Carl911

Great read and the calliper look great. I put the same tyres on my GS450 last time and have been very pleased with them, they are more than grippy enough for most driving conditions and more importantly to me, they are quieter than many other brands I have tried. carl

I used to service my own cars many years ago and the only reason I take mine to the main dealer is because of the warranty. Im fully aware of how little is actually done in a service. i always find it ridiculous that even replacing an air filter seems to be an additional cost. the only real benefit is they do seem to thouroughly check for any potential problems or wear when it goes into the ramp . This highlights any pending problems which I then often take else wheee to be fixed. i have a lexus service agreement which softens the amount over the year so makes it a little easier to swallow. Rest assured soon as the car warranty runs out it can go to a good third party garage at half the price for just as good a job. carl

I drive a is300h and whilst it was a great all rounder I thought I should also try out the gs300h. i expected it to feel under powered being a larger car but in practice I thought the engine felt smoother and better placed in the GS. its not as quick as my gs450 but in reality you never use the power 80% of the time as commuting in traffic governs you to set speeds often in conjested situations so for the majority of your drive the only real benefit is how comfortably and quiet your car takes you to work. For that purpose most of lexus range achieve top marks. carl

It sounded great although in reality a car with this performance would become stressful and pointless on uk roads. This was the reason I sold my mk4 supra twin turbo. It was a fantastic car and just wanted to go but you just couldn't and that made it a very frustrating car to drive. I think I'd rather have the 5lt in the LS so I can reap the benefits of its drive in normal commutes. but back on subject, it was great to see a lexus on tv. carl

Congrats on your new car. I've had mine for nearly two years and it hasn't missed a beat. Goes like the clappers and is very quiet and comfortable. I can get all my bars green from time to time but you attend to find this only really occurs on driving with lots of decents as the car attends to charge up the batteries more. Two bars from the top is fairly typical though unless your driving through slow traffic on battery only when off course it will drop until the engine cuts back in. This time of year with the colder weather and heating on you attend to find the engine wanting to kick in sooner and more often but that's quite normal. as far as mirrors folding, I'm not sure. I have a feeling the are fold only on the manual button but later models may be programmed to do this automatically. I may be wrong. I know a few on the forum have discussed after market solutions which allow this option so it's possible although it's never bothered me enough to consider doing. Just watch yourself on wet bends as it's a big powerful motor and deserves a certain respect or it might bite. enjoy and get some pictures up. carl

I drove a 460 about a year ago and the one thing that I really noticed from the one I drove was how much wind noise come from the wing mirrors. Maybe the car was so quiet this was the only apparent noise. I have said it before but I found the gear changes being even slightly noticeable off putting haven got used to the cvt in my GS450. i still have my eye on one if these when I change my gs450 but I would have to try the ls600. ps-brilliant thread and the car looks great.

I still have the car and when I sent the wheels for Refurb the company removed all the trims then returned the alloy wheel and refitted them afterwards. Trouble is some of the trims let the overall finish down hence why I replaced a few of the worst trims with new ones. I was going to try and Refurb a trim sometime to see how they come up given there new replacement price. carl

I checked one of my spares and definately only two nuts to remove. I can only imagine that yours have become slightly stuck on the seal. Probably a light tap on the end of he threads will shift it. Also, it is slightly magnetic so either it is metal or else it's chrome plating has some magnetism, not sure if that is possible if a plastic is chromed? See picture below of removed trim.

Hmm, it wasabout a year ago but I only recall removing the two nuts then tapping them off. I will take a quick look at one in the morning that I removed to see if I'm forgetting anything.

Those little chrome bits are £25+vat each if you should consider replacing any. mine are fine other than in a few places some laquer appears to have come off. I have some spare ones I need to experiment with some time, e.g. Remove laquer and see if I can re- laquer them. I was actually mad enough to replace a few of the worst ones with new when I refurbed my wheels. Carl

Hi rich, you need to take the wheel off and they unscrew from the inside of the wheel. Carl

Has anyone removed the a-pillar trim on their RX to feed wires behind. I'm always a bit concerned that I will break something when I don't know the location of the clips or which to prise off first.

I think the tyres clearly make a huge difference particularly when hitting the brakes but I still think the four wheel drive assistance in snow mode makes the drive feel more confident. To be fair rear wheel drive without snow socks or chains is always going to be difficult in icey confitions.

