wharfhouse

The hybrid battery is covered for 15 years and unlimited mileage by Lexus so long as you have a hybrid health check every 12 months or 10k miles (done automatically with a Lexus service or can be paid for). Also there is the Lexus 10 years plus extended warranty that can be taken out after 10 years / 100k miles until the car is 15 years old / 150k miles (whichever comes soonest) at around £500 a year (but requires servicing at Lexus). Of course more items need maintenance and sometimes replacement as a car ages but there are options to limit the risk.

I had a walk through and phone set up etc. on a used car and my wife had a walk through and initial set up with her new Toyota and so I would have thought your Lexus dealer will give you an initial walk through of the main controls and possibly set up your phone, radio stations etc. if you want them to. As people have said earlier, the manuals are not great but all the info is in there, sometimes need to read the relevant section a couple of times to understand it fully.

I wouldn't assume that it auto renews - I had to make a call to put mine in place when my old Extended Warranty expired - be ready to chase it up close to your expiry date.

I suspect that maybe at the outset it wasn't actually E10... in fact at the change over I actually noticed a small improvement in fuel economy on E10 that I couldn't explain. I do wonder whether the fuel companies did something such that the change was graduated so that people didn't see a step change (although there were a lot of complaints in the press). Of course could be the ECU learning too and adjusting, however I would have thought that would only have taken a few hundred miles. However, I can only say that now there is a significant difference between E10 and E5 Super Unleaded - I would have thought that half the difference in improved consumption is the E5 vs E10 and the other half is the 97 vs 95 octane.

Done around 20,000 miles now since E10 came in and so can make a reasonable comparison between E10 Unleaded and E5 Super Unleaded - 90%+ of my fuel is from my local Sainsburys so best like-for-like comparison I can make as I know different brands will also produce different results. Also many of my journeys are the same, ruling out that variation as much as possible. Initially when moving to Sainsburys E10 last year there wasn't an initial drop in mpg over the old Sainsburys E5 normal unleaded, but as time went on I did start to see a drop off in average mpg (not just being winter months as I had plenty of other years to compare to). One day (during the fuel shortage) I needed petrol urgently and my Sainsburys only had E5 Super Unleaded but the price was no more than the branded E10 in other places and so I filled an empty tank with this and I saw a marked improvement in mpg, some 10%. In previous years I had tried the Sainsburys E5 Super Unleaded (pre-E10 Unleaded coming out) and although there was a small improvement in mpg it didn't warrant the additional cost. However, the mpg improvement between Sainsburys E10 Unleaded and E5 Super Unleaded was close to 10%. I confirmed this wasn't just an anomaly by using Sainsburys E5 Super Unleaded over numerous tankfuls. As the difference in price between E10 and E5 Super at Sainsburys is only about 5% I have now switched to using their E5 Super Unleaded permanently as it is now costing me less to use their E5 Super Unleaded than their regular E10 Unleaded. Of course, this only holds true if the cost difference between E10 and E5 Super Unleaded is around 5%, which is the case at Sainsburys, but unfortunately for the major brands this is not the case with the E5 being 10%+ more expensive, and so if filling up at one of the other major brands I just stick to E10 there. Anyway, in summary E5 Super Unleaded will deliver something like 10% better fuel consumption than E10 (at least in my IS 300h) and so whether one buys E5 Super Unleaded over E10 IMHO comes down to the price difference between the two (although the car does also seem to run better / quieter on E5 Super Unleaded).

I had my 100k service carried out under the old Essentials servicing. I asked my Lexus dealer to change the coolant (at additional cost) but they tested it and said it was all OK for a while longer. I was quite surprised as I was willing to pay for it to be done and it's on the 100k service list. I do quite a high mileage though (car is 8 years old and 120k miles) so will leave it to 150k miles now I think and ask them to change it along with the inverter coolant as it's the same fluid.

Totally agree - never switch it off just leave on auto - never had a problem with any car in the last 20 years.

Yes, delivery times are very frustrating - I was tempted to look at ordering a NX 350h after having the courtesy car but when the dealer said at least 12 months wait decided to keep my IS 300h - just don't know what I am likely to be doing in a years time as in a life changing period at the moment... Will see what happens in the next year or so. Might decide to go for a used one when they start and hit the market assuming used car prices become more sensible...

I had a NX 350h as a courtesy car while my IS 300h was in for a service - took it for a good test drive and driving the same way as I would my IS over about 180 miles on a mix of roads I achieved around 45mpg - in my IS I would have achieved slightly better but the NX 350h was definitely better than the previous NX 300h for fuel consumption and noticeably more responsive.

