Gary H

We have one of those newer-style yellow vultures only a few hundred yards away from where I work. Typically being in North Wales, this also means it now also observes the ridiculous 20mph crawling limit along what's an arrow-straight piece of road.

I've bought two Lexus' new. Both from different dealers and the experiences were like chalk and cheese. My UX in 2020 came from my 'second closest' dealer. The car was their showroom model. It was already sitting there. So from signing for it to collecting it was roughly a week. Something like six days from memory. It would have been a few days shorter, but had to delay it because of a work colleague who was ill at the time. The handover? I can't remember exactly how long I was there, but it was at very least two hours. Probably closer to two and a half. I was taken into the handover room, given a bottle of wine and then the car revealed in the next room with glitzy lights. Most features very well explained. Very nice indeed and I have no complaints, but no better than I had from the likes of Audi previously. The NX I have now (from my local dealer), which I collected in September? Dear me... If you want all the hassle in the run-up, read the '2023 Delivery Date' thread. I haven't explained every single issue I had, but you get a good 60/70% of what I had to endure. Anyway, after a sixteen month wait for the car to eventually arrive (minus second key and locking wheel nuts of course), it was about a fortnight from it rolling off the transporter to me collecting it. Not entirely their fault as I was waiting for the September plate change. If it wasn't for that, I'm confident enough it would have been in my hands in less time. The 'handover'? Well...I was taken into the salesman's regular office, followed by heading out to the regular car park where it was sitting. Not in any handover room or anything. No gifts... All in all, I think the whole process took them about 45/50 minutes. It didn't quite make an hour. Most of that time was waiting for the car to go onto the DVLA database after registration and the salesman setting up the app thing. To be fair, given my very poor experience of that place up until that point, they probably done what they thought was right - to deal with me and see me on my way ASAP. However, far from impressive and quite easily the worst new car collection experience I've had in 20 years. I've actually collected a used car in the distant past which I was given more time, care and consideration.

All barring one occasion my new cars have been in single digits on the day of collection. I think the lowest I've had was 3. My NX had 6 on it when I collected that. The highest I've had was my second to last Audi. They had a very similar one, unregistered in stock, up in Bolton. I'd accepted that one to save the wait but there was a catch - they had to physically drive it to my own dealer for me to get it in time. To get it transported, they said it could take up to three or four weeks longer. So, I ended up collecting that with something like 43 miles on it, which did annoy me. I did get some freebies from them to soften the blow but it still felt more like a 'used' car at that point as sad as that sounds. The highest delivery mileage that I've personally come across, that didn't involve a dealer-transfer, was back in 1998 when my father collected his brand new Corsa Sport. That had 13 on it and I remember being a little shocked it was as high as that. Especially considering the petrol station they used at the time was literally 200yds up the road.

Oh dear... It looks like my App is playing up at the moment. I opened it last night to be greeted with the screen flicking/fluttering before closing itself down. I tried to re-open it and it had logged me out. So, I tried logging back in again and after I entered my e-mail address and clicked 'continue', the below error message shown... 😕 Anyway, I went to bed. Tried it again this morning and it looks like the app has had some sort of update to the terms and conditions. After accepting those, it logged in correctly. I assumed all was well... On my way into work this morning, I was about three miles into the drive when I had that dreaded 'profile not synced' come up on the screen - wanting me to log in from the car. That's something that's never happened before. It logged in fine, but it makes me worry what it'll do when I head home later on...

My old 2020 F-Sport had the red leather option, which had black headlining. Whilst it did brighten it up and I always liked opening the door to be greeted with the red leather, sitting in the back still remained a slightly 'gloomy' place with the black headlining I will admit. Fortunately I was rarely in the back! There was indeed a light cream/white option. It was in the demonstrator I driven (it was a relatively early car on a 69 plate) and whilst I also liked that, I was mildly concerned about keeping it clean. Not only that, I did once have an Audi A3 with black and light grey leather - which wasn't too dissimilar.

