Herbie

Whoever you spoke to has got it wrong. Just three weeks ago I had to buy breakdown cover and did so through Lexus Roadside Assistance. Everything is still the same, from the car cover to the second driver/any car scenario - the only thing that's changed is that it used to be free as part of the Extended Warranty but now it isn't.

There's a label stuck to the inside of the fuel filler door that (on my 2018 RX) says E5 E10 - meaning that either can be used. Again, different countries may be different but I think all Lexus engines from about 2005 onwards, with just one or two exceptions, can use E10. Yes, sadly that is a known side effect and is well documented.

Like any insurance policy, you don't know the real value of them until you need it.

Good point Barry.

Thanks Ed, good info.

Not something I would have thought of doing but hey, may just be worth a punt. As my dear departed Granny used to say, "If you don't ask, you don't get". Cheers.

Quite simply, cost. This is all because both my uncle and my wife have mobility issues. My wife has severely arthritic knees and my uncle has other problems, so this is just an experiment to see if it helps them getting in and out of the car. Lexus side steps are £500 as opposed to £130 for these. If I could guarantee that the steps will help with their mobility issues, I would happily pay the £500 and more if I had to, but it's just too much to spend on an unknown outcome (it's possible that the steps could make things worse rather than better and so have to be taken off again) and then be left with something that's no use to me and be £500 out of pocket. I know some people will say "you get what you pay for" and I understand that, but I would expect the cost-cutting to be evident in perhaps the materials used or the longevity of the item, not something that's just never going to fit in a month of Sundays EDIT: Even worse - just found out that the £500 OEM steps require a fitting kit at a further £93

Well, a bit of an update on this. There are no fitting instructions in the kit at all, just a parts list that shows how the brackets go together but not how and where they fit on the car. The parts list also has, written quite clearly at the top of the paper, 2007 RX400h, even though their website says it covers RX450h 2015+. I emailed for confirmation that they had sent out the correct kit and they assured me that they had. My mate is a time-served motor mechanic with 30 years experience between two dealerships (Ford and Vauxhall). He recently handed in his notice and decided to work with/for his mate who is a self-employed, time-served mechanic with over 30 years experience in the trade. The car went on the ramps this morning and soon had both of them scratching their heads. Even with over 60 years experience between them they couldn't fathom how to fit these steps. As you'll see from the photos below, there's absolutely no chance that the brackets can be mated together. If they could be bolted together then either the steps would be so high as to prevent the doors from moving or so low that a lot of ground clearance would be lost. So I've emailed 4x4 Styling this afternoon to say that I can only see two options. Either: Despite earlier assurances to the contrary, they did indeed send out the wrong kit, so we could exchange for the correct one, or I return the kit for a full refund (and I may try to find a different manufacturer). As the saying goes, watch this space.

@Gordon28 Any update on this?

Well, with Lexus charging about £138 + VAT/hour it could still be considered cheap, but I'd say it's on the pricey side and I know that the guy I go to doesn't charge anywhere near that. However, given that prices for everything are going up faster than an Elon Musk Starlink SpaceX rocket, this could well be the new norm.

I agree, but surely even a blind man on the No.87 bus can see that we just cannot possibly do away with fossil fuels until we have a viable alternative in place beforehand. We are woefully short of doing that yet so we need new oil and gas fields, and maybe even start digging for coal again, to avoid being held to ransom by the foreign powers who supply our energy needs.

I agree with Matt - 12V battery failing. This can cause all sorts or weird gremlins to appear. Go to a garage or even car accessory shop like (urgh) Halfords and ask them to load test it. If you put a multimeter across it you may well see 12V but if any load is put on it, that voltage may drop like a stone.

I know from the Facebook group that it's not available in the USA or Canada but don't know if it's UK-specific.

Love it when a good DIY job comes to fruition, well done mate.

Cheers Mark, very kind of you sir. We'll be sorry to see you go but all the best for the future and good luck with your new car, whatever it may be.

Beautiful colour Gary, a great choice of both car and colour. Enjoy!

That doesn't seem to make sense to me. Their adverts are keen to say that even if you've had it serviced elsewhere, if you take it to them for a service you automatically get the 'free' Relax warranty for 12 months. So, say you're a month late, that means that you've been running around for a month without any warranty cover, but the moment it completes a service at a Lexus dealership, surely the clock starts ticking again on a new 12 months of cover?

Just goes to prove what I said earlier - no rhyme or reason to it at all. I was caught doing 44 in a 30, given £100 fine and 3 points, and that put my insurance up by £120 per year until the points drop off!!

My mate has a 2016 RX F-Sport with white outside, red inside. It really doesn't work for me. Only my personal taste but I think the red interior is tacky. Azure Blue with white interior all day long would be my choice.

The OP has an RX350, which isn't a hybrid. By the use of the word "rotor" I'd reckon USA or Canada.

Not just quite difficult but darn near impossible. I'm 64, full NCB, one SP30 speeding ticket, driveway parking, driving for 47 years, 10k miles/year, black & white chequered underpants, yellow & black striped socks, green eyes and this year's premium, paid in full last month, was £485 or thereabouts, which was about £30 less than last year for my 2018 RX450h Luxury.

It can get a bit noisy I suppose, but only when the car is under hard acceleration, not all the time. On any given journey it may be a bit noisy for 5% of the time, which means it's not noisy for 95% of the time. Are you really saying that you can't live with that?

I just want to say two more things. Back in 1973 my dad got a brand new car. OK, it was 'only' a Morris Marina Estate but in our street/neighbourhood/circle of friends it was almost unheard of to own a brand new car and it cost him a lot of money at the time. Thing is, we lived in a street of terraced houses with no driveway or garage and he just had to park it outside the house. I know traffic wasn't as bad back then but we still had double-decker buses, trucks and all manner of vehicular traffic passing by. When I asked if he was worried about it getting damaged he just laughed and said no - he couldn't do anything about it and there were plenty of other things in life to worry about. I am absolutely not making light of the war but, four weeks ago someone in Ukraine may have had an LC500 (or some other car that they loved equally as much) locked away in a garage because they were paranoid of someone dinging a door panel or whatever. My point is, you never know what's round the corner so get it out and enjoy it now, for tomorrow may never come.

It's a car. Designed to be driven. Outside, on the roads. This life is not a rehersal where you make the choices here and get to carry them out in the next. You could be run over by a bus next week so use it and enjoy it the way it was meant to be.

You haven't got an RX petrol, you've got a hybrid. Given the size and weight of the car, a petrol only RX would do well to return 20mpg but my 450h regularly gets 35+ I can live with that.