spacenase

Not yet. I suspect it is where Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will appear when they become available.

Same here after the dealer fitted my dashcam.

Yeah, the phone connects through Bluetooth as usual for phone calls and music and the nav system uses the wi-fi connection from the dongle.

I use a 4G wi-fi dongle (about £15 to £40) with a 6GB EE SIM valid for 12 months (about £18). Plugged into one of the USB ports, or the cigarette lighter socket via an adapter, it powers up with the ignition and everything connects and works happily. You’ll also need a USB extension cable as the dongle is too long for the compartment. Once it’s setup you can pretty much fit and forget until the data runs out (it gives you 500 MB per month) or the 12 months are up, then just get a new SIM. You can monitor your data usage with the EE app on your phone.

If Costco doesn't work Asda tyres were £528 fitted last week, including a £50 discount.

Another one for Cross Climates. I’ve fitted them to a few of my cars in the past and they’ve always given me extra confidence in bad weather. I replaced the factory fit Kumhos with them on my NX and they’ve made such a difference to the ride and road noise. It’s smoother and the road noise now competes with wind noise on the motorway, rather than dominating it. Well worth it!

Try the GS300h, it may not feel as slow as you think. I can't fully compare because I've never driven a GS250, but to me the hybrid system feels like it acts like a (very) small turbocharger which gives you some extra mid-range pull so feels like it accelerates quicker than the figures suggest and you might expect it too. I'm not saying it's fast, but it may not be as slow as you imagine. I drove an IS300h as a courtesy car and it didn't feel noticeably quicker to me. The main things I noticed were a harsher ride, more noise and the low roofline above the doors. Having said all this, I would have had a GS450h in a heartbeat if I could have afforded it.

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

I'm soooo tempted... 😋

@Linas.P That’s fine, I can happily live my life not being your view of a car enthusiast. The views you express remind me of some friends that think you cannot be a music lover unless you only listen to certain types of music. Of course each one has a different list of music genres. I’m happy with a wider view of things even if it doesn’t match what others think, it won’t stop me expressing my views and offering a different perspective.

@Linas.P I'm trying hard not to feel insulted after your last paragraph which basically sounds like you are patting me on my head and saying "Don't worry, let the adults talk about this.". That's what I mean about making assumptions about me. You explicitly say that you consider me a non-petrolhead, which I don't really want to respond to because I shouldn't care what someone who doesn't know me thinks about me, but I'm going to anyway so here's why I think you are wrong. As far as I can see, I didn't change my story on the car reviews. I even said in my first post that some online reviews cover a much wider criteria than the ones I was referring too. In your response, you expanded the discussion to include petrolheads and car enthusiasts and I expanded my reply to cover that. Your last paragraph read as if you assume I am not a car enthusiast and that is what I am referring to. Your last paragraph in your latest post looks as if it backs up that view of me as I mentioned above. I've looked up definitions for petrolhead online myself and, strangely, none of them mention speed or handling. They talk about people who are enthusiastic or obsessive about cars or motor sports. I see nothing in them that says you have to want the fastest, best handling car, that you have to want your car to be the best handling or fastest in its class, or even that you have to want to improve the handling or speed of your own car to be a petrolhead. You only have to have a love or obsession of cars, that's it. Your own evidence supports this, surely the largest group of car enthusiasts in the world has to be the owners of air-cooled VWs cars and vans and most of those have to be slowest, worst handling cars out there (apart from possibly the 2CV). You seem to dismiss large numbers of car enthusiasts and petrolheads because they don't fit your view of what they should be. I know that some enthusiasts strive to improve the speed and handling of their cars, but equally some enthusiasts strive to keep their cars as original as possible. Both are a subset of the group of car enthusiasts and neither are more or less valid than the other. Once again, the point I am trying to make is that I think you are defining a sports car enthusiast or a sports car petrolhead, which is a subset of a much larger community. I have loved reading about, watching programmes about, researching, being driven in, driving and owning all sorts of different cars since I was a boy. Just because I'm not a fan of the same type of cars that you are, doesn't make me any less of a petrolhead or car enthusiast than you. I don't disagree with all of your views and I was hoping that this was heading towards an interesting exchange of views on what makes a car enthusiast, but your assumptions of me and insults have taken any fun out of it. I therefore don't think I have any more to say on this so I'll stop there.

