i-s

LEDs actually love the cold - they'll last forever if you keep them cold! It's heat and brightness that kill white LEDs. They're fine run dimmed (lower current). A few years ago we bought my mother-in-law a cheap LED TV, and 5 years later it was so dim.... But it's on almost 24/7. However, that was a cheap TV, and LEDs have improved since then.

When we got the GS the other car was a Leaf, and we didn't really have plans to change that. When the 3 launched in the UK I ran the numbers and discovered that we could manage it - the Tesla is far more adept at long journeys than the Leaf, and so the GS sees a bit less action than it would have if we'd stayed with the Leaf as second car. The other part of it is that the GS is hubby's car, the Tesla is mine.

Tesla Model 3.

Yeah, but Verified Engineering Technician (VET) call outs are expensive, and the running costs are high...

I drive one daily. It's absolutely fine and better than my previous Honda, Nissan and Volvo cars.

The UX300e is much more a competitor to the kia e-niro or hyundai kona ev in terms of size, passenger space, performance and charging speed than it is to the model 3, with a range that falls short of all of them. The model 3 SR+ is RWD, 250kW (335bhp) and 0-60 in 5.3 seconds, while the UX300e is FWD 150kW (201bhp) so likely to have a similar 7.8 second 0-60 to the e-niro (also FWD 150kW). The UX can only charge at 50kW peak, compared to 75kW for the kia/hyundai, and 170kW for the model 3. I said in another thread that the ux300e feels like a poor effort for 2021 - it has a 2012 charge rate, a 2018 performance and range in a 2018 body. My point there being they're not really comparable vehicles, just as you wouldn't compare a UX250h to a BMW 330i By the time it is on sale the VW ID4 and audi Q4 etron should be on sale (assuming they don't suffer similar delays to the ID3), as should the Ford Mach E, all of which are much higher performance dedicated platform EVs. The e2008 and DS3 Crossback e-tense are on sale now (and very comparable to the UX), as is the MG eZS. And of course, looming very large for 2021 is the Tesla Model Y. Come on Toyota, give us something! Take the new Mirai, dump the hydrogen nonsense and give it batteries!

But, as I posted in another thread on here... this is what toyota said in November. No demand. If Toyota really believe this then the next IS, if there is one, will be another ICE hybrid and release into a drastically shrinking market. In 2020 I think there's a very good chance that Tesla, with their 3 models on sale, will sell more cars in Europe than Lexus with their 8 models. Certainly in the UK for 2020 the Model 3 alone will outsell all Lexus models combined. And then the model Y...

I think it might be the same in the 3GS - the original (£270) battery is the Panasonic S65D26L. If that's the case then the same one should work.

Our GS doesn't get used an awful lot - it was bought as a long-distance cruiser, not a local runabout and it doesn't get used daily. It can go weeks at a time without being driven. Predictably the 12V battery went flat around July of last year. It was fine after a "jump" (basically one of the few cars that can be jumped off an EV, as it doesn't require any current, just 12V to enable the hybrid system and then the hybrid DC-DC kicks in), but rapidly died again after a few days. As we all know, once a 12V battery has gone flat a couple of times it can basically be considered toast. I contacted Lexus and they quoted in the region of £270 for a new 12V battery. Really?! £270? Come on.... I went on various sites, did the cross-references, seeing what the books say and they all suggested the 068 as the correct battery for the GS450h 4th gen. Lots of looking around, and previous good experience with the Bosch in our previous volvo (sold at 9 years old with the original battery still fitted), I ordered the Bosch S4026 through Costco for £83 inc VAT. It arrived, I gave it an overnight on the charger/conditioner before attempting to fit it. Attempting being the operative word. No way. The base of the battery is about 5mm too wide to slot down into the battery tray. Absolute no-go, but thankfully I was able to return the battery for a full refund. In the meantime I fitted the car with the wiring loom for a CTEK battery conditioner and we kept the car on that when not in use, and had no problems with it, downgraded the priority of the search for a replacement. With winter happening now (well, sort of.... mild one!) and with plans for a longer trip coming up it was time to get on with it. So, full credit to "fillerf" from Norway, who posted here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/hybrid-technology/876852-2013-gs-450h-battery-issue.html#post10110645 I phoned up my local toyota dealer, and they had the 28800-YZZJA in stock for £94.86 inc VAT. Again, gave it an overnight on the CTEK before fitting it and no issues at all. The 28800-YZZJA is used in the Prius and GT86, and it is an AGM battery similar to but not identical to the original Panasonic for the GS450h. At 1/3rd the price, I'm not arguing. And the new battery will continue to live on the CTEK so that we should never have to replace the 12V again....

