PDM

2 hours ago, Hayzee said:

It's software per se but due to the fact that Lexus hasn't rolled out a s/w update to affected vehicles suggests it's a system architectural issue that can't be retrofitted to other vehicles. Hence the wheel arch plates.

Hi Colin,

It may not be possible to port the exact same implementation from brand new vehicles onto nearly new vulnerable vehicles but this does not mean a software fix is not possible.  It is clearly more work for TME/Toyota UK than making some metal plates and getting dealers to fit them and so they have gone for the low hanging fruit (RX only).  This guy (who knows more about CAN security than the vast majority (all?) of forum members thinks it can be done:

https://kentindell.github.io/2023/04/03/can-injection/

Perhaps for Toyota it is a simple cost benefit analysis... perhaps this will change over time?  Or perhaps a proper fix simply takes a long time to write and test.

Paul

2 hours ago, Jim1977 said:

Is this TSK software / hardware or both I wonder. Just wondering if it’s within the realms of possibility to retro fit. The fact they went with a plate suggests maybe not, unless that was purely the quickest and cheapest fix…

The plate for the RX had already been rolled out in South Africa to prevent car jacking.  It seems like it was the easiest thing just to get some more made and installed over here.

6 minutes ago, Atish raje said:

Hi my RX 450hl got stolen on 12th January. I suggest avoid this car as was so easy to steal it from front headlights. Lexus knows the problem but never send any suggestions or information. So disappointed so expensive car and so easy to get stolen. Avoid buying this or have trackers as Lexus will not help to track the car. 

Sorry to hear this. This is the third stolen Lexus we hear about on this forum over the last few days (2 RX and one NX I believe).

Can I ask if you had the CANbus protection plate fitted? I'm guessing not from your post but many owners on here will be interested to know for sure, including myself.

What will you buy if it is not recovered?

Paul

On 12/15/2023 at 9:27 AM, John Walker said:

In 2020 my mate bought a 2017 RX for 35k from Lexus. Two years later and 13k miles more he returned it at the same dealer for 24k. I saw the car coming back on the market for guess how much?! Exactly 35k. I thought it will be there forever but a few weeks later it disappeared.

 

It was probably stolen.

Paul

I think a very small subset of Lexus owners use or read this forum (and why should they - for most people it is a way of getting form A to B - they are not enthusiasts).  I don't think it is reasonable to expect an owner of a pretty new vehicle to know that a security enhancement has been made to their vehicle if neither the dealer of manufacturer has alerted them to the fact.

On 1/7/2024 at 1:40 PM, eightk said:

Anyone lost a grey one? Found today…

And two more RXs... Golly.

1 hour ago, talaipwros said:

Some of us wanted the V6

Yeap - that was my reason too!

Paul

3 hours ago, Tickedon said:

The figures are for Lexus registrations - I suspect part of the issue will also be the delays with supply, which wasn’t such an issue in pre-Covid years. Plenty of others may have ordered a new vehicle, like an RX, but until it’s delivered and registered it won’t show up in these kind of published figures. 

It will be interesting to see it evolve in 2024.

Paul

10 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

The RX is a substantially more expensive vehicle so comparing sales is difficult and the new NX has definitely taken some of the RX sales. 
 

The RX theft issue is greater for Lexus because there are quite a few more on the road because it is all 2016 to 2022 RX vehicles affected rather than just 2019 to 2023 for the ES. SUVs are more desirable too. So theft numbers are higher and Lexus received bad publicity as a result. 

Agreed, Colin. I'm still surprised that they sold more gen 4 RX in 2022 (RX and RXL) than gen 5 (plug and no plug) in 2023. According to the data this was absolutely not the case when we moved from gen 3 to gen 4 (and the mk1 NX was already in the market for the RX gen 3 to gen 4 transition and the MK2 for the gen 4 to gen 5).  Perhaps there were some exceptional deals to be had on MY22 RX models at that time.

Cheers,

Paul

1 hour ago, Slucky said:

The response by Lexus is pathetic and utter cow dung.

This is the reason I had to get rid of my much loved ES, after an attempted theft with a damaged side panel and headlight cable. When I took it to Lexus, the reps instantly recognised the damage and knew about it, without me saying anything.

