Barry14UK

A car bought from a Lexus dealership normally comes with a 12 month warranty but you say it was bought from a non Lexus dealer. Was a 12 month warranty given with the car and what did this cover? Early replacement of expensive part is beginning to worry me. Suggest you check warranty and take up with seller and hopefully obtain satisfactory outcome.

If you have an extended warranty and experience a major fault, do you have to pay for transporting car to Lexus or is this cost included in the warranty or Lexus recovery cover? Also, does this have to be to the dealership/group who sold you the warranty or does this mean to any Lexus dealership (perhaps the nearest to which your car became immobile?) Is there any assurance that the two year for the price of one presently offered will apply if you wait until the one year warranty given with the car is almost finished?

Nice looking car inside and out. Have you checked service record? What warranty are you being given on the car? Assuming this is for one year, it would seem to me that £995 for an additional 2 year warranty on a car with near 100K miles would be better value than the same figure for a 2 year extension on a 2015 car with sub 40K miles I have been offered.

Thank you for your thoughts. I will think on options. If I omitted to take out the warranty while the car is still relatively young with low mileage now, would I still be able to take out a warranty in a couple of years time? I am aware that parts on premium cars are expensive - I had an E Class MB and 5 series BMW before the Lexus. However, I am surprised that the cost of the Lexus warranty is so high bearing in mind that the RX is up with the best when it comes to faults, according to survey. It is expensive when compared with comprehensive insurance cover where insurers could pay out for anything up to write off value, heavy damage caused by a thief or vandal, as well as damage to other vehicles/persons caused by the insured.

Just received a reminder from Lexus that the warranty of one year given with my car when I purchased it is is almost up. I have been offered a two year extension for the price of one year at a total price of £995. (Didn't realise that supermarket style buy one get one free had now spread to the motor industry!) I only do about 5K miles annually now and although I like the car, mainly bought for comfort reasons, the cost of extending the warranty plus annual servicing at high Lexus rates makes me question whether I made the right decision. When I factor in the additional loss from depreciation, plus Tax and Insurance, I wonder whether it would be more sensible to sell the RX and use a Taxi for short journeys and hire an SUV for the few long journeys I do each year. Alternatively, I could retain instead of sell my trusty E39 BMW for local journeys. Excluding service on the BMW, most of which I have done myself, problems caused due to faults have been minor and come to under £1000 over the 12 or so years and about 60K miles partly using BMW Independent's. I could do almost all the servicing on the RX myself but then I would not have the Lexus stamp in the service book which can help retain more of the car's value and desirability if I decided to sell it in awhile. Also, the eye watering price of some of the Lexus parts should something major need replacing, would be of concern. The car has done circa 38K miles and what I should like to ask members is whether due to the good reputation and ruggedness of the RX450h there is only a very small chance of needing non service components in the next 2 years and 10K miles, so I could at least save on the extended warranty?

As regards having the drivers seat static but steering wheel movable to facilitate easy access and egress, I did manage to do this using just what is on my RX. I previously watched a video on this and subconsciously this may have helped. Much of this video is simplistic but under #4 it shows how to access the menu for omitting the easy access movement of the drivers seat, although the steering wheel still retracts unless dealer customised. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6qjETy_keo

There has to be a tolerance to allow for load and speed. Although a very different application, consider a bus that may have no passengers or be full with passengers standing (eeeer, sorry 'customers' in modern parlance). There is no way of constantly adjusting inflation to load so pressures will not be nearer optimised as we have in cars where we can increase pressure where we are to carry a heavy load or drive constantly at 70mph (if you can find a stretch without a 50mph speed restriction!). Then you might lower pressures where a combination of snow and hills means more traction is required on occasion. Normally, I tend to set my pressures to the middle of the manufacturers tolerances and make small adjustments if I find the crown or shoulders are wearing disproportionately.

Maybe the advantage of air suspension depends a lot a lot on the particular model when I was deciding between SUV's test reports on the Q5 said it was much better with it. My only previous experience with air suspension was many years ago on a 300SE Mercedes. Unfortunately, there was a leak and if I left the car for more than a couple of hours the suspension lowered and it took perhaps 4 minutes or so before the compressor stopped and the indicator light showed the car could be driven. There was a small purge tank for draining off the water of the compressor and this was situated under a front wing, I seem to remember. (Perhaps modern air cars don't need this?) That car did ride nicely though, certainly better than a smaller engined version of the car with springs I drove. I would suggest it might be helpful if the OP could get a ride in the equivalent model with springs to check the difference for himself.

Anybody have experience of the model (or similar) with conventional springs and air suspension to evaluate ride/handling comparison? I suppose various shocks might make quite a difference anyway. Must say the air suspension on my RX450h doesn't ride as smoothly as some cars I have had with steel springs and is particularly more jarring for pot holes. A dealer told me that Lexus had discontinued the air suspension on the 4th Generation RX 450h. Whether this is because the air suspension has proved too troublesome, is no better than steel springs or just to contain costs is conjecture. Anyway, interesting that converting to steel springs a is a fall back alternative for OP.