I am by no means an expert. Clearly there's nothing grossly wrong with your alignment. If I'm reading that correctly they reduced your toe angle quite a bit, from .9 and .7 to .2 each side. Basically my understanding is no greater than imparted by these pages, and playing project cars: https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/adjust-tune-toe/ https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/camber-2/ As for alignment adjustments.... Again, I emphasise that I'm solely an armchair non-expert in this. Maybe increase front toe-in to 0.4 on each side, and reduce rear camber to around 1.2 on each side (and currently they're a bit mis-matched, obviously they didn't adjust as the before/after figures are the same). I've visually noticed the rear camber on our GS. This should increase the front-end stability at the cost of a little more steering effort/understeer, and increase rear grip a little (further increasing the understeer tendency, but should make for a bit more straight-line plantedness). However, your original post didn't suggest that it's any worse after alignment, and going back and reading it again I feel like it is a dynamic issue that you're complaining about (ie body movement) rather than alignment. As I said, our 4GS has a similar nature of being constantly moving, undulating.... your colleague's "sea waves" is a good analogy. The 5er is a supremely competent car, and one with more of a sporting bias than the 4GS, so they've paid more attention to controlling body movement like this. I did notice a very similar kind of movement and feeling in a colleague's Merc C350e PHEV, but it is completely absent in the Tesla. But ultimately I think it's just the nature of the 4GS suspension setup. Give it a try out on the motorway at a location where you've experienced this issue before but put it into Sport+ mode, see if that solves it. If it does it simply comes down to the damper behaviour

So.... 340i then? 😛 Company should cover the BIK! (Yes, I know that's not how that works... just musing on the entertaining clash between BIK rules and your company's mission)

Tesla.

Volvo are missing a trick by not putting the T5 TwinEngine hybrid into the S/V60 - they should be able to get that under the £40k threshold. Would your business add Tesla to the list? They would easily recoup a few £ over the £40k on the fuel savings, and your BIK would be 0 for 2020. Way more spacious than a BMW 3.

Can you take a photo of your print out? Just curious - if the car is in a zero-toe or very low-toe configuration then what John says could possibly help. A lot of car makers do very low toe configurations these days for fuel economy.

I'm glad to hear that your dealer is doing that job properly, good. Yes, if you're all in the green on the after print then wheel alignment is not the cause. I've not found the GS to be particularly sensitive to winds. However, all my previous cars were large estates, so maybe I'm just used to that... One thing though; my Honda wasn't particularly sensitive to winds.... except one time when I had a bunch of stuff in the boot (about 100kg). The change to the aerodynamics on the motorway were noticeable - suddenly the car was upset by breezes where it never had been before - presumably the lowering of the rear end, raising of the front channeling more air underneath and giving rise to greater front-end lift was the issue here. Do you have some unusual amount of stuff in the boot (although I'm sure the GS should self-level)? Is there possibly some other upset to the aerodynamics? For example, was the engine undertray removed for servicing and not replaced? Has one of the front wheel spats (small vertical flat piece of plastic that sticks down about 1" from the body, in front of the tyre) got damaged or folded? Otherwise, it may unfortunately come down to your shocks approaching the end of their life - not totally surprising on a 6 year old car, but you'd hope for longer. This was long an issue for 3GS 450h, so maybe it's true for 4GS too.

