Meteoro introductio / new member

[Meteoro]

Hello everybody, My nickname is Meteoro, but in real life it´s Matthew, but where I come from, the Neteherlands, it's Mathieu (which is Frensh actually). I'm 37 years old. I drive my Lexus since April 2019, it's a ES300h, dark blue exterior with the tan interior (nice combination in my opinion). It has already 56.000 km done (35.000 miles), so I drive quiete a lot in a year I think. 

I registered because I want to know more about the model and posibilities for instance for making it a little bit more personal, and other technical knowledge.

There's a Dutch forum as well, but not really mauch people on there, and also fewer people with a ES.

Mine is in Business trim (maybe it's a trim level that you don't have in your country), which is the basic trim level in the Netherlands.... At the time of the purchase I didn't miss any options on the higher trim levels. But off course when the Lexus was in the garage for maintenance and I drove a F-sport and later a president-line (which is the highest trim level in the Netherlands), I really mis the ML sound system in mine. I also liked the steering wheel heating, which mine doesn't have. So the next car must have these options or similar :).

Here is a picture (the only one that I could upload):

 

 

 

[Vlady]

Hi Meteoro, welcome to LOC! I hope you find what you are looking for, I am not sure there is much room for cosmetic changes (personalisation) on any Lexus let it be newest model in range. I found there are no so much personalized bits to Lexus as it was on my previous BMW, I kind of like that - safes you money! 🙂

What did you drive before? I have been to Holland a few times late last year and loved your road conditions, compared to British roads it is day and night, tbh I wouldn't expect less for the amount of money you par for your road tax! 😉

Anyway, this is a fantastic forum, I am pretty sure you know that by now! 🙂

[Meteoro]

Thanks for the kind welcome. I use the rims the Lexus came with for the winter tires now. Thinking on buying the 18" wheels from one of the other trim levels as summer wheels. So that's one change. But some other wheels my look fine as well, so i hope to find some pictures here maybe?

And I'm thinking of lowering the car a bit. Maybe 1 inch, or even less, just a litttle bit stiffer suspention........ I'm not sure if it's available. Don't want to buy new shocks now as the current ones are only as old/young as the car itself.

I've had a lot of cars before this one. My own cars and company cars.

Started with Suzuki Swift (2 times), and for the (ex) wife I owned a Suzuki Vitara, Ford Fiesta, Nissan Primera (P12, that ugly one).

a lot of company cars in between like Peugeot 206 and 207, Renault Clio, VW caddy, Fiat Grande Punto, Ford Focus, Volvo V40, Skoda Fabia and Octavia,

Last 10 years I only owned Saabs. Saab 9-5 sedan ('98) and estate ('01), 9-3 Estate Diesel (2003) and a couple of classic 900's Turbo.... Which was a blast because I grew up with Saabs, and I did all my repairs and maintenance myself and helped others with mainenance on theirs as well as tuning (hardware and software). I did this for 6 years untill I got fed up with the Saab driving people 🤪😮

Then I started my own company and financial leased a V70 D4 (Polestar engineered) first and now I bought the Lexus as company car.

 

About the quality of the roads, I know they are considered one of the best in the world, and they are indeed good to drive on. My road tax a something like € 270, - per 3 months. The amount of tax is fuel related (Diesel is way more expensive then petrol, which in turn is more expensive then electric) and weight related. The weight is huge on the ES300h.......

I also pay extra tax on the salary I give myself because the government says I have an advantage for it being a company car. And sadly the last couple of months I pay extra tax for speeding to much 😓. I try to keep that in check, and also my girlfriend keeps an eye on my speed (but most of the time i drive alone anyways 😀😀😀😀😀).

I tried the Vmax a couple of times, it ends at 191 km/h (120 mph) on the dash, and that was 185 km/h (115 mph) on the GPS. It will get there in no time, but I lost a game against a BMW 320 GT, not in the accelaration to 180, but the BMW goed way beyond that.

I heard tuning is hardly any use on this atkinsons engines, and that the max speed is set at 180 on purpose to save the hybrid drivetrain, but I'm tempted to get the limiter removed........ But everybody says not to