Leaderboard

I’d highly recommend a Honda Jazz. Reliable, economical and amazingly spacious.

Apologies for the long post, but I have been dipping in and out of this thread for a while and since my app has stopped telling me the state of my battery I have been mulling over different methods of tracing efficiency. I used to track the predicted EV mileage and the car would regularly predict 50+ miles in the summer and 45+ in the winter following each full charge. In March my app, among losing various other functions, stopped reporting the battery charge state and so I sort of lost interest, however I then started to use the car to see what the predicted range was and compare to what I was actually getting. Over the summer, I would be presented with a predicted range of 50-55 miles in EV mode, however I would be lucky to get 40, and would regularly get 35-39 miles from a full charge. This started me thinking about what the predicted range should actually be. My journeys tend to be short (3-6 miles) and irregular, so the car is often having to heat/cool and I always have the AC on, I am not expecting the highest ranges. My displayed m/kWh was 3.1, even whilst using ECO mode. Looking at the profile of the car and the battery pack (18.1 kWh) with the car switching to HV mode at 30% made me re-evaluate how I looked at the range calculations. At 30% battery reserved for HV mode, my actual EV-only capacity is 12.67kWh. If I take the efficiency my car reported of 3.1 m/kWh my actual range should be 39.2 miles. This correlates to the distances I am actually seeing over my journeys on a single charge. Despite the reported 3.1 m/kWh it would always start with an EV range of 50+ miles and the gap between this and my prediction of 39 miles would shrink proportionally until switching to HV mode. Knowing that my journey profile isn’t the best, often enjoying the acceleration of the EV and having AC always on, I decided to reset everything, go on a long journey and see what I could get out of it. Starting at a full charge, reporting 54 miles range, I fixed to EV mode and set off on a mixture of urban and A roads sticking to the lower ECO range of the acceleration and driving in ECO mode. I needed to split across a couple of journeys, but the gap between them was minimal, so the cabin temp should be maintained. Overall I managed to travel 49.1 miles, with 3.8 m/kWh reported. When I returned home in HV mode, I recharged to full, putting in 13.54 kWh, which would have been 3.62 m/kWh, allowing for the battery below 30%, isn’t too far away from the 3.8 that the car reported. So where is the car getting its 54 mile range prediction from? If I assume it is the EV only range, and allowing for a small amount of re-gen from braking, I would guesstimate a total 13.5 kWh EV only capacity. In order to achieve the 54 miles, it would have to have an efficiency of 4 m/kWh. Not having gone through all 15 pages (so far) of this thread to see if this has been raised before, I would be interested for people to not only post what predicted mileage they are getting, but also the m/kWh number as well, as the car seems to report this more accurately than the predicted range. If you’ve made it this far, well done. Maybe if my app’s battery state page was working correctly rather than only showing the car as “charging” and the battery level at 50% I wouldn’t have gone down this rabbit hole. If anyone can see a flaw in my logic, please let me know as I am either looking at things wrong or I am using the car totally wrong 😄

I second this. We have this as a 2nd car and if it were the only car we had I am confident it would not leave us wanting for more. Its got oodles of space with its clever magic seats the engine is peppy enough (the 1.4 at least) and for basic transport its simply great!

Really? a bass player in a band showing up in a yaris? Come on Mincey THIS is what you need, add some rock and roll into it! https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202309061610494?sort=relevance&advertising-location=at_cars&include-delivery-option=on&make=Chrysler&model=300C&page=1&postcode=bt364rb&fromsra ( paint it matte black with a brush)

I’ll ‘third’ this. With the ‘magic seats’ from (about) 2005 onwards they’re superb on space and reliable as well. I can’t see one being a theft magnet either, unless there’s an eighty year-old car thief looking for a thrill… 😜

I've bought a car for my wife. She passed recently and she hates it, but it's a lovely car! A 21 year old Honda Civic 1.4L auto with 1 or 2 owners before me with the last owner being about 25 years in owndership. Him and his wife looked after it exceedingly well. Obviously being a Honda, it's full of rust and being so old there's various things that need doing. My question is, is there a place on Lexus Owners where we can start a non-Lexus car project thread. I usually like to sell my cars in a conditonbetter than how I bought em and docimenting the journey... well, it's nice. Thoughts or directions!? If so, where should I start such a topic)..

