08ISF

I agree with Linas.P that from a business perspective it is brilliant as it will generate a lot of business for their dealers who must be feeling the effects of Covid lockdowns. However, it will be a short lived benefit, because all the owners who wouldn't normally go to Lexus will be attracted by the "free" warranty. They will soon find out that all is not as it seems and then when they find out how much all the things that the dealers will find wrong that are not covered will cost them , then they will desert in droves. One of the primary drivers for me with Lexus and their old warranty is the fact that if it isn't a service item and you haven't broken it by carelessness, it's covered , so go off and fix it. All dealers will be under pressure from their masters to recover profits lost over the last 18 months so anybody who goes to Lexus with high expectations will be disappointed if not thoroughly rinsed. These cars don't go wrong often but when they do....... Lexus already try it on at every service , your air con needs regassing, your tyres have some small cracks in the tread, we can replace them for 50% above high street prices, your tyres are wearing funny ( they weren't) you need a four wheel alignment. Fortunately I'm a mechanical engineer so I can sort out the BS from what's real but not everyone will have that background. As I said earlier there is no apparent financing for this warranty,so the costs are going to be met from ripping off the unwary. As you can guess, I am very disappointed with Lexus over this. I thought I had found a manufacturer that I could have a long term relationship with (12 years and 4 cars to date) . This may not be so. My old warranty doesn't run out for 9 months or so. I will review my reationship with Lexus at that point when I can see how this is all panning out.

I think Lexus are about to shoot themselves in the foot with this warranty. Lexus' main USP is their customer service and they are regularly top of customer satisfaction surveys, mainly due to the reliability of their products and the brilliant warranty ( that they used to offer!). The new warranty is clearly not as comprehensive as the old one despite the advertising hype and I wonder how it is actually going to be financed. An extended warranty is an insurance policy usually financed by premiums. The warranty provider collects all the money from us , puts it in the pot and then gambles that the amount they will have to pay out overall is less than the contents of the pot. Where are the premiums and the pot coming from with this warranty? We currently give Lexus a grand or so for two years cover including recovery, so the money going to the warranty pot is say £350-400 per year per customer. Unless Lexus are going to dramatically increase service prices to include the warranty "premium" there is going to be no money in the pot. See where this is leading? No money in the pot and warranty T's & C's with lots of escape clauses. I can foresee a lot of difficulty getting claims allowed and a year or so down the line Lexus dealers not being very popular, with Lexus knocked off the top spot for customer satisfaction.

Agreed ,but in my case the speed sign camera worked just fine afterwards so I didn't bother to get Lexus to realign. I never checked the lane departure function as I turned this off as soon as I got the car because it was so irritating. Realignment of these devices should no longer be an issue as so many cars have them now.

When I had a cracked windscreen on my GSF,(3 week wait to source a new one from Lexus,reported cost in excess of £1000), the Autoglass fitter very carefully took the camera off the old screen, and replaced it equally carefully, with the result that it did not have to be recalibrated. I was told by my insurance company that if recalibration was needed I was to get Lexus to do it and send the bill to them. If there are supply problems with your screen, Autoglass have a direct account with Lexus UK so don't be fobbed off as I was by trying to find out which dealer they were dealing with for the supply.

Whatcar obviously didn't read the Relax T's & C's because it doesn't. My local dealer has advised that as my next service comes up 3 months before my existing warranty runs out, the existing warranty will stay in place until it expires, and then Relax will take over until the next service. That works for me.

Yes but the new Relax warranty is not the same cover. There are exclusions that weren't there in the 2 for 1 warranty, such as shock absorbers, light units , multi media equipment. There are also a lot of weasel words such as "exceptions shall include but not be limited to" and "not included if not expressly mentioned" . It's all written in a way that gives the warranty company an easy escape route in the event of a claim. Lexus service staff are going to be dealing with a lot of very unhappy customers in due course when they find out that what they thought was covered actually isn't.

