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  1. In another thread, Spacewagon52 says 'Personally, I like the LS 460 but members on here say they are not as good as the 400'. As far as I know, there is only one member on the forum who has ACTUALLY OWNED a 460 and thought it inferior to the 400. I had a Mk3 for 15 years before changing to the 460 so I thought I would give you my observations on owning both. My Mk3 was RHD but, in 2012, we decided to move to Holland. Getting the Mk3 registered here would have been crazily expensive so we disposed of it and looked around for another car. We had a 2009 RX 400h for a few months but, as my wife said, 'It's not an LS' .....so we went back to the garage and swapped it for a 2007 LS 460. The 460 had 60,000 kms (40,000 miles) on the clock and had been used first, as the garage demonstrator then, as the personal transport of the franchise managing director. As you can imagine, it was immaculate. Like the 400, the 460 is the main car in the family........used to go to the shops, pick up cement at the builder's merchants, and to enjoy on long trips. People sometimes ask if I find the 460 superior to the 400. I don't consider that a valid question........ALL LS models are superior automobiles. Do I think the 460 is an improvement on the 400? My answer to that is 'Yes, in nearly all aspects'. Things I really like: The automatic parking brake The 'Brake Hold' facility. The heated AND cooled seats The 'looking round corners' headlights The Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) 8-speed auto gearbox Lots of electronic toys Lack of timing belt - it has a timing chain. Although there is no servicing time, I do realise that it will have to be checked eventually. On the US forum, there are 460s with 300k on the clock and no timing chain problems. Things I miss: The 'secret' storage box under the driver's seat The cassette player (I'm an old sod) My 460 is noisier than the 400 - but there is a reason for it. When I bought it, it had the optional 19" tyres fitted. I've been in one with the standard 18" wheels and, in my opinion, it was as quiet as my 400. I'm, actively, trying to source a set of 18"wheels and tyres. There is much talk about 'all those electronics - they're bound to go wrong'. Well. back in '97, when I bought the Mk3, I was amazed at all the electronics and thought 'they're bound to go wrong'. :) In 15 years, the only problem I had in that department, was the lighting behind the radio. Let's face it......things have moved on from the days of semaphore arms which, if you remember, hardly ever worked! I was in a 2014 Ford Focus the other day and was amazed at the amount of electronics which are fitted as standard. I've been commuting between Holland and Scotland for 3 months (selling our Scottish house) and this week I came back with the car because it needed its Dutch MOT (at 90,000 kms - 60,000 miles) This is the 'Big' service and includes changing the plugs. Because of the problems reported on the US forum (upper and lower control arms, air suspension) I asked the garage to pay particular attention to these and let me know. They found nothing untoward.....what they did find was worn wiper blades and low battery voltage. Since the battery was only 2 years old (and supplied by Lexus), they replaced it under warranty. Like most responsible car owners, I check the oil and water every week. Now, this amazes me.......since the last service, a year ago, the only fluids I have had to top-up are the fuel and windscreen wash. The engine and hydraulic oils have remained absolutely steady, as has the radiator water. I check the tyre pressures on the TPMS and they have remained at 2.6 bar (cold) all year. This is a VERY easy car to own and monitor. In an ideal world, I would have bought the 460 for 'everyday' and kept the 400 for nostalgia :) Prices for the 460 are falling and are (or soon will be) in the affordable range. For what it's worth, I thoroughly recommend it. And.....for those of you still awake......thanks for sticking with me :)
    4 points
  2. If ever a vehicle was made for an LPG conversion, the V8 RR is it!!
    2 points
  3. Bought a 2001 Range Rover Vogue for the winter. Also a V8, but not as refined as the 1UZ-FE ....
    1 point
  4. I've just bought a vogue too but mine's for the summer. [emoji6] Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk
    1 point
  5. To be sure I would go to one of the companies that do in depth searches on the car to see what the history actually is and if it differs from what they have told you you have some comeback on them, they are only about £20. Mike.
    1 point
  6. Do you get any post code support at the moment? The thought the old systems supported the first part of the post code? The updates do not give you full post code support. :(
    1 point
  7. DO - buy a 250 DONT - buy a 220 There are loads of posts here showing the benefits of the 250 over the 220. Have a good read before buying
    1 point
  8. I sometimes wonder where on earth some of these comments come from. It may be that I'm an experienced automotive engineer with body structure design in the portfolio, and having had the pleasure of working with Lexus design and Manufacturing Engineers in the Motomachi Plant in Toyota City for some time, to hear comments like 'they did a half-arsed job' is just completely disrespectful to the team over there (who put out the LFA not so long ago...). Tooling-cost savings on a 'lower-volume' run product like the RCF alone would probably have been reason enough to develop the hybrid chassis option whilst introducing the newer welding technologies that the GS-F will now benefit from. Toyota = Evolution, not revolution. Secondly, why would you even consider spending £65K on an RC-F when you can get one a week old for £45k?? Get one with the TVD whilst they're apparently giving them away and you'll have a real handler right there. And how much of an issue is the weight in your daily driver?? Not a problem in my hands, and similar to the GS-F in weight I believe (which apparently has no problems with weight)? Two doors may also be a preference on a number of points including styling amongst others, especially if you don't have to ferry kids around and want something that looks really good (looks far better than the four-door configuration in my humble opinion.) Many of the comments appear to be a mash-up of all the 'faults' the sponsored media churn-out whilst looking for a story, but my comments are based on a real ownership experience; I think your short-changing what is an excellent piece of engineering here, but then with all due respect it depends on what your own personal values and expectations are. Check-out some of the more recent on-line videos where the story is changing. There's a bit more love now for the RC-F and it's ability to get the power down where and when it really matters; I don't think many RC-Fs will be spending that much time on a race-track - surely you'd by a Cayman GT-4 or similar if that's what you were after.
    1 point
  9. This is my first post so I apologise if this subject has been discussed before now. I searched the subect but only found comments on how to obtain replacements. My concern relates to the poor quality of the plastic casing of key fobs. The plastic case on on one of my keys broke in the lock !!! Fortunately there was enough plastic on the metal key to remove it from the ignition. The service desk quoted £80 for a replacement key fob even though the electronics still worked. Customer "Care" at Lexus UK were blunt and unhelpful advising me that key fobs were obtained as a complete assembly and I could not order the plastic shell. My local Toyota/Lexus garage told me that, whilst blank key fobs could be purchased on eBay or the Internet, they could not be calibrated nor could the blank key be cut by the garage. So a £20 wasted purchase was avoided. The garage manager suggested that I wrap the plastic casing (3 winds) with electrical tape. This works well but it was necessary to press the tape firmly in place after each wrap. Another Lexus garage phoned to invite me to special sales initiative with 2 years service thrown in with any purchase. Wow !!! Not very generous. I mentioned my key problem. I was advised that a new expensive key fob was the only solution. Incidentally the salesman did mention that on several occasions the keys returned on part exchanges had taped repairs so I would guess that my my problem occurs quite often. How can Lexus use such a cheap brittle plastic and then charge £80 for a replacement when a new plastic case would probably cost a few pence to manufacture ?
    1 point
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