First hour diagnostics charge can anyone beat this.........

[Connoisseur]

Steven Eagell Lexus cover the East of England with a number of dealerships. Rang their central service booking call centre for a RX diagnostics check. ‘Certainly sir, that’ll be £160 for the first hour’ 🤪👀 👀👀 picks oneself up of the floor and laughs, a lot🤣🤣🤣🤣

But then thought, I wonder can that figure be beaten? Over to owners club members, have you been given a bigger laugh/figure? Wouldn’t mind but over the years have spent a shed load of ££££ with them, but this is first time have asked for diagnostics help. Have worked out it will be cheaper for me to buy and fit a part. These glass palaces need paying for eh👍

[Herbie]

1 minute ago, Connoisseur said:

Have worked out it will be cheaper for me to buy and fit a part

Indeed - but will that be the correct part that cures the fault without the benefit of diagnostics?

Just get a laptop, a miniVCI cable from eBay that will include a copy of Techstream (the very same diagnostic program used in those glass palace workshops) and at least give yourself a head start in doing your own diagnostics.

[The-Acre]

25 minutes ago, Connoisseur said:

Steven Eagell Lexus cover the East of England with a number of dealerships. Rang their central service booking call centre for a RX diagnostics check. ‘Certainly sir, that’ll be £160 for the first hour’ 🤪👀 👀👀 picks oneself up of the floor and laughs, a lot🤣🤣🤣🤣

But then thought, I wonder can that figure be beaten? Over to owners club members, have you been given a bigger laugh/figure? Wouldn’t mind but over the years have spent a shed load of ££££ with them, but this is first time have asked for diagnostics help. Have worked out it will be cheaper for me to buy and fit a part. These glass palaces need paying for eh👍

It makes me wonder what is the longest diagnosis that's been done and charged per hour!

[rich1068]

1 hour ago, Connoisseur said:

Steven Eagell Lexus cover the East of England with a number of dealerships. Rang their central service booking call centre for a RX diagnostics check. ‘Certainly sir, that’ll be £160 for the first hour’ 🤪👀 👀👀 picks oneself up of the floor and laughs, a lot🤣🤣🤣🤣

But then thought, I wonder can that figure be beaten? Over to owners club members, have you been given a bigger laugh/figure? 

Can't beat that I'm afraid. Usually excellent service from Lexus Sheffield but they charged (iirc) £90 plus VAT for a diagnosis of the GS when I'd got it back from Inverness and if I'd listened to them I'd have just set it on fire, left it in their car park and walked home. What I actually did was take it to a competent specialist who read, diagnosed and cleared the codes for 20 quid. And being ex-Lexus he also pointed out that the dealership certainly did know better. 

As you say, those glass palaces do need paying for.

[JD82]

I was just quoted £186 'diagnostic fee' from Lexus Twickenham to replace the gas struts on the tailgate... that's before the cost of the actual parts, and labour. Crazy. 

[Illogan]

8 hours ago, JD82 said:

I was just quoted £186 'diagnostic fee' from Lexus Twickenham to replace the gas struts on the tailgate... that's before the cost of the actual parts, and labour. Crazy. 

It's a ruddy shame when one of our trusted dealerships 'extracts the urine' when working for us.

If the dealer ever experiences being 'taken advantage of' by a supplier, or service provider (even the local restaurant!) - then they kick up a fuss - - - what would they expect us to do?

[royoftherovers]

Diagnostic fees such as the above merely serve to increase demand for competent Indies.

[nicnac]

I think that the thought behind it is "If you find a sheep ...shear it "

The Perception is that most Lexus owners have money to spend , so we will rub it i n..................... 

[royoftherovers]

17 minutes ago, nicnac said:

I think that the thought behind it is "If you find a sheep ...shear it "

The Perception is that most Lexus owners have money to spend , so we will rub it i n..................... 

Well Nic, they have got it wrong. Company car drivers, maybe, but Private Car owners, not a chance.