I'm in the situation that my next service comes up 3 months before my 2 year warranty expires. As far as I'm concerned the new warranty is inferior to the one I've paid for so I will rely on the one I've got until it runs out. A warranty is a legal agreement between the parties where in return for your money and you fulfilling your obligations they have to fulfill theirs. They can change what they want but not back out of the agreement in place. Having thought more about this it could be the end of my 12 year relationship with Lexus. The warranty and the peace of mind it brings was my primary reason for staying with Lexus and this change just seems to be to give Lexus and their dealers more wriggle room, same as every other manufacturer, so as I said earlier the playing field just got levelled up.

Looks to me like Lexus have just removed their USP i.e their cast iron warranty where everything was covered except for service replacement items. As the previous poster has noted, Multimedia systems and lights are now excluded. The costs of these items are eyewatering and the warranty has now just been reduced to the same level as all the other warranty shysters out there by introducing the words "including but not limited to" which is a get out of jail clause. I'll have to reexamine my plans to replace my RX with another Lexus. The playing field just got levelled.

Have you checked is something draining power while the car is locked? I have had starting problems in conventional cars where the boot light or the interior light was on all the time and eventually drained the battery sufficiently to prevent starting. The battery in Lexus hybrids is not very big so it wouldn't take much to reduce it to the point where the car wouldn't start. The boot light is a suspect, it is possible I think to move the switch to the point where it doesn't go off when the boot is closed. Try switching it off altogether and see if it makes a difference.

The six year service cost is just part and parcel of the cost of running a Lexus and keeping the warranty intact. True they don't go wrong very often but when they do, the costs are eye watering and your car is reaching the age when things will be starting to wear out. The drive train is pretty robust but it's all the other things such as window motors, mirrors, seat motors etc which could fail, expensively. The door mirror on my RX failed to retract/adjust and the cost to replace the motor etc was well over £800 (paid for under warranty). Look at it this way, the warranty cost is comparatively low compared to other premium manufacturers so to keep it intact you have to pay a bit more on the servicing. Just my opinion.

My 4RX is the same, the opening of the tailgate by key fob button is very hit and miss. Sometimes it does it, sometimes not. The tailgate button only seems to work after the car has been unlocked and needs a very long press from not too far away. Seems to close remotely OK. I've not found it enough of a problem to raise with Lexus and have to pay them to tell me there is nothing wrong.

Having read the documents posted, I have to take my hat off to the individuals or team that put this system together. Talk about thinking outside the box , and it's proved to be very reliable.

2020 miles between registration in 2008 and 1st service in 2013?? I don't think so. Almost certainly starship mileage up to just before 1st MOT and then clocked. I know this goes on from experience. I bought a 3 year old Merc with 30K on it which after some investigation turned out to have 110K + on it. Needless to say the dealer took it back before things escalated. At least they had the sense to clock it to something believable. As it happened this was the end of my association with Mercs and I bought a Lexus to replace it. That was 4 Lexi ago. I wouldn't think its too difficult to get hold of replacement service books and a Lexus stamp..... G

Looks to me like some creative accounting has gone on. He wants another £1K for the hybrid battery to be replaced? Replaced or bodged?? Hybrid batteries don't cost £1000 . There are plenty of cars available at the moment and there are enough red flags here to make me walk away from this one.

Snap. My RX went in for service on Monday and it came back with a battery showing more bars than usual. I'm assuming it's something to do with the Hybrid health check that they do. Possibly they load the battery fully to see if it performs properly for the check whereas in normal use the car's computer only allows charging to 80-90%. Someone on here will know the answer.

The low speed shudder doesn't coincide with the petrol engine kicking in does it? Mine sometimes starts off in electric mode and then the petrol engine starts with a perceptible vibration, but I wouldn't describe it as a shudder. This car is very smooth and refined so it shouldn't shudder at any speed. I would be referring back to where you purchased it. As for the high speed vibration - wheel balance?? Somebody else will be along shortly with their suggestions.

I too had a good look at this 3 years ago and I discovered that a spare is listed on Lexus USA website but it was not confirmed it would fit the GSF/RCF. I also raised a query with Lexus Customer Services who didn't want to answer me until I threatened to ask their MD Euan Shepherd to see it he knew the answer. The answer I got then was this: "I have contacted our Product Team who have confirmed that Toyota GB vehicles are not imported with a spare wheel as part of the car's homologated design, hence Toyota GB would not be able add to a vehicle that has been designed as such for sale in a particular market for that country. Again I apologise that it is not possible to supply a spare wheel for your Lexus vehicle." So to recap, it seems that a spare wheel is available but we are not allowed to have it because of some approval condition.

