tomRCFcarbon

Sorry. Google got it wrong that as US gallons. Imperial gallons to litres is 2,600. So about £3,000 on petrol. It could have been double that and would still be a bargain.

I’ve done 11,500 miles in 11.5 months (I know spooky!) and averaged 20.1mpg. Which equates to about 570gallons of fuel, which is 2,165 litres. Or about £2,500 on petrol. Bargain.

Yeah, mine got knocked off at the Sainsbury’s car park about a fortnight after I picked my car up...can’t seem to get it back on though...however i’ll work it out for the MOT, just before it gets ‘knocked off at the Sainsbury’s car park again’...

Great Lexus!

Also - great number plate!

A mate is a shareholder / investor in that place...quality establishment!

The lighter colours with the carbon just don’t work do they!?

That might be a titanium exhaust too. If not it will still be different and a contributor to the weight saving. I like the idea of the BBS alloys, and having a slightly more trick parts catalogue to raid. I think the cost estimates are optimistic - my guess is that Lexus will peg this at the equivalent price differential of a NISMO GTR vs a standard GTR.

I think this will be the decision we go for. Although for the school run and back I’ll probably plump for one that sips fuel, but specify big wheels and tick the ST-Line box. Saying that a friend has the Vignale version and the seats are ridiculously comfortable!

No I think it’s just down to springs and dampers. Admittedly the wheels are big on the RXL, but it’s not a lack of tyre sidewall that makes the suspension top out with a crash when going over bumps and bumps - it even did it on sleeping policemen. I think it’s easy to forget how much practice Mitsubishi have off-road. After countless generations of Shoguns, Paris Dakar success for decades and all of the other soft roaders they’ve built, they know a thing or two about how to dial in a good suspension setup. The RX-L on the other hand is an off-roader in looks only...so I don’t blame the engineers for not making a use case for the suspension to do very much except for climbing curbs in posh suburbs.

We hired a Galaxy over the summer holidays and it was fantastic. Better in every practical way than the RXL...I fit weren’t for looks, build quality and refinement (and kerb appeal) - it would be a winner. I think the conclusion is going to be all these cars a bit big for the other half - so we’ll end up looking at 2series grand tourer thing, s-max, Tiguan all-space and Touran.

That’s exactly the problem. My RCF and a temporary Ford Focus (so two cars everywhere)...currently whittling a long list down. The RXL is now off.

My RCF Carbon is in at Lexus Hatfield having the £45 winter health check and preparation and so I organised with the dealership to borrow the new long wheel base RX450h for the weekend. We have 4 children between 10 and 13, so we need a 7 seater and I have managed to get this Lexus on my other half’s list of cars we are considering. The model we borrowed is in Luxury spec and apart from that I didn’t spot any obvious non-standard options. So my impressions are: - it is deceptively quick, clearly not a patch on the normal monster I drive, but in town from any speed the hybrid motor provides that instantaneous torque which makes the car feel a lot more nippy than it should. It also means the car is a lot quieter as the gearbox doesn’t kick down as far as it needs. Which means it picks up speed without making the normal fuss - which means when you look down, you don’t realise how much speed you’ve taken on - speaking of quietness, it is almost Bentley quiet in the cabin, bit of tyre noise, but apart from that it is a very pleasant calm place to be - stereo is awesome. It’s not the Levinson in this one, but still sounds great. Music was okay but with spoken word (DAB radio but also audiobooks and podcasts) the hifi was particularly well resolved - the ride is good if a little wallowy, granted this is particularly noticeable from me as I’m going from the ridiculous into the sublime, but nevertheless it is good and very well at everyday speeds on almost any road surface - I haven’t extensively tested it off road, but the few bits I have driven down (access roads to dog walking car parks in the South Downs and a farm entrance to visit friends) the car didn’t deal with them very well at all. Over sprung and under damped on rebound I would say - meant it sounded and felt very crashy. Not a patch even on my old Mitsubishi PHEV thing. - size and practicality. It’s MASSIVE...much bigger than an Outlander. But the legroom is pretty bad in the back. The middle row of seats slide forward and back which is cool. And with 5 people it’s v big. But the draw of this car must be the 7 seats and unless you are transporting 5 year olds, someone is going to be complaining Overall? I really liked it, but feel it is flawed. And vs the pretty flawless Xc90, i feel it’s going to struggle.