I don't personally bother with SatNav. I never have done. If I'm going anywhere new, I'll just spend a few minutes on Google Maps before setting out or indeed, consult the good old-fashioned map book. Generally speaking, the only time I've used any car's SatNav is basically to see if the screen works, basically say "Oh, look at the pretty coloured lines on the screen!" and then turn it off again...! That's actually one minor irritant I have with my NX. I'm not sure if it's the same with them all or mine is stuck with some weird setting I've never discovered, but it always defaults to the SatNav screen when I turn the car on. Is there any way I can change it to default to another screen?! One of my routines I've learnt with the NX is get in the car, turn engine on, seatbelt on and then press the little car symbol on the right hand side of the touchscreen to bring up the energy monitor! That's what I used as a default on my UX.

Yours is the same as mine! Barring it being left hand drive and a 450h, rather than 350h! 😄 I have to say, the only electronic help which has 'failed to operate' so far is the rear-collision detection during heavy rain - when obviously the rear sensors have been dirty. It'll put on an orange symbol in the bottom left hand corner of the binnacle that looks like a rectangle with circles inside - if that makes sense. It'll only light when the car is in reverse. Other than that, so far, so good. It's certainly an improvement over the UX I had, which it's adaptive cruise control often wouldn't work in conditions which I didn't think were too bad. So far, the NX has worked in both heavy rain and last week, heavy fog. No doubt it will fail to work at some point but no issues on that front so far I'm pleased to report.

I had a mild-panic the other morning but it turned out to just be me thankfully... I went to the car on the driveway but it wasn't unlocking. I tried every door... A 'heart in throat' moment for sure. It was only at this point I felt down to my coat pocket and realised I'd left the key in the kitchen. 😳🤦‍♂️ In my defence, it was little after 6:30am on a cold, thoroughly wet morning and I'd only had about three, maybe three and a half hours' sleep the previous night! Anyway @Starlight, I'm really hoping I don't end up in that situation as I'm one of those who only has one complete key and a second 'key blade'. If my battery was to ever fail, I'd be screwed. It's in the back of my mind because in my previous car (UX), that key went through two batteries in the three and a half years I had it. Until that point, I'd never had to replace a battery in a key before...

Hi @Richolf. I can't really comment accurately on the fuel consumption as I have the 350h - but I usually achieve high 40s commuting to work and it'll happily tip over 50mpg on a run. It's only up to 1500 miles at the moment, so I think it's still early days in terms of getting the best from it. My previous car, a UX, took several thousand miles before I started getting anywhere close to book figures. Out of curiosity, one notable 'fault' I have on mine which I've yet to report (my dealer is probably one of the worst you'll find from Lexus in Britain, so I've not bothered...) is that my steering wheel whilst travelling 'straight ahead' is slightly off to the left. It has been since day one. I'll be interested to hear if yours in the same. The car drives perfectly fine. Straight and true. It's literally just the steering wheel which is off-centre to the left slightly.

Crikey @stevewagster (welcome to the forum, by the way!). That sounds horrendous. It's a pity we don't have America's 'Lemon Law' here in the UK - as I think your car would more than qualify on that. The first four faults you list alone indicates to me some sort of serious electrical fault or faults taking place. I remember my old 2020 UX250h F-Sport had a few 'interesting' quirks, which come back to mind after reading through your list: The kick boot opener immediately comes to mind. That never worked properly from day one and basically only wanted to work when it felt like it - which was rarely. I gave up with it in the end and got around that in the end by simply using the 'traditional' boot button on the key. It wasn't so much an issue to me as it was a feature I'd never had until that point anyway, but I can fully appreciate anyone who wants to use it and find it handy. The speed recognition wasn't the most accurate on mine either. It would often miss National Speed Limit signs after leaving a 50mph zone (so it stayed at 50mph) and on one particular roundabout near home it always shown up as 10mph - when no such sign exists anywhere nearby. I never did figure that one out... It used to take a good few hundred yards past the roundabout (in any direction) for it to correct itself. Going back onto yours, if the dealer isn't taking these faults seriously or looking into some sort of internal investigation into unresolved matters than yes, I absolutely would be taking the issue higher than dealer level. Sooner rather than later, too.

Thanks for clarifying. It's good to know I'm not the only one! I did assume that's what it's meant and as it was set up by those supposed to be in 'the know' - I just gave them my phone on collection day and left them to it. Indeed. I'm not bothered by it either. As I said, the remote climate is quite literally the only thing on the app that I use. The rest of it is just 'garnish' to me...!

