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She cleans up quite well!

Only applies to manufacturer warranty. Doesn't apply to PCP because it's a separate contract and its the finance companies vehicle, not yours so they can state that they want Lexus history or they'll reduce the Final value etc.

Few from a cloudy day at Pendeen Watch Lighthouse in Cornwall and some sunny day pics too 😉

Sorry misunderstanding. I've had an IS before. I would on replace my GS with an LS. Small case confusion! My current GS is a mk 4 premier which feels special inside and is a joy to drive on motorways, windy roads and in traffic. Have driven mercedes, jaguars and volvos and none compare. Don't like bmws or audis so cannot think of a suitable replacement for my gs.

About a year ago I posted my thoughts on my first year of owning my first Lexus, a 2008 GS450H SE-L. That was then, and this is now, so I figured a two year report might be a benefit to existing owners as a comparison, or potential owners considering a GS450 of this vintage. I'll stick to the same format as last year, just for consistency. The Car Clearly it's the same car as last year, but has now done around 82,000 miles, around 24,000 more than when I bought it from Lexus Edgware Road. Just to recap, it's a 2008 SE-L, with ACC, PCS and the extended wood package. Fully loaded, oh yeah. Driving Experience Still the same, it's still smooth and fast without being particularly sporty. It disguises speed very well and it's easy to find yourself zooming down a road doing naughty miles per hour having just given it a bit of a squirt. The low speed ride is fine too, and like I said it last time it's fabulous in low speed stop start traffic. Creeping along silently on electric power alone is brilliantly serene, and is a sensation I'll miss if I move back to a non-hybrid car. One thing I have started to find a bit frustrating however is the car, despite being at launch (in 2005) the second quickest car in its class after the BMW M5, really doesn't want to use the power it has. An example is accelerating onto a dual carriageway from a roundabout or a slip road you might expect that a 340 bhp saloon wouldn't hang around, and to be fair it doesn't, but it's not really using its full potential - it's about as brisk as a modern turbo diesel saloon, think 520D or similar. If you DO want convince the various propulsive methods to hustle you down the road in a harmony of 3.5L V6, electric motor, battery, and grinning then you not only have to floor it, but kick down so the magic button seemingly under the right pedal is engaged. This serves to open up the full tine of beans and then it absolutely feels fast, but also like you're on a mission. I appreciate I'm being picky, but I'd like 100% of available power without needing to change the DEFCON level to do it. The infotainment system continues to impress. Having now driven a bunch of brand new Lexus I find their fiddly menus and weird mouse controls a retrograde step compared to the simple clear touchscreen in my GS. I never did bother fitting the £500 GROM VLINE (see why below), but I still use the Lexus iPod adaptor, plus a simple Bluetooth FM transmitter to stream Amazon Music from my iPhone to the car stereo, which with all the Mark Levinson gubbins sounds great to my ears. The Bluetooth phone integration, while not modern enough to sync phone books from iPhones, works really well and is super clear, and 10 minutes spent programming in the numbers you want to call regularly has served me perfectly well. After all, you can still dial from the phone if you need to (while stationary obviously, we're all law-abiding in Lexus land). I still find the fuel tank annoyingly small. 320 odd miles between fill ups is still par for the course for me. An 80 litre fuel tank would be better. All in all though, great car to drive. Maintenance Still glad I bought the warranty... My record keeping has been less comprehensive this past year, but I did have the 80,000 service done fairly recently, and had a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s fitted. The previous set of identical Michelins lasted about 20,000 miles which I think is perfectly fine for a heavy performance saloon. Great tyres too, grippy and quiet, no complaints. The 80,000 mile service was about £500, less a discount for being a LOC member, and the tyres were about £130 each with my Lexus dealer price matching Blackcircles. I had a new set of front brake discs and pads done, that was about £300 less some discount. I had a Lexus/Toytoa dash-cam fitted, that was about £200. Very happy with this incidentally! The following items have been replaced under warranty in the past year. 3 x TPMS sensors Left rear parking sensor Differential drain plug Gearbox earth strap I'm also told that one of my front shocks is "misting" but this can't be replaced under warranty as it's not "failed". I'm miffed about this so am pondering my next move. Fuel Consumption My anally retentive habit of recording my fuel usage petered out when my wife started using the car more. I wasn't prepared to tell her to record the mileage before refuelling, keep the fuel receipt, , reset the trip, then carefully present all data to me for tapping into my app to show strangers on the internet - I don't want to confirm I'm that weird. However, the fuel consumption hasn't really changed. On a long motorway run it'll top 30 mpg, and crawling through traffic it will do about 25 mpg. I'm still averaging about 28 mpg by my reckoning which I don't really mind, but it does perturb me when I see others on here are getting 35 mpg averages in near identical cars. How are you guys doing this?!?! Sometimes I make a concerted effort to drive like I have the Queen and Prince Phillip in the back which sees me just holding onto about 30 mpg, but one 10 mile journey running late and