Assa1974

Sorry for asking the obvious but I assume you are pressing the Load button and waiting for the display to tell you it's ready to accept a disc?

MLB has been OK but CE is a disaster and the writers/producers have totally missed the point of what TG was under Clarckson et al and missed the opportunity to refresh the format which it was crying out for. This week's episode was basically an OK episode of 5th Gear with CE's pointless chat-show segment in the middle. Sabine and Jordan haven't really worked either. Matt with the two other blokes might just work if they get thrown into some serious challenges where they have the chance to genuinely form a bond.

Are these all actual figures or what the trip computer is saying? My computer often gives me mid-30s reported economy when in reality I've managed just over 30mpg on a run. Still not as bad a discrepency as my old Alpha 156 which used to report a range of over 1000 miles once I'd filled her up, then slowly adjusted down to the actual range which was just over 500 miles usually. Incidentally, why doesn't the Lexus computer give a range?

Good thread. I've gone for those valve caps now too! What mud flaps have you got, out of interested?

Another thing I realised is that if you're looking at a car with screens in the back chances are they were bought by a family with kids who were going to spend a reasonable amount of time in the back and the state of the trim & seats are going to be possibly a little less good as a result.

That's a generalisation. I can't go 5 minutes as a passenger in a car reading or watching a screen without feeling terrible. My wife & daughter however will happily go long journeys glued to their tablets or kindle without any side-effects. However I agree as an optional extra they're probably a waste of money. When I was car hunting earlier in the year I started out only looking for SE-Ls because of the rear screens but after seeing a few I realised the screens were poor quality in comparison to most portable DVD players or tablets and unless the journey is shorter than the film being played it's going to be next to impossible to change disc on the go. 10+ years ago they may have been cutting-edge ICE tech but today they're a bit out-dated.

A little embarrassing that a sign is being used to give travel info for a junction that is 1 mile away and presumably there's no alternative route by then!

I live a few miles off the smart section of the M42. Congestion is far better along the section than it was before. There are occassions when the speed limit is on despite no apparent congestion but that's usually to regulate the flow of traffic towards a congestion bottle-neck a few miles further on. I also use the M25 around Heathrow a lot. That is much. much better with the smart system than it was before. I'm a big fan. The cameras are usually set a good 15-20mph above the signalled limit anyway so it's not about revenues.

I've just order a set from them. There are a few sites for tailored mats which all appear to have the same 'engine' behind them i.e. pick quality, pick colour, pick trim, pick personalisation. They all seem to be coming in around the same price so probably are all using the same raw materials - may even all actually be the same company with different fornt-ends for all I know. Anyway I'll update once they arrive.

I went into the Lexus Birmigham dealer to inquire about mats for my 400H and was quoted £120 for black mats and £160 for beige (which is what I wanted). I'm sure they're the best quality but that's serious money. I think I'll gamble on some eBay mats first before I invest that kind of cash on mats.

Yeah, it didn't work. I've also tried a couple of other connection options in the hope of avoiding the big payout. I have the iPod cable so I started with a Bluetooth adapter from Kingston Sound. Sadly that didn't work - the stereo couldn't detect any connection through the cable. Next I tried a 3.5mm cable adapter that uses the ext. CD changer port. This sort of worked but the ridiculous cabling into the head unit meant I lost the audio screen on the satnav and the climate control stopped operating. The iPod adapter has an extra socket to integrate these into it's wiring which is missing from the 3.5mm adapter. So lastly I'm going to try for a 3.5mm to iPod port connector. Hopefully that will do the trick. I was surprised how easy it was to remove the fascia and get the stereo out but the wiring seems to be a complex mess to my layman's eyes.

You mean German or built in Solihull!

Turned out all 3 were a bust. The two higher mileage cars just weren't up to scratch (one had serious electrical issues actually) and although the lower mileage car was nice the dealer wasn't budging on price and was a right prick into the bargain, so I walked away. After that I decided to give up on the Lexus and look at some other things. Lo' and behold, I spot another car this morning - 07 plate with 80k miles at £7,500. Hot tailed it over first thing. Clearly done all of it's miles on the motorway given the number of stone chips and some dodgy door mouldings but it's got FLSH, one lady owner from new and the interior is immaculate. I doubt anyone has ever sat in the passenger seat. I pick it up on Wednesday. It won't cost a fortune to have the exterior touched up and get some new mouldings. Funny how things work out!

