wharfhouse

Agreed - PCP when the interest rates are high can prove expensive - I've generally done PCP at zero or very low rates only.

PCP is about keeping monthly payments lower than a loan / HP and getting a new car with a very small deposit, which for many is the main priority especially if you like to change a new car every three years. On PCP you are financing the depreciation rather than the whole cost of the car. If you intend to keep the car long term or have a decent deposit to put down then a loan over say 5 or 6 years will probably get close to the monthly PCP payments and you then have some decent equity left in the car to use against the next one when you are ready. I've bought cars on PCP in the past and on a couple of them I paid the final "balloon" to keep the car rather than trade it in. However those were on zero/very low PCP deals. I've also used personal loans and bought for cash. For me it all depends what works at that point in time and what makes the money work best for me.

I have never rotated tyres - I do around 15k miles a year and have 17" wheels. There is slight inner wear at the rears and slight outer wear on the fronts which is as designed setup for rear wheel drive cars (have had the same on many other cars). I generally replace tyres when they are at the tread wear indicator (3mm) around the centre main tread but at that point the rear inner wear and front outer wear still isn't excessive. I have now done 143k miles in the car and the wear patterns have been consistent over all of that time. Also consistent is tyre replacements over that time. I always replace the rears every 20k miles and the fronts every 40k miles.

Yes - on pre-2017 IS 300h it's currently £10 per annum - due to go up to £20 per annum as the hybrid discount is being abolished - but still a nice saving compared to post 2017 models.

Once the car has reached either 10 years old or 100K miles (whichever comes first) then it doesn't qualify anymore for the Relax extended warranty (which is free if the car is serviced at a Lexus dealer). However, there is something called 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty (which is for cars older than 10 years or 100k miles) and this can be bought annually until the car is 15 years old or 150k miles (whichever comes first). The 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty isn't advertised anywhere on the Lexus website and some dealers aren't too clued up on it either unfortunately, but it is available and I and a number of other members on here have taken it out. It offers pretty much the same cover as Relax extended warranty. The cost of mine when I renewed it in November last year for the IS 300h was £474 per annum - and you can spread the payment over 10 months interest free. However, the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty ALSO INCLUDES Lexus Roadside Assistance (https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/roadside-assistance which is £155 is purchased on its own, so if you would have bought the roadside assistance anyway then the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty is only really an additional £319 per annum. The key thing to be aware of is that you must have the car serviced by a Lexus dealer according to the normal service schedule (12 months / 10K miles whichever comes first) for the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty to remain valid - the servicing prices don't reduce after the 10 years / 100k miles though and so you need to factor in the continued servicing costs at a Lexus dealer.

I bought a few metres quite a few years ago - it was either eBay or Amazon I purchased it from. I use it on and off if I find something on a car where there is a rattle - usually occurs at a plastic to plastic interface where the two pieces move against each other - slide a bit of tape between and it stops it. The tape is a felt like material and has a self adhesive backing on one side. If you put something like "car anti rattle / squeak felt tape" into Google (or eBay or Amazon) there's loads of it available - pretty much all the same sort of stuff.

Pleased to hear that the car parking company has dropped the charge - good result. If the car parking companies think there is any chance of a precedent being made that would work against them in the future then they wouldn't want to clarify on what grounds they dropped it (at best it's usually goodwill or something) and would want to keep it out of the appeals or small claims process in case others used the dame against them in the future. They rely almost totally on case law if they take the process forwards as that's there cheapest way of putting together their case and only needs the cheapest legal people...!