Whilst I appreciate that many parts on a luxury car like the RX will be particularly expensive, I must say when we see the cost of some of these compared with other premium brands, Lexus compares unfavourably. I checked the price of brake splash shields for an X5 BMW E70. for the purpose of comparison. Genuine BMW shields for that model are listed on Amazon for £42.07 each shipped and pattern parts for less than £20 each on the net. Just hope I will not be needing other than normal service parts soon for my RX. Sometimes stones get trapped inside splash plates and apart from causing grooves can be a source of irritating rattles. I don't know whether this would apply to Lexus but I got a useful tip from a BMW forum on how to easily remove such stones on my E39 and it worked for me. You need an empty car park and then reverse quick quickly and then brake hard. The second attempt at this removed offending stones and no more rattles.

Perhaps you are driving it fast like your motor bike! LOL You are getting fewer MPG than others have posted and I don't think the majority here would get anything like an overall fuel consumption of 30+ MPG from such a heavy and unstreamlined vehicle if it was not a hybrid. (I only average 24 mpg overall on my 5 series 3 Litre petrol BMW and it is considerably lighter and more streamlined than the RX.) As has been discussed on another thread on this forum, there are a number of reasons to account for relatively small differences members find in MPG in normal use. This excludes anybody deliberately driving as though they are on an 'economy run competition' I would seriously investigate all aspects affecting my MPG if i was only getting 27 though.

Heat shields are invariably made of aluminium and fixed by steel to steel. Over time it is quite usual for this to cause the aluminium around the point of contact to be lost so the shield is not secured. I used the large washer idea successfully on my BMW. In some situations if a flat steel washer is not a suitable shape one can be made from malleable aluminium suitably shaped to act the same way before securing with screw.

Do it Alan! you could be the first! I bet there are more people who have converted mobility scooters from electric to motor bike power. Here is one of a number, at least this guy did it for a record 107mph on a track. Sorry going a bit off topic there for a bit of light relief but more pertinently, I will relate an experience I had with a V6 2.5 Camry some years ago, The car had been overheating but replacement of a suspect rad made no difference. It transpired the problem was a failed cylinder head gasket at about 130K miles. The gaskets were replaced but quite soon thereafter the oil warning light came on and adding more oil only worked for a short time. I arranged for the guy who had done the head gaskets to transport it to his premises and he dropped the sump having first drained it. Contained in the bottom were tiny flakes of hardened oil which had almost entirely blocked the oil strainer. The previous overheating has caused the coating of oil throughout the engine to flake off. Fortunately, a thorougher clean., flush, new oil and filter and everything was OK with no permanent damage. Maybe the situation might have been avoided if an oil with more scrubbing additives had been used previously, so there was not a build up of hardened oil residue and there again if a flushing oil had been used between oil changes, although some say there is a risk of blocking oilways by using flushing oil.

As regards owner added additives, oil companies invariably say their oils do not benefit from these as their oils include all that is necessary for a particular oil. Some drivers swear by STP or one of many other additives. It would be interesting to get the views of Lexus on this. However, I have seen the demo whereby the force applied to stop a motor turning by pressure exerted on it by a bar lubricated by a branded oil and one with an after market additive is compared. The latter required much more force to stop the motor. From a practical point of view I remember, (it would have been late fifties or early sixties), a motor cyclist who on checking found his oil tank empty attributed the fact that the engine had not seized was due to having Molyslip added. He did not know how long the bike had been without oil so not a very scientific test. This was on British bike with dry sump lubrication system. Most wear in an engine is caused when started from cold so more wear could be caused by many short journeys rather tan fewer longer ones over longer miles. The fact that our hybrid engines stop and start a number of times on each journey is therefore less important than the number of cold starts.

I don't know by how much (or if at all) our cars are affected being hybrids but which fuel is used makes some difference in terms of calorific value and to a less quantifiable extent on the cleanliness of a petrol engine. High compression high performance car engines particularly benefit from High Octane fuel provided by the 'Super' grades to combat knock and develop maximum power. This may make a slight difference with our cars from this aspect. However, the different additives in the 'Super' grade are reputed to keep the engine cleaner and running at full potential. so may benefit our cars. I remember, somewhat vaguely now, as it was quite some time ago, that this subject was raised in some depth on a BMW forum and the majority of members who posted thought it was a good idea to fill up with an occasional tankful of Shell V Super being the preferred choice, which is what I do. A minority used only the higher octane as a norm and the majority used only a standard Premium rather than Super grade from petrol chains or supermarkets. We lost lead in petrol causing manufacturers to make material changes particularly in valve seats and now we have Ethanol which is expected to increase still further as a percentage in the fuel. Whilst it is seen as making petrol a little 'greener', it gives slightly worse MPG and has some other disadvantages, particularly for some classic cars. It also takes a lot of land to grow the plant. Somebody, I knew had his own garage business and tested a well publicised additive at the time that you put in the tank to supposedly give more MPG among other things. He could not substantiate the claims from his tests. (This was not the additive formulated to protect affected engines from omission of lead). I would be very careful when considering what you add to fuel bearing in mind additives refiners have already incorporated in fuels

