Rob373

Mine gets it's work debut tomorrow - trip to Cheshire up the M1/M6 so I'll see what sort of economy I get out of it on a decent steady run. Just ordered some dark floor mats to keep the inside looking respectable for the remainder of winter & some metal dust caps to replace the horrible green plastic things it has arrived with.

I like seeing Jaguar and Lexus do well and build nice cars - both of them are a more interesting proposition that any of the German options. I admire Lexus for their engineering and build quality, and I admire Jaguar for their blend of style and performance. I do wish the pair of them would make performance versions with 3 pedals though, either of their V8's hooked up to a proper 6 speed manual would be fabulous.

Picked mine up today - very happy with it. Wasn't actually something I was actively seeking, but I Iove the ML stereo and the fact you can store music to the car's hard disc drive. I can already tell I'm going to be mucking about seeing how many mpg I can get it to do once the urge to accelerate at warp speed has worn off - all part of the fun I'm sure!

Yes, the 3GS - I couldn't justify the price jump to a 4th gen model

Firstly, I'm definitely not suffering 'buyers regret' before I've even collected it, but I wondered what the general consensus here was on the GS interior. My reaction to viewing several has been 'comfortable, well made, very well appointed, and appears to be pretty robust - shame it is so boring'. On the other hand, the first time I drove a Jaguar XF I was really impressed with the interior - it has a real sense of style and theatre and detailing. The air vents park themselves to avoid collecting dust, and then swivel round when the ignition comes on. There is colour selectable mood lighting. Every switch is tactile and handsome. Colour is a plural not singular concept. I found the GS to be very lacking in this respect - boring / predictable single colour schemes and switches I have seen before in 15 year old Toyotas. Being Toyota items, they would probably still be working after a direct missile strike, but still... not exactly very stylish. Lexus certainly don't seem to skimp on costs (other than the Toyota part bin switches), but they also don't seem to put a massive amount of thought into how the actual design rather than the features could exceed expectations or win fans. I suspect anybody who bucks the trend to buy a big Lexus wouldn't be put off by something less conventional inside as well as under the bonnet, but I think Lexus are followers not leaders in this respect, and are missing those little touches... Am I right or wrong?

Not a massive discount, but I got it down by 600 quid with the minor issue I wanted looking at (bonnet - couple of stone chips) resolved. I wasn't at all sure about the white with light trim from the photos, but I had to go and look given the spec and mileage. I am happy to report that I found it much nicer to behold in the metal - it appears to be pearlescent and has a sort of "mother of pearl" shimmer to it. I would prefer a deep metallic grey, red, or blue, but they are like hens teeth and I've not seen a blue on the 06-11 model that I like. I would have bought a good one with it as my primary concerns are functional, but I am not keen on the silver paint / black leather combo which seems to be really prevalent with these - it feels a bit too "2003 Teutonic rep mobile" for me.

Called them yesterday afternoon at 2pm (before I had seen this) & allegedly it was sold! I was on my way back from Lexus Hedge End (Southampton), where I viewed 2. After some negotiating on a minor niggle and price, I'm buying a 31,000 mile 60 plate SE-L (with the radar cruise, which I tried on the M27 and really liked) from them with 5 service stamps, pick it up next Saturday. The only thing I don't like is the fact the light beige interior comes with light beige floor mats which seem to pick up marks very easily. Has anybody fitted darker ones? I'm tempted. The other one I looked at was the "sport" model previously discussed - they have different wheels as well as the bumper lips. It looked nice, but the difference in appearance is nothing to write home about.

Good colour combo - looks nice! I bought a 4.2 Jaguar in my 20's because I'd always wanted one (I'm 38 now). I genuinely do intend to keep it forever or sell it at a point that it's value assures it will live forever if not with me. I even rent a second garage to keep it in! You could well turn round in 10 years time and find you still have it. Advice I'd give for taking care of a large / premium car like this in your 20's is: 1. Drive it how it is designed to be driven. Waft about in style and leave any top gear antics for the track. Its always tempting to test what it will do but points on the license = insurance pain, and a crash is the last thing you want. It is very easy to run out of tarmac mucking about in a big RWD car on British roads. 2.Budget forward. Large premium cars are less stressed, usually better built, and often go wrong less often - but... they still need consumable parts and servicing, and this is going to cost more than a 1.0 Yaris. Its a good idea to put a bit aside each month for this and anything that goes wrong - it avoids future skimping and allows you to remain objective about the cost of ownership. 3. Avoid modifying it unless you are prepared to spend money and watch the car lose value in the process whilst your insurance premium shoots up or gets invalidated (bad idea). Hunting down and retro-fitting OEM upgrades can increase your enjoyment and the cars value if you are inclined towards tinkering.

