Gary H

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! 

On 10/8/2023 at 1:00 PM, ColinBarber said:

Indeed. Keep hounding your dealer to supply this.

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! 

I’m really struggling to see Lexus’ justification in the pricing on this. Obviously, I’m missing something major about it but for a starting price of £90k for a van with windows and leather seats seems...steep. That’s probably the politest way I can put it.

I will be genuinely surprised if they can shift anything more than double digits in any given year before it’s quietly dropped from the UK market. It’s something I can imagine being used by exclusive London hotels as taxis for the rich and famous. I couldn’t see why anyone would want one as a personal car. Not from new, at least. Not when I would choose practically any other Lexus model over it.

I hadn’t heard that one before, either! I can’t say I’ve been in many older Japanese cars with leather in order to comment on that front, but very interesting to hear...

I’d say the strongest smelling leather I’ve had in a car was on a 2008 Audi A3 Sportback I had - which come with fine nappa leather. I bought it new and had it for just over three years. That was truly pungent from collection day and remained that case for the best part of a year. You just had to open any of the doors and not even get into the car for it to waft up the nostrils! As a ‘new car smell connoisseur’, I found this very impressive! It remained quite strong after that time too. It was well into the third and final year before it got to the point the car smelt more like ‘fresh air’ with hints of leather, but still remained very much ‘leathery’ in warm weather.

I'm sorry to jump back into this thread because indeed, I wasn’t intending on coming back to it since my own collection day. I didn't really want to comment on it again, but given what I've seen on here over the last week or so - I have to say something.

I just want to say how genuinely annoyed I am for both @Scotlex (which I've commented on his own separate thread already) and @Deb for their incorrect orders. To receive a different model year than the one you ordered due to excessive waiting is one thing (and does mildly irritate me as I’m really not keen on the colour-coded glovebox lid business...), but to receive a clearly incorrect car with a clear difference in ordered spec is, well, something else. Honestly, I'm sitting here and genuinely fuming for you both. It really isn't good. At all.

I can only assume it's one of two things. Either the salesperson in each case has made a fundamental mistake at the time of ordering (which I think is least likely, but still a possibility), or there's clearly big issues which still need addressing at the factory.

To me, Lexus really has tarnished itself in terms of reputation here in the UK. From my latest sales experience, I certainly wouldn’t be recommending them. The sad thing is that it doesn’t look as if that the company, on the whole, really cares. Lead times, on the NX at least, are ridiculous. There are examples of, not necessarily ‘queue jumping’ (that would be unfair to the customer) but preferential treatment given to certain orders. It's certainly something I'll never forget during my own 16 month saga of almost total 'radio silence'. There's missing parts - such as second keys and locking wheel nuts. Now we’re seeing cars arriving at the dealer which are 'similar' in spec to what’s been ordered by the customer, but not correct... This isn't just unacceptable for a brand like Lexus, but for any brand.

They may not realise it yet, but when these cars are due to be exchanged/replaced - they won’t find as many customers considering sticking with Lexus the next time around. 

I’m glad they’ve let you have that incorrect one in the meantime whilst they sort out the correct car, @Deb. Indeed, it’s not ideal but I do think that was the right thing to do under the circumstances. Fair play to them for that. I don’t think they could have really improved upon that without another/correct car to give you. They’ll probably sell it as an ex-demo for pretty much the same price.

Welcome to the forum @ijhammo! From my understanding (and if fellow members know better - please feel free to correct me), MY24 cars have different locking nuts than previous model years. Why they're different...? Who knows...

I collected my NX on 1st September and was basically told getting these locking wheel nuts (and my second key) could take...and I quote..."anything up to a year", with the shrug of the shoulders. I did deal with a particularly bad dealer though.

I'm trying to find suitable alternatives, away from dealing with Lexus, that I can purchase but so far I haven't had any luck. I would genuinely eat my own hat if my dealer ever got back in touch with me if they ever eventually turned up.

New car smell - it really is one of the finest smells in the world. It’s something I’ve said for about as long as I can remember. 

Even as a relatively small child I remember being fascinated by it. One of my earliest childhood memories that I distinctly remember was going to Cromer on holiday in my father’s company Toyota Carina II liftback in white, with blue velour. It was an ‘E’ plate and one of the last of the boxier, original ‘T150’ models. Anyway, it would have been a young car at the time. Around 18 months old, two years at most. I distinctly remember pushing my nose into the seat fabric to smell a ‘stronger newness’ still in the seats! 😄 I’ve never forgotten that... 

