wharfhouse

That's why there can be no automatic fine - the letters will be the same as when communities use speed devices (that can't be used for fines) and show the results to the police who then issue a letter - or cyclists with head cams (not wanting to open another debate there) - again it's usually a letter - they can however use the evidence from these (I believe) to bring a case of careless/dangerous driving but there is a much higher burden of proof then needed and it's up to a court to make the final verdict.

IMHO I suspect that at best a letter is issued based on these but no fixed fine. For a prosecution to take place - even a fixed fine - there has to be an absolute offence (like speeding). The offence that can be brought is surely only careless/dangerous driving which would then need to go to court as it's open to interpretation - no absolute threshold. It would then be up to the courts to make the judgement as to whether careless/dangerous driving had taken place.

Yes I was thinking the total ved - standard plus the additional luxury element - compared to the £10 a year I pay on my car.

I don't think Lexus / Toyota do the inserts anymore - just the whole blades. There may be other places you can source just the blade insert from other sources though.

With the latest price increases (isn't that the second time this year?) and especially the new APR levels on PCP, along with then having to wait 12+ months to have the pleasure of driving a newly ordered car, that has sealed the fate on my IS 300h. With its £10 a year ved (nearly all new Lexus now incur the "luxury" ved - £520 per year if I am not mistaken) and with it still driving as good as new I'll be renewing the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty next month (for peace of mind - and about the same cost as the "luxury" ved) and keeping it running at least until all this madness in the world settles down again...!

Last time I had mine replaced on my IS 300h I asked Lexus to replace them - the new ones are Toyota branded ones and they have been brilliant - they have now been on 4 years and some 60K miles and still working just fine. If I recall, they were not much more expensive than other main brands (if at all). FYI Lexus Parts Direct are currently showing a UX kit containing Driver, Passenger and Rear Wiper Blades Plus Screen Wash Top Up for £27.42.

When I had a courtesy NX 350h I was able to drive over a mix of roads including motorways - it would certainly be in EV at higher speeds than my IS 300h - I saw 60mph+ with the EV light on - however, that's still only really possible under zero or extremely light load - once you need to press the accelerator slightly at higher speeds the ICE will kick in. So nice that more energy is recouped during regen but don't expect to be driving around at motorway speeds in EV for any distance.

£1.64 (and a bit) today at Sainsbury's for E5 Super Unleaded - Near Reading, Berkshire

That was one of the main reasons why I chose my IS 300h - I do want to reduce pollution in populated areas and it does a very good job of that but without the other issues that for my use EVs would currently cause me. I don't rule out one day going to something else that goes further on reducing pollution in the wider sense but whether that is EV or another technology the jury is out.

Not sure what's open to interpretation - if you pay for the Hybrid health check (or free with each service done a Lexus dealer) the warranty is extended for another 12 months / 10k miles (whichever comes first) and can continue to be done this way (every 12 months / 10k miles) until he car is 15 years old with unlimited mileage. I've just had my 120k mile service (car is 8 years old) and received my warranty as usual.

That's my understanding - 15 years and unlimited mileage. It used to be different (I think the mileage was limited) but changed a few years ago to the 15 years unlimited mileage.

That's great to know - I thought mine was quite high mileage - makes it look hardly run in now...

Look forward to hearing the reply from Lexus CS...

Yes - each and every supplier has done something different in how they are applying the £400 refund...

Funny you say that as I'm with BG too - I kept looking at changing but whenever I did, I found there was no saving of any significance to be made. I think all the "savings" that the comparison sites touted were when someone was on the most expensive tariff with one supplier moving to the cheapest with another - if you looked at the tariffs of the existing supplier that were available the savings of moving were always negligible or non-existent... BTW in case there is any doubt - if one is on in a position that the BG Gas £400 will be paid directly to a bank account then it will be paid over 6 months at ~£67 per month and not in one go whilst the same existing monthly direct debit is taken as before. Oh yes, and if it's paid to one's account (if that is the circumstances) then it's to the electricity account and not gas (if you have these separate).

The Breakdown Cover runs in line with the initial 3-year manufacturer's warranty on the car - so 3 years from first registration. After that there is no breakdown cover included. After the 3-year manufacturer's warranty expires then for each service at a Lexus dealer you receive 12 months/10k miles (whichever comes first) of Relax Extended Warranty (there would be no gap in this assuming the car has been serviced by Lexus on schedule during its first 3 years) - this can be maintained by having Lexus service the car for up to the car being 10 years old / 100K miles (whichever comes first). However, the Relax Extended Warranty (unlike the manufacturer's warranty) DOES NOT include breakdown cover. If you want to have Lexus breakdown cover after the first three years manufacturer's warranty expires then this can be purchased through Lexus and is (I believe) £135 per annum. It should be possible to arrange this through your dealer or Lexus directly through the website: https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/roadside-assistance.