I went out briefly in my rx450 and my estate in particular was like sheet ice. I have the Pirelli all weather tyres and they gripped superbly and I had no issues with traction at all. in comparison I went out in my gs450 afterwards which has almost brand new Dunlop tyres and it was slipping across the ice even braking from about 5mph. Definately had to be very light on the throttle. The difference between cars was light and day so as far as I'm concerned the RX past the housing estate icey road challenge. carl

Hope your enjoying it. i bought mine from cheltenham as like you I am Gloucester based. i found the sales manager to be hard work to be honest but overall a fairly smooth transaction. i have both my Lexus with warranty and service agreements so they certainly get there money's worth out of me. carl

Bike carrier, stick it in the boot. One of the things I love about my RX is the fact I can open the boot, drop the seats and slide the bike straight in without removing any wheels in about 30 seconds. I really hated the bike racks and spending 15 minutes strapping things on or lifting them up to roof level and then having to worry about low bridges if they were on the roof rack. carl

Interesting, mines a 59plate. I wonder if the sound proofing was changed or improved. My RX has only just turned 40k so pretty low mileage still and feels like a new vehicle but I defiantely find more road noise than my GS450h

Congrats and enjoy your purchase. out of curiosity what tyres are fitted to your RX as I find the opposite, my Gs is quoted on road noise to my RX. carl

There are after market options which add either or both USB port and Bluetooth which would enable you to play MP3 music using your current car setup, e.g. Steering wheel controls etc. one such company is below link. http://www.vaistech.com/product/sl3b-l/ there are other similar products available. i have used the Vaistech product in my gs450 and it works superb although mine is just USB port without Bluetooth but that was also an option. Carl

Absolutely, the pleasant sales talk is fine when you are considering the car but when it comes down to buying its business head on. Ultimately, long as you are satisfied with the price you pay and the car you buy then that's what matters. good luck with the haggling and I look forward to the pictures if it all works out for you. carl

I do love sales talk. When they were selling by mine to me there were about four on their forecourt. When I was trying to reduce the price they gave me this story about how the weather would be worse this time of year, possibly snowing and how they could sell a 4x4 ten times over so they would not reduce the price. I just laughed and gave them my price. They still played hardball so I reminded them of the long term picture which was servicing and warranty work on both my cars which is worth way more over a few years than the amount I was asking to reduce the car by. They eventually saw the light. Had they not I would have taken my business else where. ironically those other cars they could sell ten times over are still on the forecourt now several months later. carl

On paper the 400h is 0.2seconds faster to 60 and has slightly more torque. the 0.2 second cost about 6+mpg though. carl

I agree with the small engine versus large. Personally I have always preferred large engines for their longlevity and effortless power. In a lot of cases the economy doesn't vary massively, take the lexus NX hybrid 2.5litre versus the RX hybrid 3.5litre. In reality there is very little real world difference in economy and I put that down to the fact that the smaller engine takes more throttle to achieve the same end result hence the economy evening out between engines. As always it's all about how you drive but you can drive much more relaxed in a bigger engine where as a smaller feels the need to be pushed more often. i certainly agree about diesels engines. I had a few and never liked them. Yes they have great torque but otherwise they are dirty and on borrowed time as to when they block up the various components designed to keep them environmentally friendly. I think as you stated, a lot of cars between the 2000-2007 had less to go wrong and the proof is the amount still on the road and running well. i always read the threads on LS models with there big engines running faultless several hundred thousand miles on. A testament to engines of that era. if only we could look into a crystal ball and see how many years reliability we would actually get on our chosen car. carl

I know what you mean regarding the money. I payed under 20k for mine and I felt even that was a huge outlay and you certainly expect a reliable car for that sort of money. Sadly it does seem that with ever increasing amounts of technology built into all modern cars these days that it's more likely that some faults will arise. It then comes down to how well the garages deal with that problem and how quickly. I would certainly agree that the lexus have had some issues but as always forums attend to only focus on the problems hence why they are there in the first place. in the scheme of things they are amoungst the most reliable vehicles as they have been for a number of years. The other point is that most of the reported issues if they occur at all, do attend to occur on higher mileage vehicles. If you are spending 30k I imagine his will have lower mileage and comfortably place you out of this low risk. that aside the lexus warranty is, if nothing else one of the best I have ever experienced of any main dealership. Despite some of the occasional in consistencies between dealerships I have found mine to be invaluable. ultimately you probably go with your gut feeling in what suits you best and I usually know that after a decent drive with most cars although I have to say that with the RX, it takes a bit longer to really start to appreciate it for what it is. Hope which ever you opt for you are very happy with, as spending that sort of money it has to be right not just on the test drive but for many years to come. carl

I sometimes find if the climate is on this weather the engine seems to kick in straight away. If the aircon, heater is turned off the engine often goes back to hybrid mode . That said, I have never dropped below 28.5 around town and most of the time I hover in the low 30's even in the current cold weather. carl