Las Palmas

There are many ways to waste money. Have too much; buy a car that meets you wishes.

1] Do not know the 7" but the 10" is OK. Resolution on the poor side as it is not really that sharp. Infotainment in Lexus is medium quality. 2] Absolutely excellent sound system. Bass, treble, balance left - right + front - rear fully adjustable. Have been selling audio equipment costing almost the same as a car and the ML is absolutely great. 3] Subwoofer can reproduce sound of a double bass (acoustic) in fine quality. If you want to listen to classic music it is perfect. Voice of Barbra sounds so sweet. The sound system is not meant to compete with a disco so do not try to damage your ears in the car as sound quality is not improving when getting to full power. The car is so silent that it is not needed for us to have it higher than level 40 and I have damaged my ears playing music long time ago with so many loudspeaker boxes behind that ear protection was not enough.

I envy the energy you have. For us lazy bums, we just let the car go through a washing alley sitting inside watching the car get cleaner. Not same result, but enough for us.

If you ever take a tyre off that has been filled with the latex mix, which is used by most as temporary fix (Lexus too) then you know why. It takes hours to get the latex off the machine and not just with water. +20 years ago I started using tubeless tyres on mountain-bike and in the beginning (and for many users still today) the sealant used in them was latex based. Once had a puncture in rear tyre and did not notice it till I got home and discovered my jacket had a stripe of impossible to remove latex on it; new jacket needed. In 2005 - 2007 I was lucky to find sealant that was at least as good at sealing without latex and could be washed off with just water without problems. Why Lexus is still using latex based sealant is for people with more brain (or less) than I have to understand. Latex dries out and has limited shelf life so more than 5 years it will not be worth much. In hot climate like here latex sealant in a tyre will be fully functioning only 3 - 6 months, then it will have dried out and if tubeless mountain-biking is meant to be sealing punctures from thorns or whatever new sealant is needed. Tyre gets heavier with more sealant and in a car this is not felt hard, but when pedalling uphill, heavier tyres are something not really wanted.

Not sure if that is any help, but Saris bone did carry 2 bikes on the MR2 Spyder and VW Golf 2.8tdi DSG with no problems. Only 2 persons were biking then so there was an empty place in the Saris for a 3rd. bike.

If it is a chain it probably would last longer than the rest of the car (and us too). While working with MB a taxi (190D) had gone 1.000.000km before needing a new chain. The MR2 Spyder needed a cam-belt and in the MR2 it was a 1.8 motor.

No cam-belt in the CT engine?

I am sure he will be the right one to answer questions. Being diplomatic is maybe not what we 2 are.

No starter motor? How does the motor start to fill the battery? No cam-belt? I know MB use chain instead of belt, but my old MR2 Spyder (same type engine 1.8) needed a new cam-belt. Except from that. Absolutely correct. Nice car the CT.

Our neighbour has one of these X6 and I see him struggling to up on the seat. Guess the X5 is not much smaller.

You are a lucky fellow. Have a car that has spoiled you and room for it plus having a new as a daily driver. Finding something that has all the qualities of the old one you are happy with might be complicated. Even though a SUV is easy to get in and out of it will never look as beautiful and stylish designed as the old one you have. With regard to the CVT gearbox, I was a bit worried in the beginning, but after being used to it I find it a lot better than any other automatic gear shifting system, smooth gently accelerating to wanted speed, where all other automatic systems have been jumping more or less when changing gear. Potholes are best eliminated in big cars with big wheels and not too hard suspension, so maybe new Lexus cars are not the best option. Suspension in Lexus is great but not really soft. Bentley is to be chauffeur driven and so are most other sofas. Maybe the best option is to keep your old car in as good as new state and be happy with that. Only car I regret not having tried is a Porsche 959.

A very special and complicated way to solve a problem. Funny that on all the cars we have had there never was a problem like the one you described, but before almost all electric lamps etc. was not in the boot, so no electric wires going there. Wonder if it is a problem with the 2016 CT, but if it is I expect it to be pretty easy to solve without going to Lexus garage.

When first joining the forum here I read that Lexus service centres were generally praised to be very good or better. Now it seems that as I am opening my eyes the centres in UK are not better than what I found here. Car is great and built is fine, service is something not worth writing home about. Maybe Lexus has found that giving extraordinarily good service is not good business and rely on the quality of the cars instead of the quality of the service centres.

If you know how to fix cars and problems with them plus have all the needed tools and working place, you would be better off than the poor at least 90% of car owners. Service here consists in writing big bills. Unfortunately, very few of us have the knowledge, tools and working place plus - the time to fix it all ourselves, so we are stuck with the service centres. Still, Lexus, Toyota and all other car companies would not like to admit that the service they have is of not satisfactory quality.

Good luck. With all the Lexus diesels I see here without a dark cloud after them I have my doubt that they are as bad as mentioned here in the forum.

Here on the island it is hard to go for a long journey due to the size of the island. I see many 200 and 220 diesels and they seem to be doing what they are supposed to. Here it is easy to see on the license plates how old the cars are so when so many old diesels are still driving around it is hard to think that Lexus diesels should be poor quality. In used cars adds all I find of Lexus are CT and IS so the diesel owners are not having them for sale. Maybe they are happy with them.

Good to have friendly neighbours.

So, you are studying on the university of Indiana Jones?

Welcome. Do not know about UK dealership, but here where I live they get 2 stars out of 10. The car is great but service is a matter of writing the biggest bills possible.

Be glad you are not learning Arabic, Chinese, Danish or German.

Really interesting. how much has the level of service gone down the last couple of years and how much can we expect it to continue in that way. Lexus did build a good reputation, but after having joined this forum I am slowly learning that other brands are going to take the crown of excellence. About 10years ago, we had a MR2 Spyder serviced here in the same garage that now has the Lexus (and Toyota) service. 10 years ago the service was fine, ordering a pre-MOT service and they would take the car to the controlling station and have it approved in the afternoon after service. Now it seems that all they try is to misinform in order to write big bills. The good thing is that the car we bought is well made and as all is still OK with it so all we need is the hybrid warranty. As long as that can be bought for 65€ yearly it is OK as the hybrid battery is the only thing in the car, we thought could possibly be going bad. Hope for customers that have bought newer cars that the mechanical quality level still is fine if service is slowly smelting.

So is Denmark.

You live in a flat country John.

Our CT does it regularly. Living in a mountain area where enging is on constantly when going up and hybrid battery is full after just 3 - 7 km when going down again.

Take only one key to be programmed at the time. The one you have programmed to nr. 1 leave far away from the car. The one you want to program to nr. 2 seat position use to open the door with it. Lock the door with it. Open the door, adjust the seat and the mirrors and press and hold P, press 2, release P and that is that. A beep should confirm. When unlock the car with one of our keys the seat will adjust to that key, use the same key to lock the car with. Use the other key to unlock and the seat will adjust to that key. Always use the same key to lock the car as you unlocked it with. At least on our CT it does function.