Wass

21 hours ago, SonnyA85 said:

road tax being free shouldn't be an incentive to buy any car. it's at it's worst only £10 per week. i spend that on lunch most days. i know folk who spend that on cigarettes every day. road tax is the last thing anyone needs to really worry about being expensive. it's one of the lowest costs associated with cars. on the new c200h how much is it? £4 per week? not even worth talking about.

Not even worth you talking about..except you are. Money is perceived differently by its users, no two views are the same. I am not going to bother with another hybrid and electrical cars either have inadequate range or too high a price. 2018 Lexus is still the same for me as the 2011. A second hand, low mileage Audi TT quattro is currently more economical overall than a Tesla. So its off to the Audi shop for me.

1 hour ago, Comedian said:

I recently found that I can set average speeds for different types of roads. Urban was set at 30 and nav was trying to take me via town centres.

I wondered what good average speeds would be.

Urban
Lanes
Motorway

It was set at 30 50 70 which is unrealistic.

I'd say more 10 40 55

This will effect the route calculation.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk
 

I think that your assumptions are about right, I used to do a comute which was a 75 mile round trip on A roads through the countryside with a little bit of town work . My average speed came out as 35mph week in week out. Prior to that, I had a 100 mile round trip commute which was on duel carriageways and motorways apart from about 4%. My average speed on my quickest days was 65mph and that was needle bending in the early hours of the morning on nearly deserted roads.

My car underwent a rash of car park damage. I must have sent it to the body shop 3 times and am on first name terms with the man from chips away who has been to touch in minor dings perhaps 4 times. I now have a camera which is programmed to record unexpected shocks. My wife actually witnessed a person in a 4wd reversing into the car and we took him to court. He lied and lied but unfortunately got off scot free because our insurers mistakenly accepted his insurers out of court offer. It ended ok for us because it was our insurers fault that the case came to nought. However, we bought a crash cam for both our cars.

On 10/22/2017 at 2:25 AM, MJE_CT said:

You, sir, are my new personal hero, and if we were both that way inclined i’d offer to marry you.

I gave your very specific instructions to a small independent garage that i’ve used for years (I’m not so hot with the whole mending it yourself thing - just ask the missus!) Within 5 minutes the old bolt was out and a suitable replacement installed. Steering feels brand new.

As a long time customer the cost was ... zip, zero, nothing.

I am a very happy chap today.

I already have a wife and her name is not Michael. Takes an average Joe quite a few weeks to actually save up £700 pounds to spend doesn't it? That's why it makes me feel quite ticked off to hear about professionals taking advantage of their position. These people just don't understand what a great proportion of a persons annual disposable income they are asking for when they make such slapdash repair estimates.

 I am very pleased that my input saved you a wedge, now go out and spoil the wife and  bank the change!

On 10/19/2017 at 12:42 AM, rayaans said:

Not really.

How do you know how I think? Speaking for your self Rayanns? No being condescending then.

Depends upon how you choose to drive on the motorways and dual carriageways. If you drive to stay out of everyones way and keep your stress levels low IE the same speed as lorries,  you don't need to overtake and so there is no need for sudden bursts of power and braking becomes largely un-necessary since lorries on the inside lane dont brake,  the CT can return some good motorway results despite hybrids being more suited to urban driving. If you drive at 70-ish come what may, look at a non hybrid. I have always driven autos this century and found that the best tool for motorways and dual carriageways is a DIESEL....  there ... I've said the dreaded D word! ( they still arent selling a lot of electric or hybrid lorries for tramping up and down motorways by the way... can't think why this is...).

Original post: CTvNX.... wife + 2 offspring+ shopping= maximum paraphernalia potential . Go for the NX if wife is happy to negotiate parking it. At the end of the day, whatever the driver prefers to drive that suits the pocket  should win the day and often over-rules a lot of other practical considerations.

 Hah! sound system arguments! Which one drowns out the sirens of emergency vehicles, plaintiff cries of crushed cyclists and mangled pedestrians... its a car, not an auditorium! You are welcome to be as offended as you like by that comment, it doesn't stop it from being the truth. By the way, there is a( in my opinion misguided) lobby keen on removing audio systems as they are a distraction to drivers.

