EvilRacer329

I've booked it in again for after lockdown and asked them to use a stethoscope or similar to try and pinpoint it. I've advised them that the issue crops up after the interior has warmed up, so they need to drive it for at least 20 minutes, which they often don't do. I've also given them a nearby road that always triggers the issue. I might see if I can get my partner to sit behind me with the voice recorder on her phone and do as you suggest - watch this space! It's honestly the only thing spoiling my enjoyment of what is otherwise a fantastic car! Nick

If it helps, I had the same problem when I was buying my car. I thought I really wanted the F-Sport and the Mark Levinson, and in the end had to compromise and just get the F-Sport with the premium 8-speaker system. Some time later I borrowed a base-spec car with the Mark Levinson and despite being a self-professed audiophile, couldn't tell the difference between the two. In fact, once or twice the audio processing on the Mark Levinson system did some really odd things with my audiobooks, so in the grand scheme of things I'm no longer upset that I missed out. Your ears may be more discerning than mine, so I recommend trying both! Nick

The latest round of rattles is back with a vengeance, trying to get it booked back in with my dealer, but if they still can't find it I may have to try another dealer. I appreciate that they're trying their best, but perhaps a new set of eyes (and ears!) is needed... Nick

I think the logic behind the Normal mode being better for economy goes like this. Eco mode's throttle response is so unresponsive that, after realising they're not getting what they were expecting from the drivetrain, people don't put just press a little harder or wait a little longer, they push down hard, and end up accelerating quite aggressively, dropping out of electric mode and revving the engine up more frequently. In Normal mode, the drivetrain responds more generously, so people don't react in this way. If you've got a light foot and use the efficiency meters in the dashboard to stay in EV mode as much as possible I suspect it doesn't make too much of a difference which of those two modes you're in. Eco also turns down the A/C, but it would be hard to tell just how much of a difference this actually makes in isolation. It makes sense that the CT200h would get better economy - although it's an older hybrid system, it's a lighter car with a smaller frontal area. It's also a significantly less powerful engine - I believe it's around 130bhp vs the UX250h's ~180bhp. Conversely, I should be disappointed that the RX is only managing 36mpg, but that's a big, heavy SUV with a relatively powerful engine. My partner had a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV for a little while as a company car. When plugged in and driven around town that thing got almost 200mpg. Take it out on the motorway and rely on the 2-litre petrol engine and it turns out that a 2+ tonne rolling brick struggles to best 30mpg. Quelle surprise. Nick

Yeah, I wasn't able to get ti Lidl last week and it looks like it's now all Christmas stuff. Does anyone have a photo of the item in question? I assume it's a sort of universal-fit job designed to slot into the space where a spare wheel would go? Nick

Hah! Interesting, I guess it's just the base model that gets a more boring display. Good to know! I know what you mean about light interiors. My partner has a Honda CR-Z with a lovely white/grey interior and it really opens up the cabin. It sounds like you've got most of the extras that the F-Sport comes with anyway, so you're not really missing out. The suspension is an interesting one - Lexus say that it has stiffer dampers, and I'm pretty good at judging car/motorcycle suspension on various different surfaces and situations. But I drove it back-to-back with a standard car and the only difference I noticed was that the standard car seemed to take a little longer to settle itself after big chassis inputs - it wasn't any better at absorbing them. Or to put it another way, the F-Sport wasn't noticeably harsher or bumpier, which might have been a deal-breaker for me. I can sort of sympathise with reviewers (shameless plug https://boymeetsbike.com/) - they've got to deliver their verdict in the context of their personal preferences and those of their readers. In the UK, people don't seem to care about build quality or reliability, and buyers of premium cars seem to swap them out every few years, so the staggering out-of-warranty costs you'd get with a German car don't factor. Hence the reviews suggesting a Volvo XC40 or X2 as faster, more economical, more spacious etc. In America, folks are used to 300bhp six and eight-cylinder engines, and a mere 180bhp seems slow. Plus low fuel prices mean that the impressive economy numbers we're seeing don't impress them as much. And you know what? The UX is not perfect. There's lots of little things I'd change if I could. But stuff that would make it unattractive to some don't matter to me, and the things that others wouldn't consider value-adds are must-haves in my eyes. The world would be a dull place if we were all the same! Nick