I have two thoughts on this topic. 1) The GS is pretty "floaty". I REALLY notice this when I go between it and the Tesla. On the same piece of road the Tesla makes me think is flat with some bumps and surface roughness the GS makes me think is undulating continuously. The body is constantly moving up and down, it never seems to "settle". This is reduced quite a bit by setting to Sport+ as it firms up the damping, but this isn't a brilliant solution because although it mostly cures the float, it's then far too harsh on bump compression. This is ultimately part of the trade-off of the car I think - floaty or firm. The movement is slow - less than 1Hz. However, I've not found it to lead to flightiness on the motorway. 2) There's wheel alignment and there's wheel alignment. A proper 4-wheel alignment done using a properly set up Hunter Hawkeye run by a skilled operator is a world apart from someone sticking some lasers on the back wheels and getting a toe angle set. I have seen people going around and around having "alignment" after "alignment" and never solving their problems, yet then being solved by a hunter machine. If you're not getting a print out like this then you need to find a hunter and get it done there: Ultimately all that may do is rule alignment out as an issue, but at least it will give you peace of mind on that front. It could, however, be a camber or caster issue, which would not be revealed by older style "laser" alignment (which can merely set front toe angle relative to rear).

That's true, although Android Automotive, as used on the Polestar 2, is a better option in that case. Which is kind of what I mean... would you bother with or want Android auto if the vehicle had Android Automotive on-board?

I agree that it's down to the OP to determine more specifically what sort of car they're looking for, and absolutely agree that the IS300h doesn't cross-shop with 6-cylinder sporting saloons/coupes. But I want to discuss "sportiness". Far too many people, especially in the motoring press, conflate "performance" (0-60) with "sportiness". Round a track then sure, a 340i will always be "better" than a 330i, but most people, even those that enjoy driving, rarely take a car like that onto a track. I think what a lot more of us do is go out and enjoy a blat down a bit of twisty country road. And is "faster" always better? More enjoyable? Let's take some REALLY fast saloon cars - the BMW F90 M5 (617hp, 0-60 in 2.8) and the Tesla Model S Performance (605hp, 0-60 in 2.4), and punt them down a narrow British country A or B road. It would be quite disappointing, because there simply isn't room to remotely exercise the performance of either car - you won't get near 100% throttle, and the limits of the car are somewhere WAY beyond where the driver will either poo themselves or put the car backwards through the nearest hedge. How would that same road be tackled in a Fiesta, where you can get your foot down, hit the limits of what the car can do and really enjoy yourself. Your trip along buttertubs pass might take half as long again, but no one is counting lap times when you're out for a drive; it's a matter of how big is the grin on your face? So, I go back to the IS250 that I posted somewhere near the top of this thread. A decent chassis, a tuneful naturally aspirated V6, enough performance to not be boring, but also one where you can push the car, get close to some limits. There are a few cars on the market that seem to "get" this concept - the Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ (0-60 in 8 seconds), the Alpine A110 and Alfa 4C (both small 4-cylinder cars, significantly "slower" than the M5 or Tesla S) and of course the MX-5 (7-9 seconds). James May seemed to get this when he looked at the little suzuki 660cc powered Caterham, as providing the fun and enjoyment of a caterham at speeds that you can drive on normal roads, while an R500 is fairly pointless outside of the track. When I was first getting into cars the compact sports saloon benchmarks were the E36 328i and then the E46 330i - the recipe wasn't complex: decent suspension setup, longitudinal N/A 6-cyl, RWD and reasonable weight distribution (although BMW polar moments are a bit iffy). Lexus quite successfully copied that with the first gen IS200 and IS300, and the recipe hasn't changed considerably to the most recent IS. The latest 330i is a turbo 4-cyl, but BMW have engaged in the german arms race for power - a 340i now is where the E39 M5 was for power, and somewhat quicker (thanks to turbo torque and modern transmissions). Ultimately it comes down to what compromises each person is looking to make, of course. We're not all blessed with the funds, space or whatever else to have 5 different cars for specific purposes, and so we compromise on performance or running cost or practicality or whatever. But when it comes to "sportiness", there's much more to it than 0-60 and as good as the IS300h for many things, it ain't sporty - the IS250 is much more so, despite on-paper "parity".

