Rabbers

You don’t necessarily have to believe advertising claims, Malc. Personally, I‘ve always been a sucker for good advertising and promotional copy, so much so that I’ll buy one product instead of another for no other reason. Of course, I speak not of purchases that require a bit of in-depth analysis like car insurance but mainly of products you pick off a shelf.

Ultrasonic Blue Mica?

I don’t live in the U.K. and am not familiar with Messrs Adrian Flux but, after reading this thread, I thought I’d take a quick peep at their ad on the LOC. Objectively, one cannot disagree with Ala Larj. By alluding to an “owner’s club” the ad aims to give the impression that the LOC is making a formal and specific recommendation to its members whereas the copy is clearly written to suit similar platforms for any or all other car marques and their customers. This is - or could be considered - misleading advertising or even an insult to people’s intelligence, but surely not many targeted customers are fooled by it? The charitable view would be that both advertisers and the sellers of advertising need to make a living.

Yes, I know that. But I have noticed that the authorisation of repairs under manufacturer’s warranty can nowadays involve a degree of indecisiveness that was once not at all typical of Lexus.

Great news. Patience rewarded. Looks like Lexus is looking more closely than formerly at its warranty costs.

Of course any attempt by a mid-range Lexus to outpace its German direct counterparts on the autobahn would end in humiliation. However, with the ACC set at 160kmh (= approx. 150kmh actual), which is a speed at which I feel safe and consider more than adequate to get me to planned destinations, I would back the RC300h to compare favourably with the best of them. At that speed I can converse with my passenger and make phone calls without raising my voice, satisfactorily listen to music, and generally enjoy the passing scenery. I can also brake hard with the car staying level, and easily remain perfectly centred in my lane without needing to wrestle with the steering during changes of camber and gradients and buffeting by side-winds. Above all, I can end a long day's drive without feeling knackered (which was not always the case with the IS300h, the IS200, and still less the IS200, though it must be said that the evolution in comfort and stability over the years has been constant and very noticeable and mainly due to chassis improvements). Occasionally, during a long autobahn drive when conditions permit it, I will increase the speed and try to nudge the maximum, but I do this not with pleasure in mind but out of simple boredom. Given that the practical importance of noise suppression and stability increases in proportion to speed, I thought to mention Germany in the first of my above posts because it is the only European country where, despite frustrations from seemingly never-ending roadworks and terrible rush hour traffic around large towns, drivers are not prevented (at least not yet) from enjoying the benefits of good aerodynamics and any evolving enhancements thereof. Of course enjoyment is itself enhanced if those benefits are identified and, if possible, even minimally understood by non-technical persons such as myself - and this is where I have found this thread to be helpful. With specific regard to the 2019 RC300h I would say that it corners and takes slow curves better and quicker than its 2016 predecessor in everyday driving on normal roads as the result of improved rear suspensions but, more importantly, is also noticeably quieter at motorway speeds. This latter improvement mainly derives, I think, from a series of aerodynamic tweaks that include an added horizontal splitter below the radiator grille, completely redesigned headlight and DRL housings, revamped side-mirrors and rear lights, and redesigned rear flanks.

Same here, but I must say that my relationship with the mudflaps on the 2016 RC was one of love/hate. Love because they were fairly effective in reducing accumulations of dirt on the car's rear, Hate because they objectively worsened the car's appearance. I have learned to live without them on the 2019 RC and, all in all, I don't miss them.

I drive the entire length of Germany and back at least twice a year, cruising when possible at 150-160kmh and sometimes more on long stretches of autobahn. Assessed on its own merits rather than comparisons with other cars (not having driven any in similar conditions in recent years) the RC300h is an extremely quiet and stable car. Significant differences in the levels of cabin noise between old and new road surfaces indicate that most of it emanates from the tyres, wind and other external noises being barely detectable on smooth stretches where the tyres are quietest. I take this as evidence of a combination of good soundproofing and good aerodynamic design. Only the Lexus engineers/designers can quantify the contribution to the latter of the fins described in various posts above, but I would suppose it to be significant if only because they serve no aesthetic purpose and would therefore not have been incorporated into the design in the first place.

Len: I have recently been unaccustomedly posting from my phone and must have scrolled past Peter’s post and maybe others that made my own entirely unscientific observations largely redundant, for which I apologise.

