Just Purchased my first ever Lexus

[LenT]

On 3/13/2021 at 9:46 PM, Las Palmas said:

The MR2 cars were fun...

No question of that!  I had a Mk11 - with the single sunroof - for three years and 90K miles and nothing but regular servicing.  Utterly reliable and a joy to drive.

Not really comparable with any Lexus, I guess.  Indeed, possibly still one of a kind.  But that was nearly 40 years ago and the Lexus suits me far better now.

But it did make my day! 😊

[Marlinleg]

One of my first cars a Ford popular second hand purchased for £6 yes £6 fuel 2shillings and 6p or 12&1/2p a gallon my first ever car 1966 East German Goliath  and  the insurance was 7shillings and 6p a year or 35p thing was passengers weren't covered you had to put a sign on the dash saying PASSENGERS ARE NOT INSURED  😳 my grandad children look at me and think grandads lost the plot  . For any of our younger members I am tell the truth honest 🙃

[royoftherovers]

A nice Post Phillip, but surely the Owners Handbook offers good advice as regards running in  a new engine ?

[Phil xxkr]

16 minutes ago, Marlinleg said:

One of my first cars a Ford popular second hand purchased for £6 yes £6 fuel 2shillings and 6p or 12&1/2p a gallon my first ever car 1966 East German Goliath  and  the insurance was 7shillings and 6p a year or 35p thing was passengers weren't covered you had to put a sign on the dash saying PASSENGERS ARE NOT INSURED  😳 my grandad children look at me and think grandads lost the plot  . For any of our younger members I am tell the truth honest 🙃

Insurance for 7 and tanner!! I seem to recall a marriage licence cost the same 😅😅

But at least you could change your insurance every year 😂😂😂

[Las Palmas]

20 hours ago, steve2006 said:

 build quality of a Lexus, mine is now 27 years old and still going strong.

Remember that not all of us in the forum are qualified mechanics with a complete workshop home.

Still: Lexus is quality. 27 years is just the beginning. In 23 years it will be 50 😇

 

[Marlinleg]

Hi Royoftherovers  thank you .  I'll check the owners hand book out . I've downloaded it 

[royoftherovers]

3 minutes ago, Marlinleg said:

One of my first cars a Ford popular second hand purchased for £6 yes £6 fuel 2shillings and 6p or 12&1/2p a gallon my first ever car 1966 East German Goliath  and  the insurance was 7shillings and 6p a year or 35p thing was passengers weren't covered you had to put a sign on the dash saying PASSENGERS ARE NOT INSURED  😳 my grandad children look at me and think grandads lost the plot  . For any of our younger members I am tell the truth honest 🙃

Happy Days Phil.

My first was a 1948 Split Windscreen Morris Minor side valve, 3 speed box, no syncro on first, no heater in BLACK.

[Marlinleg]

Royoftherovers sounds fun . I had a Morris minor black £84 I also bought a second Morris minor rear end shunt  for spares £5 happy days I remember  taking the head off as part of the big service putting new valves in then using grinding paste to seat the values omg . When I am driving along in my new Lexus I'll think of the times 40 odd years ago lying in snow changing a clutch then I'll put the Lexus seat heating up a notch. Hard work looking after old cars when we were younger. It did us now harm. And now we really appreciate the cars we have 

[royoftherovers]

14 minutes ago, Marlinleg said:

Royoftherovers sounds fun . I had a Morris minor black £84 I also bought a second Morris minor rear end shunt  for spares £5 happy days I remember  taking the head off as part of the big service putting new valves in then using grinding paste to seat the values omg . When I am driving along in my new Lexus I'll think of the times 40 odd years ago lying in snow changing a clutch then I'll put the Lexus seat heating up a notch. Hard work looking after old cars when we were younger. It did us now harm. And now we really appreciate the cars we have 

Happy days indeed Phil. I think we appreciate what we have, because we strove (in many different ways) to get them. We had to have a disciplined, structured and patient approach  to doing things properly. What didn`t come easily, never left us, if you follow what I mean.

[steve2006]

4 hours ago, royoftherovers said:

A nice Post Phillip, but surely the Owners Handbook offers good advice as regards running in  a new engine ?

I remember my Dad who had the engine of his A35 rebuilt in the 70s, seem to think it was £20.00 all in for knocking big end bearings parts and labour.