Many of these posts are very interesting and good to read… Many have an interesting perspective, and include some facts, if they are provable. That I, and other members, were not aware of... It would be a very interesting post from John Williams (Roy of the Rovers). A very much missed member of this Forum. If he was still a member… And he added a post to this topic…? I do wonder what John would have said… As Linas said in his post when we learned the very sad news in March… John has always been the person who brought the sense of calmness and common sense into any discussion, was sincerely respected and will be greatly missed in the forum.

Hi Nicky, My current plan is to remove the engine, and install Large Li-Ion battery along with a ZombieVerter.

Not Japanese, and don’t shoot me, but…for a totally unremarkable and practical ‘gig’ car what about a Dacia Sandero? Old Renault tech, so all of the gremlins long since ironed out. My understanding is they’re robust because they’re simple - Dacia’s business model can’t soak up lots of warranty claims! For about £6k maximum you’d be looking at a 2018/19 car with 40-60k miles, as well as the approval of James May. 😆 I’ll get my coat…

As promised, freshly washed down and piccys of this dear old lady 32 years young on the Town Quay just outside my back gate Malc

Try Catalunia. plenty of space great roads/food/climate low prices and they seem to dislike governmental interference a bit ....

There you go Malc. I'd been changing the Iridium plugs at 60k or less on all my Subarus and mever really noticed any change or wear on the plugs (though I tried to justify and sell it to myself). Car Care Nut appears to agree with Scotty Kilmer and I definitely value CCN alot more for our cars. Other servicing is alot more vital... Really good thorough vid...

Portugal is a good choice. France is not. We lived in France for 20 years and the taxation/intrusion/bureaucracy/ spying on the public is way over the top. Portugal offered good tax relief but that is sadly finished. It is also a civilised country with generally peaceful habitants and beautiful countryside. The first thing that I noticed on returning to the UK was the smell of pollution and the severe overcrowding both on the roads and pedestrian life. Crowding makes people angry and there are certainly a lot of angry people out there in the UK. See you on the silver coast Linas.

Might I suggest we all repair to a chilled out quiet country location and ask Miss Marple to make us a delicious cup of tea and sit in the garden with the vicar to more thoughtfully contemplate the problem Malc

Not unusual as the dealer is getting your car ready so you're already able to see messages on the Lexus Link app coming through as they go through the process.

Maybe put a Mazda 2 on your list, not always that many around but good mpg and should be able to handle your load requirements

Whatever it is do make sure it's ULEZ friendly, just in case your vibrations slip over the border into Khan-Land!

I joined a Honda Forum back in 2016 ? on buying my Honda Legend ……. sadly of very little use nor help for me having been used to the brilliance of this Lexus Forum …… thinking our Lexus forum is exceptional tbh Malc

He never said it was a rock band. He might be a bass player in a folk outfit…in which case an old Beetle would be fitting! ...turn up in a 300C with blacked out windows and people will think the guitar case is like Antonio Banderas in Desperado 😇 Depending on the venues that may indeed be wise!