Anyway going back twenty years, I remember ‘Magic Tree’ did do what they called a ‘New Car Scent’ fragrance. I remember the tree being blue. I’m pretty sure it’s still available but I’ve no idea if it still smells the same or not. My only advice is to avoid this. I did put a few up in my first car (a Ford Ka). I wasn’t keen on it when I opened the packets. It smelt sweet but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. I thought maybe it would be better left in the open air for a while, so I left them hanging up in there for a few hours and when I went back to the car to give it it’s first proper...’whiff’...should I say, what did I smell? New car scent? Like new glues, carpets, plastics and fabrics?

No... I smelt bubble bath. 

Yes, Magic Tree’s ‘new car scent’ smelt pretty much like bubble bath to me. Nothing whatsoever like what I thought it would. Most definitely a false advertisement on their behalf! I ended up taking those trees out after about three days because the longer I spent in the car, the more nauseating/sickly the smell would become. 🤢

The next one I tried in there was a ‘real leather’ one. I honestly can’t remember what brand it was - I just remembered it was brown, rectangular and cost a few quid more than a Magic Tree. Now - this one was very nice indeed...and I had a then three year old Ford Ka that did genuinely smell like a car with leather seats! Not car leather...but the sort of leather from the likes of a DFS sofa. I did like that one! I was sad when it faded as I never found that particular one again. 

Thanks for the tip on Dr Leather Wipes, @Rabbers. I have seen them around but never used them. I’ll keep them in mind. The less orthodox alcohol tip in particular has made me chuckle! I’ve never heard of that one before!

Obviously with my 73 plate car that’s only three weeks old today, it still smells lovely and new in there and I do intend on keeping it that way for as long as possible - as I have done so with any new car I’ve owned in the past. I do have some very simple, but perhaps over the top rules which have caused much laughter with work colleagues in the past. They are:

- Don’t have doors or windows open for longer than necessary. Especially the latter. Use air conditioning. 
- No overuse of deodorants or aftershaves on a person entering the car.
- No eating or drinking in the car. I will accept coffee in the car after around the 18 month mark.
- Following on from the above, there will be absolutely no ‘takeaway runs’ done in said car. 

Obviously all of this only delays the inevitable of newness naturally fading away from the interior, but even after three and a half years with the UX that my NX replaced, you could still detect hints of original newness in it after that length of time. Especially in warmer weather.

Once entering a space and once leaving for me, Bill. 

I have to say, I wasn’t impressed with either. The car seems to grab the brakes too much, so lots of typical ‘grabby/graunchy’ sounds. Also, I wasn’t keen on it twizzling the wheel whilst stationary - which just causes additional wear to the tyres. I’m assuming it’s the same with all NX’s with this feature, but mine also put an indicator on even when backing out of a space. 

On exiting a space it seemed to work reasonably well - although slow. When entering a space it seemed to be even slower. Whilst it lined itself up in the bay perfectly fine, it left quite a bit of a gap from the car in front. It said it’s completed it’s self-parking and done it’s ‘camera spinny thing’ on the screen. However, the entire boot section of the car was still sticking out! I had to put the car back into drive and move it forward the final three feet or so. 

I’m happy enough that I’ve tried it - but to me it’s just a gimmick I can happily live without. I prefer parking myself.

From the end of my final distance trip in my UX and now I’m less than a fortnight away (all being well...) from taking the first proper distance trip in the NX...

Ohh, I’m jealous @Lmafudd! I haven’t been down to the westcountry since 2019...and it’s somewhere I always used to go practically every year in September without fail. Covid put paid to that in 2020, the year I got my UX and sadly I’ve not had the chance so far to go back. As such, the UX is only the second(?) car I’ve ever owned that didn’t make it down to the South West in my hands. 

Generally speaking, luck tends to be on my side when I’ve used the M5 over the years. It’s usually around the area of Sedgemoor where things can get predictably sluggish! Especially northbound on the approach to Avonmouth. From where I am, I only hit the M5 once I get to Bristol. My usual ‘tried and tested’ route to that point is the A41, A49 and A466 to the old Severn Bridge - then of course joining the M5 from the M4 at Almonsbury. 

Anyway - the subject of lumbar support before I waffle on too much about my routes! It’s interesting you bring that up because I generally didn’t have a problem with it in my UX (my 2020 F-Sport had it). However, on the odd occasion when my father drove the car, he did complain about lower back ache after a while. He took the lumbar off as he couldn’t get it low enough on his back for it to be of any use. So in the end, as @Beezer has mentioned - he did actually use a small cushion!

