Newbie

[Obertelli]

My name is Rob, and on Monday I went all the way from London to Belfast to buy a Lexus CT200H SE-L Premier, and then drove it 492 miles home.

Until last Saturday my daily drive was a 2002 Porsche Boxster 2.7 Tiptronic, and before that I had a 1987 Citroen 2cv6, so I had over ten years of open roof motoring. It's therefore no surprise that I really wanted an SE-L Premier with a sunroof but they're almost as rare as fresh dodo doodoos.

The car is great although I'm now finding that the front screen demister doesn't appear to work, and I made the mistake of thinking that because the radio on this and the one I tried out last week at Car Giant in London had a button marked "AM/DAB" that they all had DAB radio. So that's something I'll do without as I've been told it's not possible to retrofit it without costing £thousands.

Other than that, I'm very impressed by the car. I read professional reviews which initially put me off but then read reviews by owners who overwhelmingly were very positive. 

On my drive back home from Belfast I got about 45mpg which I was happy with considering that I just wanted to get home as fast as reasonably possible without regard to economy, and yesterday I achieved 55mpg on a trip to Brighton and back where I didn't push as hard but still stayed at the legal limits and very occasionally a bit above when I wanted to get past a few other pods of traffic.

The only thing I don't like so far is the low bottoms to the front doors: the kerbs in my road aren't especially high, but they plus the road camber ensured that I scraped the bottom corners of both front doors on my first day back home. Fortunately Lexus Belfast supplied me with a custom mixed pot of touch-up paint.

I particularly like the little surprises the car has which I didn't know about. Such as the lights beneath the wing mirrors which illuminate as I approach the car in the dark, and also the setting I discovered on the memory seat yesterday which resets the seat to my position as soon as I grab the door handle to open the car. 

I'd just like to add that I can't praise Lexus Belfast highly enough. Not only did they sell me the car for a lot less than any mainland Lexus dealer could offer, but I got it a bit less than the book price from even a non-franchised dealer. Without asking they also added a full tank of petrol, and on top of that they collected me from the airport and also shuttled me to and from one of the best places in Belfast to sample the famous Belfast Fry. The car I bought had been sourced from the mainland so also had a DVLA age-related plate instead of an NI DVA registration. The last owner only lived fifty miles from me so it's back almost where it started.

In case anyone's wondering why I changed from a Boxster it's partially because it was about to start costing me a lot of money and also because after ten years of having cars I really wanted my wife and I agreed that as her car is also due for a change soon (a 2002 Honda Jazz) it's my turn to have the practical car whilst she has the fun one. I considered diesel cars but was very conscious of the fact that I think that in London at least diesel car owners will soon start being penalised. I'm also aware that although they can be as clean as advertised with regard to emissions, approximately 80% of models fall badly short of the claimed figures according to an article published last year. I'm no tree-hugger but can see that if I can achieve diesel-like economy on a cleaner emissions petrol engine then it's a win for everyone. And the only reasons for not buying a Prius/Auris were that I really wanted the dual-zone climate control and also didn't want to look as if I was driving a minicab...

[Shahpor]

Welcome Rob

That is a hell of a first post.

My brother briefly considered a Boxster as his next car, but was put off by the IMS bearing issue.

Sounds like you are liking your CT, which is good to hear.  We always encourage pictures of new arrivals on here.

Also, you are right to not get a diesel.  Driving a diesel in London is just asking for trouble since you would soon have EGR valve and DPF problems unless you are a regular motorway user.

[Obertelli]

Monday: just before leaving Lexus Belfast.

It wasn't the Cerulean Blue I travelled so far to get but the the ivory leather interior. Black just makes the inside seem so small and dark. The exterior colour wasn't my first choice by a long chalk, but at least it isn't black or grey and I must admit that it's now growing on me. It looks far better than photos suggest. As a free bonus the car came with the optional loadspace liner I'd already planned on buying anyway.

The example I saw at Car Giant last week was in white, had a funereal black interior and was £500 cheaper for almost exactly the same mileage. But it had scuffed wheels all round, hadn't been valeted inside, and only came with one key: sorting out the scuffs and the lost key would have added around £1k to the bill so it really wasn't the bargain price it first seemed.

I was looking into buying a servicing plan but the quotations I had from my two nearest Lexus dealers were a bit on the silly side. But they should go down now as today I found that the last service was on Jan 4th and was the expensive six year service which those plans were assuming I'd need.

[true blue]

Hi and welcome ,glad you are enjoying your new purchase ,looks very clean I think you were wise to steer away from a modern diesel ,unless use use long motorway runs regularly. 2CV6 owner ,you should have kept it ,they are becoming collectable now .I was interested that you went to Belfast and got a better deal, the previous owner of my car brought it over from Belfast and I wondered why ,perhaps he also got a better deal ,mine is on Belfast plates but I notice yours is a Preston registration . Enjoy

Dave

[steve2006]

Hello and welcome to the LOC.

Great posts on your route to Lexus ownership.