Just be aware..... Be careful when selecting Sport mode, it will Rip your face off, and pull 5g round corners, and the Smoke from the Tyres will gum - up the Air con, enjoy 😀

So many variables driving style, weather, roads used i.e. mostly motorway or mixture or just local. I've had my current Fsport coming up for 6 months I took delivery on 1st April working out MPG the old fashioned way dividing miles travelled by gallons (divide litres by 4.546 to get imperial gallons). So FYI here is the data so far in order some of the figures are over a couple of fill ups when I've been on holiday. 1st 3 months of ownership > 49.96, 53.76, 48.55, 55.01, 51.84 which equates to 50.64 mpg overall. from beginning of July to date 54.13, 53.73, 54.97 the car now has approx. 4000 miles on the clock. So as Don C has said the mpg improves as you put the miles on. I've owned a variety of Japanese made cars & found that they like running hot and mileage improves significantly on long journeys. I got 50mpg out of a Subaru Impreza 2lt on a long journey but I was 'hypermileing' I'll admit that I take childish pleasure of using sport mode when at traffic lights & elsewhere now and again. Its my first SUV style car having owned a long line of hot hatches & sports cars but I'm very impressed with its handling and performance.

Theoretical sea level if all the ice melted would be 70m higher than now, so yes - London would be pretty much no more. However, that assumes no water in solid state anywhere on earth and it kind of ignores the fact that warmer atmosphere can hold more humidity in it, because the higher is temperature the higher is condensation point. Looking back at what happened last time when all the ice melted in the interglacial period (which are common occurrence), the water level was ~36 metres higher than now. Still most of Thames delta would be quite deep under water. But most importantly, again - this is what will happen, regardless if we cycle, walk or drive 9.2L V10 lifted pick-up trucks! Question is just how quickly. If our climate would continue heating up as it does not, meaning - no environmental action at all, then it is estimated to take ~5,000 years for all ice to melt. So we have quite a lot of time to move all the settlements inland.

Sandero - 900cc turbo? No thank you!

One of my colleagues bought a Sandero - he had no choice at the time as nobody had any new cars (this was Covid time). He seemed to like it. It was finished in that awful Audi-style primer finish thought.

Keep this in mind for a decade from now.....

Be interested to know Whiskey33 how the hand over went and more importantly where on the premises the hand over took place. Cambridge Lexus have their Toyota dealer next door and the car park was rammed when I was there collecting a pre owned ES back in July. Other Lexus dealers I have used have a designated covered hand over area to offset any weather issues on the day so previous collections enabled me to inspect the new car in a dry dry space even if it was lashing outside. I don't recall seeing any under cover facility for a hand over at Cambridge but maybe there is and pre owned car collection get a second rate hand over like mine. Was your car in the car park when it was handed over?

I go with you, Gary. The roads where I live are not that great and any type of painted arch would get chipped and look a mess

Is this place near you ? https://www.tewkesburymotcentre.com/

That looks a gem! Congratulations!

Couldn't agree more with the above, and here is my take on the self same recent conundrum. On the subject of Relax and whether one has to adhere to the service schedule verbatim, I can advise from my experience it is not necessary and the warranty stands if you had a minor instead of a major but see below.... Earlier this year I took mine in for what should have been its third MAJOR service at just, 12000 miles! The service manager agreed it was nonsense to apply a 60k major service, which on this occasion would have involved spark plug changes. Common sense would clearly show plugs that had only done 12000 miles do not need changing. I was advised the Relax warranty would nonetheless remain in place. This time based servicing can and does make a mockery of the whole idea, and I've certainly had other cars that were rightly based on mileage, albeit with an intermediate oil change if deemed advisable. Taking mine as an example, it has had 6 oil changes in 12K miles, all manner of filters changed etc, etc when in reality much of what was ripped out had hardly seen any service whatsoever! So unless our spark plugs have some metallic/porcelain/iridium degradation over time, I, for one, will continue to suggest mine are not changed until the car hits 60 thousand miles. Mind you, on present mileage that could be 24 years hence. If I still have the car 😂 then, I'll park it outside the pearly gates and sell it off cheap on the implicit understanding the plugs might be hard to remove. Mind you, the "climatists" will no doubt stick their oar in long before that!

+1 for checking that the suspension puck removal has not been missed at PDI. It's quite rare but it does happen. I the ride issue is that noticeable it's as likely a reason as any.

Have you checked the tyre pressures - they are usually massively overinflated It shouldnt be running anything more than 36psi to be honest. Also check for transport pucks left in place

Is wheel theft still a problem? It appears easier to just steal the whole vehicle these days!