My 350h has remote climate control: 

I haven't personally tried locking or unlocking the car with the app though, so I can't comment on that front. I know the dealer quickly tried it to see if it worked when I collected it (it did - but was very sluggish) but that's the only time it's been used. 

Hi @Gazetta. Welcome to the forum! I’ll be taking my own NX350h on a 240-odd mile trip in a few weeks - it's first distance trip, with the return leg the following day. I have a one-night stay in a hotel which unfortunately due to parking constraints, means it has to be left the best part of a half a mile away (it can’t be helped). I will be taking an old crook lock with me which I’ve had for 20-odd years. Getting on for half that time, it’s been sat in my garage unused. I doubt many modern thieves will be carrying around hacksaws these days...

My biggest concerns is the lack of locking wheel bolts on the alloys... 😕

Thanks for the link @MarcG. I have been going through both those Northside Lexus videos over the last couple of weeks - I managed to find them myself, but I certainly can recommend them to anyone collecting an NX. I currently have them saved in my ‘Watch Later’ list!

I'm very sorry to hear about that, @Scotlex. After my own sixteen month wait and the poor experience over that time, I would have been furious. In that situation I'd have asked for my deposit back and walked away. I wouldn't have personally asked for a loan car, accepted 'freebies' e.t.c. I wouldn't have given them that benefit. Obviously, if I had a good experience up until that point or had been dealing with that particular dealer for many years with no real issues - I would have listened to what they had to offer first. 

With cars I've ordered from scratch, I've always had that fear something, somewhere would be wrong. Fortunately those fears have so far been unfounded and with regards to this latest order for my NX, it's quite literally the only thing during the whole ordering/waiting process that's actually gone right. With that said, technically, my own NX isn't quite right from what I ordered - but that's simply down to the ridiculous wait I had. When I ordered mine, they were selling MY22 cars (perhaps early MY23?). By the time they finally decided to build my car, they were very comfortably into MY24 - meaning mine has the tan/beige glovebox lid which, if I have to be honest, even a fortnight on I'm still not entirely sure about. I think I preferred the earlier cars which were just black and matched the dashboard. 

@NemesisUK - It wouldn't actually surprise me if some dealers were hoping some specifics their long-waiting customers had ordered were forgotten about - just to get them out of the door and off the waiting list. For instance, about a month before I collected mine I had to check my own paperwork as I genuinely couldn't remember if I went for the sunroof or the panoramic roof. 

I have this on my Takumi. I've used it twice and I have to admit, I’m not comfortable with it at all.

It’s not something I intend on using.

Thanks for the update @HMT. Much appreciated. 

If they’re only supplying cars delivered/collected from January, that would mean I probably won’t be seeing mine until roughly June 2024. Ouch. Hopefully things will speed up in the meantime. 

Having no owners manual, I have to admit, is something which does ‘sting’. My dealer couldn’t even be proactive enough to have my car in the Handover room on collection day - so there’s zero chance of them getting hold of an owners manual for me.

Very much relatable, @Me 2023. I’m only two weeks into owning my NX so obviously I’m not expecting the missing bits (locking wheel bolts and second key) to show up for mine any time soon. Given my experience with the dealer and their practically zero customer service during the waiting process, I honestly don’t hold up much hope of ever receiving them. I’m currently on the search for suitable locking bolts that’ll fit - without having to involve Lexus.

I’m heading down to Suffolk in a few weeks’ time for an overnight stay. I know where I have to park is getting on for half a mile away from the hotel. I can’t help that. It wouldn’t surprise me if walked back to the car the following morning to find it on bricks. 

A lack of an owners manual does seem rather stingy given the value of NX’s. Normally on collecting a new car I’ll sit in it with the manual out to learn the features I want to know about. Obviously that opportunity has been taken from me (and of course most others) this time around - so I’m literally pressing random things on the screen trying to find things out. As I said in another post the other day, I have no intentions on sitting in the car with the laptop on my lap. I appreciate it’s available on a PDF, but it’s not the same.

Personally speaking, I preferred the black/unpainted arch trims over the painted ones but indeed, each to their own. I think the painted ones detract a little from the design and makes it look a little more 'slab sided' in my view. 

The only worry I had when I had my UX was the black plastic fading but I have to say after three and a half years of ownership, they still looked pretty much as good as new. Obviously how they'll look after a decade has yet to be seen but they do appear do be of high quality plastic that, so far at least, seems good at resistance to fading.