rayaans

Car parked outside by any chance? Rain will get on the rotors and rust which gives you that squeeky sound. Goes away if you brake hard on a traffic light once.

The RX doesnt have the touch pad? Im confused lol, are you talking about the NX or the 3rd Gen RX? Yes the centre cubby holds as much as the sliding unit. There is a "secret" compartment where the floor lifts up to expose more space! My wife's 5ft3 and her arm reaches the armrest. Was the steering wheel all the way back?

Why oh why oh why? I can deal with rims but not this lol. Each to their own i guess - id probably just get a 3rd gen IS instead of messing about with all that!

Ag Super resin wont cut it, itll just fill it in. Get yourself a good compound - Meguiars M205 will remove it, no mark will be visible. If thats too pro for you, you can get G3 scratch remover from halfords which does the job too. Problem is - these things are designed to be super abrasive - personally id just use M205 with a machine and itll be safer than the G3 stuff

Captain chair armrests - Nope, dont miss them at all as the centre armrest is in pretty much the same position. Also, I wasnt pleased to find that the same seats in the RX gen 2 were exactly the same as the seats in a toyota Landcruiser in 2006. The seats in the 3rd gen RX are more comfortable with more support in the corners too. The sliding centre cosole is not missed either. I always kept it in the most forward position and never moved it. It was a bit pointless in all honesty anyway. If it counts, the RX armrest slides forward and back to reveal the change holder and the heated seat controls. The RX does not have a wireless charger, you'll have to use the socket or the USB to charge the phone.

Carbon build up seems to the be main issue on those. Apart from that I dont think they really have any other problems apart from sticking brakes and wheel finishes being corrosion prone.

Dont be alarmed if its a clear puddle though - thats probably the air con Id be concerned if there is fluid dripping from underneath and if the colour is either pink or green!

http://www.networkautomotive.com/Smoke.html The above link may be helpful. The good thing is that white smoke isnt too bad! Bad news is it could be pretty much anything. The most common things would be engine burning the coolant. Check the coolant level and as above, generally check the fluid levels. Too much oil can cause white smoke too

It sounds like The seat is parallel to the ground so no support for your thighs. Try putting the seat up from the front. Also, are you used to vehicles with offset peddles? the ones in the IS are dead on, might be a factor

Hows the controller itself? I had one in the CT and it felt slightly plasticky compared to the RTI. Is the same controller used?

How is the standard nav and 6 speaker audio system? Thanks

Too many variables to take into account. Temperature will play a huge role even on the same route, windows open etc. Also, the car will feel less spritely if battery charge is low - probably explains the heavy feeling.

But the problem there is, whats the difference between a 7 and an 8? Some people would put 8 down while others would put 7 down even if both thought the exact same thing.

Background hum? I dont have any background hum from the hybrid system itself. It might be a fan turning off or something. When you're going at slow speeds, the NX will use electric power to drive you along until it senses you need more power in which case the engine will come on. All the EV button does is try to hold on to that electric power until it can no longer move, at which point itll deactivate. If you put the car in ECO mode, itll do the same thing, thats why its so sluggish to move off from a standstill.

Does anyone besides you drive the car? Another option would be to look for a steering wheel on ebay or something - might be a better option if the leather repair will cost a fortune. Shouldnt be more than £150-200 though depending on extent of the damage.

The car will use "EV" mode at low speeds anyway. You dont really need to force it to do that

The IS had only been out a year and a half, reliability is perceived, even German cars dont have issues in the first year. It all after warranty

