olliesgrandad

Hope you all enjoy the Subaru pics. I may well return to Lexus in the future, but the loss of between £450 and £850 a month mileage payments really made this decision very easy . I'm sure I'll look in from time to time , certainly so far I'm very impressed with Unity Motors at Balsall Common- the guy I'm dealing with previously worked at Lexus Birmingham and with Jaguar /Land Rover. He left LandRover because he was fed up with the abusive phone calls from unhappy customers - he said he averaged 7 a day! Best wishes to you all Les

Well

Well having owned 4 Lexus since 206 I have now decided it is time to move on. My business mileage due to cOVID has dwindled from 500 miles a week to Zero. My wife doesn't like to drive my current RX so we needed something smaller and suitable for our Scottish holidays (Ground clearance needed to get to the holiday house we rent). We couldn't see anything in the Lexus /Toyota range that appealed and most other brands small SUV's are auto only in diesel. The thought of downsizing and getting something that would be capable offroad when we go to Scotland and Exmoor appealed. Doing a lot less miles means that fuel consumption is not an issue -- but what should we get that we both enjoyed driving and was from a reliable manufacturer. Well we definitely went 'off piste' and decided to look at the Subaru XV 2 litre petrol. Well to cut a long story short they are like hens teeth. I wanted to buy a car that was around 2 years old. Several I saw on the Subaru website were already sold and I wanted a post 2018 car as they had a major structual and safety revision ( 5 star NCAP rating under the new regime). I had approached a Dealer near Coventry about a particular vehicle, but sadly it was sold, but he had another 14 month old car which was the lower spec version (half leather instead of full, no sunroof, no sat nav), but Apple car play and Android connect so not a deal breaker esecially as I use my Tomtom anyway. otherwise a similar amount of kit to most Lexus -heated seats paddle shift, radar cruise, sped limit sign recognition etc etc. Well I had reckoned on around £27,000 for my RX so when he did some research and came back with a figure of £28,500 I nearly fell over (I only I only paid around £34,000 for the car in November 2019), especially when he complimented me on the great condition my car was in. We went and test drove the car and it was amazingly good for the money. The eyesight safety system is probably more sophisitcated than the Lexus ( has blind spot warning which as we know is not on most Lexus) and the car felt extremely comfortable. Car was serviced 3,00 miles ago, but as it had been in stock for more than 3 months it is getting a fresh service and the sales guy is bringing it to me on Friday. Not a Lexus - but I won't be doing the big miles every day. Oh and the 5 year warranty is a definite plus, as is the large wad of cash that will be going in my bank as the Subaru had also just been reduced by £2000. I have to say this was probably the most painless car purchase I've ever had and the standard of vehicle preparartion leaves Lexus in the shade. Just hoping the car lives up to Subaru's reliability claims.

I did as well Les. You had your tyres changes a while back. Could it have come loose then ? or been disturbed ? I've always found the wheels on the premier and now the Takumi don't look as good as the next level down whatever that's called. I had one wheel replaced last year under new car warranty. Having looked at the car I think that it is a component refitted to the new wheel. I have received the new insert and will fit it tomorrow.

I use the local hand car wash and then apply protectant / spritz afterwards. I use Chemical Guys products which I find excellent.

No there are 5 per wheel. They are large plastic inserts which clip into the alloy wheels. I checked the wheel concerned and think it might be one Lexus replaced under warranty. If so it might be an issue with Lexus using the old inserts. I have made Lexus Customer Services aware as this is a safety related issue.

Thanks for the info folks. I've ordered a replacement from Lexus Parts Direct and even with a healthy 16% discount with shipping it comes to £24.01. So if they got lost from all 4 wheels it would be a staggering £380. More worrying is the fact that they just clip in. I believe it probaly flew off while driving. Could seriously injure a pedestrian or someone following

Really surprised yesterday to notice one of the plastic 'wheel spoke inserts' is missing from one of the wheels on my 2017 Premier. I assume they must be a push fit and that it ha sprung out when hitting a pothole. More than a little disappointed as no doubt it will be expensive to replace.

My current Lexus is the 4th in a row. The only other marque that I have revisited so often is Mercedes, having owned 5 over the past 30 years.

Have you thought about tyre wear. My series 3 had Dunlop tyres which when worn gave a vibration like a worn wheel bearing. Ive just changed tyres on my 2017 Premier from Bridgestones to Yokahoma and the difference is amazing.