Yup, I deserved that. 😄 It looks familiar, but I don't know that I've seen it recently. You learn something new every day! Nick

Those of us who ride motorcycles are all-too familiar with battery tenders. The big brands are Optimate and Oxford, both of whom do versions for car batteries and should be perfectly safe to hook up for months on end. No idea what a 'Kite Mark' is, though... 🙂 Nick

Thanks Ed, maybe there are three different configurations then! I'll include a photo of my F-Sport dash here for reference, as well as a few other photos to showcase some of the options. Brochures make everything look a little nicer than they do in real life! 😉 I've also fired up the Configurator to list out what's on my car: F-Sport FWD Mercury Grey paint Flare Red F-Sport interior Premium Plus Pack (F-Sport) Adventure Protection Pack Style Pack My car was an ex-demo configured almost exactly how I'd have wanted anyway. I lost a couple of extras that might've been nice (adaptive dampers, blind-spot monitoring, HUD) but nothing critical that I'd miss. And keeping the features I wanted while staying under the £40k VED barrier is tricky. All-in-all, I'm very happy with my car's configuration. Nick

I think you'll be fine Navnan - I also don't use my car for weeks on end sometimes. The hybrid battery pack never lets itself discharge below 30% as far as I've been able to spot, and the 12v battery isn't under any more of a parasitic draw than it is in any other car. If anything, the hybrid system is probably better at keeping the 12v battery healthy, and as there's no traditional starter motor, the 12v battery never has to do much in the way of heavy lifting. Its just there to power up the computers and bring the hybrid system online, and you could do that with a battery a quarter of the size. Nick

My guess? It would mean officially sanctioning customer go and dig up their battery and connect stuff to it. If a customer dropped a screwdriver across the terminals, mis-wired a charger, or simply used a dodgy or broken charger and caused damage to themselves or their car, Lexus' endorsement of the procedure would be seized on by lawyers. Sadly anything customer-facing has to be designed with the lowest-common-denominator in mind, and there'd always be some idiot that would get it wrong and sue them. Nick

Hey AJ, I've only had my UX for 5,000 miles, but I agree with the comments from everyone else. Smaller-engined CVT's can drone because you have to keep your foot in it for longer to get up to speed, but the UX's 0-60 time is around 8 seconds, which is the same as my previous Mazda MX-5. With 180bhp on tap you'll get up to speed quickly and there's honestly very little drone unless you're pushing well over the speed limit. In-gear acceleration for overtaking is more than enough, and I've chased down motorcycles through the Scottish highlands. Mine is an F-Sport which means it gets the supportive sports seats and nice sports steering wheel, but the paddles really are a gimmick - I barely use them, even when in Sport mode. I personally thought the non-f-sport steering wheel was too squidgy, and the dashboard on the standard cars isn't anywhere near as nice in my opinion. The F-Sport gets an all-digital layout cribbed from their sportier cars, whereas the standard car's is more old-fashioned. I've got the 10" screen, and having borrowed a demonstrator with the smaller one I'm glad of it, but you might not miss the extra real-estate if you'd not gotten used to the larger screen first. I'm something of an audiophile, so I really wanted the mark levinson, but couldn't get the packs to combine in the end. But then I had a chance to spend a couple of weeks with a Takumi-spec UX and honestly, I couldn't hear the difference. It has some nice spatial audio effects, but those gimmicks get old fast, and for simply listening to music or podcasts, the 10-speaker system in my car sounds damn near the same. Glass roof - massive disappointment. I tried it in another car, and discovered that it's mounted so far back that it doesn't really bring any more light into the cabin for the front seats. As such, I don't miss it. Boot size isn't great, admittedly, and if you were travelling with four people they'd have to be efficient packers to squeeze everything in. On my recent week-long trip in Scotland everything bar the cooler fit under the parcel shelf with room to spare. Let us know if you have any other specific questions or would like photos of any particular bits and pieces! Nick

