First_Lexus

Sorry John, I thought the response was obligatory…

CRACKERJACK!

+1 for CarWow as the starting point. If nothing else it shows the dealers who really want the business…and those that don’t!

As competition for sales has increased, dealer margins have decreased. Personally I’d say a truly extravagant gift these days would indicate you hadn’t got a really good deal… Lexus Swindon were over £2k better in terms of the deal for my RX than any other Lexus dealer. One even questioned how they could do the deal at the prices they were offering. I’d rather have the money in my pocket than a flash driving day (or similar), and I think most of us are the same. Times have changed. I think it’s nice that Lexus still offer a token gesture. Most others don’t.

Set of ceramic Japanese spoons from Lexus Swindon in December when I collected my new RX. A bit of an odd choice, but I actually rather liked them. Paintwork equally flawless in the handover room, and the box for the keys is a lovely touch.

I’ve seen threads on this very forum where prospective owners have said they’d discount Lexus because of the sat nav / screen / connection functionality. It must be an age thing. I’d much rather have a well built, comfortable and reliable car first, and worry about things like sat nav or screen connection functionality some way down the list!

Willing

Cane

Certainly in the UK there has been a gradual shift in political allegiance over the past thirty years. Metropolitan areas - especially London, Leeds and Bristol but to a lesser extent pretty much every other city - are now very left-wing / liberal (see Sadiq Khan looking to de-criminalise drugs), while rural areas are far more right-wing / conservative. Obviously that’s a gross generalisation, but it is directionally correct imho. It was always a bit like that, but the gentrification of urban areas and their shift in population to majority younger age groups has accelerated the change. When I was growing up, I couldn’t have imagined that Islington, Bow or Leytonstone would ever be considered as attractive places to live, or that they’d be populated by young professionals with liberal views! Increasingly political views are being determined less by habit, gender or ethnicity and more by social class and wealth. If the Brexit debate taught us anything, it was that there was an ‘accepted’ view (either for or against) for people who considered themselves to be highly educated or intelligent and those that didn’t. To some extent, I believe that a lot of people voted in the way that ‘people like them’ were supposed to vote!

You are right, of course. Looking online it isn’t ‘offensive’ as such, it’s just seen as outdated as are other gender specific terms. It’s the same as ‘batsmen’ being changed to ‘batters’ in cricket. I also read we should now refer simply to ‘parents’ rather than to ‘Mother’ or ‘Father.’ As my Father (!) would have said, “…none of this changes the price of fish.” It doesn’t really matter - whatever makes people comfortable is fine with me. My concern is that I’ll say something innocent (such as referring to an actress) and somebody will take offence where none was intended.

Also, when did we stop referring to female actors as actresses? It’s not an offensive term as far as I’m aware - grammatically, actor is the male and actress the female - or so I was taught…

I wasn’t even aware that there was such a thing as a Toyota Highlander! Having looked on Autotrader there certainly aren’t many available, but the ones that are are usefully cheaper than the RX. Based on the pictures on Autotrader, the instrument binnacle looks more up to date than the RX.In common with other Toyota products, does this indicate that the Highlander will be the base for the next generation of RX, in which case @flookykit may well be worth a look. Sorry I can’t be of any real help with your question, hopefully others will be able to provide more advice.

11 Plus completed at age eleven, 12 Plus completed at age twelve… Most children would start upper/secondary school with the oldest reaching their next birthday immediately in the September, with the youngest not getting there until July. I’m reminded of another moan. When did we start calling school children ‘students?’ Until the age of 16 (at the youngest) they are still children! Feel the need to post this classic too…I had a couple of teachers who remind me of Roman Atkinson here! This one too.

Certainly is an age thing! In my day, you either went to private (or Public) school or the local Grammar school with exam selection - the ‘12 Plus’ (as was - later became the 11 Plus) in order to align with Common Entrance and studied the arts, classics and humanities with associated University degree afterwards, or you failed the 12 Plus exam and went to the Secondary Modern school to prepare for an apprenticeship after school (at 14/15/16 depending on the exact era). Believe maths and science were only really a focus at (what I think were called) Technical Colleges. There were also Polytechnics for more ‘practical’ degrees. The belief that ‘almost everybody should go to University’ is, in my opinion, one of the great mistakes of the last thirty years…

Now that’s a useful website…will definitely try them. Excellent, thanks!

Sounds like another global conspiracy to me. First covid, now socks and slippers. I hope the tin foil hat brigade aren’t reading this…

Approval

Today, I offer…the reduced quality of socks. I’ve recently bought socks from M&S, J Sainsbury and TK Maxx…all develop holes after just a few weeks. This never used to happen. What is the world coming to?

I’m no expert, but comparing Norway with the UK feels problematic. After all, I’d assume the infrastructure needed to charge vehicles for a nation of 5.5m souls is slightly different to that needed for a population of 68m! Nevertheless, the UK Government needs to step up public charging availability quickly if mass use of EVs really is to become the norm in the next decade. Otherwise people will lose heart and patience and resist the change altogether.

Olympus

I use the ‘2 in 1’ version. It’s been a pleasant surprise, really very good and at Costco I think it was three bottles for £9.99!

^^ Another person I know needed a 15 minute top up (to get to 80%) over Christmas travels. He had to wait three hours for the only working charger on the M5 services he was at. He was philosophical (loves his Kia EV) but it shows how far we’ve got to go to get the right infrastructure to support people making the change.

Both Renault and VW have (well, had) an online calculator where you could input likely speed, outside temperature, whether you’d be using aircon etc. They then gave an approximate ‘realistic’ range vs published figures. I did consider an EV when I changed, but using those calculators - both of which showed a very significant drop in Winter range, especially at motorway speeds - I decided against. That, coupled with discussions with dealers about what range I could really expect and the lack of charging infrastructure convinced me to stay hybrid. I regularly complete a 250 mile round trip, 90% of which is motorway. As others have said, EVs seem good and they will improve (hopefully fast) but they don’t suit everybody right now. I’m almost sure my next car in 3-4 years will be an EV but by then I’ll be (almost) retired and my driving will be mainly local. A Tesla would possibly have overcome the range issues - at a price - but the factor that influenced me against them was the lack of real dealers and the reliance on technology with their products. I’m not ready to make that leap just yet!