Servicing - Specialist or Dealership?

[Silkmen]

I have a few weeks until a service is due on my RCF and I don't intend to take out an extended warranty once my Lexus warranty expires. With this in mind I'm toying with the idea of getting it serviced at a Lexus specialist semi-local to me. I've spoken to the garage and they came across very well and have I've read nothing but positive reviews/feedback. They are ~40% cheaper than Lexus and use genuine Lexus parts 👍

I plan on keeping the car for several years, adhere to the service schedule and keep all invoices/receipts for all work carried out during my ownership.

Do you think the above is a good idea? Would it put you off buying an F car that had been serviced at reputable specialist garage rather than a dealership? I appreciate the garage isn't what Litchfield is to Nissan GT-Rs, but they are a Lexus specialist nevertheless.

Interested to hear your thoughts.

[PRT68]

If I had the choice of a car with full Lexus history and one with specialist history I'd buy the former. Don't forget the extended warranty can still be purchased at up to 10 years old with Lexus history. If for some reason you are not able to keep the vehicle for as long as you think, you may have troubles selling. 

F cars can take a while to sell anyway and you'd just be adding to the problem.

When I had my ISF I knew how much it would cost per annum as I had the fixed cost of the warranty, plus the service cost. A complex and expensive 9 year old car (when it finally gets to that age) will be a much better purchase option with warranty than yours will be.

[Flytvr]

I’m sure it would be fine being serviced by a competent garage.

Would I buy an F car without FLSH? No chance!

[B1RMA]

Compared to many of the cars I've owned I find Lexus servicing costs very low. As others have said there may be a problem selling it on later, I think that's a decision only you can make after hearing from other more qualified long term owners.

Again from what I've heard from other owners the Lexus Warranty is something I wouldn't turn down. One, because again it's real value for money. Two, the no quibble reputation Lexus seem to have is something I haven't experienced with other cars in the past.

Personally I certainly wouldn't stray from the Lexus system umbrella.

[Silkmen]

Thanks for the responses and sounds like it's a no brainier to maintain a Lexus service history.

I would happily purchase an F car from a private seller with a full non-Lexus service history, however I thought I would be in the minority and based on the answers above, I sure am.

I will look into service plans, I was offered one at a discount when I purchased the vehicle, however I declined it as I didn't fancy a 300 mile round trip for every service!

[bagpus]

Servicing costs at Lexus are very reasonable. I have just taken out another 3 year servicing plan on my beast and prices are cheaper than the plan I had previously, wonderful! Prices are fixed and so you know they are not going to increase over the life of the plan. Mine is a pay monthly job and you don't pay any interest/additional charges. You do need to quote your typical annual mileage.

In summary, a no brainer.

[DAW]

Have to agree with the views above.  

Re sale would be the major reason for me with these rare cars.

Also agree re warranty - it’s very good value when u consider it cover you for two years on the 2 for 1 deal & includes breakdown cover.  

[Northern isf]

If it was an BMW M car yes indy as they're common as muck so the Indy garage will be loaded with experience, with an F car thats definitely not going to be the case I'd be scared of them missing something.

[V8ORBUST]

Another one for main dealer I'm afraid. I wouldn't by a car without full LSH. F cars are so rare, I'm not sure if I've ever seen one on the road, I saw an ISF years ago in the main dealer showroom, but that's it.

I took out a 3 year service plan which they kindly knocked 10% off the total plan cost and then i obviously elected to pay monthly. I've even got a service plan on my old RX, but that's as we dont have a local Toyota / Lexus specialist.

[Womble72]

I’m the opposite, I prefer a specialist history compared to main dealer, u can still get Lexus warranty with specialist history, they do ask to do a basic health check. So if the specialist has used genuine parts they will offer the warranty!....only thing Lexus won’t do is retail the car on their forecourt. I use a specialist on mine, always have n always will, my previous Lexus (from new) never saw the inside of a Lexus dealership, I saved a small fortune and still sold privately for £2250 more than Lexus part exchange price against my F. I’ve had four Lexus to date, two with full “Lexus” history AND both with service items NOT being done by “Lexus”.....two completely different dealer too. My F had full history but on “my” first service I ask the specialist to go over everything as I don’t trust main dealers and definitely wouldn’t buy a car because it had “main dealer history”.........specialist require repetition of customers and reputation is everything.

so it’s a specialist for me AND from me 👍🏻

[Soperman]

Womble72 - who is the Lexus Specialists that you used, if I may ask?

 

 

[Womble72]

Just now, Soperman said:

Womble72 - who is the Lexus Specialists that you used, if I may ask?

 

 

Westfield motors in Rawreth, when quizzed by Woodford Lexus where i had it serviced on the airbag recall their response was, “ok, fair enough”.....think their hourly rate is £60 or £65 ph.

