First_Lexus

As an idealistic student in the (very) early 1990s two types of music really appealed to me. First, the idealistic and politically motivated. Billy Bragg et al. Music with a message. Second was music that was more fun. Music where the bands were living their best life. Bands like Sugar (Copper Blue remains one of my favourite albums) and even early REM. Then as I got older, the ‘fun’ element persisted. I still love The The, Billy Bragg, Lloyd Cole, Elvis Costello, Kirsty MacColl and others. I still enjoy Sugar, American Music Club, Black Rebel Motorcycle etc. But I also found ‘new’ music which rang my bell. Bands that absolutely seemed to be having fun with music…bands like Fall Out Boy. High energy, modern rock with a historic soul. Genius.

I think I’ve realised what’s going on. Received an email from Costco - their new filling station in Reading is now open… …unleaded £1.49 per litre. I can only assume Sainsbury are trying to react to the new competition.

I’m a bit confused by the whole definition of an ‘expert.’ Accepting this is but a poor imitation of Sir Humphrey, but… We’re told that we shouldn’t trust ‘experts.’ However, the person telling us not to trust ‘experts’ post things that imply that - although we shouldn’t trust ‘experts’ - that he was (by implication) an ‘expert’ who we SHOULD listen to. My question is simple. Which ‘experts’ should we listen to and trust, and which ‘experts’ should we ignore? And what is the definition of an expert? Is it somebody with either educational or experiential credibility (let’s call them ‘ the establishment ‘ ) or is it somebody who claims that we shouldn’t trust ‘experts’ whilst presenting themselves as an ‘expert.’ Answers on a postcard…

Strange goings on in Reading (Calcot). For the past few months the Sainsbury store and the nearby BP have matched each other for petrol price, with the BP often a penny or two cheaper. Today, Sainsbury is at £1.54 for unleaded. BP has INCREASED its price to £1.62! Strange…🤔

I had Yokohama (Summer) tyres on my NX and they were fine. In terms of Winter tyres - and based only on my personal experience in some cold and occasionally snowy weather - over the years I’ve had Vredestein Wintrac (hopeless), Bridgestone Blizzak (very good) and the pick of the bunch were Falken Eurowinter. I can’t express how good the Falken were. Very quiet, but cold weather performance was just superb and inspired great confidence. Other family members have switched to them based on my experience and all feel the same. If you can get the size - I had them on two Hondas - they’re well worth a look.

Exactly the same decision I made almost a year ago. No regrets. The RX is just amazing, especially given the offers available as those made it far cheaper than a new NX. Congratulations!

Coming back from Bristol to Reading one evening last week, there was an issue on the M4. Not being in a hurry, I decided to take the A420 out of Bristol to Chippenham, and then the A4 through Calne, Avebury, Marlborough, Hungerford, Newbury, Thatcham and then Reading. This wasn’t a quick journey - M4 usually takes about 75 minutes, and this took two hours…but, with an average speed of 40-50mph rather than 70mph, I managed a fuel economy I never thought I’d see on an RX. 42.3mpg shown. Sometimes it’s nice to take the ‘road less travelled.’ It was a lovely drive. Just not the best if you’re in a hurry!

My Lada Riva 1200L was 2,200lbs (roughly 1000kg I think). It felt heavier than that! In comparison, my current RX is about 4600 lbs…yikes!

I might be missing something, but I’m pretty sure I get a flu booster every year in order to keep protection high. Tetanus and Yellow Fever are also examples where immunity wanes and top up is required - and I’ve also received boosters for both. Hardly anybody wears face masks any more - whether we should is a different matter. Yes, small numbers of people are still being treated in hospital with COVID, as I understand it from the reporting largely those with serious underlying health conditions. Much like flu in fact… Perhaps flu is actually the REAL global conspiracy illness? That’s had a pretty good run…centuries of infection, epidemic and death, leading to a regular vaccine programme in recent decades which has reduced impacts. Terrible, huh?