I completely agree, but worried there was something I wasn’t aware of. Have to say I draw the line at plugging my car into some unknown garages computer though.

There was a post recently about number plates. One responder cautioned about sharing your number plate...which when I read it I thought was sensible, until I remembered that I and a lot of other people have posted photographs of our cars all over this forum, complete with number plates...which then got me paranoid about that. And then I got to thinking about geo-tags on photos...people talking about where they live to organise meet ups...and people encouraging users to plug their cars into diagnostic systems to see if they can be tuned (which is the only way to make a duplicate key). So for those more wise forum members, should I be paranoid? Should I delete my photos? Is it right to be cautious? And if so, what of and why?

Borrowed this from Lexus Hatfield (lovely people)...for over the weekend whilst my F is having the winter prep/service thing. We need a 7 seater and my other half thinks other 7seaters are too big (xc90) or naff (Prius + and Fords)...So I’ve managed to convince her to try this - please don’t let on basically the same size as the Volvo!

Out of interest, which cars and what jobs are you referring to. As far as I can tell from owning one and driving the other the LC500 is simply a better looking RCF with a better gearbox and smaller rear seats. The infotainment system (if we must call it that) sounds better than every German equivalent I’ve heard and whilst it is true that the trackpad is maddeningly esoteric vs the BMW, Audi and MB it isn’t bad enough to warrant downgrading to a mass produced, German, turbo-charged equivalent. As was once said about the Integrale: ‘you prefer it for the way it goes and steers, you love it for all of its faults’.

Happy Thursdays @MartinLexus !

Sorry if I was unclear. Not an online record of the driving itself. Just a record of the route (so a bit different to Strava). For example I live just south of London in Cobham (Surrey). To get to my parents in Worthing (Sussex) - I can take the a24, but if I’m not worried about time and I want to enjoy the drive a little more, there’s a route from mine that takes in lots of little roads through the Surrey hills that still gets me to Worthing but is an absolute blast in my RCF. Now unless you grew up in the Surrey hills there’s very little likelihood you would take this route - so it’s nice to share. Similarly next time I go to Nottingham to see a mate of mine there will be the M and A road route, but a user might share a good driving road I can try out instead.

Guys. Porsche AG have just released an App called roads. Anyone can register, with or without a Porsche and the app promises to be immense. You simply hit ‘record’ when driving down your favourite road, and it ‘records’ where you went and then uploads it for others to find. Users can then rate and comment on other users driving roads. It’s early days but could be a great way of finding good roads when organising road trips etc.

Left hand drive. Otherwise I would have gone for it...

Both of my keys are in a safe

Got up this morning to find the key in the back door all broken and GF’s car key missing...looks like an arm came through the cat flap, reached up and pulled the keys that could be grabbed until the key ring broke. GF’s car was still there but I think that’s because her car alarm is broken and it goes off until you start the car. Which they wouldn’t have realised. I had been for a few beers after work, so my car was parked at the station - so am now a bit paranoid about the car. So the question is: for those whose cars are on a driveway and not garaged...what extra precautions do you take to secure your cars - if any?

There were some press releases at the time of release that mentioned Revel, not that I can find them now of course...in any case the lineage we benefit from is more Madrigal than Harman (or Samsung!) admittedly they’ve been swallowed up, but back in the day when they developed the drivers and amps for Lexus they were part of a hifi group along with ML that made unbelievable hifi. The teams that designed and made that stuff are still with both companies (except for Mr Levinson himself - too busy making s*x-help books with Kim Cattrall at the time...true story look it up). Point is the hifi’s we have in our cars are VERY special. This is Revel, they were part of Madrigal too. https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/96/index.html They’re still making pairs of speakers that cost £30k+!

I would be amazed / genuinely astonished if I could do anything to make the ML in my RCF sound any better. Aftermarket car speakers are pretty much across the board terrible sounding. The drive units that ML specified were sourced via their sister company Revel so you’re in good hands. A direct Lexus sourced replacement will be best way to keep the sound quality of the ML spec’d unit. Then again beauty is in the eye (or in this case ear) of the beholder...after all some people think Bose and Sonos sound good - each to their own I guess.