Les Lex 2018

Thanks for picking out the error used in the conversion factor for Kg to Gallons. Darn that euro Metric system and Kg/Km. Unfortunately, roughly 80 percent of the electricity to produced Hydrogen now comes from fossil fuel. So there goes the clean air part of the plan. Fuel Cell cars will be the rage in the future, but it woun't be anytime soon. Not until cheap Natural gas becomes scarce and battery storage becomes economical..

At $16 dollars per gallon of Hydrogen and 74 MPG, that is cost equivalent to 18.5 MPG when compared to a 42 MPG Hybrid at $4 dollars per gallon. Which is 4.2 miles per dollar vs. 10.5 miles per dollar for the Hybrid. Work is in progress to do recycling of Lithium battery components for re-use. And new battery compositions are being invented to eliminate the need for Lithium Ion and Cobol technology. The Hybrid is a good bridge to have while more realistic eV designs are made available to the public. Right now, the eV is just a novelty or something that the rich folks can show off to prove they got the big bucks $$$.

Great info, John. To be able to comment on or carry on an intelligent conversation about fuel cell vehicles, I’ll need to open a separate file and gather a lot of fuel cell vs. Hybrid comparison information such as: MSRP, availability, Weight, battery cost, insurance, Tax credits, fuel taxes, HP to Wt. ratio, fuel availability along the interstates, output efficiency charts at max and minimum altitude and temperatures, Zero-to-Sixty ratings. Flexibility: The ole Toyota Hybrid Camry took Pikes Peak like it was a day at the beach in Fla. How is you Hybrid running, by the way?

Remember the Hindenburg! Just kidding!

Good comments, John! My wife said NO to eVs so it's not on my Horizon. The future for now "seems" to be Hybrids. I'm a second time owner of a Hybrid with two RX 350s in-between. Going on two years now, Lexus Hybrids have been hard to keep in stock, so they get to load them up with gimmicks like crazy. Things that don't hold up in the Kelley BB used car book. Pros: I can go into heavy traffic and not see my MPG go down. Engine is running half the time the brakes still have machine marks after a year because the brakes are not used that often to slow the unit down. That's if you don't hit them hard. Cons: My Collision and comprehensive insurance is much higher for the Lexus Hybrid even with zero accidents ever. Price tag was higher for the Hybrid than the gas guzzler equivalent. License tag is higher cause they collect an extra tax for driving one in Alabama, to compensate for lost gas tax. That new tax is double if it's an eV. So, is the Hybrid just another novelty that hasn't caught on yet? Probably! While the eV is the ultimate novelty, Hybrids with all its Cons are still practical if the owner drives a lot of mile in a year, and especially a lot of city miles. So will Lexus ditch the eV and concentrate on Hybrids and make less of the legacy gas guzzlers? I have no idea, John.

Hi ya, Aviad! I wear cargo shorts or cargo pants and keep the key in the lower front pocket secured with velcro when shopping. I usually forget it's there because it's not required to lock or unlock the vehicle. You're not likely to lose it that way and if a pic-pocket tries to pick it, good velcro makes a loud distinctive sound. I was sitting in a waiting room and my RX 350 FOB fell out of the main side pocket. My wife had the 2nd key so the RX started off her key and I didn't know I lost it. Lexus wanted 500 to replace it, but the business looked around and found the FOB for me. There is no need for that to happen again.

The spec sheet that Lexus of Birmingham gave me for the ES300h shows these two add-ons: WOOD TRIM WITH AMBIENT LIGHTING $740. ILLUMINATED DOOR SILLS $400 Can you possibly imagine the sheer excitement as I finally got it home in the garage and hit the automatic garage door opener, and then in the dark, I see this pale blue strip highlighting the edge of the dash? And I only paid $740 bucks plus an additional 4% sales tax? Followed by the thrill of opening the door and seeing a crummy advertisement projected onto my garage floor ("Lexus of Birmingham") for $416. what a RUSH!!

