PeterI

I've just received a very delayed letter (thanks royal mail) from Lexus insurance offering a free of charge[1] immobiliser for my 2020 RX. Sounds like they've been getting more claims they say "Recent trends in our insurance claims database indicate a concerning increase in theft rates for premium segment vehicles." which leaves me wondering if the CAN bus hack is getting more common. I'm going to take them up on this and I'll find out which immobiliser they're using. For those with other insurers might be worth getting an immobiliser or a steering wheel lock. [1] Obviously not really free as it's coming out our premiums.

I find that a "kick" to the right of the middle of the boot works best (probably around 20cm from the centre). It is however definitely a bit hit or miss but I'd say it works first time around 80% of the time.

In my 2020 car (I think it's the same system) the wifi picks up my phone automagically if I have the hotspot turned on in the phone. I have however disabled the network for the hotspot in the boot and maybe there is a option on the wifi select screen in the setup screens (I really can't remember)

Worth a drive around the local neighbourhood after a theft. I believe thieves sometimes park up nearby locally just in case the car has a tracker then come back again later on. I have seen a couple of stories on NextDoor where cars have been recovered. I wonder if Lexus Link would show the current location.

Hopefully it's a bit smoother than when I went through the pain with a new RX and the boot mounted Wifi box. I just don't use the wifi box anymore (I use my phone as a hotspot), but getting it setup did seem to be final step in getting all the lexus link bits working correctly. I had a feeling that something in the back end process for the wifi box setup triggered another phase in linking all the bits together at the lexus end, I'm assuming you've gone into the lexus website portal and got the vehicle added to the my vehicles section? Also as another thought... Is the car setup in Lexus Online mode (not android or car play mode)? That might be needed to get things up and running?

Very nice, I nearly ordered that colour combo, but decided instead to take the mercury grey with a black interior as it would be available before the VED hike (covid scuppered that saving as delivery was in June instead of March)

I had a good result with the 4.8W AA solar charger via the OBD port when I was away recently, car was undriven for a month, but it was very sunny. https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/134346-aa-battery-charger-12v-battery-charger-one-month-test-result I'm not sure if there is a limit on how much power can be delivered via the OBD port. If you're looking for something a bit beefier then I did look into the Optimate Solar Duo 20W but I really didn't fancy having to hard wire to the battery.

I got my gap insurance from ALA, I did use a discount code[1] from either "piston heads" or "honest john" I got their "Vehicle replacement plus gap" policy for £237 (car purchase price of £49,157), from memory the dealer wanted over £500 For actual vehicle insurance Lexus were a bit more expensive (10%ish) than some of the alternatives on compare the market, but their cover didn't require a black box style thing in car and says they will use OEM parts. [1] I can't remember which site.

TLDR: 4.8W solar charger keeps battery charged for a month in good weather. I have recently come back from a three week holiday, prior to going I bought a AA 4.8W 12V Solar trickle charger (AA1432) to stop the battery discharging, as I felt a three week break was long enough to cause issues. I left the charger on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel and plugged in via the OBD port after the car had been driven for 45 minutes to make sure the 12V battery was charged (the car had been driven for a couple of hours to get a service earlier on in the week so I assume the 12V battery was in a goodish state to start with) I didn't drive the car until the following weekend after we got back from holiday and the "Lexus Link" app on my phone was showing the 12V battery still in the green zone, in the past it has gone down at least into the red after a couple of weeks and sometimes into the bottom level. The charger does not indicate charging directly, instead you get a LED to plug in place of the OBD connector to show if the panel is providing power. I'm fairly sure the weather was good while we were away so the results might be different in the depths of winter (shorter days, snow on the car), but overall if youi're parking in airport car park I'd recommend this to help the 12V battery survive.

Thanks guys for all of that, glad to see I'm not alone in passing on this service. I might buy a car aircon thermometer that stick in the vents, based on the Rainman Ray's Repairs videos I've been watching on Youtube anything under 10C/50F is deemed to be working well. For sanitising the aircon system (in the case of bad smells) the car care nut (toyota/lexus tech) recommends the toyota kit. He doesn't recommend an AC recharge if the air is cold.

