Bill Dawes

Driving my lovely UX tonight, wet, windy, dark roads, bright headlights, road markings worn out years ago, I decided that I am finding night driving more and more stressful. Is this an inevitable result of ageing, or wearing specs or something else. Bill D.

And why oh why having carefully gone through my message for grammar and spelling, as soon as it appears 'in the flesh' I see an error. 'Washers still freeze up, is it beyond mans wit'....... Reminds me of the good old days when the technological wonder of the Fax machine descended on us, always carefully scrutinised the text, perfect, until I pressed the send button and spotted a mistake as the paper wound through the machine. Bill D. PS got another one but I'll raise another post for that.

For many a long decade I have despaired at how car manufacturers get things wrong. I'm not talking about how many goodies there are or aren't on a specific model, this is mainly down to how much you want to pay. I'm talking about simple things that drive you mad and you think how on earth did no one spot this problem having spent millions of pounds on research and testing. I go back to a Renault 12 I had back in the early 70's, very nice comfortable quiet car (by the standards of the day) until it rained, the wiper motor howled with a waa waa noise, "they're all like that said Renault man". Before that I had a Vauxhall Viva which had a vibration from about 45 mph and got progressively worse as speed increased, several gear boxes, bearings, Diffs, prop shafts and god knows what else later they said they couldn't do any more, "all like that" said Vauxhall man. I'm talking about brand new cars here. More recently an Audi A4 Avant that poured water down your neck when rainy and you opened the boot lid. Now you might say Ah but that was then. Well it still goes on, did nobody at Lexus look at the UX and said, hang on how have we designed a car that's bigger than than a Kia Niro, but has less interior and boot room. Talking of boots (trunks) , my Takumi has two boot lights, one each side, excellent I thought but no, they are great as long as the boot is empty, when it's full they are about as much use a an ashtray on a motorbike, one the boot lid would help there. Did no one drive the car and found the hard surface against the left knee (RH dive car) irritating or encounter the knee cracker as you get in the car. Maybe that's just the way I sit or get in the car. I know this sounds as if I dislike the car, as I said before I really do like it but then never had the perfect car, seems even paying over 40 grand for a 'Premuim' car doesn't help. Oh and my latest and last grip which arose in the recent sub zero weather (even down here in the tropical South West) why do windscreen washers still freeze up. is beyong mans wit to install a heater coil in the system, you can have heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel but have to put up with no washers. On a similar note, it had always intrigued me why heated front screens never became standard kit other than on Ford cars, It may have originally been a Ford patent (I don't know) which must have expired long a go, even so Ford could have made a packet in royalties surely or was it never that good, never owned a Ford so I can't comment from personal experience. Bill D.

I also meant to say the UX is a super car that could be so much better, really all comes down to packaging, the media system on the 2023 model is much improved I understand, not seen it myself, and the boot space could be so much better. Bill D.

Waiting for my wife recently while she went into local chippie it struck me how many lights there were dotted all around the dashboard (it was dark) so to pass the time I decided to count them, getting on for a hundred on dash, steering wheel, doors, overhead panel etc, makes an impressive display when you press the start button, Boeing 747 eat your heart out. Mine is the Takumi spec. However I do have a grumble, many of these are difficult to see, the panel below the main display that has the controls for heated seats etc and the various buttons low down on the right hand side for electric boot, fuel filler etc particularly so. Case of getting to know them by instinct I suppose but not one of Lexus finest example of ergonomics, probably the worst I have had in my many cars over the years. I love the car nontheless, my wife less so, the vagaries of door locking / unlocking and lights drive her mad, all having a life of their own, she misses her smaller and infinitely simpler Seat Ibiza, we decided to go down to one car about a year ago as it just stood on the drive costing money for most of the time, as we live in a rural area however there have been occasions when we could have done with our own cars, question of weighing up cost v convenience of course. Bill D.

