wivenhoe

I suspect the Urban is aimed at the business / lease buyers. I think most business / lease drivers don’t test drive, just look at brochures or select from a list. If the Urban is sub-standard compared to other models, then Lexus are in danger of lowering the brand towards Toyota, which defeats the reason for Lexus being a separate brand. A lot of reviews I’ve read about the LBX start with - is it worth so much more compared to a Yaris Cross. I can see reviews of the 300e posing - is it worth much more than bz ?

May 2023 got the update early this year. Standard question - do you have the remaining charge with a % - if you do have this then you already have the update. If you don’t, then tell the dealer he doesn’t know his cars ! You can also tell by seeing the range without a/c on and then turn ‘Auto’ on and if the range reduces by say 30 miles you definitely don’t have the upgrade.

FredD - the range must be better as it is only a single motor. According to the website the 300 Takumi range is 267 and the 450 Takumi is 251 so only 16 miles after losing 4 wheel drive. I would like to see the real world range of the 300 versus a 450 RZ on Range mode which I think uses only 1 motor and restricts torque. They say the 300 0-60 is 8 seconds compared to 5.3 seconds for the RZ. As it’s single motor it won’t have Direct 4. As it has smaller wheels the entry 300 Urban has 297 miles and the new 450 Urban has 273 so 24 miles different for some reason.

When I got in the car yesterday it required me to log in - no idea why. I logged in and got a driver monitor warning during the drive !

ArneT - You must have been driving the entry level Premium - the Premium Plus has a hud and 360 camera and the pano roof in a Takumi is dimmable. The close and lock function doesn’t do anything on mine - it may be a dealer option to enable. You can really lessen the effects of the ‘driver assistance’ - perhaps the curtesy car had them set to high. On the Mark Levinson system on the Takumi you can adjust the bass, treble, 3D sound and adjust the bias of the speakers to front, back, left or right or any combination ! I’ve luckily been able to turn off / severely reduce the sensitivity of the driver monitor. I miss a rear wiper, although the rear camera washer helps in parking in bad weather. I toyed with the idea of buying the new Porsche Macan EV and the salesman said they were ‘strongly advising’ against choosing the £ 250 rear wiper option as it reduced the range by more than 30 miles !

My insurance comes up for renewal in early Nov so called NFU for a price as at now. They could give me one until 30 days before my renewal date. As I had just received an email about “the exciting new Lexus insurance policy” I decided to waste my time and get a Lexus quote - £ 1,000. NFU are currently £ 650 for mine and my wife’s car and new replacement if stolen or written off for the first 2 years. NFU would need to increase the RZ to almost 2x current to not be competitive against Lexus. I read an article today which said this week Thatchem are publishing a new scoring scheme which the insurers will be taking into their risk assessments. This new scheme will reflect the safety features that are standard on a model. So, say a 2024 RZ with cross traffic warning will score better than a Tesla without it on that element of the risk avoidance. Maybe all the dongs we have to live with may end up saving us a bit of insurance cost.

It still works for me ! I even covered the camera with my hand - nothing. You could do as I did and get an RX from Lexus Reserve and go on a nice long trip without having to think about charging !

The 2024 RX F Sport I drove had a HUD and everything, including the active cruise control was exactly the same as the RZ Takumi.

I keep an eye on the Toyota bz forum as that has the same EV infrastructure. Some recent owners on there have exactly the same issue John had and you seem to be experiencing. If the dealer fobs you off I would complain to Customer Service as they seem to have more sway with the dealers.

How’s this for being strange. Every time I turned it off, it defaulted back to on. Had a RX Reserve car last week and turned it off after loading my profile. It stayed off for the 4 days. Then got in my car and logged out and then back in, using the same profile and was disappointed to see it was on - BUT, since it hasn’t alerted and I’ve looked out the left and right windows and put my hand over it and no warning !

FredD. As John said, my issues were in the early days and I think my car was one of the first ones. Memorable issues were having no AC charging for weeks whilst they sourced a replacement AC charging module. I was locked out due to a flat 12v battery and the manual key wouldn’t open it, then the update and recall and a diagnostic check on the system software. It has settled now and also the dealers are far more experienced - if only the Lexus Link+ App had progressed as well. I had a Mercedes plug-in 8 years ago and the App was far more reliable and had a load more functions.

Algee - be interesting to see what the range shows after a week or so. It only took a few days of my driving for it to drop to about 220 - before the update. I had a Velar plug-in for 2 years, when it was good, it was very good but when it was bad it was very bad ! From new, 8 times to the dealers - which was why I bought a Lexus which unfortunately been back about 5 times in 16 months. FredD the guaranteed way to know the car has the upgrade is that it shows a % as well as the range. As Algee has just taken delivery of a Takumi with it it looks like Lexus have sorted it

