KingHal

There are always stories circulating about “dirty” and inferior fuel sold by supermarkets. Generally it’s “I was talking to a taxi driver recently …”

I can only relate my own experience. I’ve owned many cars and motorbikes and driven a few hundred thousand miles on regular supermarket fuel without an issue, with one exception. That was a 1,690cc Harley with high compression pistons and high lift cams. It needed premium grade. 
 

Lexus hybrids are very understressed and generally in a low state of tune. Imo premium fuel is throwing money away. I have a friend who loses sleep over his fuel “going off” if he leaves his motorbike for a couple of months without riding it. I rode my motorbike yesterday for the first time in 12 months for its MOT. It started immediately and ran perfectly. 

Supermarkets sell around half of all fuel now. If it was bad I reckon there would be emperical evidence rather than bar room stories.
 

Just my two penny’s worth. 

On 2/10/2023 at 4:29 PM, lhks said:

Hmm interesting, I used the VIN to look up the spec, those saying "without nav" did comes with navigation system.

Maybe it’s a base model that doesn’t come with nav, but is a cheap option??

Good question and something I’ve also wondered about. 

I’ve just checked my Lexus Link driving stats and it seems my maximum speed in the last week was 142mph and my average was 90mph. Shurely shome mishtake!

It’s still pretty unreliable. The dealer has twice tried to sort out various problems and failed. Do I bin it?

13 hours ago, joelfigueira said:

Hi all,

has anyone been braving the cold weather to clean their car? 

Was planning to do it but its been 0 degrees most days! 

Likewise, mine needs a wash, but not in this weather. As soon as it gets a bit milder I’ll give it a quick snow foam, power wash and dry. It’s always garaged at home, which helps, and I can easily keep all the windows clean, as well as the interior. 

To be fair, when I collected my new UX a few months ago the salesman pointed out the 15 years on the Battery. 

8 hours ago, ALAW said:

The wheels were off for the alignment check so they did it FOC. The service cost with the alignment check extra came to around £500 i think the alignment was £79

Thanks. 

11 hours ago, ALAW said:

Just had my service it needed wheel alignment. So I asked them to rotate tires while wheels were off. Your right its not included.

How much were you charged? Isn’t there a lot of labour with the TPMS?

2 hours ago, Rabbers said:

I don’t know about the product being interesting from a technical standpoint but it has certainly had a patchy commercial history.  The company was for sale for several years until the 1990s but none of the major oil companies to which it was offered wanted it.  I don’t know if this was on financial or technical grounds.  It was finally acquired by Turtle Wax, which does not seem to have put much promotional money into what was seen as a fading brand.

From cash cow to dead dog?

I’m no expert, but I’ve long believed the long term solution lies with hydrogen cells. 

12 hours ago, David Claridge said:

A windscreen repairer told me to stick a piece of cellotape over it as soon as you can to keep dirt and rain out until it can be repaired.

That’s useful advice. Thanks for sharing. 

It rains a fair amount in Ireland, so it’s always a struggle. I’m lucky that my car is garaged. I picked up my new UX in early September with a driving holiday 2 days later. Immediately on our return I had a full professional valet, ceramic coating etc. It’s quite easy now to keep it clean but I will, at least every six months, have it professionally cleaned, polished etc. 

BTW, I signed up to the service plan when I collected my new UX, having had one for my CT. The salesman and sales manager were present and the salesman reiterated that their service plans are “interest free”. I said very clearly that I was paying in advance and, therefore, it wasn’t interest free. They both just continued without indicating they’d even heard me!

14 hours ago, Illogan said:

Hi Andy,

It's a matter of choice, of course, but my take on this is that you've effectively inflation-proofed your servicing costs for three years (all the service costs are calculated at current prices), and you've easy-payment terms without any interest charges, and the best equipped specialist for your car.

Which is why I do the same as you.

I agree with all that, barring one issue. This service plan is not interest free. It’s a dishonest marketing trick. We are paying in advance. Lexus are banking our money. 

In Northern Ireland we’ve only just switched to E10 and with the colder weather I’m seeing my mpg going down by about 5. 

13 hours ago, Bill Dawes said:

Would be nice to get an accurate spec before you bought the car, I couldn't with my 2022 UX Takumi.

Bill D.

I agree. It’s useful to have it now, but it would have more so before purchase. 

Dedicated hypermilers recommend that you don’t use cruise control at all. As you’ve noted it tends to be very heavy footed when both accelerating and braking. 

You are also better placed to know when to manually “force” EV mode based on the road ahead - foot off the accelerator then feather it open to invoke EV. 

14 hours ago, fourbanks said:

When do think Lexus will stop making hybrid cars and just make way for EV only. I reckon 2025 they will phase out the H and just make a small UX EV 

you know it makes sense 

My gut feeling is that manufacturers will continue with hybrids for some time. The infrastructure for EVs is so far behind where it needs to be that, even without a crystal ball, I can see the government having to put back the date when ICEs are banned in new cars. 

From memory: 2% of cars are EVs at the moment. There are 32,000 public charge points and the “experts” estimate/forecast that we need 320,000. How are we going to generate the necessary electricity? I spent a great deal of time in my working life preparing forecasts, and the only thing that’s certain about a forecast is that it will be wrong. 

14 hours ago, ALAW said:

Im a Yorkshireman Henry like you i was taught same smooth look ahead anticipate. Mine came with the Bridgestone runflats the TPM reads 2.3bar. Cant remember the motorbikes but my dad had a Vincent 500.

I’ve pumped the tyres to 2.6 bar. Slightly harsher ride but better fuel consumption. 

Lancastrians vie with Yorkshiremen for who’s more tight with their money. Specifically, my father was a Mancunian and when he taught me to drive way back in 1970 drilled into me all the habits about smooth driving and anticipating traffic that are now purportedly specialist driving techniques. 
Notwithstanding being a boy racer in cars and on motorbikes I’ve always obsessed over my mpg. When I took on a high mileage job some years ago I bought a Honda Civic hybrid and became interested in hypermiling. I saved a lot of money over 80,000 miles. 
 

So … tyre pressures. Does anyone else “overinflate” their tyres? From memory I ran my Honda on 40+ psi (front tyres lasted 50,000 miles and rears 60,000). I’m currently inflating to 38 psi. I checked the pressures manually the day after collecting the car from the dealership and they were at 39 psi, which surprised me. I’m on Bridgestone run flats. [Anyone here remember the Bridgestone motorbikes in the 70’s?]

1 hour ago, Illogan said:

Well - - it certainly loosened the carbon build-up

It did, but not good for air quality. 

Does anyone else miss the good old days when you could put Redex directly into the carburettor and blow out clouds of white smoke? (New Pope elected)

I wonder how fuel additive at the annual service is going to last all year🤔

I’m having the same issue with Lexus Link in my 2022 UX. The app also shows my home address incorrectly. Even the dealer has given up. He has the same issues with his company car, which is an ES. He eventually said there’s a major upgrade coming in November and he can’t fix the problems I’m having☹️

19 hours ago, Nelsthebass said:

So now the app reckons I’m doing 500mpg+ ffs 🤦‍♂️ 

The UX is a great car 😉😂