[Silkmen]

Spent a bit of time reading Pistonheads re performance car servicing and it seems a 50/50 split between dealership and specialist indy garage based on a few threads. A lot of the indy posters prefer invoices etc and don't trust dealership and their stamps.

I had a previous Lexus serviced at Lexus and once they quoted me £600 for a new water pump due to a leak, took it to a local garage as it was a common issue and he replaced a pipe for £25 which fixed the problem.

Since then I've always been a bit dubious of dealerships.

[Womble72]

5 minutes ago, Silkmen said:

Spent a bit of time reading Pistonheads and it seems a 50/50 split between dealership and specialist indy garage based on a few threads. A lot of the indy posters prefer invoices etc and don't trust dealership and their stamps.

What people seam to forget is that £130 ph price tag pays for the shinny showroom, the mechanic is probably on about £15ph. Is he bothered about your car 🤔......he gets £15ph if he works on it or doesn’t!.....not much of an incentive really. Your pride n joy won’t be theirs! 

[C.B]

The warranty is so cheap on these cars its hard to argue against having it, and if you do then it must be serviced by lexus. Hence why mine will stay with lexus. It does infuriate me slightly that on the more expensive services you are mainly paying for them to go over the car in more detail to try and find something to charge you to fix!! However a clean bill of health from such as service does give a level of confindence all is well.

I have used specialists on all my other cars but a combination of the lack of specialists and keeping the warranty will see lexus get my business for the forseeable.

[Silkmen]

1 minute ago, C.B said:

The warranty is so cheap on these cars its hard to argue against having it, and if you do then it must be serviced by lexus. Hence why mine will stay with lexus. It does infuriate me slightly that on the more expensive services you are mainly paying for them to go over the car in more detail to try and find something to charge you to fix!! However a clean bill of health from such as service does give a level of confindence all is well.

I have used specialists on all my other cars but a combination of the lack of specialists and keeping the warranty will see lexus get my business for the forseeable.

How much is the warranty?

[Womble72]

2 minutes ago, C.B said:

The warranty is so cheap on these cars its hard to argue against having it, and if you do then it must be serviced by lexus. Hence why mine will stay with lexus. It does infuriate me slightly that on the more expensive services you are mainly paying for them to go over the car in more detail to try and find something to charge you to fix!! However a clean bill of health from such as service does give a level of confindence all is well.

I have used specialists on all my other cars but a combination of the lack of specialists and keeping the warranty will see lexus get my business for the forseeable.

I’ve had my ISF for 5 years and saved myself around £1600 in warranty costs and a further £1000 plus in service costs.....to me these cars are bulletproof to the everyday driver, now if I were to track my car then that’ll be a different answer BUT there is probably a clause on this scenario too 😂😂

[BUG4LIFE]

23 minutes ago, C.B said:

The warranty is so cheap on these cars its hard to argue against having it, and if you do then it must be serviced by lexus. Hence why mine will stay with lexus. It does infuriate me slightly that on the more expensive services you are mainly paying for them to go over the car in more detail to try and find something to charge you to fix!! However a clean bill of health from such as service does give a level of confindence all is well.

I have used specialists on all my other cars but a combination of the lack of specialists and keeping the warranty will see lexus get my business for the forseeable.

Is that true though, that you must have your car serviced by Lexus if you take their warranty?

At the end of the day, if I was in the market for a used F car (which I might be when I finally get round to putting my Forester up for sale) and an owner pulled out a fat file of invoices for all the service/repair work carried out by a good indy, I’d be pretty confident the car had been looked after...more so than someone who just hands me a service book with Lexus stamps. 

[rayaans]

27 minutes ago, BUG4LIFE said:

Is that true though, that you must have your car serviced by Lexus if you take their warranty?

At the end of the day, if I was in the market for a used F car (which I might be when I finally get round to putting my Forester up for sale) and an owner pulled out a fat file of invoices for all the service/repair work carried out by a good indy, I’d be pretty confident the car had been looked after...more so than someone who just hands me a service book with Lexus stamps. 

Yes its true if you go for the extended warranty - it has to be maintained by Lexus

The issue of indy vs dealer really does depend on the age of the vehicle. On a 4 year old+ car, probably better going to an indy. However, having said that, I think most people buying an F car would have the view that if you're skimping out on main dealer costs, what else has been missed? Thats with the proviso that the car is fairly new. I reckon most people understand that an older car is hardly ever taken to the dealer for a service.

Problem with files and invoices is that many can be easily forged, almost too easily. It only counts if you start ringing each one up and most don't even have any record/recollection of seeing the vehicle. Not saying Lexus stamps can't be forged but its all online and can be tracked down very easily.

