase and for most parts the roads got quieter. Big lesson for me is in the future checking the expiration on my Via-T tag as reversing out of the lane is pretty embarrassing. Usually I do drive through France or drive straight from Santander but fancied a change this time. Regarding parking and the Spanish use of bumpers as a parking sensor.... I always find nice underground car-parks near the hotels and my apartment has one. I did find the modern Parador hotels in Spain do have big spaces

I’m currently in the middle of a bit of a road trip. I started in Manchester and drove to Portsmouth for the ferry, Drove from Bilbao to Galicia Drove over the border to Portugal and visited Porto, Lisbon and Albufeira Drove back of the border and drove along the coast to Mojácar (including some beautiful views of the Straights of Gibraltar) Drove just north of Valencia avoiding toll roads. Car is currently showing 6.9km/l which equals about 41mpg. Considing I’m on my winter tyres (which is funny when I was so close to Africa), not driving economically and includes driving into cities .... I’m pretty impressed. I think this in on par with my old E350CDI and the Lexus is a much nicer car to drive. I have picked up an annoying habit. When overtaking cars which have slowed me down, I do now rev the car and growl at them which is not very Lexus like. Also I’ve only seen one over GS450H on the whole trip and that was in Porto. The number of people who takes second look at the car and try to work out what is it makes me smile.

It is only the rest for my left foot. I found an alternative solution I took the car to Valencia via Portugal and the warmth has stopped the squeak. Also averaging over 40mpg for the trip which has including periods of making progress on the motorways.

I better start working on some decent hard skin. seriously I could not drive bare foot or in flip flops.

It is a thought. Technically it would only need to be my left foot shoeless. It is worryingly that a little squeak is my only major moan (if you ignore the inability of the CD player to display track details)

Surface Squeak I think. It seems to happen when I move my foot. It happens with both my leather sole shoes and my walking shoes so I don’t think it is my shoes. Maybe be some silicone cleaner will fix it.

I've got my first squeak in my 2014 GS ... the damn foot rest. It only squeaks when it is cold and stops after about 20 minutes when the car gets warm. Anyone got any ideas how to cure it or should I just move to a warmer climate?

I expect is it to match the German brands with the 'gentleman' agreement VAG, BMW and Mercedes have to limit top speeds on the Autobahn.

The GS is often listed in those online American articles of cars which will easily do 200K miles. Buy a Lexus extended warranty and drive it for a few stressless years.

Currently still running the OEM Dunlops which came on the car and have a set of Dunlop winters for the colder months. Car has done 56k miles and still have 3.5mm on the summers. I've found the GS isn't very heavy on tyres. I guess my old MB E350CDI ate tyres due to all the torque bring at the lower end.

For me, the V6 in the 450h is about refinement rather than sporty performance . My previous car was a Mercedes W212 E350CDI. I get about the same fuel economy in my GS as I did in the E-Class. When you are doing over 20k miles a year, you do think about the economy. I do apprectiate the performance of the GS but rarely need to utilise it in my normal driving.