Les Lex 2018

Most dealers sell older vehicles "AS IS" so there is no implied warrantee. If her shop mechanic is not experienced enough to pinpoint the cause of the power variation during a test drive, he can put it on the Dynamometer, and plug it into the diagnostic analyzer. If the diagnostic verifies there is a serious problem, Then you go thru the process of elimination: plugs out of spec, gummed up injectors, too rich or too lean due to computer /sensor loop adjustments, Air Filter? Lots of elements in the drive train to inspect.

Regular gas is fine, but if an engine has been ran consistently on cheap gas that does not have the same level of high-detergent additives that Exxon and Shell and other premium brands use, then over time, the injectors get dirty. So you would need to get the injectors cleaned. Let a shop like Firestone check it out. It could still be something else like timing, or emissions sensors. That's a very complicated system you have there. Nice to get a second opinion...

I'd talk to Firestone or find out about cleaning the injectors before going to Lexus. Six year old RX possibly driven on cheap "stop and rob" gas?

Hi Cynthia! Based on personal experience, here is my take on hybrids... You need to study the Hybrid reliability track record of each manufacturer individually before you buy. Looking at resale value is a good indicator when comparing H to non-H vehicles of the same model. That's a given. Study the type of battery technology they use. Some types wear down or out faster than others. A hybrid battery wearing down (but not out) just decreases your MPG but does not need to be replaced. What bugged me about the Camry H was that if the hybrid battery completely failed the car could not be started and you could have a $ problem after the warrantee runs out. Study up on Murphy's law: The added complexity of the hybrid vehicle, including motors, electronics, battery cooling systems, will have to be dealt with somewhere down the line by someone. Hopefully not you! If you don't intend to keep a new hybrid for more than the unusually long warrantee period, then don't worry about it. I didn't. But (big if) - If you don't buy a hybrid or plug in now and you keep your vehicle for like 6 years, you could take a loss at trade-in simply because it's considered to be a gas guzzler in a market flooded with high MPG / new and used hybrids. H-Bat factories are popping up everywhere now, so there is a war on to abandon non-hybrid vehicle production. Ask Elon...

That's a 97,000 dollar car, Dave. They have none in stock in Hsv, either used, new or certified. Must be a real popular ride...

Well, I could almost enjoy driving anything. As long it's not German (long story), weighs between 4 thousand and 5 thousand pounds, is no bigger or smaller than an RX350, is not a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, gets typical MPG for the weight, not a van or a truck, and has all the same gadgets like Blind Spot and cross-track, auto lights, brights, wipers, Radar lock-on, auto-brake on stops, weather Radar, Range calculator, USB for tunes, heated and cooled seats, Nav, access to a person via DCM or Satellite access, TPM readout, Location tracking and vehicle status to the iPhone, and uses Regular gas.

Awesome “TRACK” record there, Dave. I am envious! Based on what we now know about the 2023 RX line coming next year, I will give serious consideration to the RX350h. Don’t like Turbo charged machines. The 350h will be a LI ion charged, 2.5L 4-banger pushing 239 HP and estimated at 36 MPG. My real target is the 2024 where most of the “Bugs” are worked out of the next generation hardware and software, which of course is on a different platform and probably uses a different drive train. It's a Hybrid but not a muscle car. Thanks for the tips, Dave...

Let's talk about the Zero to Sixty thing, Dave. There are several problems with fast SUVs. Being retired, there is no longer any good excuses for being in a hurry to get somewhere. Streets are getting so congested that I have yet to impress anyone with my drag racing capabilities. Granted, the 60 to 80 passing gear numbers is more important for drivers on two lane roads. Spec sheets don't talk much about that though. Secondly, with Lexus Enform, all my driving habits are monitored, scored and recorded. Any time I feel like pressuring my Insurance company to lower my rates, I just sashay in and show them my cell phone app's driving record and talk about competitive rates. The reverse side of that coin is this… I have a sneaky suspicion that if I have or get some hot-dogging (rubber off the line) Hybrid that runs like a scalded tail ape, that my rates are going to go up substantially. My daze of blowing off 289 Mustangs with a 302 Maverick (or you in a 302 Cougar) are long since over. The days of Muscle Cars is "generally" over in the U.S., but as you indicate, the Engineers with Super Charged Lithium batteries seems to have brought them back, intentionally, or by default.