Todays figures are 47.8 and 46.8. As norm the small increases are continuing

Hi Andy, The cable I was using I got it from Amazon, like you suggested try a different cable, so I used the oringal usb cable that came with the phone and "Bingo" I connected straight away to Android Auto. Thanks 👍

Yeah the quote includes the cam adjustment bolt, the locking nut and i'm sure the lady said a shim or plate? I can't remember but it was everything i would remove to replace the part. So it's much better to have them laying around and crack out the grinder rather than shout and throw spanners around for an hour. To be fair £130 i can't sniff at. It's coming from a reputable place unlike Ebay random Lithuania seller which dosn't include any nuts/bolts. Again thank you so much. I was going out of my mind trying to visualise and figure out what exactly i needed so you saved me a massive headache. I definitely owe you a drink if we ever meet at a show.

Good point!!

I remember my current wife thinking that she had wet herself when I turned on the ventilated passenger seat in my IS250.

Have just returned from the first service on my NX450h+ Asked about the 'new' Lexus Link + app [still using the old one].........was advised to wait for maybe 6/8 weeks as they [Lexus ] are having teething issues in relation to the recognition of all the different models. So........will wait a little longer before making the leap !!

ohhh man you deluded... I am ashamed for you quite honestly... No repairing that thought - when ruzzian propaganda destroys the brain it is terminal. Quite sad that reasonable discussion is not possible with people like this. Population in my country dropped by 50% in WW2, highest per capita decline of any country during WW2. More importantly majority of people didn't die from war, they died from being sent into Siberia and or simply executed for being educated, or owning land, or business... that was enough to be sentenced to death or exile... and death. From people exiled 88% died, that is more than in nazi extermination camps (85%). So I am just going to ignore the fact you simply are not educated in history and you didn't know that ruzzians killed more people in the peace time than nazis killed in the WW2, including 6 million Ukrainians in Holodomor, which is about the same number as people who died in Holocaust. Oh an by the way - in the west (including UK) it is widely accepted that WW2 was started by nazis invading Poland, except that is NOT true. WW2 started when nazis and soviets invaded Poland TOGETHER! Tell me which part of this statement is not true - certain molotov and ribbentrop agreed to divide Eastern Europe, as nazis were invading Poland, soviets were invading westwards via Baltics and they met somewhere in the middle of the Poland. Ohhh and just for good measure soviets summary executed 22,000 Polish officers, just because... So you never dare again defending the soviets. And what is ruzzian republic? They are just soviets by different name. They had all the chances given to them to change, but they proven once again in 1994, 1999 (Chechnya), 2008 (Georgia) and 2014, 2022 (Ukraine)... that they are good old animals and soviets. These are just facts... ruzzia is imperialist state with the goal of restoring ruzzian empire. Who said that? putka himself. What missile? one of thousands of ruzzians missile that hitting Ukrainian cities everyday. Anyone who dies in territory of Ukraine since 2014 from actions of fighting are the fault of ruzzians. Sure - Ukrainian missiles will kill some people in counter-offensive, it is war zone, but all those deaths without exception are fault of ruzzia. It is like saying - we shouldn't have done D-Day, because that killed some French civilians... ohhh yes it did, collateral damage is just part of war, but responsibility is for those who started the war. The rest of your post is filled with propaganda directly from kremlin. Minsk II agreement cannot be implemented because ruzzia continuously violated it, in agreement it stated that Ukraine should have control of the boarder as long as it allows self-governance of Donetsk and Luhansk (sort of Federalisation), but ruzzia never allowed Ukraine to take back control of the boarders, just pumped the eastern part of Ukraine with weapons and mercenaries... who said that? putka himself said that in 2022, confirming that all "little green man" were ruzzian regulars and mercenaries. So don't you dare saying it is western propaganda (which by the way exists), because this is what putka bragged about himself. As well Minsk II said that heavy weapons should be moved away from the front line and ruzzia continued shelling Ukraine all the time. Regarding "killing of ruzzian speakers in eastern Ukraine", this is very common and easily debunked lie. OHCHR/OSCE stats (which is independent international body reporting to UN security Council, so including ruzzia, was observing casefire under Minsk II) proves that quite easily - 38 People total have died in 2021 on both sides, majority from mines, or unexploded ordinance. So your argument is self-defeating, because you saying ruzzia wanted to protect people of Donbas, so they have launched all out war which killed tens of thousands of people, instead of simply leaving the occupied territories?! How does that make sense?! So they have occupied part of other country and that occupation led to low intensity conflict which lead to deaths, it is still ruzzian fault regardless. US engineered regime change is idiotic claim - even if we accept that there was some interference in Maidan in 2014 (which is conspiracy at best), you still cannot deny that Ukraine had not ONE, but TWO completely free and independent elections recognised worldwide (including ruzzia) where they have elected their government. So this argument could be somewhat used for month or two in 2014, but it becomes completely invalid by the end of 2014. It is certainly no longer an excuse in 2022. "Whataboutism" fallacy doesn't work either. Sure you can criticise US policy in Iraq or Libya. Fine. I am not big fan of it either, but that gives NO RIGHT for ruzzia to invade anyone. Two wrongs doesn't make one right. Sure - maybe you can say US are hypocrites for criticizing ruzzia if you want, but that still don't make any difference in the invasion. It is 100% ruzzians fault and it is criminal at every level. Saying that this is somehow "russiaphobia" is like saying that that British people had "germanphobia" in WW2. I don't think it is true, even if lines are sometimes blurred, one thing is to hate certain nationality and completely different is objectively hate regime controlling the country and call out their war crimes and crimes against humanity. I am sure people hated nazis (don't you?), but that does not mean they had "germanphobia". Going forward - I just set certain somebody as "ignored" and hopefully we can get back to the topic. Please...