And as well as above the cabin is warmed by the engine running - so in winter the engine has to run more when you are st speeds where in summer it could be off just to generate heat so you have warm air into the cabin. When you first start the car in cold weather the engine has to run a longer initial cycle to get to working temperature and of course heat up the cabin first thing from stone cold (so fuel economy takes a proportionally bigger hit again during short trips in winter). To a lesser extent you also use more electrics in winter - so lights, wipers, heated seats, rear window demister etc. - these all require power that has to be replaced and so again the engine will run more to replenish the battery. The optimum external temperature for efficiency is around 20C - at this temperature the cabin is comfortable at ambient temperature so no heat required from the engine to warm the cabin, less power sapping electrics, and the air con isn't working very hard. The hybrid battery is also at the best working temperature for efficiency too. Conversely as outside temperatures rise up from 20C the air con has to work harder and as that is electrically driven in a hybrid is starts using more energy that then has to be replaced. Also the hybrid traction battery can become less efficient as it starts to get hotter. The effect is less on fuel economy in hot weather than cold weather but it's noticeable.

Back in the 1980s they used to nick BMWs that way - punch a hole in the door skin and trip the locks! BMW then started reinforcing the area which stopped it. No matter what the car manufacturers do there is always some lowlife finding another way to get around it and keep the trade in stolen cars/parts going!

Apologies missed your date of purchase on the above - given that was Nov 22 then the car should have had a service in that time (as the schedule is 12 months or 10k miles whichever come soonest). If that was done at a Lexus dealer then you can point Steven Eagell to that as it will be covered by the Relax extended warranty.

Given the jump start and low 12V battery when the Check Hybrid System came on I would start with replacing the 12V battery - once the 12V batteries start to not hold charge properly then it creates all sorts of weird problems with the car. When you say the car kept cutting out do you mean that it actually died totally as of course the internal combustion engine does cut in and out as needed depending on the state of the hybrid battery, cabin temperature etc. How long have you had the car? Do you know it's history such as where and when it last serviced (if at Lexus and within the last 12 months or 10K miles, whichever is soonest, it would have the Relax Extended Warranty automatically in place which would cover major faults (not the 12V battery though). It's hard to fathom why Steven Eagell are unable to diagnose and come up with a full explanation though. If you aren't getting anywhere then Lexus Customer Relations at HQ can be reached on cr@lexus.co.uk but I would have though a meeting with the dealer principal face-to-face would be the next logical step.

Lexus Recovery is all handled by the AA. The Lexus deal is pretty good if you use it all - eg you and spouse driving any car, comprehensive UK cover, and euro breakdown for your Lexus. If you only have minimal requirements however then it might be more expensive than selecting a more appropriately matched policy from one of the breakdown companies.

Yes the hybrid health check being done as per the schedule will keep extending the hybrid battery warranty.

I think that is just for BEVs (maybe PHEVs?) but not the normal hybrids like IS 300h, NX 300h, ES 300h, UX 250h etc.?

I think the hybrid system would raise a fault code if there was a problem - certainly all those on this forum across all cars have either had no issues or a fault code - so long as its had the hybrid health check at the specified interval then it would be a warranty replacement of the battery if a fault code indicates a failure that can't be fixed any other way - to my knowledge Lexus do not have any threshold (at least published) for the hybrid battery capacity and nothing in the warranty about being below any threshold.

IIRC there was a thread on here a few years back along similar lines with the upshot that the techniques you are using cannot check the health of the hybrid battery. TBH best best is to get Lexus to do the hybrid healthcheck every 12 months / 10k miles (whichever comes first) - free with a Lexus service or about £60 if you pay for it separately - and then they will warranty the battery for 15 years with unlimited mileage - which seems like a good deal to me. I have a 2014 IS 300h (so basically same drive train as NX 300h and I've now done 143k miles with no issues whatsoever with the hybrid system to date. There is at least one other member who I think is on around 250k miles in their IS 300h with the original hybrid battery and another member with an IS 300h who did have a hybrid battery fault at 190k or so miles and had been using the hybrid health check and so had the hybrid battery replaced under warranty. Also the tech is basically the same as the Prius of which there are many thousands of cars happily running with no hybrid problems having covered hundred of thousands of miles. IMHO if you are concerned best to get Lexus to do the hybrid health check and if it passes then don't worry about it (but get the check done on schedule to keep the hybrid battery warranty in place).

Not all - they are just naturally low cars - easy to scrape the undertrays.