Good point about the road tax. Less incentive to buy one then... Now where's that Audi TT Quattro leaflet gone?

On 10/16/2017 at 3:26 PM, MJE_CT said:

Hi - new to the forum and my first post...

My 2011 CT also seems to have developed  this knock over the past couple of weeks. Dealer says it’s the shaft and wants thick end of £700 to replace. Mentioned the bolt and he said he’d never heard of that as the cause.

 

Any advice on what I should do next, as I could do without a £700 bill!

I guess that the reason why the dealers have "never heard of that as the cause" is because intermediate shaft replacement costs £700 and the bolt I replaced cost me nothing. However, my 2011 CT had a low tensile bolt in it which i replaced with a high tensile bolt. There hasn't been a clunk since. If you kneel by the side of the car with the drivers door open, you can feel the top joint between the steering column and the top clamp of the intermediate shaft without having to remove any covers , or wires etc. If you subsequently sit in the car and turn the shaft to the right position, you can gain access to remove the bolt and replace it with another and torque it up. My £700 saving fix took me 15 minutes using simple tools. Most of those minutes were spent finding a new bolt of suitable size, length and tensile rating ( head stamped 8.8 as opposed to original bolt not stamped at all) The car has done 70000 now and still has no knocking from the intermediate shaft. The choice is yours. 

I cant see any modern independant mechanic wanting to own up to such a simple fix when there's the potential for a week or two's wages in the balance but there again, I really don't trust modern day fitters anyway. 50% of what I have been told about my Lexus by professionals isn't strictly correct but does  somewhat coincidentally err on the side of profit.

On 9/24/2017 at 12:26 PM, Linas.P said:

But they are "top 20", so I would not expect large difference between 20 most reliable cars anyway, but from thousands models on offer from all manufacturers the spread will be huge.

I disagree. I really don't see legions of non CT cars lining the streets with their bonnets raised. Generally, modern cars are reliable...even the worst. Of all the cars one might see on a days journey, which must go well into 10s of thousands how many breakdowns do we see? Also , of those we see, how many are less than 7 years old?

The spread over the top 20 is very narrow, which goes to show that reliability is generally high across the board.

On 3/29/2015 at 9:31 AM, adnewton said:

I bought a vent mount which keeps it all nice and tidy

Thanks for the heads up on the vent mount, I ordered one on the strength of your post... have just fitted it cheap, easy, smart... nice one Adam. Agree about Garmin advantage over built in but its just a matter of preference I suppose.

I don't believe that dealerships/ distributors/ manufacturers are that clueless. I believe that some ( but not all) "mistakes" are a try on. They find a car which is similar to what the punter needs and get that sent out to them from another dealer in the hopes of passing along a sticky car whilst awaiting a fresh shipment some weeks hence. It would all be in an effort to maintain efficient turn over. As a previous poster said, he was given an Audi quattro instead of a 2wd. What use is an Audi quattro in the show room if nobody is buying it?Especially when everyone one wants the 2wd? Space taken up by the quattro is wasted ground rent/showroom space which isnt paying for itself.

My impression is that from its launch, many of the CT upgrades have been planned. So in 2011, it was already known what items each model would be upgraded with even if they hadnt yet decided upon what name to refer to the upgrade as. So, in short, the later the model, the more bits and pieces are included despite the fact that the shell/engine/gearbox is the same now as was in 2011.( albeit with perhaps a few ECU software mods). I don't think that the CT is unique in this respect, I believe that the majority of cars are marketed in a similar manner with the only time when "everything including the kitchen sink" upgrades are applied being when the model has big issues leading to poor sales or when the model is nearing the end of its production cycle. To conclude, the later your CT, the greater the state of development and the closer to being phased out.

I am  a bit confused, why is this on the CT forum? As Britprius  has already mentioned, CTs shouldnt need tow bars because they can't tow.

