First_Lexus

That was genuine racing - for the final ten laps mainly. Fantastic. A truly horrible accident - and one in the F2 race earlier too - but testament to the amazing safety advances made in recent years that all drivers are alive and (mostly) unscathed. So far, I’ve enjoyed this season more than any in recent years. The sport really needs Ferrari to be competitive imho.

“Come friendly bombs, and fall on Slough. It isn’t fit for humans (or Hyundai owners) now.”

Sad to leave Lexus after such a long association, but I’ve been impressed with KIA for quite some time. From what I’ve seen the quality is excellent, as are spec and pricing. I actually prefer the looks of the Hyundai IONIC5, and when I eventually go EV that would be my first choice. Unfortunately for now I have a weekly 200 mile round trip with no potential to charge an EV at the ‘other end’ so for now - and with few regrets - the RX stays. And I do absolutely love it!

My 2020 RX (Premium with Tech and Safety packs) moves both the seat and the steering wheel either when the start button is pushed or if the seatbelt is fastened prior to the start button being pushed. I assumed it was standard - perhaps @Herbiecan advise as I think his RX is of the 2018 or 2019 vintage.

Surely nobody can be surprised by this story either, repeated across the news networks today… https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jun/27/fuel-retailers-uk-petrol-prices-record-high Shockingly it suggests that fuel retailers a) haven’t passed on the 5p duty cut, and b) aren’t reflecting the recent falls in wholesale prices. I’m shocked! 😆

Speaking with somebody in Portugal earlier, and the situation is exactly the same there re : cost of living increases, petrol and diesel prices etc. The question for Government is what to do about it and what they - realistically - can do about it. A VAT cut on petrol and diesel would seem sensible to me… Noted this evening that the BP filling station is now at £1.86.9 so yesterday must have been a timing anomaly. I’ll chalk that up as a win for me! Meanwhile, in other news… https://news.sky.com/story/households-could-be-offered-cheaper-energy-if-they-cut-usage-at-certain-times-12641301

Fortunately I didn’t have to queue at about 15.30. The irony is I almost went to Sainsbury as I drove past but couldn’t be bothered as I expected it to be really busy and decided to use the BP garage instead without realising the price!! An unusual stroke of luck…😃

As I’ve said previously, I think a lot of people are managing - like me - because of the shift to more home working. I do feel for those that have no choice but to travel to a place of work as they always did - Doctors, Nurses, Firemen, Police, shop workers (I could go on). Yesterday, I filled up with BP in Reading at £1.83 a litre, cheaper than the nearby Sainsbury at £1.87 a litre for normal unleaded. Half a tank cost £60 for the RX. That full tank will see me 430 miles or thereabouts. ^^ It’s fair to say that reading this thread I can say with certainty that it’s an emotive subject! What does worry me - as somebody with a disability - is the feeling that everything transport related is being targeted to the young and healthy. We do have an ageing population, and my personal future doesn’t look rosy if I can’t drive and get where I need to easily. I physically cannot ride a bicycle (never was able to), walking is now getting harder and public transport has access issues along with the need to walk more. Trains are problematic these days, and I can no longer use the Underground due to the walking distances involved. Unless Government gets a grip of access to vehicles for the less affluent as we move to EVs, along with extending public transport but also making sure the vulnerable are protected, things are going to get messy… As a final aside, I’ve read mention about how Government is going to make up the loss of VED and fuel duty as society moves to an EV future. The most likely solution imho - and current EV owners will certainly look back to the past and next few years as a ‘golden age’ for low costs - will be a surcharge on every property with an EV charging point, whether domestic, public or industrial. The stated reason for these charges will be to re-invest in the network infrastructure, but we all know it is actually about replacing lost revenue. What will the charge be? For a start probably between £500 and £1000 per annum, added to the electricity bill…

I’ve owned two NX300h and can thoroughly recommend them - a great vehicle. No real issues to look out for. As with any Lexus based on my experience they’re beautifully made. The 300h isn’t a ball of fire, but drive smoothly and calmly and it will reward you with a relaxed driving experience. I averaged 38-42mpg in mine. You’ve made a fine choice. Reliable, practical, good looking and with build quality second to none. Welcome to Lexus!