This website lists all centres using Hunter wheel alignment equipment which is supposed to be the best equipment - though like anything it's still down to the operator to be skilled enough to do the best job. https://alignmycar.co.uk/

I hope that when you get the ES it lives up to your expectations - it's certainly a good car for covering long mileages comfortably and quietly. Although if you are leasing, long-term reliability won't be top of your list, you should encounter very few problems while you have the car that would take it off the road.

I assume you chose the car because it's what you wanted and so meets your needs better than the Merc or you would have stayed with the Merc? There are some issues with Canbus thefts of some Lexus models / years but of course it's not only Lexus that are being targeted - other marques are suffering from significant rises in thefts too, but you will get all the gory details on Lexus thefts here with it being a Lexus forum and an active one, and helpful one. I do agree that Lexus should do more to help owners but that said outside the big cities the theft issues are much lower (I see you live in Renfrewshire). IMHO all you can do with any car is take sensible precautions and not lose sleep over it, especially if it's a car to be used daily and not a pride-and-joy weekend car. The "professional" car thieves that are stealing to order will be able to take virtually any car if they want it regardless of what you try and do to stop them (see posts about steering wheel locks defeated by angle grinders and cutting the steering wheel). What they are stealing today will change and tomorrow it will be something else by a new unknown means that people may have bought thinking it was a "safe" buy. You said it's a leased car and although I haven't had a car on a personal lease AFAIK the lease company will have to handle most of the fall out should the car be stolen. As in a lot of things in life, assume the worst will happen and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't...!

One thing I've found in my IS 300h is that any dirt on the headlight lenses seems to significantly cut down the brightness of the lights. At this time of year particularly, with road grime thrown onto the headlights, it only takes a few miles to noticeably reduce brightness (presumably due to light scatter). The lenses don't always look dirty but it just seems to take a light layer to make a big difference and giving them a wash off is very noticeable, especially on dipped beam - full beam seems to suffer less.

I always used to have any reflection / glare coatings on glasses but started using contact lenses more and so on a pair of glasses for occasional use I decided to skip the anti glare coating - big mistake... I continually noticed reflections in the lenses which were distracting and I hated driving in them for that reason as I kept seeing reflections in my peripheral vision. Next pair I got the coating again and all good. The only downside is that the coating is easily marked such as putting the lenses gave down on a table.

Had this on my IS 300h about 1,000 miles after it's last service - first time it's happened so I think they just forgot to reset it. It was possible to do the reset through the settings menu on the instrument cluster so may be the same on your ES.

To wrap up this thread I have just fitted the rubber cushions to my armrest - I've arrowed the images to show what was done as follows (top row left to right followed by bottom row left to right): - The parts from Lexus - note that you need to ask for TWO of 58959-60060 (one for each side of the armrest) - I ordered these from Lexus Parts Direct - the shipping cost more than the parts... - On opening the armrest, arrowed are my old rubber cushions - the left one with no rubber (just the stem in the hole) and the right one had a bit of rubber left on it - After extracting the old stems I am left with two holes - The new cushions just push fit into the holes - also Lexus had put some felt as shown at each corner and I think in the middle - I had replaced the felt previously with self adhesive anti-rattle tape as it was coming off but didn't know about the rubber cushions (this image shows one side)- you can feel the outline for the tape if its missing at each corner - this is where the plastic will touch the plastic at the edges and under the latch on closing - Same on the other side - In the centre console, this is where the rubber cushions in the armrest lid sit when the lid is closed Having added the new cushions and renewed the felt (with little bits of self adhesive anti-rattle tape) the armrest lid now closes with nice click and there is absolutely no movement in the lid once it's closed. I hadn't appreciated how "loose" it had become with the rubber cushions deteriorating and now I've done it feels like it did when I got the car.

Winter always reduces mpg in hybrids as the ICE has to be on more to keep the car warm and the hybrid battery does not perform so well in the cold. That difference seems about right. Mpg will improve with using E5 petrol. If you can get E5 for less than 10p a litre more than E10 you should be saving money. More than a 10p difference though and you won't (but will still get better mpg and the car will run smoother and quieter).