I'll have a read of that - problem is always going to be proving it was a specific speed bump that did the damage I guess...

Yes I do that where I can but sometimes just not the room with oncoming traffic

Ah - speed humps - where I drive quite regularly, if I have four up in my IS 300h it bottoms out on the speed humps in the middle of the car (in fact it very nearly bottoms out with just one up) - no matter how slowly I drive! I looked underneath the other day and one of the plastic panels that cover the underside of the car has been worn away at it's lowest point. I did ask Lexus about a replacement at my last service but they said the cost of the panel was £400 - and did I really want to go ahead...? - they reported the panel was quite secure, just rather scuffed and worn through in one place! I decided to leave it at that as it would only happen again. How councils get to put in speed humps that can actually damage a normal road car traversing them at a very slow speed (when the speed limit is actually 30mph) is beyond me.

I hope I'm wrong but I don't see it dropping below £1.50 a litre now - the cat's out of the bag - people will still buy fuel even when it's £2.00 a litre and the fuel industry know that now!

Yes - all rather complicated - IMHO best way is to start with a list of "must haves" and then "nice to haves" and judge each car based on those criteria. Depending on how long one has to find the "perfect" car will dictate what compromises one can accept. I certainly agree that one should not be too bound by mileage - like you I firmly believe that average or even higher than average mileage cars with mainly motorway miles are often more reliable purchases than low mileage cars left unused for weeks / months that can exhibit all sorts of unexpected issues due to not being used regularly.

If you are serious about changing it's also worth going into your local Lexus dealer and talking to them as they may know of cars coming into the system (especially in their own group) that they can let you know about before they even get to the Used Car pages.

Looks like with that one you would be paying quite a premium to have the F Sport badge but fairly basic spec - no leather, no nav, no metallic paint, standard audio etc. Looking at the Lexus Used site plenty more better spec cars around that price available if you don't just limit your search to F Sport. Unless you absolutely must have F Sport at the end of the day they all have the same drive train and pretty much same handling. Difficult to judge the cars from their trim name - you have to look at the options listed as leather and premium nav and audio were often optional upgrades for lower spec trims bringing a lower spec very close to a higher spec.

Seems clear in that case - thanks for doing the query.

Maybe they have simplified it and amortised the bigger services (such as spark plugs and coolant changes etc) into those two simple charges - would make sense for Lexus given the Relax Warranty as no more arguments over when items should be done as there is no cost difference to the customer whether they are done or not...? I guess the only way to know is test the pricing at an appropriate service and see what the dealer says...

This page now has a simple intermediate/full service pricing for each model: https://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/servicing-mot-hybrid-health-check

Yes agreed - now that such a high bar has been set and people still kept / had to keep buying fuel and the fuel companies now know this I don't think we will see fuel much below £1.50 a litre again...

£178.9 for E10 at Sainsbury's near Reading today - hopefully will continue falling as although a small relief a long way to go yet...

I did tell you... Go with whatever tyres you are happy with and then you can come onto the next thread whrn someone asks what tyres to get and let us know your views on your chosen ones... 😂

Personally I just don't like digits for the speedo - call it old age if you like! I much prefer an analogue dial - similar for watches - still prefer an analogue dial watch too! I had an NX 350h F Sport as a courtesy car last week while my IS 300h was in for a service and that had the F Sport look dials but now just as a tft (or whatever tech the display is) and not the actual mechanical moving face like on the IS F Sport - not sure what other new NX's have for the dash though. That had the speed just as a number too which I wasn't keen on - unless it could be changed - didn't find any way to do that in the time I had it though. Mind you, I did like the rest of the car - first time I have really warmed to an SUV style and IMHO it's a nice step up from the old NX 300h that I never really got on with.

Oops - just realised I replied to the original poster earlier with the same thoughts...

There are lots available on the likes of Amazon at varying levels of quality/price. Best search term is something like "dog hammock for car." We have had a few and they do a good job of saving the back seat from dirt, fur and claws - make sure you get one that has a leash to plug into the seat belt and onto the dog harness (don't put it on their collar - get a harness) and then the dog can't get to the front while you are driving and is safely restrained in case of an accident. Also some only unzip from one side, others from both sides so choose carefully if that matters to you. Others also can be configured to only take up half the back seat so you can carry a passenger too. Some also have a mesh front so the dog can see you - our dog likes that as he has seperation anxiety issues...!