dutchie01

i would prefer something else than leather.... Hot in summer, cold in winter, slippery, looks good but not really 100% functional for anything other than a sofa is it? i once rented a volvo v70 in Sweden and the cloth on the seats was like a wetsuit, really something else, looking supercool and extremely comfortable. isn it time for more innovation?

I find the whole satnav/infotainment system the absolute weak spot of the car. It costs a fortune and in my idea is a big waste of money, i would not recommend anyone to order this. The satnav with its cumbersome mouse like operating system is a disaster in its own right and the navigation itself is so bad it is almost like Lexus did this on purpose. I use Google, sooo much better and easier to operate. I sometimes use both systems to see who wins and guess what? Google Always Wins. I have no idea why a below par system of 2 generations ago found its way in a Lexus. It drags the whole car down.

fire brigade or rescue services?

Lexusdealers in general have a problem. I honestly dont know how they can survive. With Lexus beeing a niche marque they just do not sell the numbers needed to be profitable. Dont know the UK figures but in Holland BMW in 2016 sold 18k cars, mercedes 15K and Lexus 871 ( !!). Then the reliability of the cars kills the dealers, They sell them and only see them back at the regular service as they dont break down ( unlike the Germans), so it is almost impossible to make a profit on service/repairs. In my time a dealer made itś money on selling fluids, (oils, brake fluid, coolingfluids etc). In my Alfa days the cars were so utterly unreliable i knew all mechanics by name and did visit the Alfa dealer every month. Profitable visists for the dealer though. How times have changed..

Linas, the only reason why the RC or IS350 is not available in the UK ( and Europe) will be purely economical. It will be slow sellers and the return on investment will not be there i guess. Import from Japan?

The trick manufacturers use to guide a car through the current labtest with as little Co2 as possible; Use a small 4 or 3 cylinder engine with a tiny displacement of say 1.2 liter. Then turbocharge it and take an intelligent automatic gearbox with 8 gears and an electronic unit connected to the carś ecu. A selector sport/comfort/eco is also needed. This does not create more power from the engine but in the case of Eco setting is programmed to shift up a gear before the turbo wakes up. So you have an underpowered engine without turbo that glides smoothly through the test using as little fuel as possible. Bingo! Things quickly go wrong in the real world however. As we know from the old days a turbo can give a lot of horsepower but uses more fuel than a local whino downs bottles. And the only way to drive your car with the tiny engine is to floor the throttle and use the power created by the turbo. It is my experience that a 3 liter six can have a lower consuption that an 1.8 four turbo. Also because the bigger engine is low stressed and in normal traffic uses maybe 40% of max power whilst the 1.8 is floored for most of the time just to keep up with traffic.

my IS 300H feels very quick off the line up to 50mph then the accelleration seems to slow down propably as the el motor has done its work by then. will be interesting to see how the 0-50 figs compare to some other cars i find it seriously quick. i think that from 50 to 60 i can lose some 1.5 secs.

try fiddling around with the buttons on the left side of your steeringwheel. just push them and see what happens you will quicklu see how you can control the lay out.

If i am correct there was a manual especially for the satnav system that was handed to me when i collected my car from the dealer. I only saw it once as i threw it in the bin not believing how heavy, long and boring this was, not sure how many pages but it looked like complete nonsense. If you need a manual the size of a telephone book to explain a satnav there must be something very wrong. Compared to a tomtom the userfriendlyness of the Lexus systems is shockingly bad, the graphics look incredibly outdated and in my case the navigation is not 100% thrustworthy ( directing me off the highway only to direct me immediately on it again drives me nuts). Matt i am fully with you, the entire system, costing 10 times more than a separate TomTom, is the absolute weakpoint of the car. Maybe ok for a bottom end Toyota but how oh how did this end up in any Lexus? The rest of the car is great by the way....

Hi Matt, i guess the best advice is not to use it....

