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Just some feedback as I know this post attracted a little interest. I drove the car back home from Bristol this afternoon and so far so good. No issues at all. I have to say Lexus Bristol have been absolutely superb. Very welcoming, the car was handed back to me by the same person that handled my case from start to finish. They've provided a written summary of what they:ve done for my own records and the car was cleaned inside and out. Will definitely be taking the car back there in the summer when the service is due. Thanks again for all the comments. Fingers crossed it won't happen again. Cheers.

Aren't you all missing one important thing though? Imagine. You're pootling along on one of Germany's Autobahns, minding your own business, a bit of soothing music coming through the stereo, your thoughts are on returning to your loved ones. The sun is out, the road is fairly clear. Progress can be made. Then suddenly, your rear view mirror is filled. It's Franz in his RS4 closely followed by Helmut in his C63 and Gunter in his M3, all separated by the thickness of a Rizla paper. Franz begins to flash his lights in an impatient attempt to get you to move out of his way. "I'm not having that Fritz" you think and you push your right foot down. The speed climbs. 70, 80, 90. You reach a ton, but the train of shiessewagens is still right up your chuff. 110, 120, 130, 140, 150 - they're still there. Press a bit harder. 155, 156, you look in your mirror. The gap now appears to be growing. 160, you look behind again. Franz is beating his steering wheel and making obscene Germanic gestures as he, Helmut and Gunter begin to fade into the distance as their girly speed limiters put an end to their futile attempts to keep up. You look once more in your rear view mirror and say in a calm voice "That's for Dunkirk, Jerry"

A picture paints a thousand reasons; You will never drive a more versatile car. That's all you need to know. PS click on the image to see it in original uncompressed quality.

2005 to 2007 cars: no indicators in the wing mirrors. SE and SE-L models available. SE-L has everything, including ACC and sunroof. 2008 to 2009 cars: indicators in the wing mirrors. SE, Sport, and SE-L models available. SE is base spec (which is still pretty good by all accounts). Sport adds active body control and a (subtle) body kit. SE-L gives you a Mark Levinson stereo but sunroof and ACC are now optional, so not every SE-L will have them. 2010 to 2012 cars: indicators in the wing mirrors, horizontal slats on the grille and wheels of a different design. Same options as the earlier cars, but in all cases there’s an updated stereo/nav without a tape player and with Bluetooth audio streaming. I have a 2008 SE-L with all the options, including ACC, a sunroof and wood on the steering wheel. ACC is brilliant, well worth seeking out in my opinion. Good luck with your search. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Snows Lexus Plymouth, don't bother with their service dept, they are not at all helpful of friendly. I have had a few issue, but the worse was the chassis leg issue that I had about 12 months ago, they refused it under warranty only for it to be failed on a mot less than 6 months later. When I spoke to Lexus directly they claimed that they had no record of me ever raising this as an issue at the dealership. Despite me repeatedly asking to be taken off their mailing list they still call me/email etc, this may seem pathetic but it shows how they don't listen to customers requests Snows Lexus Exeter are marginally better, however they seldom have any parts in stock, everything is "factory order" Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi I haven't got one but been lurking on the GS forum and picked up a few things. Apart from checking electrics, service history and general car things the main faults to look out for are: 1) Leaking shock absorbers - these can start as early as 60k miles and the only replacement as I write is lexus parts. 2) Hybrid problems can start to surface the closer you are 100k - mainly these relate to failing individual cells within the Battery - these can be replaced with used ones but will cost you £700 by specialist companies. 3) There has been 2-3 cases of failed transmission pumps - lexus will probably quote for a new gearbox - however a member here " hayne" fixed his for alot less - look out for warning lights on test drive 4) Seized calipers is another to look out for. 5) Exhausts tend to corrode at the y pipe - there has been cases of back boxes falling off so have a good look 6) Check for rust on the bonnet leading edge thats all I can think of - when looking take an extended test drive to ensure no warning lights come on. I look on auto trader and other sites every single day and these cars are very slow movers so negotiate. As you can see the list is small but relative costs are high for example £700 buys alot of fuel Many member have opted for an extended lexus warranty which costs £995 for 2 years - this also covers the Hybrid Battery. Lexus will also do hybrid Health check and warranty the Battery for 12 months and costs £59 hope this helps

in other words if you not buying from a dealer the likely hood of you getting a fake part is high.. i can understand the R&D which goes into manufacturing a part which then reflects on its cost but are car manufactures not a bit to blame for all these counterfeit parts on the net.. the prices of some parts are ridiculous.. and i'm not even talking about Luxury/premium car brands even brands like ford/ renault/ vauxhaul do not charge peanuts for parts at the dealers anymore..they are all over priced.. you dont know what you getting anymore when you dont buy from a dealer.. its scary

Another very common part that is counterfeited is headlamp bulbs particularly HID bulbs. Boxed as known manufacturers bulbs they can be £90 each while cheap HID bulbs from China are £10 for two bulbs. Now being honest I have used the cheap HID bulbs without problems, but I bought them at the low price knowing the were not OEM were not packaged as such. John.

