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So, I got the Small Disklock today with the protective steering cover. Even at the tightest setting it is still not a snug fit but seems like it will not come off unless the thieves are prepared spend time on it. Hopefully it should be an effective deterrent. Not sure I am prepared to commit to a Ghost (or some other) intrusive immobiliser due to warranty. Will confirm with the dealership when I bring the car in for service and MOT. —E

Hi Neil, isn’t the warranty 10 years if you get it serviced at a dealership ? —E

Hi Carl, What size did you select for the Disklock ? I measured the steering diameter and following the slight outwards contour it measures just about 38cm, that would mean the Small size should be good even with the additional protective cover over the wheel ? Thanks, —E

Just checked and there is also a Disklock brand available which covers the entire steering wheel. Appears to be e better deterrent than the usual steering lock. —E

Is it worth (and even possible) to organise as a group and seek legal help ? —E

Granted we are in Buckinghamshire and don’t experience too much cold but it does get close to or sometime below freezing and the car is parked on the driveway. Haven’t noticed parking sensor issue so far. IIRC the parking sensor issue was reported by users who had ceramic coating applied to their cars and the Vaseline fix worked for ceramic coated cars. Page 2 onwards on this post has some info - —E

Hi, I have had my ES for three years now. The finance term ends July next year and the very same gentleman who did the handover in January 2021 called me up this Friday and inquired what I wanted to do. No complaints with the car so far. Had that exceptional warranty claim which I think the dealership was very supportive with and was handled without much fuss. Exceptional warranty ? because the warranty repair costed Lexus around £8000.00 and keeping that in mind.. I would say, I am happy with the way it was handled and would not mind giving more business to the same dealership. Just thinking out loud here... What concerns me is the very real risk of theft. Currently I do have a way to park my car in a way that the front left side is left inaccessible. However we no longer have the Honda Jazz which we used to "block the ES" in the driveway for additional detriment. If I got another ES, I am not 100% sure all the kinks with the new infotainment and electronics have been ironed out as yet. Happy to see that all the physical controls have been retained though. If I got another ES, the theft risk is still there. I am not fussed about number plates and don't fancy getting a cherished one, however I quite like the number plate I got with my current ES. Don't think I will be able to retain that number plate. Can't guess which way the cost of financing will go in 2025 and beyond. Signing up for a new finance contract in 2024 only to see better rates after the purchase will cause buyers' remorse 😕 IMO, the point of buying a Lexus is to pay it off asap, take good care of it and drive it till the wheels fall off. I have asked for a test drive of the NX 350h though. Will see how it goes. --E

Best to flag it with the dealership as soon as possible. Mine is a 2020 built Premium Pack and the screen started glitching in summer. Lexus had to replace the screen and two other parts (which cost Lexus close to £8000) under warranty. Happy to report that it was a no fuss service from the dealership and Lexus but best to flag any such glitches as soon as possible. —E

Mine is a 21 Premium Pack and to experience how good a "basic" sound system it is it must be turned up high. With Apple Car play I have to turn the volume up to 23 at least but best results are around 35. Most of my mp3s are now at least Lossless (as per Apple's definition of Lossless) or Hi-Res Lossless. Some obscure ones are plain vanilla but since they are obscure they don't get played all that much in the car. Also, my equaliser settings are Turned-all-the-way-up - 1 for High and Mid Bass is one notch down from the other two. I have nothing bad to say about it tbh... but since different people perceive sound differently, ymmv. But worth a try. --E

Tried the advanced version of "turn it off and back on again" i.e. Delete the damn app and install again and just to be sure restarted the phone as well. Working now.

I too upgrade to Link+ , it worked for one day and currently I am seeing as blank a screen as the screen is seeing a blank face 😞

No wonder my insurance went up from around £400 to around £1200 ! Why aren't these thieves interested in Range Rovers or BMW X any more ? --E

Congratulations on bringing home Tiffany the Takumi Temptress 🙂 I would expect a somewhat significant improvement in overall comfort from Tiffany due to Better Seats : The F-Sport seats don't provide the same degree of customisation as Takumi (or at least on the driver's seat on Premium Pack). The extending thigh support is lovely. Better Wheels : Takumi 18" wheels have echo absorption cavities so less tyre noise to begin with which is suppressed very well with all the NVH treatment. Also, depending on the interior trim possibly you got a light coloured head liner which should make the car feel "roomier". Cannot comment on how correct this is but with the ML, maybe the active noise cancellation works better due to more active speakers in the rear half of the car. --E

Forest Brown comes with the dark headliner.

Yes. Not enough sound isolation on the sun roof area. For best results, keep the blind closed... or turn up the stereo volume up into mid 30s. --E