utilising the performance sees the numbers tumbling back to 27.9. Oh well. Owning my Lexus This is where it all starts to unravel a bit. I live in Cambridgeshire and work in Cambridge, therefore logically enough use Lexus Cambridge to work on my car. The past year has seen them decline from their distinctly average quality to something approaching quite crap. I won't bore you all with the full details, but there have been issues where what I've asked for during the booking in process has not been done, consistent time overruns, very poor quality washing, having to chase them up for answers to questions or reports of progress, and on one occasion money (about £4 in parking coins) was actually stolen from my car. I reported this to the service manager, complete with photographic evidence and they duly fired one of their car cleaning staff. I did receive an apologetic phone call from a senior dealer bod which was nice enough but given the Lexus reputation I was expecting a bit more contrition. It was especially galling that not long after this episode I had to book my car in for something else and STILL had to chase them up. Not cool, not fun, and not why I bought a Lexus if I'm honest. Lexus Cambridge verdict: Must try harder. 3/10 I'm minded to try a different Lexus dealer, but apart from it being less than sensible finding a dealer when there's one 5 miles from my work, all the dealers in my area are part of the Steven Eagell group, so I'm not sure I'd be getting anything different aside from a whole new level of inconvenience in going further away. Final thoughts. I wouldn't be quite as miffed with Lexus Cambridge if I didn't have to deal with them so often, which I wouldn't have to do if the car had fewer problems... Lexus reliability anyone?! Will I keep my Lexus? This part will be as much a life update as a car update. The answer to will I keep my Lexus in the long term is almost certainly no. The reason why is principally this little guy. That's my number three child, who was something of a happy surprise! This means I currently am the registered owner of a seven year old, a five year old, and a 6 week old. All three of my offspring legally require car seats, and as such it is obviously necessary to own a car capable of accommodating the whole family. Daddy, Mummy, and Cost Centres 1, 2, and 3. This was achieved in part by getting rid of our Toyota Prius earlier in the year and replacing it with a 2012 Volvo XC90 - a seven seater SUV my wife barrels around in, propping up the profit margins of Shell and BP. The Volvo manages to fit all three child seats in the middle row, for now, and when the baby needs a bigger seat we'll bring the third row seats into play. It's a good car to be honest and I enjoy driving it, recognising it weighs 2.5 tonnes fully laden and only has 200 bhp. You might imagine that the GS, as a fairly large car, would also be able to fit three child seats in the back. You'd be wrong. Due to the shape of the seats there's really no way to get all three of them in, let alone doing so safely, and until my children reach the size where they can sit in a car without needing a child seat as a family we're now in a position where only one car can carry everyone which feels a bit risky. While this is probably going to be okay for now with my wife on maternity leave, it almost certainly will be limiting in the future - no giving lifts to friends, no spare family car if the Volvo needs work, etc, and if I'm minded to change the Lexus anyway then I'm going to choose to replace it with a car capable of fitting my whole family in. This coupled with my distinctly underwhelming dealer experience has thus affected my view of my Lexus. I won't get rid of it while it's still under warranty and I'll want to see how family transport is shaping up, but I am likely to move it on in another 12 to 18 months. Therefore I'm not going to fit a VLINE, I'm not going to respray the few stone chips on the front bumper, and I'm not going to imagine it's the car I'll own for the long term, which was not necessarily the case a year ago. Thoughts on Lexus as a brand Not positive really. My dealer experience hasn't helped with this, but neither have the new vehicles I've used as courtesy cars. Thanks to frequent service and warranty work I've driven a couple of CT200s, an IS300, and two NX300s, and find them all bit lacking. Aside from the aforementioned fiddly infotainment there's a sense they are over-styled, with a lot of angles and 'design features' for the sake of it. I'm also not a fan of the fact that all the models seem to have flappy paddles, sport modes, and other 'performance' guff which is purely cosmetic. Why do you need flappy paddles on a car with one gear? Why bother having a rev counter when the car doesn't change gear? Why is the knob that changes the driving mode bigger than the knob that turns on the stereo? Why all the sporty nonsense on a car that is blatantly not a performance car?! To be fair I don't for one moment think Lexus is alone in this. I see enough humdrum 3 and 5 Series with M SPORT badges and stripy grills, and S Line/AMG Line seems to be the default choice in for otherwise perfectly nice normal cars the UK. I just find it a bit disappointing that the virtues that Lexus do/should have, like comfort, reliability, being different, and so on, seem to take second place to this pseudo-sporty lifestyle claptrap. On this basis I don't really like any of the new Lexus models and can't really see me owning a Lexus again for a while, at least not until the seven-seater RX450-L comes into my acceptable price bracket. Would I recommend a GS450H? Yes! It's a good car, and it's honest about what it is. I wouldn't say mine has been especially reliable, but in reality probably no worse than the equivalent German car of a similar age. Here's to another 12 months. Thanks for reading.