Thanks for the detailed response and I fully accept that we have different views on this and we can both be considered right and wrong depending upon viewpoint of the reader. So, I'm not sure if you have listed three different definitions of a petrolhead or whether they were intended as three requirements to be called a petrolhead, but I definitely fit the description of the first two. I have a mild interest in motor racing, but most of it I can take or leave. Does that make me a petrolhead, or am I missing a key ingredient? In my mind, I am one because of a life-long interest and enthusiasm of road cars. To be honest, that's why I was careful to put "sports car worshipping petrolhead" because I don't think you have to be a sports car lover to be a petrolhead. Isn't the classic car lover in their Rolls Royce, Jaguar XJ or Austin Allegro an enthusiast? Or are they excluded because they are not looking to charge around the country lanes pushing their car to its limits? What I am saying is that I think you are defining a sports car enthusiast, the definition of a car enthusiast is much wider than you suggest and not all of them base their hobby around speed and handling. I think you missed my point on the busy motorway comment, because on a busy motorway you do not get to drive in a straight line for long periods. You end up slowing down and speeding up with the traffic, looking for the overtaking opportunities, trying to choose the right time to change lanes, showing the 65mph motorist that hogging the middle lane when the inside lane is empty is not a good choice (😉) and finally getting the freedom to put your foot down for a bit when the traffic clears. It may not be testing the limits of the car, but it can test your driving and be both frustrating and rewarding particularly if you are trying to be a responsible driver at the same time. Some cars handle it a lot better than others as you'd expect. If you haven't experienced this, I can recommend driving the length of the M40 most days, you'll see all these events. I admit I'm stretching my point a bit with the slow traffic comment, but cars do handle queues differently. I have 2 cars at present, my GS accelerates quickly enough as soon as I press the accelerator pedal (thanks to the electric motor), doesn't jerk between gear changes (because it has none), comes smoothly to a halt and is always in the power band when I need to go. My Skoda has to restart the engine before I can accelerate if I don't turn the Stop/Start system off, can often give a jerky gear change especially when coming to a halt and drops out of the power band so it feels like it is suffering from turbo lag. These don't particularly relate to speed and handling, but all of them affect how much I like the car, which is the important part. With regard to the potholes comment, comfort and handling go hand-in-hand. If the entire car shudders, or the steering wheel jerks whenever you go over a pothole at slow speed, imagine how it would feel if it happened part way round a fast bend. Again, my point is that the "Top Gear" definition of how a car handles on the limit is not the whole story of how good or bad a car is and just because I don't see that as a top priority for me, it doesn't make me any less of a petrolhead or car enthusiast. So I think you are portraying a narrow definition of an enthusiast, they come in all shapes and sizes and how fast a car accelerates, its top speed and how well it can go round a fast corner is not the only criteria. I know we've had this discussion before, but I wanted to make the point again that the things you see as important are not always the things that others see as important (as you say above), but importantly that does not make anyone else more or less of a petrolhead or car enthusiast than you. Having said that, if there is an official definition that says that handling and speed are the top priority, then I take it back and consider myself a... car liker perhaps? By the way. I think I have seen enough of the "Top Gear" and magazine type of reports to understand the specific meanings of the terms they use and do you know what, I've even experienced some of them! Sorry if that comes across as a bit of a shock for you. Please stop making assumptions about the type of person I am, you still don't know me or what I've experienced and you are coming across as insulting. Try and keep your responses to the points made rather than making it personal.

In general terms no, because you are assuming that the only type of driving to care about is fast driving on country lanes, closed roads or tracks. Why isn't the way a car handles the cut and thrust of a busy motorway important to those who care about driving? Why isn't the way the car handles pot-holed side roads and slow traffic queues important to those who care about driving? Those are the situations most people face day-to-day whether they care about driving or not. You don't have to be a sports car worshipping petrol-head to care about driving and some online car reviews focus on these other aspects more these days. I've never bought into the concept that you have to be a sports car fan to care about driving, because I'm not a fan of sports cars and I love driving. I really dislike the Top Gear style reviews and the way that a lot of the car magazines seem to think that the sports trim is the only trim of interest in a model range, to be honest I'm far more interested in whether the ones at the luxury end of the range can provide a good compromise between comfort and handling or not. That doesn't mean I don't care about driving. The problem with your statement is that it is dismissive and wrong.

@Linas.P You're right about the comparison to the IS, according to their own brochures the ES is heavier and slower (both 0-60 and top speed). I'd be interested to see how they explain that away. My letter says the ES is 50kg lighter than the GS and has quicker mid-range acceleration. Comparing the ES brochure to my handbook, it does look like it's lighter although I can't verify the 50kg. I also can't verify the faster mid-range acceleration because they don't publish any figures that I've seen. On the BIK information, it's an advert so they're obviously only going to share the information that show their product in a better light than the competition. Everyone who is selling something does it, so you can't single Lexus out for that. It tends to make me wonder if BIK is the only definitively positive thing they can advertise about the ES compared to the other cars though. Apart from specs, objectively maybe it is... I think you're missing the point of the video, it's not suggesting that the engine can resist the force of the winch, it's the brakes and tyres. They show the brake lights go on and don't even suggest that the transmission is engaged. Also "engine which has not power to even move the car properly" spoils your argument a bit, the engine is not powerful enough for you, it is plenty powerful enough for the car. I think you're confusing your opinion with the facts.

