Spottedlaurel

A bit of prep for the forthcoming MoT on my LS400: Changed all four wheels and tyres to a better set with matching Dunlops. I thought this one might be past it..... It split like that all the way round when standing this summer. Treated it to a quick clean, as it had moss and the odd plant growing in the gaps: It's going in later this week once my son's Yaris has had its own MoT. Fingers crossed.......

I too find the boot area quite rattly. For me it's not so much the luggage cover but how securely the centre seat is fitted, it needs to be securely in place otherwise it rattles. Getting three foldable seats which can be moved forwards/backwards and reclined was obviously a bit of a design challenge.... I also put a couple of bits of self-adhesive felt trim on the little plastic flap where the tailgate latches onto the boot floor, that stopped some squeaking. I think the above are exaggerated by the firm ride. I assume they had to give what is a pretty heavy, tall car quite stiff springs to give it reasonable handling. Do you have lane change indicators? If flicked up/down but not fully clicked then you get just a few flashes, I think the number can be varied (can it even be set to zero?).

Similar story here, but 5x 1990s Camrys with one being a V6 (but no issues with reliability on my newer Lexus - the aged LS400 is a different kettle of fish). Sad to hear the current Camry is being dropped. Now if they'd only done an estate version of it (or the ES) to compete with Volvo and the German brands.....

It'll be very interesting to hear how you get on with it. As a guide to how the running gear works did you try an NX450h? I liked the electric-only side of that, but it didn't have RX levels of refinement when the 4-cyl engine cut in. Maybe that's a deliberate ploy and they've worked some magic on the RX.... As you say, if much of your mileage will be electric powered then that isn't so much of an issue and you'll benefit very nicely from what seems to me like a sensible compromise. That's why I tried the NX, it was good but didn't enthuse me as an overall package.

With regard to your second question, what sort of driving do you do? It'll drop as the weather gets colder but from my 2014 RX I'm currently getting 36-37mpg on rural A-roads with 50mph limits with some town driving. It gets better with journeys of 10-20 miles+ as the effect of the cold start is minimised. On a similar trip we get 44mpg from my wife's 1.6 petrol Auris, I think that's a reasonable trade-off for the comfort/space/driving experience. 70mpmh motorway cruising won't be much higher than low 30s, unfortunately the hybrid side of things doesn't have much chance to come into play. Servicing costs, tyres etc will be higher than a 'normal' car. A set of decent tyres on mine cost more than twice what it will be on the Auris. Hopefully it'll have decent, 'known' make tyres. Photos seem to show a bit of a mix, budget on £500-700 for a full set, ideally all-seasons. Trim level looks to be at least SE-I (see Colin Barber's PDF list pinned on here). I'd be wary if it was an SE-L with air suspension, would be worth checking that. Probably not too wise of the seller to have their address visible on the paperwork. But at least it can be seen on Streetview, with it parked on the road since 2020 and a previous-gen RX there before that. They don't look to be a trader. Good to see the Lexus Hull stamps until 2018. Hopefully the spark plugs were done at the 57k service. There looks to be a gap in 2020 but at least it looks to have been done a couple of times since then. Boot release not working, that seems to be a common issue (especially in winter time). Potentially not cheap to fix, there are several threads about it on here. Is the cat original? As a London car parked on the street it'll have been of particular risk of theft (or at least an attempt, it doesn't seem to have been such a problem on 450s but that's not to say someone hasn't tried and done some damage). The roof rails are nice to have, if you need them they're not cheap. It has the useful rear bumper protector, and you'll probably want to invest in a boot liner if the seller doesn't have one - they're not expensive. Does it have DAB (not all that age did) or a sunroof? Otherwise it has to be said it looks pretty decent for that money, certainly clean and tidy. At that mileage things are going to start needing replacement, but you're spending a fair bit less than a main dealer would want for one with fewer miles. I have no worries about the prospect of taking mine beyond 100k. I can't see it hanging around for long at that price.

Thanks all, useful info there. Good to know that the cats shouldn't have been adversely affected, but I do recall the flanges had to be bodged previously. Hopefully there's enough left of the cat pipework to weld new flanges on, then get a bespoke stainless part system made up to join onto the existing stainless at the back end. Mine's an early one with 15" wheels, small brakes etc. I know the later 400s are more useable, but there's something appealing about having one in its purest form.

Thanks both! What I'm hoping is toget it roadworthy again, then travelling to get the exhaust fitted would be feasible. I saw that ad on eBay for MIJ, based on what I paid previously I imagine it would be a fair bit more than £500 - if/when it gets its new MoT I shall have to make enquiries. I shall also have to see who people in the local East Coast Japanese Car Club use - I suspect they'll be more performance-oriented, but still worth a try.