Not sure there’s much that’s new in this one.

In a few days time my Nissan Leaf will be sold and gone, so here's my impressions after over 18 months and 12000 miles. Mine is a 2015 24kWh Tekna (top spec) Quality, fit and finish Not great. Distinctly not great. The paint (flat white) isn't good, and there are various noticeable poor bits of panel alignment all around the vehicle. Interior materials are mostly very cheap, with some hard plastics and horrid cheap synthetic felt. However, as a workaday basic car it is fine, but any kind of premium product it certainly is not. Remember that the Leaf (even the current, facelifted 40kWh and 62kWh versions) is based on the 2004-on Nissan Tiida, a low-cost, light-weight basic C-seg hatch. Comfort Actually not bad. Seats are ok (heated front and rear, perforated "Leather") and the ride is softer than many other C-seg hatchbacks. Noise levels are ok - obviously no engine noise and they worked on the Aero and things like the windscreen wiper motor to be quiet - however, road noise is significant, and the glass in the windows is thin so sounds from the outside world aren't well insulated. Gadgets Not bad - App to turn on AC/Heating remotely, Satnav, 360deg cameras, all seats heated, LED headlamps, Bose sound system (not very good), Inrix traffic data. However, the infotainment is not very intuitive, and has some even bigger annoyances than Lexus have managed (total fail on Artist/Album handling). Drivetrain Fantastic. Significant instantaneous torque with no kickdown lag, turbolag, etc. The torque at the wheel is changing directly, immediately, in response to the position of the throttle pedal. Ultimately there's not a HUGE amount of power and you certainly feel that above 40-50mph, but up to 40 and in town, getting onto roundabouts etc then it's way more responsive and nippy than a great many ICE cars, even ones that are much more powerful. There's also no stop-start system to contend with that would make nipping out of a junction that much trickier. There's a psychological element as well, because you'd rarely bother to use full throttle, full performance in something like a ford focus 1.0 ecoboost because of the noise, harshness and lumpiness of trying to make fast gearchanges - it's a lot of effort and wearing because of the noise, whereas in the Leaf you simply put foot to the floor with greater regularity. However, this isn't that Nissan engineered an amazing EV drivetrain. They made an acceptable one - much of the benefits above are simply the nature of an EV. The Leaf is not terribly efficient; typically around 3.5-4 miles per kWh. The worst EVs are around 2.5 (Audi e-Tron), with high-performance (Tesla S, X, Jag I-Pace) around 3, up to the very efficient being 4 and better (Tesla 3, Kia e-Niro) and even heading towards 5 (Hyundai Ioniq). In terms of weight and performance and size, the Leaf should achieve better than 4, but it doesn't. Handling Remarkable, in a qualified sense. Some of the ingredients are terrible - high kerb weight (1545kg), very basic suspension design (macpherson strut front, torsion-beam rear), FWD and the aforementioned soft ride. However, the centre of gravity is very low down, and the significant parts of the mass are within the wheelbase, so it has a very low polar moment of inertia. The low centre of gravity means that despite relatively soft suspension it doesn't roll very much when cornering hard, and the weight distribution shares the loading between front and rear very well. It will grip and fling itself around a corner with suprising alacrity. No, it's by no means communicative or go-karty, but it's really very good for a a bog basic family hatchback. With good tyres on (Michelin Crossclimate+) it has a very secure, grippy feel. Range / Long Journeys Either fine or terrible, depending on how you look at it. For day-to-day use it's absolutely fine. There aren't many days when many of us drive more than 50 miles, and that's fine. Charge up at night or during the day at work and it's simply not an issue, not a bother. Long Journeys can even be ok - I've used it a few times to go to my mother's house (160 miles from my home), and my best run only had 21 minutes of charging time (of which I'd have stopped for 10 to pee and get a coffee in my ICE vehicles anyway). However, that was having a bunch of things go right. When