CT200NI

My beloved CT is in for a new rear bumper and tail light (through insurance). They agreed to pay for and use genuine Lexus parts. Called up today for an update, they're still waiting for parts. Do any of you have any industry experience or body repairs that would know roughly what sort of lead time it takes to get genuine parts? I once waited two months for two new doors and a bumper to come from France for a DS3. I hope it's nowhere near that long!

Hey I specified I wasn’t particularly referring to you 😝

I can't afford it, but if I was working 60 hour weeks and had the means, I'd definitely to it. I pass some outstanding houses on the way to work, and very rarely, see a supercar level Porsche or McLaren parked at the back of the car park. And frankly, no matter what I do, there is a 99% chance I'll never be able to afford it. But I admire the people who are living that lifestyle. In this world, it's very unlikely they're being given that money for nothing. My presumption is they're working (or have worked) extremely hard and that's simply the fruit of their labour. Today I sat around in between work typing on this forum, it's obvious to me that while I do work hard, I'm not doing anything to the extent that I deserve anybody's millions for what I do. Nor is what I do, something that anyone else can't spend a few months learning to be able to do the same or better It always annoys me when people get salty about people who are 'well off' or successful financially. I'm not talking about GMB in particular. More so my generation of mid / late 20s people who are just so salty and rather than working hard to get there, they sit around and blame systems and governments for 'keeping them down' despite the fact they've never even tried. More power to the people driving around in the fruits of their labour. And anyway, it's a small group of 'those 1% people' who pay for I think the bottom 20% of income earners NHS and other things, doesn't 40p of every £1 they earn get taken, just like that?! Personally, I think there's a case that that's unfair.. And anyway, I get an odd satisfaction just knowing that the Lexus LC500 exists, and that even though I've got a lower spec, older CT, which is a little touch of some 'luxury' for me, I like the aspirational link there. It's a little like having a poster of a bikini model on your wall, even if you know you don't have a chance with her, aren't you just a bit happier to know people like that exist, and that they're walking around as we all live life? No point getting angry and bitter if you don't 'have one' lol

Well, in hindsight the government can always have done a better job. They definitely screwed up at times, certainly. But it’s better than the alternative we could have had… I wish we had more choice in the votes. If it’s any consolation, the same sad state of affairs seems to be true in most of the developed world 😕 I think people are too happy to go into debt these days. That’s definitely true of my generation, sink into debt and blame the <older generation> or <the tories>. I’m just glad they’ve retired blaming the recession.. brexit… Trump… Covid.. Putin… The latest fad is Hamas/Israel 🤦‍♂️ companies and consumers are both getting too greedy for their own good is my view

It's truly become shocking. I bought a two year old Fiat Panda in 2019 for £5.5k, that would have been just under 12k new in 2017.. NOW, to buy a two year old one, would cost more than double what I paid for the SAME car. The new price went from like around 10k to 14k in just a few years. The decent used first cars I looked at a decade ago, like Corsas, Fiestas.. you'd have got a decent one for around 2k. That's closer to 5k now for an equivalent aged newer design model. I don't understand it personally. I understand inflation as a concept. But the last 5 years has been well above even a bad dose of inflation. Mind blowing

I don’t know about you, but if my local Asda (or any supermarket) cost as much as Shell or BP, I’d go to Shell or BP. the supermarkets would be at a loss because of their own doing. The only signals we can send to these retailers is our choice to not shop there. Sure, they can afford for me to go elsewhere. But collectively we do have an impact and whether they like it or not, they have to respond by making a change somewhere - equally, their financiers, the taxman and people who keep their lights on won’t accept their pleas when they can’t pay the bill either

Personally for the most part, I’d say as far as world governments go, we’ve got a pretty good / reliable / charitable one (in fact, maybe being too charitable at the wrong times is part of one of its major flaws!). Not a perfect government at all, but objectively one of the “best”. That’s not excusing their ***** ups! look at Venezuela… Russia … China. The electric car stuff, sadly, is bowing to pressure from eco activist groups and an idiotic (my) generation and below making outrageous demands, crying about this horrible world they’ve forcibly been born into, blaming the old generation for climate change, and then making stupid statements like ‘just stop oil’ and expecting that if we all are forced to drive EVs, the problem will go away. I fear it’s governments trying to appeal to said groups and ideas that leads to these silly laws and rules, not just here but in the EU as well since we’re fairly in sync with the whole .. 2050..2035..2030..2035 dates on it 😞 At least we’ve realised it this far before any of those dates have come, that’s a positive at least. as for voting day, I dare say the long spell of Tories probably comes down to someone with the initials of ‘JC’ being so god awful, that even their mishaps are a drop in the ocean compared to what that jack@ss would have done…. Getting his photo taken with terrorists and promising to decommission our deterrents…. Can you really blame any one for voting Tory?! 🤣 (I hope you get my point, not defending their mistakes but just trying to poke some fun at the other choice we had). I wish we had more credible choices at the polling stations. still, if you ever feel bad about the Labour vs Tory situation, have a Quick Look over at Northern Ireland, we’ve got a real **** show going on here with politics 🤦‍♂️

