Servicing - thoughts please

Brechin Slate · February 20, 2017

I have an IS250, petrol on a 56 plate, Feb 2007 with 120,000 on the clock. The car's in great condition and drives beautifully, in short, I love it. It's due for a service and my options are:

1. Minor service £200 quid

2. Major service £350

3. Spark plug change £200

These are rounded up/down main dealer prices. The car value is about £4.5k.

Thinking of minor service and spark plug change, never had a garage change my plugs for me in the past.

Something inside me rails against spending £550 on servicing, is there a voice of reason out there?

Thanks

Britprius · February 20, 2017

In my opinion being in almost the same situation as you "but my GS450H prices are about 25% higher" at most I would go for the £200 option at most.

Your local garage will probably be cheaper even with a plug change. Our cars are at an age and millage where dealers service stamps mean little. I do as much work on my own car as I can, and this means keeping a record of work I do and all the receipts to materials I have bought.

John.

toffee_pie · February 20, 2017

1 hour ago, Brechin Slate said:

I have an IS250, petrol on a 56 plate, Feb 2007 with 120,000 on the clock. The car's in great condition and drives beautifully, in short, I love it. It's due for a service and my options are:

1. Minor service £200 quid

2. Major service £350

3. Spark plug change £200

These are rounded up/down main dealer prices. The car value is about £4.5k.

Thinking of minor service and spark plug change, never had a garage change my plugs for me in the past.

Something inside me rails against spending £550 on servicing, is there a voice of reason out there?

Thanks

buy all the parts, take to a local indy. Plugs and oil wont break the bank.

crazy to take that to Lexus

Rebecca · February 20, 2017

I use my local toyota dealership for my services now. Recently had the 30k service and paid £75 less than what I was quoted at lexus bristol. They even greased my caliper slide pins at no extra charge.

Brechin Slate · February 21, 2017

Thanks for this, very helpful

is200 Newbie · February 21, 2017

21 hours ago, Brechin Slate said:

I have an IS250, petrol on a 56 plate, Feb 2007 with 120,000 on the clock. The car's in great condition and drives beautifully, in short, I love it. It's due for a service and my options are:

1. Minor service £200 quid

2. Major service £350

3. Spark plug change £200

These are rounded up/down main dealer prices. The car value is about £4.5k.

Thinking of minor service and spark plug change, never had a garage change my plugs for me in the past.

Something inside me rails against spending £550 on servicing, is there a voice of reason out there?

Thanks

In a nut shell... if you can do it yourself then that's what I would do. You will cover more areas than what's in the service for a >105k car - The schedule for this from a Lexus dealer would be Oil / Oil filter change and an air filter change. Unless I am mistaken, the other areas Lexus would check would be inspections of areas with no physical replacements as per schedule.

Doing it yourself you could do the oil / oil filter / air filter / cabin filter / brake fluid / grease caliper pins along with the inspections of the same areas that Lexus would carry out for less cost and find out how to maintain it in the process of doing so. By the prices above they have got to be indie costs - a Lexus cost for a plug change would be in the region on £600.

I would have the plugs changed (yourself or indie, get the parts yourself) - 100k is about the time to change these although owners have changed at this point have said there looks to be loads of life left in them. If it is on the recall list for fuel seal then get the plugs done the same time as all the parts are removed in order to do the recall that woudl come off to do the plugs (cost is only parts and approx. 10 min labour) Oil and oil filter if you have the time / confidence is a simple job. Brakes - only if you are confident but its no big "drama" and would help you to get into the routine of greasing the pins so a benefit if you found out how to do it in the future.

If you are servicing it thinking it will add value to the car then due to mileage it wont, at that mileage, unless the buyer knows the cars then it would be minimum value in selling on - if you are doing it for piece of mind then there's two arguments. Doing it yourself you know what's been used on the service is good (good oil / correct parts etc) and will give you confidence in whats used - The car will benefit from correct parts used, especially if its a keeper.. Putting it into an indie and maybe I am sceptical on this point, you wont know the parts used or the correct fluid is used, just what they have in stock or what they think is suitable.

I would like to know I have used the correct parts, oils etc in a car.

Linas.P · February 22, 2017

I would do spark plugs with indy and then take it to Lexus for minor. I was doing that all along - big/expensive jobs I do before service and MOT, then I take it to main dealer for essential minor service + MOT (which is £159+49), 1. It keeps car FLSH, 2. If Indies made any mistakes or fudged anything Lexus will let me know and I will get indies to pay for Lexus doing it properly 2nd time around.