All, did mine just before Xmas. Mammoth task to get at them, lots of skinned knuckles and bad words while removing half of my engine bay. After plenty of research I opted for those shown below. Can't recall which bulbs I did now but this is what I went for in the end. Half the price lexus were wanting for the OEM equivalent and these are MUCH brighter. One set of D4S and one set of HB3 in the same colour/hue. Mine is a 2009 by the way.

If it was showing 250, then you are alright... On the serious note the speed there is 130 (which works out at 81MPH)... and hardly anyone drivers slower than that. What pisses me the most (in UK) is that we have no lane discipline whatsoever... That is why it is so relaxing to drive in Germany - you don't even need to flash people, because most of the time they will overtake and go back into correct lane. That is why 70MPH start from outside lane sounds so unrealistic... Although that said british lack of discipline shows even in Germany, so perhaps you not so wrong... I actually remember few occasions of car being stuck in outside lane like sore thumb.. and you closing in on it for the moment of realisation ... "******* brit... that is why!". Just randomly found this one - I guess I would call it "genuine reaction" and you can actually see @0:18 they are doing ~130 and straight after overtaking goes back right into first lane:

I used Thule roofbars on the IS too. I could also fit my racing bike (XL size) in behind the seats if I was transporting only one bike. I used a dog hammock to protect the seats I'd love to have folding seats on the RCF, but there is only a 'ski-hatch'. Instead I use a Seasucker minibomber: I don't have a sunroof, so both suckers go on the roof and I can open the boot

Yeah I think its down to having two inputs from the tank looking at it. I think I've sourced one from Facebook looking for Lexus Breaking cheers for the advice.

If I may digress slightly for a moment, in the late 90s, I went to the French GP at Magny Cours with a couple of mates. Both had TVR Griffiths. Much fun was had on the way down, and even more at the race track campsite, where many interested European petrolheads came to look at the strange British sports cars, and for the opportunity to sit behind the wheel and rev the burbling V8s, would gladly ply us with beers. The day after the race, we packed up and headed back to Dear Old Blighty. On one of the autoroutes, we were making steady progress when some buffoon in a Porsche 911 thought he fancied a go. The guy driving me backed out at 130 at which point the Beetle on Steroids slowly came past. My other friend in the second TVR decided that the UK's honour needed restoring and mashed his right foot into the carpet unleashing the full majestic force of the V8. The sound as he shot by, was rather special. It's a shame I could not have seen the look on the Porsche driver's face as he was forced to move over. Blackpool 1, Stuttgart 0. Then there was the story from the next year's trip of a Mustang which tried to keep up disappearing in a cloud of smoke behind us....

A local in his M3 thought he could escape me on the Autobahn... He didn't 😎

😂😂🤣🤣 Respect to the budding columnists!! 😁😁😁😁

Well managed to sort it with a second hand spring from eBay off a 2013 model for £13.50 delivered from Lithuania, took an hour to replace it. 3 bolts to take off, push the carrier down, spring out and in and bolts back on no problems.

Thanks Sorcerer for posting this. Great info and inspiration to attempt the same thing.

It doesn’t have to be the autobahn, could also be the A127 an M3 and me grinning as he was revving the nuts out of it (bird rotation of 180 degrees too) 😂.......a grin from me on his left.......and left behind he was 😂🤣😂.

Some of the standard servicing parts from Lexus are quite reasonable, it's worth checking before going elsewhere. As for the costs of mods, if you want more power it's an eye-watering amount (done that) but for cat-back exhaust, improvements in ride and performance it's not too bad. As a project car mine owes me more than £20K and I will hope to get close to £8k for it when I can find the right RCF. 😀 Another mod I would recommend is the Sprint-Booster. It really does make the car feel quicker even though all it's doing is opening the throttle quicker.

"Not paying attention" - 15 down to plus 10 now you say Linas! So yes, as I previously said, " 15 ISFs! Not in the last 12 years on the autotrader there hasn't" Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay and although these cars hang around for a few months and the odd red one at a certain nationwide finance dealer maybe over a year, they ultimately do move, so they are priced relative. I don't believe for a second that any owner here believes that they are unicorn cars (you of course entitiled to your opinion), but instead, my understanding and experience been that owners are in a position where they are not desperate to sell. Reasonable priced servicing, cracking extendable warranties, different to shifting on an rs3 or rs4 that is out of warranty and due its 3 year service and first mot. That is from my experience and expertise both from a buyer and seller, private and trade, not my opinion.