Agree something seems wrong here. Seller has 100% satisfaction feed back and I suppose could be contacted through Ebay. I would have thought if all legal and above board a dealer would have paid his asking price, maybe more. Not casting aspersions on seller here but years ago I lot of cars were stolen and imported into UK. This probably happens less now - they more often go the other way! I very nearly got stung when I was about to buy an imported Aristo. many years ago. I was suspicious when I noticed a slight colour difference where the Vin number was stamped under the bonnet. It had apparently been serviced by Lexus without problem and no problem when checked with Police and DVLA but when I checked the number shown with Lexus/Toyota, they assured me there was no such number.. The seller told me he was selling to fund an expansion of his business and was now concerned about what he had been left with. Well that's as maybe but it illustrates one of the potential pit falls when buying privately.

Noticed this on the bay when looking for an accessory. Price seems keen for a late car. Maybe worth a look for anyone looking in this price range. What do you think? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-RX-450h-3-5-F-Sport-Hybrid-Premium-Navigation-HUD-Head-Display/173983036580?hash=item28823274a4:g:j3QAAOSwtPddQiut (I have no connection with the car or the seller)

Before adding any such adornments I would check with insurers on extent to which these would affect premiums.

Even the service battery is 'special' and expensive I read in a search going backaways. It's a deep discharge battery. Someone replaced original with slightly greater capacity and much cheaper one but it soon failed. It would be useful to know if anybody had used a cheaper replacement that had proved satisfactory over reasonable time. Don't be shy to admit LOL.

Looks nice and I particularly like the red of these earlier cars. The later ones seem only to have a burgundy red until the 4th generation which again is available in a lighter red. Of course everybody loves a bargain and most people have a budget they don't wish to exceed. However, finding one of these cars is not like looking for a Mondeo where there is so much choice at any given time. If you seriously like a RX450h you have seen and it checks out fine and price is reasonable I suggest you go for it. I am still kicking myself for missing out on a 2015 RX450h Premier which was about 2K more than I wanted to pay. It was the same silver as the Premier I went on to buy subsequently but the car I missed out on had the wood trim package including heated and part wood steering wheel and adaptive cruise control plus it had the all cream interior I liked. I told the Lexus Dealer just before he closed that I wished to think it over over night and would contact them the next morning. To be fair the dealer had said somebody else had expressed an interest in it (but this can be a ploy to make a sale), Anyway, when I responded the next morning I was told the car had been sold. Thereafter, I found that there were very few cars that had the same spec and internal and external colour I wanted. It took about another 2 months to source a car that came near to the one I lost but lacked several features. Even having bought my car I continued for a further couple of months to search all adverts for Silver Premiers but none matched the one I lost. Just my experience.

Somebody here may have inside information on this but would have thought a call to a Lexus dealer would more likely provide an answer. Do let us know what info you glean and whether you opt for a RX450h in due course.

Thanks for replies. Pleased to learn that the listed feature is possible and I will get this done one way or another, probably by Lexus dealer.

My RX450 presently requires the start button to be used in order to activate the widows and moon roof. It doesn't even work in accessory mode. Also, I can't open the windows and moon roof and close again from the key fob. Admittedly my BMW does not have keyless start and this could make a difference but by continuing to press the unlock button on the remote fob it opens the windows and sunroof. (This is useful if you want to vent the car before reaching it) . Also, to close the glass remotely requires the lock button to be held on the key fob. Does anybody have this facility on their car or can it be programmed to work this way? Thank you.

"I think one of the rules of "hypermiling ethics" is you don't disrupt or annoy other drivers." Agree. I was thinking more of the roads down here in Devon for example which have a lot of hills with limited possibilities to overtake. We are already held up by lorries, tractors, caravans etc., and being baulked by hybrids accelerating and slowing when they don't need to do so is something else to contend with.

It's known that the 4th Generation has better fuel consumption than the 3rd Generation (which is what OP is considering) and all models benefit from having a few thousand miles on them to fully loosen up. As regards tyre pressures as mentioned in the posted video, it would be inadvisable to considerably over inflate above recommended pressure for load and speed. To do so means more wear in the area of the center of the tyres and loss of grip and detrimental handling in addition to a more uncomfortable ride. (The RX450h has quite a narrow section tyre for such a high and heavy car). Also, driving to achieve ultimate mpg by following the fuel used gauge regardless of speed would in many cases lead to holding up other motorists wanting to travel at a more constant speed and for many would also detract from the driving experience.