KenMavor

Brill. Thanks. Local garage has quoted £335 inc vat to do it which I think is taking the **** a bit. Will try autodoc with the part number and see what comes up.

Front drivers side wheel bearing needs replaced. Best place to go for one....and also any idea of the part numnber? Thanks.

So over the last few weeks I have been test driving everything that has four wheels, an engine and some seats. A year ago I test drove a 2013 RX 450h and both my wife and I loved it. Hence I thought that I would replace aging but perfectly fit for purpose IS250 with a RX 450 somewhere along the long. My son would then inherit my IS250, free of charge. Having just retired I thought now is that time to change. Wanted a petrol and hybrid if possible. There are two of us and now a 6 month old puppy. Test drove a RX 450h from a garage nearby. Hated it. Realised it was too big by a large amount. Whilst the model we drove wasn't great it had 63k miles and £13995 was the price. Had looked at others higher priced but this one was a bit of a dog in my mind. Lesson learnt - buy from someone who loves their RX 450h and treats it accordingly. Tried a Mazda CX3 (too small), Mazda 3 (meh) and CX5 (too big again).......nice enough cars but not that comfortable inside. Nothing startling to be honest. A bit noisy as well. Tried a Honda CRV. Nice enough but slow and I'm not yet ready for my slippers and flat cap driving. Quiet and comfortable but again nothing startling. The dealer we test drove the Honda at had a spotless Lexus 600h for £17k and 82k miles. Was so tempted. Tried a Honda HRV. See above. Lots of boot space for the size. The Hyundai Kona was next. Nice enough car but small engine. Hyundai Tucson was too big. Ioniq was rejected by the wife as being ugly. IX35 only diesel options really. Lexus CT200h....I liked it. A class above everything else on comfort, style, lay out. But too small in the back for the dog and a wee but too slow. Thought about Audi A3, BMW series 1 or 2 but rejected due to overpriced and not getting much for your money. Looked at VW but again you need a lot of money to get a decent spec. Briefly flirted with Peugeot, Kia, etc but nothing said....choose me. Had a chat about what we realy needed from a car and then we decided that it was my wife's car we need to change and not my Lexus. She has a two door Toyota Corolla T sport. Really nice car but in no way fits what we need. So it will go. Then went to the garage that is actually closest to our house......a Suzuki dealer. We test drove a 2017 Vitara and a 2017 SX4 S-cross. Both had all the gadgets you could want. Both were a revelation, both very similar size, one with a 1.6 normal petrol engine, one with a 1.4 boosterjet turbo. Both were very confortable, cruised easily at 70mph. We test drobe the SX4 Scross for a day and drove it hard and long.....motorway, A and B roads. Just kept coming back for more. It also had 4 wheel drive which will help if we get the snow returning in June. It had all the gadgets and I mean all of them...adaptive cruise control, panoramic roof, 4 wheel drive, reversing camera, 7 inch touch screen, all round parking sensors, leather seats, good economy. Interesting process trying all these cars and seeing what their strenghts and weaknesses are. Bought it for £11500 and 33k miles on it, three years free servicing, 1 years warranty and breakdown cover. Wife loves it. So I will change my IS250 for a NX next year sometime when they come down in price.

.....what about the one that natters on inside my head?

I think this highlights perfectly the problem with so called mechanics these days.....they are more technicians, who plug in a computer, get a code and replace the item that the code is pointing to that is faulty. And so on down to the last code. All they are doing is treating symptoms and not the root cause and when all that fails they are stumped. Better to go to someone who specialises in said area and then you will get a guy who has knowledge and experience of similar problems.

Many so called higher end businesses (Lexus, Dior, Givenchy, Apple etc.) have built up a brand, reputation and image that means people believe they are getting a superior product in every way. This includes after sales and parts after the event. Apple is the prime candidate in this area. Iphones are made in exactly the same place, with similar parts, in a factory where they make other, "lower quality" phones. There maybe differences but not to the tune of 5 times more expensive than the other products but people, in their millions, choose Apple products, or a Lexus, or a what ever. The Lexus image has to project that quality, even parts, so yes you are correct that the same part, under a different name costing 70% less will be exactly the same but people want to believe it is better. Also, people can't be arsed looking for the cheaper part....they just want it fixed, by the lexus mechanic with Lexus parts and are suitably impressed and comforted that it is exceedingly expensive...after all if it's expensive it MUST be of a better quality.

My wife has a Toyota Corolla T Sport. It has a 1.8 engine with VVTL - similar to the Honda VTEC. It pulls like mad to 6200 revs when the VVTL kicks in and then it just goes like sh*t off a hot shovel. It is just glorious fun seeing BMers and the like having trouble losing a Toyota Corolla along the roads.

It does have pre crash system and the adaptive cruise control, and the HUD, and the body work looks spotless......damn!!!

All right, all right......no need to rub it in....... 😂 ☹️

OK....which one of you ****holes bought the lovely gold RX 450h in Pwllheli..... Was spotless, well looked after, full Lexus service history, personal number plate, 86k miles, £10990. Raging, just absolutely raging.........sent an email to the seller, had to do a business call and he had sold it already. Rant over......... 😂

.....maybe that's just a bad hangover you're having.....just saying...........🤣

Astra Zeneca one a week last Friday......absolutely no after affects on me and my wife.... Roll on the next jab. Then I can actually start looking at RXs.... On a similar vein..... Our neighbour got stuck in Austria for 3 months during lockdown. Went to GP in Austria whilst she was out there and he advised her not to get the vaccine as he said many people were being paralyzed due to the vaccine....sorry about the language......but what the actual f....... She was then paranoid that she would be paralyzed (actually really panicking)......and then she traveled from Austria, to Amsterdam, to Manchester to Aberdeen to get back home and was panicking about getting the vaccine!! The risk off getting Covid in her journey home was about a million times higher than getting ANY adverse reaction to the vaccine. Just goes to show that many, many people believe all the negative, and false, information that is being spouted on various social media and news reports. That could cause major problems a few months down the road.

....now on their website at a mouth watering.......£18490....ouch again.

These are all scams.....there are about 15 Ebay accounts in operation on a regular basis that have been hacked. I have reported about 12 accounts that have similar set up to Ebay. Nothing happens.....Ebay really need to get some AI going so that they can spot these sort of scams and shut them down quickly but I ain't holding my breath.

David from Lexus Teeside did say you seemed a bit pleased with your new toy...... lol....enjoy.