Some 10 years ago the Unique Selling Point of any Lexus was NVH - Noise Vibration Harshness - . The obsessive focus on NVH resulted in cars that had a unique driving experience. You could not hear the engine running at idle nor at cruising speeds. No rattles, No shakes, No creacks. Just total silence and refinement. The official line from Lexus management in those days was that there would never be a 4 cylinder unit in any Lexus as it would not comply with their NVH goals. I rest my case.. However since then the Co2 regulations came in force and any car manufacturer had to comply to a C02 goal calculated over the total productrange. The potential fines in case of not meeting these are just big, very big. So, downsizing quickly became the norm. 8 cylinders became 6 pots grew into 4 and 4 cylinders went 3 or even 2 pots (fiat!). The real life fuel consumption did not always benefit ( a bmw 330 6 pot has almost identical thirst than a 320 4) but it was all about meeting the Co2 lab tests and thus the C02 rules. And here we are. Even Lexus had to change their philosophy and let the golden NVH rule go. They went the hybrid route connecting a 4 pot to electric motors and in doing so created a certain new USP. But, it is just not thesame. My IS300H cannot hold a candle to my previous IS250 in regard to refinement and emotional aspects that cannot be measured like sound, smoothness or a feeling that a car can give you. I do think that for a petrolhead any 4 pot is worse than any 6 and any 6 is worse than any 8 etc etc. Anyway, it is a trend that we cannot turn around unfortunately . +++Full electric could be better than any 4 ?+++

Hi George, Seems you are a tad disappointed that you could not talk your wife out of the Lexus ? Give it time, the NX will grow on you, i am convinced that one day behind the wheel you will think "this is not bad at all" but of course will not mention it to anybody.. In urban traffic the NX just glides through traffic and the CVT box comes to its right here, In the highstreet it's got the looks to match, on the highway it is an easy cruiser and overall it is just a very fine motor. Your wife has taste! A BMW X1? really? not very attractive is it? and the interior is so conservative not a lot has changed since the eighties.. To be fair i do think the satnav/infotainment system is one of the few weak points of all modern Lexus. Have not seen the latest bigger screen updated versions yet but as written in many posts above that can be found out in a simple 10 minute testdrive. It still is a fine car though. Oh, and did i already mention buildquality? Ever driven a car with zero rattles creacks, thumps? My last BM ( 2014 320i) had an interesting extra in the winter, when the car got warm on the inside cracking sounds came out of the apparently expanding dash. And 4 recalls in 2 yrs, and thesame car parked on every streetcorner. Do drop us a line after 1 month of ownership, let us know how you like the car then. Dutchie

always state how deep the profile is. if less than 4 mm wintertyres are dead

Looked out of my window in the middle of the night only to find out somebody had sprayed my Lexus in a new white!

Hi Robert, could be the nail on the head ref the ML system.. I bought an IS250 with the best ML system back in 2009, drove it for 4 yrs then after 2 year german motoring last year bought an IS300h and opted for the ML system again only to find out it was much flatter in noise, not as clear and intense as in the 250.I just gave up fiddling with the settings and only use it for the news now. Beginning of the year i was forced by my wife to do a hearing test and to my shock the result was that it will be likely that in 2 to 3 years time i will need some form of hearingaid.. So, maybe it is me and not the ML system i was blaming haha. The older we get the more we appreciate comfort and silence. Talking about age, i do have the opinion that the average age of " The Average Lexus Driver" is considerably higher than that of the competition. I sometimes think that with 55 i am amongst the younger ones out there. It is my impression only have not seen any demographic proof though. A lexus is not for everybody..

looks repairable to me. alwaus difficult to judge from a picture and really need to feel the depth of the damage by hand especialy the damage at the bottom. If part of the plastic has been scraped off they might be able to fill it up with plastic, grind it and paint it. If the parkingsensor still works i guesstimate the bill at 400 - 600 sterling. However, if you go to the maindealer they are likely to tell you they will have to fit a new bumper and sensors which will bring the total well over 1500. But, as it is insurancework you dont have to worry about the costs? ( tip! there might be other minor parkingbumps/scratches that need repaint or dents removed, maybe you can tie that in a deal with the bumper, all fine as long as it is not mentioned on the bill)

Great list of potential weaknesses but to put things in perspective i drove my IS250 for 4 yrs and 100.000 kms and not even a lightbulb did go wrong. the car felt as if it came out of the showroom 4 yrs earlier when i sold it. I did have the wheel issues however..

i have something else..... Perception mate of mine worked in tossa de mar, spain in the old days, behind the bar in an "english pub" they had 3 different beers on tap, san miguel, heineken and carlsberg. Thing is all pipes went into one can, the cheapest they could buy on the black market.. he frequently told me about ( inabriated ) customers that did not like the san miguel then tried heineken and were convinced it was way better. could it be that one thinks tesco is not as good as it is tesco and not shell?