I love one pedal driving. My background on driving and EV driving is that I've loved a good automatic for a long time, and I did my IAM when I was 21 (acceleration sense, etc). I've always in ICE cars tried to maximise use of momentum and minimise unnecessary braking. When I got the Leaf I quickly grew to enjoy using the stronger regen mode (B, rather than D). When we got the Tesla I set it right away to "Standard" (rather than "Low") regen, the stronger mode and it is significantly stronger than the Leaf's B mode. I'm totally used to balancing the throttle pedal to get a zero point if I want it, it's just a very intuitive way to drive, as you say. The Tesla didn't have one-pedal when we got it, but it came with one of the software updates, and as soon as it did I enabled it for my driver profile (my husband prefers traditional "creep" mode) - it was a bit tricky for maneuvering at first, but a combination of getting used to it and Tesla making a couple of tweaks over the next couple of updates (making it less aggressive in reverse for example) and I'm happy with it now. As alluded to above, settings like that are saved against driver profiles, along with seat and mirror settings. It's nice because we have the car set up quite differently - husband has acceleration in Chill, steering in Standard and drive in Creep. I have Standard, Sport and Hold respectively. Profiles are associated with keys, but also only the work of a second to switch (press on the driver name at top of screen - select profile from drop-down). I don't know how many profiles you can have, but I believe that it is lots. You can have lots of keys too (mobile phones or £20 RFID card - no £500 key fob to lose!), and new keys do not require a dealer visit to associate with the car. The looks of the car, like any, are subjective. My first impression of the model 3 wasn't great - to be honest, it was a case of "meh, ok, but I still want a model S". It doesn't come across well in pictures. When I first saw one for real.... it didn't get a lot better. The discontinuity from the very low fender/hood into the base of the windscreen which is then a continuous curve over the somewhat high roof to the back, the unusual proportions of long wheelbase and short overhangs. But then as I got used to those things, I started to appreciate the look - the flare of the front wings over the wheels, the sculpted haunches, the almost bangle-esque "flame surfacing" on the sides... but overall the simplicity of it. It will age well because it's not designed to trend (for example, why are people copying weird partially blacked-out C/D pillars these days? Vauxhall Astra, Lexus RX450h, new Kia Soul, 40kWh Leaf, etc... this look will date these cars quickly) and there's nothing done stylistically "for the sake of it" - it's designed for function (If you're interested and want an bit of insight, listen to episode 220 of "Ride the Lightning" podcast - it is an interview with Franz Von Holzhausen, Tesla's design chief (and infamous thrower of steel balls during the cybertruck event) where he discusses how they approach designing the cars). The thing that changed things for me with the model 3 was in October 2018 when I was on business in the Bay Area. I'd finished my customer meeting about 2 pm in Palo Alto and had nothing else on for the day other than getting back to my hotel in Milpitas, so I went down to the Tesla Gallery in Palo Alto and for the first time sat in and played with the car. My impressions from that visit were captured at the time here: https://www.speakev.com/threads/sat-in-a-3.129776/ As you can probably tell, 14 months and a lot more exposure to the car hasn't dulled the positives from then - bear in mind that when I wrote that very few people in the UK had seen a model 3. I will also relate one experience that I had with the GS that made me realise why Tesla have got something very right... We ordered our model 3 on May 4th 2019, sold my Leaf in July and the 3 wasn't delivered until the end of august, so for about 6 weeks the GS was our only car (I know, hard life, right?). One day when I locked the car the mirrors didn't fold in... so next time I stopped I went into the car setup menus to see why not. I spent 5 minutes looking through all of the car setup menus yet failed to find the setting (Our previous Volvo V70 had it in one of the menus). I gave up, started driving and then noticed the button next to the mirror controls on the driver's door solely marked "Auto". I pressed it, and the little green LED telltale came on on the button - no other indication. And that was it... the button had been knocked. But it's part of a bigger problem - literally hundreds of buttons, sprayed liberally around the cabin - no less than 12 of them marked only "Auto" (mirror, door mirrors, Parking brake, front and rear seat heaters/vents, ventilation system, ventilation recirculation, etc). Some things in menus, some things on buttons, some things on both. Some things you can only tell from one display over here, some things are repeated, some things are only indicated by tiny LED telltales (the auto wipers being the worst of those, as it's obscured by the steering wheel). The point being that for all that people complain about the consolidation of everything into one display in the Tesla, there is a lot to be said for there being one place to find things, one place to look. I also find the speedo location totally fine - the Leaf was very good (numeric display on top of the dash) and the GS is very good (HUD - never use the speedo) and I have absolutely no issue with it on the 3 - all three of those vehicles it is better than a regular speedo.

