Lexus IS300h - immune to CAN bus theft?

[propofoldreams]

Hi,

First time poster but long time lurker. While I know that this has been discussed previously I cannot find a solid answer in any of the threads so far.
 

For context in the next few months I’ll be giving back my beloved Audi E-Tron lease. For a budget around £20k I was looking for a car that was reliable, a hybrid, comfortable, decent MPG, nice to look at it, reasonable boot and relatively safe/boring. I plan on keeping it for quite a few years.

I was looking at a three year old Lexus ES but the whole CAN bus theft situation and associated increased insurance has got me quite anxious. This has LED me to looking at its the IS300h. Ticks most of my boxes and I’m thinking an either a 2016 (for the road tax) or the newest one with the spec I want (to maximise the Lexus 100k/10 year warranty). However, is it actually not vulnerable to theft by the CAN bus method? And also is it vulnerable to a keyless entry theft?
 

The IS is not listed in this list of Lexus cars thought to be vulnerable to CAN bus theft:

From this forum on these threads it looks like it wouldn’t be/at least some years wouldn’t be:

 

However, these Reddit posts (admittedly US posts) suggest there is a CAN bus theft mechanism accessible via the sunroof:

 

While the OP is talking about a 2023 IS there is a 2014 reported as well.

So is the IS300h vulnerable to a different type of CAN bus theft? If so which years?

Thanks in advance for any light anyone can shed on this.

Cheers!

[IS300FSPORT]

From reading up on here the 2016 onwards or the face-lift versions have the canbus. Although not many reports of the IS300H being a prime target. I'm sure others will confirm shortly may not be prone to the headlight hack for theft. 

If theifs are eager they will take it regardless of the amount of effort or force required as its not a high performance vehicle these are just your opportunists with high tech equipment steal it to break for parts or ship out although can't see the IS being desirable to theifs as a result insurance has hiked since iv had mine from 2020 it was around 550 now paying 900 (approx) & mine is the pre-facelift simply because insurers are banding all the Lexus range at high risk absolute p1ss take but the RX is the one to watch out for on insurance. 

I genuinely wouldn't worry about it if your on the hunt for an IS.