Did that quote you have include a figure for labour? If so how much? I have just had a look at my invoice and it was £133.33 +VAT for the upgrade with nothing charged for labour and included a hybrid check and car washed. RMB Lexus (Teesside) For me as my eyes are telling me I am getting older (reading glasses) the bigger screen of the built in Satnav is better than using a mobile phone Satnav.

Interesting you mention possible cause as membrane. behind the door card. In many years of car ownership I have never had this happen until on my previous car, a 5 series BMW. This is well documented problem with this car. Usually after 10 years or so the gasket can come 'unstuck' and some have success reactivating the adhesive using a heat gun but others have flitted a new gasket. I was unaware that this could be a likely problem on an RX

There are films about that sort of thing on the internet...was there a camera!?

our 4ltr limos are brilliant for fuel economy compared to anything similar on this planet did I mention sometime prior that I had a ride in a London Prius Taxi and woweeee was that a really comfortable ride in a limo interior, all leather, and very very comfy backseat experience so much so that if ever i was tempted or forced to go without my Ls400 I would look to repeating the Prius experience ........... I was very very impressed Malc

My 2011 is on 103K and nothing has gone wrong. It’s passed every MOT with no advisories. Serviced every year at Lexus. I’ve only replaced the Goodyear tyres on it at 94K(they were the originals) because they were hard and noisy and a pair of wiper blades at 102K because they were smeary. It’s still on its original brakes/discs. Apparently I was told in October on its annual service that they’re only about 50% worn [emoji15] On its hybrid battery check at the same time they said it’s still perfectly healthy. Good old CT quality car [emoji4] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope it was in neutral when it went on the flatbed or was it driven on? I think that when you braked sharply the engine lost vacum and tried to stall but obviously these can’t so the stepper motor kicked in to bring the idle up and probably gave you the chugging rattly noise until vacum built up again hence why it was rough when trying to select any gears. Powering down does reset a lot things on the CT that’s why they make a noise after you shut them off. Don’t let this make you lose faith in it as they are a bulletproof car and very reliable. Mines a 2011 SE L Premier with 103K and I’ve never had anything go wrong at all. Only 2 recalls and I get it serviced at Lexus Poole every year. Passed all it’s MOT,s with no advisories. Good luck. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do not buy an SLK, they rattle like hell, break suspension springs and the brake callipers seize regularly, it's the worst car we've ever owned. We went back to an MX5 very quickly. And BMW? Get another mortgage to cover parts failures and taxi journeys.

Blimey, thanks so much for all that detail, thats fantastic! Thanks so much for doing all that work with part numbers too! I've come across toyo before & have often used it, I've bought stuff from Amayama & Partsouq as well for my GS. Everytime I think about selling the GS I get a bit of a knot of reluctance, its been my baby & I've lavished on it, it's the best car I've ever owned! but the SC has that certain something else going for it & Clarkson & his mob are just idiots IMHO

Meister R's £722 Front ARB (second hand ebay) £30 Front bushes for ARB £17 Rear ARB (from Japan) £104 Rear ARB links £29 I fitted it all myself which was hard work but not technically difficult. A strut brace from Cusco (again from Japan) is £145 + possibly import taxes. I have 19" wheels with 245/30 and 285/30 tyres. Front ARB is the 28.6mm diameter solid version (part no: 48811-30560) (£30-60 second hand). New from Lexus UK: £254 Standard links are ok as long as you are not radically dropping the ride height. I also replaced the steering rack bushes with poly versions (£25) Rear: ARB is the ISF version (model no: 48812-30400). Seems to be as rare as hens teeth in the UK. A Lexus dealer quoted me £228 so I ordered mine from Japan. The bushes ideally need to be the ISF ones to fit the 17mm diameter bar (48818-30180). but I used the old ones. You can use the standard SC430 bracket. The links need to be the ISF ones (they are slightly shorter - necessary if you are lowering the car) (48830-30090). This is a useful site as it gives you OE part numbers: https://www.toyodiy.com

How much do all these mods cost? I'll need to factor them in unless I can get one that's already tricked up ! I didn't really want to have to spend a fortune?

I have owned an 06 SC since January and replaced the standard suspension with meisterR and roll bar upgrades (same as Neils) and the improvement is awesome. On standard suspension it wallows around at higher speeds and rolls like a boat in corners. In comparison to an SLK 350 (also an 06) the SC is slower (but still pretty fast) and not so direct in feel but is much better built and a more comfortable and satisfying car to own. I would recommend bigger wheels and a louder exhaust to make it look and sound better. As far as more mechanical mods go I am fitting a front strut brace but that's as far as I think it's worth going.

Richard watch out for the high road tax on the face lift versions. I do like the look of the SC, but after test driving a couple I was put off by the ride, after having the GS450H, and the slightly slower acceleration. In my case the lack of usable rear seats as I do carry passengers in the rear of the car regularly also was a down side. John.

