Behold, a Unicorn!

i-s · January 1, 2019

As promised elsewhere, here are pictures of our Unicorn (although my husband has named it Priscilla).

Why a Unicorn?

GS450h Premier aren't exactly a common car, but they're not unique either... but they did have 3 options available, which very few people took.

This car has all 3. It has the LED headlights (which although commonplace in the USA, I've never seen on any other UK pre-facelift GS), it has the sunroof and it has the PCS/ACC/LKA system.

I've given it its first wash, and of course that's when you start to find some blemishes, but it drives beautifully and once it's had a few washes and I've got it properly decontaminated then a very light polishing (just to clean the paint really) and some proper protection should make her even more beautiful,

Pics were a bit of a rush in the fading winter light. Just wait for summer!

OldTrout · January 1, 2019

The new year had started well until this post. I'm not coveting. I'm not jealous. I don't want to know if it has the lovely rich cream leather and black and grey shimamoku trim. Honestly I don't.

Has it?

i-s · January 1, 2019

Our preferred interior option was Cream leather with the matte walnut wood.

Sadly this one has black leather with black/brown wood (not totally sure if shimamoku or linear espresso).

And yes, it's not clean inside!

Shahpor · January 1, 2019

Ohh, shiny

Take my advice and stop looking for little imperfections - it is a losing battle. I gave up after I managed to reverse mine into a lamp post the other day and crack the paint on the bumper. (Not exactly a typical example of what I am talking about, but the damage is minor enough to be a blemish).

I also wish mine had the cream interior but it seems black was more popular.

Where is the picture from the drivers seat? I want to see the extra buttons!

By the way, tell your husband that, with regret, the car can't be called Priscilla. I am afraid it has been deemed far too manly a car to have such a designation.

i-s · January 1, 2019

Indeed.

I always say that you don't get to pick the colour when you find the used car that you want - I've always wanted a blue car but never had one. However, Red is my husband's favourite colour and he's describing this as "his" car. Getting the right outside colour with the options we wanted (mainly sunroof, im also a sucker for LED lights (my day job involves designing such))... well, the black interior is hardly unpleasant.

NemesisUK · January 1, 2019

Lovely colour and great shine, what did you use on the paintwork?

What part of the headlamps are LED?

ColinBarber · January 1, 2019

7 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

What part of the headlamps are LED?

high and low beams

i-s · January 1, 2019

It came to us with quite a lot of wax on it, which had not really been properly taken off - lots of bits of excess wax left on it. We picked it up in Exeter and drove it up to yorkshire, so had to clean off the grime of the journey along with take off some of the excess wax.

For that it was just a quick wash - ValetPro advanced neutral snowfoam, followed by Chemical Guys MaxiSuds for 2BM wash. Dried, then second stage dry with a little spritz of AG Aquawax.

Lots of more stubborn watermarks and contamination marks showing up in the paintwork, but it's smooth and not hugely swirly, so not sure whether I'll machine polish it or just a gentle cleaning polish by hand. Probably I'll go through a couple more wash cycles just to get familiar with the nooks and crannies before a full decontamination and protection.

As Colin said - all of it is LED, except for the indicator bulbs.

Hangie · January 2, 2019

I also got those LED headlamp on mine and they are really nice thing to have. I'm surprised why they are not more common - extra 1k when you spend 55k is not so much more.

In mine I also got one more goodie that you won't see in the UK on a pre face lift models - wooden trim steering wheel.

Only bit I haven't seen yet in the UK is night vision which was standard on some European markets at the beginning of production.

I would love to have HUD, bamboo trim and heated steering wheel but Lexus UK decide to keep GS cheaper here and removed few of the nicer bits.

olliesgrandad · January 2, 2019

15 hours ago, i-s said:

It came to us with quite a lot of wax on it, which had not really been properly taken off - lots of bits of excess wax left on it. We picked it up in Exeter and drove it up to yorkshire, so had to clean off the grime of the journey along with take off some of the excess wax.

For that it was just a quick wash - ValetPro advanced neutral snowfoam, followed by Chemical Guys MaxiSuds for 2BM wash. Dried, then second stage dry with a little spritz of AG Aquawax.

Lots of more stubborn watermarks and contamination marks showing up in the paintwork, but it's smooth and not hugely swirly, so not sure whether I'll machine polish it or just a gentle cleaning polish by hand. Probably I'll go through a couple more wash cycles just to get familiar with the nooks and crannies before a full decontamination and protection.

As Colin said - all of it is LED, except for the indicator bulbs.

I use Chemical Guys Blackllight as my preferred paint protection. Have you tried it?

i-s · January 2, 2019

I have not.

My current preferred route after polishing is Carpro Essence topped with Collinite 476 or 845 (I started with 476 and still have some left, recently got 845 and it's so easy to use, but not sure yet on durability).

Prior to Essence I used a combo of AG SRP (for fillers), topped with EGP (for some durability) topped with 476 (for more durability and beading). This worked pretty well, but Essence gives the fillers AND with much better durability than SRP.

Sometime in the spring or summer I will do a proper strip down (a more caustic snowfoam, farecla G3 body prep shampoo, clay), see how the paint is under that. I suspect some light correction (no more than G3 Paintwork renovator I think) followed by Essence and collinite will be the order of the day.

My last deep detail of the V70 used that combination, and the 476 was still just about hanging on after 6 months through winter.

i-s · January 2, 2019

1 hour ago, Hangie said:

I also got those LED headlamp on mine and they are really nice thing to have. I'm surprised why they are not more common - extra 1k when you spend 55k is not so much more.

In mine I also got one more goodie that you won't see in the UK on a pre face lift models - wooden trim steering wheel.