No problem! I couldn't tell you if there were any differences in build quality over the Covid period unfortunately. I collected mine in March 2020 - so I'm assuming it would have been built a few months prior (it was the showroom model). I've certainly not heard of any horror stories of them over this period being any worse e.t.c...

Hi @JDF. I had a 2020 UX F-Sport which had both the Premium Plus Pack and the Tech & Safety Pack. Both of which I now believe are no longer available. When I was getting an appraisal on mine, the salesman did say that mine was quite unusual having both those packs as it makes it very well specced for an F-Sport. After I told him it was the showroom model at my next nearest dealer, he then understood given the showroom cars are normally specced up! In layman's terms - it basically took my F-Sport up to 'almost' Takumi spec and at the time, a fraction under £40k to keep it below that high VED threshold. It just lacked the sunroof, memory seats (although they were still electric) and the fancy stereo. It had plenty of other toys though. I believe these two packs, in effect, were replaced with the Takumi Pack to simplify things (rather than having a pack for 'this' and a pack for 'that') but no doubt there will be minor differences in spec e.t.c... With regards to tyres, mine remained on it's factory Bridgestones throughout the three and a half years I had it and I honestly thought it was fine. It had a habit of being a bit 'skittish' around corners if they were notably bumpy but otherwise perfectly acceptable. If AVS is referring to that little knob pictured by @ColinBarber above, then yes, my F-Sport had that. I have to admit, for most of it's life with me, I just left it in eco!

I have noticed that! It's always assumed the 2021 business to mean 2021 'onwards', but if yours says 2023 it does make me wonder... I'm assuming it's set up correctly. It was done by the dealer on collection day - hooking it up to the chassis number e.t.c as we sat in the car. Then again, regulars here will know all too well what my experiences have been with that lot... I don't really use the app for anything else but having a 'play around' with it last night, everything else seems to tally up fine - such as the mileage, previous trips taken e.t.c... On the positive side - it worked this morning. Again, there doesn't appear to be any pattern to it that I can pick up on yet. Sometimes it'll work and sometimes it'll just...load and load and load before timing out and failing. I've seen that blue screen and QR code too. I can't quite make out what it says by peering through the windows and indeed, as soon as you go for the door, everything turns off as it should. I think it may possibly be the 'terms and conditions' screen. I sometimes get that if I try to drive away too quickly before it's had chance to load my phone. I mentioned it in another thread recently. I've not had any updates come through for the app as of yet, so I can defiantly discount that one. All I've had is a typical apple/iPhone update. I sorted that out at home last night and low and behold - the remote climate worked fine this morning. It took an age to connect as it always does on my NX, but did work. It's something I'm going to keep an eye on and see if there's a pattern to it. As I said to HMT above, I haven't seen one yet and when I saw that phone update I just put 'two and two' together - probably coming up with five! It's something I'll continue to monitor and see. It's just a bit baffling at the moment.

Audi has been going downhill for the last five/six years or so - and that is one of the main reasons I moved to Lexus in 2020. Until that that point, I'd had four Audis back-to-back. I think 2016/7 was a major turning point, in my opinion at least, when the current Q5 and A4 were originally launched - which started off a new 'design signature' for the whole range. I had one of the very last of the original model Q5's on a '66' plate and that really was a fabulous, solid thing. I was happy to have that over the new (now current) model. They'd already stopped taking orders for the old model when I got mine. The new one, much like the new A4 at that point, felt notably 'cheaper' inside with much more plastic. I also thought they didn't look quite as substantial and the doors didn't close with the same reassuring 'thump' the old models did. I vaguely recall the prices for the new models were quite a bit more expensive too. I really wasn't impressed with what was likely going to be on offer come renewal time, so I knew within a few months of getting my Q5 that it would almost certainly be my last Audi for the foreseeable... It doesn't surprise me that reliability is now suffering for Audi - given these early 'new' models are now comfortably out of warranty and some no doubt into second or even third owners. Even sitting in them in the showroom, they felt inferior to the models they'd replaced. I dread to think what they're like to sit in and drive once they're upwards of 70/80,000 miles...