Many Lexus models use 4G provided by AT&T to connect to late model vehicles. As cell phone providers continue to sunset (abandon) specific 4G phone types, my question is - when will AT&T stop providing and terminate coverage for 4G Lexus vehicles? And, will Lexus provide a workaround software update to connect the DCM Data Comm Module via the drivers cell phone instead as does Ford Motor Company? FYI: Due to towers shutting down 3G, all 2010 to 2017 Lexus models (except certain 2016 and 2017 CT200h hybrids, and the 2018 Lexus GX) will no longer function as intended. Toyota Safety Connect and Lexus Enform Safety Connect will have stopped working on these vehicles Nov. 1, 2022, and they will permanently lose automatic crash notification and other features. Can someone here verify that this was in fact true? Note: AT&T LTE (called Long Term Evolution) is a 4G fast wireless broadband. While many believe it will be around for another 8 years or so, there is no guarantee that will be the case. When 5G ramps up to full coverage, look out 4G. Source: Google replies to the question: When will AT&T sunset 4G? As always: Any corrections or insight into these questions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the comments, Amanda. Good news: My 2018 and 2020 RX 350s including the 2023s all use 4G (as stated on the window sticker) and will continue to do so for some time in the future. Lexus monitors a lot of your vehicle functions and keeps a status of your system. If the DCM Quits working, you got some real problem on your hands. I'll just bet you, if that happens Lexus will get in touch with you real quick via e-mail or phone, telling you to bring the vehicle in ASAP. That's what Lexus Enform is all about - keeping you on the road and out of the repair shop. If I could cut off the nav system, then when I say "Show Radar", I could not get the local radar map because Lexus would not know where I was. You pay for that functionality for the first 3 years cause it's built into the price. After a few years I would have to pay for a subscription and it's not cheap. Sure hope the guys at Lexus can help you out with your Radio Frequency problem. Les, 1st Class FCC License operator

Quote from my manual: The functionality of Lexus Enform Destinations, Dynamic Navigation, and Wi-Fi® Hotspot is made possible through the shared work of the DCM and the system. The DCM / Digital Communications Module is just a Lexus cell phone dedicated to communicate with Lexus sites exactly the same way you communicate with others on your cell phone. Same animal, so your fears of being exposed to harmful waves are likely based on acquired mis-information. The Sat antenna is used to pull coordinate data for the Nav system. If it's used at all to talkback to a Sat, it would only be used during a distress call. Based on the DCMs position in the data stream, there is no way you could disable it w/o causing alarms to go off at Lexus. If you find conflicting information, Amanda, please let me know.

Your Nav manual, Page 26 - said USB audio cannot be used while Android Auto is connected via USB. Are you connected to Android via BlueTooth. Page 132 - Title is: Playing music file on a USB Flash Drive. This paragraph clearly indicates that your flash drive is available w/o posting exception to the rule. I could not locate the part that only gave you the CarPlay and Android options. Ask your dealer to demonstrate how they can access your USB Flash Drive as indicated on page 132. There's got to be a way. Tell them the 2022s have no problems at all.

Thanks Larry! I tried the Play function and it came back and said "Searching for Rivers". Took a while but it found songs by Johnny Rivers. I'm guessing that you are using Apple Play. I don't! My system then looks strictly at my USB, and will play what I want it too. I haven't gotten to the "Hey Lexus" thing yet so will play around with that sometime. Thanks for exploring all the options and explaining them. I never have paid for or used Apple Music. I transferred all my 8-Tracks, cassette tapes and CDs into MP-3. The Levinson does a good job of accessing all of the thousands of tunes I have on one Thumb nail size 8 GB USB. So it can take a while to find tunes. Best for me is to place it in random read mode, and "all folder" mode, and just let it play its little heart out.

Using my/your Navi manual: OM06220U, I find no individual input adjustments for USB or any other inputs. So the adjustments are probably made by the Mark Levison at the Amp section. All of my inputs are correctly balanced, even on my home programmed USBs the sound is equalized perfectly with respect to all other inputs so no need to fiddle with the volume. Take your USB to your Lexus salesman and have him let you play it in some of his ES vehicles and prove to him there is a problem, cause you have already proven that it's not the USB.

I tested the 22 300h and everything works perfect with auto-level eq. on and Surround sound either on or off. So off to the dealership. Some vehicles use a separate multi-channel amp for the rear set. If so, it is not user adjustable, and it may have been adjusted incorrectly at the factory. Could you let us know what they find? I get frustrated with TMC because they do NOT like to discuss the working schematic-level details of their sound systems. But I presume the Toyota and Lexus call centers are the same support group. It just seems that way.

Hi Richard! From what you said, the rear speaker are connected up properly. So what happens when you go to setting - Sound, and adjust the front/rear balance to send all the sound to the rear? Do you lose vol to all speakers?

