rayaans

Sport will probably be the one most people go for. Sport+ only has alcantara seats I believe and supposed to be the very sporty one in the lineup whereas the Sport is middle ground. The 12 speaker is made by Pioneer. The 8 speaker setup in the IS sounds very similiar to the ML in that there's no point going for it - hence not many cars with ML available used. Same story with the new RX.

Yes but OP is referring to the other side which is plastic

Air suspension is slightly better than the standard setup. Ive not heard of any owners of 2012-2015 having issues with air suspension but it seems to plague the 400h's. Id suggest getting the extended warranty if going with a Premier as one failure and the warranty will be paid for. F-Sport has exactly the same seats as the Luxury model for 3RX. F-Sport gets the HUD as standard on top of Luxury spec. There are no engine/gearbox changes between trim levels Lexus chap is talking bull**** - The suspension itself is stiffer and there is a lateral damper up front and in the rear. Can be seen from underneath the vehicle and pretty hard to miss Its up to you to decide whether its worth it or not, drive both and see. Personally I feel the F-Sport handles a lot better and its flatter around sharp turns. Obviously this does mean a stiffer ride though - sometimes gets quite harsh on potholes but its much better on the motorway, less vibration and gives more confidence than the Luxury/premier models.

Nah I stand by S coupe - it starts at £98k so would put it at roughly the same price range. AMG GT is too small and only has 2 seats. Initial reviews are looking very promising - Whatcar has awarded it 4 stars out of 5. Negatives are pretty picky - "firm low speed ride, too many buttons on steering wheel and limited rear space" Positives are very interesting - "beautifully balanced chassis, characterful V8 and interactive handling". In the review they also mentioned that the 10 speed auto gearbox is actually pretty quick to shift and very smooth. Turns out the new infotainment system is quick too.

Seems to be aimed at cars like the BMW 6 series and S Class coupe. I guess you could put the maserati gran turismo in there too. Depreciation of the M4 isn't that much off an RCF tbh. They're fetching around the same price

The reason for limited options I believe is because 9/10 Lexus vehicles come on a ship. Then dealers basically sell them off, hence if you go for White/red RC300h F-Sport you can have it within 2 weeks. If you add ML, the time goes up as the car has to be built and then sent off specially. I asked my dealer about an orange/red RC200t with ML. Turns out waiting time would be 4-6 months!! Also, worth remembering that the RC is going to get a facelift soon as the IS has and undoubtedly itll get the updated interior from the IS

Its an interesting concept actually. Apparently the RC is extremely stiff - so stiff in fact that they could chop the roof off for the convertible and not have to put any more strengthening in the car (you can thank the IS250C bit of the chassis for that) It'll be unlikely to surface as an RC-F but if it does get made, itll definitely come to the UK in RC300h form, after all, nobody cares about the sound of cars anymore - otherwise there wouldnt be any convertible diesels would there?

Yep 100% guaranteed. If you look at the pictures, the gear shifter has been fitted to an IS and the IS, NX and RC all use the same gear knob so you should be fine.

Yh rough estimates are £80k for the LC500h and LC500. £100k for the LC-F which apparently is coming with a new turbo engine but it'll be a while yet. More of a GT car than an all out Sports car but the quality of the interior looks sublime IMO, from pics anyway. I think itll definitely justify its asking price considering Audi A4's are pushing £50k now with 2.0l 4 pot engine and less tech than the LC

Does it happen all the time or just in mornings? Might be frozen over. could also be the washer crystallising

Just to point out, Im just presenting the facts here so in no way do I disregard or disrespect any of your opinions :) It appears that I may have misread your initial post or became confused but we are talking about the 2016 RX correct? Not the 2012-2016 model? The 295hp RX would suggest its 2009-2016 setup with less power, in which case, some of the facts I presented would be irrelevant. On a side note, the Luxury model DOES have the Sport mode but requires a few clicks of the steering wheel buttons to get through them. (Menu, down arrow, [Sport mode will be shown] and enter). Something else to note is whether the car was in Eco mode which is shown by the green light on the instrument cluster. IMO its the worse thing you can do it and feels like a boat in that mode. (ask me how I know!) Well its because when I bought the car, the salesman suggested leaving it in Eco mode and set it up. As the car was new, I didn't know how to change it and I was initially extremely disappointed with the acceleration from junctions as the car just wouldnt move until 3/4 throttle. With regards to the Cayenne, the figures Ive quoted are fastest figures achieved in lowest gear possible, basically they were all in 3rd gear. I dont find the RX loud at all - but I can say that I did change my tyres to Michelin Latitude Tour HP. The OEM dunlops on the car from factory are loud without a doubt.