I don't particularly use many features in my NX (I'm not entirely sure how half of them work, to be honest...) and nor do I really use the app. However, one feature I have used on the odd occasion, which is on the app, is the remote climate control. Typical of my luck - the one of a few things I like to use turns out to be rather temperamental. On mine, it only really works when it wants to. It's always very slow to activate in sending the signal to the car, but whilst sometimes it'll work, there's other times when it'll 'swirl and swirl' whilst trying to send the signal to the car and then it'll just fail. I can happily live without it, but it would come in handy over the coming winter months. Being the coldest morning since early this year, I wanted to use it this morning before setting out to work and typically - it wasn't wanting to 'play ball' with me today... I tried twice but no luck - and at the time of using it, I'm literally no more than ten feet away from the car sitting in the house. The only suggestion I can think of - and it's something I did notice only a couple of hours ago, is that my phone suddenly has a new update on it to download/upload (whatever) and I'm wondering if that may have something to do with it? I don't recall having any outstanding updates on my phone the last time it failed a few weeks ago - but I'm willing to stand corrected on that. I was wondering if anyone had any issues with theirs which can relate to this?

I'm sorry to hear about this Leu. One of my worst nightmares, genuinely, is discovering my car has been stolen. My sympathies to you and I'm happy the car has at least been recovered - albeit damaged. A few weeks ago I was down in Suffolk and had to leave my car for two nights. The hotel I was staying at only has limited parking and the next available parking which doesn't cost a fortune is a good 10/15 minute walk away... Needless to say, thoughts of CANBUS theft and also in my case, alloy wheel theft thanks to no locking bolts, was very much on my mind. Luckily all was fine, but I was apprehensive when I took the walk back to the car. It really isn't something that should bother you as a Lexus owner. Not with the prices you have to pay for the cars. It's interesting to know they haven't supplied you with a courtesy car at this stage - that's poor form indeed. I've discussed at length over the course of this year the lack of customer care I've had from Lexus. I have plenty to say which is for another day/discussion, but my opinion of them at the moment isn't overly complimentary lets just say...

Well, I completed my Suffolk trip early last week and in the end, I was there for two nights for one. I have to admit whilst walking back towards the car (due to parking constraints, the nearest I could get the car was about a ten minute walk away...) I was worried about what I'd find but fortunately it was still sporting all it's alloys. As I've said elsewhere, I've been actively looking for suitable locking wheel nuts away from dealing with Lexus (albeit I've not had any chance over the last week or so) as I have no faith they'll turn up. If they do, I certainly wouldn't trust my dealer of doing some actual customer service by picking up the phone and telling me when they arrive. The same goes with the second key - which I'm worried more about. Thanks for the update @DouglasGB. Much appreciated. I would say that's the most information I've seen from Lexus on the situation. I only took delivery of my NX last month, so I suspect I still have some time to wait. When I signed for my car on collection day (there was a tick list of items), I noted it was missing the second key and locking wheel nuts - and was told to do so. I also noted it was missing a user manual even though I was already aware of being told "we don't supply them". It was out of principle. I don't think a car of that value shouldn't come without one, but that's for another subject for another day... I've not been advised of the likes of the locking wheel nuts no longer being supplied. That's the first I've heard of that to be honest @szhrmp, but we're talking about my dealer here...who, lets just say, spent the majority of my sixteen month wait avoiding all contact with me where possible. It's genuinely good to see a response from Customer Services. I gave up with them in the end. I never had a written reply directly from them during my three attempts at making contact with them. They just passed my attempts straight onto the dealer and...yeah...see my last paragraph! It was an endless circle of no information and almost zero contact!

Very good indeed! I've seen these cropping up in recent weeks! It's just fortunate that I can activate cruise control as low as 20mph. I've actually found myself sitting more forward on my seat, holding onto the wheel with both hands, gently rocking backwards and forwards as if I'm willing the car to go faster! Not so much going to work, but when I'm trying to get home and back into England! 😄