According to Chas, Premium fuel is recommended. There is a difference between the terms recommended and required. Check your OM to see if that's true. On the other hand: The correct oil for the RX is "required", not simply a recommendation. Failure to use the correct oil will start to damaging the engine quickly. There is one exception to that if you switch back to the required oil. If you can sleep like a baby knowing you put the most expensive, best gasoline you can find in your RX, then it's dang well worth it. On the other hand: If you drive like grandpa Jones and you simply drive to stay alive, I seriously doubt that you are going to damage your engine running regular. TMC uses sophisticated and expensive timing-advance hardware built into the RX to handle engine knock/pinging. But it won't save an engine that is abused by hard driving while using non-recommended fuel.

Lots of compromise there, Tammy, if you're looking at a Mazda at half the price. You want LUXURY and comfort and to be surrounded by high-end finishes and have the ability to travel via an SUV any distance with enjoyment? You don't need an SUV. You got that big bad Dodge Ram. You need to get yourself into a Lexus ES300h luxury sedan. Much, much quieter than an RX. It has a much better ride than an RX. It gets over two time the gas milage (44 City) and has the same get up and go as a standard RX. It cost about the same as an RX. It has all the same luxury, equipment and gadgets as an RX. Your brakes and car battery last longer, cause you don't hardly use them. You don't even have a starter on that thing. Oh, and Tammie? You'd just plain look better in an ES300 than you would in a Boxy Mazda. Trust me on that one...

Thanks, Art. It finally came to me. I was using the paddle shifter to down shift coming to a red light. That causes the engine to rev. It's being forced to do so, but is getting no fuel or ignition. i.e. the engine really is technically OFF. But, the HUD is computing RPM so of course it's going to display the actual RPM. It IS telling the truth. I have since realized that using the paddle shifter is not only unnecessary, but it also wastes MPG. Why? Because the braking is supposed to be used to charge the Li Ion battery, not dissipate the energy using the engine braking (unrecoverable energy). When the brake is applied lightly, the engine is bypassed and the transmission applies force to the brakes and the motor generator which puts the required drag on the wheels. Using the paddle down shift, therefore cause less energy to be re-captured while stopping. Dummy Me!

I'll play around with it again, Art. Only thing I noticed other than that was that the RPM on the HUD would sometimes show that the engine was running, but the Hybrid screen showed that the engine was off while coasting to a light. The HUD was not telling the truth. The engine was off. No big thing!

I experienced a similar situation with the ES300h HUD. After setting it up, I decided to reduce the brightness of the display. But I could not find it where it was suppose to be. At a later date, I was browsing the menu and there it was. Magic? Could be that it is only presented if something else somewhere else is also enabled.

Based on my experience trying to get an NX, the only way that was going to happen was that I was told to fork out the deposit and get in line with no assurances as to when the unit was going to be built. So that is what you had to do and you did that. So you are locked in. There is still way too much stimulus money floating around chasing too few RX 350s. And they tend to load them up into the 60 K range. Just saw an new white RX 350 F-sport Handling for sale locally and ready to go for that price range.

I feel your frustration. My phone will not charge anyway because it's in a shock proof case. So I carry an extra charging cable to plug into a spare USB slot just inches away from the charging tray. pity to thing we paid extra cause the option is in there. And so very well thought out and engineered, LOL! Please, let me know what you find out.

Based on the explanation of how it works, you can put anything there that is NOT a chargeable unit, and it will not attempt to charge. So the statement that you can't put anything there, kinda goes against their own narrative. If you start the system, and put business cards and items that are not metal on the pad, I bet you that the charge indicator will not illuminate and it will never try to turn on the charger. I think the warning came about due to things like Metal keys that could be detected and mistaken for a device. The charger, I bet will not detect paper or plastic. You can try that. Just no metal!

According to page 286 of your manual, it appears that charging is automatic upon detecting the coil inside your phone. Removing the phone causes it to shutdown. I see your charging indicator is on the top right of your center dash monitor. Where as mine is next to the tray. Sounds like, to me, that you can put anything you want on the tray, as long as it does not have an internal charging coil, that can be detected by the charging tray. Lots of things go away after 3 years. I wonder if they will bate you with a lower price like XM? I like "Show Radar" which brings up the storm radar. You got to be about half a mile from starting point before the DCM will pull up the radar. Well, George, have some fun with all them gadgets.