Up front it is not as "snug" as the GS - there's more width between the console and the door, and the console is lower. The glass roof adds headroom and a feeling of airiness, and the continuous curve of the roof peaks over front headrests. In the back I find it spacious, as did our neighbours when we took them out for a jaunt (4 adults total) through the Lakes. Sadly my brother, who is 6ft1, did not fare so well - his head was touching the roof in the back. However, he has a long back (very similar inside leg to me, and I'm 5'7). Ultimately it's going to depend on what shape of 6ft your boys are. Rear legroom is good for the size class - its a long wheelbase car (longer than GS, but overall length closer to IS), and the middle seat has no transmission tunnel to contend with - the floor is flat across the rear of the car. However, because of the battery pack beneath the floor, the floor is a little higher than you might expect and that can mean knees are higher than people are used to. It's something that you'd have to try, and see if it works for you. Coming from an NX, you might more comfortably move to a model Y, which should be arriving on UK shores in about a year's time. This would definitely have plenty of space for 6fters in the back. Some people have fared badly on insurance - we did pretty well. The SR+ is group 48 and the dual-motor LR and the Performance variants are group 50, so they aren't going to be the cheapest or easiest cars to insure. I paid £612 fully comp, 12k miles, 37yo male in category F (bad) postcode, 15 years NCB, husband as named driver. My renewal notice for the Leaf was £548 for 8000 miles, our GS450h is £760 for 5000 miles (husband as policy holder, 2 years license, 15 years NCB (long story), 58yo). Basically, I was happy with the cost, but have heard of people being quoted much higher subsequently, so will see what happens next year. Only Direct line group (DL, Churchill, Privilege), LV and Novo seem to have any concept of what Teslas are, many others won't insure them or quote crazy prices. I posted on another thread, but will give a bit of an update here: 5000 miles after 4 months. The car is now 5% more powerful than it was, now charges quicker (peak is 170kW, depending on many factors. Highest I've seen so far is 132kW) and has new features (1 pedal driving mode, new voice commands and text integration, new mapping features, YouTube Netflix Twitch and new games (to entertain while charging or camping), improved autopilot capabilities and visualisation, etc.). So far when things have bugged me I've generally found that after a few weeks they are fixed. All updates come OTA (wifi) so no dealer visits required. Trip to London over Christmas was fine. Google maps gives Ilford to Todmorden at 4hrs26, we took 5hr15 including charge stops (in rain in winter, which reduces range - in summer it could be done faster), which wasn't significantly different to the time that we took on the same journey in the GS in November, and if I'd planned it a little better we could have cut it to 5 hours or so. Still very pleased and happy with it, no buyer's remorse. In fact, it's probably the most pleasing thing I've bought in my life, out of everything. Our GS450h is a car that feels special, in a very similar way to how my dad's 1996 740iL felt special. The Tesla feels different - it makes the 2015 GS seem much closer in time and tech to that 1996 BMW than to the 2019 Tesla. As a car to be driven in the GS is lovely, as a car to drive the Tesla is truly epic.