I would be very interested to hear how you get on. Are these just for winter or do you intend to have them on all year? I don't really fancy buying and storing a set of 20" tyres and rims! They are similar in concept to Cross Climate in that they are a Summer tyre developed for year round use. They are M&S rated with a tread pattern and compound designed for excellent low temperature and snow performance. Like you I didn't fancy faffing around with 2 sets of 20 inch wheels.

I've just fitted the new Yokahoma Geolander CV508 to my series 4, .I'll report back once I've driven them for a while. We have Cross Climates on my wife's Fiat 500 and I had them on my Series 3 RX450h. Hoping that they will be comparable.

I didn't want the bother of changing and storing wheels which is why I decided to do as I did on my previous RX and fit all season tyres. Sadly my car has an unusual tyre size so I needed something other than Michelin as it appears they aren't going to do the Cross Climates in 235/55 /20. The Yokahoma have made some very strong claims for the G058 and their publicity pictures show an RX and the new RAV4 fitted with them. There is a YouTube video of the RAV44. Getting them fitted today. 👍 Well I had my new tyres fitted today at Chris Mullins Tyres in Gloucester. As always a good job. 4 wheel alignment check unusually showed all settings perfect. Total cost £630 so I'm very happy and now hoping for snow to see if they can match Cross Climates ❄️😂

I've had a couple of Lexus with paddles and after the novelty of using them a couple of times they were never used. The sport + setting is however good fun as it stiffens the ride as well as changing the throttle response. The customize option is also handy and I have mine set up with normal drive and stiffer suspension. It is good on twisty fast B roads. I avoided the F sport because in the past I had an IS300h f sport and found the seats a little on the firm side, but I love the look of your model. Im sure you will love it

I didn't want the bother of changing and storing wheels which is why I decided to do as I did on my previous RX and fit all season tyres. Sadly my car has an unusual tyre size so I needed something other than Michelin as it appears they aren't going to do the Cross Climates in 235/55 /20. The Yokahoma have made some very strong claims for the G058 and their publicity pictures show an RX and the new RAV4 fitted with them. There is a YouTube video of the RAV44. Getting them fitted today. 👍

Well I bit the bullet and Chris Mullins is getting me 4 yokahoma Geolander CV 508's. He couldn't match the price, but is a couple of pounds cheaper than Proquip and Black Circle. He is also going to do trade price on tracking for me. Hopefully get them fitted Wednesday or Thursday.

Well having pondered what tyres to put on my car I'm going to sort out the yokahoma geolander cv058 as the replacements for the Bridgestone currently fitted. I got a price today of £141.25 each fitted so hoping my tyre guy (Chris Mullins) in Gloucester can compete.

No it doesn't. My car was first registered in November 2013 and it's an Advance without ML. It was added to Advance in August 2014. Sorry 'my bad' , I'd forgotten that they changed the spec in 2014

Advance is a good spec to have. It has Mark Levinson as standard. Do be aware that the diamond cut wheels soon lose lacquer coating in centres. Mine was just out of warranty when I noticed they were going. Lexus Customer services paid for them to be refinished and I had them powder coated in an f sport dark chrome look whiwwas awesome. If car is around 60,000 miles make sure the big service has been done. Cross Climate tyres are brilliwon a gen 3 car.

I would love to have Cross Climates on my RX, but it doesn't look like Michelin are going to do them for the gen 4. Might seriously consider the Yokahomas when my Bridgestones require replacement.

If it is on Dunlop tyres that is where I would look. My series 3 felt like a wheel bearing was failing before I swapped to Cross Climates.

I would suggest it is condensation as I have had this with my series 4 when it has been driven gently in town in cold weather. Give it some beans and a big cloud of white vapour. Don't forget for every gallon of petrol burnt a gallon of water is created.

My RX450h has gone from 500 to 30miles a week during lockdoy. The traction batteries easily get charged fully during a 12 mile round trip as long as the car doesn't decide to run electric. You shouldn't have any issues and having driven several thousand miles in loan CT200h s they are extremely economical.

I just found my original police issue blue book. I compared it to the civilian version and found there was an extra chapter on how to talk to the motorist when you have stopped them, also on dealing with pedestrians. I notice also that I'd annotated in pencil road positiong in the diagrams as instructed in the classroom sessions. I can still remember when leaving the driving schotin the mornings the instructor would drive and 'show off' by giving a commentary drive full in the knowledge that the same events would be found every day at that time. Very old school and definitely pre- snowflake...

I never wear jeans as I worry about the blue dye staining the cream leather