08ISF

It is a simple fact that all batteries degrade over time and they degrade a bit faster if they are regularly fast charged. The issue of battery life has not really come to the fore yet because there are not enough electric cars of sufficient age to assess it meaningfully, but it is a potential problem. What do we do with all the old batteries and where do we get the raw materials for new ones? On the issue of hydrogen fuel cell reliability, no one knows because there are not enough of them on the road. It is technology that hasn't really been explored properly, it is just being dismissed in the headlong rush to go electric. The bigger issue with both of these options is the infrastructure to support them. At present the electrical charging infrastructure hasn't really been stressed yet. This will come as the sales of electric cars accelerates and we might not like what happens if the infrastructure doesn't keep pace with demand (and it won't as it is going to require some big upfront investment) There is no real infrastructure for hydrogen as there are too few FCEV's on the road to make it viable at present. Put in a few more H2 filling stations and more people will buy FCEV's, then you will need more filling stations and so on. IMO we are heading towards a cliff where suddenly we will find that BEV's weren't the one size fits all solution, but nobody in government is interested at the moment.

My GSF used to do the same thing. I think it's a feature of the gearbox. Some testers described it as "dimwitted". It was always a bit of a disappointment as the car never felt as lively as it should and you needed to get some revs on to get the best out of it. It might also be something to do with the self learning feature of the gearbox. When you live in an area with a 20mph limit the gearbox could be forgiven for going to sleep.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are expensive because of low production volumes and there are few refuelling points because few people can afford to buy them. It's a chicken and egg situation. If we could persuade our stupid and venal politicians to properly get behind hydrogen instead of just dribbling out a few quid here and there to give the semblance of some support, we could develop it to the point where it becomes viable. Hydrogen has a few technical problems and some consequent economic problems, but nothing like the socio-political, material supply and economic problems that are coming our way with the current obsession with electric cars. Unfortunately there is a very strong lobby out there that keeps rubbishing the hydrogen option. Toyota and Hyundai are obviously not quite convinced.

This is a very relevant point and one that seems to have escaped the attention of those who want to stop oil production . We rely heavily on oil for an awful lot of products. These products are cheap because they are sourced from what is essentially a by product of oil production for fuel. If oil production for fuel is substantially reduced then the cost of the by products will shoot up because the considerable costs involved in exploration and production are not being met by selling fuel, if that makes sense. The whole direction we're going is flawed. We are a hydrocarbon based civilisation and the tendrils of hydrocarbons extend into every corner of our lives. We are not going to be able divest ourselves of them in the sort of timescale the politicians are proposing.

LPG is still carbon rich, though not as high as petrol or diesel, so this is not an easy fix. Not surprising bearing in mind it comes from the same source.

A little glimmer of light: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11640855/Wyoming-set-BAN-sales-new-electric-vehicles-2035.html It seems that in some quarters the current headlong rush to electric is not finding much support.

Mine does the same and it's driving me mad, because the angle and size of the screen makes it so awkward to wipe it off. I've tried squeegeeing it and that drops water all over the dash. Worse still, these cold mornings and evenings the moisture is freezing on the inside of the glass. Fortunately Lexus' demisting facilities are pretty good so I don't have to wait too long for it to clear.

This document is a classic case of "fur coat and no kn*****s" . It says nothing and makes no real commitment. £16M is about 50p for every car in the country. £16 Billion would be nearer the mark. Lamp posts for charging - yes fine, the odd one can carry the load, plug every car in the street into a lamp post and there's going to be a very big bang. These people appear to be totally clueless!

The simple fact is they are politicians, and they lie for a living. They will see the idea of banning sale of ICEV's as confirming their green credentials today (and keeping the eco mentalists off their backs for a while) secure in the knowledge that between now and 2040 or thereabouts there is room for at least 5 changes of government and umpteen PM's so they will never have to take any personal responsibility. On the issue of electrical infrastructure, I live on a 1930's estate, about 200 or so houses fed by, I guess, a 500Kw transformer, say 2.5kW per house, allowing for the diversity that electricity companies work on. That's probably been fine up to now because although we each have electrical appliances totalling more than that they are never all on at 100% at the same time, some houses are unoccupied etc. Fast forward to 2040 when probably 90% of the houses will be wanting to charge an electric car overnight, all at the same time. So 180 x 3kW (minimum) = 540Kw and that assumes no other electrical demand such as freezers. The 7kW home chargers, where installed, will push this up considerably. This is the reason they want us all to have smart meters , so they can turn us off if the demand goes over the top. So there are two scenarios here: 1. You might come out in the morning to find you haven't enough juice to get to work because they turned you off in the middle of the night! or 2. They upgrade your transformer and the cabling in the road to meet the new load. Guess where the money for that is coming from! The more I think about the electric car idea the more convinced I am that it is going to be a disaster of Biblical proportions on every front, from obtaining the raw materials through to charging nightmares and eye watering costs. By the way I do know something about the subject having spent 40+ years as a building services engineer sometimes negotiating power supplies for housing estates and other developments.