I’ve had a RX500h F Sport Takumi for the last 3 days through Lexus Reserve. Excellent service, confirmation emails of delivery time and personable delivery driver. Car was a 24 reg with 3,000 miles and immaculate. Hiccup initially as email said I was to insure. Sorted as Lexus do insure, you have to provide a DVLA access code so they can verify your ‘history’. Service is provided by Toyota & Lexus Fleet Demonstration Team, who knew nothing about Reserve and thought they were dropping a demo car off, hence the insurance confusion. I logged in and was pleasantly surprised that the profile was loaded seamlessly. I’m hoping the same will happen in the RZ using the RX settings because I turned off the Driver Attention monitor during the first drive and it did not default back on through 4 or 5 restarts. My RZ always defaulted back. I have been thinking of biting the bullet and changing back to a plug-in, possibly a RX. After driving the F Sport I’m not so sure now. Perhaps because it was a F Sport, I found the engine noise wearing and the ride quality a bit too harsh. It felt a lot bigger (very similar to my Range Rover Velar) to drive but also more spacious. I found (again might be the F Sport spec) the leather seats uncomfortable - far too firm. The seat heating & cooling was a lot more than the RZ and I checked the settings were the same - not sure why that should be. Found the digital rear view mirror a distraction so turned it off. Rear wash / wiper was a welcome addition. The driving was primarily duel carriageway & motorways (stretches limited to 50mph) averaged about 30 mpg. The front doors seemed much bigger so more difficult to get in and out in tight parking spots. Overall, if I were to switch back I wouldn’t consider the F Sport and would have to test drive a 450h to see if my observations were really only down to the F Sport spec.

The beeps are annoying. But you can turn off speed cameras, adjust the speed limit warning upwards by a couple of mph, you can turn off the warning in the mirrors of an overtaking car not sure if doing that mutes the sound as well. The beeps on closing the tailgate, locking the car and also reversing are particularly annoying. I live with the others as I have made all the safety notifications as quiet as they can go and changed all the warnings as to late as possible etc.

FredD. Those of us lucky to get the update had it installed 6+ months ago so it looks you are right about it being a pre-update car but why didn’t Lexus get the car updated in Feb so he could then say the range had significantly improved. He really only criticised the range. So, either way Lexus missed the opportunity to let a renowned review magazine to review on the basis of an improved range when all the previous reviews slated (quite rightly) for only doing 160 miles when it will now do 220. Daft !!!

This months What Car has a long term review of the RZ. Yet again, Lexus provided the press with a car without the update. Who in their right marketing mind would do that ?

The manual for the RZ 450e warns that after 2 AC charges in the same 24 hrs then on the third charge the rate is throttled back to AC rate. What it doesn’t say is if the AC charges have to be above a certain value - if you use an AC charger twice for say only 20% each time does the cap work or is it only 2 full charges. Knowing Lexus, it’s just 2 plug-ins.

I have booked my car in for the recall - Dealer will need the car all day as there are 2 recalls - the camera one and also a parking brake one.

John - haven’t received my recall yet. I’ll call the dealer in the morning and find out how long they need the car for - hopefully forever !

That’s why they screwed up on launch. I’ve just been in my car and it showed a range of 230 put the a/c on Low and drove about 20 miles on a very fast run and it is showing 195. The range forecast is now very accurate since the update, although with all EV’s driving at say 70 mph eats the miles whereas at 60 mph you don’t get the plunge. You being given a demo without the update says it all. They clearly haven’t learnt from the terrible press reviews and how to market the car with the update. It’s as if they have no interest in making the RZ successful despite their lack of EV sales costing a fortune in fines for not reaching the 22%

I suspect that the saving on cost for the 300e is down to the 450e suffering a lower residual in 3 years time despite costing more now. Lexus really screwed up with the 450e - they launched it without being fully developed and rightly got really bad reviews over the abysmal range. 6 months later they issued a range update which significantly resolved the forecasted poor range - with heating or aircon on the range plunged to about 160 miles. After the update it’s a respectable 210 similar to Merc’s & BMW’s. They then screwed with the update and suspended all updates to cars with a HUD - don’t know if they have resolved that now. Despite some major issues with my car - 6 weeks without a/c charging due to a failed module, locked out by a flat 12v battery, a really poor and unreliable App, unavailable normal (not air conditioned) air from a fan on the windscreen, losing £30k in 15 months - I like driving it ! My pain is eased by the fact they gave me a ridiculously generous px on my Range Rover against the RZ. All EV’s have suffered disastrous depreciation but the RZ more than most due to Lexus’s ineptness. If your company allowed used cars then they could pick up a top of the range 1 year 5,000 mile 450e Takumi for about £ 45k !

The Urban grade was officially announced in May for delivery on the 450e and the new 300e ‘later in 2024’ so you would expected it to be on the website now. https://media.lexus.co.uk/the-2024-all-electric-lexus-rz-luxury-suv-new-versions-new-grades-and-an-enriched-lexus-ev-ownership-experience

I’m on a RZ forum in the States. A couple of owners have said their cars received OTA updates and the range reported (without a/c) is 268 miles but with a/c 214 ! It looks like Lexus software team have screwed up again ! It was a very recent update so nobody knows what the real range is. One guy noticed that the newly announced RZ 300e had an official range of 268 miles so thinks Lexus has put the wrong software OTA to the 450’s !

Paulog13 - as you have a Takumi you will have a HUD. Months ago they stopped updating cars with a HUD as they must have tinkered with the update it was bricking the HUD which meant a removal of the dash and doubtless issues with that. I suggest you contact Customer Service and ask when the update will be available. John and I were some of the earliest owners to get the update luckily before they ruined it.

I wouldn’t hold my breath - last year we were told that the update was to be the September Update. It took months for them to finalise it. That said, it was a long time ago they ceased installing it.