Linas.P

Yes. PS - There is function of survey when you make a post (click on "poll" and you will have option of adding question and multi choice answer). I am sure admin can edit it to make a survey.

The only place I know who advertise themselves as selling complete system is Tony Banks Exhaust in Leeds. However, they are "custom exhaust" shop by definition... so realistically custom exhaust is the only way to go. I am no aware of anyone selling central section and basically shipping it out... almost all the shops that offer central section will require to bring the car to their place and they will make the exhaust on the car, which is the definition of "custom" exhaust in my books. My understanding is that Tony Banks would do IS central section for ~£700 and they charge ~£300 for rear and that is what custom exhaust for IS usually costs. Doing it together in one go probably would be slightly cheaper i.e. £800-850. They have not named the price, but they alluded to that over the phone.

Yes - that will be custom... the guy who welded my exhaust is happy to do it and to be fair most of the cost will be the parts themselves - silencers ~£100x2, replacement SS-Cats £120x2, so that is £440 just in parts, meaning £260 for work and stainless steel piping. That is really cheap. The only thing we don't agree with so far is that he "does not want to take money"! Basically, he told me I am wasting money on full dual exhaust, because I want to fit X-Pipe instead of Y-Pipe and have two separate pipes going to the rear. He said that is basically going to make no difference and he advises me not to do it. So really we just agreed that I will think about it and comeback later... but realistically we just talking about either £700 and keep it as Y-Pipe after secondary cats, or £800 and do X-pipe and make two pipes going back instead of one. Resonator will go either way.

No - I will leave headers as they are, it would be nice to replace them, but it is indeed major cost and massive pain. I was considering to maybe take them off and get them cleaned (like sand blasted and cera-coated, but I believe even that would be in £300-500 range). So by "whole" exhaust I mean just central and rear sections and leaving headers alone. My rear section is actually quite new, so I perhaps keep it or sell it, but because I will need to replace entire central section anyway and I want to replace rear silencers as well the extra 2m of piping will be minor cost in grand scheme of things. I am looking at ~£700 to replace central and rear section to the stainless steel. I can as well confirm that from my own experience. The unbranded sensors works for few mounts, if you very lucky for a year and fail. My worst so far failed in 2 weeks for me. O2 sensors are slightly better than Lambda, but still they don't last. By that I mean - 50% of non branded Lamda does not work straight from the box (i.e. you instantly get some sort of code for Lambda, too lean, too rich, low voltage etc.), O2 sensors mostly work out of the box, but they fail fairly quickly and you get codes for cat-performance. So the best solution is to use either OE (i.e. Toyota branded made by Denso) or OEM sensors from Denso. The risk here is only that both Toyota and Denso marked sensors are often fake in place like eBay or Amazon, so to get real genuine sensor one may need to go directly to Lexus and they are expensive.

This is not only me that having this issue - for normal mild-steel exhaust you looking at 8-12 years of lifetime, stainless steel is more like 30 years. So everyone will have similar issues with exhaust by now. As for welding on rusted pipes - it is 50/50, because exhaust is usually rusting from inside, so it is very hard to tell from pictures if welds will work or not i.e. if pipe is too thin to weld, it will just blow through and results in what welders refers as "chasing the hole/weld". Basically as the hole get's filled with weld the heat from molten metal melts another hole just to the side of it. Experienced welders can adjust the welding machine to match the metal thickness and minimise the blow trough, but sometimes it get's to the point where metal is simply too thin to weld on. Either way - welding on rusted pipes is temporary fix, you will get holes next to the welds within 3-6months, but as the case of say passing MOT whilst looking for suitable replacement it works. In my case pipe on either side of the flange was quite solid, so the repair in the picture above could be considered semi-permanent. However, I have rust just behind O2 sensor, specifically under those heatshields and there metal is very thin already, so I am sure I will have exact same problem very soon. In fact 3 weeks later I already can hear a little hole somewhere. So the answer is - if you looking for temporary repair, then I suggest welding it. But if you looking for repair that lasts, then you will have to replace central section of exhaust. In my case I am looking to replace whole exhaust maybe in spring, but I just bought myself some time over the winter to find what I want.