Yes, good point. At least the industrial revolution gave the up and coming middle classes a chance at influence and power (although I think that started much earlier as a result of labour shortages caused by the Black Death, but still). Without it, the majority of us would have remained oppressed by the Feudal Lords. There is a tendency - and I admit I fall into it from time to time - to romanticise the period before industrialisation. However, if the Levellers and the Diggers taught us anything it’s that attempts to reform society generally ended in failure and bloodshed.

…and anybody watching Rachel Reeves’ interview performance as Shadow Chancellor this morning can see that we’re totally doomed either way. Clowns to the left of us, clowns to the right of us… DOOOOOOMED!

There were methods for the population to understand the political and social landscape before the internet! Newspapers, pamphlets, local meetings…lots of people absolutely were cheering on the Luddites. Not the ruling class, obviously, but normal downtrodden working people who are all too often ignored by history. We should be careful in assuming that (what we call) progress is always positive. It’s interesting that the term ‘Luddite’ is now used in the negative. All they were doing was standing up for their craft and employment rights against mechanisation which was to see their wages and (limited) rights eroded for the benefit of mill owners. Yes, progress was - at a macro level - achieved with the growth of the UK economy, but at what human cost? I appreciate I may sound like a socialist, or a conspiracy theorist - perhaps even a socialist conspiracy theorist - but what we call ‘progress’ is often just a way of making a small group of people richer at the expense of the majority. Progress led to colonisation, Empire, subjugation and many other very bad things. But hey, at least ‘progress’ meant that we ‘gave’ those countries railways. Funny that they aren’t more grateful isn’t it?! Even so, I do believe that the climate crisis means fossil fuels are doomed, and rightly so. Funny thing though…it was industrial innovation - the industrial revolution - that saw the mass extraction and burning of coal, then oil, which is, as I understand it, one of the major factors behind global warming. EDIT: for context, I am exceptionally grumpy this morning!

I’ve enquired about the Subaru Solterra, as essentially it’s a very similar car to the RZ underneath. It also claims a longer maximum range at 280 miles. The local dealer says they expect to have a car to test drive before Christmas, with first customer deliveries starting in March. Sounds familiar… Meanwhile, over at Toyota they had a BZ4 in the showroom. Looked nice. A saleswoman rushed over to say they couldn’t take orders for it, and that it was being taken out of the showroom due to ‘production delays.’ What on earth is going on?!

I’m with EON, and they’re adding £66 to my account balance with them each month for six months. Seems reasonable. Agree about switching. I used to use the comparison sites regularly, and did make some savings but not really significant. The work needed to go through the switch each time was a pain too - better with some suppliers than others. I’ve been with PFP, Ovo, Bulb, Scottish Power, NPower and Octopus over the years. The only one that really was hopeless was Scottish Power. The rest were all pretty good customer service wise. Luckily, when I moved into my current house last August - which was already serviced by EON - they offered me an 18 month fixed price which was as good as anything else out there. That expires in March 2023. To be fair, EON also seem fine.

£1.58 for unleaded at BP in Calcot (Reading) this morning.

Loosely related to the current thread direction of travel - did anybody else see this? https://news.sky.com/story/scientists-propose-controversial-plan-to-refreeze-north-and-south-poles-by-spraying-sulphur-dioxide-into-atmosphere-12697769 In other news, petrol here is below £1.60 in some places now and the price is still falling…slowly.

