Troy Tempest

My favourite police car is the one that’s furthest away!! LOL😁

Hi Adam

Congratulations on your road trip and your great post, nice pictures too 😁

It brought to mind times in my childhood when my Dad would drive us all from our home on the Solent coast up to central Angus to visit my grandparents.  We’d start out very early in the morning to arrive there around teatime; luckily my Mum can drive, so they would take turns at driving after each rest stop, so neither of them got too tired.  My sister and I would have toys and things in the back to try and occupy us, but they never really worked!!

You’re dead right about the cameras!!  I flamin’ hate them with a passion!!  I can honestly say I have never ever seen a camera at an accident black spot, only hidden round curves in nice stretches of “fast” road, so all the tosh put out that they’re there to promote safety is utter bollaux!!  They’re just another way of taxing the poor blooming motorist ☹️.

On your point about the future of more powerful vehicles, I think there will always be a market for them.  In my own case for instance, I don’t often drive huge distances on motorways and I don’t get much chance to “open her up” to top speed, but I need a car that can accelerate quickly to overtake lorries or tractors and then pull back into lane swiftly over short distances with a limited length view of the road ahead.  Your standard small c.c. family car or 4x4 can’t do that safely, so you end up with queues of frustrated drivers following slow moving road blocks, that’s when accidents happen.  When I buy a car, I’m not looking for top speed, but instantaneous “squirt”, I may not get past 60 very often, but I want to get there in fractions of a second, not minutes 😁. That’s one of the big pluses of the hybrid Lexus drivetrain; the instant boost you get from the electric motor as you stomp your foot down gives you the confidence that you can overtake easily and safely.

Sadly, when my hybrid died I went back to pure petrol (I’m a GS250 driver too now), but on occasion I have regretted that choice!  I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about the 2.5 V6, the torque doesn’t really kick in until around 4500 revs, so she responds best when you keep her at the top end of the rev band, but that can get noisy and expensive if you do to much of it.  Without doubt the GS is at her best as a cruiser and you just proved that 😁

Having read your post, I now just want to get in the car and drive!!  Just head off into the distance and see what’s out there...

All the best

Si

Hi Steve

As far as I can recall, both rear brakes sliders (whatever they are) were seized, my air-con condenser had stone damage (so didn’t work properly), the suspension was leaking and the bushes were shot.  All of those were a surprise to me because in normal daily driving they didn’t actually affect the way it drove or my enjoyment of the car; but once you’re told they’re under par, it kind of detracts from your feelings about the car and how safe it is.  I should probably mention here that it was bought a few years previously from a little local 2nd hand dealer/garage, it didn’t have a full Lexus service (or battery) history and was slightly over average annual mileage; so my local Lexus dealership were in no way at fault for the condition it found itself in.

You’re right, the dealerships don’t like a vehicle leaving their workshops in anything less than ‘concours’ condition (it’s a bad advertisement for them) so they list every single minor defect and ideally would like you to get them fixed at the earliest opportunity.

However, to be completely fair to the Lexus guys, they didn’t say it all had to be done in one go, they offered me a ‘course of treatment’ spanned over as many months as I liked and I would get a slightly reduced rate for providing them with plenty of work; however, when you added together all the costs, it basically came to the same value as the car itself ☹️  In effect I would have had to buy my car twice to end up with one in top notch condition!  I liked it, but not as much as all that!!  Buying and shipping the wire mesh rally grills from the USA had taken the last of my pot of ‘car money’.

The spooky thing about it all (and I’m sure you and many of the club members will get a big laugh out of this) is that for about the previous 4 or 5 months, I had been looking at the auto-trader app and other car adverts, trying to talk myself into trading her in and getting something else!!  In my mind, I was beginning to think that car was jinxed... three times in about the previous 12 months that car had been driven into by other vehicles, in car parks and road-side parking spots; luckily it was always fairly low speed, superficial damage to bumpers and paintwork, the insurance always coughed up and the repairs were always professionally done and guaranteed etc... but I just got the feeling that “someone somewhere is trying to tell me something”.  I think, when the Battery and repairs situation effectively took the decision out of my hands, I was quite relieved.  I miss not having the “grunt” of a 450h now, but I’m kind of glad that I don’t have that particular one anymore.

In time, I may well go back to the hybrid power train; it is definitely a good idea so far as efficiency and the environment are concerned!  It also works for those of us who can’t drive our cars into our houses to plug them into the mains or don’t want to leave 50 yards of cable trailing across public pavements to be tripped over by less able members of the public or unplugged at 2AM by “yoofs” on their way home from the pub.

Right now I have a very strong hankering for a V8 of some sort and after the last time, I’m more inclined to listen to my gut feelings about it.