Ahhh yeah... flanges and rust under heat shields... This is how every 15 years old Lexus looks like underneath. Literally had same thing fixed 2 weeks ago as my car failed mot on lamda (basically leak in exhaust). In my case I was lucky as they were still able to weld the holes under the heat shields, but my flanges were even worse. I had an option of £200x2 for new flanges to be put in and wait for a week, or have straight pipe welded there... I went with the pipe, but for next mot looking to get whole new exhaust, desperately need mid section as pathing is just temporary, so will get that done maybe in the spring and and fit flanges to accept new mid-pipe. So for time being it was £40x2 for flanges fix and £40 for patching few holes. Lucky for me I have found the guy around me who seems to know how to weld and was very fair with pricing and advice. Sadly don't have pictures of how it looks under the heat shields, but in principle it is rusty pipe with some spot welds on it. As well we just removed the heatshields and discarded them, basically major part of the issue are the heatshields themselves as the dirt gets in the them and accelerates the rusting.

Having RC-F you should be relatively relaxed, my main pet peeve from RC is resolved, because on RC-F you get real carbon fibre inlays instead of "fake carbon fibre effect" cheap plastic inlays. So you good!

I found RC interior quality very disappointing as well, better than UX, but had no shortage of cheap plastic pieces... my particular pet peeve was "carbon fibre effect" surrounds for windows switches, as well relatively cheap switch gear for wipers/lights and some other areas. "What criteria/specification are you using" - anything that is not nice to touch or makes annoying sound, hard or slippery materials... so basically definition of "plasticky and light" vs. "padded, covered in leather, soft-touch, having feeling of heft and quality". For example if we compare switch-gear in LC500 to that in RC... it is immediately clear how LC500 is superior, just by using it, the stalks are made from heavier material which is could to touch (some sort of alloy) vs. very light feeling plastic in RC. The action in LC500 precise, has tactile feel to it on, you never need to double-guess if you enabled or turned something off, whereas on RC it is mush... like you not very sure if it clicked, or if it didn't... I know to large part is to do with stupid fashion of indicators that don't stay engaged, BMW and few other makes tried it and went back to using normal indicators, Lexus was kind of late to that party and RC was one car that got it (IS of certain years got it as well). It is hard to describe feeling, but it does not mean it is subjective. We can go to next step - comparing old IS to RC... sure old IS had loads of parts there were cheaper, but let's continue focusing on the switch gear - yes it was plastic, but it was high quality plastic, sort of matte finish, the clicks were pronounced and precise, the pieces felt hard, solid and kind of heavy, the action of switchgear was reassuring. So it is not necessary for something to be made out of titanium (although preferable) to still be good quality. That is the difference between something that is solidly made vs. cheaply made. And as result that is how I put cars on the ladder, I am not saying it is 100% objective, but at least I have rational system of values (or system that could be rationally explained)... not "UX is better than CH-R, therefore it is good alternative to GS". Perceived quality is feeling, and feeling is difficult to describe, I would describe it as follows - imagine mechanism with plastic gears in it, they are little bit sloppy, when you turn the handle you feel some sloppiness, some bending, some rattling, not very confidence inspiring, plasticky vs. imagine mechanism with precise cut metal gears, there is no sloppiness, there is no wobbliness, you turn the handle and you can feel those gears matching and engaging precisely. So the first example is "cheap feeling", the second example is "premium feeling", now extrapolate that to every touch point in the car.. door handle, action of closing door, is door heavy and closes more like a safe, or is it light and you feel like you need to be delicate with it, same story for all the buttons, covers, touch points etc. When you press on the surround next to the button - does it feel like wood, metal, solid material in general or does it feel like a plastic... what sound does it make - does it absorbs the sound like it is solid or amplify the sound like it is hollow... Look - I am picky on quality aspect and I pay a lot of attention to perceived quality, I appreciate that not all people understand or even care... but when somebody comes and argues that "I don't know anything about what makes quality to be quality" and their argument is "but my car has better MPG"... it just insults my intelligence... because I don't mind discussing very minute detail and we can go down to individual button and decide which car has nicest bonnet latch actuation, but it is hard to have meaningful discussion when people don't even conceptually understand the definition of "quality".

