Herbie

That is the easiest and cheapest part to replace so definitely try that first.

No, no, no. The thing is "Ask An Owner" not "Ask the manufacturer" It does remain to be seen however, given that Lexus will be hosting it, how 'truthful' they would allow owners to be if the replies were not very favourable to them.

Yes, they are. As I said above, I often get emails from Amazon asking me if I can answer this question or that question, like below:

This is nothing to do with reviews Philip, purely owners or would-be owners asking questions of other owners, like so:

Have a search of the forums - this has been covered many times. For my own tuppenceworth - I find the Lexus offering way overpriced, both in camera and fitting charges. There is nothing 'Lexus-specific' about the 'Lexus' camera except the name. Any dashcam will fit and work in any make/model of car so you don't need to pay over the odds at/for Lexus. Personally, I fitted a Viofo A129 Dual front/rear set in my RX and it works superbly. The front cam was a doddle to fit, the rear one less so, but certainly not difficult. If you don't want to DIY then any good auto-electrician or car audio place will happily fit them for you and at a more reasonable price. Most manufacturers will advise to use their own microSD card "for best results" but Samsung Pro Endurance cards are amongst the best, if not the best.

If I buy a widget from Amazon but I'm not sure of something, I can ask a question that is then answered by other people who have also bought the same widget previously and have come to understand how it works. Not only that but, as a buyer of said widget, when someone else has a question about it, Amazon then email me (along with other previous buyers) and ask if I can answer a query posed by a prospective buyer. Lexus are calling it "Ask an owner" so I assume it will work in the same way as the Amazon model does. Is there a place for it? Probably. Would they be better coming here to ask us owners? Probably.

Is that not 'Active Suspension' which is a different thing to air suspension?

It does indeed. It's the very same diagnostic software that Toyota/Lexus technicians use in dealer workshops. If you have a laptop running Windows (even Win XP will do) then you can buy a miniVCI cable such as this one from eBay. It comes with a pirated copy of Techstream but we can't condone the use of that, that's a matter for your own conscience. The correct way would be to freely and legitimately download a 'real' copy from https://www.lexus-tech.eu/DiagnosticTools/Setup and pay for a block of time to use it (€5/day, €10/week and so on). Whether you go legit or not, you'll still need that cable to connect the laptop to the car.

Is that from a Lexus dealer or an 'ordinary' garage? There's nothing 'Lexus-specific' about the parts you mention and any good mechanic will be able to do the job for a lot less than Lexus will charge.

Absolutely. Use emery paper and/or wire wool and/or a Dremel with wire brush etc. Once bright and clean make sure the connection is tight and put some Vaseline or White Grease on it.

So now you need to Google how to set up and use the cable and Techstream on your laptop. It's not a difficult process but it would take a long time to detail each step for you here but all the info you need is out there.

Assuming you mean that you got a miniVCI cable, Google is your friend.

I should be able to do a video to demonstrate the 'snap to' effect but I don't have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto running at all. I'm using the Vline's own Android operating system, so I'm not sure if it'll be what you want, but I'll happily do a video tomorrow. For the moment it's in the glove compartment but that's only temporary. Ideally I'd like to get it in the 'secret' bottom space of the centre console but I just could not fathom how to get the side trim off (marked by yellow line below) to run the cables into there: One thing to bear in mind if you're going to mount it in a difficult to reach location is that it's an Android computer and, like all computers, it will at some time need to be reset by pulling the power plug. To avoid a lot of hassle disassembling/reassembling, it's a good idea to cut into the power wire of the harness and install a switch inline, as done by someone in the VLine 2 group on Facebook:

Absolutely! As this article shows

Alban and Andy, thanks very much for your replies chaps, much appreciated. Because I didn't get any replies within a couple of days I decided to pull the trigger and I ordered one. I have to say that it's not working properly yet but even so, I've had ten times more success with this Vline than I had with the Carlinkit unit I bought earlier this year. My main problem seems to be that it sort of works too well - once it has control it won't relinquish it back to Lexus! I just cannot get back into any Lexus system screen at all and that includes the reversing camera too. When I start the car I get the Lexus splash screen and then a sort of white screen (almost like 'snow' on an analogue TV) that would stay up forever unless I press the MEDIA button twice, at which point I'm into the VLine screens. From there the VLine works fine; Waze, Sygic, What 3 Words and Google Maps are all perfect, as are Amazon Music, YouTube and other apps. However, when I put the car in reverse the camera doesn't show onscreen; clicking the 'Factory UI' button does not take me back to the factory UI; nor do any other buttons at all. I can get nothing 'Lexus-wise' on the car screen at all and the only thing that does happen is that the display locks up. Support over in the USA at Grom HQ have been brilliant and after lots of tests and email tennis, they reckon it could be a faulty display cable so they're going to send me a new one, hopefully from the UK distributor and not have me waiting for delivery from the States. That has now been sorted and the cursor can be set to 'snap to' buttons. I believe that Grom are in the final stages of testing for an Android upgrade but I don't know how recent they'll go. Up to now everything I need works with the unit on Android 8 and will hopefully continue to work when the upgrade comes.

My wife and I also took that decision and do not regret it in the slightest.

I think the more relevant question is - how did you not know this? It's been common knowledge for a long time now (maybe not the exact figure but certainly that a surcharge exists).

Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen2 are equally as good as Michelin Cross Climates but discounts are much harder to find on them compared to the CCs.

The problem with map updates is that they only update the maps, not the software/firmware to run the nav system - did that facility work before? Also, given that they are DVDs you'll never be able to update the speed camera locations anyway even if you could get them to work, so they're about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Yes, that's basically true. You may update the maps but they would still running on old clunky software/firmware because a map update doesn't also update the operating system.

I love the whole 'War of the Worlds' album but that song is one of my all-time favourites; Justin Hayward's voice really suits it.

You mean this one Ken?

Absolutely no reason whatsoever - it's just a 12V source like any other 12V source.

Thanks for that Paul, I hadn't thought of that but you may well be right.

It's funny you should say that Gary because right at this moment the Carlinkit unit is on the dining room table after having stripped it out and replaced it with a Grom Vline 2. I still have to set up the Vline unit properly and it seems like the supplied GPS antenna isn't working, but already I've had more success with it.