If you read my post carefully, I said the RX is better built than the GLE, not the GS. I think the GS and RX are roughly the same build quality. As I said before, you won't feel the acceleration in an RX. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly the CVT is smooth and no gear changes which makes it harder to sense how fast you are going. Another reason is because the RX sits higher than a saloon or hatchback. In my RX I can do 70mph and feel like Im going at 40mph whereas Id FEEL like I was going faster in a car sitting lower to the ground. For the second time I say "read my post carefully". Ive never suggested an RX450h is quicker from a standing start. I specifically said rolling start which is basically day to day driving and utilises the hybrid system strengths which are mid range acceleration. Standing starts make no difference in reality but I accept that the RX doesn't get up and go from a standstill very well and thats because it takes time for the traction battery to engage etc etc. The way to bypass this is to hold brake and accelerator at the same time and then let the brake go. Now lets just flip your comment "Lets not be silly about this" back to you and get you to think about some of these figures: Porsche Cayenne Hybrid (410hp/5.5k RPM, 590NM/1.25k RPM) Lexus RX450h Premier (308hp/6k RPM) 0-60mph 5.5s 7.8s 30-50mph 3.0s 2.9s 50-70mph 5.9s 3.8s Now look at the above and tell me those aren't some seriously impressive looking figures for a car weighing 2.2 tonnes with "only" 308hp. The thing absolutely flies in Sport mode with the throttle fully pressed and I think the F-Sport handles fairly competently for the behemoth that it is.

Have to say that frankly some of your conclusions are a bit odd. As for the GS450h, its expensive as something called inflation exists and hence, the price of cars go up as they add more safety and kit to them. The new GS450h has adaptive cruise control etc as standard, things which arent available on the GS300 not to mention, goes like stink. Also worth remembering that it has rear wheel steering (surreal on the motorway, seems to change lanes like lightning). The GS450h also has heavy £7k discounts on them going at the minute. The new RX is better built than the GLE, there is simply no question about that. I think you'll also find that the car is deceptive of its speed. Lets not forget that the RX has mid range acceleration to beat a Porsche Cayenne hybrid with over 400hp. 0-60mph doesn't really matter at all in hybrids, its the mid range acceleration where they excel. Itll give the GS300 and the Fabia VRS a slap from a rolling start, I dont doubt that for one second as the figures really dont lie. The perception of speed is blunted as it doesn't change gears so feels like its holding one gear and therefore not going anywhere, yet when you look at the speedo it'll be doing 100+mph.

Yeah the knee pads are leather but the rest of the dash is moulded plastic with a leather look grain to it.

TBH its unlikely you're going to remove them without removing the grain as well. I reckon a trim repairer can sort it but you'll be looking at a minimum of £150

Nah dash in IS and RC are molded plastic

Might be worth getting a few smart repairers out as well to get an idea of cost. Im sure you could haggle Lexus down a bit if you want them to do it,

Yes I also came across this issue - mine wouldnt free at all and Had to get it towed to Lexus who removed the rear wheels and free it up Turns out it was my fault anyway - I washed the car and shoved it in the garage before going on holiday for 3 weeks in December, Since then, I dont put the parking brake on when leaving the car whilst I go on holiday or after a wash. Now i did some research into it when it happened and it turns out its not an issue just with Lexus. Appears to be problematic on Tesla amongst other brands and its essentially exclusively limited to cars with drum style brakes on the rear.

No so sure with that anymore. The badge appeal with Audi has somewhat diminished unless you're getting the semi skimmed S or the full fat RS models as they're pretty much everywhere. People in the workplace won't really look twice. I can honestly say after owning 3 Lexus vehicles, it gets more attention and compliments than other brands in this segment. What you won't have to worry about on the Lexus are electrics - bug bear of Audi and still play up from time to time on all of their models. Audi dont have the greatest reliability record either. I know which car Id choose especially taking into consideration the mega mileages you're doing.

The DPF removal is what bugs me most. Oh BTW instead of just a visual assessment of DPF presence in the MOT, the government are currently looking at ways to assess DPF function and check whether it is actually there.

Interesting review. Odd that you mention "turbo spooling up" as these cars don't have one! Also the spec on that car seems very odd - most would go for premium nav with the 8 speaker sound system (sounds much much better as its a Pioneer system with a subwoofer) Something to note is that hybrids always feel slower than conventional engines for some reason but in fact, the RC300h would smoke an IS250 from rolling starts (its mid range acceleration is pretty awesome). We're talking 3.0l diesel beating mid range figures here. As for the engine sound, are you positive you didnt have the stupid sound actuator on? It sounds awful! An RC200T was better IMO when I test drove them as I dont think the 300h setup suited the RC as much as the IS.

On a more positive note, it's always been the 220ds which have suffered from known issues. I've not done across an IS200d on the forum with problems yet?

The 220d does seem to benefit from the good old Italian tune up as well

Certainly not an insurance job thats for sure! Top end would be £500 and Id be accepting nothing less than a PERFECT job for that price. Damage doesn't look that bad at all.