Rabbers

To judge by your photo - and unless you’re looking for the over-glossy surface most tyre dressings give - I would be optimistic.

I have now done 2500km on the Contis, and have nothing negative to report: the ride is smooth and acceptably quiet at all speeds, the grip is remarkably good, so much so as to inspire a high degree of confidence in all non-winter weathers and conditions, and there are no signs of wear (at least to the naked eye). In short, there is no performance- or quality-related reason why I might not want to buy the same tyres again. Next week I’ll be undertaking an all-motorway (mainly autobahn) drive of 1600km>, and will report again if warranted - although at this point I wouldn’t expect the tyres to be any less than excellent.

That’s interesting. We have had a spray-bottle of 303 in the house for quite some time since my wife uses it only once or twice a year to protect the back of a leather armchair from the direct sunlight it gets through a window. I guess I’ll be borrowing some!

As a matter of fact that’s what I’ve always used, generally satisfactorily except for rubber hoses etc., which tend to stay grey-ish unless treated with products like Nextzett Gummi Plege or AngelWax Elixir, both of which I find rather too expensive for this specific purpose.

Alas, John, the meagreness of my descriptive powers prevents me from responding and furthering this thread in any meaningful way. But if you are truly interested in measuring the relative potencies of the smells of cat pee and Vick Rub and blends thereof in terms of residual traces, detection ranges, scales of freshness, enclosed or open spaces etc., etc., you could perhaps buy a small jar of the latter and, with experimentation in view, seek out a cat-infested alley somewhere. The back entrances of fish restaurants would be suitable - though probably excessively prone to additional layers of smell.

Actually, Bernard, it's so miserable and tatty (as well as smelly) an object that I'd be ashamed to show it in public. But I like the entrepreneurial spirit of your suggestion ....

Norman, the picture you posted looked impressive, so I sought out the product online and noticed that the top left-hand corner of the label states that the "Engine Dressing" is "Step 2", meaning, I quickly deduced 🤓 that Meguiars would like you to undertake a "Step 1" beforehand. This, further research showed, is by using another product in the range called "Engine Clean". Would you agree that one can probably forgo the latter unless the engine and surrounding components are really filthy (which mine aren't)?

Yes, if it contains feline body odours and stray hairs.

Indeed so. I must reluctantly admit that the evanescent whiff of menthol I have been getting inside the cabin first thing in the morning has a pleasantly bracing effect on the respiratory tract after the first few sneezes.

After nearly three cat-free weeks my hopes that the offending cat or cats had moved on were dashed by the discovery one morning of multiple fresh muddy paw-prints on my bonnet. Despite my personal olfactory misgivings I therefore decided to follow your advice and try Vicks Rub as a deterrent. After generously smearing an old towel and rolling it tight, I laid it dry side out along the gap between wipers and bonnet before parking for the night. Having now done so for six consecutive nights, refreshing the dose each time, I can report that the local feline population appears to be giving the car a wide berth. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they won’t develop a taste for the stuff, but so far so good.

Interesting post. I can understand a Jewish salesmen not working Saturdays and some old-fashioned Catholics resting on Sundays, but I never heard of a car salesman not hustling his wares on a Friday …😳

I think you’re probably right … and maybe you can negotiate a bit off the asking price because of it.

Try enabling Siri on your iPhone, either by a side switch or in Settings, then toggle “Allow Siri when Locked” to On, then connect your IPhone to one of the USB sockets inside the armrest. Your display should then confirm CarPlay compatibility with instructions for enabling it. No confirmation would mean your RC model is not compatible.

I was wondering the same thing yesterday when reading this thread at my dealer while waiting for my car to be serviced. Being a little confused by the original query I took a peep inside a CT in the used-cars park, and was relieved (though not surprised) to see the parking brake pedal next to the footrest. I think confusion would be avoided if the term “parking brake” was adopted in normal parlance irrespective of foot or hand activation.

When I learned to drive I was taught that using the parking brake (i.e. the handbrake) was in and of itself beneficial because it prevented the mechanism from seizing up as the possible result of corrosion - the exception to the rule being during spells of extremely cold weather when the possibility of freezing means it is better to park with the car in first gear and the brake disengaged. When I came to own automatic cars, I acquired the habit, probably like most people, of simply parking in P, although I still from time to time, maybe once or twice a week, also engage the brake in the hope and belief that I am keeping the mechanism in adequately good shape. It occasionally crosses my mind that I might as well do it every time (as, of course, I always do when parking on a slope) but I guess I’m either too lazy or too forgetful.

The picture you paint is bleak but generally accurate, Barry. Still, it was not long ago that buying a Lexus was so idiosyncratic a choice as to border on eccentricity. A wave or nod or flash from a fellow owner would therefore have been interpreted as a confirmation of the goodness of that choice. It might even have provided a small measure of comfort, if comfort were needed, that you were not alone in having made it. For sure, you knew that any hypothetical further contact you might have had with the fellow owner would not have required you to suppress the sort of self-congratulatory smugness you regularly felt when explaining your choice to unenlightened friends and neighbours.

On the subject of being saluted by people in uniforms, one of the most extreme irritations known to man consists of being stopped by Italian police who, according to regulations or long sadistic tradition (I don’t know which), honour you with a military-type salute before asking to see your car papers and hitting you with a ticket. I am willing to swear that the smartness of the salute is proportionate to the amount of the ticket.

Specifically for insect splatters - and if you have the time - fill a spray bottle with plain warm (preferably) water, then copiously spray and gently wipe with paper towels at one minute intervals as many times as it takes to remove them all. As regards bird droppings, the sternness of the chosen method very much depends on their extent and severity, but the most important thing at all stages of any cleaning process is to loosen and lift potentially scratchy residual solids so as not to risk pressing them against the paintwork.

Difficult to tell who is and who isn’t these days.

Actually I’ve seen maybe three or four RCs on the road in the seven or so years I’ve had one, and they were too far away to be waved at or be waved at by.

I have recently noticed an increase in the frequency of friendly waves from other Lexus drivers encountered on the road. Such greetings were an almost automatic reflex in days gone by when encounters were rare, but, apart from natural exchanges of civilities between same-model owners, the custom had seemed to be disappearing apace with cumulative increases in total Lexus numbers. I don’t know if my observation of a mini-revival is purely accidental or if it evidences a more generalised rediscovery of pride of ownership. As an incurable optimist I like to think it might be the latter.

Or, as a journalist perceptively once remarked, the RC300h is not for the sort of buyer who drives around wearing a reversed baseball cap. Not that the trousers-on-fire comment isn’t equally apt, David. Indeed, so civilized is the car that even the heated seats are calibrated to gently warm rather than burn.

And there was I thinking the LC500’s sound was mainly designed to keep out the noise of waves along the Californian coast. Obviously it can also keep rattlesnakes awake in the hills.

Brett, the video put me right off the LC500 … (I’m joking, of course) … Does it sound like that from inside the cabin too? I mean with the windows closed.

For one man’s comments on the two versions see my “2019 v. 2016 RC300h F-Sport - First Impressions” posted on the present Forum on 27 September 2019.