Zotto

Totally agree. My GS 300h is quite better than my 2008 GS450h but I remember with nostalgia that V6, may be my next Lexus will have a V6.

@Linas.P , I can't say "hands down" as I made my comparison with xenon of 2008 GS, but LEDs are fo sure an improvement, and virtually they last all the car's life. Aftermarket mods often are not so effective as factory led lights are studied with projectors (and they can have smaller dimensions and different shapes), while mounting a xenon lamp at the place of a standard one has the only advantage given from the better quantity of light xenon lamps give because of their better energy performance. Another important topic is the light temperature, a too much high K° temperature is nice but not so good for human eye sensitivity being too violet, better to stay on 4300 K° than 6000 K° , even if at lower K° temp you have a more "yellowish" light. So, changing from traditional to Xenon is an improvement, from Xenon to LED is an improvement too. Last progress in LEDs in new high beams is the chance to keep them automatically ON excluding only in set of leds those ones that reach the crossing vehicles keeping high beam all around the street (this the new LS system).

My GS is fully equipped with LED, and compared to my former GS with Xenon lights it works very well, with a very deep beam. As usual Lexus keeps low beam lights a bit too "low" but in this case it's justified to avoid dazzling to other vehicles. The automatic switching from low to high works well but only (as prescribed by low) over about 25 mph so sometimes I use in manual mode. Besides, my GS has also night security pack with IR and camera monitoring on central screen, very effective , but Lexus dismissed it after 2015.

Ehm, not to be too picky but probably you scored 6,9 liters/100 km , as 6,9 km/l is awful :) . 6,9 l%km are about 14,5 km/l= 40.6 mpg Not bad for the power of GS 450h :) , with my GS 300h I would make not more than 47 mpg.

No, it' s up from brake pedal covered with a little cover shaped on OBD shape (to remove accessing to plug)

Yes, already talked about , d't worry but be sure to use the requested 0W-20 Toyota oil.

Best mpg are obtained keeping the state of charge around 6th notch on the meter (accordingly on hypermilers ). On my GS I see full charge (80%) only after a long descent with regenerative braking, and only when it happens I use engine braking with a lower "gear" set manually.

Ops, in my former post I wrote "raise" meaning the opposite , mpg drop, of course

I told to find light fuse to take it off and have light off so to not discharge battery in the meanwhile .

MPG will raise dramatically, as moving in snow needs more energy; imagine you running on a flat dry surface or in snow :)

Short circuit on light relay, my suggestion is to find the fuse of lights and take it off then run to repair the trouble ASAP.

Hybrid drive is a big change from traditional thermal only motors, and in my point of view a great improvement in comfort and mpg, BUT you are well accustomed with a LS, so a GS 450h would be a good choice; in alternative if you dont care too much to mpg a traditional GS NOT hybrid could be good, provided that the automatic gear is not a cvt but a traditional one with torque converter. While I love hybrid with eCVT (I am at 2nd Hybrid GS, first one was a 2008 GS450h and now I own a 2014 GS300h), choosing a older than 10 year hybrid is a good idea if you have a guarantee about HV battery.

At low temp thermal engine is often on to stay at leas over 40° C, but beside this the hybrid battery efficiency and capacity is lower, so it discharges faster and needs recharging more often. Don't be worried about using petrol engine, it helps to have better mpg compared to intense use of electric traction, as HV battery needs recharging before or after: the secret is to recover all energy you can in decelerations. Said this, mpg in winter time get worse even not using heater.

If you search on Lexus tech site you can verify with VIN number the exact characteristic of your new car, about sat nav update you need to verify which kind on system is mounted, if emvn with hdd it's possible to update it via usb, but you have to tell the dealer the exact registration number to have a personal copy of maps and firmware . A solution to spare some money is to buy maps and download them , writing to a 32 or more GB usb key and make update by yourself, not so difficult but it needs some informatic knowledge; I just updated my emvn navi with some initial troubles because of a memory not good for job, if you go for official Lexus service they tell to let them make all (at about twice the cost).

Probably you will obtain good mpg with GY tyres for the season the are made for, meanwhile you could make a little effort and mount winter tyres, as when you use one set don't waste the other one, and have the right set for the season . I decided to do so, provided I will be able to use both sets before they get too old (making 15 miles a year).

At the moment I have winter Hankook Icept Evo , but at season change I planned to mount Goodyear because if low noise rating... About fuel economy, it dramatically decreases with low temperatures, I had 16,5-17 km/l this summer and now reading only 14,5.

Have you left the keyless remote near the vehicle? In this occurrence the system keep ready to start and there is a a little more current drained by 12V battery. The solution is to have keys far from car.

My former GS had same ML audio, ad yes, you can record a dvd with mp3 files. Never tried with aac or flac, while dvd read also video dvd and (if I remember well) mp4 videos, but only with car not moving.

If I remember well, ES is front wheels traction, while GS is RW.

While last noise you recorded is coming probably fro exhaust, the 1st noise is something related with oil: have you put the recommended oil 0W-20 in engine? If not, and you have a different one (5 or 10W) it takes some time to well circulate. You should notice more with low temperatures.

Not so easy to find a job to be paid telling BS.

ROTLF, an expert.

GS has too.