Rabbers

..... Two months later I'm in Denmark parked next to a Polestar 2, of which I've been seeing quite a few around. Don't have much to say except that I hadn't seen one close-up before. Comparisons are rather meaningless, but I will comment that, despite its age, I find my RC better looking if only because it's a coupé. The Polestar's owner let me take a peep inside and I was perhaps less impressed than he was when I subsequently returned the favour with my RC. The quality of both cars is visibly high but Lexus' is higher - though, in fairness, it must be said that the Polestar's cabin is probably ideal for anyone looking to balance minimalism with a good degree of space and comfort. This entry-level 270bhp version gets to 100kmh in just over 6' against the RC300h's 8'+, making it a nippy car though the owner admitted that he and most other Danish private customers buy it less for performance than for its spaciousness and claimed Volvo-like solidity and probable long life compared to Tesla. The guy added that he would have preferred to buy the sleeker and more luxurious SUV-type "3" Polestar but couldn't afford one at not much less than twice the price of the "2".

I still occasionally use Voice Command for Navigation, getting an estimated 60% first-time success rate with my commands. This is far from satisfactory but an improvement over earlier versions of the system, which were a total disaster. For some unknown reason, and after long periods of perseverance, I have managed a slightly higher success rate with Music commands, though I am currently back to working the touchpad after repeatedly getting Little Richard Greatest Hits upon asking for Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations, which is something I would hitherto have thought phonetically impossible.

I’ve been following this thread with interest but without quite understanding some of the complaints about noise. I’ve twice had an ES as a courtesy car, totalling some 6-700km on all kinds of roads, good and bad, fast and slow, and must say I’ve rarely driven a quieter car. I don’t remember what brand or brands the tyres (19” both times) were, but since the cars were practically new they would as likely as not been OEM Dunlops or Bridgestones, neither of which impressed me from an acoustic standpoint when I had them on RC and IS F Sport models. So go figure.

I bought a set of locking wheel nuts (Toyota brand for Lexus) about twenty years ago for my first Lexus, an IS200, and have transferred them from one car to the next six times thereafter. Frankly they have become something of an annoyance with every seasonal change of tyres, but although I keep intending to discard them I continue not to. Something to do with superstition perhaps.

Could be, I suppose, but I read it as a possible solution to a crossword clue like “A county west of London populated by a synonym for idiots” (which, of course, would not reflect reality).

Glad to hear it, though I had the impression that several Tesco forecourts over a wide area were affected, implying a mishap at the refining or distribution levels.

I recall visiting the U.K. by car a few years ago, mainly the Surrey/Sussex area, and seeing warnings on TV about Tesco petrol after numerous customer reports of breakdowns due to clogged injectors. Presumably the issue, which appeared quite serious, was satisfactorily resolved. Not that it can have done Tesco’s reputation much good.

Not only them. I used to enter the U.K. with an Italian ID card. Post-Brexit I need a passport, which, it so happens, I have always had mainly for travel outside Europe, but I know few people who will bother to get one for the U.K. alone.

What saddens me, when I think about it, is my increasing tendency to go out of my way to praise courtesy and efficiency when I would once have considered them normal. As specifically regards Lexus, I must say that I have had very few complaints about my dealer’s courtesy and efficiency over almost two decades, though I have noticed signs of declining standards largely due to personnel changes. In this connection it could be argued that customers being asked to comment on their dealer’s performance after servicing etc., is itself an admission on Lexus’ part that we might be less satisfied than in the days when it was considered unnecessary to ask.

I make it a rule not to remain on hold for more than five minutes unless credibly messaged that I’ll soon be put through, preferring, if I so choose, to try again later. Incidentally, I remember once being told by someone in the hold-music business that the worst possible tune in terms of potential customer alienation risk is Ravel’s Bolero. The effect of the crescendo is to create a feeling of frustration which, if prolonged to excess, is likely to generate anger and loss of customer goodwill.

