Rough month.

[julian1969]

So it’s 100k service time so I book the Rx400h in to Lexus Milton Keynes for service and cambelt. They do this in their usual wonderfully professional yet wallet wrenchingly expensive way and oh yes your water pump has gone so that needs doing too. All in it’s just under a grand. Which is expensive but I wanted it done properly as I don’t have a trusted mechanic any more and there are no local Lexus specialists. 

They also discover a slow leak on the radiator and the exhaust has a blow. Fixing this would cost an eye watering 2.5k. So I politely decline their offer to carry out the work and go into minimal use car mode. 

A mate recommends a garage so I take it along and ask them to sort the radiator and if they can do anything with the exhaust that won’t cost a good proportion of a months salary. The bloke is more used to working on astray and focus’s but he says he’ll have a go. A few days and £478 later I have a car that doesn’t drop and is now quiet as a Lexus should be. 

Unfortunately this morning I get in the car to go to the gym and it doesn’t start. It’s been slow to ping up the ready light for a couple of weeks. I suspect LMK left the door open as it’s been roughly that long. So long story short a ****** off lunch time drive back to LMK to give them anothe £82 for a Battery and then fitting the thing. 

Hopefully now it’s had its little tantrum my Rx400h will go back to being the iron fist in a velvet glove it was before this started. 

Bloody expensive month though. 

[PCM]

Gosh.

Hopefully all will be 'well' now.

🤠

[rich1068]

Ouch.

[darrude]

my wifes has just done 102,000miles, we decided to trade in for a 450h rather than paying funding the new timing belt and 100K service (also due to its overall condition as well, she used a pillar in a car park to find out where the front corner was, and a van used the rear quarter as a parking aid, then did one without leaving details).  Hopefully you will get plenty of trouble free miles now.  Hopefully parking sensor all round will protect hers!!!

 

 

[Malc]

On 5/25/2018 at 7:28 PM, julian1969 said:

All in it’s just under a grand. Which is expensive

probably not really too expensive ............  i think it's an 8 hr job at Lexus ...  and no point not changing the waterpump at the same time even if it seems " sound ".

Just one of those factors in owning such a wonderful car and reaching a 100k miles service interval !

Malc

[sorcerer]

A rough month indeed and one that I don't envy you, and one that I would not like myself.

However, with the greatest of respect, it didn't really need to be quite so rough. Your car is 11 years old, so why would you even consider taking it to a Lexus main dealer unless the problem was one that only Lexus could rectify, say, a hybrid system fault for example?

Most cars have cambelts and water pumps and replacing them are 'bread and butter' jobs for any mechanic at any garage. I had cambelt, idlers/tensioners/pulleys replaced, water pump replaced and 10 litres of new Toyota Super Long Life Pink coolant for £460 all in on my RX300. Somebody, somewhere, should have been able to give you a personal recommendation for a garage (as your mate did later) or if not, give your local trading standards a call to see who they recommend.

There just is no need (and in my humble opinion, no sense) to take a car of that age to a main dealer and pay their over-inflated prices unless, as I said earlier, it is something that only they could do. Plus, keeping money in the local economy gives you a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that your money is being put to good use rather than just buying yet another bottle of bubbly for some corporate fat-cat.

[Mr Vlad]

I second what Sorcerer states. For anyone with a car 10 years or older then even a Toyota garage is just about half what Lexus charge.

[rich1068]

Nothing wrong with a dealer stamp. Both my cars (2002 & 2006) have a book each full of them and that will continue. Brakes and the like I'll probably use a regular mechanic but don't forget Lexus offer reduced prices for older cars. I think I was quoted £300 for a cam belt on an RX300 from Lexus Sheffield. Not unreasonable.

The local economy angle is a bit of a stretch. If I use Lexus Sheffield I'm actually using Monty's Motors, formally Toyota dealers who have been a Sheffield institution since God was a lad. Plus the service I receive from them is far better than any I've experienced in 30 years motoring.

