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Lord have mercy. No one is suggesting that Lexus could/would sell the Rx400h today at £56,000. The above poster stated that he thought that the reliability was unacceptable for a '£50K car.' You responded that he was 'plucking figures out of the sky.' I have shown that in fact he was not. Without taking inflation into account, any such discussion of an object's value is completely meaningless - one is not comparing like with like. Maybe this would have been a better way to phrase the original point: 'I find the reliability in a car that cost the equivalent of £56K in today's money unacceptable.' But it didnt cost £56k, thats the whole point. The RX450H Premier costs £56k and thats a much superior vehicle. What inflation are you referring to? NHS has frozen my pay for 7 years? Inflation works both ways, not just one!

and the Bin Lorry Driver up in Glasgow? Bet he drives a Car - Wonder what has he told his Insurance company and revealed to DVLA

Well a few interesting replies. I am interested in how Rayann got 3 services for £990 when I was initially offered one service for £745 but that is perhaps because I bought my car from a VW dealership at a very good price and not like a friend of mine bought his from lexus and paid about 10K more for I think a 6 month newer car. I would have paid £300 per service myself if it had been offered. Don't quite understand the maths of the reply "To be fair £120 difference for a major service between main dealer and a good local garage doesn't seem bad to me" £430-£189 =£241 doesn't it and £745-£189=£556 oh and a Lexus oil filter was used as I had asked for as well as fully synthetic oil etc. I do take the point that some garages don't take much care of your car with respect to soiling or scratching but then do Lexus fill an inspection sheet and get you to sign on hand over of the car to them for the service if you take my point. I wouldn't mind paying £300 that would be reasonable for the Lexus stamp etc but the prices I was quoted I thought were off the scale. I always taken great care of my cars and have had compliments from time to time which acknowledge such and I will continue to do so with or without main agents. Neilj

Terribly sorry old chap,no offence intended. I won't mention windscreens ever again!.

Another thing to consider in the 'we're being ripped off' debate. A few weeks ago, my 84-year old mum was clearing out some old paperwork. Amongst it was the receipt for her car insurance back in 2001, when her and dad had bought a brand new Focus 1.6 auto, priced, if I recall correctly, at £9995. They'd paid £234, with full no claims applied. Her premium for the very same Focus last year, just before she sold it? £218! I think we do OK in the UK. Pete

Its interesting to see how various countries differ in insurance costs. Friends who've lived in France for 30-odd years have 3 cars. Their 'runaround' battered '03 plate Scenic costs £500 pa, their '12 plate Merc E350 estate costs £900, and their Porsche 996 Carrera costs £1100. They're both 70, with impeccable driving records. Anyone can drive any of their cars - that's standard, not an 'add-on', no-claims doesn't exist and the 'variable' is when a claim is made. Then, depending on age/driving record, the excess on a claim can be anywhere between the standard (from memory) £300 and a whopping £5000 for a younger driver, or one with a claim or two. In contrast, my wife had a 996 Cabrio up until last year. She was 45 when she sold it - she paid £300 a year, with no convictions or prangs. My 1200cc BMW bike costs me less than £70 a year. The same friend in France also has a 1200cc BMW - his costs him £600 a year. So, I'm not sure we are getting ripped off in the UK. We have a risk-based system that works off rather a lot of different statistics. Sometimes it works in our favour - I'm 56, I ride a BMW, I am (or was!) a Class One Advanced Police motorcyclist for many years, I do less than 4k miles a year, I've no convictions or claims. I presume my ultra-low premium reflects my insurer's belief, based on the statistics available to them, that I'm less likely to claim than a similar rider who has, say, a couple of speeding tickets, an accident claim and a conviction for due care. A neighbour has 2 convictions for mobile 'phone usage and one for speeding. His insurance on his '04 plate Focus is, shall we say, pricey! I have no problem with premiums going up for the sort of driver who gets caught concentrating more on his/her 'phone than on the road (or others who exhibit lower standards of care). They're a danger, end of - why exactly should they pay the discounted rate that I get? And, if you look at base premiums, they're eye opening, and on a par with what my friends pay in France. We can't have it both ways. We either have a system that rewards 'good' drivers, and offers a discount for it, and similarly loads premiums back up to the base one for 'bad' drivers....or we all pay the ridiculously high base premium with no discounts offered and no penalties for naughtiness. Pete

Nice write up. Might like to know how many owners. Written comments of maintenance in service history we could all do that. Last official stamp 2013. Would want to see bills perhaps? Never say no rust. Bodywork paint often immaculate but underside of Japanese cars do rust. Good value? if as good as says - yes imagine so

I must admit I have often wondered why people in charge of passenger vehicles, Coaches, Taxis, Trains are not required to be as fit as a pilot has to be. You are being entrusted with the well being of paying passengers and having a driver/pilot so badly over weight is a recipe for disaster. Mike.

I just got a quote from adrian flux for my gs430 at over £600 where as LV quoted me £425. Adrian Flux are always bad to me.

Strange that. Why couldn't Dan offer a better quote in the first place?