I suspected it might just be Autotrader hyperbole - but there is a silver pre-2012 model being sold as a "sport" on the official UK Lexus site... GS450h Sport

Chris - good point on dealers / haggling warranty and definitely something for me to factor into any decision. I have been and driven a cheap one - I like to start at the bottom end of the market and work up through a few examples before finalising budget and narrowing choices. It had 105k on it but was wearing the mileage exceptionally well in terms of interior - the only indication it had passed 100k was the driver's seat belt a little reticent to reel back in an very slight scuffing to the outer seat bolster - confirming my previous impressions of Lexus build quality. Typical backstreet car lot - I rang and told them I wanted to look at it - rather than get it out and check it over, they waited until I got there before realising the conventional 12v battery was flat and the range was 0 miles! Interestingly, all the cabin electrics seem to run from the hybrid battery? With some petrol in it and the aid of a jump pack I got a test drive. Within a couple of minutes the battery charge was sufficient for the stop/start to start functioning and movement in slow traffic under electrical power only. Everything worked faultlessly despite the obvious neglect - service history was only stamped for 10k (2008), 20k (2009), 75k (2012) and assume it has sat parked for a few weeks, yet you would never have guessed. I probably won't, but given the build quality you could make a good argument for buying a £6k 2007 car with 100k on the clock and running it for a couple of years under an extended warranty if you want the piece of mind - a much nicer alternative to a smaller newer car for the same price and 2 years down the line with 120k on it, probably still worth 4 grand to somebody as a private sale - especially if you've bothered to get the battery health checked and the service book stamped! I only had a brief test drive but was suitably impressed with the refinement, ride quality and performance. There is fully loaded 61 plate 1 owner FLSH 50,000 mile SE-L just in at a place 45 minutes away for £15k which I definitely want to check out, but it won't be prepped until Tuesday, so I will go and look at another couple tomorrow and I would also like to test drive another CT200. I drove one last week (which was actually what prompted me to look at the GS), but I am really leaning towards the GS at the moment, the ride quality was in another league - the harsh ride was my main gripe with the CT - the GS performance is obviously in another league too, but I could probably live with CT levels of performance for the trade off of lower running costs. Buying one of these hybrids is for me at least, about having a car that hits the 3 R's - reliable, relaxing, refined. I am not really a fan of diesels or most German cars, and I do like an auto so I love the smoothness of the CVT in both the CT and GS which leaves conventional automatics looking a bit clunky.

Thanks for your advice chaps - most helpful! They are so well equipped as standard that I think any specification would be fine for me, but the radar cruise control is the one thing I must try before deciding how much more a car with it is worth to me, as it could be excellent for the type of driving I do (lots of heavy traffic moving 40-80mph) I have read up on the battery issues and I am not too worried - the town I live in (Northampton) is home to the company discussed on the forum who do full battery fix with 12 month warranty for £800. As any comparable modern diesel can easily hit you for that much on an random turbo failure, I do not see potential battery failure as a problem to worry excessively about. My other consideration is the "sensible" one which did kick in a bit this morning - do I really need a ballistic barge? Or am I being massively self-indulgent? Especially a consideration for me, as I spend most of my mileage in heavy multi-lane traffic, and in performance terms a GS450 is still nowhere near as fast as my motorcycle...So a car is primarily a utilitarian purchase... Decisions decisions! Mike - my personal feeling on extended warranties is that like any form of insurance, they are going to be set up in such a way that they make money rather than lose it, so the cost to you is higher than the law of averages dictates your repair bills are likely to be over the warranty period. If I was hit by £3000+ in repair bills over the 3 years I am likely to keep the car, then you could argue I had made a very poor decision not to take a warranty, but over a longer time period of time I should still be better off, as few cars you own are actually going to do that to you. I never finance anything I could buy outright and cut my cloth accordingly. I buy things that are unlikely to break (e.g. Japanese cars) but then never insure/warranty anything I am not obligated to unless the loss would be financially ruinous - so basically, a mortgage is the only borrowing I would consider, and house and car insurance are the only form of warranty / insurance I buy. Maybe I am odd - I realise these views are not common in the UK :-)

Hi all. I'm very interested in getting a second-hand GS450h, somewhere in the 2006-2011 age range. I've browsed the forums and found them useful but there are a few things I would like further advice on if anybody could oblige... 1/ Specs - I'm finding this nearly impossible to get my head round as every advert seems to list a random selection of features that from the reviews, appear to be mainly standard. Seems to be "SE" "SE-L" and "Sport" trim levels? Could anybody explain the differences in standard specs for each model and what were optional extras? Is the suspension harder on the "Sport" (in which case, will avoid) I would also be interested to hear any advice on the relative merits of things like adaptive variable suspension (option? what does it actually change?) radar cruise control (must be an option as seems to be very rare?), and I am confused by what all the stuff about collision assist, braking assist etc... actually adds to the ownership/driving experience. Am I right in assuming brake force distribution and stability control are standard on all cars? It seems rather difficult to get any clarity - with other cars I've bought in the past it has been relatively easy to get info on this (even BMWs with about a million different options and packs), but seems to be hard with the GS450. 2/ Is there any reason to spend more on a newer model, all else being equal, other than perceived future reliability and plate snobbery? i.e. if there are 2010 and 2006 cars with the same mileage, specification, history and condition, were there any issues fixed on the later cars that earlier ones suffer from, other improvements, or any issues that develop over time rather than mileage? Usually I would buy a car based on condition, specification, history and mileage over age, but the complexity of these cars makes me a bit more cautious. Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can offer