Correction - ISF has 19" wheels but the GSF brakes are still too big to fit within the wheel.

The IS F space saver won't work as the GSF has 19" wheels against the 18s on the IS F and much bigger brakes which won't fit within the ISF wheel . Somebody on here was investigating an Audi wheel , I think, but spacers/adaptors would be required, which is proably not a good idea and an absolute no-no for insurance.

Forget it. A discussion happened about this some time ago. There is nothing available that will fit the GSF/RCF and Lexus will not offer a space saver. You could buy a spare wheel at £1400 odd and put a tyre on it..... Some people have investigated using other manufacturers wheels and spacers/adaptors but this doesn't seem a good idea on a car of this power. The other problem is that the spare wheel well in the GSF is full of the TVD electronics so any spare/space saver will have to clutter up the boot. This is one of the reasons I got rid of my GSF. Those low profile tyres are so vulnerable to road debris and potholes I was always worried about damaging them. At least my old ISF had a space saver.

The fuel consumption does increase in very cold weather and on short runs as the engine runs longer to warm itself up and keep the inside warm and the batteries don't perform as well in the cold. Similar increase can occur in very hot weather because the air con depletes the batteries quicker causing the motor to run to charge them. If it's any comfort my RX was showing about 25mpg when I test drove it in March 18. Since then my average has been about 34mpg with over 40 mpg possible on a long steady run.

I should try for the longer test drive if I were you. Lexus were offering 24 hour test drives on the RX a while ago, and bearing in mind that we are in the run up to Christmas, and near the end of a very poor quarter when targets may not have been met, I shouldn't be surprised if they are cooperative. Main factor that encouraged purchase was I actually enjoy driving it. It's quiet and smooth and the big wheels just ride over most of the potholes and it will carry a considerable amount of stuff when you go to the dump. I don't need such a big car but I like it, and the hybrid drive train suits my driving style. And it's a Lexus, with the attendant build quality and reliability. The GSF was Lexus' answer to the BMW M5. Very fast and wonderful noise but irrelevant in an urban area where you have a 20mph blanket speed limit, speed humps, potholes etc. I just ended up frustrated and irritated every time I drove it.

Others have said what you need to know about the RX. All I would add is to try and get the car for the weekend for the test drive. Driving a hybrid is a different experience and you need more than a 20 min session to appreciate its advantages. I always thought RX hybrids were a waste of time, until I was loaned one for 3 weeks while my GSF was awaiting a windscreen. By the end of the 3 weeks I was converted and I now have one.

The gen 4 RX 450h is dead easy to live with. It's quiet , comfortable, .easily powerful enough to keep up with traffic and reasonably economical for a vehicle of its size and weight. It's a Lexus so it will be reliable. The downside is its size - it is big and you can't see easily how close you are to parked cars. I'd look for a model with the all round cameras . It won't fit in my garage and its slightly longer than most car parking spaces. Parking in car park spaces is easy enough if you reverse in using the rear camera. Insurance seems expensive , it cost 50% more to insure than the GSF it replaced. The ICE isn't as bad as the motoring press would have you believe, operating it is just something you get used to. I know some people have had trouble with internet access but I don't use this so don't know if it is a problem. The Sat Nav is clunky and takes some getting used to, but it usually gets where you want to go if you use some common sense. At the moment car tax for the pre April 17 models is cheaper as it doesn't get loaded for the first five years. I don't use it for towing but I've heard it will tow up to 2000kg. You need to check this. The heads up display and adjustable suspension on F Sport models and above is worth having but you might have to go up to Premier to get the all round cameras. Alternatives : I don't know, might consider a UX next time round. Depends what your priorities are. I like driving mine, even though it is a bit big, and the hybrid drivetrain suits my driving style. Any help??

If it was OK before they fitted the battery and it's not now, then that points to something that needs resetting post battery change. Lexus techs should be familiar with all the resetting procedures and they should have checked that everything works before returning the car. I'd go back to them and resist any requests for extra money. It would help to first make the checks suggested in the previous post though.