My new UX has of course got run flat and I was a bit worried reading this thread a while ago, having now had a few months running I am quite relieved they do not seem any worse than other tyres, only two runs up the same length of road with identical cars other than fitted with conventional v run flat would conclusively prove this but on a run up the M5 recently the rough surfaced parts were noisy as you would expect, smoother tarmac a pleasant drive. Tyre and road surface noise is the dominate noise on modern cars with their fat tyres and better body insulation, apart from noisy tuned cars of course. Bill D.

Thanks Renato, helps to confirm I made the right choice. Meant to say love the way the dooor wraps around the cill, no more trying to avoid getting your best strides dirty. Bill D.

Just returned home after 300 ish mile run, motorway, city traffic, day time, night time, lights heated steering wheel etc at times, total 49.3 mpg, about 7 to 8 down on summer figures but stilll pretty good I reckon for a 2 litre car. (video going round of woman who couldn't understand why with fuel at £1.8 per litre it was costing her over 40 quid to fill up when she only had a two litre car) Bill D.

I did have this treatment done when I bought it, have had it on the last few cars and I can't honestly swear it is amazing as I find it difficult to detect any major difference, however I did have it despite this as I understand it counts in its favour when trading in. The only way I could be 100% certain is having a back to back test with an untreated car which of course ain't going to happen. Back home now and looking very sorry for itself. Bill D

So glad I picked up my new UX in July, it actually stayed clean for several weeks, I look at it now and some days it looks ten years old with the present mucky weather. Giving it a wash tomorrow ready for a trip up to the midlands, it will look ten years old again half way up the M5 but what can you do, just have to keep trying to keep it looking presentable as much as posssible and look forward to the summer again when you can enjoy that first dry sunny day when you give it a spring clean and fall in love with it again. Bill D.

The general case with any car is that fuel consumption will deteriorate in the winter, heated steering wheel, heated seats, headlights, fall in battery efficiency and so on. All this energy has to come from somewhere which is ultimately the petrol you buy for a hybrid in this case. My previous car, a Kia Niro diesel also suffered the same due to above and combustion efficiency also suffers in cold weather. Bill D

Thanks Malc, my wife and I are pretty relaxed about it at the moment, just dealing with each rebuff as it comes along. Stay at your post for next exciting episode chaps. Bill D.

My UX is the Takumi, had a few posts about this earlier in the year when I was waiting delivery, seemed uncertain if kick feature was still fitted or not but when I picked car up in July asked the dealer who said it wasn't anymore. Just to be sure I have tried it a few times but nothing, getting me wondering now if I do have it but need to set something. Bill D.

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

My 2022 doesn't have the kick function so assume it was dropped sometime after the 2019 version, anyone know why? Bill D.

Update on this, put in insurance claim, guess what they came back with response saying responsibility lies with P&O, claim from them. We have written to P&O saying we are referring this to ABTA and instigating chargeback with credit card company (we use credit card for major purchases for this very reason) failing that we will be taking legal action. Similar letter to insurance company expressing our disappointment. Bill D.

Nick, I find it surprising that the electric motor doesn't cut in on short journeys, my 5 years experience of hybrids, Kia and Lexus show just the opposite. My 2022UX is pretty quiet so it's not always obvious when you are running on electric unless you watch the energy monitor. Bill D.

Thanks for reply guys, what i feared really, still can't think of any logical reason for there being a minimum speed for it to actuate and as I said 40mph (not km/hr) is too fast on a dark twisty road on dip beam, so I do it manually in such circumstances, not a life changer but annoying non the less, not had this problem with other cars. Another weird Lexus thing like the lights off delay, despite setting it up on menu you still have to pull up the light stalk to actuate it every time, again never had to do this with previous cars. Ah well, all cars have their quirks, still seeeking the perfect car even after 60 years of driving. Reckon I have covered close to a million miles in that time, spent a good few years doing 35 - 40k annually. Shuudder to think how much I have spent in that time although about 20 years of that was with company cars, still not free of course as anyone who has had a company car will know. Sometimes wish I could just drive around in an old banger until it falls apart but I just love new cars and all their wonderful automated??? electronic systems.🤣 Bill D.

