GymW

By any chance are you in Nevada near Area 51, Roswell New Mexico, or Devils Tower South Dakota?

Glad it worked out for you this way. All dealers from any brand will try to do whatever it takes to save or make a buck. They will try and make you believe but they are not your friend. They are not in business to sell you a trouble free quality car or give you the best deal unless you are personal friends with the owner. They are not in business to do a great repair on you vehicle and make you visits as trouble free and comfortable as possible. They are in business to make money - as much of it as they can and as fast as possible, with as little effort from them as they can. All the other stuff, lounges, tv, coffee, snacks, computers, wifi, etc. are marketing tools designed to make you want to continue to business with them, recommend them to prospective customers and increase their profits. Dealerships, with very few exceptions, in general have no loyalty to their customers. Why should you have any loyalty to them? This may sound callous but it is the truth. When was the last time a car salesperson, owner, or service manager called you, a year after purchase or later to ask how you are enjoying your car without trying to sell you something, discuss the new features of the latest vehicles? They aren't interested in you. Their interested in your money. Byy the way. Do you still have the dealers license plate frame holder on your car? Are they compensating you in any way for advertising their dealership every time you hit the road? Did they ask permission? What you are doing by leaving that frame on your car is giving them free advertising for as long as you own the car. Have they ever even said thank-you? The very first thing I do when I get a new car home is remove that frame, get a generic good looking new one, and toss theirs into the trash. I am not interested in being a free mobile billboard for the dealership.

My 2015 RX has this a route tracking or tracing under the navigation settings. Your dealers technical assistant should be able to help you with this for free. You might try calling first and save yourself a trip if you can't find it in the manual. If they try and charge you, report them to Lexus.

First of all Leather seats are much like wood furniture. It has a finish on it. So when you are cleaning and polishing your seats,or furniture, you are not actually cleaning the leather or wood, you are cleaning and polishing the finish. Conditioning, softening or nourishing leather seats or furniture is all marketing hype. The exception to this is danish oil finish on on furniture. I try to stay away from such products as the companies behind them are liars after your money. I think the suggestions of mild detergents and water to remove dirt is great. What your goal should be is to clean the finish without damaging it, and they coating it with a protective film to prevent damage from sunlight and wear. Any good respectable product designed for leather care should work in my opinion. Just don't polish before cleaning or you may seal in the dirt. I use Groit's products because they have been around for a long time, specifically designed for automotive use, and have never heard of them causing harm. They can be purchased on-line at their website. They are not cheap but now ridiculously overpriced either. Some local chain auto parts stores have them as well. Frankly I do not particularly like Groit's as a company as they used to sell bullet hole decals for cars to make it look like they got shot. That already happens all to frequently in real life in the area I live in. Several people have been killed over the last year by just driving on the freeway and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But they do have good products and have halted this practice. Life isn't perfect and sometimes requires compromises.

Finally, a way that Lexus does not rip you off at the dealership. Please keep this a secret so Lexus does not hear about it and add one.

Very happy with my Weathertec mats. My dealer recommend I get them online from Weathertec. TiP: Coat them if you get them with Aerospace 303 protectant. They will probably last forever, keep looking good, and will clean up easy and never crack on the surface, other than from abuse.

On a 2015RX and later, why bother? Get an iPod player or MP3 player and load it up with what you want and play it when you want it and save some money. I don't recommend mobile phones for this due to limited memory. My iPod can hold 80GB of music, and podcasts. This feature may be available on earlier models but I do not know.

Thinkware makes a dashcam that optionally can have a backup camera. It will also give you lane assist Red Light and Speed Trap warning, and protection against liars if you are in a crash as well as proof if you are given a speeding ticket if you were not; all at no extra charge or subscription.

Suggest you check Amazon for a 3rd party replacement. I did this for a headlight on my former CRV and saved a fortune.

If Toyota wants $150 then consider what a Lexus dealer might want for it. I remember the good old days when such things could be done by your local gas station. Nowadays it is difficult for an owner to change a light bulb. One could not imagine that it designed this way to make more money for the dealers. How cynical of me.:-)

If you believe it works, it will.

Let me be blunt and excuse my 'French'. In my 2015 RX350 voice recognition sucks. My Garmin Nuvi at $299 was much better.

Most if not all makes of cars, except for custom made cars, have rear view mirror blindspots. There are accessory mirror that claim to eliminate them but I have never tried one and don't know of anyone who has.

FYI a brand new Caddy, after break in was once run for 100,000 miles on Mobil 1 (full synthetic) without an oil change. Just changed the filters. They then took the engine apart. It still had the hone marks on the cylinder walls. I run synthetic oil in my garden equipment. I change it when it looks dirty - every few years. My Honda mower is now 35 years old and runs as good as new. I never have to add oil. My part time gardener used it and wants to buy it from me. The lessons for me from this. Filter changes are more important that oil changes. Running several hundred or even a thousand miles beyond a scheduled oil change is highly unlikely to damage or cause extra wear to your engine, and much less likely to then constantly flooring your accelerator. providing you use a full synthetic oil. If you are planning to keep your car for a long time, don't skimp on oil quality or use a blend. With synthetic oils, modern vehicles do not need to be warmed up by idling, unless you want to waste gas, contribution to pollution and blow your money out the tailpipe. If the car is cold, wear a sweater instead. You can take it off later.

Be sure and let the dealer do it as they have experts. That is what they will tell you and charge you an outrageous amount to do it. I had mine do one under warranty. He took out a touchup bottle, like you get at the parts department and used the internal brush to dab on a glob of paint. That was it. Afterwords I redid it myself using some of the above techniques. The key thing here is to be patient and use several thin coats over several days, letting each coat dry completely. Don't forget the clear coat, available for purchase at most auto supply stores. Don't apply it until you have smoothed down the paint first. With my redo, and little to no experience, following such techniques, you can't tell the chip occurred unless you know where it occurred and rub you finger over the spot to feel the slight difference in the paint. Set your expectations properly. No such repair will ever be perfect, even if done by a professional. If you want a perfect repair, be prepared to pay to have the whole panel color matched and repainted professionally. Like it or not paint changes color with age. No touchup color will ever be a perfect match to current color of your car. Close is the best it can be.