I can confirm that I looked at whole quote, did not click on the link though... I guess I agree with you that I could be more constructive and that would make people agree and see my way of thinking more often, rather than arguing about the tone instead of substance of what I said... BUT... I have no interest of dealing with snowflakes and if somebody find me annoying that is kind of intentional - almost a filter of "individuals I don't want to speak with anyway".

Just don't be ridiculous... go sit in GS mk4 for 5 minutes (or for that matter your own RX which is amazing quality car), then got sit in UX for 5 minutes and materials on UX is simply inferior, one does not need degree in engineering to see the difference... unless they are biased or live in alternative reality. It would be dumb to suggest they are comparable - one is literally entry level car of the brand and the other is second best after flagship. It would not be controversial to say BMW 5-Series is better quality and more luxurious than Mini-cooper... it is just weird that people can't admit that having lower end and cheaper model they don't get same luxury as higher end models... that is just how it is. it must be thought - sorry for you. In principle I agree - I just can't see where I was rude, before you got rude and where I was offensive.

It all depends on how "oval is oval", yes discs are clamped, so with wheel bolted on it most definitely should not be slipping, but if they have 5mm slop each side then eventually they will start moving...

If there would be thread asking where to find unicorns, would I be allowed to join it and say that unicorns do not exist? Or that would be unacceptable because some unicorn believers and 2 year olds would get upset about it? You can be as happy with your car as much you want, but that doesn't mean it is objectively good quality or for that matter comparable to certain other car. You subjective satisfaction that does not make the difference on quality and materials used to build that car. That I point out cheap plastic parts it doesn't make me "unrespectful", it is just objective... if you find it too painful to read then it is your problem.

Yes - mk3 is also "too big" (realistically I want coupe, so it is less about size and more about having 2 extra unnecessary doors), but it is amazingly good value. Unlike UX...

In my opinion... You are late to the party ... I have already berated ES, LBX and UX as just badge engineered Toyotas... nobody should find this surprising. But if you quote me then at least quote me in full - I said AWD counts. LS is primarily RWD as well with AWD option, RX as far as I know are all AWD. The NX only lowest trim was FWD... thought to be fair is not real AWD even in higher trims... it is "hybrid AWD" which means engine still runs front wheels and it is basically FWD, and rear have just get a small electric motors to help with traction and cornering. I am not fan of that, but the rest of the car is quite good. The only real AWD NX was 200t with 6 speed box. Obviously NX350 is real AWD as well, but in UK we don't get good cars.

That would do it... not difficult to check - take the wheel off and move the disc backwards and forwards... if as you say holes are oval and disc turns backwards and forwards when bolts stay in place, then surely that would result in quite horrible clunk under braking. The disc tolerance over bolts should be quite tight, not sure exactly but like 0.2mm or something like that, so there could be very little movement...

No that actually makes Toyota Crown a rebadged Lexus GS i.e. Toyota Crown was substantially more premium than other Toyotas. Point here is not what is better - Toyota or Lexus, but simply value you get. Take for example Toyota Celsior and Lexus LS is very different story from Lexus UX and Toyota C-HR, in one case you are getting Lexus LS quality in both Celsior and LS, but you get Celsior at discount, quality does not suffer (in fact both of them were identical, some Celsiors even had extra features), it is just badge that is different and you get premium quality for less. Win win. That is opposite when you get UX, because the quality is not substantially better than CH-R, yet you pay premium to get Lexus badge on it, so you pay more to have economy class car. That is just bad value. So I don't mind owning Toyota if I explicitly buy it for fair price, what I don't like is when economy car has premium badge on it and it is sold for premium price. I am not GS fanboy, in fact I don't particularly like the looks of mk3, kind of started growing on me recently to be fair, but I don't consider it pretty car. But quality wise it is very good. GS mk4 on other hand is just way superior car, but again - it is too big for me I would not be looking to upgrade to mk4 at any time. But that does not cloud my judgement in any way- it is still one of the best Lexus cars, quality wise, ever made.