Supermarkets don’t have a very big margin on most of their products to keep prices low and compete with the other supermarkets all trying to undercut each other. Supermarket fuel is just the same, if not way more competitive. I’ve read that at times they’ll even sell it at a slight loss to maintain the cheapest price in the area. Most of the fuel pricing in the UK is so high because of government taxes. apart from all that though, why should Tesco give any money to any of us? Shareholders and investors took a gamble with putting their cash into it - and it equally could have backfired on them. Profit isn’t a bad thing, it’s the incentive that drives our society. If someone’s making a lot of it, more power to them. We aren’t really entitled to it by default. I understand your sentiment, if they’re being unfair or harming people to make said profit, then sure, it’s wrong and they should seek to make profit fairly / respectfully. But just because Tesco is as financially successful as it is, and fuel is (as always) a rip off, doesn’t correlate to being entitled to its profit. Or expecting it to sell fuel at a loss for us (although I’d be quite sure they do / have done so a lot at times). Hope it makes sense. It’s just what I think.

Just curious if any of you use Lexus 'official' motor insurance, and what you think of it? Is the price reasonable for you? It's around 3x for me personally, no claims / 9 years driving so far. Do you find the specific benefits worthwhile? Have they ever 'saved' you? E.g. proper repair done or genuine parts without arguing when dealing with a claim etc

I remember in 2022 the price of fuel also spiked to all time highs, I remember reading something like 0.5% or less of the UKs oil / fuel comes from anywhere near Russia! They raised the prices just because the headlines looked like they justified it... b@stards indeed. Although I must say, even a change of government here in the UK won't make much difference. Unless they drastically cut the high taxes they put on fuel sales. But then again, if Labour got in tomorrow, they'd need to up said taxes to build all those miracle schools, hospitals and George Floyd statues they promise. So either way, the tax payer loses. The green advocates are also pressuring the governments into increased taxes and charges on oil products, which, annoyingly, the government is all too keen to do. Although the rich will still pay the obscene prices to fill up their Lambo's and pay the ULEZ charges without knowing how much it costs... and us poor will still have to take the kids to school and drive to work, sacrificing other life expenses just to be able to do it... and yet, the planet still suffers, right? ... Money is a weird one. In my local area... I'm one pending cycle lane (probably never to be built) away from scrapping car ownership altogether. Fuel prices... insurance rises... forced EV adoption around the corner. Part of me wonders, is that what the elite want us normies to do?

I'm not surprised, people were saying this 1, 2, 3 years ago and all they got back on Facebook or forums was smart comments from owners or excited EV fans making sly remarks. And I get that there are some annoying snarky folks who are overly anti-EV too, arguably deserving said remarks. I can't afford one, nor can anyone in my immediate circles. Those who do have the nicer cars are spending their money on 3 year old BMWs and Mercs, not an electric Corsa for the same money... Some of the people I've spoken to at work (usually managers / older folks more advanced in their careers) got them through work and initially, had a honeymoon period of 'this is the best car I've ever owned, I'll never drive an engine car again'. And have also all since been caught short, had issues and a hard time resolving them via the dealer and the final straw for most, work recently had to start charging a cost for EV charging which for years, was a niche, free thing - demand for spaces and electricity is too high even with a modest uptake of EV ownership. Now, most of the same people say: never again. I only had a short test drive in a Tesla, for an hour, with some friends. It's one hell of a fun car. I don't see them going away or getting worse. I think the government, and car companies, are learning a very hard lesson about reality, in the only way they ever learn anything, with great expense and wasted resources. EVs are only a small fraction of the solution, for a small fraction of the population, in a small fraction of the most congested town and city centres across the country. If you're going to legislate them, legislate them THERE. Offer your big government grants only to those who otherwise can't afford anything than an old banger.... what? You can't do that? But wait, you said it was a climate 'emergency', so why not pull out all the stops? ... This isn't China or any other regime. People aren't stupid enough to believe the governments lies. We are able to look at the facts for ourselves and see the bigger picture. We can ask questions and the tiptoeing around them or outright 'laugh in your face for not understanding EVs' had led to this. And I'm not ripping on people from China, it's not their fault they are denied access to freedom of information, thought or choice. Frankly, any statistic from the CCP should be taken with a grain of salt, and even if it is true, it's only because they're decided for millions of people it to be true, cars are no exception. It's a sad factor that us, in the UK and beyond, are contributing towards its parasitic EV influx by buying lousy 'MG' motors and their other TikTok-esque brands flooding the market, shame on us for that.