The ES 300h uses the FXS variant. It is an Atkinson cycle and not pretending to actually understand the thermodynamics in practice, I think in operation what that means is that the intake valve remains open even after the compression cycle has started (some of the charge is actually pumped out back into the manifold) The advantage I can see from using low ethanol mix is due to the fact that these engines use both Direct and Port Injection. Again, I don't have data to know when which of the two are in operation but I can guess that low speed stop and go type situations would use Direct Injection whereas steady state will switch over to Port Injection In case of Port Injection, the charge has a better opportunity to "wipe off" the blowback from the top of the valve. If a higher quality fuel is in use then that probability of cleaning up the valve top increases. In the FXS (Atkinson) variant some of the charge is actually pumped out of the cylinder during compression... so even the bottom of the valve gets a better chance of "wiping off" blowback. That is the advantage I can think using a higher quality fuel may have. But considering typical domestic use of let's say no more 10k miles a year, my opinion is that fuel cost is the least of running costs. Especially considering buyers who are able to afford the monthly PCP on a £40k car clocking under 10k miles a year, fuel cost should really not be an issue... but happy to be called out on that bias. I would say every now and then get a tank of the premium (previously the "usual") but don't expect to notice any better fuel economy or better power output. In terms of use, torque barely or never changes between premium and normal fuel. So moving off from stop and lower speed stop-and-go type situations will never get affected and even more so in a hybrid where there is a sizeable electric traction available from get go. Peak output may get affected, but really... that won't matter for 90% of the situations. On the Hybrid especially, will definitely not matter because the traction motor fills in (most of the times) the initial load and then the desired speed is achieved in a reasonably short amount of time. Towing is prohibited on the hybrid ... so that doesn't count as well. Using premium fuel may be better for the engine though. Now this may affect someone who wants to keep the car for the entire warranty period which in case of Lexus is 100k miles or 10 years. In commercial/taxi operation I think the warranty miles may well be exhausted before the 10 year period so might as well save money on the fuel and stick with the cheaper fuel. In domestic application, probably may make sense to fill up with the better fuel now and then or maybe even every time just as an engine maintenance activity rather than in an expectation to achieve better performance or fuel economy. And then again, the 300h already has better than adequate performance where it matters and it really is not a track car anyways. And for sure I don't know any ES300h owner who are not happy with the fuel economy. --E

IIRC someone on the forum already has an Azure Blue + Red interior - Now thinking about it again, I think the Superman Spec should be somewhat Red on the outside as well ?

I think it is down to Lexus willing to handle it under warranty and I think some of the credit also goes to the dealership for the support. I have had bad experience with VW group twice. First time on an approved used VW Polo we had which was still under warranty but the dealership refused to even take a look saying that the parking sensors were after market and they will not be fixed under warranty and the salesperson who had sold us the car was no longer working with them. The next time was with the Audi A6. This is how credibility is gained or lost. Will I ever think of buying another brand ? Probably not. —E

So, the extended diagnostics and software reinstall didn't work and Lexus ended up replacing the parts finally ! I wasn't given any paperwork but I did see the parts bill on their computer screen and indeed the total was upwards of £7000, but excellent support by Lexus Twickenham in the case. Was given a courtesy car, which was not an ES but rather a UX F-Sport, but happy to report that even the UX has that Lexus "special sauce" ie it doesn't drive/feel like a cheap car. Compare that to the warranty experience I had with Audi, I was given an Audi A1 with a manual transmission... and it 100% felt way cheaper than the A6 I had. And then the warranty work was to try and fix rattles using felt tape ! --E

IIRC, it is at least three weeks before it reaches the dealership and then maybe another week approximately. It takes its sweet time to get to the dealership. --E

Love the Lucid. Its surprising they have already launched and discontinued the 1111hp model !

I think they beat me to it 😞 https://www.toyota.com/crown/2023/features/mpg_other_price/4015/4020/4030 The Crown already comes equipped with the Hybrid Max in Platinum Trim 340 HP , so likely the top trim of ES could get that. The ES350 is about the same power output but being a hybrid might be an easier sell in UK/Europe due to low number of sales. Most manufacturers are required to sell some percentage of the lineup as "eco" !

I have a feeling that the updated ES will get that Hybrid Max power train. Toyota are testing the waters by putting that power train in trucks and RX F-Sport variant. Totally conjectural, but I think they would not want to put an untested power train in a model known for reliability. So in a couple of years' time when they have ironed out the issues ... I dream to get an ES with a detuned version of that Hybrid Max. (Detuned to match the weight class of the ES... might even help with fuel consumption as well)

I think that kind of sums it all up 🙂 For a majority of people, status and some kind of statement that "they are doing well" matters a lot. To me it doesn't tbh. I would love to fly under the "social radar" as much as I can.

The way it goes from 75mph to the said top speed must have left the two Range Rover drivers trying to hide their number plate from my rear view mirror totally in a "WTF just did that car do" state of mind. I digress here with a subject for another topic but people buy these big fat SUVs with turbo diesels assuming their vehicles will "go faster" than all other cars at all speeds. (Well again, I have a data point of one person I know personally who assumes his Range Rover Sport will do everything and anything which also recently spontaneously developed a check engine light which was "fixed" by an "independent" after three days in the shop) These buyers of big fat SUVs don't realise at 75mph the amount of energy needed to carve a 2mx2m hole through air to go even faster will send their pride-n-joy's ECUs into a tizzy trying to find the right shift point and get into the proper gear and to time it so that injectors match charge development from the turbo. The ES is one of the shortest cars (in terms of vehicle height not length) and I estimate the size of the hole it needs to carve through fluid at that speed is MUCH smaller already so it has an advantage. (In simple terms, obviously, ES is more aerodynamic than an SUV.. duh) By that time the ES300h's hybrid drive on kick-down has rapid discharged the traction battery and lurched the car forward and that "horrendous" CVT has held the revs at optimal point to take over and carry the speed all the way... try it, you will be surprised like I was how effortlessly it is able to carry higher speeds. The limit of 112mph is there to match emissions regulations (and the same applies to 0-62mph time which in practice is one of the most useless metrics pandered by "luxury" brands) And I wonder when I read all that what I have written above... I think it probably takes a certain kind of person to appreciate and go ahead decide with their money that that is exactly what they wanted. Most people will not realise or probably won't even care for the detail and hence be guided by the "reviews". In the end I think people buy what they want... what people want differs from person to person. Another friend of mine recently bought a Jaguar F-Pace and we were discussing about cars and he gently let it slip into the conversation that Toyota and by association Lexus is a "taxi" brand hence "someone" in his family won't let him even consider a Lexus product 😄 To each their own...