Ive never even seen an MG3 on the road lol! Rarer than a GT-R. The thing is, usually people tend to go upwards in terms of cars. They'll usually spend more each time they buy a new car until it plateau's at some point. Hence, most cars are usually better than the last so it gives hugely unrepresentative figures. Gang, you're point on bias is spot on. Bias is a huge issue, especially in the clinical trials I had some experience in undertaking. The amount of work that went into preventing bias was impressive, even tiny details like slightly see-through envelopes could make a huge difference in terms of allocation concealment! Surveys are usually the most unreliable out of all methods, you have to take into account how many people which actually participate, what their motives for participating are (we usually give incentives such as £10 vouchers to get them to participate), the size of the sample (in this case, very small), the questions may be leading etc etc From a psychological point of view, the major bias here is going to be "Buyers" Stockholm Syndrome whereby the buyer buys an expensive item and overlooks its flaws to justify the purchase. It could easily lead to a buyer wanting to prove that their purchase is justifiable by taking part in a survey and coming in the top 10 for example. It leads to people thinking that there is no other purchase in the same price bracket that could be better. Hence, if someone says "why did you buy a Ford Mondeo", they'll go onto defend their purchase, while using "sour grape" arguments against other vehicles. By sour grape arguments i refer to The Fox and the Grapes where the fox claims the grapes were sour because he couldnt get them :)

Hand cream is a common problem it appears. I mean, sun lotion can even leave permanent fingerprints in paint! Best thing would be to talk to a leather repairer, see what he makes of it. Hopefully it can be fixed. Once it has, just keep on top of it with leather protector.

drink

The tyres may have affected the noise in the cabin. My RX was quiet with the OEM Dunlops on it, I changed them out a few weeks ago to Michelin's and its like a vault inside now. The tyres are a huge variable in terms of cabin noise in all honesty. Its also safe to mention that the LS is getting a bit old in the tooth now. Its been going since 2005! Replacement coming 2017, expect hydrogen power too :D

Im 16 and I wrote about 3 cars for that survey... 16? You must be in the minority. I dont think many people under the age of 30 would have even bothered. Also, 61k people and lets just include the top 200 cars and you have 305 votes for 1 car. The volume sellers will have taken most of the votes, meaning there would have only been a handful of Lexus IS300h owners, possibly 50 who voted? That is seriously unrepresentative of the whole population. People vote based against an expected level of performance for that category of vehicle, and associated price bracket. Obviously it is only based on a persons frame of reference, I doubt many Leon owners have experienced a Tesla Model S to compare it to. Exactly, its very subjective. 20 years ago I would have thought my Ford Fiesta was one of the best cars on the road as I hadnt experienced anything else, its a subjective matter. Things like build quality are quite subjective too, some people are very picky and associate rattles with build quality problems. Others dont find it a huge issue. I think in terms of price bracket, the new C-class has a very nicely crafted interior. I think the IS300h should be 2nd in this regard. Also, reliability should be worked out with extra points for how old the car is. IMO a 12 year old RX300 with 2 issues is vastly superior in terms of reliability to a 1 year old IS300h with no problems. Of course, mileage would potentially play a huge role too, a car with 100k+ miles is bound to have some problems and again, this should be included in the survey. I am not saying the IS300h is not worthy of its position as the best overall car. I think its achieved the place it deserves, my issue is with the survey itself

I find it very hard to believe that not enough people with a Mondeo voted :P I believe that some of the bad points of the IS were not included when the owners gave their views in the survey. It scored quite high for infotainment - I dont understand as the infotainment is average at best. Also, for the in-car tech Seat Leon came top? WTF lol, at this point in time it'd either have to be Tesla or the S-class, no contest. Land rover discovery had the best ride quality? urm, no it doesnt. Saying something is the "best" means it beats every other car, thats certainly not true for half of the categories on there and some of the cars in the top 10 are frankly awful.

There is load's of volume sellers in the top 200 , Fiesta Focus Golf etc They didn't get a high enough rating to be in the top 10. There has to be a minimum number of votes to be included. My point is, Lexus seems to do well in these surveys because owners "need" to prove that their cars are better than what the journalists say, hence, sometimes it appears that they over exaggerate the good aspects while not mentioning the cons of the vehicle. Therefore, this leads to very substantial bias. Again, same principle can be used with Mondeo's. Lets say you got one as a company car and you wanted something else. Some people will get their revenge by saying its rubbish in every category bringing its score down. again causing bias. Also, how did they work out that the NX is very reliable? Its barely been out a few months. Its because owners are simply writing this down as an assumption. The surveys are flawed as it leads to a set group which participate and we have no idea if what they write down is fact or fiction.

Lunch