i-s

Toyota are aiming the cars at ICE drivers. Also the small battery packs in hybrids are not ideal for trying to sink very large regen currents (reprents a very large C rate for the cells). In general, bigger battery pack = more current (due to more cells in parallel) = higher total charge/regen/discharge currents for a given cell C rate. I've found that the GS450h gives best results if you don't mess with it - use the brake pedal for regen, drive around it, don't mess with paddles or "EV mode" - just let it get on with it. Tesla have taken a different approach to everyone else with regard regen and braking. In a Tesla the brake pedal is just that - a brake pedal, like in a regular non-hybrid ICE car. There is no blended regen/brake, and as a result you get a much keener, more consistent (and confidence inspiring) brake-pedal feel*. They do offer two regen settings (Standard, which is just that - what they expect you to use, and "Low" - much less regen, meant to not alienate ICE drivers too much. Many new tesla owners use "low" for a week or two, then switch to standard and forget about it). Tesla are taking very much a simple and predictable approach so that the car will always behave as consistently as possible (but if you charge the car to 100% then you do lose regen braking, as in all EVs). Tesla expect you to select a regen level and live with it (and it's certainly not set up to be changed on the fly). Many other EV makers now (esp Mercedes EQC, Audi E-tron, Hyundai Kona, Kia e-Niro) are putting paddles into their cars to allow quick adjustment of regen on the fly, from none at all ("sailing mode" in mercedes parlance) to bringing a car to a stop (Hyundai/Kia - keep left paddle pulled until car stops), by 2-3 intermediate levels of regen. This tends to appeal to "petrolheads" and "enthusiasts", but actually most experienced EV drivers just find it irrelvant (and in fact annoying, if it defaults back to a standard level each time you start the car, rather than remembering what level you choose). My Nissan leaf had 2 levels of regen, but I basically always used the higher level and it was actually just annoying having it set up as it was on the drive selector (because the higher level required a second manipulation of the drive selector, and if you went into reverse would need 2 manipulations to get back to high regen mode). * In my Leaf and in the GS, the "blended" brake-pedal does result in inconsistency as to how the car slows down for a given brake pedal pressure. The Leaf would occasionally just decide not to really bother. In the GS if you apply moderate pressure from ~70mph (ie max regen but minimal/zero friction) then as you get to about 30mph then all of a sudden it stops decelerating (despite continuing constant pressure on the pedal. And no, it's not because the battery got full - 2-3 empty bars remaining), requiring a step change in pedal pressure to maintain a given level of retardation. At best it's simply not smooth, at worst it's unpredictable. The power is there, in the pedal.... you just don't always know how far or hard you have to press to get it.

On our GS450h, using the paddles will bring the ICE into play (as I can get a bit more info on the GS because I can have a rev meter in the HUD while having the hybrid power-gauge in the cluster). Foot-off-throttle will only give very mild regen (about 10% of the regen sector of the power gauge). Very gentle pressure on the brake pedal will bring the needle down to 100% regen without bringing friction brakes into play. Pulling the paddle (with foot on neither accelerator or brake) will cause the regen needle to jump to around 75%, but within about 2 seconds it will have reduced to 20% or so. Pulling the paddle again will cause another regen jump, but as the road speed and "gear" (ie D4, D3, D2) get more and more mismatched then the ICE revs climb and you're into the realms of traditional ICE engine braking. Very gentle brake pedal pressure is the best way to maximise use of regen braking, but max regen (at least on the GS) is pretty weak (but bear in mind that I had a Nissan Leaf and am picking up a Tesla this week - I'm familiar with the regen that can come from much bigger battery packs). Also bear in mind that different vehicles will regen differently. I suspect that the GS has relatively weak regen because the regen is only applying deceleration torque to the rear wheels (and suddenly applying lots of braking torque to only the rear axle is not ideal), whereas FWD hybrid drivetrains (inc RX) can apply rather more regen because they are applying braking torque to the front axle (and this variance applies to EVs as well - AWD Teslas have quite a lot more regen than RWD Teslas do. Expect the new breed of RWD EVs (eg Honda e, VW ID3, etc) to have less regen than AWD/FWD EVs)

Yes, it does require the user to actually enable it in the first place...

When will other manufacturers implement 2 factor authentication? So far as I know only Tesla currently offer it, but with all the screens and keypads and buttons in cars it shouldn't be difficult to do (but it needs to be designed in from the start - however, people have been aware of Relay theft for plenty long now that a car as new as the LC should have it).