Somebody remarked earlier that this is a very complex subject. It certainly is. I’m not sure there are actually ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers - perhaps simply variations of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ options. From my perspective - and these are only my thoughts and opinions - EVs are very useful in terms of improving air quality in urban settings. I’m not sure many people would disagree, but I’m sure some will. Their contribution in terms of emissions to combat climate change, when being used, is also important. That is the environmental impact. However, the key there is “…when being used.” What about the impact of their manufacture? Then we come to sustainability. Our natural resources can only be used once, and with some recycling, a few times at best. Then they’re gone forever. From a sustainability perspective, we should use cars (as the example - actually everything) until they are no longer able to be used, and then re-use as much of them as possible. But if they are heavy polluters, that doesn’t help with their negative environmental impact (assuming we believe that the negative in terms of emissions outweighs the positives in terms of reduced manufacturing). In many ways, localism is the answer - minimising international trade and thus wasteful consumerism - along with renewable energy. But then what of the economy? Is economic growth actually desirable or necessary? Governments chase growth relentlessly but at what cost to the planet and the future? Then layer on ‘progress.’ International trade used to be facilitated by sailing ships. Not much environmental impact there, apart from cutting down trees to build them (which actually may have been a big impact!). Now we have huge fossil fuel driven container ships. National and international travel used to be the preserve of the wealthy. Now almost anybody can fly to Spain or France for a holiday. Is that a good thing? Will the population really be willing to sacrifice their ability to travel freely, to buy what they want when they want it - can progress be turned around? I very much doubt it. And what has that progress been built on? Largely the ‘old’ countries of the West plundering the resources of poorer nations in order to fuel their economies. The EU still thrives on a variation of that with free movement of labour. The poorer countries of Southern and Eastern Europe are hampered in their ability to develop as their best and brightest move North to fuel the economies of the richer nations. I digress. Is it right for those ‘old’ countries to now deny the same economic progress to growing economies? But then, what of the impact on the environment of those ‘new’ economies growing? Complex? I should say so!

I finally cleaned the RX today - last clean was 31st July. The ceramic coating does help matters, but I didn’t find it too bad without my hosepipe or pressure washer. I did apply a 1:20 dilution APC prior, then used lots of watering can loads to remove as much grit and dirt as possible. I then washed using my wool mitt - two buckets and plenty of water used - dried, and applied a quick detailer before dressing the plastics and tyres to finish. The end result is very good, albeit took a bit longer to achieve. Biggest issue is all the ‘nooks and crannies’ that snow foam and a pressure washer deal with effortlessly. The wheel arches and underside will need to be done periodically too, once I find a garage within 10 miles with a working pressure washer! As I sometimes do, I chose to use a product that I haven’t used for a while for the final dressing - Bilt-Hamber Auto QD. I’d normally use GTechniq c2v3 or CarPro for that, but I have to say the BH has given a lovely glossy finish. Always worth re-visiting those products that have been on the shelf and unloved for a while…

Depends what you get for that. To give you an idea, I paid £500 total (with a very good detailer) for a GTechniq ceramic coating (including wheels), full correction prior, and colour block protection to the interior leather surfaces.

Having had mine for almost a year, I reckon 32-36 mpg is about right, certainly based on the computer in mine. Motorway journeys are where economy suffers most, but the comfort and silence are a price worth paying, for me at least. Luckily the shift to working at home means those longer trips are limited to a maximum of once a week these days.

https://www.ey.com/en_uk/news/2022/06/tipping-point-reached-as-more-nearly-half-of-uk-car-buyers-seek-electric-vehicle This was from the Summer. No great surprises here from my perspective. Interesting all the same the main reasons why people are considering the switch.

I’ve looked at the MG electric options, and they are pretty good from what I’ve seen, especially given the price. I know somebody who had an MG5 estate electric for three months (short term lease while waiting for their own new car) and they were mightily impressed - to the point they wondered why they were spending almost three times as much on their ACTUAL new car…😆

Interesting - cleaned the inside of the car just this afternoon, and…no ‘bing-bong.’ I don’t seem to have it. I’ll chalk this one up as a win!

In what circumstances do you get the ‘bing bong?’ (This is starting to sound rather like a Goons radio sketch!) I’ve owned my 2021 RX for almost a year and can’t remember hearing anything other than the ‘beep’ when closing the electric boot. I must be doing something wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it). Unless my ‘bing-bong’ was disabled from new?

I can confirm they are indeed building a filling station next to the existing store in Reading - they’re using the front part of the car park. Went to the store this morning. Plenty of building work underway with a sign noting that they’re constructing said filling station. Good news!