the weather is bad or if a charging point is offline or whatever things can rapidly get more tedious. Ultimately long journeys in it ARE possible, but at some point you'll get bored. However, consider the typical middle-class 2-car family. Do BOTH cars need to be able to do long journeys? Or does the family have a big family car/SUV for that stuff, and a smaller hatchback that just gets used for school run, shops, commute, etc? The Leaf is an ideal and brilliant second car, where the range limitations are simply a non-event. Running costs / TCO Outstanding. Utterly insanely cheap to run. Fuel costs are 3p/mile from domestic supply (12p/kWh), 2p/mile on E7 (or my workplace charger), and there are still quite a number of free-to-use chargers (my local supermarket has a 50kW rapid charger that is free). No tax of course, and servicing is a non-event. There's no oil, filter, transmission, cam belt, plugs, etc - hundreds of pounds per year on consumables that simply go away. Depreciation is the absolute kicker though - After more than 18 months and 12000 miles I've sold the car to a trader for only £350 less than I paid for it. Total cost of ownership excluding insurance has been around £900 (£350 depreciation, £400 tyres (£460, sold old partworns for £60), £150 electricity), working out to 7.5p/mile - or half what most cars cost to fuel alone. Random stuff All of the steering wheel buttons are mounted on top of the large floating piece that sounds the horn. Usually not a problem, but the cruise control button requires a firm enough press that the horn beeps when you turn it on. Tekna spec has 17" wheels with an uncommon tyre size (215/50R17). These tyres are literally twice the price of those fitted to the Acenta spec (205/55 R16) (Full set of Crossclimate+ cost me £460 on offer from Costco. A friend got a full set of Primacy 4 from costco for his Leaf Acenta for £231) Reliability Never let me down as such, but did start making a clicking/cracking noise. Known issue with driveshafts needing splines lubricating and bolts tightened. Performed under warranty. Overall The Leaf has fulfilled the role for which we bought it brilliantly. That role was as a second car, to cover the repetitive, day-to-day commutes that were costing a fortune in diesel (at the time). I pushed it further in making long journeys simply because of the novelty, and the cost savings (£70 of diesel saved on a single round-trip to my mother's house, for a "cost" of about 45 minutes extra journey time - more than most people earn after tax), and learned a few lessons along the way. I don't think it would be a good "only car". A friend of mine has one as his only car (he's had it 6 years, since new and covered 70k+ in it) and it's lead to frustrations at times (but never enough to even think for a second about changing back). As I said before, a brilliant second car. The ease with which you can jump in and drive without worrying about the impact of short journeys on engine wear, instant cabin heat (and preheat from timer or app), etc is great for popping to the shops or nipping over to a friend's house. Ultimately perhaps it's telling that the reason I'm getting rid is because it whetted my appetite for a better EV, and I cashed in the Leaf before depreciation takes a turn (which I think it will next year as the e208, Corsa-e, Mini Cooper SE, Honda e and VW ID3 begin to hit the market). I've ordered a Tesla 3. Would I buy one again, as a second car? Probably not at current pricing. Pricing has been a bit silly of late, and they've held up well but I think we're in a period of over-valuation. At similar pricing I'd have a Kia Soul EV over a Leaf.

If Pete is using Osaka and Chris Mullins he has already identified the most competent technical folks in the area.

Definitely not normal behaviour. You can actually sit in the rear without putting the belt on, it won't go off unless you buckle up and then take it off mid-journey

I own this now... I brought it for £150 yeah still had the white wrap on it to

Interesting. Reading the dimensions of the three, the Crown has 12.97 Cu Metres, the LS430 (Celsior) 13.61 and the LS400 12.74. Height wise for a taller person the Crown fares better than the LS400 by 7cm. The Celsior higher by 9cm. The Celsior and LS400 are longer by 9cm and 10cm respectively. Photographs can be deceptive.

