GSLV6

My RX's have never used much oil between services. I would be slightly concerned if they started to. Have you checked underneath for signs of possible leaks? If all looks ok, then obviously the engine may be using/burning a little but that might signify worn valve guides or similar which I wouldn't expect on a sub 100K mile car.

There is no lack of traction with the factory wheel and tyre sizes. Going lower profile and wider won't make a lot of difference but will stiffen the ride and make it less comfortable. I use Turanza tyres on mine and the grip from those is amazing, wet or dry.

I've had mine fitted along with the geofence device. No change to insurance as Lexus STILL have not addressed the lack of encryption with a software fix, and my guess is that they won't. The talk has been ongoing for a long time now with no evidence that they've made any efforts to safeguard the cars other than a one time use tracker.

The original and Mk2 Rav 4's had air intakes higher up. I regret selling my Mk2. They became less utility/rugged and more road/fashion oriented after the first few models. The owner of that RX must be pretty sick...that car may not see the road again.

Good point, in which case a low miles F-Sport 3rd gen with all the extras might be the way to go...Some very good ones with under 60K miles are around for between £15K and £19K on late 2014 or 2015 plates

I will throw my tuppenceworth in here having owned three generations of Lexus vehicles and disagree that they've "got better with every iteration" because that's patently untrue without proper context. If you want bombproof reliability and possibly the best built RX, the earlier models from 3rd to 4th gen are built like tanks albeit with a few issues, but these are now well known about and documented, and you can plan for those things to keep them going. Do they handle as well as later ones or give as refined a ride? Not really. If better toys is the pre-requisite and you want the best driving most comfortable ones, I'd argue in favour of a post facelift 4th gen, insurance issues to one side. Anything can be stolen, and anything can be made harder to steal, so the only fly in the ointment is the insurance costs. It's not so bad in lower risk areas and for later 4th gen cars. I'd argue all day long that they are the "best" RX's going because they 1) retain the best iteration of the stunningly reliable and long lived powerful and buttery smooth 3.5V6 petrol engine; 2) give (imho) the most refined ride and 3) are (I think) better finished internally with I think higher quality interiors to the newer models. They also don't rely (thankfully) on cheap to manufacture touchscreens to do most of the customising and use of electronics and retain buttons for most things, just using less cost cutting, unlike 5th gen models where it's evident in several areas within the cabins. They (4th gen) are the last of the true luxury Lexus RX's, 5th gen being made cheaper to produce and highlight where lexus are going. They are planning to "downgrade" Lexus in the Toyota brand to being no longer their premium luxury brand as that is now reserved for their next high end models under a different Toyota brand, and have been working towards this for some years, with Lexus cars being made ever more mainstream. No longer are 12 year apprenticeships by master craftsmen called for making the hand stitched seats..these are now done in the main factory using "inferior" leather substitutes and that unfortunately goes for the 4th gen as well as the 5th. In that respect, you'd be better off saving cash and buying a decent late generation top spec Toyota model which are really not that far behind many Lexus cars in refinement or internal finish. There are other worthy mentions here too with up to date "ICE" including Mazda's own CX range which are really rather good and much cheaper than the Lexus. If only a Lexus will do, then a 21/22 plate RX will tick all of your boxes and you'll save ££££'s over a 5th gen. By the 4th gen, the top tier models (F-Sport and Takumi) had handling well sorted and engines optimised for better power and economy, combined with pretty sumptuous interiors.

Well, lets keep an eye on the legalised thievery of this government, who after robbing pensioners will be going after motorists next in the October budget. Expect 15p a litre at the pumps as a typical rise of some reports are to be believed. Currently, I'm using E5 fuel in my RX as it's at the lowest price for a good few years now. I think I paid £1.42.litre recently for E5. I tend to use my car mostly at weekends and now use one of my bikes weekdays, and am beginning to regret the money I tied up in a newer model, when keeping the gen 3 f sport might have been wiser. Interestingly, I've noticed precious little difference in economy between E5 and E10 petrols as the Lexus range are designed to run just fine on E10, but I won't use it all the time due to the longer term damage it causes to the fuel system.