We got a podpoint installed when we got the Leaf (paid for by nissan and OLEV - but I did pay £95 extra to get a 32A unit instead of 16A even though the leaf could only use 16A, as I knew I'd need 32A in future, like now) - I just swapped the cable on it from a Type 1 to a Type 2 for the Tesla. Ultimately all EV wall chargers do the same job - deliver mains to the car safely. Some have smarter features (timers for E7, apps, etc) (and these days they must have "smart" features to qualify for the government OLEV grant - note that the Tesla charger does not), some play nicely with solar (that is Zappi's USP), etc. The diehard Tesla fans love the tesla one above all else - mainly because it has the button on the connector that will open the car's charge door or unlock the connector when disconnecting - probably not worth losing out on a few hundred quid of OLEV grant for though. The Tesla one won't charge the car any faster or differently to any other.

Not exactly similar - I bought a Model 3 with my own money. It is a fantastic car. I've really been enjoying driving it, and it's more comfortable for me personally (as driver) than our GS450h Premier. A lot of what is said about Tesla build quality is overstated (as in people say it's much worse than it really is)... It isn't as good as our GS, but it's better than our Volvo V70, Honda Accord or Nissan Leaf were. The only material in the cabin that I find disappointing is the fake leather seats (but that's also true of the mercedes and lexus equivalents). I put up a review here: Just to add to that, over christmas we went from where we live in Todmorden to visit my brother in Ilford. On our way back where google maps gives 4hr26 for the journey, we covered it in 5hr15 including charging stops and arrived home with 25% (so could have charged less en-route. I I'd been a little more on the ball about it we could have cut one charge stop entirely if we'd extended another by a few minutes, so probably cut 15 minutes total journey time off). Doing that same journey in an ICE car (and in fact we did the exact same journey in november in the GS for my brother's birthday) was still very close to 5 hours because of pee/coffee/food stopping. In fact, the november journey down took longer in the GS because of a 45 minute traffic hold-up. In 4 months we've now covered 5000 miles with it. It's now faster, charges faster and has new features and capabilities that it did not have when we got it. I see you're in Yorkshire, so if you want a proper look and a ride out in it then let me know, if Todmorden isn't too far away. I am happy to answer EV novice questions etc.

Ultimately it's a judgement call - if the top coat is showing swirl marks then either it has gone beyond the "self healing" capabilities or the self-healing is no longer working. Either way, a gentle polish can lift the appearance, just like any other top coat. Ours has not shown any issues as a result of polishing this way. You might lose or diminish any future self-healing capabilities, but if it is swirled then basically you're not losing anything anyway. If you own a DAS6 then chances are that you're perfectly capable of inspecting and deciding for yourself whether whether the paint is swirled etc.

I used our DAS6PRO on our 2015 GS450h. Take all claims of "self healing" with a pinch of salt - our car had swirl marks (as expected for age) and has a couple of patches of crazed lacquer on the bonnet (probably bird lime damage). It had been treated from new with "Gen 3 glasscoat", but clearly that didn't live up to its claims as it did not prevent the bird lime damage, and at this point any coating will have worn away. I tried the usual recommendations of "Leave it out in the sun" or "apply gentle heat from a hot air gun" - neither did anything. Yes, use a clay bar if needed, although if doing a full detail I tend to prefer to use tar remover and fallout remover (would like to try carpro TRIX to cover both in one go) to get as much junk out of the paint as possible before going to clay - these products will play havoc if you already have LSP you want to keep (as will clay), but usually a deep detail like this leads up to new LSP so it's not an issue. Ultimately the car looked better after a gentle polish than before. I used Farecla G3 Paintwork Renovator on a chemical guys hex logic white pad, followed up with Carpro Essence (used a green hex-logic with that, but subsequent experience says use a microfibre gloss pad with Essence - works much better). Next time around I'm sure that the paint will be in good enough shape that Essence alone will cover any polishing/glossing step prior to LSP.

IS300h is a hybrid and isn't going to deliver the drive you're looking for. Try this: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201912055077292