Excellent analysis, Dave. After owning a Hybrid for 4 years I have found what you say to be very true. I loved the Camry Hybrid, but for my driving range, it was an expensive novelty. Lexus needs to find a way to put a regular gas engine in an RX. Feds needs to get real about their rebate policy. And those states with dumb tax H and plug-in penalties need to do the same. There is no doubt that people like you have found the sweet spot in the H market. Hybrids are booming in areas like yours. Lexus does not seem to be pushing them in my area. Maybe they are sending them all to California. Did I mention that when I lived in Granada Hills, CA in the 60's, my 302 V-8 Ford maverick got 11 MPG... Loved those V-8 fords.

RX 350 MPG = 20/23/27 Federal 2020 !Removed! RX 450H MPG = 31/30/28 Delta MPG = 7 MPG Miles/yr = 12,000 RX 350 @ 12000mi/23MPG = 522 gal. 522 x $3.00 regular/gal = $1,565 RX 450H @ 12000mi/30MPG = 400 gal. 400 x 3.79 premium $/gal = $1,516 Delta cost = +$49/yr. hybrid saving But wait… Alabama registration tax for hybrids is $100 initial + $100/yr. or $133/yr for a 3 year turn over. Actual saving = 49 - 133 = -84 per year loss to drive the hybrid. But wait, the cost of the hybrid is about (like what?) $3,000? more than the RX 350. In three year a trade will only leave half that value in. Loss of an additional 500 per year. But wait… The higher property value on the H makes the property tax higher than for a 350. Grand total loss for the Hybrid is 584+ dollars per year just to fly the Hybrid emblem. Note - If you are retired and only drive 6000 per year, you (Alabama) is paying the same Hybrid tax as the 12,000 mile drivers, meaning less wear on the highways, but you get to pay the same as everyone else. But wait, from what I read, if you think you qualify for any rebates from the government, a lot of retired folks will not have the taxable income to use the bulk of the rebate as a write off. That puts big companies and the high earners at the head of the table in costing out the bidding of the rare hybrid. They can justify a higher bid when competing with the retired folks for a deal. Dealer here has only one in stock vs. about six 350s. They will not even post the price. They do post prices for the 350. OK, now what did I miss in this shake-out that makes me wanna go out and deal for the only H on the lot??? NOT!

OK, now here is why questions on the web about timing chains and belts get confusing answers. My 2020 RX 350 War. Manual does not mention a timing belt at any interval. But on page 72 (Explanation of maintenance items), it states: TIMING CHAIN - The timing chain requires no periodic maintenance. Thanks for the pic, Dave. For us EE guys, lot of this mechanical stuff is Greek. But I do remember my disgusting Ford Splinto had a timing belt strapped to the side of the engine. Or was that on the Chevette? i.e. America's failed attempt at making Econ-boxes to compete with a Honda. Never did happen, but they keep trying...

Thanks, Dave! How do you get to this belt?

If you google the question of what the older Lexus RXs have, the general answer is that it's a timing chain. I suspect that the belt answer comes from people confusing belts on the outside of the engine with a timing belt they used to put on the outside. Don't go forgetting that the Hybrid uses less engine running hours than a regular engine. I had the Camry Hybrid and I could spend 15 minutes in line at the Burger King and never run the engine. So I would gladly derate 167K miles to 75% of that, or 125,000 miles "equivalent" miles. There is no way around that. With the new NX plug-ins coming out, the engine will get even less usage if people keep plugging them in instead.

Kirk Kreifels feels that we are only about 12 months away from a landing.

Well, Griogio, anything is possible. So, two things, I require a Carbon Monoxide detector in the bedroom 24/7/52 incase the RX gets started. Secondly, the iWatch constantly send alerts if anything changes in the RX status that I didn't order. So I would know if anyone was fiddling with the RX. Now, could a hacker defeat both the App and the RX Software at the same time? I'm sure Lexus has a Security team that tries to defeat the system and then fixes the back doors when they find them. But that's probably falls under a general topic somewhere else. I'll check it out.

The 2020 and most likely the 2022 has a free subscription of 3 years for Lexus Enform. I log in on the iPhone. You can lock or unlock the RX from somewhere else. You can check all your windows thru the app and close or open them. The app tells you all door and window status. Oil level and gas level is listed. Trouble status is listed. Milage and distance to empty is there. You can start the RX remotely. A map shows you where the RX is located and where it's been driven last few times, etc. etc. Lots of good stuff...