[Womble72]

6 hours ago, rayaans said:

Yes its true if you go for the extended warranty - it has to be maintained by Lexus

The issue of indy vs dealer really does depend on the age of the vehicle. On a 4 year old+ car, probably better going to an indy. However, having said that, I think most people buying an F car would have the view that if you're skimping out on main dealer costs, what else has been missed? Thats with the proviso that the car is fairly new. I reckon most people understand that an older car is hardly ever taken to the dealer for a service.

Problem with files and invoices is that many can be easily forged, almost too easily. It only counts if you start ringing each one up and most don't even have any record/recollection of seeing the vehicle. Not saying Lexus stamps can't be forged but its all online and can be tracked down very easily.

Sorry but it doesn’t, Lexus will insist on a “health check” first and if they’re happy with the Indy garage and if they’re known to them like “Westfields” they will provide cover, I was offered extended warranty on my recall after they did a “health check” free of charge that I didn’t ask for, car was given 100% clean bill of health, I don’t think Halfords would fall into this category 😂😂 

[olliesgrandad]

13 hours ago, Silkmen said:

Thanks for the responses and sounds like it's a no brainier to maintain a Lexus service history.

I would happily purchase an F car from a private seller with a full non-Lexus service history, however I thought I would be in the minority and based on the answers above, I sure am.

I will look into service plans, I was offered one at a discount when I purchased the vehicle, however I declined it as I didn't fancy a 300 mile round trip for every service!

Don't forget that a lot of Lexus dealers discount almost everything to gold members. Cheltenham give 15%.

I just saved £111+ on my 60000 miles service 😊

[B1RMA]

10 hours ago, Silkmen said:

Spent a bit of time reading Pistonheads re performance car servicing and it seems a 50/50 split between dealership and specialist indy garage based on a few threads. A lot of the indy posters prefer invoices etc and don't trust dealership and their stamps.

I had a previous Lexus serviced at Lexus and once they quoted me £600 for a new water pump due to a leak, took it to a local garage as it was a common issue and he replaced a pipe for £25 which fixed the problem.

Since then I've always been a bit dubious of dealerships.

That is a very good point regarding what some main dealers do attempt to charge. When I had my AMG SL63 I took it to my local main dealer in Portsmouth. I'll cut a long story short but basically they reported that all four tyres were almost 'bold' yes bold not bald. My wipers needed replacement and one or two other small items. I declined their offer of £1200 for the items they said were required and said I'll sort it myself. Basically I am a bit of a fanatic with my cars and I knew the tyres were okay and a quick wipe clean of the wiper blades sorted the other matter out. So I never darkened their doors again.

There is no doubt some independents are very good at what they do, locally again when I had my CL65 I used MB World for the main servicing for the stamped book but gave all the other replacement work to a local independent as they were more on the ball.

I think in many ways it's down to the value of the car, if it's an expensive specialist car then you do have to keep to a main dealer schedule. My experience of this is as someone who generally changed his car every year and when advertising it the first question from buyers was 'does it have a main dealer service history' I've not had any problems in the past selling my cars and I'm sure the re-assurance of a main dealer does help, as to whether that is justified is debatable. Having said that I have had no reason to question Lexus servicing in fact my local Hedge End dealer seems to be pretty good so far.

[Richard Kenny]

I can only talk from personal experience, when I was trying to buy my RCF it was a nightmare, I wanted a Starlight Black with Rose Red interior, every time I looked at one, it had disappeared the next day (in fact the one at Lexus Chelt went within the day), so I was starting to get a bit desperate and started to loosen my color combo requirements. Found a Silver one based in Belfast, seemed in good nick and the mileage was genuine when I checked online.  Asked them to send me a copy of the service log and found out it had not been serviced by Lexus Belfast....It immediately went off the list!!!

From the above it appears to be personal preference but given the fact the RCF is such a rare car I want to protect my investment as much as I can. I am sure in two years I will get bored and sell it on and at that point I want as least hassle as possible.

[C.B]

As reliable as these cars are if anything does go wrong they are also eyewateringly expensive to repair. £8k for a gearbox, £12k for an engine. I will take my warranty at £350 a year thanks. I dont even find the servicing that expensive compared to an M, RS or AMG and with just over 100 cars in the country not sure how many independant garages will have seen one before. Rather limited knowledge than no knowledge! (Although preston lexus told me my car was going to need its cambelt doing at the next service recently 🙄)

[C.B]

6 hours ago, Womble72 said:

Sorry but it doesn’t, Lexus will insist on a “health check” first and if they’re happy with the Indy garage and if they’re known to them like “Westfields” they will provide cover, I was offered extended warranty on my recall after they did a “health check” free of charge that I didn’t ask for, car was given 100% clean bill of health, I don’t think Halfords would fall into this category 😂😂 

It does say in the extended warranty handbook it has to be maintained by lexus to keep the warranty valid. Its not lexus that warranty the car and warranty companies love a method not to pay out.