300H AWD

Why wouldn't you buy one?

Beautifully built. In the showroom sat in a Porsche Cayenne and a BMW X6. I was suprised how creaky some of the plastics are in those cars, particulary on the centre console where various selector switches were located. The quality for that price put me right off buying those marques. Driving position in BMW was poor particularly with the distance from leg to pedal and knee under the steering wheel (both cars 100000 Euro secondhand). They did not feel worth the money. Lexus is cheaper with gear included.
The Lexus had the most solid feeling plastics and switches in any car I have sat in. The leather seats are as good as Volvo. Loads of gear already included in the price (do not need to pay extra for options). The interior room/headroom is good particularly in the front. For a 6ft 5" driver the front seat space is superb. One of the best driving positions in any car (particularly foot to pedal space and knee under the steering wheel). Fuel economy short of company claims (I seem to get 6-7L/100km or around 32mpg with 80% town driving). This car has 35000km/23000 miles and feels like new. No squeaks or rattles anywhere. Ride is firm (18" wheels). Best on smoother roads. However if you take the trouble to buy a very accurate pressure guage (Michelin makes one that reads to 0.1 psi) and you set the tyre pressures equally (32psi all round as per the book) the ride improves dramatically (I often wonder reading the reviews if the tyres were the correct and equal pressure). Then you get that nice magic carpet Lexus ride and absolutely no body roll in corners. Braking smoothly takes a bit of practice due to regenerative brakes. Steering feels fine to me and nicely insulated from vibrations. Very relaxing to drive but not a sports car.
I have only driven 1000km so far, so these are early impressions. It's appearance is fantastic (in and out) and being reasonably rare it get many looks from other drivers (if you like that sort of thing). It's so nice to drive something fresh and distinctive instead of the usual drab BMW, Audi and Merc (you certainly don't feel special in those cars because everyones got one). I feel very happy because it is unlikely anything serious willl go wrong and the dealer attitude is superb if it does. I have had the German brands before and got fed up with the lousy attitude and poor quality (broken exhaust manifold on brand new Golf and VW tried to get out of fixing it).
So far extremley pleased and will have another one when the time comes. Very happy to be with Lexus and everything that comes with it. It is a nice feeling.

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