Ok, well, I put my FOB in a small metal tin can and closed the lid - Faraday effect? Placed it on the passenger floor. Unable to lock the door with my hand on the handle sensor, so that will take care of that problem. With the can outside of the vehicle, I tried to lock the drivers door and it clicked one time but did not lock. That's the RX telling you, you don't have your FOB on you so I ain't locking no doors, period. Took the FOB out and I can lock it. Put the FOB back in the can and I am unable to unlock the RX with my thumb on the handle. That's saying you can't prove you are the owner of this RX, so don't go away mad, just go away... Took the FOB out of the can and I can unlock the RX. What blew my mind was that I could still start the RX with the FOB inside the can sitting on the console. How do you explain that one? Speaking of FOBs, I often go thru the procedure to follow if I get Car-Jacked: Keep the FOB on you in a zippered pocket if you have one like on cargo pants. But not is a purse. If, and more like when, someone tries to jack you - turn off the RX immediately and say "The keys are in the ignition, take my RX, it's all yours, and then run like hell, haha... Hopefully you'll have done the 100 yard dash before the idiots figure out you been lying...

Correction on line 4: the MPG should be 23 MPG combined, and not 25 MPG. Result: The 2020 did meet Government tested milage. Only the computer estimation was off.

The 2020 RX has both. I see where a lot of folks complain about the touch pad, but once you get used to not pressing on it while scrolling around, it will not select the wrong icon, which is what it's been doing to me. Problem is, as you know, while you are moving the cursor around, you have to keep you eye on the screen, and eyes are not on the road. With the touch screen, you take a quick glance at the icon you want. Go back to eyes on the road. Then you can quickly reach over and punch the icon you located in step one. I find that a bit safer driving than trying to use the touch pad. Once you master one-button Voice Command, you can keep both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. And, no, I have no insight into what Lexus will be changing next, except what you find on the internet.

2020 MPG computer test = Failed Topped off the RX with 5.9 gallons after driving 140.4 miles on the trip meter. MPG registered on the dash was 25.9 MPG. After doing the calculation, actual MPG was 23.7 MPG. That’s off by 10 percent. So when it registered 30 MPG midway on the trip, it was actually 27. Being a true combination of highway and city driving, the MPG should have Been 25 MPG, so we didn’t make the advertised government posted/tested MPG. I don’t have a led foot either. I did this same test on a Camry Hybrid and the stated MPG was a heck of a lot closer to actual than this RX. Now, I can automatically read the MPG, move the decimal point to the left one place and subtract that from the displayed MPG. Your actual results will likely vary!

Shell gas just jumped up to 3.09 a gallon Saturday. So I decided to take a Sunday morning drive to Guntersville Lake on a full tank to test actual gas milage and check the nav system in the 2020. Two alternate routes of identical time and distance showed up on Google maps. Voice command to a Mac Donalds address was accepted immediately, following an announcement that it was going to the iCloud to get more accurate information. But it was not the route I wanted to take going there due to traffic concerns. As soon as I deviated from the route, the nav started chattering for 5 long miles trying to get me to turn around, when my old Garmin would have immediately re-planned for the alternate route, as it has in the past. Now that’s a Lexus BUG to me. Coming home, while 30 miles left to go, the nav indicated that I would arrive in 41 minutes. And I still had a thousand foot climb over Green Mountain to make. Well, I got home at the exact same time it predicted. That was amazing to me. Now for MPG: At 84 miles and 30 miles remaining, the mpg finally hit 30 MPG. That’s after climbing over the thousand foot high Sand mountain on the trip over. Speeds on secondary roads did NOT reach over 60 MPH. By the time I got to the top of Green Mountain, the 30 MPG average dropped to 28.4 average and did not recover driving thru Huntsville even though most of which was interstate. That’s about 4 gallons of gas burned on the trip -- Not too bad...

Sorry to hear about the mixup. Sound like the NTSB will be asking Lexus about the validity of "Service Campaigns" vs. "Recalls".

So you did not get a recall notice from Lexus? A search of the problem will find claims like this: A total of 1.5 million cars from the U.S. have recalled for potential engine stalls and fuel pump failures. The recall covers both Toyota and Lexus models, from 2013 to 2020. I got he recall on the 2020 and got the pump replaced quickly.

Or worse, they may have built your 2021 RX, working from home ;+) BAD Joke! My 2020 was built in the middle of the China Pandemic, but it is flawless - knock on wood. And all the wood in the RX including the steering wheel is real wood (natural Bamboo). Nice!

The 2018 had cooling problems in the front seats. Lexus said seats do cool, but you just don't notice it. Funny!!! Fact is that is was just a lousy design. Either in the 19 or 20 design, they fixed the problem, meaning that either the seats and/or a better fan had been incorporated. The 2020 works like a champ. But - According to my salesman, the 21 is identical to the 20 except for the front Grill. They always change something so the sales person can tell the difference w/o looking at the sticker. S o one could believe that the 2020 seat design is identical to the 2021. Why change it if it works. And then you could deduce that the 2020 CR review will not change in 2021, unless the inspectors are more or less picky. We shell see...