So I've had the Lexus for a week and a half and have had some time to get to know it better. Headline is that its comfortably the best car I've ever owned! Its well built, comfortable - especially at motorway speeds, and literally everything works. I've only used about 1/3rd of a tank of fuel so far and if the trip computer is to be believed then its returning about 34mpg in mixed use. 

Today I removed the wheels one by one and gave them a thorough clean with the autosmart alishine cleaner which has brought them up very well. This also allowed me time to inspect the state of the discs and pads (all fine) and also check the operation of the rear caliper sliders. This is a weak spot on the car, and they are prone to seizing the bottom slider pin. The passenger side moves fine, but the drivers side seems a bit stiff, though it was parked close up to a wall so access wasn't great. I plan to strip both sides down and silicone grease the sliders to keep them working as they should, but I didn't have time today. 

I've also lined up bits for an oil and filters change, pleasingly oil, oil filter, air filter and cabin filter come in under £60 which I'm not grumbling about! I'll get that done after payday and sort out the sliders at the same time.

I gave it a quick wash but it really wants a seeing to with the clay bar, there are lots of little tar speckles all over and it just wants a bit of hard work to get it up to top condition. Also, why does no-one ever clean inside the fuel filler flap? The rubber round the filler neck was covered in brown gunge and the rest of it was coated in dried mud, it looks a lot better now!

Oh, the only other thing is that it currently wears 4 mismatched budget tyres which are a bit worn. I'll probably get a set of 4 matching midranges before too much longer so at least one rear tyre is at the 3mm wear marker. Surprisingly the road noise isn't too bad on the motley budgets and it handles fine even on greasy roundabouts.

I shall end the update by saying that I have missed the best aspect of owning an auto, pulling out onto roundabouts while eating crisps. Extensive testing in a manual car has shown that you need at least 3 hands to steer, change gear and shovel crisps into your pie hole all at once, and this doesn't work and since the crisp-eating bit is non-negotiable then you either end up banging off the limiter in 1st gear or navigating the roundabout more like a hexagon - much to the alarm of other road users