wharfhouse

Ready mode means foot on the brake and press the Start button. The internal combustion engine (ICE) will then start as needed to charge the hybrid battery which in turn will charge the 12V battery. If you don't put your foot on the brake when you press the Start button it just turns the accessories on and air con etc which are then only running off the 12V battery and will quickly drain it down meaning you won't then be able to start the car again without a jump start! In addition, for the ICE to charge the hybrid battery the car must be in P or D/S and not Neutral. In N the hybrid battery is NOT charged by the ICE and so the hybrid battery will eventually be completely drained and the car will have to be flatbedded to Lexus to be restarted. Same when you are at traffic lights or in traffic jams etc - don't put the car in N just keep it in D/S with foot on the brake or move to P to ensure that the ICE will come on and off as needed to charge the hybrid battery while queuing.

Glad you were OK after the prang - that's the most important thing. I must admit I am always confused what to do in those situations regards recovery. AFAIK the breakdown companies won't generally attend and it seems to be down to the insurance company to organise recovery, which if it's the middle of the night not sure whether there would be anyone on the end of the phone! When I hit a lorry tyre shed from a rim on the motorway it left my car undrivable. This was 9pm at night. I contacted Lexus Assist and they did arrange to get the car flat-bedded to wherever I wanted. Chose to leave it outside my local Lexus dealer so that I could arrange repair through them -the dealer were somewhat confused when they opened the gates the next morning and found my damaged car outside. I arranged to be there when they opened and explained the situation and they took the car off to their repair facility for me.

Interesting - I use confused.com for comparison and never had Toyota insurance pop up for me - unless they were lower down the list than when I stopped looking...!

I use Costco E5 as much as possible - it works out cheaper than the branded E10 and delivers good fuel consumption (between 5 and 10% more than any E10, including Costco) and the car seems to run very well on it, smooth and quiet. The Costco E5 is about 9p more per litre than their E10 so from the financial point of view I am certainly no worse off financially using their E5 and most likely better off so unless that calculation swings the other way I don't see any reason not to use their E5.

Depending on your view about risk and how you plan to service the car, just to let you know that although the car is out of the Lexus 10 year/100k mile free warranty there is the option of what is called Lexus 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty (also for cars under 10 years old but over 100k miles - this isn't advertised but dealers should know about it though some aren't so clued up but a message to Lexus customer services can put them straight). This can be purchased annually until the car is 15 years old or 150k miles whichever come first. It's comprehensive and much better than 3rd party warranties (in essence same as Lexus offer for cars under 10 years old / 100k miles) and comes with Lexus Roadside Assistance (full UK for you and a spouse driving any car and European cover for the Lexus). Cost is about £500 per annum (of which £155 is the included but not optional roadside assistance). The car must be serviced by a Lexus dealer according to the schedule though for the extended warranty to be valid. If you have the car serviced by Lexus it also includes the hybrid healthcheck for free which warrants the hybrid battery for a further one year / 10k miles whichever comes first (so until the next service is due) and this can continue each service until the car is 15 years old (with unlimited mileage). The hybrid health check can also be purchased without having a service for about £60. Enjoy the car - for a daily driver dealing with the usual commute, busy roads and also long distance travel, the hybrid package really shows its benefits making such journeys much more relaxing than they might otherwise be.

In that case you will be on the standard flat rate ved which is £180 per annum less the £10 alternative fuel discount making it £170 per annum. All the rates are here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1146222/v149-rates-of-vehicle-tax-for-cars-motorcycles-light-goods-vehicles-and-private-light-goods-vehicles.pdf

If your IS 300h was registered before 01/04/2017 then it is in Band B - this is normally £20 but there is currently a £10 discount as it's classed as an alternative fuel car (ie hybrid) and so you should have only paid £10.

Interesting - looks like something may have changed regards the service plans in that case - mine will be due for renewal at my next service in a few months time so will see what is what then.

Same here in that my service plan is for any Jemca dealer but if I want to change to a non-Jemca dealer then I have to take a refund on what remains of the plan (at the end of the day it's just like a simple bank account) and one a new service plan with a new dealer.

That is correct - Emac administer the plan and payments but the price and delivery schedule is done by the Lexus dealer and fed into the Emac system. My dealer did the last one on his computer while I was sat with him and I received the email with the documents almost immediately.

+1 with the two comments above - I use a phone mount that plugs into the CD player slot and then Google maps on my phone. Sometimes run the car sat nav to see upcoming information on the roads (as above) but rarely use it to actually navigate with unless I have no phone signal and so can't use Google maps on my phone like when in the hills (and haven't downloaded the Google maps for out of coverage use). My in car maps are still the original that came with the car - so from 2014 era. I can also use Google voice assistant to instruct Google maps or other apps on the phone.

Yes air con will impact it

My average over 8 years is 48mpg on the car computer (I do a lot of motorway miles) - I have seen up to 60mpg under ideal conditions - that's 20C air temp and driving at constant 40-50mph on flat roads.