Between £1.71 and £1.88 here for standard unleaded. The only good news for people like me is that I now WFH nearly all of the time. That means my fuel use and cost is either the same or lower than it was pre-pandemic, which was one of the reasons I went for an RX while I still could. I have much sympathy for those who rely on their cars and who are being squeezed by these price increases. Personally I believe the Government should look at reducing VAT on fuel, even if only temporarily.

Can only agree with other posts on this thread. My new RX was pretty much the same to insure as my previous NX, albeit my premium rose when I moved from rural Wiltshire to West Berkshire (£370 annually to £450). I’m with Aviva, now for the second year in a row as they were cheaper than everybody else on renewal. That’s never happened before with any insurance company as far as I can remember! TBF most quotes were similar at £450-£500 with a couple of weird outliers into four figures, who I can only assume don’t want customers like me (21 years NCB, no convictions etc.). I have a £250 excess (£50 windscreen), legal cover, hire car but no breakdown as I have the Lexus cover with the car. I only renewed yesterday!

Yes, that’s what used to happen with my NX. I had two sets of wheels and tyres, both with TPMS valves registered to the car. Swapping over was simply a case of removing one set and bolting the other set on.

I’m sure they are (mostly) well meaning, and I’m in no way a ‘climate change denier’ but I do fear that most of the people doing this sort of thing have simply fastened onto the issue in order to cause mischief. They aren’t always the brightest either. On a radio phone-in about this last week, a caller had her Honda Jazz tyres deflated. In what universe is that an SUV?! Another caller was disabled, displaying a blue badge, and despite the ‘activists’ claiming they wouldn’t target vehicles clearly owned by somebody with a disability, they still had. The icing on the cake was the caller who had their tyres deflated…on an ELECTRIC car. 😆 Stupid hippies. I blame the education system.

Based on the build quality of my RX, I’d expect the only two things to survive a nuclear war will be the cockroaches and Lexus RXs! Whether the cockroaches will evolve to drive them we will have to wait and see…😁

I owned two NX between 2017 and 2021, covering about 30,000 miles. I switched to an RX in November simply because of the amazing deals available and tbh because I just fancied one. At the time the PCP was 1.9%, with £2k deposit contribution, £1k loyalty bonus and then a five figure discount on top. Add to that the fact that my almost four year old NX had an unbelievably high trade in value and it was an easy decision to make. Both are excellent cars. I loved the NX300h and had no issues at all. Economy 38-42mpg. Smooth, quiet, well made. The RX has significantly more power, is even smoother and is a lovely place to waft around, especially on the motorway. Whether it’s the right choice for you will depend on the deal and the test drive of both. Economy so far with the same use and same driver is 30-32mpg. I can’t seem to get above that. Mpg figures for both are from the onboard computers. In terms of size, I do find the RX a bit more limiting than the NX was. That’s mainly because of width rather than length. The RX is about 1.5 inches wider than the NX, and there’s a particular width restricted road I no longer use as it’s just too tight, and having already damaged an alloy wheel to it I’m not risking it again! If I still lived in a very rural area with single track lanes I had to use I don’t think I’d have gone to an RX. Let us know what you decide. Good luck - and rest assured there isn’t really a bad choice here. As I said at the start, both are great cars.

To be fair the plan, as I understand it, is simply to reduce numbers back to 2016 levels prior to recruitment needed to facilitate UK exit from the EU and recently supporting pandemic response. Nothing wrong with that imho. And I think it will happen, albeit as you say mostly through natural wastage rather than by planned attrition.

When I started work (early 1990s) for a large organisation in a big office in central London most people didn’t even have computers on their desks. There were certainly very few mobile telephones. Accepting it was an old fashioned type of organisation - wonderful to work for though - there seemed to be far less pressure on employees. There were certainly more people around. Work was as much social as anything, although we did (obviously) have to get things done! Afternoon meetings would be accompanied by a trolley (brought to order by the catering staff) of snacks and cakes, along with multiple bottles of wine, cans of beer and spirits for those that wanted them. Most people would go out afterwards too. Every Friday work finished at 14.00 and we were all encouraged to go to the ‘lounge’ areas on every floor and have a drink, also provided by the company. Nobody abused the hospitality. It seemed very normal at the time, and it was great fun. People stayed because they enjoyed the atmosphere and the friendship. More than fifteen years after I left, I’m still friends with loads of people from that time, although to be fair some of them I’d also been to University or even school with so we go back a bit further. I feel privileged to have worked at that time. When I started there, there were 3,000 people in that one office. When I left fifteen years later there were fewer than 800. Technology, recession and changing habits drove that decline. I maintain that the face to face interaction and socialising drove rather than hindered our performance. And we sure had a lot of fun! Different times. I miss them. Sigh.