VFR, the facts are that Russian military invaded a country almost 2 years ago and since then deployed WW2 tactics i.e. bombing the hell out of everything, destroying entire cities with artillery, murdering civilians and basically did a WW2 German Nazi terror campaign. The war would be over the moment the Russians would withdraw their troops. There is no other way to interpret the facts. Decades ago i served in the infantry to prevent exactly such an invasion from then the Soviet Union. When this collapsed tensions disappeared and inevitably the western military shrunk, money was going elsewhere. When the tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border i was angry, mad and disappojnted at Russia, the western world and myself, How on earth could we be so naive? I traveled a lot in Russia visiting the big cities like Moscow and st Pet. and always people told me that one day Russia would surprise the west. Well that day did come. A dictator is bringing the country into Isolation, the USA spend some 6% of their annual Defence Budget to destroy half of the Russian army and Russians are seen as the new fascists. No bike shed needed to see what is going on. unless of course it is funded by Moscow

On a serious note it always concerns me if there is just one person in a democratic society who appears to paint Putin and his actions as anything other than what they are, criminal. No one (the EU) should need any persuasion from the US, or anyoneelse, to get aligned with sanctions against such action just because it is the right thing to do ! THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Sometimes there is such a thing.

I am glad you have different opinion... but who isn't "selfish", is lion selfish to to hunt down gazelle? does amoeba selfish to eat other single cell organisms? What I am saying we are here to survive - AT ANY COST NECESARY. Our whole existence is kind of accident (unless we delve into conspiracy theories). Now if we look at humans as form of life obviously we are disruptive, BUT to be honest anything we can do to this planet would be considered rather mild in geologic terms. So again I think even if we have impact on climate change, then reducing it is just a hygiene factor, we don't want to live around our own rubbish in principle. But then this kind of explains why I am so indifferent if humans go extinct, because I myself consider us as destructive and rather dangerous (or at least capable of being dangerous). That said - I am not too sure warming is in line with human population, it think this could be quite objectively disproved, consider below (the glaciation/interglaciation cycles, which as well corresponds to average temperatures of current ice age): Obviously, this requires zooming in quite significantly to put human population in perspective... I have overlaid last 10,000 years of human population below: Note that ~120,000 ago it was hotter despite there being absolutely no fossil fuel use and hardly any humans at all! As well human population basically exploded since ~1800, yet there is barely any noticeable increase in temperatures! In fact temperatures have slightly decreased since ~10,000 ago and end of last glaciation period of 20,000-12,000 years can't be in any way related to human activity, unless again we subscribe to some conspiracy theory about there being ancient high tech civilization or aliens.