I cannot for the life of me, understand why we are being forced down the electric battery route when hydrogen seems a better all round solution, not just for cars but for HGV's, aircraft, boats and home heating. The government are paying lip service to investigating hydrogen options, claiming that there are insuperable problems. Yes, there are problems, but they are technical problems which can be overcome, usually by money. The problems with the way we are going, are not only technical, but economic, and political. I think the problem is that someone whose interests are best served by the all electric solution is whispering in the politician's ears and since there is not an engineer/physicist/scientist among them, they don't understand, so they just accept what their "advisers" tell them and we end up paying for it. And don't get me started on why we are not pursuing wave power. An island surrounded by water, subject to reliable tides. Ooh, let me see could we make use of that? No, too difficult, might upset some noisy minority.

We must not forget that 2030 is the date when new IC cars cannot be sold. Given that the life of a car is 7 years+ (more for Lexus) we will still have IC cars in 2040 and beyond. The crunch will come when the energy providers decide that it's not worth having a network of sites selling petrol/diesel due to lack of demand and they will become few and far between, just like recharge points now. We also have a House of Commons full of vote conscious invertebrates (sorry, MP's) who if persuaded that something is not good for them might change their approach. So the answer is that everyone who disagrees with the way things are going must shout if from the roof tops. From what has been said on here and from conversations I've had with others a silent majority is not in favour of this dash to electric. The other consideration is that given the state of the world at the moment, the costs associated with going electric are simply not affordable and we would be better off targeting mitigation of the effects of Global Warming, which are going to hit us long before we reduce CO2 to a safe level, if we ever do. Just my opinion.

The rush to go electric is driven worldwide by politicians anxious to show their "green"credentials, knowing full well that by the time the turkeys come home to roost so much time will have gone by they will be able to distance themselves, or better still it will be the opposition's problem. Electric cars are not "green" overall they are only green in use provided the electricity charging them is green. Volvo produced a report that claimed that an electric car takes 7 years to pay back the CO2 produced by making it, so the rush to electric cars is actually making carbon emissions worse in the short term. The big issue that will bite shortly is the availability of charging points vs the number of cars requiring them and the cost in use of these. The fast chargers require very big electrical supplies which are going to be very expensive to install. Guess who's going to be paying for them one way or another! IMO electric cars only really work if you use them for short journeys around town (where they can reduce local pollution) and you can charge at home. And don't think that the government is going to forgo all the lovely revenue they get from tax on fossil fuels, they're going to find a way to recover that..... Why do you think that Toyota/Lexus are dragging their feet on introducing electric cars, they probably know that they aren't the magic bullet.

So, if you contact them to book your service and due to holidays, staff sickness and workload they can't do your service before the year is up then where do you stand? I would challenge their assertion that it only lasts 1 year exactly, there has to be some leeway and if they are not going to send out reminders that your Relax is expiring, I think it's a poor show. This post and others that are appearing on this site suggest to me that some Lexus dealers are trying to get themselves knocked off the top spot for Customer Satisfaction. Does anyone else detect a general hardening of attitude to customers? If Lexus are going down this road then they will have a problem as their USP is customer service, the cars themselves are reliable but dynamically pretty average and if they're going to level up the playing field in favour of competitors......

The £186 is the standard charge they levy when you complain about something. It is waived when they find the fault and are able to claim on the warranty. Might be due to a windscreen leak, blocked sunroof drains (unlikely), blocked condense drain, or coolant leak. You haven't done much mileage so presumably the car has been left for long periods . Could it be condensation? My daughter left her MX5 for a long period with the ventilation all turned off and there was water dripping off the roof lining. Make sure they can't blame it on you then go back to them and if you get no joy from the service manager, go straight to the dealer principal. This is not how Lexus should behave. And you need a courtesy car.

I've used Lexus Twickenham for the last 4 cars and 14 years and generally they've been OK, but after all it's a premium price so you expect premium service. I don't have a high opinion of the motor trade in general and I've always taken the view that I was simply paying them to keep the exended warranty intact so that if anything went wrong I could just pass it over to them to be fixed at Lexus' expense. They have dealt with a couple of warranty claims fairly quickly and without problems. Not quite so clear cut now under Relax! I did have a couple of issues with them trying to upsell unnecessary work on the back of the health check video but a sharp word to the service receptionist seemed to make that go away. In my opinion a problem with Twickenham is that they have to use Currie Motors Isleworth workshops for the servicing and my experiences when trying to deal with them direct have not been rewarding, so I restrict my interactions to the Twickenham showroom. You will get a questionnaire from both Twickenham and possibly Lexus about their performance so you can raise your concerns on that. I'm told that if you give them less than 9/10 they get into trouble

The article referred to is an example of lazy cut and paste journalism. Lexus only ever came with a 3 year warranty. If they didn't, they've been selling us all extended warranties under false pretences! Another example of its inaccuracies is: "This new warranty covers the same parts and labour as the three-year manufacturer’s warranty provided on new Lexus vehicles and the one-year manufacturer warranty that’s standard with approved used vehicles." It doesn't, there are a whole load of exclusions, if you don't believe me. go and read the Relax T's and C's.