He had the “Running in, please pass” sign in the rear window.

[steve2006]

4 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

Remember that not all of us in the forum are qualified mechanics with a complete workshop home.

Still: Lexus is quality. 27 years is just the beginning. In 23 years it will be 50 😇

 

I’m not a qualified mechanic just had plenty of DIY experience making do with Snap Off and Brittle tools working on my driveway 😀

I started the front pads yesterday and halfway through it rained so car was sat on axle stands all night. Recommenced this morning still half asleep and after wondering why there was a metal to metal sound during the post complete test drive I rechecked and discovered I had fitted the inner pad back to front on one side.

Fortunately no damage to shim or disc!

[The-Acre]

34 minutes ago, steve2006 said:

I’m not a qualified mechanic just had plenty of DIY experience making do with Snap Off and Brittle tools working on my driveway 😀

I started the front pads yesterday and halfway through it rained so car was sat on axle stands all night. Recommenced this morning still half asleep and after wondering why there was a metal to metal sound during the post complete test drive I rechecked and discovered I had fitted the inner pad back to front on one side.

Fortunately no damage to shim or disc!

Neither am I qualified (even though I did an apprenticeship-ish) but I've always done what I can.  My best ever addition to the tool kit has to be an air wrench and an air ratchet, just invaluable, and also very cheap, although I already had a compressor in my workshop.  When I did my suspension and control arm work it shifted the biggest bolts with ease, including the 21mm lower bolt. 

[steve2006]

1 hour ago, The-Acre said:

Neither am I qualified (even though I did an apprenticeship-ish) but I've always done what I can.  My best ever addition to the tool kit has to be an air wrench and an air ratchet, just invaluable, and also very cheap, although I already had a compressor in my workshop.  When I did my suspension and control arm work it shifted the biggest bolts with ease, including the 21mm lower bolt. 

Same here, compressor, air wrench, air ratchet, air cutter......mostly from Aldi when they have their motoring events.

[vectron]

Hello all, 

I own a Lexus IS 250 convertible in stunning condition, I also own a Volvo v90 R design which I have had since 2019 it’s a diesel and very noisy also it’s dropped in price like a stone, I had a NX 300 Hybrid for a test drive for 2 days with a view of trading it in, but the NX was very bumpy on the road and not as quiet as I thought it would be! So I have now traded it in for the Dynamic Rav 4 what a stunning car loads of room and fully loaded with upgrade apple play and free fittings of my Nextbase, 5 years servicing and the miles per gallon of the Rav is incredible hybrid is great, I understand that the NX is being replaced next year.

[paulrnx]

My first car was a Hillman Hunter GLS. Quite a car in the day. A 1973 model purchased in 1980. I did all the maintenance on it myself. Happy days.

Cars had to be carefully run in years and years ago but less so nowadays due to better materials, better design and more accurate manufacturing processes. That said, I think it still pays to run a brand new car gently for the first 1000 miles by avoiding maximum acceleration.

Mind you many years ago, about 30 to be exact, I worked with a guy who treated his own company cars with complete disdain. He’d drive them very hard from day one and not give a damn about any running in periods. It was very noticeable that his cars performed slightly better than mine when comparing model for model. Trouble is they were also a bag of nails at three years old and 90k miles whereas mine always felt quite a bit tighter and fresher at the same vintage 

[LenT]

On 3/15/2021 at 5:57 PM, The-Acre said:

My best ever addition to the tool kit has to be an air wrench and an air ratchet...

Mine was a torque wrench, after I discovered an unfortunate tendency in my early DIY days to overtighten bolts.  Removing the heads off some sump bolts was an early warning sign. ☹️

[Spacewagon52]

On 3/15/2021 at 10:41 AM, Marlinleg said:

. A lot of the motoring press slam the CVT  gearbox Lexus /Toyota wrongly Yes if you floor the gas pedal on joining a motorway to get up to speed it's loud not a problem  . The reason it's so noticeable is the cars are so quiet 99% of the time. My son in law mentioned this last week when he was in the RAV 4

 

I have no issue with the CVT transmission. The other day I, unusually, undertook some "spirited driving" accelerating hard. Yes it is quite noisy when you drive in this fashion. I can imagine it might annoy such drivers. I would suggest the majority of Lexus hybrid drivers drive more sedately and enjoy the quiet and comfort a Lexus gives in spades.