I drove a Honda Jazz automatic around in Cyprus for 3 weeks last December, did the job,only cost me €27.00 to refill the tank but not a Lexus 

[Obertelli]

51 minutes ago, true blue said:

Hi and welcome ,glad you are enjoying your new purchase ,looks very clean I think you were wise to steer away from a modern diesel ,unless use use long motorway runs regularly. 2CV6 owner ,you should have kept it ,they are becoming collectable now .I was interested that you went to Belfast and got a better deal, the previous owner of my car brought it over from Belfast and I wondered why ,perhaps he also got a better deal ,mine is on Belfast plates but I notice yours is a Preston registration . Enjoy

Dave

Thanks. Sadly keeping the 2cv wasn't possible; it was starting to suffer the usual floors and toeboards corrosion. I can tackle almost any mechanical work myself to a high standard, and am confident with most electrical faults on non-computerised cars, but welding is. Oth outside of my skill set and would have needed the car to be off-road during repairs. I have no off road parking and we're limited to just two residential permits (a third is possible, but at an eye-watering price). 

So before it got too bad I sold it to someone else in the owners club at a realistic price. 

You will see them being offered at stupid prices now, and there are a few fools who will pay that for shiny but badly-restored cars mostly onto a really poor quality cheap chassis. They are still available as solid but unrestored examples for much less. It's still the best car I've ever owned: highly reliable, peanuts to run and maintain, surprisingly practical, very comfortable and extremely reliable. Nowhere near as noisy as many would believe either and even at nearly twenty five years old it would still easily do just over 70mph all day long (as per satnav) on long motorway runs except on hills.

After selling it all I wanted was another ragtop, but all the ones I favoured were also too old and rusty. So I bought the Boxster instead. Very nice, but I far preferred the 2cv.

[Bluesman]

Hi Rob and welcome to the LOC. We are a friendly bunch so please don’t hold back asking questions big or small should you have any problems with your car. We always welcome ideas on how to overcome problems with our cars but as they are the finest cars in the universe they don’t go wrong that often.

We always love to see pictures of your cars inside and out so don't be shy.

 

Happy Lexus Motoring.

 

Mike. Bluesman.

[stormchaser]

Hi and welcome.

Glad you're liking the CT. mine is a SE L Premier too but in White with Black interior which I much prefer. I questioned with Lexus about the DAB too but I will not pay the £495 they were asking.

Sent from my Iphone using Tapatalk

[Glover]

Hi Rob

Brilliant first post and welcome to the forum.  I haven't been a member for long but I can vouch for the members being a friendly and very knowledgeable bunch. Your car sounds wonderful and looks great; I haven't seen that colour before but it definitely suits it.  I've got ivory leather and it certainly makes the car lighter and I think it also gives it a wow factor .  Ok it doesn't like denim but the dye comes off easily and mats on the floor and the boot keep the carpets tip top. 

The dealer sounds excellent too; if I ever decide to change (not for a few years yet!) I'd definitely look at buying there as I could combine it with a trip to Donegal:-)

I had the same problem with my front screen demister; Rayaans gave me some tips on setup and no problems at all now so it's worthwhile playing with the settings first.

Finally you've made me jealous.  Bizarrely considering I drive an RX one of my dream cars and a complete contrast is a 2CV (also love DSs too); never had one but who knows, maybe in the future I'll get one to keep the RX company!

Keep the posts coming

Geoff

[Obertelli]

20 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Welcome Rob

That is a hell of a first post.

My brother briefly considered a Boxster as his next car, but was put off by the IMS bearing issue.

Sounds like you are liking your CT, which is good to hear.  We always encourage pictures of new arrivals on here.

Also, you are right to not get a diesel.  Driving a diesel in London is just asking for trouble since you would soon have EGR valve and DPF problems unless you are a regular motorway user.

Thanks for the warm welcome Shahpor.

The IMS bearing issue is highly overblown. All remaining Boxster 986 models which were prone to it would have suffered it by now and are at an age where all sorts of equally serious faults can occur in terms of whether the car is worth repairing or selling for scrap. 

They are pretty reliable but it's vital to keep up with the oil and filter changes and to preserve the AOS (Air Oil Separator) which is an utter pig to replace due to poor access it's vital to never overfill the oil. Best setting for the level is halfway between low and full. 

Now that you can easily buy a really good low mileage example, well maintained, for less than £5k they're a really good buy: leave it another month or so and prices rise for all convertibles as buyers start showing interest again for their spring and summer driving plans. Also at that price there's very little remaining depreciation because as soon as they get close to £4k the specialist breakers buy them as they become worth more as spare parts.

They'd certainly sell for more if it wasn't for the IMS scare stories. But it's a similar deal with used hybrids and EVs where prices plummet (Tesla excluded) as the cars get closer to 100k miles because of buyers largely unfounded fears about how much longer the HV Battery packs will last. Unfortunate for sellers, great news for canny bargain hunters.

[TinkGirlcc]

Welcome Rob . I am the newbie to this forum too

[Shahpor]

I agree, it does seem that reading forums tends to exaggerate issues with cars since you don't hear both sides of the story.

In then end however, he decided he needed something a bit more practical, so he picked up a Golf R32 yesterday.

@TinkGirlcc  Welcome to the forum.  Interesting username you got there.