[nicnac]

1 hour ago, royoftherovers said:

Well Nic, they have got it wrong. Company car drivers, maybe, but Private Car owners, not a chance.

they have always been at the top of the servicing money tree. Yet in a lot of dealers here they were serviced in a joint Toyota / Lexus workshop , but different prices . the top brand models demand a premium price for both car and service . 

[m4rkw]

On 2/25/2020 at 6:33 PM, Connoisseur said:

Steven Eagell Lexus cover the East of England with a number of dealerships. Rang their central service booking call centre for a RX diagnostics check. ‘Certainly sir, that’ll be £160 for the first hour’ 🤪👀 👀👀 picks oneself up of the floor and laughs, a lot🤣🤣🤣🤣

But then thought, I wonder can that figure be beaten? Over to owners club members, have you been given a bigger laugh/figure? Wouldn’t mind but over the years have spent a shed load of ££££ with them, but this is first time have asked for diagnostics help. Have worked out it will be cheaper for me to buy and fit a part. These glass palaces need paying for eh👍

As others have said, it's the knowing which part to fit to correct the problem that's difficult and why it costs money. Perhaps that's a high labour rate but it doesn't seem too far fetched for a main dealer.

The cost of fitting a single part you don't need based on an incorrect assumed diagnosis would far exceed this fee in most cases. More so if the part fitted was poor quality aftermarket junk that caused a new problem.

Given the choice between a garage that charges for diagnosis and one that offers it for free I would choose the former every time. Diagnosis takes more knowledge and skill than replacing parts, and it takes time. If you're not paying a fair market rate for someone's time upfront, expect to make up for it and then some later. Nobody's giving money away 🙂

[Rabbers]

About ten years ago, which was the last time I was in the U.K. in my own car - an IS250 - I had a problem with alarm occasionally sounding off

for no apparent reason, leading to more than a little embarrassment when it happened a couple of times in hotel car-parks in the middle of the

night.  It not being too far out of my way, I took the car to Lexus Cardiff, where I was told they would look at the car for a fee of £90 (if I remember 

right).   When I said this sounded a bit steep, they replied  something like "Well, you know, Lexus is a luxury car, so what do you expect?",  

whereupon I said no thanks and left.  Back across the Channel the next day, the alarm having thankfully gone off only once on the Ostend 

ferry, I took the car to Lexus Brussels, explained the problem and watched the car promptly disappear into the workshop.  It came back twenty

minutes later with the mechanic's assurance that the problem was solved, having had something to to with a sensor inside the hood, and with

a work-sheet stating No Charge.

[C Mclean]

Whatever you do, don’t mention BMW, they charge you for just answering the phone......

[OldStoat]

I've got a 2007 RX 400h booked in for diagnostics at Norwich Lexus - they have quoted me £60 inc VAT. and state it takes about 1 hour.

I may have misheard but I understand they run a two tier charging structure for their more elderly cars.

 

[Malc]

8 hours ago, m4rkw said:

Given the choice between a garage that charges for diagnosis and one that offers it for free I would choose the former every time. Diagnosis takes more knowledge and skill than replacing parts, and it takes time. If you're not paying a fair market rate for someone's time upfront, expect to make up for it and then some later. Nobody's giving money away 🙂

I've raised a thread about Specialist Auto Electronics guys ..........  not a proper answer in sight sadly .........  the normal and run of the mill " specialists " can only deal ( seemingly ) with straightforward issues that readily show up on their screens and metres and laptops etc ...........  and a freebie when the RAC guy attends you on a breakdown .....  very very thorough and free too  .......

BUT if you have an occasional gremlin then there's no hope of a standard " specialist " being able to track down the problem .......  it needs someone with Real Real Specialist Auto Electrics skills ....  and those people are seemingly as rare as " hens teeth "

Malc

[m4rkw]

3 minutes ago, Malc said:

BUT if you have an occasional gremlin then there's no hope of a standard " specialist " being able to track down the problem .......  it needs someone with Real Real Specialist Auto Electrics skills ....  and those people are seemingly as rare as " hens teeth "

Did you try Electrum?

[Malc]

2 minutes ago, m4rkw said:

Did you try Electrum?