On 8/13/2017 at 9:05 PM, doog442 said:

How refreshing that unlike some other forums (BMW) you dont get shot down in flames and told to use the search function as the question has been asked a million times before.

Well done LOC

I've mixed and matched over the years and never noticed a difference (other than in my wallet) so just go with regular. 

 

 

I own a BMW motorcycle and their forum tend to be a cut above too. 

Lexus have published their minimum recommended octane rating for the CT. It is 87 for all CT models. Using higher octane than 87 means that the ECU has to compensate less for pre-ignition and the engine can run with more ignition advance or possibly a weaker fuel air mixture. Like most computers, it just depends how it happens to be programmed. How it happens to be programmed varies from manufacturer to manufacturer and sometime from model to model of the same car. We already know that the CT ECU can run a number of different options, some of which are driver selected in a very dumbed down manner.

 Supermarket fuel v named brand fuel. All made to the same EU standard and all can come from the same storage tank at the depot. Why do some people say that expensive fuel is better than cheap fuel? The answers to this vary throughout the spectrum from self assurance  to the way their local supermarket looks after its tanks.

3 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

This is unfortunately how Toyota operate. Models typically have a 6 to 8 year life, with one 'major' facelift halfway through. The yearly updates are very minor.

The article is about what people do and don't like, not about whether people or manufacturers agree or not or whether this is manufacturers policy. There is no need to defend the policy of Toyota and there should be no need to defend what I personally do and don't like.

Like: 1.one button turns off, selects park.2. selectable throttle pedal response. 3. choice of tyre / wheel 

Dislike:1. waste of internal space and lack of attention to practicality. 2. no full sized spare wheel 3. lack of development through successive "upgrades" . Still uses the same major parts.upgrades are largely cosmetic.

The dull thud you mention is something which I have never noticed on either the Prius or CT. Do you have something rolling around in the boot? That sort of dull thud?

21 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Well, perhaps with your superior knowledge, you could answer his questions?

Not superior knowledge, just the ability to read the instruction book but thanks for the flattery anyway.

When my car was new to me, I solved all but a few problems by reading the instructions contained in the handbooks which came with the car. The only problem I wasn't able to solve by reading the handbook was how to change a front strut assembly.. which in itself was extremely simple. 

I had the recall work done by Lexus Hatfield. They returned the car to me with more petrol in it than it had when they collected it. There was no smell of fuel. I assume that they had indeed pumped out the tank prior to commencing the work and had subsequently refilled with sufficient fuel to get the car home . The smell of fuel being apparent in some peoples vehicles after the recall tells me that their Lexus garages managed to spill fuel into their cars whilst my Lexus garage didn't. This endorses my opinion that Lexus outlets are as good as the people they employ. Some are good and some are not so good. If your car came back smelling of fuel whilst other peoples cars had the same work completed and didn't smell of fuel, you can draw the obvious conclusion. 

The subject of full Lexus service history came up again recently... I believe that some people are putting far too much faith in the words" Lexus full service history" It all depends on who has been doing the work( trained, qualified, experienced and able) and did they get out of the right side of bed that day.... and nothing much more than that. Or should we believe that  some ninja infiltrator broke into the Lexus garage to spray the insides of recalled cars with petrol because it couldn't have been  said trained , qualified and experienced Lexus operative?

1 hour ago, Britprius said:

Unfortunately all cars registered from 2012 onwards are required to have TPMS.

The system as it stands is rather hit,and miss. You can have a puncture and the system will not report it for perhaps 3 or 4 miles. This is to save sensor battery life the sensors only transmit the information at intervals during which time you can have a flat tyre. It works well first thing in the morning before you drive away, but does not give instant warning while you are driving. This makes for hidden danger of false information.

John

No, if your vehicle is 2012 and fitted with it it has to work. All vehicles from November 2014 need to be fitted with it.

44 minutes ago, Britprius said:

Although I agree TPMS is a pain. A car with the system disabled or missing would be an MOT failure after 2012 registration. It "could" also invalidate your insurance in case of an accident.

John

I am pleased not have that system on any of my vehicles. I am also pleased to know about the system prior to purchasing a vehicle with it.