Rough month.

[Odysseus]

In a perfect world we’d all have a trustworthy independent mechanic round the corner who is completely at ease working on our complicated hybrid luxury cars.

However in my view this kind of expertise is very hard to find. While the main dealers are not perfect, you are at least dealing with a large corporate institution and have the option to escalate higher up the chain if you have a problem. Plus for people like me who seem to have zero spare time, the courtesy cars, collection and drop off service, and even decent in-dealer waiting facilities are worth paying for. Additionally, the value of the MyLexus information is not to be underestimated. I’d rate a used car with a complete history (not just service history) with Lexus higher than one without.

Also, and while this may not strictly be universally true for Lexus, main dealers do offer discounts for older vehicles. The price for fitting a part to my old now departed E46 BMW was cheaper at the (excellent) BMW main dealer than either the BMW indy or my local spanner twirler.

If you genuinely have a mechanic you trust then great, but I’ll continue to use main dealers for all the reasons I’ve outlined above.


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[Mr Vlad]

Many thanks Rayaans and Rich. I'll hang fire till I get my V5 which should be very soon.

[Rutlandlex]

6 hours ago, Odysseus said:

In a perfect world we’d all have a trustworthy independent mechanic round the corner who is completely at ease working on our complicated hybrid luxury cars.

However in my view this kind of expertise is very hard to find. While the main dealers are not perfect, you are at least dealing with a large corporate institution and have the option to escalate higher up the chain if you have a problem. Plus for people like me who seem to have zero spare time, the courtesy cars, collection and drop off service, and even decent in-dealer waiting facilities are worth paying for. Additionally, the value of the MyLexus information is not to be underestimated. I’d rate a used car with a complete history (not just service history) with Lexus higher than one without.

Also, and while this may not strictly be universally true for Lexus, main dealers do offer discounts for older vehicles. The price for fitting a part to my old now departed E46 BMW was cheaper at the (excellent) BMW main dealer than either the BMW indy or my local spanner twirler.

If you genuinely have a mechanic you trust then great, but I’ll continue to use main dealers for all the reasons I’ve outlined above.


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It is entirely up to you where you take your car for a service however I would like to address a few points.  Firstly you referred to hybrid cars as "complicated" but actually all modern luxury cars are complicated.  Whilst some bits have been added in there are also other parts that have been taken out, for example there is no starter motor, alternator, dual-mass flywheel, clutch (that directly transfers power), DPF, manual gearbox, complex automatic gearbox, turbo, intercooler or diesel bits.  I don't know if hybrids have EGR valves or not but if they do they never give trouble as far as I'm aware.

The hybrid bits consist of 3 electric motors, a Battery, a simple gearbox and an ECU none of which need servicing bar possibly a gearbox oil change once in a blue moon so why would an independent garage not be able to perform an engine oil and filter change, change your brake discs and pads, check your bulbs or anything else that they perform on a "normal" car?

The OP paid just under a grand for a service with cambelt at a dealer whereas he could have got it done for under £500 at an Indy for a 11 year old car.  That Lexus stamp in the service book won't add £500 to the value of his car if he comes to sell it.  They also quoted neraly £2.5k for a radiator and exhaust neither of which are part of the hybrid system.  So if Lexus give discounts for older cars then I dread to think what they charge for working on newer ones!

More and more Indy's nowadays have courtesy cars but you generally have to book 2-3 weeks in advance if you want one which is not too dissimilar to main dealers that I have dealt with before.  You also mentioned escalation if there is a problem, well you can get right to the very top of an Indy far quicker than you ever will with a large corporate!  An Indy is more likely to care about losing your business whereas a large corporate won't give a damn.  Just ask all of the VW and BMW owners who have had problems with their cars due to design faults how easy it was to escalate things.

[rich1068]

7 hours ago, Odysseus said:

In a perfect world we’d all have a trustworthy independent mechanic round the corner who is completely at ease working on our complicated hybrid luxury cars.

However in my view this kind of expertise is very hard to find. While the main dealers are not perfect, you are at least dealing with a large corporate institution and have the option to escalate higher up the chain if you have a problem. Plus for people like me who seem to have zero spare time, the courtesy cars, collection and drop off service, and even decent in-dealer waiting facilities are worth paying for. Additionally, the value of the MyLexus information is not to be underestimated. I’d rate a used car with a complete history (not just service history) with Lexus higher than one without.

Also, and while this may not strictly be universally true for Lexus, main dealers do offer discounts for older vehicles. The price for fitting a part to my old now departed E46 BMW was cheaper at the (excellent) BMW main dealer than either the BMW indy or my local spanner twirler.

If you genuinely have a mechanic you trust then great, but I’ll continue to use main dealers for all the reasons I’ve outlined above.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spot on. And in my case Lexus Sheffield are still a family owned business and it shows.

[sorcerer]

Well put Neil.

Our car is still so new that I'll be sticking to Lexus for a while yet but as soon as it hits 7 or 8 years old then it's a local indy all the way (but with the £60 hybrid healthcheck done at Lexus).

Same with parts. Lexus don't make brake pads or discs; they don't make batteries, exhausts or anything else like that; they merely buy in from those who do and add a mark-up before selling to the end user, so there really is no such thing as "genuine Lexus" parts when talking of such components.

[Hadrian]

5 hours ago, sorcerer said:

Lexus don't make brake pads or discs; they don't make batteries, exhausts or anything else like that; they merely buy in from those who do and add a mark-up before selling to the end user, so there really is no such thing as "genuine Lexus" parts when talking of such components.

That reminds me of when a friend worked at a Volvo main dealer.  (When they still had big bumpers).. He told me that there were more British parts on a Volvo,

than there were on a Ford Granada.