Hey Shanks, what's the word? I hope it's good news! Nick

Oof, that's sub-optimal. Hope your son's neighbour get's the damage repaired quickly and painlessly. Clearly the thieves are more than happy to ply their rotten trade on residential streets! It sounds like our UX's won't be targets in the same way though, what with the converters being tucked up in the engine bay... Nick

It was great, up until the moment when it wasn't. And now Lexus seem stumped, but I'm going to keep haranguing them. I loved the data I was getting as it allowed me to see how individual journeys stacked up, efficiency-wise. It was easy to set up and generally just works - I've just got a weird delay on mine... Nick

Getting a cat out from the exhaust headers would be a multi-hour job, so my guess is that as manufacturers move cats to those locations for faster warm-up this particular crime will disappear. I'm relieved to hear that my UX isn't at risk! Regarding Toyota catalytic converters, I don't think they have more valuable metals, it's just that hybrid drivetrains run the engine less often, so for a given mileage the cat will be in better condition. That makes them more valuable at resale. Nick

I often find that American reviewers can be very critical of anything with less than 300bhp and aren't as interested in fuel economy, so they all seemed rather bemused by the UX250h. Here in the UK it makes loads of sense! I live in Milton Keynes, and the constant acceleration to 60/70mph and braking back down for roundabouts every two minutes means I'll only average high 30's running errands, but more normal drives and even longer trips can top 50mpg. The trip computer seems very accurate, as my own fuel economy measurements at the pump bear them out. I'm a big fan of the Lexus Link app for showing where I was in electric mode and where I was resorting to petrol. Frustratingly, mine is currently experiencing an issue where it takes several hours to update, making the "Where's my car?" feature unusable. The fault is apparently waiting on Lexus Technical while they try to figure out what's wrong. It's been like that for more than a month... Nick

I've heard of that sort of behaviour from unscrupulous mechanics of every stripe, but smart showroom managers know it's a false economy. Eventually enough tech-savvy customers blow them off and word gets out about the game that they're playing. A damaged reputation is difficult to shake. I bought my Lexus practically on the strength of the after-sales experience. If Lexus de-prioritises that, or allows their franchised dealers to do so, then it would be a mistake that would cost them at least one customer. Nick

If you go to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, their very first car was, in fact, one of those early electric cars! Very cool, but as you say - the batteries weren't there. I sometimes wonder if induction charging at traffic lights and in residential roads might be the way forward, but it'd have to be cheap and easy to install. Roads are resurfaced on the regular anyway (although not as regularly as they should be in this country!) so given time you'd have wireless charging for on-street parking and even top-ups when you sat at traffic lights. I wonder how those projects are getting on... Nick

Oh, that looks gorgeous. Subtle, but with a lovely touch of colour. I bet it sparkles in the sunlight! Nick

That is excellent news! One less thing to worry about. Thanks, Biggles! 🙂 Nick

😄 Sorry, I misunderstood - I thought there was some specific advice you were after, or that you had some questions. If you like the car, grab it - it's a significant step up from your CT and I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Nick

That sounds like bad news, shanks - my Lexus dealer even said they'd been warned to be super careful or they risked bricking the entire entertainment system. Fingers crossed it's something your dealer can fix cheaply! Sumo - it was a full four-hour appointment, but that included my dealer washing my car. It looks and runs great, but no second-screen on the dashboard. No HUD on my car, so I can't confirm if that does anything or not, but I'm not optimistic... Nick

Ooh, that looks fantastic. I'd have gone for orange paint/red seats if I'd had the choice, but settled on grey/black on my ex-demonstrator 250h. Nick

I've been reading about that being a serious issue in London, it's something I've been meaning to look into even here. I can't imagine they'd try their luck on a quiet residential street or the office car park, but I know that hybrids are attractive targets for such thieves, so... Nick