ColinBarber

Understood. I initially thought you were saying your insurance wouldn’t cover the damaged.

why wouldn't you claim on insurance in this case as well as outright theft?

Engine check light as well as VSC light? Possible the timing wasn't set correctly, one tooth out on the camshafts (happened to my wife's old RX300 when it had the timing belt changed which generated a VVT error), or just a sensor not connected back up - it depends on the error code(s) being generated.

If you went to the linked post you would see why. We don't allow duplicated posts across multiple threads/forums.

Mod comment - Moved to general forum, multiple threads merged and linked. Please do not duplicate posts across forums.

It might be less, cannot be stolen if you are driving it 🤭

Glad you got it sorted. Not good that your dealer wanted to charge you for fitting, many will do it for free. You won't have any issues going forward, it would be immediate if there were an issue. The advise here to use an official dealer was because of specific issues with the IS stereo that is known to fail. As I stated, I'm not sure it applies to 2017 models anyway but if you were to have experienced the issue then you would be looking at a £2000 repair bill than an independent would deny any liability for.

Cynically, the ES hasn't made it into the top 10 most stolen list so bad publicity hasn't forced them.

For basic servicing I'm sure they use the general pool of technicians, but only the Lexus trained ones should be working on faults/complex procedures.

Buying wheels as spares is very expensive, as you have found out. From 2019 onwards you could spec a base LC with optional 21" wheel from the factory for £2,100 - so there may be some out there with that option. Those are one of the two latest MY24 design wheels (May 2023 production onwards).

Officially no. Some Toyota dealers might service Lexus vehicles (but they risk losing their Lexus franchise if they do). If you did find a Toyota dealer willing to service it, you wouldn't get the 12 month free extended warranty or hybrid health check. Toyota/Lexus have been thinking of allowing Toyota dealers to perform Lexus servicing (they have surveyed Lexus owners on the idea) but nothing official yet.

No it doesn't. There are no ML badges on the sub at the rear or on the centre console below the CD slot. What official spec sheet? All RC F grades could be spec'd with an ML system.

Hi Colin It's a bad time for motorists. Is it the ES thefts are causing premiums to increase or it is just the industry wide increases that are being applied? Difficult to know unless you have quotes to compare for similar vehicles but it is probably a bit of both. I certainly know people who have seen 40 to 70% YoY increases in the last couple of months, and these are non Toyota/Lexus vehicles so it isn't theft related.

Head gasket issues are virtually unheard of in the UK due to a combination of good fuel and most being regularly serviced by Lexus dealers using good quality synthetic oil, but certainly it is recommended to inspect/clean the EGR out every 40k miles or so. But yes engine changes in 2015 were on the Prius and CT - which also stops carbon build up on the piston rings, scoring the bores and causing oil consumption.

Keep an eye on the level, it shouldn't drop as there is nowhere for the coolant to go in a fully working sealed system.

No evidence of this for the ES.

HNY 🙂 Officially no, unless you tow and therefore fall under the severe service schedule (in which case if should be changed at 60k miles).

That particular vehicle is a base LC (not a Sport Plus, not even a Sport). The base LC has 20" cast wheels (with the option to upgrade to 21"). The base and Sport grades don't have a spoiler, other than the shape of the boot lid. The Sport plus has a retractable spoiler. Carbon roof is always unpainted.

No that isn't needed. The vehicle has multiple sensors to locate each wheel. If you change wheels/rotate your tyres then you need to reinitialise the system using the dashboard menu so it learns the new positions (and desired tyre pressures). To register new sensors with the vehicle then you need a tool such as Carista, Techstream etc.

Make sure you are in Auto EV/HV mode and not EV mode and basically put your foot down. You can change drive mode into Sport mode to make partial throttle more responsive but at full throttle all modes are essentially equal. By the way the transmission works, it provides a progressive surge in power rather than a delay and sudden hit that you get with a transmission dropping down gears and people often associate the sound of an engine steadily increasing in rpm with acceleration and therefore a hybrid might 'feel' slower than it actually is.

Tim has won the Edinburgh one liner competition a couple of times 🤣 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-28838287

Yeah, there were a couple of rounds of it too but doesn't really apply to cordless ones which would never use that amount of power anyway.

Yeah, once you are above 50 mph and air resistance is the main factor in efficiency then the hybrid benefit diminishes quickly - and it's only the gen IV Prius and newer vehicles that can operate in EV only up to 70 mph, before then it is limited to around 55 mph or lower (the specific speed is model dependent). but, there is an 8 mile journey (mainly 30/40 mph but a couple of miles at 60) I do on a semi-regular basis. I could get around 70 mpg one-way in our old series IV Prius and the best back was 105 mpg! The same in the UX is probably 50 mpg there and 65 back. The extra 0.2 litres, saloon vs SUV and 16" wheels vs 18" with rubbish RFs makes a big difference.

That would depend if the tool you used to read codes is able to read all Toyota specific codes and not just generic OBD codes.

I'm sure he will accept more if you offered 😉