[sorcerer]

3 hours ago, rich1068 said:

I think I was quoted £300 for a cam belt on an RX300 from Lexus Sheffield. Not unreasonable.

Maybe not, but don't forget that when Lexus quote for a cambelt change the cambelt is all you'd get - no idlers/tensioners/pulleys replaced, no water pump replaced and no new coolant for that £300, when to do the job properly all those parts should be changed.

 

3 hours ago, rich1068 said:

Nothing wrong with a dealer stamp. Both my cars (2002 & 2006) have a book each full of them and that will continue

Nothing wrong if you like to collect stamps but you're delusional if you think it adds or keeps any value to the car. It may be of value if it's a show car or an enthusiasts car but for your ordinary, average, daily driver car, stamps in a book mean nothing once the car reaches a certain age.

Of course, any garage can stamp the service record when you have a service done if that's your thing, it doesn't have to be a Lexus main dealer.

[rich1068]

I'm not delusional and I never said the stamps added value to the vehicle. But if you really don't think a main dealer stamped service book adds anything to these vehicles then I think you're kidding yourself on. And that goes for the newer cars and the ordinary, average daily driver cars like mine and Julian's.

[darrude]

When I buy a car, as we have done with the 450 we are picking up Friday, I will pay slightly more / travel further for a full Lexus history as oppose independent.  It is generally one of the first items an advert will state as it is a good selling point and some buyers do look for, so will add some, if only very slight value to the car (certainly not enough to justify the extortionate costs).

I was planning on changing my IS at about 3 or 4 years old so did main dealer servicing, however now I am planning on keeping until 10+years old, i will switch to local independents.    Think it depends on how long you plan to keep the car and how easy a sale you want.  

Personally opinion (from talking to friends and own experience), I find main dealers are more likely to do unnecessary work.  one of my best mates is a mechanic with his own garage.  When my Mazda went in for a Main dealer service I got a repair quote for all sorts of things totalling well over £1k.  Decided to drive the 60miles to visit my mate, we went round all the items together and found the only thing wrong was a shock absorber that was starting to leak and charged about £60 to change it, nothing else they stated needed repairing.  The car happily did another 75,000miles without needing any further repair work.  have quite a few other stories from people that are very similar, one at a honda dealer where a bloke was charged for new brakes all round, and they didn't change the disc's as stated.  He did get a full refund for the work, but had he not been mechanically minded he'd have never known.

[Malc]

21 minutes ago, darrude said:

honda dealer where a bloke was charged for new brakes all round

in the defence of my local Honda main dealer, they wanted to charge a fixed price to replace the front discs and pads on my 2006 Legend ( having been picked up on the last MOT and main service check and when the airbag recall was done ) and the rarity of the beast meant that my indy guy who looks after our cars recommended i go with the Honda quote as he couldn't buy the parts for the price they quoted..... .....  they probably had stock they couldn't hope to shift ..... never seeing a Honda legend from one year to the next ............. being much much rarer than the Ls whatever

Honda kept to the price and the final fixed price bill emerged with just @£40 labour incl VAT,....................  about 15 mins labour charge. 

Not all main dealers are rip-offs at all ☺️

Malc

 

 

[royoftherovers]

5 hours ago, Malc said:

in the defence of my local Honda main dealer, they wanted to charge a fixed price to replace the front discs and pads on my 2006 Legend ( having been picked up on the last MOT and main service check and when the airbag recall was done ) and the rarity of the beast meant that my indy guy who looks after our cars recommended i go with the Honda quote as he couldn't buy the parts for the price they quoted..... .....  they probably had stock they couldn't hope to shift ..... never seeing a Honda legend from one year to the next ............. being much much rarer than the Ls whatever

Honda kept to the price and the final fixed price bill emerged with just @£40 labour incl VAT,....................  about 15 mins labour charge. 