And yet another for Gummi Pflege. Used on various vehicles - even on non-convertibles, it does a tremendous job at reducing seal "chatter" over bumps, which is more than most people realise, especially in a quieter car like a GS or my old Nissan Leaf.

It's got even worse than the way the ISF was, I think.... Many mercedes models now have rear bumper trims that are effectively "I can't believe it's not an exhaust tip", when the exhaust is actually totally hidden: Even worse, however, is this: Not exactly a fake exhaust, but a definite nod to making you think of a big oval tailpipe (rather audi or jaguar-esque). But why?

Sounds similar.... Good to know. Hopefully the more cars it is used across, the lower the parts cost will become!

Might this be the same 356mm two-piece rotor and 4-pot setup as on the 4th gen GS450h Premier/F-Sport?

Sounds annoying. I had something similar on our old Volvo (2011 V70) - if it needed servicing it would remind you when you started the car, and again when you turned it off - this seemed to me a very sensible way of doing the reminders. However, if you were driving along, used the windscreen washer and tripped it below the "low" level in the washer tank, it would then flash up a message, with the big orange warning triangle on the dash, reminding you to fill up the washer fluid. It would continue to do this, EVERY 5 MINUTES. I did have moments of ending up yelling at the car "YES! I KNOW! I'M DOING 70 DOWN THE M6, WHAT IS IT THAT YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT THIS?!!!". The worse part of this was that the screenwash tank on the volvo was so big (over 5 litres) that what the car considered "low" was about the same amount of screenwash as was full to the brim in my Leaf. I've seen a few other instances of this kind of "helpful" approach by cars. I try my best to avoid driving manual cars these days, but when I do I am infuriated by gear change indicators. I do, in fact, know when to change gear if I'm driving a manual and you, mr car, do not know that I can see there's a hill or that i want to be ready to overtake or whatever.... Either shut up about what gear you think I should be in, or DO IT YOURSELF.

I too am a fan of the Viofo models - I had an A119 in my Volvo (replaced a mini 0801 which failed), A119Sv2 in my Leaf, A129 Duo in our GS450h and have another A129 Duo waiting to go into the Tesla. As Nemesis said, find a different fitter. What a load of twaddle!!!

Yup. Also the reason why Merc C-class now come with 41 litre fuel tanks (as the weight for testing is based on a 3/4 full tank - tiny tank saves them 10-20kg of fuel).

Well, if you're looking at a year-old 540i then surely it's worth a look at a used facelift GS450h? We felt the Lexus was a far better car when we looked, because BMW's nickel-and-dime on the options list means you end up with stupid stuff like a 530i with a manual passenger seat. Our GS is returning nearly 40mpg - good luck seeing north of 30 from a 540i, and much nicer build etc. This one is a rather tasty option, in perfect specification: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201905238253618

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/build-threads/904640-2014-lexus-gs450h-europe-build.html

Another option is to replace the standard "bar" grilles (upper and lower) with F-sport "spindle mesh" grilles - you don't need to replace the bumper, and it gets you most of the F-sport look, keeps your foglights, etc. There's a guy in denmark or somewhere who has done that and it looks great. I'll see if I can find a link for you later.

Ganzoom beat me to it... My Model 3 SR+ arrives in a couple of weeks time. It will live alongside our GS450h. If you can find the extra up-front cost for the model 3 then the TCO will be way lower than any other car you're looking at. Having just paid nearly £800 to have our GS serviced, that's a significant chunk of change that simply doesn't need spending on a Model 3 (only maintenance required is brake fluid every 2 years, coolant every 5 years, and periodic replacement of cabin filter - all DIYable (and Tesla have published, FoC, details on how to do these jobs) or can be done by any garage. Tesla encourage people not to use Tesla for "servicing", and they do not make it a profit centre. It doesn't affect your warranty in any way). Fuelling works out about 3p/mile, which is about 15p/mile less than a 330i (in which you'll be lucky to get 30mpg) A few intriguing points - the Model 3 SR+ is significantly lighter than the LR AWD/P versions, and at 1611kg it's actually very similar weight to an IS300h (1620kg). Weight distribution is about 48:52 or 47:53 in the SR+ (the SR+ battery is all pushed to the back of the battery box with a "gap filler" at the front, which moves the weight distribution rearward, along with not having the weight of the front motor), with lower CoG and Polar Moment of Inertia than any mid-engined supercar. With my Nissan Leaf I discovered the real truth of electric car performance, which is that in an EV you can (and probably will - in the leaf had to, but from the lights (with the element of surprise!) it caused more than its fair share of upsets) regularly make use of ALL of the performance that the car has to offer. In a 330i, a Giulia Veloce or even the IS300h of course you will sometimes... but when it comes to the 6th roundabout of the day when you've got a bit of a headache and you just can't deal with the noise (and let's face it, the days of sonorous N/A i6 and V8s are gone, and a turbo 4 with synthesised noise is just noise), vibration and harsh shifts that come with driving a car hard you're simply not going to do it. With an EV there's never any turbo lag, no waiting for the car to "wake up" and no noise to put you off enjoying the actual drive. The other interesting thing that I found with the Model 3 is that when you sit in it it immediately makes everything else feel totally out of date. Even the G20 3 series (which launched on sale almost 2 years AFTER the Model 3) feels very cramped and old-skool by comparison. Pictures and videos simply do NOT convey what it's like to sit in the back seat of the model 3 with the sky open above you. How simple it is not having to search through 37 different menus with 5 different ways of doing something to change something - there's one place, one way. The ventilation system in the 3 is a masterpiece. Even if you don't think it's the car for you, at least go and have a sit in (and if you can, drive) one.