£1000 for the power pack. Won't Relax cover it then? Don't see why not.

My 2016 RX 450H is the most comfortable car I've ever owned and I've not seen any other complaints about the seats, so there must be something wrong with your seat and I would raise it with the dealer. I assume you bought the car from a Lexus dealer so anything wrong with it will be their problem not yours, and the seats are mega expensive. Ask to try another example of the car to see if it's the same. Re: the warranty. Lexus came with a 3 year warranty, it was Toyota that got the 5 year , briefly, until Relax came in. If you bought from Lexus you should be 3 months in to a 1 year warranty which is about equivalent to the original new car warranty. Relax , however, is not the same as the new car warranty as it contains a number of exclusions such as shocks and rubber bushes. Your car is very low mileage so I would not expect wear related issues to arise and I am assured by Lexus that every warranty claim will be judged on its merit, so in the event of a rejection , don't just accept it, escalate to Lexus HQ if necessary, as sometimes the dealers can be lazy, because it's easier to get money off the customer than Lexus!

Heart would say C63, head would say RCF. Before you make a decision go on the Merc Owners Club website and see what sort of problems C63's throw up.

You are lucky to have that much choice. This time last year I was looking for 4 replacement tyres and locally I had a choice of Bridgestone Duellers or Bridgestone Duellers so guess what I went for. I would have liked the Geolanders as I think they have better wet road rating. 235/55 x20 seems to be an awkward size, can't get Michelin Cross Climates in that size and the Continental equivalents are expensive. Whatever you go for if you are only buying 2 make sure the wet road performance rating is the same as the other tyres on the car. With this type of car you don't want to create any "interesting" handling characteristics.

It is completely unacceptable that parts for such a new car are "no longer available" . I suspect that the truth is that the part is on back order and will not be available until the supplier has enough orders to make it worth their while producing it. Laziness on the part of the bodyshop or they don't like the (probably eye watering) cost of the part. Refer this to Lexus customer service and if you get no joy write to their MD Chris Hayes. Also try and push it through your insurer. They are supposed to put you back in the position you were in before the incident so if you still have a damaged trim you can't be, and there will be a financial implication when you come to sell the car.

My 2016 RX450h does the squeaking thing but only on certain bumps, always has. I haven't raised it with Lexus as the chances of them being able to trace it are low and it doesn't bother me. The issue with the lane assist sounds like condensation somewhere it shouldn't be. You say they checked the front sensors. Which sensors? I thought the LKA worked on the camera at the top of the screen, which has been known to suffer from condensation. Again this is going to be difficult to trace as the minute they put it in the workshop it will warm up and the condensation will disappear. Windows fogging on recirc sounds like the ac compressor being held off. Do you run the car in ECO mode? This apparently widens the tolerances on the climate control so that might account for the fogging. ECO mode doesn't seem to make any difference on fuel so I don't bother with it. There was a time when you could just chuck the car back at Lexus and say fix it, not so now, they often want £180 just to look at it unless something is obviously broken. Let us know how you get on .

I wouldn't waste any more time with Lexus Customer Services, they'll just bat you right back to the dealer and it will go nowhere. Write (you cannot email) to their MD. Details are on the website. In my experience, with Lexus and most others, if a missive comes down from the MD's office for something to "go away" it generally goes away, to your benefit. I am not surprised that the dealer is being difficult. Lexus dealers have become a lot more hard nosed about warranty claims over the last few years. After all ,they are piggy in the middle between the customers and Lexus UK who have now brought in a warranty that has no perceptible finance behind it apart from possibly increased business and a small uplift in servicing costs. I am sure Lexus will come around once they see you are not going to let it go. Alternatively as you suggest, try another dealer who might have a better handle on it. Just my opinion

My Lexus cars have always been serviced in a workshop shared with Toyota, the only perk being that I deliver the car to the local Lexus showroom and they take it away and deliver it back so I don't have to deal direct with the service facility. You have no control over who is actually working on the vehicle and let's face it most "servicing" is only checking that things haven't fallen off so providing Lexus are going to stand by "their" workmanship and guarantee its quality , who cares how it got done? Lexus cars are very reliable but expensive when they go wrong so as far as I'm concerned their eye watering service charges are simply a premium for keeping the warranty intact. You pays your money you takes your choice. I strongly suspect there is an element of insurance premium now in every service bill , otherwise how does Relax get financed? The acid test for Relax is how well they honour it of course. Has anybody claimed successfully or unsuccessfully on Relax??

My 2016 4RX450h has averaged about 33mpg in the 3 years I've had it. In winter it goes down to about 28mpg on short journeys and in hot summer weather , with the air con working hard it drops to about 31-32mpg on mixed urban journeys. I have seen 40mpg on a medium journey with light traffic and an Autumn trip from London to Edinburgh averaged 38mpg. As others have said, hybrids don't really like cold weather and short journeys, as the petrol motor runs more to keep itself and the cabin warm. You do need to adjust your driving style to get the best out of them.