All the best

Si
 

Hi Jeff

I use the Michelin Programmable High Power Tyre inflator.  It was bought from Halfords and I’m pretty sure you can still get them for around 50+ quid.  I’ve had mine for about 3 or 4 years now, still going strong.  You can set the pressure you want in bar or psi and it switches itself off once required pressure is reached.  It comes with various fittings and adaptors for household/hobby/camping use, it also has USB sockets for plugging in phone/iPod charging cables, it also has a light which is nice and bright for pumping your tyres up in the dark (yes, I speak from personal experience)!!  It all stows away in a drawstring bag that sits easily in the spare wheel well.  Unfortunately for Ganesh, this one only plugs into the ciggie lighter/power socket in your car.

Good luck finding one you like 😁

Stay safe & well

Si

Hi Ashley

I wish I had something helpful to add or advise, but I don’t ☹️

This sounds very familiar to me though; I had a couple of broadly similar experiences during the hottest days of last summer.  I took mine to the dealership and they said my Battery was on its last legs and needed replacing ☹️
 

Good luck getting it sorted!

Si

Hi guys 

Sorry it’s taken a few days to get back to you and thanks for all your nice comments about the colour & wheels 😁

To answer Shahpor’s question, I’m based in southern Hampshire, between Southampton and Winchester, so only a quick trip along the M3!!

John, if you ever see a dark (Windsor) blue ‘57 plate GS450h with rally style chrome wire mesh front grills (top & bottom) a la Jag/Bentley, along with smoked wind deflectors on all four windows; that’ll be my old girl, her name was ‘Sabine’.  My new lady is named ‘Céline’.

Ganesh’s black & silver beast looks very smart, in a bad *****, “don’t mess!” kind of way 😊 
 

Stay safe & well

Si

Hi Jon

Your profile shows the year of your car is 2020??  So I guess the nav system would be as up-to-date as possible.

However, for anyone out there buying a second hand motor that’s a few years old, I would say don’t count on the dealership making sure that the sat nav maps are current, mine didn’t!!  You will have to check the age of the map data when you do your test drive and hope to goodness that the previous owner spent the extra dosh on getting regular updates.  If you’re lucky you’ll inherit a good/current one, otherwise expect to find a nav system that’s as old as the car it sits in.

The other week, i asked my local Lexus dealer about getting the most recent update for my sat nav and was told it costs the dealership well over £100 to buy the licence from HQ for you and they then charge that on to you, plus labour to upload it, plus VAT.  He said it’s so expensive he doesn’t do it either and just uses google maps on his mobile for directions!!

i have to say that I think you’re going to be rather underwhelmed by the Lexus sat nav.  The two I’ve had would only take the first portion of the post code, so it will get you to the general area, but after that you have to hunt for numbers on people’s front doors as you kerb crawl down the street ☹️  Added to that it’s certainly not an intuitive system, it’s hard to use, hard to program and forgets things you’ve just put in.  If you get something wrong and want to take one step back and re-try, forget it; you’ll be quicker starting from the beginning again.  Combine that with trying to use the weird illegitimate cross between a mouse and a joystick in your left hand and it gets so frustrating that you start to wish you hadn’t thrown away your old AA road atlas after all - It’s not their best selling point!!

On other matters, don’t worry at all.  Lexus dealers are the best around for looking after you and your car, they won’t let you down.

Enjoy your new car!!

Hi John, thanks very much 😃

Hi everyone

Just introducing myself 😁

My name’s Si and I have a GS250 F-sport (on a ‘12 plate), which I bought as an approved used last summer.  Before that I had a GS450h SE-L on a ‘57 plate.

The reason for “dropping” to the 250 was that when I had two hybrid system warnings about a month apart, I took the 450 into the local Lexus dealer to get it checked over, they said the hybrid Battery had only days to live and then provided me with a list of all the other stuff that was wrong with the car on top of that (none of which was visible on the outside).  All in all, the price of the new hybrid Battery plus the fixes for everything else came to more than the value of the car ☹️  I found myself in a very tricky situation!!  Has anyone ever tried to trade in a hybrid where the hybrid doesn’t work?  What trader’s gonna take the risk?  Luckily the Lexus guys offered me a big chunk off anything they had in their approved used forecourt and took the old girl as a trade in.  After such a sobering experience, I bottled out of buying another Battery powered car and decided to go back to good old pure petrol; you know where you stand with hydrocarbons!!😉

Despite the change of power source, I knew I wanted to stick with the GS model, the IS is sporty and more ‘nippy’ around town, but once I get in, it instantly becomes a three seater!  At 6’3” and 18 stone, I need the extra room to spread out and get comfortable.  The GS is a great cruiser but not so big that you can’t fit it in the car park.  The layout and equipment are really good too, quality stuff!  The only tiny little niggle I have is that the 250 can never be as quick as the 450 from a standing start (minus the electric motor).

I look forward to ‘meeting’ you all over the years ahead and I hope I can be a useful member of the club.

Stay safe & well

Si