Tickedon

For the purposes of the Luxury Car Tax, the £40k limit excludes the first registration fee (£55) and first year’s VED. A car just over £40k can thus avoid the luxury element, if subtracting both of those can take it back under £40k - assuming there isn’t a price increase before it arrives, as the list price is based on the list price the day before the car was registered. Lexus ES is a great example where they’ve held the premium edition price at £40k for a while now, presumably for that reason! What I really don’t understand are manufacturers who apply thousands of pounds in discount or PCP deposit contributions on cars just over £40k. The consumer is still saddled with the £2k in extra luxury VED costs over 6 years, yet the manufacturer still only pockets £35k-ish. Seems silly for all involved.

Review can also be found online, here: https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/lexus/lbx-suv/ Rather amazed they expect 1 in 3 sales to come from the LBX, given its distinctly average emissions and mpg. With the 22% ZEV mandate in the UK this year, and less-than-great Lexus EV options with the poor-selling UX300e & RZ, I’d have assumed Lexus would have focused on selling as many NX and RX 450h+ plugins as the much lower co2 emission figures for those models can be “traded” for credits towards the ZEV mandate.

I tried for ages to find a car under £40k but everything had one compromise too many. This then became my justification for “there’s no point paying it on something just over the £40k limit… make the extra luxury payment worthwhile”. Hence a NX 450h+… I do miss the £20/year I used to pay for my Audi, but I don’t regret having to pay the expensive VED at all, as I have a brilliant car I enjoy driving.

Various brokers have had the new C-HR with £8k discounts available, meaning it’s low £30ks depending on the exact spec. It is a very tempting price for a lot of car - and I’d probably take a 2.0 Premiere and live with the £600/yr VED (as annoying as it is!).

The NX is a much more modern car than the UX. It’s also a lot more premium in terms of materials used and sound deadening etc. While Lexus have done their best to keep the UX updated, I simply wouldn’t be comparing the two models are it’s really night and day difference between them both. Best thing to do is arrange a test drive of each and see what you think.

As Charles said, you usually get a pop up. However, you may need to unpair (“forget”) the phone and car, and re-pair again via Bluetooth to get the pop up and select allow on the smartphone when it asks for permission to share contacts etc.

I’m surprised it would have cost you £60 - as the new policy hasn’t started yet (presumably, based on dates here), it should have been a free cancellation…?

That Camry could almost be a Lexus… one nice looking car and interior!

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.

Sadly without photographs at the point of collection, it is a “they said, you said” dispute and thus very difficult to resolve. But even then, if the car is used (2-4 years+) then some wear and tear is also understandable, and really a negotiating point pre-sale, unless it’s an item that should be covered by their “150+ checks before sale” or similar promise dealers make. My NX was nearly new, but still had some issues - I test drove and agreed what needed to be fixed before I collected. I then inspected and photographed every part of it on collection, took over an hour - and just as well, as one of the charging cables was damaged (only visible if you took off the rubber cap on the end) and needed replacing. As the dealer aren’t playing ball, as much as it’ll be annoying and stick in the throat, I think you’ll sadly need to put this down to a lesson learned for the future.

I suppose my other reflection is that with my Audi, before a “fast” overtake or if going up a hill, I’d change the gearbox to sport to get the engine power I needed. I don’t worry about any of that with my NX - it stays in normal, and I simply put my foot down should I need to accelerate. It gets and goes plenty fast in response.

Lots of pressure groups seem to have success purchasing a few billboard advertisements - and then getting the media to cover them, multiplying the visibility and impact many times over. A strategic purchase near some Jemca Lexus branches ought to be a good start (Jemca is owned by Toyota) and perhaps get the attention of the right people.

I have a 450h+ and previously drove an Audi diesel… As long as not forced into Ev mode, and you have some battery charge, I find it plenty fast. Especially a 0-30 start from traffic lights if there’s an idiot planning to undertake and pull out before the bus lane ahead…

I’ve only ever owned four cars: Ford Focus (sold when first moved to London) Volvo S60 (sold at five years old as the servicing costs at dealers became ridiculous) Audi A4 saloon (sold as I was approaching 100k miles, a lovely car otherwise!) Lexus NX (current) Tend to buy cars nearly new under one year old and run them until near 100k miles - has worked out to be the cheapest way for me for run cars. Over 70k+ miles and 6 years, my Audi depreciation was less than £140 per month (don’t think I’ll ever repeat that bargain!). Pre-pandemic I could do 20-25k miles a year (mix of work and leisure), seems to have settled at 10-12k miles per year more recently - so may be holding onto my cars for longer! And the 10 years/100k relax warranty option is really what sold the Lexus on me (that and finally having brilliant infotainment system).

There’s no indication of any changes between MY23 and MY24 for the ES as far as I’m aware.

Merry Christmas everyone!

That’s correct, you can’t. Using the funds to buy what the family needs in Australia is the best and only solution if Amazon won’t help.

Sadly not. You can’t add AUD to a UK GBP Amazon account, so I’m afraid it was never going to work.

Latest charge today... with aircon/heating on... 39 miles. Achieved an actual 29 miles on motorway (60-70mph).

No. Discontinued some time ago.

There is no official Lexus representative on these forums. It would be nice, but, we aren’t going to get that here.

Agreed. Around 8s 0-60 time and £36k for top spec and I think this car would really sell. The price premium above the Yaris Cross just seems too much at the moment. Perhaps it’ll be better value “nearly new”/used, as I suspect the initial depreciation may be significant…

There’s some uncertainty over whether MY23 (or MY24] do have an encrypted canbus. Generally speaking, Openpilot doesn’t work on cars with encrypted canbus - yet both model years of ES are listed as compatible: https://comma.ai/vehicles#lexus https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/wiki/Toyota-Lexus#2021-toyota-ecu-security-key-support-new-steering_lka--more there’s more detail in the second link where originally it was presumed changes were made to introduce an encrypted canbus, but, later info suggests that isn’t the case… Without confirmation from Lexus, no way to know for sure the newer ES are better protected….

Apparently puddle lights only standard on the Takumi spec. If you carefully remove the black plastic filling the gap, you may be lucky and find the cable there all waiting and plugged in behind. I’ve ordered two lights from Lexus parts direct - £18 each ish. Not received them yet but should hopefully be an easy fit…

Who/where has an LBX to view please?