Therein lies the issue - if during the drain/flush any debris gets lodged in the very small hydraulic passages of the auto box it will have issues possibly requiring much more expensive repair. That's why the consensus seems to be either a) do not change if very high milage unless problems are experienced (in which case you have nothing to lose) or b) change early and regularly as Roy has done with his Merc. I have followed these debates since my E39 BMW 528i days and from what I can conclude never changing the oil does not seem to pose any more risk than changing the oil at a high mileage - in fact there seemed to be less reported issues leaving well alone (with cars doing 200k/300k miles happily with no change) compared to issues reported from those who changed the oil - of course that may also be down to the skills of the person doing the change too... Changing the oil regularly at perhaps every 50k miles (assuming you have had the car from nearly new) seems to be the safest bet if you want to do oil changes and run the car to 200/300K miles.

As you say - a lot of speculation as to what is the right or wrong thing to do...

Not a Lexus, but in the mid 1990s I bought a new E39 BMW 528i Auto. This also had the lifetime fill gearbox. I kept it for 10 years and did 210K miles in it. It led quite a hard life including high speed runs across Europe. Always serviced by BMW and the auto box oil was never changed. The auto box was still working as well as when it was new when I finally traded it in. At the time there was the same debate on the E39 forums about the lifetime fill. In the US in particular some owners had run over 300k miles with no change in the gearbox oil. Others had changed the oil and then suffered issues... From what I have read the consensus seems to be that the lifetime fill is valid (assuming normal driving) for a few hundred thousand miles but if you do want to change it then do it early and regularly to avoid issues of debris getting moved into the small channels. I also believe that regular use of a car helps reliability enormously - if a car sits around week to week without any use, then that seems to result in more issues too. The issue with a lot of this debate is that people stop reporting on cars that are in the 200k or 300k mileage on these sorts of forums and so we don't really get a full picture of when gearboxes are failing with the lifetime fill and even if we did whether the failure was something that change in fluid would have made any difference to. I also don't believe a lot of the YouTubers (especially in the US) going on about changing oils - in the US many still recommend changing engine oil every few thousand miles...! - by the way my 528 also just had scheduled engine oil changes too, nothing more, and the engine was running sweet as a nut at 200K miles. Just my 2-penny worth of experience.

As the IS was also sold as a normal ICE they left a large fuel tank in place which I like as it means with the hybrid, I can get close to 600 miles out of a tankful before refilling - that means for example I can get from home (Berkshire) to Oban in Scotland without having to stop on the motorway at rip-off fuel prices or have to divert to find a cheaper filling station. On later cars they seem to have shrunk the fuel tank quite a lot so that the range is down to perhaps 400 miles which is IMHO a shame as I really like the long-distance capabilities of the large tank.

I purchased mine from Amazon about 3 years ago and it's worked well - the ball joint is starting to come a little loose now but given it was under £10 can't really complain. If you put a search into Amazon (or other places that sell such things) of something like 'phone holder cd slot' you will see there are plenty of them with various ways of achieving the same thing and a range of prices. The phone does sit covering some of the dash buttons but haven't found that to be a big issue and it's pretty much unavoidable unless you mount it up on the windscreen which I personally am not so keen on.

The IS 300h has a 66 litre fuel tank. About 10 litres left when showing zero on the computer is about same as I have found. With careful driving that's nearly 100 miles in reserve when showing empty.

Lexus include breakdown cover for 3 years on a new car in line with the warranty so your car will still be covered under the original 3 year cover. See Lexus website for details.

Yes, same with me - I found that a phone holder that slots into the CD opening works well and now use Google Maps on my mobile phone - it's perhaps a touch low but I can live with it - I have a Pixel 6 and can also use Google Assistant and tell it via voice where to navigate and also make phone calls, which of course then routes through the car Bluetooth system. If you also want to listen to music over Bluetooth from the phone then you can also have the Google Maps nav over the Bluetooth too and through the car speakers. It delivers a reasonable solution without taking the car apart...

Interesting that they won't replace under Relax - I guess if you are really serious about having it done you may need to contact Lexus HQ for a definitive statement on that - the dealers don't always know whether or not something is covered and just tell you what they think. However, as I reported earlier in this thread, if you are talking about the same noise, I have had it on and off on my car since I purchased it 6 years ago (it was 2 years old with 40K miles when I bought it) and it is now on 122K miles. The noise has not got any worse over that time and if it occurs it's usually on startup/shutdown when I think the ventilation flaps probably do a full range movement. To replace the flaps, it looks like it's probably dashboard out and that (as per you can see on this thread) may well bring more issues than you are trying to rectify... I don't recall anyone reporting a failure of the flaps on this forum to date - just the noise.