If you do not tell your insurance company all relevant information (i.e. if they later found out about the condition) it can invalidate your insurance, even if you are well - as you have not informed them of any material change. I understand what you are saying but I was advised by the health practitioner to tell them. It is usually no problem. Sure Thing! are just being painful. There are sympathetic insurance companies recommended by the British Heart Foundation. If I have any grief from them I will change insurance. The main point I am making is that you are not usually penalised for honesty and you run the risk of invalidating your insurance if you don't disclose material information.

Hi Piotrek and welcome to the LOC, we are a friendly bunch and some of us even know how to pull them to bits and put them back together again, with of course the one bolt and washer left over. Regards Mike.

It might help with future incidents if people read up on how to jump start Lexus/ Toyota hybrid on board computers. The cars computer is booted up by the 12 volt battery and once this is done, the on board computer enables the traction battery to start the car. Many non specialist garages and recovery companies dont know this and so it is of great benefit for the owners of said vehicles to know something about their own vehicles. The vehicles instruction book helpfully tells the owner how to start up the car should the 12 volt battery fail. Simply by reading this section to the recovery operative, a lot of inconvenience may be avoided should the owner be of the non technical type need to get home with the minimum of fuss. The manufacturers provide the vehicle with instruction books to enable those non technical type owners to be aware of how their vehicles may be operated in the event of some common faults. Those owners who dont read the instructions due to other things in their lives being more interesting/important have only themselves to blame. I parked our hybrid in the airport long stay for a fortnight knowing that the car would most likely run its own12v battery down. I therefore bought and charged a booster battery for it prior to my departure and left the battery in the car ready for our return... so that when i returned to the car after my holiday, i simply connected up the booster battery to the underbonnet jumper terminals and started up the cars computer which in turn started up the cars engine from the traction battery. The whole process took 2 minutes and was spectacularly undramatic and boringly simple.I just had to remember to unlock the car with the key in the lock rather than by pressing the button on the key fob.

It is really good to read a "Good News" story! I am really pleased for you.

It makes the one recently at 5k a hell of a bargain because its the same one, I sold it to a guy in Scotland who said he was helping his dad buy it as he was a lexus enthusiast and really missed his old one which he was forced to sell, because I thought it was going to an enthusiast who would continue to look after it As I had done I let it go for 4k as I was fed up of constantly changing my mind over whether to sell it or not. Low and behold 4 weeks later its now being advertised for £7k!!! If he makes £3k profit off it in 4 weeks I am definately going into the used car game.Last time I do anyone a favour for a sob story. Best of luck to the guy if he can get £7k for it, if he does I can at least take some pride in the way I looked after it for the last 10 years. Have to laugh at the best car he has ever owned line though, he hasn't had it more than 4 weeks....

Have a read of the Lexus servicing prices in the link below, what I don't understand is the +100 service is cheaper than the +60 service but includes the cambelt replacement if fitted. http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/#/ServicingYourLexus Sorry must go, I need to polish my diamond encrusted crankshaft puller :)

Winter reaches Fife very early

Did Health check on all ECUs using Tech Stream. All OK, happy days. :)

REPAIRED FOR £7 !!! Hi all, I have finally repaired my transmission oil pump on my GS450h !!! After many months of 'trying to find time' to repair it, I finally got the car on a ramp today. Firstly drained the ATF fluid from the gearbox (approx. 4.5 litres came out). I them removed the exhaust bracket mounted on the gearbox (4 bolts). Then I unbolted the oil pump (4 bolts) from the gearbox and unclipped all the connectors from the oil pump controller and wiring mounts from the chassis and fed the cables back from the engine compartment to the gearbox area. I then checked out continuity of the wiring from the connectors to the pump. All were fine. Next I removed the pump housing from the motor and inspected the shaft by trying to spin the shaft on the output of the motor. It was seized. I tried moving it with some mole grips and the shaft moved, but grated. I then took the pump assembly apart to look for brushes (had to drill out 3x M5 screws as they were seized on), only to find that it is a brushless motor with 3 coils, like a stepper motor. I checked out the front shaft bearing and found that it was worn, causing the shaft magnets to grate against the motor coil assembly. Bingo.!!!!! Fault found!!!! I then visited my local bearing specialist and, hey presto, he had the correct bearing in stock! I also purchased the rear bearing too, just as a matter of course, totalling £14 in parts. They are only little 22mm bearings, and are common parts. Then I started to reassemble the motor with the new bearings. I had to drill out the 3 M5 screws completely and re-tap the threads to M6 and fit 3x new M6 screws in place. I then reversed the removal procedure and then filled the gearbox with ATF. I started the car. The same Hybrid fault came up. So I plugged in my code reader and cleared the P2797 code, and HET PRESTO. NEXT TIME IT WAS STARTED, THE CAR RAN PERFECTLY. I now had full Hybrid functionality and a fully wrking car. I am ecstatic. and extremely pleased with myself. Considering Lexus say the only remedy is a new oil pump at the cost of £3240. I have fixed it for £7. All in all, it took me 5 hours to repair (not including finding a bearing supplier). Lets hope this is good news for all of us GS450h and LS600 owners (same pump on both cars). Regards, Giles.