At some point I need to try and get this old thing back on the road: It's far from perfect and it never will be, but for the foreseeable future it's the only way I can afford to keep myself in LS ownership. I'm going to put it in for an MoT soon, I know of a few things it will fail on (or that at least require attention) and the exhaust system isn't exactly healthy. Assuming I can get the other items sorted then that is something I'd like to do properly, maybe after a bit of strategic welding/bodging of joints to get it through the test. Previously I've used a local Powerflow fabricator for 'challenging' big Japanese cars, is that still likely to be the best way or is there a recommended specialist? The last one I had done was a single pipe system with a couple of silencers and it was £400-odd - with the LS's additional pipework and price rises since then I imagine it'll be rather more nowadays. I suspect I will have to replace the cats too. When a coil pack failed last year they were glowing cherry red and the joints were getting rather weak. Might be some salvage value in them which can go towards paying for non-OE replacements? Would be very interested to see/hear what others have done. I tried doing a search but I couldn't find any recent threads on this subject, sorry if I've missed one. Thanks.

If you can afford it, then I'd say yes to going for a 450. Main dealer prices on them seem to be dropping a bit now, I presume the same is the case with independents? As well as the sunroof, as mentioned in Bill's post, also try to avoid air suspension.

As a 2009 model Robert will be dealing with 19s, so hopefully less of an issue?

I can give my thoughts on most of them, as fitted to a 2014 model. I had the Michelins at the front for just under 25-30,000 miles, and a pair of dealer-fit Dunlops at the rear. I had always intended to get matching ones at the back but they just didn't wear out. Despite there being a fair bit of tread on the Dunlops I eventually went for a full set of Continental All Season Contacts earlier this year. The price was comparable, about £700 including front tracking at a local tyre place, and Michelins weren't easily available at that time. The Michelins were fine in everyday use, and as I say I got 25-30k out of them on the front, not bad for such a heavy old thing doing lots of miles on country roads. I had a couple of puncture repairs in them, fortunately both times far enough in from the sidewall. I can't say whether it was them or the older rears that caused it, but just before the full tyre change this year it was getting noisy. Changing to brand new Continentals all round made it noticeably quieter, and the ride felt a bit more supple too. Difficult to say whether that was new vs. aged/worn, or the quality of the tyres. All I can say is the Continentals are doing a great job, whether it was driving around France this summer in 35-40deg temperatures or on wet, cold roads here. Too early to say how they're wearing* or how they'll be in terms of noise/ride, but I'd happily buy them again. *Just looked at my last service record, the front were +/- 6.5mm average, and the rears +/-7mm, after something like 6-8,000 miles. Looks like the Sport Contact 5s are a summer tyre, so not strictly comparable with the Michelin. Sorry, I'm wittering away. My personal recommendation, if you can afford it, would be to ditch the Bridgestones as they'll never wear out on the back and fit either the Michelin or Continental all seasons at all four corners. Don't know if you'll use a local depot or someone online, but for comparison Black Circles are currently giving 10% off Continentals so they'd be just over £580 for four, or £40 off a full set of Michelins making a full set £750-800 depending which of the three versions are chosen. I can't see that the Michelins are circa £200 better.... N.B, I did it for 30,000 miles and had no issues, but it's not recommended to mix different season tyres front and rear, I don't know if your current Duellers are all seasons - if you want to keep them that may be a consideration?

Good luck! I daren't try a Gen 4 RX,as I know it'd spoil the older model that I currently have and want to keep for a good few years yet. Try and get as long a test drive as you can. Even then I think it's the sort of car where you might not immediately 'get' it. Takes a while to learn to how to use the hybrid to its best advantage, be that for reasonable economy or luxurious, near-silent wafting (or both). I reckon I'm using mine for the optimum journeys at present. About a 40-mile trip so it's thoroughly warmed-up, much of it on a 50mph A-road when I can roll along with minimal work from the petrol engine and a good chunk in town (with some long downhill stretches to keep the charge up). I'm getting an indicated 38+ MPG, but still enjoying the V6 every so often.

Likewise, I had at least two puncture repairs on my CrossClimates when I was running them, and had no issues. Again the repairs were done by a local garage rather than a specialist tyre place. I had a set of the Continental all seasons fitted earlier this year and I'm more than happy with them as an alternative to the Michelins.

Mine was sold new by Guildford with an RX plate. Perfect! Please get tempted by something else in 4-6 years' time, when it's got 24-36k on the clock and just nicely run-in. That'd be the equivalent of me picking up my 2014 model in 2019 with just under 23k miles. I certainly struggled with the display. At some point I'll jot down my thoughts on it, and how it compared with the RX.

