Rabbers

Note the staggered wheels. Must be an F-Sport model …

This lesson was taught me unwittingly by a Lexus salesman while consigning my first IS300h a few years ago. After fluently demonstrating the various functions of the electronic key (with which I was already largely familiar from the IS250), he had moved on to another subject when the alarm suddenly sounded, sending him into panic mode and deafening everybody inside the showroom. Fortunately the junior mechanic who checked and groomed cars for delivery was on hand to stop the noise and explain what had happened.

You’ll get a warning message before the battery goes flat and, if my memory serves me right, the audio, if this is the culprit, automatically switches off either simultaneously with the warning or very soon after it.

The fatter rear tyres on the 2016 RC F-Sport are a feature carried over to the 2019 model also. As in all staggered tyre size set-ups, the wider tread on the drive wheels provides more grip in acceleration and better handling and cornering. The fatter rears also look better - sportier and more purposeful - and I suspect this factor was at least as important in the RC's designers' thinking as the better handling. I once drove a non- F-Sport RC with uniform-size 18" wheels for about 25-30km in fluid town traffic before getting back into my own F-Sport immediately afterwards, and I can confirm that the stability in cornering was decidedly inferior, though it should be kept in mind that the F-Sport is also favoured by the adaptive suspensions.

You’re probably right. Personally I’m not in the market for a plug-in but I had heard that the going rate for a wall-box is closer to €1000, installed. Be this as it may, it looks like Lexus Italy will charge twice that, and I wouldn’t think the price will differ much from one country to the next. As regards the €500 deal for the wall-box I strongly suspect it represents a “self-liquidating offer” whereby the seller is simply looking to cover costs. Without knowing what the alloys look like - though I can’t imagine that they would be of less than acceptable quality - the price of €500 for a set thereof plus winter tyres looks like a much better deal, even if Lexus’ list price of €3400 is also extremely steep by comparison with what can be got independently.

I think, having consulted the Lexus sites of several of the main continental European countries as well as the U.K., that the following introductory deal, applicable to both the 450 and 350 versions of the 2021 NX, may at the time of writing be running only in Italy, where it first appeared online yesterday. I am guessing it will soon also appear elsewhere and may therefore be worth previewing on this Forum. The deal consists of a prospective purchaser paying an upfront fee of €300 (refundable in the event of non-purchase) and obtaining, at the price of €500 apiece at the time of delivery, one or both of two optional packages consisting of a Set of Alloys/Winter Tyres (List Price €3400) and a so-called Recharge Pack (Plug-in Wallbox including Installation, List Price €2000). Clearly the latter will be of interest only for the 450+. The deal also includes priority delivery scheduling. Oddly, in my view, there is no mention of the payment deadline for the upfront €300, or of the list prices of the cars themselves, or of hypothetical delivery times. For the rest of it, the information is already familiar from the international reveal campaign.

I used to enjoy irritating people by sucking harder on the straw by way of amplifying the bottom-of-the-carton burble, especially if the movie was crap.

Sounds like the sort of problem that could be made worse if you are not absolutely sure of what you are doing. I would take the car to a specialist bodyshop and hear what they say before trying anything.

I currently drive an RC300h, my second after a long line of ISs, and had been worrying about my likely future need to switch from Lexus in view of the absence of models I want or can afford in the present range. On the basis of the pre-launch information, and assuming acceptable pricing of a fully-loaded version, the new NX350h looks very attractive - and enough of an improvement over the present 300h in terms of power and performance - to overcome my prejudices. I have booked a test drive for when my dealer gets a first unit (September or maybe a little earlier).

Who, I guess, would then immediately have got the Vehicle Maintenance team fired for leaving factory film on a bit of equipment.

They would have called Tom Hanks for advice.

This is the sort of minor but fiddly job that would drive me crazy, the line between perseverance and obsession being a thin one. I would probably give it a rest for a day or so before returning to the attack with a fresh mind. Maybe you could trim the points of one or more of the aforementioned bamboo skewers or other similar non-scratching implements (e.g. plastic crocheting hook) into suitably angled shapes.

Looks like unremoved protective film starting to wrinkle from heat. Maybe you could try reaching and lifting it with the point of a long bamboo skewer. Any remaining fragments or residue could be removed by swabbing with cotton wool moistened with acetone affixed to the same skewer.

To safely remove any droppings that have crusted or simply look too serious to respond to plain water I keep an applicator with a small quantity of Dodo Juice Lime Prime cleaner, specifically the non-abrasive Lite formulation, in my glove compartment. Works quickly and effectively every time.