I've just had my RX450h in for the 2 year service and there was a recommendation for a Air conditioning service and antibacterial cleanse for £99 which I declined. I can see a few other threads on the other models forums, is this the dealer (Woodford) just trying to get some extra money? I can't believe after two years it would need doing (historically on the LS400 I think I did three times in over 20 years, but then it's a different system) So my question here is how often do others get this as a recommendation (is this an official Lexus thing)? If it's just the one dealer then I might swap over to Sidcup instead of Woodford (Sidcup is a little bit nearer, but is a Jemca so who knows)

Mine for my 2020 RX was £1,127 with Toyota in house insurers, that is for a fairly central London location (Zone 2) with parking on a driveway and a 54 year old main driver. So it looks like your quotes are in the same ball park. I just did a quick compare the market check and the quotes ranged from £974 as the cheapest with around five insurers (and two of those wanting to fit a black box) quoting less than Toyota/Lexus (and some going up to £5,000 with a cluster around £1,500. One advantage of Toyota/Lexus is all OEM parts which for a car I bought from new feels like it's worth the extra £150 although the EU cover of 3 days feels a bit stingy. Major issue I suspect is the car is relatively expensive so the losses could be quite high, I think the 6 year old BMW X3 (value ~£10K) I had was around £800 and my old LS400 (value sub £2K) ended up being more like £400

I have two of the vonetti key cases ("alpha shield" and the no longer made "business man premium") The alpha shield is larger, but I should probably go and do another test again of the business man as I use it more (it did okay unless the key was within an inch or two of the car). The other thing I do is hold down the lock key and press unlock twice which puts the key into sleep mode, and give the car door handle a quick tug. The Toyota Supra had a "Superior" Thatcham rating against a relay attack so I'm guessing probably a motion sensor has been added to the key. I would guess as the cars get refreshed we'll see this on more of the Lexus range.

@MalcI still miss my old LS400, the front suspension strut spring snapped, the bodywork was a bit tired with dings and scratches, and the final straw was the ULEZ getting expanded and the thought of spending £12.50 every time I wanted to drive meant I was going to replace it soon. The BMW X3 I inherited from my dad had the ULEZ issue so that had to go (I got a decent part ex on it as it was still a year to go before the ULEZ kicked in), but it did make me appreciate the higher driving position of an SUV these days. I suspect LS400s are going to turn into proper classic vehicles in way that more modern cars won't.

My annoyances match a good few above. I'd really prefer to have a jog dial like the BMW iDrive as well as the trackpad. 12V Battery drain - I wouldn't trust leaving it for more than a couple of weeks. HUD control from a phone would be nice (Android in my case) although screen in between the dials seems to show directions.

On mine I find the 12V battery seems to be okay for a couple of weeks, I've certainly left it undriven for that long. The Lexus link app on a phone will show the battery status, my experience is it drops into the red after 7-10 days without the car being driven. If I was leaving the car for three weeks, then I'd either disconnect the battery OR go with a solar charger via the OBD port. When I do the weekly shop I tend to go the long way round and run the car for a good 30 minutes or so to keep things charged and that seems to be enough. My experience with the non-AGM battery on my LS400 was that once the battery had gone flat a couple of times it needed replacement to hold a charge for more than a week, so it's not just Hybrids. Official advice from lexus is once a week according to https://www.lexus.co.uk/discover-lexus/lexus-news/lexus-hybrid-parked/ but I suspect that's them covering themselves for older batteries, lexus also suggest a solar trickle charger.

The other thing to look for is water leaks (sunroof drains usually) which seems to come up fairly often.

My only serious annoyance is that google maps doesn't work with the HUD (it does talk to the mini screen in the dash) so I tend to use the built in sat nav more. Also to do map updates you need to find the "Lexus Online" setting and enable it (and the map update takes an hour or so). Plugging in an android phone via the glove box overrides it back into Android Auto mode. The builtin wifi module seems to be a pain to get setup but I think I was one of the early users so it may be better these days. I would particularly bother with it if your phone has a decent wifi hosting plan (although the my lexus page doesn't setup completely until it's done). On the plus side the auto handbrake is nice (it's in sync with Park on the gearbox) but I wish Lexus had offered the 360 camera as a stand alone option in the UK market. I'm very happy with my 2020 model, just wish with all the pandemic stuff I'd been able to drive it more.

Whoops, that is from the 4th Gen manual... But it is one of those "hidden" things on the 4th Gen too.

I managed to find it in the online full manual (although it is easy to miss...)

There are also cutouts in the mat to store them in when you don't want to use them.

Since the price is over £135 AliExpress won't add VAT automatically. So it really depends on what the vendor lists the values as on the customs docs. HMRC / couriers don't charge VAT/duty if the vendor lists the value as less than £135 (in my experience) as I'm guessing HMRC think AliExpress has added VAT already. AliExpress started adding VAT this year. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-in-the-uk-using-online-marketplaces

Don't forget that Hybrids need a different oil otherwise it can get expensive so a generic regas can cause expensive issues (I'd assume a Toyota dealer should be fine). See this thread and Herbies comments

The really annoying bit with the PDF manual is the nearly 200 pages of certificates for things like the various radios, theft prevention,TPMS and other bits and pieces I can't remember the exact numbers but it is a lot and I did a cutdown version without most of them with a PDF editing tool.

I'll have a look towards the end of the week then, thanks.