Lexus UX Users Manual

[Doug JB]

Having just upgraded my ‘69 plate Lexus UX to the latest model UX it is disappointing to note that Lexus no longer provide a User Handbook. I expect this cost cutting exercise from lesser brands but this is pretty poor customer service from such a top rated motor manufacturer.

[ColinBarber]

All manuals are available electronically and IMO are better as you can quickly search for the information you are looking for. Lexus will normally, on request, provide full paper manuals to the first owner.

https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/about-my-lexus/manuals#/

 

[Doug JB]

Thanks for the link, much appreciated. It’s really more a point of principle. Lexus are cost cutting by not automatically providing a User Guide unlike there ever increasing service charges.

[NemesisUK]

Not so much cost cutting as moving with the times. A pdf handbook is much easier to search through. As already said Lexus can supply you with a paper copy on request but just "consider the environment" before requesting 😉

[First_Lexus]

11 hours ago, Doug JB said:

Thanks for the link, much appreciated. It’s really more a point of principle. Lexus are cost cutting by not automatically providing a User Guide unlike there ever increasing service charges.

I think it’s down to environmental considerations, albeit if those also cut costs…well, we all know how that goes!

My RX in 2021 also only came with one small manual with the rest online. I emailed Lexus Customer Services and they sent me a full set of proper paper manuals.

[Doug JB]

Thanks for your input.  I don’t want to get into a political debate on the increasing median age of Lexus drivers or the environment but maybe the latter is partly why I dive a hybrid car 🤔. There are many areas in the country you can’t access Wi-Fi when required, especially if you’re driving in the countryside.

[NemesisUK]

7 minutes ago, Doug JB said:

There are many areas in the country you can’t access Wi-Fi when required, especially if you’re driving in the countryside.

You don't need WiFi, just download the pdf from the Lexus website onto your device and it's there whenever you need it. 

[First_Lexus]

8 minutes ago, Doug JB said:

Thanks for your input.  I don’t want to get into a political debate on the increasing median age of Lexus drivers or the environment but maybe the latter is partly why I dive a hybrid car 🤔. There are many areas in the country you can’t access Wi-Fi when required, especially if you’re driving in the countryside.

Worth asking Lexus if they do still supply the paper ones. I’ve certainly received - completely free of charge and very quickly - full paper sets for both my last NX and current RX. I agree with you - if a small number of people still want a paper manual, then a premium priced manufacturer should be able and willing to provide that for their customers.

[Don C]

2 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

You don't need WiFi, just download the pdf from the Lexus website onto your device and it's there whenever you need it. 

That’s actually not as easy as it sounds.  The current ones can be downloaded from some areas but others it doesn’t give that option.  I get that a book is easier to read than a smartphone and if you really can’t get a WiFi signal, none of the links work and when you trawl through 700 pages then it keeps flirting back it’s a pita.  So yes, do away with a book but get the bugs out of the alternative first.  I bought a new Yaris Cross and it did have a folder with an abridged manual, is that not the case now?  I collect mine on Saturday. 

[LenT]

3 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

A pdf handbook is much easier to search through.

Maybe I’m doing it all wrong, but that’s certainly not my experience.

I have both volumes - and over 1100 pages - on my iPad.  But for ease of searching and reading, I flick open the printed Manual every time.

It also has the advantage that the print is not likely to suddenly disappear as the Battery runs out!

[NemesisUK]

41 minutes ago, LenT said:

Maybe I’m doing it all wrong, but that’s certainly not my experience.

I have both volumes - and over 1100 pages - on my iPad.  But for ease of searching and reading, I flick open the printed Manual every time.

It also has the advantage that the print is not likely to suddenly disappear as the battery runs out!

Ctrl+F and enter your search phrase?

[stepppy]

56 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Ctrl+F and enter your search phrase?

Or on iOS devices, share button —-> Find on page 

[LenT]

29 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Ctrl+F and enter your search phrase?

I think you’ve just identified the problem, Peter.

On my iPad I create and keep all the pdfs in ‘Book’.

I’ve just opened ‘Book’ and selected the Lexus Manual.  By dint of various tappings, I get a page opened which has a search panel in the top right.  I tap the search panel, bringing up a keyboard - but no button marked ‘Ctrl’.

I type in ‘tyre pressures’ and hit ‘enter’.  Moments later the screen tells me: ‘ Search complete.  Nothing found. ‘

I type in ‘Ignition’ and 72 matches pop up!

Now I’m not suggesting that the Manual shouldn’t be available digitally, just that the digital version should still be available in printed form.  After all, the really difficult part - namely creating the page artwork - has already been done.  

 

[Ken R]

And as somebody who has enjoyed an entire career in the Printing Industry I wholeheartedly agree that the manuals should come in printed form with the vehicle!

[PaulWhitt20]

Have you tried searching for tire.? And other Americanisms. 
 

[First_Lexus]

3 hours ago, Ken R said:

And as somebody who has enjoyed an entire career in the Printing Industry I wholeheartedly agree that the manuals should come in printed form with the vehicle!

Totally agree. We need to resist the idea that just because something is electronic that it automatically must represent ‘progress.’ I just find a printed book far easier to manage through using the index and flicking to the relevant pages. This also has the benefit that you can find things you didn’t know you wanted or needed to know!

Technology? Bah, Humbug!*

* not including this forum, obviously 🤣

By coincidence, I attended a lecture last week which outlined the immense environmental damage caused by the move online, due to all the servers needed globally and electricity needed to power them. You wouldn’t believe the impact of ‘spam’ email!

[First_Lexus]

41 minutes ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

Have you tried searching for tire.? And other Americanisms. 
 

I feel the need to post this…😜

 

[LenT]

2 hours ago, PaulWhitt20 said:

Have you tried searching for tire.? And other Americanisms. 
 

Interesting, Paul.

’Tire’ brings up 200 references. But ‘Tire pressures’ and ‘tyre’ both bring up ‘Search complete.  Nothing found’.  Curious!

if you know what you’re looking for, I can see that this can be helpful - if the Battery lasts.  If you’re trying to track the cause of a strange effect - and considering how information is scattered across sections - I find it easier to have a printed Manual to hand and simply flip across the sections and all the additional notes.

I really don’t want to also have to worry about spelling idiosyncrasies when I’ve bought a UK version of the Lexus, which may differ in significant respects to the US version anyway.  Presuming that in non-English speaking countries where Lexus is sold, they get a pdf in their native language, I would prefer the UK to get a digitally corrected pdf in English English.

[NemesisUK]

6 minutes ago, LenT said:

I would prefer the UK to get a digitally corrected pdf in English English.

As I understand it all english speaking regions get the American english version. The handbooks I've seen are universal for LHD and RHD, the differences are detailed in the handbook. The spelling is always US english 

[LenT]

4 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

The spelling is always US english 

And that’s understandable when you’re trying to economise and standardise the production of a printed Manual. But if a Company is trying to switch all its customers to pdfs, then there’s less of a case for it.

After all, to do a ‘Search & Replace’ across pages of digitised text takes very little time at all.  

[Don C]

Mine was collected today and I must say it’s got a book and a nice folder to put it in.  It’s not quite 700 pages but it hasn’t got about 500 pages of Type Approval Certificates either.  It seems to be the full version. The holder in the glove box for the book slides out leaving a much more useable space and the folder fits in the seat back pocket.  All these journalists that forever copy each other can’t seem to fathom why only the passenger seat has a pocket at the back but but it makes perfect sense.  Unless you’re Inspector Gadget, it’s impossible to put something in your own seat back!