Advice for potential gs450h owner

[Ianmorgan]

Hi, im a very happy owner of a is200, and my dad is now looking at trading in his 53 plate rover 75, for a 56 plate lexus gs450h, and I wanted to ask jf there are any known issues to look out for etc. when he goes to look at the car, do these hybrids need any special equipment to charge the Battery ? And any advice for owning one of these cars?

[Ziggy1024]

39 minutes ago, Ianmorgan said:

Hi, im a very happy owner of a is200, and my dad is now looking at trading in his 53 plate rover 75, for a 56 plate lexus gs450h, and I wanted to ask jf there are any known issues to look out for etc. when he goes to look at the car, do these hybrids need any special equipment to charge the battery ? And any advice for owning one of these cars?

 

Easy one first: as far as charging the hybrid Battery goes, it's all self-contained. It isn't a plug-in hybrid, so there's no equipment (special or otherwise) needed.

I've recently bought one so my opinion is based on research rather than significant first-hand experience, but whilst they're complicated things they seem pretty solid from a reliability POV. That one says it's been serviced, but where? If it's a Lexus service, it should have come with a hybrid healthcheck which warranties the hybrid Battery for another year / 10K - which is nice. I say should, because my understanding is that the age limit on that has recently increased from 10 to 15 years, but the dealer I spoke to wasn't sure what would happen with cars which had effectively exceeded the limit and then been brought back in by the change.

Things to look for: check the boot's big enough for your needs (it ain't big!), seized rear brake calipers, leaking shocks, rusty exhausts, obviously any warning lights/messages. And I'd certainly favour a dealer history on a car like this...

Overall though, if mine got written off tomorrow I'd definitely be back in another ASAP. Love it.