Rx300 Se 2005 In Europe

andrewb · September 4, 2005

Thought I'd post a few things I found about while driving my RX to St. Tropez this summer.

I rang Lexus HQ and asked about headlamp deflectors - they advised that a Halfords set was just as good as what a dealer would fit. They were easy to put on, and I didn't get flashed once while driving at night.

Halfords do an excellent pre-cut bulb replacement set for the new RX. It was less than a tenner and meant I could satisfy the French law that requires you have a set on board. Quite how much use it would be in the case of a failed light I dont know though :-)

The SAT nav was great all through France and performed an excellent job of navigating me directly to the Royal Palace in Monaco on a day out - would have preferred a car park, but the tourists seemed to appreciate the RX! BTW. When you cross a country border the Sat Nav displays a picture of the national flag, which I thought was cool.

An In-Car DVD was great with a back seat full of kids. Before we left I managed to get a 8.5" multi-region DVD with three set of infra-red headphones for £400, which was money well spent.

The Dutch like their caravanning as much as the British.

Round trip was 2,000 miles and the car performed faultlessly.

MrADeveci · September 4, 2005

That's the kind of quality we all expect from a Lexus ! :D

Glad you enjoyed your self too ! .............. like the idea of that national flag coming up ! Sounds good ..............

sami_remote · September 4, 2005

Hi Andrew,

National flag thing sounds very cool! I am planning to drive to near the place you went in the coming months. I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you have your DVD / back seat LCDs fitted by Lexus? If not, could you please recommend the make you used and the place you had the kit fitted?

2. I noticed something very strange with the SAT NAV. I put my final destination and it calculated the total distance being around 800 miles. But when I did the same calculation on Via Michellin website http://www.viamichelin.co.uk it showed me around 600 miles.... 200 miles shorter! I am a bit confused and don't really know which to believe. Has anyone experienced this?

Sami

Kent · September 4, 2005

Hi Andrew,
National flag thing sounds very cool! I am planning to drive to near the place you went in the coming months. I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you have your DVD / back seat LCDs fitted by Lexus? If not, could you please recommend the make you used and the place you had the kit fitted?

2. I noticed something very strange with the SAT NAV. I put my final destination and it calculated the total distance being around 800 miles. But when I did the same calculation on Via Michellin website http://www.viamichelin.co.uk it showed me around 600 miles.... 200 miles shorter! I am a bit confused and don't really know which to believe. Has anyone experienced this?

Sami

←

Funny things Sat Nav. Have you actually started off on the route until the voice guide takes over? I think that just imputting a route will give you an inaccurate figure until you get going. Probably calculates it as the crow flies. I have been as far as La Manga and it was not uncommon for the distance to adjust itself a few hundred yards into the journey.

Kent.

sami_remote · September 4, 2005

Funny things Sat Nav. Have you actually started off on the route until the voice guide takes over? I think that just imputting a route will give you an inaccurate figure until you get going. Probably calculates it as the crow flies. I have been as far as La Manga and it was not uncommon for the distance to adjust itself a few hundred yards into the journey.
Kent.

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No, I was stationary, but will try again. I am still very surprised that it could be mistaken by 200 miles

sami_remote · September 5, 2005

Funny things Sat Nav. Have you actually started off on the route until the voice guide takes over? I think that just imputting a route will give you an inaccurate figure until you get going. Probably calculates it as the crow flies. I have been as far as La Manga and it was not uncommon for the distance to adjust itself a few hundred yards into the journey.
Kent.

←

No, I was stationary, but will try again. I am still very surprised that it could be mistaken by 200 miles

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I tried again with same results :duh:

I wonder wheter the Lexus is counting the sea distance between Dover and Calais?

Kent · September 5, 2005

Funny things Sat Nav. Have you actually started off on the route until the voice guide takes over? I think that just imputting a route will give you an inaccurate figure until you get going. Probably calculates it as the crow flies. I have been as far as La Manga and it was not uncommon for the distance to adjust itself a few hundred yards into the journey.
Kent.

←

No, I was stationary, but will try again. I am still very surprised that it could be mistaken by 200 miles

←

I tried again with same results :duh:

I wonder wheter the Lexus is counting the sea distance between Dover and Calais?

←

I put Monaco Palace in as a destination in my unit this morning and it shows a distance of 1,307 miles from Blackpool. Blackpool to Dover is around 310 miles so my Sat Nav tell me that Dover to Monaco is slightly under 1000 miles. I am using 2004/5 Version one (the current one) on an IS 300. However the Michelin site is definitely accurate and it shows it at 200 miles or so less so I assume that the route chosen by the Sat Nav is quite different.

Damer · September 5, 2005

Funny things Sat Nav. Have you actually started off on the route until the voice guide takes over? I think that just imputting a route will give you an inaccurate figure until you get going. Probably calculates it as the crow flies. I have been as far as La Manga and it was not uncommon for the distance to adjust itself a few hundred yards into the journey.
Kent.

←

No, I was stationary, but will try again. I am still very surprised that it could be mistaken by 200 miles

←

I tried again with same results :duh:

I wonder wheter the Lexus is counting the sea distance between Dover and Calais?

←

I put Monaco Palace in as a destination in my unit this morning and it shows a distance of 1,307 miles from Blackpool. Blackpool to Dover is around 310 miles so my Sat Nav tell me that Dover to Monaco is slightly under 1000 miles. I am using 2004/5 Version one (the current one) on an IS 300. However the Michelin site is definitely accurate and it shows it at 200 miles or so less so I assume that the route chosen by the Sat Nav is quite different.

←

Might be to do with your preferences, avoiding toll roads or not, always use motorways etc.

Kent · September 5, 2005

Might be to do with your preferences, avoiding toll roads or not, always use motorways etc.

Yep! Works now on mine. I had enabled all of the Motorway/Toll Road etc options but have just upgraded my DVD so I assume it may have reset it. Distance to Monaco now agrees roughly with the Michelin Map.