Tickedon

There are instructions on the Lexus website detailing how to do it yourself… but I couldn’t get it to work either (you need a license code for the new update, and the part code showing was invalid according to the Lexus system!).

Yes, Lexus is Toyota’s premium brand. The point I was making is that the Jemca dealerships are ultimately owned by Toyota. Most dealership groups are normally entirely independent and not owned by the car manufacturer (e.g. Steven Eagell also mentioned are entirely independent). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_dealership

Jemca are owned by Toyota themselves - so not surprised they are clued up!

Insurers are getting around this by making minor changes to policies - thus arguing the cover isn’t equivalent and so the pricing doesn’t need to be the same.

Lexus changed their public update from “April” to “coming weeks” - suggesting a delay…

Lexus were the most stolen car brand in UK 2023. More than 2% of all Lexus cars on the road were stolen. It’s entirely understandable that insurers will therefore decline to cover them, reducing competition, and both the higher risk and less competition inevitably feeds through to higher prices for consumers. It’s not a scam - it’s the market working exactly as you’d expect. Overall, insurers were predicted to lose money in 2022 and 2023, and plenty lost rather a lot. https://www.ft.com/content/5dca87fb-1e03-4309-8a4a-01dee4fe4748

No-one wears a tie anymore. Except perhaps lawyers in court!

The RX500h should support Android Auto - however, at this time, it’s not wireless and you need to connect via a usb cable. Note that only one of your usb sockets in the car connects data to your screen (the rest are for charging only), so you also need to ensure the right cable is connected to the right usb port.

The other factor now is the ZEV mandate. Manufacturers, and thus dealers, need to ensure 22% of their vehicles sold in the UK this year have an EV certificate credit. They can get a certificate by selling an EV, borrowing against a future year, buying certificates from other manufacturers (e.g. Tesla)… or earn partial credits by reducing their fleet emissions (as it’s the government, there’s of course a complex formula to work that out). This latter point helps PHEVs as their emissions are a quarter or less of a typical car now - so more incentives to sell PHEVs can be expected, just as manufacturers (including Lexus) are now offering ridiculous discounts on new EVs. Every certificate (car) short of the 22% will cost the manufacturer £15k per vehicle - so there’s big money on the line. Much better to e.g. give a £8k PCP deposit contribution (as Honda have for their EV) or other discounts on PHEVs, than pay a £15k penalty later!

We passed a tipping point a few years ago - the majority of the UK population now get more from the government in public expenditure and tax credits / benefits than they put in. A smaller and smaller top slice of the population are paying for nearly everything. The top 10% of earners pay more than 50% of all income tax. The top 1% pay 28%. And 40p? Top rate of tax is 45p plus 2p national insurance - meaning 47% of every £1 earned disappears. And if you’re lucky / unlucky enough to earn between £100k and £125k, your marginal tax rate is *60%*. It’s a small miracle anyone still works hard and pays taxes. I am however very grateful for anyone who buys a new car - as without those purchases, there’d never be any used cars for everyone else to benefit from…

Just note that only the first year (at time of registration) VED is cheaper - since April 2017 VED rates aren’t based on co2. It’s a fixed annual fee, and in the NXs case, as models are above £40k you’ll be paying the luxury rate - approx £600 per year. personally the savings with FWD are minuscule in the overall picture of purchase and running costs.

It’s detailed in the T&Cs: https://www.lexus.co.uk/content/dam/lexus/nmsc/united-kingdom/cross-model/Lexus-Reserve-TandCs-2.pdf 3.1 You must book your Reserve Days by emailing lexusreserve@lexus.co.uk.

Lexus NX cars in the USA are manufactured in North America. We get our NX from Japan, so it may be we’re not impacted.

Some owners are having to make considerable use of the warranty - Google “kia mild hybrid tensioner” - due to an engine that seems to have a reoccurring and very expensive fault. Sadly many vehicles have been off the roads for several months waiting for the parts as well. It hasn’t been a positive experience for them. Excepting the engine issue, I would tend to agree with this… except probably not the Picanto. I drove one when my partner was looking for a small car… absolutely awful thing and engine. Only thing worse was probably the Honda Jazz. Went for a 2 year old Yaris in the end… The rest of the Kia range seems pretty good though from what I’ve experienced. Kia have also shown that they can build good EVs - and we have to be honest that the EV6 is a much more realistic EV proposition (with a real world range of 300 ish miles) than the Lexus UXe and RZ with their very limited ranges (170-200ish).

Lexus changed the wording in their notice from “April” to “coming weeks”, suggesting an extended wait and longer timeline than originally envisaged. Until the post says a solution is available, and dealerships actually have something to update/install on vehicles affected, the answer to this thread is quite simple: zero and no-one. https://mag.lexus.co.uk/lexus-uk-statement-on-vehicle-theft/?