Nice one! Sounds like a very attractive colour/trim combination. Although I'd love to try a Gen 4 RX one day, for the moment I'd rather not because I know it would spoil my current Gen 3 which I want to keep for a few years yet, but I fear I'd end up getting tempted like you. I did recently try an NX450h+, which I thought would be a natural step on from my RX in a few years' time (when I won't need so much space), but I think I'd miss the V6. P.S. Look after yours, could be just what I want one day......

Expensive 60k service done, plus MoT passed with just an advisory on the rear plate deteriorating. This is what a selection of the old plugs looked like: It'll be interesting to see if the economy improves, but performance-wise it feels just as it did before. I was given an NX450h+ for the day, as I'd expressed interest in trying one. I imagine it was one of their demonstrators rather than off the courtesy car fleet. An interesting experience. It could be the right car for me in a few years' time, and it drove very nicely on electric power only for the first 30-40 miles, but I found some of the tech a bit overwhelming and I certainly wasn't unhappy to get back into my RX at the end of the day.

I've never had an issue obtaining a courtesy car from Ipswich (Steven Eagell), and I didn't buy my RX from them. So far I've had an NX, Yaris with just 50 miles on the clock in the height of Covid and an electric UX last year when the fuel shortages were on. I book well in advance so I can get something in the diary on a day that suits work. Mine is going in this week for the 60,000-miles service, so an expensive exercise with the spark plugs being changed, plus MoT. For the first time they've sent me some online check-in thing. I've requested that I get to see the old plugs, I'm interested as to what they look like after almost exactly 60k and eight years. When requesting the courtesy car I mentioned that I'm interested in the new NX, specifically the 450h. I have no plans to change my RX for a few years yet, but one of those could be an eventual replacement. I'll report back as to how this goes.

Ditto on the height. I use something like this, because I already had it for work around the house: https://www.screwfix.com/p/mac-allister-aluminium-work-platform-470-x-600mm/5892p They also do a 900mm version which would probably be a bit better - I can just about do the whole length of half a roof without having to move it, with a slight stretch and putting it in just the right place, but the longer version would be easier.

Whichever is in better condition and has the better history. That doesn't automatically mean the newest one.

Very nice. Those relatively minor issues aside it looks to be in decent condition and it appears like that will continue in your ownership. Like I'm hoping with my 2014 model, should be plenty of life left in it yet.

Are the values being offered by insurance companies reflecting the higher price of used cars at present? On the basis that they usually offer "market value" they ought to be. The only car I've had written-off was an old Toyota estate that got hit up the back, it was obvious then that would be the case due to the cost of replacement parts. I had a nominal amount knocked off the settlement figure so I could keep it, then I replaced the tailgate with a spare panel I already had and got another three years or so out of it. The only implication of it being recorded as a wite-off was that my insurers wouldn't give it agreed value insurance (it was old enough to be on my classic policy).

Sorry to see this, but definitely looks worth keeping! Imagine how much it would be to go and find one that you trust, especially in the current market.

A shame they didn't keep going with them. I have previously considered Mazda 6. Great-looking cars, but for me the 19" wheels and low profile tyres on the nicer-spec models would have been an issue on the rural roads around here (and no spare wheel of any sort either). What about CX5? A pity there is no 'normal' biggish Toyota or Lexus estate.

I got this earlier in the year: The trip meter had been zeroed when I last filled-up. I think at least half the driving was done following a Morrisons lorry who was cruising on gentle A-roads at around 40mph. I think it was showing 44mpg after that journey, it dropped to 40 once I'd done my normal commute the next day. I'm also at around 36-37 currently on my 2014 model, with AC on most of the time.

I only have experience of the Avensis. Leaving aside the 2015 1.8 petrol I had for a year (best avoided), I ran a 2010 2.0 diesel for four years. Not especially powerful, but I rowed it along on the torque like an old, carb-fed petrol engine. Circa 45-50mpg from memory and it happily took the four of us on several French holidays. Lots of space inside, both for passengers and luggage (I still think the boot is comparable to or possibly bigger than my gen 3 RX). I believe the final series of BMW-engined models are best avoided, at least as a 1.6 diesel, and I don't think they look so good either, but I think the second, mildly facelifted version goes up to 2015 or so. There is a 2.2 that is more powerful, but I'm not sure if this as reliable or economical, besides which it doesn't seem to be very common either. I can't say it would be better than Mondeo or Volvo, but it did a decent enough job for me. This one is a 2014, would it be OK for you? Cheap tax apparently, and quite nice spec with leather and Alcantara (the one thing I did like about my petrol version): https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202207017359569