Don C

My Sonic Grey Takumi is sitting outside the harbour at Livorno in Italy. It should have been in Portbury on the 2nd but the Georgia Highway was waiting for passage through the Suez. Now it’s out of its slot for Livorno 🙄

That’s my favourite colour. Wife won’t entertain it though, she’s got the “green car thing”. 🙄

If you tick the boxes then use a smartphone to scan the wrong code you can connect as far as I remember. You don’t have to subscribe to anything.

What happens if you accept it?

I’m curious. I never even consider how far on a tank as you can work it out. It’s a 43 litre or 9.46 gallons. It’s about 490 miles.

Not sure if it interferes with some of the safety equipment.

They’ve dropped it on the latest update.

I’ve had 2 NXs, the 2020 model was slow but never made any noise and the second 2022 model had the later set up which was much faster and virtually silent motors. Neither creaked or squeaked nor do they on the Yaris Cross I’m running now. The Cross has got a kick sensor which I’ve found very helpful and use it all the time.

My UX is currently on the Mediterranean Sea but when it comes, first stop on the way home is for Goodyear all season tyres ordered from Halfords (on offer). The UX is E4 and I consider the tyres necessary having to leave home in the Peak District at all hours. I don’t do huge mileage so life probably won’t be an issue. I spent 17 years in brake development and our view was that braking requirements had overtaken pad life so we tended not to get emotive about it. There was a time we expected 50k from a set of Michelin X but if they (modern tyres) keep us planted on the road I’ll settle for a lot less.

I doubt Michelin would honour the warranty - they know if a tyre has been subjected to misalignment. The story doesn’t add up because he claims there was no choice but fit budget tyres when there is any amount of “decent” brands available. There might not have been at that moment but you only need to wait until the following day. So what next? The cheap tyres were discarded after refitting the Michies?

You have to be careful with some chemicals because they lubricate the seal to a point that it promotes movement and then the creak big time.

Good news that Michelin have upheld their reputation. What on earth were you thinking about buying £72 tyres for a Lexus. You could have had four new Michelin tyres and returned some loyalty.

A compressor with blow gun works wonders.

No it wasn’t you 👍

The tailgate is mostly plastic on a metal frame. Like David, I tend to think it will creak either in different temperatures or twisting. I’ve not got mine yet but I’ll listen for said creak.

Yes it is.

I’d better scrub MB off the windscreen 😉. I’m sure yours is fine. Have you ordered an E4 as well? Mine is Sonic Grey yes and I’m really looking forward to it now.

They’re a lot to a Lexus that makes it stand out. Yes, the powertrain is Toyota but everything else is top notch and better than the German brands. These tests they do on cars tell you what to expect new but repeat them at five and ten years and then see which is best. A ten year old BMW with 100000 miles is no doubt elegant but it’s a liability.

No problem Martin, I was 29 years in vehicle development so can find my way round 😉. Yes, the car will be tight at first in almost every moving part. It will also do some learning based on your driving and it is programmed to be suppressed while the engine beds in. When these things change depends on the mileage and the way it’s driven but usually by a couple of thousand the tightness will have gone and by about four or five thousand the mapping will have relaxed and it will feel a different car. As for the engine noise, the big risk in getting optimum performance from it is to advance the timing so as to get the fuel to start pushing on the downward piston right from the top of the stroke. Think of it like pedals on a bike, if you only start pushing part way down it isn’t as effective as right from the top. They do this by timing the spark far enough in advance for the expanding gas to reach full pressure near the top. The problem is that if they do it too early the fuel will flash rather than expand and you get a knock which is sometimes described as pinking (really called detonation). There are sensors that hold the timing of the spark back but it reduces the effectiveness as described. Now what a lot of people don’t realise is that high octane fuel is less volatile than low. It doesn’t go bang like an explosion it burns in a very predictable and consistent manner so by using high grade fuel, it not only keeps the fuel system clean, it allows the timing to be advanced without knock and it really smooths out the engine to sound better. You rarely get enough improvement to cover the extra cost but in my mind I prefer the sound especially in a Lexus and I’m happy that the fuel system gets some protection as the fuel is dosed with detergents.

Haha, it’s a long one and it’s towards the end in the multimedia section. I was waiting until December for a Takumi E4 but there’s a cancelled order on the ship which is grey with white ash interior (I originally chose blue with cream). It’s currently queued at the south end of the Suez and is due in late September. Here’s the vid;

Most of those reviews are US based and their 3.8 litre gallon equates to 48mpg imperial. A new UX will improve considerably after a couple of thousand miles and even more with high grade fuel as it won’t hold the timing back so much. They are a lot quieter with decent fuel in too.

There is a suggestion on Melissa’s tutorial that it will with the new system so I’m hopeful it will too.

That demo model isn’t a good example because the 12v battery isn’t connected and you can’t adjust the seat and it’s set really low which means it’s dropped back. That not only makes the dash look high but also limits the rear seat space. You can’t power up the dash or anything. To say it’s too small to be a Lexus seems an odd statement to me but that’s my opinion. It could be OK but they couldn’t give anything better than a gut feeling for price and they couldn’t confirm whether it would be available with ventilated seats which is important to my mrs so I’ve found a cancelled order UX which I’ve claimed. It’s currently queued at the south end of the Suez Canal and will be here late September.

No, next to nothing in terms of current data allowances.

Not really, no. There are plenty of vehicles the same size as a typical SUV and plenty of people that can’t park. To suggest the ones that can’t only end up in SUVs is plain daft and untrue but I don’t intend debating it any more, if that’s what you think, fair enough.