Speaking solely for myself, I'm 28 and have just been given a fairly high spec new 'Vauxhall Grandland' crossover thing as a courtesy car. This only reaffirms to me that unless it's a proper, stable, large 4x4 like car - I don't want it. I drove a relatives old Vauxhall Zafira and later, Peugeot 2008 (before they got ultra stylish) and this is every bit the same car underneath, a big, empty space, van with more stylishly rounded edges, and it handles that way too. I have no interested in these 'crossovers', they are just modernised people carriers to me. Perhaps Lexus and some of the more premium / more expensive brands drive better? (Scored out more expensive, because this Vauxhall monstrosity cost the same as a Lexus UX!) Toyota going for the 'crossover styling' makes sense to me even with the Aygo 'X' and the Yaris 'Cross' / Lexus LBX. The closer they can keep it to a hatchback / lower and better handling, the happier I'll be. Cars can be 'normal cars' and still easy to get into, look at city cars with tall profiles like the Fiat Panda etc, those are very easy to get into and favoured by older people. Equally (more so in mainland Europe) young people don't see the stigma of them being old people cars as much, they're used / appreciated as flexible young family cars too on a shoestring budget. All of this SUV styling and 'crossover' stuff other than for the Motability scheme buyers who probably genuinely do appreciate the space and the ride height, I think is more the mainstream car makers forcing it on us all, because there's simply no other way to hide the batteries in the EV powertrain configurations elegantly. Now that the CT is gone and not being replaced, the LBX is probably the next model for me to graduate to down the line. If it's closer to a hatchback than a crossover / MPV, I'm happy with that. I hope it sells. Although I know a couple of people I know who drove and loved various regular Yaris models over the last 20 years test drove the Yaris Cross, only to go for a Corolla in the end up as it drove noticeably better / more refined. I wonder if the Lexus refinement solves that (albeit, at a cost)

I would definitely call them and tell them the fitted part is missing a detail. If they tell you 'some of them look like that', first, ask their name (full name) and ask them to put that in writing. If they refuse, ask for their complaints contact info. Was it recent? And if so, did you pay by credit card? If so, go to the bank if they don't play ball (if they fail to respond to you within two weeks, is reasonable). Sadly, even in the first world, we still have to put up with crap parts, crap service and failures.

I presume the Polo is the same as what I'm about to say, but one of my friends mum's has one of the latest shaped Fiesta's. A 3-door, sunroof, heated seats, CarPlay and the ambient lighting etc, high spec. Shutting the door, even gently, gives a massive metal twanging sound! Apparently, it's no mistake. Ford have consciously removed some of the unseen sound deadening and 'quality of drive' factors to cut the production cost down and try to compete with the wave of high-spec, modern looking alternatives from the South Korean's that dominated the last decade of UK car sales. I can only guess VW have done the same to stay competitive. Coincidentally, the inspector guy for the claims company had a Polo GTI, latest shape. Although much more 'modern' and better spec than my CT, my eyes were drawn to all the rough plastics everywhere surrounding the little fancy inserts of the GTI. It had a similar all screen instrument cluster, very similar to this Vauxhall Grandland actually. But sitting back in the CT is an infinitely nicer place to be. It's funny because, for years, I looked at ads online for used CTs and never was fussed on the interior layout or anything, but the first time I sat in one - right after testing a modern Corolla - I was smitten with the comfort and the relaxing aspect of it. The red glow of the instrument cluster in 'Sport' mode, is as much 'sport' as I want in my car. The fake stick on plastic body mouldings, fake carbon fibre pattern and 'flappy paddles' can go to hell! lol

So, after having a motorbike guy drive into the back of my 2017 CT I've just been told I'm not at fault according to the claims teams of my insurer and a claim management company. Therefore, they've commissioned the repairs and given me a courtesy car. I asked for an auto (like the Lexus). This is what they gave me... A 2023 Vauxhall Grandland 'Ultimate', 1.2 turbo petrol (never a good thing) with a clunky old automatic gearbox. In terms of features, it has everything. Heated steering wheel, radar cruise, LED matrix lights and such. On paper, it's a superb car with a tonne of features. In practice, it's not nice to live with. Maybe I'm too used to the CT and Hybrids in general, prior to my CT I never really had an auto so I presumed even a 'bad auto' was better than changing gears. I think I was wrong. This thing is choppy, leans around corners, engine doesn't know what to do nor does the gearbox. In stop and go traffic, it literally stomps on the brakes to shut the engine off for 'start stop', then takes about half a second for it to come back on and get into gear. The power transfers going on can be felt through the car noticeably up until around 30mph. The worst bit, the cost. You'd think a high spec Vauxhall fake jeep thing would be around 20k, then close to 30k for a top spec auto, right? Wrong. It's 31k for the basic model, a whopping 37k for this one as configured!!!!!! Who is paying for this? Other than hire companies and Motability buyers. I checked, you can configure a brand new Lexus UX crossover with a similarly high spec (heated steering wheel and the likes) for the price of this thing. With the smooth, electric drive. 70 more horsepower. No doubt zero or close to zero rough plastic trim pieces and ergonomically designed seats... The new car market is confusing. Choose wrong, and for the same money, you're getting a much worse experience 😕 The MPG is also not great, turns out, a tiny little 1.2 with a big turbo struggles. Despite what it does in lab testing. My Lexus isn't being picked up until Monday - so it's been sitting since Friday. The engineer said the sharp edge made it not roadworthy in case someone got hurt walking by it. It'll easily be this week for it to be repaired. I miss it already. Drove the Grandland 140 miles yesterday and I was wrecked after. Even in the old and newer Fiat Panda's I've owned, my back wasn't as sore after a long drive - and those cars couldn't drive themselves like this one virtually does.