Yes and that is what UX does not have. So I completely agree with your argument and I am not being snob about them being Toyota. Toyota Are great cars and what separates them from Lexus is what you said, so I agree with your argument, but I don't agree that UX meets the criteria to be called Lexus if what you saying is true. NX has it, UX does not have the level of higher quality materials, sound deadening... only the badge. Now to be fair - UX has better quality materials than Toyota CH-R, BUT not the same level of materials than "real" Lexus e.g. RX, GS, LS etc. So in UX you don't get same quality just in smaller car, no you get smaller car with cheaper materials as well. Not quite Toyota, but not quite Lexus either. As well To be honest I would throw this in - and this surely will be controversial, but real Lexus should be RWD, or at least AWD. That is why Lexus for long time had those platforms separately, IS/GS/LS/RC/LC don't really have equivalents in Toyota line-up, RX (older one was Harrier, but new one is dedicated Lexus model) and NX (loosely based on RAV-4) are distantly based on Toyota, but they are substantially better. Like if we take Lexus IS or RC which I consider "true" Lexus, then both NX and RX are better quality.

Just shows you haven't even bothered to read my comments, if you have such question.

It is Toyota CH-R with Lexus badge mate... so no it is not "real" Lexus. Ohhh and it is my "cage that was rattled"?! Yet is you who basically suggest I should not be allowed to post, because it hurt your feelings... who is cry baby here? You certainly can have your opinion, but it doesn't pass the basic "smell" test. The question is on "quality" and you only argument - "UX is better than in undefined way CH-R and more economical than NX". How does it even relevant? So good start would be to at least try to answer the question. That is the main mistake you made here, is that you assuming I am looking for friends. I don't. There is certainly group of people here who are just basically fans of their cars, like Lexus and want to be in "positive only" fan club, basically just licking each other off with mutual compliments. I am not in that group and I honestly want to distance myself from it - if Lexus does something great, then I will be hear to state I and defend it, but if Lexus does something stupid then I will be the first one to say "this is stupid"... and I do not care if that hurts some other club member who has irrational love for their car. If UX is plasticky then it is plasticky, if IS300h is slow then it is slow. If you want honest answer - I am here for it, but I am not here to be anyone's friend.

So did I... everything was in general and in my option, you didn't mention anyone in particular, but it does not require genius to figure out who you referring to. Not even sure where you find the attack "personalised" apart of part where you said people "have not tried modern cars" and I challenged your view as basically according to you "they don't know what they are talking about". And I am not offended, I am just pointing out faults of your argument and it is you who took offence of "denigrating" quality comparisons. As well you are failing to understand question being asked i.e. fuel economy is not substitute for quality, UX being better than CH-R likewise is kind of irrelevant if they both are way worse quality than GS. So your comment was just filled of ignorance and lack of understanding of what is even being asked...

Ignorance is rife here... Being objective when comparing the difference in build quality is not "denigrating"... If you can't handle the reality then maybe that is your problem? Likewise you clearly failed to understand what OP said - he is comparing it with particular model GS, so it does not matter what you think about UX in isolation or in current market compared to it's close competitors. I even agree that it may be better quality than competition, but it doesn't mean it is anywhere near as good quality than old GS. Next you introduce irrelevant personal metrics - MPG, subjective looks etc. Nobody here said UX does not return good MPG, but how is that quality? As well why do you assume people have not tried newer Lexus cars before comparing?! The last Lexus I owned was 2017 RC and without a doubt it was much worse quality inside than my old 2008 IS, or my current 2006 GS. The newest Lexus car I drove was 2020 LC500... Likewise I have driven 2020 CT and 2020 UX back to back, one for 4 days another one for 11 days, both are cheap and plasticky inside. I I have driven countless other CTs and ISes over the years. So yes - UX is cheap and plasticky compared to real Lexus cars, barely different from Toyota CH-R it is built on (and I have driven both CH-R and UX multiple times). The better question would be - how many Lexus cars you have driven in the past, especially older ones back in the days when Lexus still cared about quality, to be able to say that UX is even close to quality of them? So your logic is just flawed here - you clearly prioritise "new" over "quality", can't blame you as most Brits do (better new shaitbox, than even few years old premium car), but the problem here is that you can't see past your own bias.

