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...

They emailed the security token to me (Tracker that is) after Lexus registered the device in my name and provided them with my email address. Check your emails...if they haven't sorted you out with a registration document for the tracker, push it with them as it should be issued before you receive the geofence device.

Thanks Paul. Just downloaded it and all is working. Retrieved email (which I thought was my installed tracker subscription email) and dongle activated. I assume it just sends alerts if the dongle is removed (when active) and if the car is moved whilst the dongle is active. I'll have to remember to turn it inactive when driving to avoid alert emails. It's not what I thought it might be, so no immobilisation, just, hopefully, an alert of the car is moved.

I have been given no details for any app to work with the tracker (single use one) nor any registration details nor app details for the TrackM8 OBD. All I have is the device which says it's the "Connect 330" model. My patience is fast running out with lexus 🤬 Despite calling for assistance, no one was available for the call and I'm still waiting for a call back. For two pins, I'll end up driving to the dealership and asking to speak with the MD. Not what I have come to expect from Lexus. The whole customer experience around this security issue makes me regret ever buying the car.

Does anyone know what phone App that you're meant to connect the obd geofence dongle with? Mine was received in the post with no covering letter nor instructions.

I hope for the sake of 500h owners that the rear wheel steering is more reliable than the system previously used on the GS450 which when it went wrong cost an arm and a leg to fix. I never understood why this was necessary when the Mk3 GSv6 was a fine handling machine without such complexities.

To add to the confusion, we were promised a geofence obd device with the tracker. What I actually received was a £20 Trackm8 obd tracker, with web reviews saying it doesn't work for many people. It arrived in the post with no instructions and I had to google for the app, which doesn't mention any geofence shut down/immobilise capability. It seems it's just a cheap app based tracker which requires a phone app to work, then, from owner reports online, a majority say it's a waste of time. I'll see how it performs and report back.

Welcome to the club! You should find that the RX is more economical, far more reliable and as a result much cheaper to run overall. Personally, I would fit a tracker and a decent after market immobiliser as Lexus have gone cold on delivering on their promise to sort the canbus issues (see other threads on this). However, it's not the end of the world, as you can do a lot to deter even hardened thieves. A good steering wheel lock for one (I'd recommend the disklok Gold Edition), tracker and geofence/immobiliser as well as the wheel arch plates will make the car far less attractive to would be criminals as it's not worth the trouble to try and bypass that, or at least increases their risk to significant. The overwhelming consensus amongst RX owners is of almost total satisfaction with Gen3 and Gen4 cars which (imho anyway) were the best ones made. Too early to say how newer ones will fair longer term but they have lost a lot of what made the 3/4 gen models special, including that sumptuous, effortless and buttery smooth V6 lump. The car delivers on wafting its occupants in total comfort over long distances yet with models like the F-Sport and Takumi with the electronically controlled variable suspension and sport+ modes handles surprising well and with more than enough overtaking oomph. The downside to ownership, sadly, is the way that the insurance markets have reacted to the 4th gen models. It's almost impossible to insure in some parts, and you'll pay two to three times more for the gen4 than the 3rd gen, and at least double, over the 5th gen on insurance premiums. If you can accept the insurance hike, then it makes for a wonderful car.

They're rolling the geofence out in customer priority order. I have been told I'm on the list and to expect one in the next shipment to them this month. Other dealerships may have differing waiting times so it won't necessarily be fitted when the tracker is.

Yes, I think that's right. Phone app is for the geofence device, which even if found and removed, sends an alert to your app so you know what's happening and can (hopefully!) do something about it before the car's gone. I had no idea that the tracker was a "one use" device but perhaps this is down to the promise of a proper fix being due (something which I seriously doubt will ever happen).

It seems to be a lottery with Lexus cars. My 2006 gs300 was suffering badly with rust underneath from a few years old and needed a new cross member, suspension parts and the exhaust split at the Y branch after corroding. My '21 RX has a surprising amount of surface rust underneath...the whole subframe and suspension arms are covered in rust, and as this car is new to me, I'll be getting under it to plaster it in Lanoguard before winter sets in. It appears that Japanese cars aren't treated from the factory as they don't salt their roads but no attempt is made by Lexus to protect the underside from corrosion for export cars, which for a luxury brand, is imho a huge oversight, especially given what they cost. Best advice might be to scrub off the worst with a brass brush and have it lanoguarded as this will continue to protect it for a few years. That or other effective treatment of your choice. I did my last RX and it remained rust free for 10 years.