I have a feeling the ES is slowing being discontinued and Lexus does not want to deal with all the theft problems, why spend money on an old horse when it can be used on new models.

I am surprised that Lexus is so "relaxed" about the ES thefts:

https://media.lexus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/pdf/Lexus-UK-Sales-Figures-December-End-of-year-2023.pdf

It seems 2023 was the best year yet for ES in the UK and is sold 1866 units, which is not far behind the new RX (sum up sales of plugin and non plugin versions) which is odd considering it's the launch year for gen 5 RX and one would expect sales to be high for a new release.

Paul

39 minutes ago, Jim1977 said:

Likely very true Paul, I won’t hold my breath, but worth feeding back in the hope someone listens….

Agreed - if we keep pushing perhaps they will action some of it...

Cheers,

Paul

On 12/28/2023 at 11:02 AM, Jim1977 said:

 

I have already emailed Lexus UK with some suggestions for the UX, and was surprised to receive a reply that they agreed with them and had forwarded them to their app developers and software teams. Great that they are listening, but a shame they need input from someone who has had the car for a few weeks rather than coming up with them in the first place

Wow, the software intern is going to be very busy indeed! Now they have Lexus Link+ to fix, CANbus encryption to back port into old models, Radly internet radio to resurrect, wireless android auto to implement on new vehicles, and now some upgrades to the UX software!

On a more serious note, I have filed many detailed bug reports for the infotainment systems and not a single one got actioned, so it would be wise to have "realistic" expectations for software improvements.

Paul

Sorry to hear of these continued thefts.

I would suggest everyone effected posts on here:

https://mag.lexus.co.uk/car-security-advice-and-tips/

It will certainly increase the embarrassment factor for Lexus by having this discussed so publicly on their own website, and perhaps help them to consider to do the right thing.

Paul

11 hours ago, Stumpyuk said:

I bought an NX450+H about 18 months ago.   I have had quite a few problems with it and just haven't been getting the mileage that I anticipated, am only getting 40 mpg (probably due to the lack of city driving that I do).    I have never been able to get the charging station component of the apps working (have had an open ticket with Lexus for 18 months on this but still no update).    Overall the after-care has been abysmal with me regularly having to chase up issues that I raise weeks later, after having no contact from the dealer.   Having said that, I really enjoy the driving experience of the NX, so I had a big moan to my dealer about the poor after-care and lack of resolution of the issues that I have reported.   I ended up ordering a brand new NX 350h Takumi last week.   Just had a call with the dealer, it  arrives at the dealership tomorrow, so can collect on Friday(!).   I am guessing that there must have been a spare NX in exactly the spec I ordered floating round...no way they built and transported it that quick unless they are now working Christmas miracles. 

Adrian, if the vehicle was performing below expectations and the after care was "abysmal", why did you buy another Lexus?

I'm not trolling.. this is a serious question.

Paul

6 minutes ago, wivenhoe said:

Lexus continue to market Lexus Link+ as having send to car - Customer DisService say the service will be available soon - have been telling me that since May.
 

Lexus are light years behind other manufacturers in terms of the App - 8 years ago Mercedes Me had functions like geofencing and 4 years ago BMW enabled you to take a live photo of the car (uses the 3D cameras). May not be what you particularly want but are just examples of how advanced they were years ago compared to Lexus now.  

Amazingly the old app used to have "send to car"..... but then there has been a lot of regressions lately.  Possibly the old app would never have worked on an RZ?

4 hours ago, Cs150 said:

The Lexus position is short-sighted that could well result in significant brand damage and eventually a loss of revenue that will be difficult to win back. In other industries critical security updates are seen as part of continuous improvement for the reasonable life of a product. Look at operating systems such as Microsoft Windows for the life of a platform which is typically 10 years critical security updates will be provided. Smart devices which are Internet connected are often patched as and when a serious vulnerability is known. Even my 12 year old printer recently received a firmware update that the manufacturer said had key security fixes. 

All responsible organisations should ensure security is maintained at a reasonable level for the expected lifetime that a product may be in service. The social responsibility with cars you could argue is even more serious as stolen cars could be used for hit and run incidents that may result in death or serious injury as well as the owners financial loss. Incredible that many people are not concerned by the current position of Lexus and Toyota.