Here is the post on this forum done by a forum member who does a lot of his own maintenance and shows how to get to and clean the fan and filter. I keep meaning to take a look at mine but at the moment I have no reduction in mpg - it's as good as it was when I got the car (it was 2 years old with 40k miles when I purchased it in 2016) and as reduced mpg seems to be a sign of a blocked filter, especially in hot weather and I have no issues, I have kept putting it off. Others who have undertaken this report anything from a rather dirty filter to nearly clean. A lot seems to depend on how the back seats are used and the amount of dirt, fluff etc. that may be present and sucked in as the inlet for the fan is at the side of the back seat (rhs looking forwards).

That's not unusual if the car has been sat around for some time and the 12V battery hasn't been regularly charged. Without a properly functioning 12V battery the hybrid health check can't be completed successfully. There are a number of reports on this forum about the same issue and the car then tested fine after a new 12V battery was fitted and driven the requisite mileage. Now you have a new battery, after the 1000km hopefully all will be well and good with the hybrid side. Worth getting the miles in quickly anyway to test everything else out on the car. Also, if the battery was original, then on a 2104 car it was probably getting towards the end of it's life anyway. My IS 300h is a 2014 model with 134K miles and still on the original 12V battery but I do expect that at some point in the not too distant future I will have to replace it (though nothing to point to any problems at the moment). Your new 12V battery, if properly maintained through charging regularly and not allowing it to go flat should last another 8+ years.

Is the air con fixed now then? Sounds like rather shoddy service by the dealer - no need for that regardless of whether they did or didn't do a sound job on the repair. I see you're in London - there aren't many Lexus dealers - are you prepared to name the dealer yet?

I have battled with this issue of the car displaying the name of the person on my IS 300h since I bought it (now 8 years ago). I have read from some people not having the+44 sorts it out then others that having the +44 sorts it out - whatever I have tried has been inconsistent...! Your explanation may now have finally answered the inconsistency - as the 3g networks are switched off let's hope that we get more consistency going forwards with using the +44 prefix throughout.

Similar to my experience between E5 and E10 - up to about 10% better mpg with E5 even though the chemistry says it shouldn't be that much...! Maybe it's the additional higher RON that makes the additional difference.

I switched to E5 some time ago on my IS 300h. Simple supermarket brand E5 gives measurable better mpg than any E10 (supermarket or any of the branded). At least 5% and up to 10% improvement, which I know is a lot more than should be the difference, but found this reliably over many tankfuls comparing E5 and E10. So, as long as the price difference between E5 and E10 is less than 10% I generally save money using E5 (supermarket E5 is less than 10% more expensive than E10, but branded fuel is probably not). I also noticed that E10 mpg gets noticeably worse as the fuel ages in the car (even over a few weeks) whereas the E5 mpg does not degrade when left the same time in the car.

Note on the Esso website: We currently supply an ethanol-free Synergy Supreme+ 99 unleaded in some parts of the UK. From September 2023 our Synergy Supreme+ 99 will transition to contain up to a maximum of 5% ethanol at all Esso pumps irrespective of which part of the country they are located. The labelling at our pumps will remain as E5 for Synergy Supreme+ 99 unleaded.

Yes, agreed, definitely some of it is an excuse to fleece motorists who aren't directly affected (as in my case as it was manufactured before the CANBUS changes that made later model susceptible. On the courtesy cars then difficult one - I had an accident with my IS 300h (6 years ago) that wasn't my fault. It took 6 weeks for the repair due to getting parts and I was loaned a Mercedes Benz C Class by the 3rd party insurance at fault. I didn't really need like for like for much of the time, just any reasonable size four door saloon, though I guess a lot of people think why should they be without like-for-like for a no-fault accident. Not sure what the cost of the courtesy car was but wouldn't have been small...!

Some of the rise is general inflation, but we are seeing very large increases on many Lexus premiums (much more then inflation of even the higher rise of the insurance industry as a whole) whereas those of us who also insure some other marques are not seeing the same rises for them. Let's hope that Lexus get the thefts under control otherwise sales will start to suffer if premiums continue to rise.

It's starting to look like a blanket rise in risk for all Lexus models regardless of whether they are affected by the CANBUS hack...

The Lexus Roadside Assistance (LRA) is as you say included for 3 years for a brand new car but LRA is NOT included as part of the free Relax service initiated (up to 10 years / 100k mile) warranty and so must be purchased separately. However LRA IS included still in the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty (that can be purchased annually from when Relax does not apply anymore until the car is 15 years old (or 150k miles whichever comes sooner). I think this is a hangover from the old Extended Warranty (before Relax came about) that also included LRA that could be purchased after the car was 3 years old.

My IS 300h jumped in price 37% this year with no change in circumstances and couldn't get it cheaper by shopping around on comparison sites. However my wife's Toyota Yaris stayed the same price as last year with no change in circumstances!