[Marlinleg]

Hello to everyone talking cars as we do. Back in 1967 my dad purchased  a Vauxhall Viva GT nearly  new 4,000 miles on the clock . Stunning Acceleration zero to 60mph in 10 seconds and that's over 50yrs ago 

black interior bucket seats ,people had never seen anything like it .

My brother drove to Switzerland in it, and got flagged down in Belgium by 2 motorcycle cops , just wanting to look at the car 

It's the only car reg I remember  OTV 500G  tax due On gov web site 1st March 1986 

the car is not my dads but the same color 

[steve2006]

1 hour ago, LenT said:

Mine was a torque wrench, after I discovered an unfortunate tendency in my early DIY days to overtighten bolts.  Removing the heads off some sump bolts was an early warning sign. ☹️

A Torque Wrench is essential....when I got my car back from the wheel refurbishment the first thing I did was loosen off the wheel nuts ( yes well overtightened!) and retorque them to the correct 76 lbft.

[steve2006]

4 minutes ago, Marlinleg said:

Hello to everyone talking cars as we do. Back in 1967 my dad purchased  a Vauxhall Viva GT nearly  new 4,000 miles on the clock . Stunning Acceleration zero to 60mph in 10 seconds and that's over 50yrs ago 

black interior bucket seats ,people had never seen anything like it .

My brother drove to Switzerland in it, and got flagged down in Belgium by 2 motorcycle cops , just wanting to look at the car 

It's the only car reg I remember  OTV 500G  tax due On gov web site 1st March 1986 

the car is not my dads but the same color 

Also back in the 70s my brother and myself both had a Viva HC mine was green his was red. I think they were 1300cc.

I wanted the Vauxhall Magnum which I think was 1800 but couldn’t at the time afford one......times have since changed and my wealth now allows me to own several in the freezer. 😀

[Marlinleg]

😀👍

[Phil Catterall]

4 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Also back in the 70s my brother and myself both had a Viva HC mine was green his was red. I think they were 1300cc.

I wanted the Vauxhall Magnum which I think was 1800 but couldn’t at the time afford one......times have since changed and my wealth now allows me to own several in the freezer. 😀

My dad had a standard 1300c Viva.  Some years later I bought a Vauxhall Magnum 2300cc, must have been around 1980. Only kept it 3 months. The handling was terrible with all the weight at the front end. Between 1975 when I left the RAF until 1990 I used to buy fairly cheap cars and keep them maybe 3-6 months before deciding to sell them on and get something else, and slightly better than the last one, if I could. Most were bought privately or at car auctions in Lancashire. The most enjoyable to drive was a Ford Escort Mexico Mark One, 1600cc crossflow engine in red with white go faster stripes along the sides. Like other writers, all seasons DIY maintenance was the order of the day - it was the only way I could afford to run a car, until I got a better job and started buying lower mileage used cars from around 1990 onwards. They needed less attention and I all but gave up DIY work on cars in that decade. 

Phil 

[Martin J]

Quite a few NX owners whose first cars were Vivas, it seems (mine was a Honey Starmist HC). Incidentally, the 1800/2300 ohc engine that made its way from the Victor into the Viva and Magnum (and later into the droop-snoot Firenza and Chevette 2300HS) was praised by legendary motoring historian Leonard Setright for its advanced design, torque and longevity.  He said something along the lines that the engine would just be coming into its stride at around 50,000 miles - by which time the car around it would be falling apart.  For some reason this makes me think of Tesla.

 

[royoftherovers]

27 minutes ago, Martin J said:

Quite a few NX owners whose first cars were Vivas, it seems (mine was a Honey Starmist HC). Incidentally, the 1800/2300 ohc engine that made its way from the Victor into the Viva and Magnum (and later into the droop-snoot Firenza and Chevette 2300HS) was praised by legendary motoring historian Leonard Setright for its advanced design, torque and longevity.  He said something along the lines that the engine would just be coming into its stride at around 50,000 miles - by which time the car around it would be falling apart.  For some reason this makes me think of Tesla.

 

 Leonard JK Setright if I remember correctly Martin ?

[Spacewagon52]

My friend had the Victor with the 2.3 engine. It could go around roundabouts in 4th gear without any judder. The torque was amazing. The rust was something else!