Unfortunately i have to say this is 100% correct. I know this from experience driving my 300H in town and totally unexpected was hit by complete dizzyness. Could stop the car on pavement hit the warninglightbutton and that was it. Totally incapacitated could not move, nothing, the entire world turned around me even with my eyes shut. Passers by called an ambulance and 12 minutes later i was undergoing CT and MRI scans. spend the night in hospital feeling terrible. My son took the 300H drove it home. Diagnosis was an infection to the inner ear!!. I could not drive for 2 weeks, was lightheaded for 3 months, now all is fine and normal again. My opinion is that is seems unlikely that one can get nausea in 1 certain type of car and not in another. It is about movement and registration of eyes/mind etc. It could be a personal problem instead of a Lexus CT problem.

Hi Paul, is the problem still there? have you driven other cars and if so do you experience thesame issues or nothing at all?

Hi Gergely suggest to find one for a decent testdrive. Take it for a spin for some hours, drive around town, B roards, highway. drive slow and thrash it. Try to find things you dont like. I had a 250 now an IS300H. Both fine cars. 300 much better on fuel, roomier inside, better chassis, roadholding. CVT box and 4 cyl engine can be something to get used to. Luxury is more comfortable, quieter. Sport bumpier, more tyre noise but more solid drive as well. Might be worth to source an ex company or leasecar ( ex leaseplan?) high mileage not too old and always well maintained. Happy Hunting!

not sure about the UK but over here Kwikfit does not employ car mechanics but people that were taught 1 trick, like change tyres or replace a battery. I only go there to replace summer to winter tyres and even then you have to keep your eyes glued to your car. last time one of the staff walked to my car that was already up on the bridge and tried to unscrew the oilscrew bottom of the engine i quickly ran to him asking what he was doing reply was change oil sir.. Only wanted tyre replacement.... i would not trust them for anything else then tyres alone.

Hi C, i drove an IS250 3rd gen for 4 years and 100.000 km and i still think it is the best car i ever had. The smooth as silk 6 cyl engine, the gearbox that feels like there is always a "cloud" between the pedal and the engine ( driving off is chauffeur limousine style slowly increasing speed no hicks no irregularities). The doors that close like a bankvault, i can go on and on. The car gave me an impression of overengineering like no other. I opened the glove box every day 2 times for 4 years. After 2500 times open and close there was not 1 mm backlash. God i loved that car but as usual you only discover it when itś gone... the next one was a brandnew BMW 320i estate full options. Coming from the IS this turned out to be a very disappointing experience. Mediocre buildquality, rattles creaks etc. Overall impression was of an agricultural machine rough and rattly. Plus you see them on every streetcorner. It left after only 2 years and i went back to Lexus with an IS 300h Fsport. Beautiful to look at but the driving experience is not thesame as the 250. CVT and 4 cyl we all know it;s just not thesame. I have it now for a year and i do like it, fuel is better that the 250 ( 320 had same consumption!!) but i feel it is not on thesame high level as the 250. The NVH is definately not as good, the overengineered feeling is not there, sometimes i feel the IS300 is more toyota than lexus whilst the 250 was definately more Lexus than Toyota... I think whatever you choose it will be a step down the ladder. Try to find build quality in a Nissan, good luck with that. And the CT200? that is just a terrible packaged Prius, better to go for the original go for the Prius. I agree with Linas about the GS. it feels better put together than the IS and materials used are of higher quality. The 450 is a rocketship, could be my next ride, time will tell!

Have Fun!

This could be the direct injection that all IS250 six cylinders have. Mine always made a relarively loud ticking noise at idle. The high pressure fuel pump makes a loud ticking and the high pressure injectors make a clicking sound. as the engine is so smooth and quiet it is even more obvious. If this is the cause nothing to worry about as all IS250 s have it.