Not all main dealers are rip-offs at all ☺️

Malc

 

 

You are so right Malc, but sadly the exception becomes so hard to find.

There have been no real Apprenticeship Schemes since probably the mid 1970`s and so experienced, competent and certified skilled people have been replaced by those without training and appropriate education.Hence replace rather than repair. 

Value for money is what we all hope to achieve and you, me, Richie, Darren and no doubt many others all perceive value for money in our own way.

What remains is that we each be satisfied with what we have received.

[PCM]

37 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

What remains is that we each be satisfied with what we have received.

Agree

[Rutlandlex]

That's why I purposely looked for one that had had the cam belt done already.  The one I bought had done 113k when I bought it and the cambelt was done at 99k.

I agree with Sorcerer about not using Lexus dealers unless you have to.  The added cost of the servicing doesn't translate into the same extra value of the car when you come to sell them.  Mine had been Lexus serviced in its early life but then went independent.  The guy I bought my car from was very meticulous in recording every piece of work done to it including things that he had replaced himself such as the Battery, reversing camera, brake parts and even a Bluetooth accessory.

He had a spreadsheet detailing all of this with dates, mileages and costs, who did the work and he had invoices for most things too.  That to me was worth far more than a car with a service book full of Lexus dealer stamps.

[Hadrian]

41 minutes ago, Rutlandlex said:

He had a spreadsheet detailing all of this with dates, mileages and costs, who did the work and he had invoices for most things too.  That to me was worth far more than a car with a service book full of Lexus dealer stamps.

Too true. A stamp in a log book tells you nothing.

[rich1068]

It does if you have the My Lexus app installed on your phone. Now my V5 has come through I can access every visit my RX (and previously my IS) has had to a main dealer from their PDI on with a detailed breakdown of all work carried out including non-service items.

[Mr Vlad]

Think I'll have to get that app. My car has had only 3 services according to the service book. 1st at 5.5k miles then nothing till 34.2k miles 3 1/2 years later. Did that put me off buying my car? Like billiow. My car runs sweet.

[Mr Vlad]

OK Rich. Do I have to wait for the V5 to turn up before I can see what dealer visits my car has had? I've registered my car on the app.

[rayaans]

16 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

OK Rich. Do I have to wait for the V5 to turn up before I can see what dealer visits my car has had? I've registered my car on the app.

Yep youll have to register it to the portal using the V5. 

Its good how it works on the app but it should work on the website too and it just doesnt!

[Mr Vlad]

Thanks Rayaans but what portal? What info is on the V5 that's needed?

[rich1068]

I think Rayaans means the online Lexus portal but you can register it on the app. The information you need is (from memory, it's at least 3 hours ago!) the Version number from the V5. Usually shown as below

I had to wait until today to get the V5 but as soon as I entered the details it showed the visit I made last week when they gave the car a once over. No doubt today's visit will be itemised in the coming days.

[Mr Vlad]

The app I download was the my lexus Europe.  I Registered my car and email and validated my email from their email I got. I can get on it but all I get is reminders for services mot''s insurance  etc etc but nothing else.

What's the online lexus portal? Where do I find that? Pardon my thickness on this type of stuff.

[rich1068]

Just this isn't it? https://www.lexus.co.uk/my-lexus/registration/#my-lexus-hero

You should be able to do everything (in fact more) with the app after you've verified your vehicle with the data from your V5 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.mylexus.lexus.com.mylexus

[rayaans]

3 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

The app I download was the my lexus Europe.  I Registered my car and email and validated my email from their email I got. I can get on it but all I get is reminders for services mot''s insurance  etc etc but nothing else.

What's the online lexus portal? Where do I find that? Pardon my thickness on this type of stuff.

Ive downloaded the app now too.

So from what I understand - whether you register on the app or MyLexus, its the same thing and you just use the same username and password to login to both

However, MyLexus on desktop doesnt have any service info

The app has quite detailed info but the vehicle needs to be verified using V5