Only bit I haven't seen yet in the UK is night vision which was standard on some European markets at the beginning of production.

I would love to have HUD, bamboo trim and heated steering wheel but Lexus UK decide to keep GS cheaper here and removed few of the nicer bits.

Interesting - the LEDs are definitely very rare in the UK though.

No offence to you if you like it, but I'm glad ours doesn't have the wood steering wheel - always preferred leather myself. However, like you we'd have LOVED the bamboo interior - again, I've only ever seen one GS for sale with that here. I think the real problem the bamboo had here was that it was so totally different to what the germans offer that no one was brave enough to order it (and yet the new volvo interiors with their matte woods are much closer to what lexus offered with the bamboo - and people are liking those). I like it precisely because it is so different to what the germans offer.

Still, as I said elsewhere, colour is usually the thing you don't get to pick on a used car, when you find the one that is right. In this case the spec had us and the exterior colour was husband's first choice colour (mine was meteor blue), so we'll live with the black interior.

Hangie · January 2, 2019

How nice and different it is:

As for the steering wheel I know wooden ones are not everyone first choice but I personally like them.

There is a new trend right now. Wooden trims are only attached from the inside of a wheel. You got wooden look but soft leather touch - clever isn't it ?

olliesgrandad · January 2, 2019

36 minutes ago, i-s said:

I have not.

My current preferred route after polishing is Carpro Essence topped with Collinite 476 or 845 (I started with 476 and still have some left, recently got 845 and it's so easy to use, but not sure yet on durability).

Prior to Essence I used a combo of AG SRP (for fillers), topped with EGP (for some durability) topped with 476 (for more durability and beading). This worked pretty well, but Essence gives the fillers AND with much better durability than SRP.

Sometime in the spring or summer I will do a proper strip down (a more caustic snowfoam, farecla G3 body prep shampoo, clay), see how the paint is under that. I suspect some light correction (no more than G3 Paintwork renovator I think) followed by Essence and collinite will be the order of the day.

My last deep detail of the V70 used that combination, and the 476 was still just about hanging on after 6 months through winter.

I used to use Collinite, but it was a real job to put it on and buff off. Didn't last very well. With my high mileage I find the blacklite easy to put on and it lasts for about 6 months without losing any beading. After every wash I spritz the car with Chemical Guys Hypno sealant which keeps a nice shine on the paint.

i-s · January 2, 2019

I had that trouble with collinite, and my neighbour does too with 915. However, I discovered that it was user error on my and his part... Putting it on FAR too thick. 845 is much easier to use - it only needs a very thin haze which buffs off easily.

I'll keep an eye out on the Chemical Guys stuff though - I use their Hexlogic pads and the maxisuds shampoo and been impressed with both. I suspect I've got enough collinite for a few years worth of applications yet though!

NemesisUK · January 2, 2019

2 hours ago, i-s said:

I had that trouble with collinite, and my neighbour does too with 915. However, I discovered that it was user error on my and his part... Putting it on FAR too thick. 845 is much easier to use - it only needs a very thin haze which buffs off easily.

Ditto, I used Collinite 915 and found one only needed to merest smear to give amazing gloss and durability. The one tin has lasted ~ 8yrs!

i-s · January 2, 2019

The trouble I have is that even knowing that, it's still far too tempting and far too easy to overdo it. 845 is psychologically easier to use sparingly.

However, it's a ways off. The wash yesterday merely highlighted some areas where there's far too much wax and I need to spend some time cleaning the old wax away (among the GS450h and Hybrid badging for example). Then I'll crack on with a proper detail when the weather is better and I have more garage space (ie when the Volvo is gone).

Shahpor · January 17, 2019

What are the odds?

https://usedcars.lexus.co.uk/en/used-lexus/Lexus/GS-450h/35-Premier-LED-AAC-PCS-Sunroof-Rare-Car-r1bwfhr

OldTrout · January 17, 2019

Nah. That's an wanabe unicorn. It doesn't have HUD or LED headlamps.

i-s · January 17, 2019

We saw that - there's also an Atlantic blue at Sytner with PCS and LED (no sunroof though). So yes, suddenly they're all coming out of the woodwork!

There's 3 differences on ours though, which came about with rolling updates that Lexus seemed to apply.

1) Wheels - the 18 spoke Premier wheel was dropped, and ours has the gunmetal 10-spoke which are the same as the Luxury (I prefer them and easier to clean).

2) HUD, as we've previously discussed.

3) Gear Gaiter - Ours has the leather gear gaiter, like GS250s and GS300h do, rather than the (in my opinion) rather dated-looking open gate that earlier 450hs had (and the one you linked does).

4) Satnav - ours has some slightly different graphics and button layouts on screen. I need to do some more research on this, but ours is updated through a microSD slot hidden behind a flap which has the Mark Levinson logo on it. From what I can tell (and Shahpor - perhaps you can verify from yours) earlier cars did not have the microSD and were updated through a USB stick? We purchased a new mSD and updated to 2018 revision maps (so a notable update is that the new maps have the new A556 from M56 to J19 M6, whereas the old maps showed the old road (Now the B5569)). I think there was a minor update from USB to mSD somewhere around 2013, and then the more major update from split-screen to full-screen satnav that came in with the facelift.

Shahpor · January 17, 2019

I did wonder why yours had the Luxury wheels fitted. I agree that mine are a pain to keep clean.

The gear gaiter is interesting. I didn't realise there had been a change.

You are correct that mine doesn't have an SD card slot so it must be updated via USB. I do need to update mine since it thought I was driving through a field recently when I went down a side road.