Facebook marketplace Lexus RX400h SE-L, what could go wrong?

[LincolnLovin]

I don't think I've actually used the radio more than once but reception seemed to be fine, will check it out.

[LincolnLovin]

MOT booked for Monday...

[LincolnLovin]

So far no news....

[LincolnLovin]

I have been, I can only assume it's not been tested yet.

[LincolnLovin]

MOT passed:

Advisories:

Offside Front Windscreen wiper blade defective split (3.4 (b) (i))
Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt off side rear and near side rear ()
Rear Registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread (0.1 (b))
rear wiper blade split

I think I can sort that

[LincolnLovin]

rich12 said:

LincolnLovin said:

MOT passed:

Advisories:

Offside Front Windscreen wiper blade defective split (3.4 (b) (i))
Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories):
Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt off side rear and near side rear ()
Rear Registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread (0.1 (b))
rear wiper blade split

I think I can sort that

Very nice!

Do you rate the M L sound system? What sort of mpg are you actually getting?

Yeah it’s really good, supports DTS as well for when you watch a dvd...not that I’ve tried that yet.

Current mpg is 31.4, it’s creeping up as I get a better handle on maximising battery only time.

I’ve used that garage for over a decade and so trust them with all of my car, the rear number plate does need replacing and I knew the wipers would probably get mentioned.

Anyhow I have replaced all three wipers and will see about getting some replacement plates.

[LincolnLovin]

Catalyst theft is something I'm worried about as well. Not sure we can do much about it though.

[LincolnLovin]

We decided to take the family to Euro Disney over Xmas and with that journey being well beyond the Leafs practical range, the Lexus was the only answer.

This would be a trip of firsts, it's the first european drive in the car, the first time I've used the Eurotunnel and the first time driving to ED.

Prep work was limited, at least I thought so. Then a week before the car started to not register drive correctly and would 'pop out' occasionally. The transmission shifter had occasionally been stiff in our year of ownership but nothing like this.

Cue stress and some frantic googling, images of lunched gearboxes and my bargain Facebook car being anything but filing my head. If the gearbox was toast then my options for resolution before Christmas were slim.

Some early googling indicated that a bushing could have failed in the transmission cable on the passenger compartment side and so I managed to locate a repair kit....in the USA still it was only $20 but express shipping was a lot. Still it should arrive before we left so would give me time to fit.

It did not arrive, cue more googling. The fact that the car would go into drive and shift fine in all gears/reverse etc started to suggest the gearbox was fine but the transmission shifter cable (or something connected to it) wasn't acting right. Further research indicated that the transmission position switch which the cable is connected to was mechanical. Perhaps that's where it was going wrong, so whilst topping up the brake fluid (a full change to come in the new year) my brother and I decided to investigate, eventually in spite of some crap internet directions we managed to locate said switch which was very mechanical and slightly rusty and dry looking for a moving object.

Liberal amounts of WD40 and some spare high temp grease we had lying around and the transmission shifting is massively improved! Cheap fix ftw!

With that sorted, the rest of the plan fell into place. I had purchased some Mini Jack extenders to replace the Bluetooth unit for the TV/raspberry pi to make my life easier as the Bluetooth unit forgets pairing after switch off and is generally more hassle than it's worth at the moment.

The trip itself was faultless carrying us to and from ED in comfort, although the very heavy rain on the return was stressful. 30 mpg was a little lower than expected but higher speed on the toll roads is likely the cause.

[LincolnLovin]

This story is coming to an end on Wednesday as I'm trading in the Leaf and the Lexus against a Outlander PHEV. The Leaf's battery is degrading and I don't want to be stuck with it, the Outlander can happily do the round town on battery aspect of the Leaf and handle the family roadtrips.

It then frees up a space for something much more fun

[LincolnLovin]

Yup the Lexus is still performing well and the battery has shown no issues. We’d still keep it if the replacement wasn’t an SUV type thing.

The Leaf is now on 24k and already lost a bar of capacity so want rid of it before it becomes any worse.

[LincolnLovin]

rovermorris999 said:

LincolnLovin said:

Yup the Lexus is still performing well and the battery has shown no issues. We’d still keep it if the replacement wasn’t an SUV type thing.

The Leaf is now on 24k and already lost a bar of capacity so want rid of it before it becomes any worse.

I don't blame you regarding the Leaf, that's pretty poor when the range isn't brilliant to begin with. I think older EVs will be pretty much worthless when the battery gets close to replacement.

There’s still a place for them, and if you are just milking around town then even with a severely degraded batter you’re likely fine. But you would need to keep it for “life” to make it worth while. Sadly the cottage industry of battery replacements predicted has not reached mass market levels (I could upgrade the leafs battery but I would still need to find a second hand 40 kWh battery and then go and ship it to the Netherlands for installation and configuration and then that battery still not be actively water cold and so would still degrade).

[LincolnLovin]

Wooof, well safe to say the purchase of the new car hasn't gone as planned....

Cue two weeks ago and me sending over payment for the car and agreeing to pick up in a few days time. The big day rolls around and the dealer says they haven't received payment and we hadn't spoken in a week - turns out their email appears to have been hacked and I got fake payment details.

Have escalated to the bank but not holding out much hope.

[LincolnLovin]

Not heard from the dealer in nearly two weeks, despite chasing and leaving messages. They’ve washed their hands of it (at least that’s the impression I have) and are leaving it up to the bank to sort.

[LincolnLovin]

You’d think that but apparently they’ve taken an alternate view.

Frustratingly the Leaf is still with them (I paid to have it transported there as it’s an hour or so away).

[LincolnLovin]

Perhaps. The issue is the sales persons account had been taken over for a week and so it’s unclear what emails were genuine.

[LincolnLovin]

Yup that’s the line that they’ve taken. Regardless of the fact that they were the medium for that fraud.

The bank is investigating, 35 days for a decision. I was supposed to get a call from the brand manager 2 weeks ago. Radio silence.

[LincolnLovin]

Supposed to be a big franchise, it’s one of the reasons we went with them.

I’ve been in touch with the bank every week, so far about 7 hours on hold in total with them.

[LincolnLovin]

BrettMRC said:

If you want, PM me the details of the dealer/dates and I'll have a look when time allows

Apologies for the question, but what do you do?

[LincolnLovin]

I think if the dealer was more proactive in keeping in touch that would be something, currently I just cannot understand from a customer service point of view why anyone would leave a customer dangling in this situation.

[LincolnLovin]

So interim update, finally after two weeks the dealer called me back. In the short term they’ve agreed to transport the lead back and refund my deposit.

We’re keeping the conversation going regarding the situation and we’ll see where things go.