@Alan Clark If it's got the same premium nav as my GS, you can get traffic through the in-built system. I've found the most reliable connection is to use a USB dongle with a SIM card in it and connect to it over Wi-fi as gong via my phone kept dropping the connection. The traffic reporting is not bad (I read that it's based on BMW's traffic service but I don't know if this is accurate), obviously not as good as Google or Waze though. It does take around 10 minutes to connect and provide traffic info so bear that in mind. I agree it is a poor nav system overall and it tends to doggedly stick to a route even though it knows there are problems ahead. I've run it alongside Google Maps on a journey where I already knew there was a big traffic jam on the way and Google told me to go a different route well before the Lexus did. I suspect I would have had a lot more problems if I had followed the Lexus. I haven't heard of any in-built nav system that comes close to Google or Waze on a phone, so Android Auto and Apple Car Play is going to be a key requirement for my next car. The one thing I do really like on the Premium Nav is the list of motorway junctions that it shows especially as it shows which ones have services. It can make a long motorway journey seem shorter.

Thanks for agreeing with me. 😁

Obviously a truck is no comparison to a car, but my original comment wasn't talking about trucks it was clearly talking about cars. SUVs are sold alongside saloons, hatchbacks, coupes, estates, MPVs and convertibles in the same showrooms to the same range of customers, so they are very comparable. These days the SUV is just another car body type. Again, it was just a very generalised comment and it's true. I admit to cheating a bit with the NX/ES cost comparison, but I liked the irony of it. If I was into sports coupes, an RC450h would sound very interesting if it didn't feel like it was too heavy when driving it.

I wasn't talking about a comparable car, my comment was just that there are more expensive cars out there that are slower and there are. Model for model, the NX is more expensive than the ES apart from the Takumi, so we're both right on that one!

Lexus NX300h?

Thanks for accepting the invite to insult me. I disagree with your opinion and justified why. I'm not asking you to agree with me, I don't care, I'm just offering a different perspective and I'm being someone who looks for a different type of car to you and still enjoys driving the car I've chosen. I care enough to respond because you keep insulting other people's choices and I don't consider that to be fair. I think you're missing my point, apologies if I wasn't clear. A car needs a certain amount of power to be able to join the outside lane and accelerate to the same speed as everyone else without slowing the entire lane down. My 300h is more than capable of doing that. No Amish cult or horses required. Being cutting edge or competitive is not just about being faster. Progress is not just about being faster. What is cutting edge or competitive or progressive is very subjective because it's based on what an individual wants and not everyone wants a car that's faster. Again, that doesn't mean that they don't care about driving dynamics or are a bad driver, it just means they want something different in their car. Some of the cars that have been considered a great driver's car were not that fast (the original Mini is a prime example). However, I will admit that there is nothing unique about the GS300h, the hybrid engine has been done elsewhere, there are other well made, well equipped saloon cars out there, there are other cars which are faster and cheaper, there are other cars that are more expensive and slower and there are other cars which are as or more reliable. For me it just brings these things together in a car that works very well for me and I enjoy driving it. I don't know how else to express a personal opinion that differs from yours.

I've just looked at it myself. Over £800 per month for a year old NX 300h Sport seems like extortion to me! It's over £100 a month more than the current finance offer on a brand-new version of the same car. I can't find a justification for that much extra per month for no long term commitment.

@Linas.P However hard I try, I can't find the "disgusting, under-powered... hybrid" in my GS300h that you talked about. Instead I find a car that's more than capable of keeping up with the traffic in the fast lane of the motorway, and pulls hard when you floor it until you're well over the national speed limit before you know it. If anything I'd call it deceptive, it doesn't pull you back in your seat like some cars do, it just accelerates smoothly until you ease off. The fact that it doesn't drive the way you want it to doesn't make it a bad car, it just makes it not the right car for you. Feel free to insult me, my car or my choices like you have others, you don't know me and probably never will so I don't really care. Just know that here is someone who has loved cars and driving all my life, driven many different makes and models (including a couple of Lexus V8s) and is extremely happy with his Lexus hybrid.

I bought an Exec Edition from new and couldn't really see what the extra cost for the other models went on. Personally, I felt that the two issues with the spec were the relatively boring looking alloys (I don't mind that they are 17") and the lack of the Mark Levinson system, everything else is fine.

GS300h, so much so that I bought one!

Does sound like a GPS antenna problem. Ask the dealer to check it out.