Rabbers

I change the cabin filter myself once a year, instructing my dealer not to do it at service time because (a) it is a simple operation I can do myself whenever I think it necessary, and (b) the active charcoal type sold by MANN-FILTER, which is a specialist German manufacturer of filters, is at least half the price of the Toyota/Lexus one and is not detectably different in physical quality and performance. I usually inspect the filter if there have been unusual amounts of seasonal pollen, and after any long periods of rain or, especially, wet fog, when the filter can get quite damp or even soggy. I must admit I find the throwing out of a dirty filter to be rather pleasurable.

I’ve just looked more closely at the link you provided for the Optimum No Rinse, and was shocked by the high price asked on that site. I see that Amazon’s prices in some other countries are also generally high, but quite variable, the lowest by far for the 32oz bottle being €29.50 in Germany. I don’t remember how much I paid six or seven years ago (I think it was in a motorway shop in France) but I can’t imagine it would have been more than €20. All I can say is that although a little of the product goes a long way, it would be a good idea to shop around before buying on Amazon.

Yes, that’s the one. I rarely use it as a rinseless wash, which is the purpose for which it’s marketed, but adding a small amount to the rinse water after normal shampooing makes water spots a thing of the past.

Good idea, no doubt, but I think that despite the apparent contradiction in terms you’ll find a capful of Optimum No Rinse in your rinse bucket maybe easier and just as effective.

I should perhaps be posting this under Jokes with a warning about off-colour content but decided to stay in this thread since it is where I first heard about the auto seat ventilation feature (see NemesisUK’s OP). Chatting with my dealer when I took my RC for service yesterday, I mentioned in passing that it is a pity it doesn’t have the aforementioned feature. He agreed that it is by common consent a nice addition to cabin comfort, with the cooling mode having been particularly appreciated during this past exceptionally hot summer. He added that although long experience has taught him to keep a straight face on hearing unusually outlandish comments and opinions from customers, he admitted to recently almost collapsing with mirth when one very satisfied but untypically vulgar customer couldn’t stop enthusing about how the system allows him to quickly revert to manual mode and so change the nature and reverse the direction of wind at times of physical need.

Only in the evening, surely?

Glad you are enjoying the RX, Peter, especially the extra comfort, which is never a bad thing. I particularly like the thought of automatic ventilated seats, which is a feature of which I had not previously heard. I wish you hadn’t mentioned black-tie events. When I pulled my dinner-jacket out of a decade-long hibernation a couple of years ago, I not only felt I looked like a Swing-Era bandleader but was forced to have the seams let out after a button popped.

Perhaps not, but the figure is not entirely without logic. The recommended pressures for my RC are 2.5 BAR on all four corners. My TPMS readings after overnight parking can vary but, except for occasional bigger drops because of serious frost, they rarely fall below 2.3-2.4 after being set at 2.7 in winter, thus matching what I see with the recommended setting of 2.5 in the warmer months. So the extra 0.2 seems about right. While on the subject I am reminded of a story about Alain Prost, the F1 driver. Legend has it that he was so sensitive to his cars’ setup that he could immediately tell when he got in whether one of the tyres was under- or over-inflated by as little as 0.1 BAR. This was less impressive when you consider that the pressure on F1 tyres is usually no more than 1.0-1.1 BAR, but it was impressive nevertheless.

As a general rule I exactly follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for my summer tyres but add 0.2 BAR on changing to winters in anticipation of the colder ambient temperatures and consequent decreases in pressure to be expected, for example, after overnight parking. I used to do the same during the colder months even when living in places where seasonal tyre changes were unnecessary.

Wishing you all the best - and please stay in touch.

I also find a damp microfibre cloth - the bigger the better - best for giving the bodywork a final dry because it also allows you to clean any small areas you might have missed.

Truly the end of an era.

I’ve seen an RC with roof bars for skis, so, although I don’t know the brand or specifications, I confirm that they can be fitted. Therefore I suggest you keep looking.

That’s a fair comment. And yet, now you mention it, I’ve never seen the owning of a big dog listed among the reasons for buying a SUV, oddly enough.

I haven’t had business dealings with the U.K. for many years now, but there used to be something called the Trade Descriptions Act which aimed to protect consumers from demonstrably false product claims, and was generally taken seriously by sellers and buyers alike. It seems to me that any formal contradiction by one of its own representatives of Lexus’ published description of a product as being genuine leather would constitute grounds for a customer complaint under law. To what extent the customer might want to economically exploit the complaint (by which I mean go through the hassle of doing so) is of course entirely up to them, bearing in mind that the manufacturer might have reserved the right, if so stated, to modify its published specifications at any time and without notice.

Which I guess is why I tend to go for leather cleaning products which, at least for a few days, add the smell of old-fashioned real leather.

Confirmed. Tried this morning, and the symbol appeared on the MID after I took hands off the wheel for 3-4 seconds and the car started to drift. Strangely, this only happened at the second attempt although there appeared to be no appreciable difference in times and amounts of drift. This is my second car with LDA, so I must have been doing something right over the years. Not that I often switch it on except on the motorway. The only related warning I had previously seen was the coffee-cup symbol/invitation to take a rest as a consequence of excessive sway and frequency of lane departures, invariably on winding roads when I forgot to switch the system off.

I don’t know of a full-screen image of the steering wheel symbol with or without an accompanying text, or relatable to the LDA, but if there is an exclamation mark next to the image it would be warning you of a malfunction in the power steering system. Texts accompanying warning symbols usually tell you to immediately take the car to a dealer for inspection.

Peter, I had been waiting for you to properly settle in to your ownership of the RX before getting around to enquiring if and how much more demanding its routine detailing might be compared to the RC, but it seems you are alteady well on the way to answering the question ….

Oldie (indeed positively ancient) but still a goodie …

… sometimes purgatively so.

I recently came across an interior cleaner called Omnia (no shine, goes without saying), which is one of a comprehensive line of premium detailing products, including some innovative ones, manufactured in Italy by Labocosmetica, a subsidiary of Mafra, itself the local market leader. I found it better than anything I have used before, lifting unsuspected further grime from surfaces I thought were perfectly clean. Look up Labocosmetica.com to find the U.K. distributor and read about the products.

There have been many discussions about this over the years on the LOC with no consensus being reached one way or the other. As for me, I have noticed no improvements in mileage and performance when using premium grade fuel in any car I have ever owned. As a consequence I have in all humility come to regard enthusiastic third-party claims about extra punchiness and better acceleration as a possible confirmation of my own personal inadequacy in properly judging a car’s performance. With the best will in the world I have tried to apply the principle that if I always want the best for myself, I should also want the best for my car, but, since I get no objectively detectable response after filling it up with “the good stuff”, I have given up on it (for the car, I mean). Filling up with premium every five or six tanks in order to “flush out” the system might seem a good compromise solution in respect of always using regular grade alone. At least you might get the feeling that you are doing something good and certainly not bad for the car. You would probably get the same result by using an injector-cleaning additive like STP with similar frequency and maybe save a few pennies at the same time, but why bother?

I have often noticed slight deviations from recommended pressures after servicing, which I then habitually rectify within the next couple of days. I’m glad to say, on the other hand, that all four are always spot on after seasonal winter/summer tyre changes done by my trusted tyre dealer. In the certainty that the recommended pressures were figured out as optimal by Lexus at the car’s development stage, I try and maintain them at all times, perhaps adding 0.1 to the rears when embarking on a long motorway drive with a full boot.

Hearty congratulations, Peter! Looks splendid. 👏👏 Guess you’ll now be looking literally down at your former fellow RC owners!