Rabbers

You might want to look at a thread on this topic IS300H Ground Clearance & Steep Driveways started on this forum by sc489 on 6 March 2015. Several of us had this problem but, regrettably, no solution was forthcoming.

I recall a related but less serious problem with the boot-lid of my 2016 RC300h. Quite often it didn't close at the first attempt, and on one occasion it sprang open when I drove over a bump. I resolved the problem simply by putting a drop of oil on the catch and its housing and working the mechanism a few times. To be precise, I used Singer Sewing Machine Oil, courtesy of my wife - but I'm sure any light mineral oil would also have done the trick. I don't know if this will also work for you, but it will do no harm to try.

I may be wrong but I thought the correct English nomenclature was Hock, and that you’ll find the best bottles in the cellars of one or two wine merchants in St James who are only too happy to sell them back to Germany.

One of the first things I have noticed on driving unfamiliar Lexus models, for example in the case of test drives, loaners and new purchases, is the different weightings of the steering. The differences are slight and one adjusts to them so quickly as to be left wondering if they actually existed. Frankly, I’ve never thought to mention it before now because of the possibility of subjective impression. Be this as it may, I have found the steering to be lighter in larger cars like the RX, NX and ES than in smaller ones like the RC, IS and CT.

“Mitbestimmung”?

I love snow, but only on Xmas cards.

Without being asked to do so, my tyre guy, when fitting my winter tyres, adds 0.1-0.2 BAR bringing the recommended pressures of 2.5 all-around in the RC's case to 2.6-2.7. This has always proved sufficient for them not to drop below 2.2 at worst even after overnight parking in the open at temperatures perhaps as low as -10°C.

I don’t doubt that owners need all the luck they can get in terms of reliability but I would think the designers were aiming for an intimidating knitted brow/frown effect. Somewhat ridiculously in my opinion.

Windscreen repairing/replacement is certainly a growth business in Italy and no doubt elsewhere. Within a 20km radius of my home I can today choose between four different franchises. Five years ago there was only one. Yes, I will be touching wood immediately after posting this.

I would guess that if factory pressures are set higher for Lexus it might be because all or almost all units are shipped from Japan whereas most Toyota delivery distances are relatively much shorter and conditions prospectively less onerous.

Thanks for the prompt reaction. I believe I did nothing incorrectly since the login instructions and procedure are perfectly simple and clear and by no means unfamiliar. The issue seems to have purely concerned password recognition, and now thankfully appears to be resolved.

I got the message to sign in as an existing member of the LOC every time I tried to post on a Forum this past week using my iPhone but not my Mac even though the two are linked. Whenever I tried to log in on the iPhone after being asked to confirm, successfully, that I am Not A Robot, I was then told that either my User Name or my Password were incorrect when neither of them were. So I proceeded to change my password anyway and twice managed to successfully log in and post in swift succession. But not the next day, when I needed to repeat the whole sequence again after my access was several times locked for, strangely, “14 Minutes” each time before I could Try Again. If the present writing successfully posts I will be happy to think that my latest password has finally been accepted or adopted or registered or digested or whatever by the system. I know, Malcolm, that we are talking about different systems but it could perhaps be that for some reason or another both systems require time for password changes to be recognized.

There was another LOC post on this subject some years ago, and as I was at my dealership waiting for my car to be serviced, I mentioned it to the workshop manager, who is also responsible for inspecting new cars on their receipt into stock. He confirmed that new Lexus (though not in his experience Toyota) cars arrive with tyres overinflated by 0.2-0.3BAR or more and therefore require correction before sale (which does not mean that all dealers are efficient or conscientious enough to do it). He could offer no explanation beyond the probability that the potentially huge fluctuations in temperatures during maritime transportation from Japan to all parts of the world might involve the risk of a significant reduction of tyre pressures and therefore of prospective damage to the tyres themselves not only when the cars are driven off the boats but also during the further series of reconsignments and reloadings they undergo before reaching their final destinations.

I once tried turning the display off in order to see if I could do without the map screen, which I habitually keep on - I imagine like most people - even when I know exactly where I am and where I am going and consequently have no need for the nav function. I must admit that my experiment was of very brief duration for the simple reason that I almost immediately understood that an active screen regardless of the content has for better or worse become an essential component of my cabin environment notwithstanding its frequent redundancy.

Best reason I ever heard for avoiding a place.

You’re absolutely right about that. The trouble is that my wife simply cannot face the day without breakfast, so that when we travel together, I inevitably end up with two breakfasts on the hotel bill. When I travel alone (which is rare nowadays) I never take breakfast in the hotel but head for the nearest place where I can get served at a fairer price. Believe it or not, I sometimes used to do this as a matter of principle even when travelling at company expense. The thing about hotel breakfasts is that you can quite easily estimate the difference between the costs and the price of what you eat, and, as far as I’m concerned, gross margins that often look to be around 90% are difficult to accept regardless of the quality, class and location of the hotel.

I’ve never minded paying for hotel parking provided that it is guests-only and secure. I can’t offhand recall ever having been asked to pay for open-access hotel parking in any country, though I know one or two hotels in Germany with reduced-rate reserved spaces for guests in adjoining public car-parks. I don’t like the practice but at least the spaces have mechanical barriers and are CCTV-monitored by the hotel reception.

90000km service carried out this morning, with change of plugs as per schedule. The car ran smoothly before, and now it runs even more smoothly.

Both my 2016 and 2019 RCs have been Sonic Titanium. Had I ordered the 2019 car to my own specifications I would probably have gone for Metallic red or maybe blue, but I preferred ready delivery straight out of the showroom to a long wait. Objectively, I have not regretted what, if only on the grounds of Sonic Titanium’s popularity, I thought might have been a boring choice. But, after more than than six years of the daily sight of fundamentally the same car, I remain impressed by the colour’s intrinsic ability to project a multiplicity of shades and nuances of light and dark grey in accordance with how the folds and bulges of the bodywork take the light - and, of course, in accordance with how the light itself changes during the day and with the seasons.

Complete and utter nonsense.

It struck me on reading the OP that Stephen's same question would have been asked - but the other way around - by the writers of the Disney/Pixar Cars movies as their basis for naming the characters, i.e. if a car were human what human would he or she be? The names reflecting the traits and appearances purportedly depicted by the cars thus include, for example, Lightning McQueen=Ford GT40, Sally Carrera=Porsche 911, Doc Hudson=Hudson Hornet, Lizzie=Model T Ford, Luigi=Fiat 500 etc., etc.

Bernard, if you're interested in that particular subject you might want to consult DavidCM's latest post in the Boomer's Epitaph thread.

It's got to be a Bertone-designed Volvo, maybe the 780?

… and for starting a bonfire on damp days.

If it isn’t a Lexus, who cares?