Or just keep your battery charged when car's not in use with something like a CTEK battery conditioner?

+1 😁

They have been promising that a "CANblocker" is coming soon for at least a year or longer. I have zero faith in anything they say in a feeble effort to placate those who have experienced attempted theft or have had their cars stolen. Too little, too late. What is unforgivable was marketing new cars, from 2017 until the Gen5 was released, which had no encryption of security signals piggy backed onto the lighting wiring. How was that allowed to get past quality control? Sheer incompetence, or worse, sheer indifference for the paltry additional effort it would have taken to at least encrypt the signals. This is why an £80 dongle is all would be thieves need to bypass security and start/drive away any car not using encryption. Lexus don't care about customers any longer, just about market share and profit.

The problem with these trackers, especially the obd one, is that would be thieves will locate it in a nanosecond, remove it and it'll be lying on the ground where the car was parked, so I simply cannot see any merit or value in the obd device supplied. Mine is a TrackM8 Connect c330, and is operated via the registration details (now suppled to me by Tracker), activated once registered and installed and whilst I get no phone alerts, I get an email if the car is moved or the tracker removed. It really offers nothing in terms of protection or theft prevention, which means no insurance reductions. Come on Lexus, try harder...protect our damned cars...we paid enough for them! It's inexcusable that they haven't stumped up for at least a Ghost alarm/immobiliser or an even more secure encrypted device which was the obvious answer to our problem...ie prevent theft of the damned cars.

It's just the gen 4's. My Gen 3 was cheap to insure and was a solid car. I'd go for the FSport if you change. It uses lateral dampers as well as conventional damping to reduce body roll. It also uses the LED headlamps with auto cornering adjustments (excellent too) and mine came with HUD and Levinson stereo too. I also preferred the looks of the styling over standard models. I found the standard versions had to much wallow and the pneumatic suspension on the premium models is a ticking time bomb for expensive replacements.

2014 RX3 Fsport: £292 fully comp this year. 2021 RX450 FSport Takumi, same cover £1145. Bike insurance for comparison. I insured both my bikes (650 and 1200cc) including breakdown recovery anywhere in the UK, key cover, helmet and leathers cover, uninsured losses legal cover, fully comp.....grand total £186. Go figure....people are being ripped off with car insurance, because we all end up paying for uninsured drivers, high risk postcodes (whether or not we live in one) and the final insult....if you do some basic maths and look at the total thefts reported for RX's nationwide, work that out as insurance losses then using the average cover cost multiplied by total RX's in circulation, guess what? Insurance companies are milking it big time. No surprises there. It's a cash cow with little correlation to actual insurance risk. Then you have to add the indirect cost of insurance as an annual cost on top...ie tracker, immobiliser, hard protection like steering locks and any subscriptions due. I would argue it's cheaper to self insure and pay for decent security but as self insurance on vehicles isn't legally recognised, the irony is we can't.

I've found that mirror heaters on gen 3 and 4 models take at least a minute or longer to start clearing so sounds normal to me.

I had a similar experience. I felt as if me chasing my dealer for fixes, and then how to install and operate them was more of a nuisance to them than anything, finally the service manager telling me "all cars have issues...this is after all a car designed in 2016 so things have moved on since then". I was appalled. When you pay £40k for a 3 year old car, this is about as intolerable an attitude as you'd get anywhere. In other words, "we've taken your money and it's your problem now". I will now be writing to Lexus MD for the UK and venting my thoughts on their UK business direct to him, and asking him (or her), short of customers taking a class action against them, what they are prepared to do. The least I would accept would be for a decent alarm/immobiliser/tracker to be installed free of charge. They are fully aware that with dragging time frames, broken promises and broken dealerships, most customers will 1) cease to be their customers 2) never buy another Lexus and 3) end up buying something decent themselves as a necessity for insurance. In doing so, without Lexus approval, I'll lay odds they'd not honour their RELAX warranty should people be forced down this route. That's where the courts come in...