I haven't yet, I'm waiting on what seems a really good, and very busy it seems, Specialist that's local'ish to me ..................         BUT the gremlins vanished .....  did an " essentials " but 58 mile round trip and not a single gremlin showed it's ugly head ........  thankfully

BUT I do remember my bro-in-law before I bought his ( 56 plate and ) cossetted Honda Legend used to spend £££££ on Honda Main Dealer diagnostics and then charge a fortune to replace the bleedin' obvious .........  it's the Main Stealer syndrome I'm afraid .........  if it looks like it can pay, then charge it !

Malc

[PCM]

I was quoted £120 by Lexus Hatfield.

When they couldn't find a fault, they charged me £0.

Very good of them I thought! 

[OldStoat]

On 3/2/2021 at 2:12 PM, OldStoat said:

I've got a 2007 RX 400h booked in for diagnostics at Norwich Lexus - they have quoted me £60 inc VAT. and state it takes about 1 hour.

I may have misheard but I understand they run a two tier charging structure for their more elderly cars.

 

Great service - The Hybrid fault had cleared by the time they tested it. The £60 was waived and the car was washed. Wow!

 

[rich1068]

Good stuff. It's a bit of a roll of the dice with main dealers and older cars.

[royoftherovers]

15 minutes ago, OldStoat said:

Great service - The Hybrid fault had cleared by the time they tested it. The £60 was waived and the car was washed. Wow!

 

Full marks to Lexus Norwich.

[rayaans]

I think a lot of people complain about initial diagnostic fees from main dealerships. But obviously they still have to pay for technician time and equipment that they're using, along with time looking at your vehicle instead of servicing another vehicle etc

Having said that, Lexus stockport initially quoted £140 but then waived it after they found the issue was over £4k to fix

[Herbie]

On 3/2/2021 at 3:36 PM, Malc said:

BUT if you have an occasional gremlin then there's no hope of a standard " specialist " being able to track down the problem .......  it needs someone with Real Real Specialist Auto Electrics skills ....  and those people are seemingly as rare as " hens teeth "

I'm a time-served electrician, having done my apprenticeship in a factory. When the factory closed down I got a job on what was then known as Post Office Telephones and became a telephone engineer for many years. After a back injury saw me medically retired, I went self-employed doing computer repairs, until I retired last year.

All my working life has been spent in electrical/electronics maintenance - about 47 years of diagnosing and tracing faults in one form or another.

It doesn't always make sense to members of the public, especially if they aren't very 'tech-savvy', but it's nigh-on impossible to trace a fault if it's not present at the time of inspection. Even a 'really real special specialist' will struggle to find a fault if it's not there. We have to believe what our test gear is telling us and what our eyes and ears are telling us, and if all those are telling us that everything is alright then the job sheet gets 'NFF' or 'No Fault Found'.

[Malc]

Thank you Herbs .....  puts my mind to rest a little with my gremlins which thankfully, albeit on a tiny ongoing mileage, have seemingly. at this time evaporated 

I just pray that when we get back into sensible motoring mode, and I'm driving somewhere in Europe, that the gremlins don't italianate or whatever and begin their escapades 

Malc

[smallredball]

15 hours ago, Herbie said:

It doesn't always make sense to members of the public, especially if they aren't very 'tech-savvy', but it's nigh-on impossible to trace a fault if it's not present at the time of inspection. Even a 'real real special specialist' will struggle to find a fault if it's not there. We have to believe what our test gear is telling us and what our eyes and ears are telling us, and if all those are telling us that everything is alright then the job sheet gets 'NFF' or 'No Fault Found'.

That's true, but... there can still be a laziness and/or inability of the service personnel at main dealers to do a methodical job. I had a Nissan Maxima that ran well until it developed a near-stall fault when hot. Despite me giving them a printed copy of the full service manual, the Nissan dealership would not follow the very clear step-by-step fault-finding flow diagram in the manual. That was super detailed and thorough, but required time and effort - as well as the equipment - to do. They just stuck the diagnostic reader on it and said 'no fault'. 

Don't have any comparable experience of Lexus (yet!) and can only say that the £501 for a cambelt and water pump change on the LS400 seemed a bargain.