And indeed, many of the vehicles at risk are still under the original manufacturer warranty.

If you include the Lexus Relax warranty (anyone with a MK4 RX on here feeling relaxed???) then most CANbus vulnerable vehicles could still be under some form of cover.  

Paul

16 minutes ago, MrB said:

Shows where my 'phone is but not the car!

It should show you where the vehicle is. At least that much should work.  Send destination to car used to be a feature in the old app but it is no longer there.

@Phil Davis and other with gen 4 RX, what are your plans? I feel I am heading rapidly into the situation where I have a vehicle on PCP (that I was planning to buy at the end of the term) that I may not actually be able to insure for the final year of the deal - and if I can it will be several multiple thousands to do so.

Paul

29 minutes ago, cdmaskell said:

Well what a dilemma!  Simply anybody owning a 40k car is at risk.  I will be receiving a 24 ES P/P in March. Will that have any better theft protection ? and my son will be getting my 22 plate.  As seen in previous threads he had an attempted theft on a 21 plate. We have owned many ES’s.  What to do, buy a Dacia?, may quite rightly suit many.  We have short memories when, not so long ago they were all being hot wired. Let’s do our best for prevention and keep our fingers crossed. BMW, Merc, Audi saloons seem to be more desirable.

 

 

 

You are right of course that all vehicles are at risk of theft, but as @ColinBarber mentioned above, is seems Lexus vehicles made before the CAN was encrypted are particularly vulnerable.  Your 2024 model will be encrypted, but I guess your 2022 is not.  At some point I suspect the thieves will learn which model years are worth targeting and which are worth leaving alone....

24 minutes ago, Eko said:

I just bought this car 2 months ago, and it has just been stolen on a road full of more expensive cars like an aston martin or BMW ix.

Can someone give me an idea of what to do in this situation

Wembley, UK

And bad luck of course.

22 minutes ago, Eko said:

I just bought this car 2 months ago, and it has just been stolen on a road full of more expensive cars like an aston martin or BMW ix.

Can someone give me an idea of what to do in this situation?

Wembley, UK

Eko,

What model year is the RX? Does it have the lexus link app? Can you try to track it?

Did you have the CANbus protection plate installed?

Paul

17 minutes ago, Seamusmccudden said:

 

Cannot see phone identification of callers in lexus phone. Any tips on how to fix problem with my android phone Bluetooth to car.

You probably need to store numbers in your address book in international format.

+44.....

4g and 5g calls come in with international format and the Lexus software is too basic to figure this out.

Paul

1 hour ago, BonzoSPB said:

I'm ringing Lexus today as the inability to get into the car with frozen doors is ridiculous. The last time I suffered from similar issues was in the early 90s with a Mark II Orion.

At around 7pm last night I needed to use the car. It hadn't been used since the previous evening so was pretty iced up. It took me over 5 minutes to get into the driver's door with the aid of warm water. The passenger side front door would only open from the inside. I never managed to open the rear doors after over 15 minutes of warm water treatment.

I didn't manage to open any of the windows after what seemed to be a thorough defrosting from the inside.

It's now 9am and the car is frozen over again so let's see if I can find a way of entering the Lexus NX450 Houdini edition.

Update - one thing I noticed last night when trying to open the rear doors is how lightweight and flimsy the door panels are. The amount of movement in the panel was something I've never experienced on a car for many years.

I don't know why you are complaining! This is actually the latest in Lexus security features. Even if you defeat the CANbus you still can't get in the vehicle!!! Genius indeed. 🙂

Paul

8 hours ago, Richolf said:

this is still very much a beta app

I think strictly speaking they are doing pre alpha level testing (these bugs are found within seconds of starting the app and any developer should see them immediately) but in a beta test (live user) environment. Crazy.

Paul

1 minute ago, AWC said:

I've always had trip information but for me it constantly reports all the doors are unlocked despite them not being and this was something that worked fine initially. I can't believe how flakey the whole thing is with totally different problems between model are year of cars.

Yeah - I think the recent update fixes some things for MM19 systems but not MM21.

It's an astonishing failure of software development, quality control and release management.  It would make a good case study.

Paul