Rowley, this is not so much about contract conditions as the circumstances that lead to it. The medical declaration is brutally black or white, when you do a similar thing with an insurance company for pre existing medical conditions you put in whatever the condition is and this is followed by several other questions to drill down into more detail. There is no such opportunity in the P&O questionaire and unless you have fallen foul of it before you have no inkling of what will follow. Basically we appear to be in the position of P&O demanding third party cover on what is actually an uninsurable situation. The logical consequence is that people that are aware of it will just lie unless they are actually seriously ill. Referring to the forum on a cruise website I am not alone in this situation with P&O so they can expect many claims being pursued. Bill D.

PS on the lights subject I do love my triple LED adaptive lights, awesome. Bill D.

I see that this topic has been discussed before but was a few years ago so wonder if situation has changed. My question regarding auto high beam is can the speed at which they activate be altered, mine appears to be around 40 mph which is far too fast for the roads you really do need it on, as I do, twisty rural pitch black country lanes (I thought I had read somewhere that it was more like 25mph which is a bit more realistic) Yes I know you can do it manually but if you have an auto anything at least it should be actually functional. I've had auto high beam on other cars but as far as I can remember it worked at any speed, why does it need a minimum speed anyway? Nothing obvious in the manual. I love my new UX, my first Lexus but I do find some of the systems inexplicably fussy, the 'see you home' headlight delay (or whatever each manufacturer calls it) is a case in point it drove me mad for ages until I searched through the manual and found that despite having set the time delay you still have to set it each time with the left hand stalk to operate it, again my other cars just worked every time I switched off having once gone into settings to activate the function and time delay. Bill D.

Hi Malc & John, at the moment it has cost us over £5k for cruise, excursions and insurance. Next move will be back to P&O telling them insurance company have batted it back to them and we will be complaining to ABTA and proceeding with credit card chargeback. Small claims court another option but god know how long that will take, our son has been waiting for a small claims court for well over a year now, Covid of course is blamed, don't you guys think the Covid excuse is wearing a bit thin now? I did send a complaint by email to P&O customer services who to be fair did respond, not entirely the usual corporate crap, but said they would report my complaint to their marketing department about the way the website medical declaration works which is black and white, no drilling down with more questions on specifiic ailment (as do insurance companies when you are declaring existing medical conditions) Just had another thought, BBC rip off Britain programme or similar. Bill D.

The other inexplicable thing is that P&O stopped compulsory Covid testing, just saying they recommend you do a test but with no requirement for submitting results, a waste of time in other words, how many people would test positive but still went because they felt ok. Bill D.

Just to clarify what I said about inadvertently answering yes, the question, one of several, was something along the lines of, have you or are you suffering any of the following. There followed a list of symptoms covering every known ailment know to mankind, eg coughs, sneezes, aches pains, sickness, headache etc. As I was recovering from a mild cold the previous week and bearing in mind the advice in these matters is to be honest, I said yes, fully expecting further questions but no, bang, end of cruise. So substitute inadvertently for naive, should have just said no. My wife and I were stunned, staring at the screen in disbelief. What do you do if you suffer from hayfever as I and millions of others do, the honest answer would be yes of course, hayfever isn't contagious but your cruise would have been cancelled with no opportunity for further explanation. Bill D.

We booked a cruise way back in 2019 for our 40th wedding anniversary in 2020, well we all know what happened in 2020. Eventually rebooked it for 2022, doing our medical declaration a couple of days before cruise on 08 October I inadvertantly answered yes to one of the questions and it immediately came up on screen , cruise cancelled you will not be allowed on board, immediate phone calls were in vain. they (P&O) just said claim off your insurance. Did just that and had verdict today from insurance provider (Staysure) , guess what, claim off P&O. Anyone of a certain age with pre existing medical conditions will be aware of the eye watering amount cruise insurance costs, we had the expensive comrehensive option even so living up to insurance companies reputation, look for a way out rather than pay up. So back to P&O, followed by ABTA followed by credit card people followed by BBC rip off Britain, any other ideas guys, we don't do social media, perhaps we should. Bill D.