Hopefully it was a busy time, because if it wasn’t, they (and you) have a serious problem.

As a rule of thumb, if you don’t receive a fine by registered delivery within 100 days from any EEC country you probably never will. And should you do so and the date of issue is beyond 100 days from that of the claimed offense you can feel free to tear it up.

Being a law-abiding person but mainly, I must admit, because I considered it a cheap way to avoid prospectively getting hassled by French traffic policemen (which is something I can do without both intellectually and out of personal sensitivity), I bought a Crit'Air vignette for my previous car, which was also an RC300h, some six years ago. I have been in France twice in my present car, including one stay of more than a week inside the Périphérique in Paris, without having bought a Crit'Air, simply because I forgot until it was too late before i could receive it through the post before leaving. The Paris trip was nearly a year ago, and I feared getting a fine through the post courtesy of an electronic eye, but this hasn't happened.

If by “newer versions” you mean the 2019 facelift, the answer is no, the tail-lights having been redesigned in both size and geometry for this version (which was the second and last).

Comic for some, nostalgic for others, and probably a bit of both for many.

My aim - admittedly a boring one - was to make obvious what to some might have appeared to be a joke. Certainly, it was not my aim to raise the subject of the relative prowesses of Frenchmen and Englishmen in expressing themselves in each other’s languages. But, since the subject was raised, I will offer my observation, as a third party, that the degree of fluency, both spoken and written, of the average French anglophone is higher than that of a British francophone. Why this should be is difficult to say, but, historically, it probably has a lot to do with insularity on the one side and greater commercial and perhaps cultural incentives on the other. Something that has always struck me as odd is the frequency with which British comedians get laughs from their fellow countrymen’s distorted attempts to speak foreign languages, thus selling the country undeservedly short. Linguistic self-satire of this nature is rare in the majority of other countries.

If you scroll down to the last section of the website you’ll find a Country >[Select Language] button. Seeing that all main European countries > [Languages] are listed except for U.K. > [English] one would assume that Coyote no longer operates in the U.K., at least not under that name.

No question about it. And lots of them is even better…. It was mainly the many toys included in the top-spec packages that you had to pay for with other marques that first attracted me to Lexus.

Congratulations on your car, Tony. It’s good to see a new wave of appreciative owners of a rare and beautiful car. My own favourite feature remains the brief pause before the windows gently slide closed, but there are so many other indicators of quality that in time you come to almost take them for granted.

Used to be the remedy of choice for flea-bites, so I guess it was popular in hippie communities. But surely you didn’t use it for that, did you?

Excellent as an example of corks-on-your-hat stryne humour, David. Regrettably I wouldn’t know where to find a cricket bat within a 2000km radius of where I live. But thanks anyway.

Coyote is a French-owned subscription speed-camera alert system compatible with the Lexus CY17 navigation system. A free three-year subscription was offered via the MyLexus e-store app in 2019 on new RC, ES, UX, LS and maybe other models in Italy, France, Spain and also, I believe, Benelux. Renewal was to have been €99 yearly, though I believe the charge actually went down. I didn’t renew on expiry of my own free subscription last November, not because I didn’t find the system useful but because I find Lexus’ own system largely adequate for my own needs. For those unfamiliar with the Coyote system it alerts users of fixed speed cameras and is constantly updated both by the company’s own channels and the community of users who update the data base for the presence of new cameras on one or both sides of the road simply by highlighting the Coyote logo on the car display. You can also alert fellow users about any mobile cameras you might spot but I neither received or issued any such alert in the entire three years of the subscription. The system also provides real-time warnings of accidents, queues, stationary vehicles, roadworks etc., within a 30km radius. Most of the Coyote’s proprietary features were supposedly going to be incorporated into Apple CarPlay but, as far as I know, no deal was ever reached.

Sound advice from a man of obviously liberal views, though some would say old tea bags are best avoided.

I’m guessing an older one would be probably be more cooperative.

Do all the wheel nuts still look to be in good condition and properly tight?