wharfhouse

Just got my recall letter this morning so obviously taking a while to get them all out. I'm due an interim service within a couple of months so may see if they can do it at the same time as that.

I still have the original 12v battery on my IS 300h - it's now over 8 years old and done 128k miles but it's used regularly. I've had similar life from batteries in other cars but again they were all used regularly and not abused like leaving lights on or something that would drain them. A battery left in a car for a long time with a small drain (such as a car alarm) will discharge regardless of how new it is - as per my post earlier about my daughter's car. IMHO the car manufacturer / dealer can't be held to blame if that's the reason for it's demise.

Agreed - although my comment above may be a bit scathing, having a face-to-face civil conversation with the dealer may bring an amicable agreement.

IMHO the dealer handled the situation badly - they should have just been honest - the guy killed his own 12V battery - people need to take responsibility for their cars. All cars will drain the 12V battery if not used regularly, some quicker than others. We should all know this through common sense - surely it doesn't need be stated when buying a car - how many more things in that case should we be told NOT to do with a car that can cause damage or failure? Only doing 2,300 miles per annum in any modern car (and it doesn't say how long the car was sat doing no miles per month - that 2,300 miles could have been just a few trips in the whole year) is just asking for trouble unless some preventative measure is put in place. People want more and more electronic gizmos in the cars that in some cases these have to be fed some power continually - where do people think that is coming from? In my own family, my daughter left a 11 year old Fiesta for an extended period due to not using the car. The (Bosch) battery was only a couple of years old and was fully charged when the car was parked up. Guess what, it was flat when she went to start the car. Did we complain - of course not - it was obvious the chances are it would be flat so she had what was needed on standby and all was sorted painlessly.

Are other owners still waiting for a recall letter (who are showing on the system as recall needed)? I haven't received any letter yet although the system says the recall is required (I have owned the car for 6 years). I'll raise it at my next service (which will probably be due around April), as it sounds like Lexus dealers are in the main booking the recalls for March onwards, if I haven't heard anything by then.

I can't see it being a Lexus warranty issue unless a component failed or was at fault and needed replacing and fell within the manufacturers warranty or extended warranty terms. If there was accident damage you might have some recourse with the Mazda selling dealer if you asked and it wasn't declared but maybe a hard one to prove if only alignment and nothing damaged) especially if you've had the car a while. They might pay for the alignment if was done close to when the car was purchased.

I bought the Carista OBD Bluetooth adapter from Amazon and it works fine with my IS 300h. Works with the Carista app on my Android phone. It also came with a time limited access to all the functionality (for example changing the customizable features on the car) when I got mine.

According to the Lexus website for an ES that should be £1190 plus an MoT - even at £55 (which is the absolute max a garage can charge) for the MoT that's only £1245 - I'd show them the Lexus website and ask why it's more than that - also you can pay for a service plan monthly with no interest added.

Here's a broader picture of dealers reducing used EV stock: https://www.am-online.com/news/used-cars/2023/01/31/festive-rush-to-stock-ice-used-cars-saw-25-uplift-in-auction-sales

To be fair that's the media speculating based on how they see the EV market. I suspect Toyota has long term internal plans that no-one else is party too. The only real comment from Toyota was that the existing CEO was stepping aside (in fact moving to be Chairman) as he felt a new younger CEO and team should take the company forwards. And the new CEO is from Lexus - so how much will that really change the direction?

What I meant is the both EV tech is moving forwards at a pace and alternative tech to BEV (such as hydrogen) seems to be now gathering some momentum. Those leasing / PCP (with a strong guaranteed final value) new cars for the short term (2 or 3 years) and so able to change cars regularly will be OK (other than eg frustrating issues with infrastructure) but I wouldn't want to be in the position of buying a BEV now with a view to keeping it long term or buying second hand (where many will be looking more closely at what it's worth when reselling or to run long term).

Agreed - anyone who buys a BEV today other than a new one on a fairly short term lease or PCP (with a strong final guaranteed value) is going to get stung as new tech flows through - could really hurt anyone buying a used one a few years old for cash with a view to running it longer term (like many of us do with ICE cars).

It's not coming to the UK unfortunately

If you purchased from a Lexus dealer it comes with one year Lexus warranty and so they should fix it under that warranty?

I suspect Toyota are playing the long game - yes, they haven't done so well with the initial launches of EVs but the way much of the public seems to be swinging against EVs right now (which may force government hands) so long as they don't alienate their customer base (which is by it's demographics generally risk averse and not looking for cutting edge tech) they could easily leap frog the current BEV technology (as what we have is clearly still in it's infancy and may look very different in a few years) and take a lead in the future.

They can have a problem running the test if the 12V battery is low on charge for some reason. Not sure what error code that would report though. The advice is then to drive a few hundred miles and retest.

I noticed on my 2014 IS 300h (126k miles) the drivers sun visor was coming loose in the headlining (on the side that it's attached with the hinge mechanism - the passenger one was tight still but the drivers one gets used the most of course). Initially I couldn't work out how to get to any screws to tighten it but found the following video on YouTube (there are probably others too) describing how to remove Lexus sun visors https://youtu.be/XFTAdnCNBa4 Once the cover was off the two screws were loose and so I was able to tighten these fully home and pop the cover back on. I'm not sure but I think I had a slight rattle from there too which has now gone - one of the screws was particularly loose. Thought I'd post this in case it's useful to anyone in the future who finds their sun visor loosening.

Time to hit the comparison sites...!?

How many miles have done since the service - if for some reason they had used up what was in the Hybrid battery during the service and maybe drained down the 12v battery (doors open etc) it would take quite a few miles to replenish those fully during which time the mpg would be low.

I still subscribe to the odd hard copy magazine (though yacht and not car related...) the rest of my news I get on Google News on my mobile phone - I don't subscribe to any of the newspapers / publications though. It seems Google News sometimes displays the whole article but other times pops the pay wall up and so I skip past those with the pay wall and read the news articles that open for free.

Some market corrections starting to take place for EVs - residuals on used cars is starting to take a hit which will affect those on something like a PCP as they may not have anything left above the minimum guaranteed final value at trade in. It will also start and make PCPs more expensive on EVs as manufacturers lower the guaranteed final values to protect themselves. https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/official-tesla-model-y-loses-14k-in-four-months-as-ev-prices-tank-further-in-january/278815

I'm always a bit concerned over copyright cutting and pasting the article as a whole.

Apologies about that - I don't have any subscriptions but seems that the newspaper sites randomly display the full articles for some people and block others...

Perhaps something on the service that has changed / reset the ECU - if your style of driving had been economical then the car may have forgotten that - it should relearn after a while in that case. Or different fuel station - I have seen quite a difference in mpg between different fuel brands (E5 or E10).

It looks like all the media are now running articles on the pitfalls facing the country of the impending 2030 deadline and the woeful lack of investment in an infrastructure: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11681341/How-lack-chargers-soaring-power-costs-sent-electric-vehicle-revolution-reverse.html