I was told once by a Lexus Carlisle that Lexus were obsessive about customer feedback and full a audit would be carried out if a dealer dropped below 9.5 out of 10. Pity then that they pay no attention to a long standing forum like this one which covers all their product range and when dealers are quoted by members for not giving a damn they seem to turn a blind eye. I doubt that they don't read forum members opinions. Having said that it's been a while since Lexus sent out a customer service feedback survey after any dealings with a dealer. Don't they bother anymore? Bear in mind Lexus removed their Customer Relations contact address relying on the Toyota version of Customer Relations but letting them know of my dealings with one of their Lexus Ambassadors (Cambridge) resulted in an automated e mail response and then no follow up. No doubt Covid and the war in Ukraine are to blame for Companies failing their customer base. There are dealerships that take care of their customers welfare in all areas of service for sure, I experience this at Lexus Hull whose approach is so helpful the moment you walk in the door and who always smile and within 60 seconds are offering you a coffee and biscuits while you sit in reception awaiting the person you want to discuss something with. They follow up on quotes they undertake when doing health checks, e.g. after one visit to Hull for a software recall they noticed the scuffing to the front lower lip of my front bar caused by the previous owner. They asked if I wanted a smart repair quote so out of interest I said yes. They printed it out and I took it away. I did the repair myself which I intended to do from the start but a few days later got a call asking if the quote they gave me was something I wanted to take up. Very polite and genuine enquiry on their part, no hard sell and were just fine when I said I was doing it myself. At least this dealer thought about it, I know it was an opportunity to sell a service, but they didn't forget about it.

I am sure there are quite a number holding off buying in order not to just see how this car compares with competitors but how the expansion of EVs is affected by charging facilities and whether battery advances mean that existing EVs take a more heavy knock from later battery powered models. I can't see hydrogen powered cars being a challenge for many years due to need for infra structure. I think it would require something better than the RZ to tempt me out of my RX and feel many others would feel the same. Time will tell whether Lexus produce an EV SUV to compete with more up market models from competitors.

What colour are we looking for again?

wind and especially rain is also a factor - pulling litres of water off the road with every rotation of a wheel with a big wide tyres can make a noticeable difference.

The problem you're going to have here is that your requirements are quite steep. As cars get older they sell worse, and over time cars get written off, which in this case means that less than 50 cars in the country meet your age requirements. You're also looking for a car that's done less than 10,000 miles a year, which narrows it down further. Then you've got a conflicting requirement as hardly any cars will have required radiator replacement before 100k miles. Not saying you aren't going to find a car with those requirements ofc just pointing out your options are going to be extremely limited.

Thanks, Anthony. If I had the sort of skills that you and Glyn can bring to bear, I wouldn't have had to pay for four hours of the installer's time, but that's life and he did a good job. The fault that occurred was down to his trying to save me money by using a previously fitted camera instead of the one from sc430mods. It's too late for me to start to learn your skills, but hopefully I won't have to do anything else that needs such knowledge.

I was very interested to see your report on fitting the kit, Glyn. I've got my car booked in for a fitting on Friday and I don't want to risk losing the appointment and having to wait much longer—it's a very busy firm. I'll report your findings to them—they're the sort of guys who have huge experience across the electronics field and they may know exactly what to do. I'll know the answer on Friday and will post the result.