Our GS has suffered the same fate - two patches of lacquer crazing on the bonnet. The damage occurred before we got the car, and when we noticed it I took it up with the dealer. They suggested that they could repair it (for a price!), and recommended Gen3 Glasscoat to prevent it happening again. That trigged our memory (from the various history documents we have) that the car was already treated with Gen3 Glasscoat - I enquired about claiming against the "warranty" on that, but was told that only applied to the original owner. It's clear that that product does not protect against this. I've also generally noticed that the GS paint (Crimson Red) is pretty soft and prone to marking easily.

The problem is that its propulsion system isn't advanced enough. It's very much in a similar price bracket to the kia e-niro which is much more advanced, significantly faster, way more refined and is more practical in terms of cabin space and boot space. Yes, you'd hope and expect that the Lexus is better built and with higher quality materials, but given the warranty on the Kia it's not likely to prove problematic. The rumoured UX300e can not come fast enough.

I was about to say welcome to a new fellow 4GS owner.... and then recognised your car from Facebook! Still, good to see you here. We could form a Red 4GS subgroup!

That's not really a fair comparison - the Mustang starts at $26395 and the Corvette starts at $55900. The Camaro is the equivalent Chevy to the Mustang.

But that's my point. We currently get E5 but there isn't a separate pump for it. E10 will replace E5 as standard fuel. There won't be a different pump for it - there'll continue to be regular and premium, but with increased ethanol content. Exactly the same as when E5 was introduced and no one knew. Regular 95RON in finland has been E10 since 2011. As to whether it results in lower CO2 I don't know - if it lead to a 10% drop in economy then it would indeed be a false economy, but does it? What are the actual figures? A study in finland suggested that there's a 0.7% drop in going from E5 to E10: https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/study-fuel-consumption-e10-vs-e5-7-difference-17769.html If it leads to deforestation to grow fuel crops (as has already happened in parts of the world) then I'd definitely agree that the net impact would be negative. However, if rapeseed oil can be used to do something useful (I'm allergic to it, and in its raw form it isn't fit for human consumption) then great. There's every possibility that E10 is just a bit of greenwash, that will have little real impact as petrol usage declines.

Just had to make sure - they do still sell the J150 here in the UK: https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/land-cruiser/

Ok, so trying to get my head around this. Take a Toyota Prado J150 off-roader. Doll it up with some wood trim, nicer leather and a V8, and call it the GX470. Now turn it back to an off-roader as a "concept"?

No worries - glad to have provided some (hopefully useful) info.

No - Let's say they pay £40k (without VAT) for the car. They can then reduce their profits that are subject to tax by 100% of that. Those profits are taxed at 21%, so they can reduce their tax by 21% of £40k - £8400. When the car is sold at the end of its use as a company car, the value that it is sold for (let's say £20k) is then added back to their profits, but basically they can avoid paying 21% tax on the value of the depreciation of the car. Since most larger companies lease, rather than buy, cars it probably won't apply - it's usually smaller LTDs that this will apply to.

1) People won't even know. They don't know that they're currently buying E5. No one will read the label that says what it is, and they won't be given a choice anyway. 2) From what I've read, E10 provides about the same economy as E5. My Mother-in-Law used to buy E85 (in Oregon, USA - they had a flexfuel vehicle), because it was cheaper per gallon, but that was a false economy because E85 certainly does provide significantly less mpg. 3) Kind of like this thread.