Indeed so. I would think the protuberance on the NX's rear wheel arches serves to reduce rear-section turbulence and improve stability at motorway speeds, and insofar as it is centred in an area where horizontal streaking from road dirt tends to occur in wet conditions, it may also help to reduce the amount. It seems that even very small aerodynamic devices can have a significant effect. Among the "fins" on the surfaces of the RC is a horizontal arrow-shaped bulge some 3cm in length contained in a triangular plastic panel located on the door sill just forward of the side-mirrors, and its purpose puzzled me until I first opened my window at high speed on the motorway. Whereas the noise entering the cabin of the IS I previously had, which did not have the fin, was intolerable at similar speeds, so much so as to constitute one of my few complaints about the car, the RC was much quieter by comparison. Without claiming to understand the arcane science of aerodynamics, I attributed this to the fin's ability to deflect oncoming air away from the mirror.

My take on this thread is that the ACC is more easily operated than described. I have always supposed (and still do) that the ACC only applies the brakes on downhill gradients as the result of a more than slight excess over the set speed or, alternatively, when a vehicle in the road ahead enters the selected radar range. If the excess caused by the gradient is slight (see several posts above) the ACC stabilises the speed by throttling back, and only when it cannot maintain the set distance in respect of the vehicle ahead will it apply the brakes and disengage the speed setting pending manual re-engagement. I generally find it easy to detect (admittedly without fear of contradiction by any in-car system) when the ACC is applying the brakes because of the comparatively powerful and possibly sudden slowing effect thereby produced. At high speeds, say 130kmh+, the braking effect combined with the rapidly increasing closeness of the preceding vehicle can be so startling as to cause one to override the system by unnecessarily stepping on the brake pedal as a reflex action. Or so I find though others may not. If proof is desired that the ACC is applying the brakes, it can be had in damp conditions when the glow of the brake lights is reflected off the road surface into your rear-view mirrors. Another way is to judge the behaviour of the cars behind you, which more often than not react more quickly when they see brake lights.

Glad to see that the traditional British sense of humour in the face of adversity still exists. Frankly, viewed from across the Channel, the situation looks pretty sad to anyone with affection for Britain.

In the early days of this Forum quite a few new owners of Lexus hybrids would post about how exceptionally quiet the cars were, and some of us were not above admitting to taking a perverse delight in silently creeping up behind pedestrians in EV mode and giving them a (hopefully) mild fright, supermarket trolley-wheelers being prime candidates. As for myself, the novelty wore off years ago apace with the rise in the number of people with ear-phones or similarly unaware of their surroundings who are as much of a danger to your car as your car is to them.

Lexus’ admission in its manuals that set speeds “may” be exceeded on downhill gradients could be read as a disclaimer in the event that a legal speed limit is exceeded as the possible result of a driver’s unreserved and consequently misplaced reliance on the CC system’s accuracy.

On the four cars I have had with ACC (two ISs and two RCs), the set speed on downhill stretches has always tended to be exceeded by 1-2%, and by up to a maximum of 3-4% on particularly steep ones. Any larger excess would need to be looked at by your dealer.

Peter: Whatever the solution to the mystery will be, I imagine you are thanking your lucky stars that the car is still under warranty. How long will Lexus Tech take to respond?

I wouldn’t buy one unless I already had a matching Structural Blue LC. I would then learn to play it, but worry about it taking up at least half of my boot space.

I’ve been wondering the same thing, and also suspect expired leases are a likely reason.

Yes. Sorry to be so pedantic 😉!

Am making a playlist of songs proposed in this thread (despite being distracted by my failure to fathom the connection between tormented souls, pedantry, and Paul [sic] Coelho). The absence of classic Chuck Berry numbers from the thread is surprising. No other artists' repertoires included so many car-themed songs. Admittedly the lyrics are somewhat dated but, like the muscle cars concerned, deserving of a trip down memory lane.

I hope my screen is not acting up in sympathy with yours (🤞) but whenever I change the map scale it now momentarily goes blank before reverting to business as usual.

All good songs so far. But nothing that compares with Kraftwerk “AUTOBAHN”, impressionistic electro music from a bygone age (1974!!!) when driving on motorways was enjoyable. YouTube choices range from 3 to 20+ minutes, so pick your own.

Chuck Berry: “Jaguar and Thunderbird”

Speaking as someone rarely attracted to new technological devices and gadgets, mainly because I feel they might weaken the faculties I was born with after forcing me to acquire new habits when I was happy with old ones, I admit that I was surprised to be immediately comfortable with the digital mirrors. In fact, my only practical criticism, admittedly after short acquaintance, regards the small size of the screen and not its contents. On the other hand, we’re it to exist, I would certainly prefer a system based on normal mirrors but incorporating an option to switch to and from digital images at will. I found your mention of a plasma windscreen a bit terrifying, especially as it would be surprising if someone somewhere is not trying to develop one. But, then again, were such a windscreen to work in conjunction with something flying overhead, lengthening your visual horizon, enabling you to see around corners, and eliminating blind curves, it might be quite useful… 👁!

I would argue with "arguably".