Cheers, when I was looking, my main criteria was 'not silver' but was quite flexible on other colour combinations. When I saw that one appear on Autotrader, I absolutely loved the colour and interior so rang the garage. Unfortunately, it had already been sold. A week later, the garage rang me to say that the guy buying it hadn't managed to get ahis loan in place and was I still interested? Deposit paid over the phone, I took a train trip iwn to the west country a few days later, had a good look round the car and drove her home. The following week, my friendly local mechanic put it up on his ramps and pronounced it perfectly fine, which was good news. Since then, she has had 4 new tyres and been in to Lexus Derby for the airbag recall but otherwise given 3k miles of trouble free motoring. A touch more V8 burble wouid be nice, but that's my only observation. So far as I can tell, the only people who knock them are those who have been unduly influenced by Jeremy Clarkson.

I just changed from a LS400 to an 04 plate RX300 SE in December. I'm very happy with it...If looking for a practical car with a good dollop of luxury and refinement, that's pretty reliable and cheap to buy... then that era of RX is hard to beat. If you are patient and lucky, you should be able to pick an RX300 up with circa 100k for much less than £3.5k. I'm sure you already know the RX300 is not good on fuel... expect low 20's mpg Some of the RX300 and 350s have the air suspension option which I wanted to avoid as it's £700 a corner to fix when they go wrong. So unless you want the air suspension, watch out. It came on the SE-L model, but many dealers and even private advertisers list their car as an SE knowing buyers want to avoid the air suspension. The giveaway is the air suspension adjustment switch just above the gear stick. The 350 is currently going to cost you £570 in car tax which is mitigated by the slightly better mpg (about 2mpg) verses £325 for the RX300. The 350 is chain driven so no timing belt to worry about, the RX300 needs a belt every 100K or 10 years. Re car tax.... the new government has it's first budget on 11th March and I'm expecting them to come after SUV owners... so you may want to wait and see what happens there. I looked at several RX400h and a few RX300... but the 400h were always a LOT more pricey like for like and the examples I viewed were not worth the extra purchase cost. If they were all the same money, I'd have a 350, all the power without the hybrid to worry about.... but my RX300 was screaming at me to buy it on shear value alone.

Reason - aero. Door mirrors are now a very significant contributor to drag of modern cars.That said, the cars upon which they have so far been implemented (audi e-tron, honda e) are not particularly aerodynamic anyway, but many low-drag models (eg merc C-class, Tesla 3, Hyundai Ioniq, Toyota Prius) would have significant reductions to motorway by implementing camera mirrors. Cost? Cheaper than a door mirror to replace. Seriously, you can buy a smartphone with 3 cameras in it for £100. One camera on a stalk isn't terribly expensive, compared to a large multi-part plastic and metal housing containing 3 motors (fold, mirror x, mirror y), heating element, high-grade optical mirror (with additionally complex convex section in most european cars now), auto dimming stuff and the indicator lighting.... Oh, and lots of car door mirrors now have cameras in anyway (my Leaf had the side cameras for the 360 parking in them). A regular door mirror now is not a few quid from a motor factors, but £500+ to replace on anything like a Lexus. Camera mirrors will be lest costly to replace should they be damaged which is much less likely because they protrude far less and represent a much smaller "target". They also offer the possibility of not being dazzled at night no matter how bright the headlamps of the vehicle behind (you won't necessarily be able to see anything more in the mirror than you otherwise would, but the lumens projected at your eyeballs will be limited by the screen which will be dimmed to night levels). As such they will also be "auto dimming" by default. Camera mirrors can potentially take in a wider field of view, reducing the possibility of blindspots. I'm not for a moment suggesting they're perfect and won't have their annoyances, but they have many advantages too.

Linas, you are a strange one That is the single most negative summary I have ever seen a owner produce for their new car, so it does beg the question, why did you buy it? Oh, and to top it all off, you forgot the pictures! Bad Linas!

Unfortunately they are dealer supply only. One of mine has just snapped on a 2011 RX450h. Unfortunately the bottom bolt has also seized (carrier to hub) and they will need to cut it off. The bolt has taken nearly 3 weeks to come but they have also had to order a replacement hub as if it damages the bush the bolt goes through this is not a separate item but attached to the hub, meaning nearly £800 in parts alone rather then just a spring and bush. If anyone has an RX450h especially an older one I would advise you check these lower bolts to make sure they are not seized and if they are not then keep them greased or replace them asap.

Its home at last, 382 days after putting down the deposit.

Just an update, seen a CT200h come in today with 153k miles!!! 15 Lexus main dealer stamps and AA 250 point check showing GREEN, no problems at all. This just goes to show how good these cars are, amazing!!