Thanks for that - that works, useful tip! First time it's ever understood me! However, it's still not brilliant. This is how that went: "Play Artist Thea Gilmore" <wait 5 seconds> "Play Artist Thea Gilmore. Was this correct?" "Yes" <wait 5 seconds> "There are multiple albums. Please select one from list" "Fourth" <wait 5 seconds> "There are multiple tracks. Please select one from list" "Play" <wait 5 seconds> "Pardon?" "Play" <wait 5 seconds> *starts playing* It's still extremely slow and cumbersome. I'll experiment some more, as I'll probably drive the GS a bit more in the next week or two (my Leaf is going away on Saturday, and who knows when my Tesla will arrive...). Simplicity in UI design has been lost in many places sadly. Tesla seem to have done the best job in a car system (there's generally only one place to find anything, everything is placed logically and there are some shortcuts that are very quickly learned (eg you don't have to tap the volume up/down icons on the screen - just swipe across them (or use the steering wheel roller)). However, one of the greatest UIs I ever used for dealing with the artist/album "problem" was the Slim Devices Squeezebox 3: This was the early days of streaming audio, with the SB3 released in 2005 (long before people were thinking about using tablets or phones to control such things, since there were no tablets or smartphones), and the control logic was beautiful in its simplicity and effectiveness. It started with a long list of artists, through which you could jump with the number keys (remember the old way of texting, where each number had 3 letters on?), tap right to go into a list of albums, tap right to go into the list of songs, or just hit play on any of those levels. The display could be set with big enough text to read from across the room (unlike its successor, the Squeezebox Touch - I found the Touch UI significantly worse than the SB3 UI), and with a little practice you could be at your desired track within seconds. So to go back to the above example, on the SB3 I'd have hit 8 (for "T"), down arrow a few times to Thea Gilmore, right arrow, 4 (for "H" - Harpo's Ghost, name of the album), Play.

Thank you Andrew for your write up, as someone who is looking to purchase one around 2008 it's really helpful, it's concerning about Lexus Cambridge, when I had my RX300 Lexus Coventry were outstanding, if you decide to sell your vehicle let me know as it's obviously a well cared for car and the timing could be good Congratulations on the addition to your family Grant

According to this list, my next car shoud be a lamborghini. But... isn't the average depreciation that low (in % terms) because - on average - people don't drive them.

The 98 has an OBD2 port (95 or later have OBD2, earlier have OBD1). Should be near the bonnet release lever with a cover over it. (Image is a left-hand drive car!!) You should be able to get an ELM327 bluetooth OBD2 reader and access it with Torque via Bluetooth.

ahh ... your talking about the disc itself (not the pads)... yes, that is more sensitive to wear . Best to always check the Lexus requirements, not rely on shops. for the front, Lexus state 28mm new, and 25mm minimum (3mm wear) ... to gauge that use a micrometer or vernier. I've just change my front, about 60000miles, seems reasonable.

Very nice. Congratulations on your new RC. I do love that colour and the new facelift design.

I am always worried when soemone says the discs are warped. The problem of judder is due to un-even surface, mainly brake shoe deposits, or other cr*p embedded in disc surface. I assume some pads will deposit more junk, and hard braking and then leaving foot on brake will enable the disc heat to bind some of the pad onto the disc, so always foot of brake and put into park or use handbrake. Trouble is re-skimming a disc is usually as expensive as replacing. Lexus OEM parts are still around, I had mine done on front a few months back, about £350 (I recall) - this included new shims, and seemed like only about £100 more than going 3rd party. Been as good gold so far, and fingers crossed they will stay that way.

True for all drivers coming from the continent. The one that gets my goat is British drivers who are quick to stick the beam converters onto their headlights before a two week trip to the continent... and then leave them in place the rest of the year after their holiday!

I’m going back many years ago but as a dealer we did retain a car that was not fit for the road. Brought in for service it required 4 tyres and discs and pads all round and a callipers, the tyres were down to the canvas and the pads were down to the metal, on one it was so bad the calliper had seized. Customer refused our quote and said we were making jobs up, the workshop manager then stepped in and advised the vehicle was unfit for the road and refused to give the keys back or allow the customer access to the workshop. Customer then phoned the police, they rocked up and we showed them the car. They agreed that we were right to retain but if the customer arranges for the car to be transported off the premises then we have to oblige. Car was trailered off-site. A week later he was involved in a fatal accident, only he was involved. We never knew if he replaced the parts, but given the accident I wouldn’t be surprised if he had not bothered Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk