SH20

Graham I think there were two options for the e bay trim samples, buy it now or bids. From memory I think I just clicked buy it now. Can you believe the actual box is covered in leather with velvet linings. Included was 4 semi aniline leather and 4 non aniline samples of leather in 4 colours, black, ivory, white and grey. The 3 wood options and 12 paint samples plus a booklet showing all the selection permutations across the 460 and 600 models. £60 with free delivery and it must weigh about 8 or 9lbs. You can see how the salesman would place the sample of wood leather and paint into the lid of the box to show to great effect how the interior colour scheme might look. I put the colours of my 460 into the lid just for fun. The best bit of a 600h L for me was that rear centre console and all the veneered panels hiding all the toys including that pop out table. I think your right the 600h L with RSR pack is going to be a classic. Can you believe I was so obsessed with my 460 I even had my locking wheel nuts chrome plated.

Graham did you think the LS600h L 4 seat configuration with RSR pack just the best version of the 2007-2009 LS's. I did, and I was strongly drawn to choosing one but at the last minute I chose the LS460 SE-L because I didn't quite have the confidence in the hybrid system due to lack of knowledge. Always regretted that last minute change of mind especially as my knowledge of hybrid systems grew and Toyota's reputation on hybrid technology was obviously way ahead of everybody else. Now I will wait for Toyota to develop an all electric car with a significant range, say 1000 miles before charging is required. I bet we won't have to wait that long. So impressed was I with the LS460/600 model that I once bought an official Lexus salesman's interior trim sample case. This must have been used by salesman who visited customers who couldn't get to a showroom maybe. Still have it and find it hard to get rid of it, it's such a nice example of paint, leather and wood that was available back in 2007.

Anyone think the wiper action on their ES loud. The blades just seem so loud as they sweep across the screen. Reverted to having the audio on when it rains to drown the sound. Dealer let me sit in his ES and they seemed the same. My memory of my previous GS and LS wipers was one of quiet operation.

I noticed you have read and contributed to some of the new ES threads and I noticed in the replies that your car model was stated as a LS500h. It's good to look at other model posts but oddly I rarely looked at other model posts when I owned a GS450h and LS460. Now I flit all over the forum to see what's going on. My LS460 was just the best even though I love this new ES I have now. Your LS500h is just fantastic and makes the 2007 LS I owned seem quite dated a bit like a LS400 would look dated to a 2007 LS. The rear entertainment screens, are they fixed or can they be removed or hide away in the seat backs somehow? Looks like a Premium to me so would it have the RSR feature? Steve

Beautiful Pete, great customer treats. All dealers should do this sort of thing as it inspires repeat business or recommendations. The hamper was a nice touch. Let's have a few shots of the interior. Love that colour.

Cheers Graham and Pete. Sorted. One thing I have realised is not to press too quickly on the navigation options. A few seconds is required for the system to catch up with the key stroke.

Thanks Graham, again, Yes saw page 29 and as you said it was there. I wonder can you identify the page or answer how I can make the navigation map fill the whole 8 inch screen. It operates around 60% of the screen size with the left hand side showing other info like the average fuel returns etc. I have seen the screen go full size but can't seem to replicate it again. I've ordered the official hard back manual but ETA 17.9.19. Tried again looking through the online manual but it just goes on and on and I can't find how to make the screen go large. Thanks again Steve

Thanks Graham, yes your route to cancel is right. I clicked on route after loading a destination and then clicked route, in the top right corner the word Delete can be chosen and the route plan is cancelled. Cheers for that. PS Neither the online sat nav manual or the hard copy user manual have mentioned this. Steve

Anyone know how to cancel a sat nav guidance route during a route plan. Couldn't find any icon or listing to cancel, only thing there was that was visible was Pause. The user manual is pants so I have ordered the official hard copy sat nav manual due to arrive 17/9/19 from a dealer, although the online version seems to devote huge chunks of content to other areas of the car. It's very annoying not being able to cancel guidance on route.

Jean you won't do better than buying off Clean Your Car Ltd of Huddersfield, lots of models to choose from, just make sure it's a dual action machine not a rotary machine. Aim to spend around £150 for a machine that will last a long time. No need to buy Flex or Rupes, yes they have a good name but people who earn their living detailing cars buy these makes. A Das 6 Pro model is ideal, plenty of choice to suit any budget.

Hi Jeff, there should be no need to worry about repeating the whole process for at least a year or two provided when you wash your car you are very careful in the washing process. Always rinse your wash mitt in clean water after each panel has been washed, use both sides of your mitt if it's the same material on each side, then rinse out. This is called the two bucket system, your wash bucket with car shampoo and another clean bucket with just water for rinsing the mitt. The top coat of lacquer of course can only take so much cutting whereby you actually remove a micron or two of the top coat each time you cut it back mainly to remove the swirls you can see in strong sunlight for example. Detailers use a LED lamp to shine on panels to see how bad swirls are but any led inspection lamp will show swirl marks. Machine polishing with polishing pads with no cutting power will do exactly that and just polish the top coat. All polishes applied and then buffed off will leave an invisible layer of that polish so you remove it with a degreaser like Eco Pro Eraser and like I said previously the panel is then completely bare with no protection at all. The good quality wax, either liquid or solid, is applied and that is what protects all the hard work you put in. Wash your car regularly and you can re apply wax as often as you like. Bear in mind after all this work has been done the car is under constant attack from airborne contaminants, grit off the road, snow, rain all capable of harbouring stuff that will settle on this wax coated bodywork. After only one month after a full paintwork correction it will be possible to run the palm of your hand over a bonnet, roof or boot lid and feel tiny nibs of dirt that you can't see but you can feel. You would then clay bar the affected panels using a clay bar and lubricant which will lift all dirt nibs off the panel. Clay bars are like magnets for dirt. The clay bar won't damage the wax on the panels but re waxing again on an ultra smooth surface is an option. It's no wonder this detailing stuff is a multi million pound industry. Like I say go onto YouTube and pick any aspect of the paint correction process from washing a car, clay bar the paint, machine polishing etc etc and you will soon pick up a lot of guidance.

jean, you can't really achieve an even gloss like finish by hand, you will need to use either a rotary polishing machine or a DA (Dual Action) polishing machine. Rotary machines are used by professional detailers and body shops really because they are faster in operation but generate a great deal of heat and a great deal of care is needed when polishing near edges or creases in the body work. They have to be allowed to cool down but achieve great results. I have one but can't get on with it for normal body panels . The polishing head spins on a central spindle and it takes greater control by the operator. For good amateurs it's much wiser to use a dual action polisher. Takes longer and the head spins in an offset like an exaggerated orbital motion and creates much less heat. Control is much better. Both machines have variable speeds usually 1-6, 6 being the fastest. Machines vary in price hugely but mine cost £145 and does everything I ask it to do. I have small rotary polishing machine by Shinemate at £140 with 3 and 6 inch extension shafts to the head so you can polish in really tight spaces with polishing pads down to 1 inch. Anyone can learn how to use a polishing machine with the right materials. You could learn all the basics by machine polishing a 2 foot square area on a car panel. Then you just replicate the same process again and again. In this day and age you are correcting issues in the top clear lacquer coat only, not the colour itself. Older cars, classics etc have no lacquer coat so it's the colour coat that is being corrected but most cars on the road today have clear lacquer top coats. Air born contaminates, oxidisation and light to deep swirl marks like circular scratches are what detailers are correcting. You will never polish out vandal scratches that have ripped through the lacquer and colour coat down to the primer. They will need repainting. Fine visible scratches in the lacquer coat can be wet sanded with 1500 -2000 grit paper and water and then polished but that's really a separate issue.

Handbook shows a picture of a fuse box in the driver's footwell area but I think it is likely to be a US ES350 because there is no visible fuse box flap anywhere to be seen on my car.

A friend of mine earns his living detailing cars . Top detailer and his costs would be based after an initial look at the paint condition. If the paint is in average condition i.e light swirls he would charge £600 min for a very large car but he would take 3 full days doing it. (Paint correction only) He will do everything else if needed, wheels, interior under the bonnet glass but that would be extra. Small car £300 paint only 2 days maybe 2.5 days plus anything else as listed but extra. Some well known detailers can charge £5000 for an exotic car and take 10 days to do it. Look on Youtube and see what they do. I consider myself a good amateur only who understands the theory and the sequence of paint correction process. My new car's paint was lightly swirled on about 6 panels due to very poor washing and cleaning practises. No surprise therefore that I chose to do the whole car. I would be confident in showing any car enthusiast the how and what materials and tools are needed to achieve a great finish. But it takes time, the bonnet on my car took me 2.5 hours to be happy with it. There are 7 steps in all.

Jean products are: ( All purchased from Clean Your Car Huddersfield online.) 3M cutting and polishing compounds Hex Logic foam pads Car Pro Degreaser Chemical Guys foam pad conditioner and cleaning solutions Collinite 845 liquid wax GYEON car shampoo Car Pro clay bars and Dodo clay bar lubricant GTECH wash mitt Eurow extra thick micro fibre cloths There is more stuff on cleaning cars than you can shake a stick at, just visit Clean Your Car's website and have a look, there is nothing they don't do.

Sorry Pete only just noticed your question. The seat badges are off E Bay, self adhesive and slightly domed shape. They are subtle ref to the brand. Had them on my GS450h which had black leather so looked better.

Peter, because my previous GS450h and now the ES300h are velvet black it's a monkey to keep spotless but like Graham said I do it because I like to. Waiting for my son to come round and show me how to upload a video to YouTube. I did a video to try and avoid relying on photos to capture the paint finish. It's too big a file just to attach it to the thread and the Forum staff said it has to be done using YouTube so a link can be used by any forum members who click on it. I'll post it when my son decides to call.

You might be right Graham.

This is how I thought my car would look on collection but alas it took 35 hours of reworking the paint before I was happy with it.

Although I have looked I haven't found any fuse boxes under the left or right side of the dashboard. Are there any?. The large fuse boxes under the bonnet seem to be it. My previous GS450 had boxes on both sides of the dash board. I really wanted to hard wire my dash cam and wonder where Lexus dealers pick up the ignition source feed from when they install the official Lexus Dash Cam that they sell.

Installed my space saver and made new dummy floor. Feel better for having an old fashioned spare. What original tools I need I now carry in my mini trolley jack case.

Jeff, you need to distinguish between micro fibre drying towels and micro fibre cloths. Two cloths for different roles. Micro fibre drying towels tend to be large and thick to mop up water and do exactly that. Too big to use as a buffing cloth really so micro fibre cloths step in and are thinner and smaller for ease of handling. Cloths are great for polishing off polishes and waxes. So, type in Clean Your Car Huddersfield into Google and you will come across the very best company for everything for detailing and cleaning cars and I mean everything. An online company who operate a very speedy mail order delivery service by tracked courier. I buy 99% of my stuff from these people. You will find so much stuff your head will spin as to what to choose. One last thing buy edgeless micro fibre cloths for polishing and buffing. No stitched edge avoids what detailers call marring when the hard stitched edge of a normal cloth can leave a mark on the surface, not a scratch or damage but like a smudge mark. Folding in the stitched edge avoids it but edgeless avoids any marring at all. I have a Makro account and buy one product only from them, a pack of 36 good quality micro fibre cloths for £20 or so. These work well and can be machine washed. I consider myself to be a good amateur car detailer but go on to YouTube and type in Car detailing and be blown away by some of the professional detailers who earn a living at it and everything I have described above can be seen being done.

Jeff, my background was car Insurance accident damage so body shops were very familiar territory for me. All new cars with few exceptions have a lacquer top coat and it's this that will have swirls in it, not the underlying colour. Dirty and careless use of cleaning materials will cause marks in the lacquer coat. My car is Velvet Black, a solid paint colour which needs more looking after than any other. But to answer the question, whether it's 1 or 15 body panels the process is the same. My process is: Powerwash the bodywork. Use a neutral PH snow foam which loosens dirt. Power wash that off. Then wash the car with a wash mitt. I use a GTECH micro fibre type one. Have a bucket of clean fresh water next to your soapy wash bucket so you rinse out the mitt after you wash each panel. You need to reduce the risk of leaving dirt in the mitt so rinsing it constantly helps. Dry thoroughly with good quality micro fibre towels. Never use a chamois leather. Micro fibre is best. Clay bar each panel. Literally a clay bar lubricated by a clay bar solution which lifts microscopic contaminants you can't see but can feel with your hand. Wipe the clay bar solution off the panel, do only one panel at a time. The lacquer coat may require one or more of the following, cutting back the top coat with cutting compound, using a dual action polishing machine gives great results. They have a variable speed switch depending how fast you want to cut or polish, 2nd, a polishing process and then 3rd, a finishing process. . I use foam pads myself by choice and the harder the foam pad the more cutting power it has, the softer pads will be for ultra fine polishing and spreading the final stage polish. I use 3M cutting compounds and polishing products mainly but believe me there are hundreds if not thousands of aids to remove paint damage. After all polishing is done all the polish oils that have been left on the panel after you buff to a shine need to be removed. This is done by specific panel cleaners like Eco Pro Eraser. The panel is now bare with no protection. Then and only then do you apply a really high quality wax which seals and protects the paint. I use Collinite 845 a truly great liquid wax. Always always use the highest quality micro fibre towels for buffing off polish and waxes. Well Jeff you did ask. My car had numerous fine swirl damage in about 40% of the panels so I just did the whole car. Many people would not notice swirls except in bright sunlight when it catches the panel in a certain way. No good asking a dealer to sort swirl marks, they are not equipped or skilled or have the time to devote to the very damage they cause. Imagine what it's like in a dealer's cleaning dept just prior to September 1st and the rush to get ready numerous new cars.

I agree Richard Who wants a 2019 Top Gear type review of anything. Childish and school boy antics will never compare to the Brilliant car designers and Engineers who actually produce something.

Peter maybe you could ask to see where they prep cars. If it's a shed why not de trim it yourself at home and clean it yourself too. I wish I had. All the dealer has to do is to ensure it goes through a PDI without a hitch. Most cleaners see it as just another car and adopt a get it in and out as quick as possible. I spent 35 hours on my paintwork when I got it home. Yes I'm anal about such stuff but my car cost £38,500 and it deserved better care. Imagine collecting a LS500 at £100,000 and finding swirl marks in the paint. Anyway good luck and enjoy the whole new car process. Not sure where in Yorkshire you are but we could meet up in a few weeks and compare cars/experiences. Your call.