There has been much media coverage this week about Jacob Rees-Mogg and his desire to return Civil Servants to more of an office based working culture. I now have to work at home most of the time. My organisation has reduced the estate, and there aren’t enough desks for everybody in an office - perhaps enough for 30% of our people at one time. I visit the office only once a week for meetings. Now, I do fully accept that the shift towards a ‘work from home’ model affords me more flexibility. I don’t have the regular commute and the associated time and fuel costs. The change enabled me to relocate back from whence I came when I took my current role, close to my friends and family. There are benefits for me. However, I’m really not a fan. I work longer hours now than I did previously. It is harder to segregate work from home. Besides that, I actually don’t think working at home is as nice. Things I could once have sorted with a quick chat now require me to track down the person I need online and find a space in their diary. There are more ‘meetings’ as a result. I miss the team interaction, and I genuinely worry about younger workers who miss out on physical interaction and problem solving with their colleagues. There’s a big social deficit too. I’m not just talking about discussions within the team, but also after work drinks, dinner etc. It’s more difficult now. I tend to agree with JRM on this one. I’m unconvinced that, overall, the benefits of working at home outweigh the negatives. Am I out of step here? Is it time I was put out to pasture?

^^ There’s surprisingly little traffic disruption these days, as I shut my laptop down and walk downstairs from my office to my living room…😆 Once a week in the office is how it is now. Others don’t even get that much time. Most of the time my car is nothing more than a sculpture (of sorts) on my driveway. 😶

It’s always very interesting to read the opinions of others on different models. These are nicely written reviews. Having owned or had most Lexus models as courtesy cars over the last few years, I tend to agree with some of the comments about the UX. The door cards especially feel (to me) needlessly cheap and plasticky. Apart from that I quite liked the UX, and it certainly is perky. Happy to admit that saloons aren’t my thing any more as I find them too low to get in an out of easily. The one time I had an ES I loved the looks, but as others have said found it quite an unwieldy thing. Compared with the NX I had at the time I do remember posting that I found the ES interior quality quite a let down in comparison. As with most things, it’s all about perception and opinion. There isn’t really a right or wrong.

Back on topic, I have a genuine question for the cyclists on this thread. This morning I was on my regular weekly commute to Bristol. Before I get to the M4 in Berkshire there is a single file bridge over a canal. The bridge is controlled by traffic lights. On the way to the bridge, at about 08.00 on a narrow b-Road - with busy traffic in both directions - I needed to pass a cyclist. Everybody waited patiently and, as far as I saw, gave a respectful passing distance. However, about half a mile later, we were held up by a red traffic light at the bridge. The cyclist caught up, and overtook the queue waiting to cross the bridge, taking up position at the front. There isn’t room to pass a cyclist safely on the bridge. I’m aware that he did nothing ‘wrong’ by going to the front of the queue, but what he did was frustrate the drivers who had recently passed him and a couple of those in front of me did pass him, in my opinion, far too closely. What would the cyclists here have done? He needed to cross the bridge, but by going to the front of the queue and holding up the cars - again - he did cause a delay and some considerable frustration. Should he have held back? Should note that I was the third car behind him and waited until the bridge was cleared. Problem then was the queue of cars in the other direction meaning I had to wait for some time until I could pass him safely. Drivers behind me were very agitated. Is everybody simply too impatient these days? Answers on a postcard please! Personally I think what he did may have been legally ‘allowed’ but showed a lack of emotional intelligence…assuming others think he needed to show emotional intelligence as he was / is as entitled to use the road as anybody else.

Can’t really go wrong with a Honda. Excellent choice imho.

I had to look TCO up…(Total Cost of Ownership from what I can see - correct?) I’m more than happy to admit that ‘normal’ maths - and science for that matter - isn’t exactly my specialist area. Man maths on the other hand -that I can get my head around! I often justify my 2004 MINI Cooper, owned from new and hardly ever used, in a similar way. It helps when I have moments of weakness…

We need a ‘man maths’ justification thread! 😅

Reminds me of an old joke. “I met this girl, and told her I had a small fortune. She asked me how I made it… So, I told her. I started with a large fortune and invested it badly…” I’ll get my coat. 🙄