Plain lukewarm water, dry immediately with a cotton, not microfibre, cloth. If you have difficulty in reaching corners buy an extendable “reach and clean” tool such as Invisible Glass.

I used Chipex for a couple of stone chips of approx. 2mm diameter on Sonic Titanium paint, and was rather disappointed with the result measured against the company’s highly persuasive advertising. I followed the instructions faithfully but the colour was perceptibly a little darker and both holes dried with a central dimple. All in all I was sorry to have spent the money.

I agree, and there is nothing that ChipsAway operatives can do that a bodyshop can’t do just as well or better and perhaps at the same cost. Usually, though, they have the advantage of doing a job more quickly. At least this is my experience as regards stone chips on bumpers, which ChipsAway repairs individually whereas a bodyshop prefers sectional spraying.

Donated by Lamborghini to the local police, possibly in the hope they'll look the other way when the company road tests its new models. I believe the Dubai police also has one and is probably less worried about the fuel and maintenance costs. Incidentally, what do you think the Tokyo police put on the LC's front badge? Is it a chrysanthemum?

Completely agree. I had the setting changed with the first service of my first RC and immediately on delivery of the second.

There may be a technical explanation for why some customisations, irritatingly, are dealer-only while others are not, but I suspect the latter simply reflect Lexus' choice of which individual settings are likeliest to be changed when a car has multiple users with prospectively different requirements. Be this as it may, I doubt whether the customisations menu was designed to provide dealers with the option of obtaining or waiving payment for what they and their customers know to be a laughably quick and simple job. However, it is not difficult to imagine a scenario wherein a dealer, judging that a gesture of goodwill would yield no potential benefit to his own business, for example when the car was purchased elsewhere by a person he may never see again - or may not want to see again - will regard payment as a possible deterrent to providing the service at all.

I’ve never had to pay for any dealer-only customisation.

While waiting for an alignment check at a tyres/alloys shop in Denmark a few years ago, I learned from a chat with the owner that his sales of AlloyGators, of which he was a stockist, were so good that he was negotiating for a bigger sales area. His optimism regarding potential sales was based on the fact that, contrary to his original expectations, the customers wanting to hide pre-existing damage to their rims were more numerous than those looking to get protection from new, the latter being a smaller market.

As regards the Coyote system I see from MyLexus that the three-year free trial period is now available only in Benelux and France, and costs €40 per year after a one-month free trial in other countries including Italy. Presumably, since it was installed via the previous owner's tethered phone or other device, this means that you would need to pay if you want it yourself. You will have a confirmation of this if you get no response when you try to activate the Coyote app in the in-car eStore menu. As regards the presence of Harman and Inrix services in the list of services inherited from your car's previous owner, I believe these are suppliers of technology relating to parking, traffic and weather data used in Toyota and Lexus navigation systems. They are also producers of speed camera alert systems in their own right in competition with Coyote among others, and if it is these rather than supplementary navigation aids that are represented in the list, they could possibly have been downloaded by the previous owner for demonstration purposes, a dealer likelier than not, since I can't imagine any private person wanting three speed alert systems including Coyote! However, as far as I know, Lexus has only ever offered Coyote.

Before going over to an RC, which is another model Lexus has disappointingly now withdrawn, I had two IS300Hs, both of which were borderline choices for me in respect of a GS. Had the ES been on the market at the time as what was intended to be the replacement for both the IS and the GS, and had I not fallen in love with the RC, I would almost certainly have bought one despite what were, and remain drawbacks of size, cabin materials and design (though not of comfort and easy driveability). And I still would, not from sentiment but from an appreciation of the level of service, exclusivity and quality, diminished though the latter may be, that Lexus still offers compared to its competitors.

I habitually change from carpet to rubber floor mats at the same time as I change from summer to winter tyres, and vice-versa. This change is also a good opportunity for giving the mats a thorough clean before storage in readiness for their next use, the rubber with applications of dressing, generously on any discoloured or spotty areas, and the carpet with shampoo if necessary. The greater likelihood of bringing in mud and wet dirt makes rubber mats a more practical winter choice and, obviously, the life of the carpet ones is lengthened correspondingly. Not that I have any complaints about the durability of the latter. The only problem regards the inevitable tendency of the driver's mat to develop a concavity where the heel rests and swivels, but this can to some degree be remedied by placing a loose piece of under-carpet netting or webbing underneath.