Ha ha, I was about to start a very similar thread albeit with a somewhat lower budget. I've got 3 RX400Hs in mind: 2007 / 70K miles - £9,990 2006 / 100K miles - £7,150 2005 / 130K miles - £6,750 They are all SE-Ls and all have the beige interior, exactly the spec I'm looking for. So the question in my mind is how much of a difference does 30k miles make? Is the 2007 car really worth the best part of £3K more? I was going to go for the 2006 car but the service history is spotty and the dealer doesn't know if the cam belt has been changed, although he's prepared to negotiate on price. The 2005 car has FLSH although it looks like it's missed a couple of services as it's only got 10 stamps. I was thinking that if the 2006 has a good interior (I've struggled to find cars of this age without a lot of scratches and tears or dirty carpets) and I can beat him down to around £6k then it's worth the gamble as it'll go straight into Lexus for a full service anyway. Thoughts or advice?

Well when I finally get my car (hopefully this weekend) I'll have a play with the trial version. It would certainly be the perfect solution so while I'll be surprised if it works I'd be a fool not to give it a go with the potential of saving £hundreds.

I received a quote of £349 for the Beatsonic unit. A tad expensive but I cannot see any other way of adding an after-market HU properly.

I'm not sure how this would work? The App seems to be a way to tether devices for to your phone using BT for data connection where they don't have WiFi, not to allow something like BT music streaming. It might work well on a later model like your 2015 450H but on a 400H I doubt there'd be any use.

Yes, have one in my current car (Nissan X-Trail) and intend to put it into an RX400H when I find the right car (and get the BeatSonic adapter). It does the job and on paper using your phone as the interface is a great idea however the app Sony have developed for it isn't great and the screen on most phones are still too small to be convenient to use at arm's length while driving. It does everything I need it to do - play CDs (hardly do that now), bluetooth phone connection and audio connection (which I couldn't live without now hence why I'll put it into my new car). However it is ugly with or without a phone in the cradle. There are a few other android-enabled HUs around that allow the same integration with your phone but mirror the phone screen on a larger touchscreen so that might be an option.

I popped into the Birmingham Lexus dealer on Sunday on the way back from viewing a couple of 400RXs to inquire about servicing, particularly the 100K service as most of the cars I'm looking at are around this mileage. They quote £645 for the service but the salesman I spoke to (the servicing dept. was closed) pointed out very helpfully that in fact the next main service at 120K miles is more expensive as it's a 60K interval. That's another £745. As I'm doing around 20K miles per year I could easily be looking at £2K of servicing costs in the first year if anything extra needs doing on top. That's a big bargaining chip I intend to use. I'm off to view another car tomorrow which the dealer has promised will have had the timing belt changed if I buy it. Out of interest can anyone recommend a independent Lexus specialist in the midlands for servicing? I'm going to look into Lexus' service plan but the car I'm looking at doesn't have FLSH, some of it has been done by a local garage (another bargaining chip) so I may opt to go with an independent as well.

Personally I'd steer well clear of an RF based solution. As DanD says you have to keep re-tuning as you drive which is a pain, it's prone to interference from taxis, emergency services or something as simple as over-head cables and the quality is only ever going to be as good as FM radio and often sounds more akin to AM in my experience. I will be fitting a bluetooth audio enabled HU when I get my car using the BeatSonic adapter. Cartronics now stock them so you don't have to faff around with US or Japanese import. http://www.cartronics.co.uk/Cartronics-blog/BeatSonic-Now-Available-from-Cartronics I'm going to ask for a quote to install so I'll post that here although I suspect a home install wouldn't be too tricky.

Hi All - first post for a prospective owner. Really glad I found this thread. I tested a 'keenly' priced 400H yesterday. 08 plate with 97K miles. I was trying to work out why it's probably a couple of hundred below trade value and now thanks to this thread I know it's due a 100k service which is going to cost a bit. Looking at an older car tomorrow but it's had the belt change done.