How odd. I can't say I've had that issue as of yet - thankfully. Knowing my luck, something like that would happen to me miles away from home! To me from the way you describe it, as already suggested, that sounds more like a key/immobiliser in key issue than the actual car. Especially if all has been well with the car ever since... One of my work colleagues has a Vauxhall Astra The only slightly odd situation I have is that occasionally if I start the car and go into drive or reverse too quickly, it doesn't 'load' my phone settings and I end up having some sort of blue screen with white writing on (not really looked too hard to see what it says to be honest) and one of those square QR codes. If I stop the car, put it into park, all of a sudden it'll then connect to my phone and all is well again. It won't do this unless I put the car back into park. My own way around this is to basically start the car as soon as I get in before doing anything else, to give it a few extra seconds 'loading time' as it were... Over the last week or so, it's twice shown my "phone cannot connect to wireless". Not as quickly as the above situation, but about 2/300 yards into moving away. I'm confident this is more of a problem to do with my phone than the car though - as I do know it occasionally 'derps out' if I try to play music from it and it simply won't load anything at all. I had this very same issue in my two previous cars. It'll work great for a while and then for several months, for reasons unknown, it just won't load any music when you go into 'media'. Then at some point it'll start randomly working again only to 'break' again a few days later... Rince and repeat... Luckily, I don't listen to much in the way of music anyway! I've not rebuilt my strength enough to start pestering them again to be honest. I'm not sure how long to leave it before I start doing it with mine. I only collected my car just over a month ago, so I suspect it's nowhere near ready. I thought about giving them six months or so to give them a chance but, knowing their track record of keeping in touch/updates (i.e - non-existent), I suspect I was forgotten about the moment I drove away from the car park.

I’m not the greatest of fans of Supagard, it has to be said. We’ve had it done on two cars in our household when new (going back to the very late 00s) and on both occasions thought it was a waste of money, personally. It was around this time I started to not really trust dealers cleaning new cars properly and found that one of my first/basic washes on a new car after a week or two of collecting it gives it a better finish than it had on the day of collection. Over time, I can usually build up my own level of decent protection on the car with regular wash-waxes and decent quality ceramic sprays anyway. Obviously a proper ceramic coating is far superior, but comes at a price. If you keep on top of your car as I do, the ceramic sprays which need re-applying every few months are sufficient. From my experience, using kitchen roll and warm water on bird droppings which are relatively fresh is generally fine - providing you obviously don’t rub away at it. The best advice I can give in this respect would be to soak a sheet of kitchen roll in warm water and then put it over the ‘offending’ area and allow it to soften up for a minute or so. Go back a minute or two later with another wet piece of kitchen roll. I’m incredibly fussy over car-cleanliness and I know professional detailers would very much cringe at the thought of this method. However, providing it’s not something that’s truly baked on or been there for several days, this method has almost always worked well for me! @Spacewagon52 - This very much reminds me of a Corsa 1.6 Sport which my father bought brand new back in 1998. I take after him when it comes to car care. We took it up to Scotland on a touring holiday in 2000. This must have been about six months before he traded it in. Anyway, we were up there for a week and three days before we come home, there was a notable bird-dropping on the nearside rear corner of roof. Without anything decent to hand, we decided to leave it until we got home. Bad mistake... It had already etched itself into the lacquer in those three days. We did very much ‘lessen’ it’s appearance on the paintwork, but you could clearly see it’s outline if you knew where to look. The only way you’d get that out would be professional sanding equipment which we didn’t have or have the confidence to do so! Luckily the dealer, who we had a great relationship with anyway, never noticed it!

As someone who works in North Wales, I can only concur! I've already considered buying a red flag to attach to the car on weekdays... 🚩😡

I have the same 'trait' with my driver-side wiper where it won't go up all the way to the pillar - leaving quite a bit of a gap. However, I can't say that it causes me any issues. It's just a minor gripe more than anything else.

It is indeed a waiting game, unfortunately. I only got one full key and then a blade. As I've said elsewhere, all I got was the 'shrug of the shoulders' by the dealer and told it could take 'up to a year'. That was on collection day over a month ago and that was, unsurprisingly, the last time they were in touch with me. I highly doubt I'll ever receive my second key fob or my locking wheel bolts given the non-existent service from the company. I'm actively looking to see if I can find alternative locking wheel bolts without having to involve Lexus. I haven't a clue how I'm going to get around the situation over the lack of a second key though.

It's the same with mine, with my beige jobbie... Apologies it's a bit 'close up' - I couldn't open the door fully when I finally remembered to take a picture for this thread!