Yes - I am sure I would have got me in trouble for no good reason. Unlikely that setting councillors car on fire or covering it in shaite would have changed his mind on student parking. Even if he had changed the mind that likely was irreversible and past decision. My point is just that hostility towards drivers and car owners is real, in the past it was more hidden where nasty old farts were working behind the backs to ruin it for everyone, likely salty people that failed in their life and are miserable, just taking it out on people who they thought have it too good. But in last decade it is coming out more and more, it is becoming more and more acceptable to lash out on the drivers, introduce hostile policies etc. In principle I don't believe sentiment has changed, it is just that now it is more open and in the public. On other news - today government announced their "ZEV" policy... and as you can imagine it is absolute cluster duck. Starting with the name it is already bad start - they are not ZERO emission vehicles, they are at best 30% cleaner, so LEV (lower emissions vehicles) probably was appropriate... so if they can't get the name right then what we can expect from the policy. Second, major issue - they said it is based on consultation with "ALL" stakeholders... and if you check the stakeholders were just industry groups, behind closed doors and actual drivers are not considered stakeholders, that is people who use the dang things have no say in it! Literally the definition of "stakeholder" is "a person with an interest or concern in something". So it is sham scheme, based on sham consultation looking to force BEV sales when actual uptake has slummed. I think this year it stands close to 20%, but there is huge drop in second half, used BEVs not selling and it signal single thing - BEV limit was reached. In the past I was predicting ~10% will be the limit, but it seems we have not reached even that. Well I guess my prediction was based on solid government plan to roll out charging and support individuals with installing the personal chargers at home, which they failed to do... so the total amount of BEVs today stands at... roll the drums... 3.1% of all vehicles in UK. I still expect it to rise as pressure mounts, but it is clear that even with such small number we already facing issues and take-up has stalled, so imagine how bad it will be when we get to 10% or 20%. Ohh... and by the way... I am not against BEVs, I just think we doing them fundamentally wrong and new ZEV policy just going to hurt further.

Yeah ES really was not a successful product, I said all along it won't be a success... not going into the reasons, but it was quite predictable to flop. Now obviously reality deniers will give the answer - "saloons are market in decline, so that is why". But as you highlighted very well, even in 2019 when IS was very old model and ES was brand new model, IS still outsold it... so it is not about the market, it is about the car. I really don't know why Lexus doing what they doing, it almost seems like they don't want to sell more cars and are just sabotaging themselves in UK.

I wouldn't be surprised if Lexus mandated dealerships to buy 10 just as marketing props or for directors to use, or maybe even gifted them to keep appearance of the model. Quite suspicious that exactly 10 were sold for 3 years in the row. Unless there are 10 real hardcore LS buyers in UK who buy 1 each every year 😄

I guess the difference is that Dean for our Faculty, now I believe President and Grand Chancellor of entire University... was herself American, therefore when she was in charge of selecting the place and design for new campus she built it to the more American standard i.e. with parking spaces, crazy I know! She as well told me that the place for campus was specifically selected on previous "brown site" so that building the parking would not be an issue. They had central London campus and obviously expanding parking was not an option there, as well majority of students were from Essex and Kent. They actually done the most democratic thing possible and had a student survey asking how they would prefer to travel to new campus given an option... and students overwhelmingly voted for driving. Now bear in mind that was like ~2003 or 2005 when this took place. The planning for new campus etc took until ~2010 and it was nearly finished by 2012 and that is when Council made a massive hissy fit over parking. So I guess difference was not "dckhead master", but actually unelected government official putting his nose into business of other people. It was not like Council was paying for building work or anything, just pure political agenda behind it, taking it away from students, working behind the back, not allowing university to serve the students well. Sadly, she refused to tell me the name of the councillor as I was in little bit of the mood of giving him nasty surprise back then.