Lexus Relax (10 year/100,000 mile warranty)

[Shahpor]

I agree Linas that for the majority of users this is probably a good thing.

What attracted me to the brand, apart from the obvious, is that they had a superior warranty when compared to other manufacturers, which has now been removed.  I would happily pay a premium if they were to offer it again as an addition to the standard Relax warranty.

So, it is the fact that this excellent warranty has been removed that is an annoyance.  Also, lowering the mileage limit to 100k miles does exclude quite a few people, especially as these are the people that would probably benefit most from having a warranty in the first place. (Which is probably why they removed it as it was most likely not cost effective).

What this means effectively is that I have to get rid of my car much sooner than planned as it won't be covered at all and, as my recent update shows, it would have incurred significant costs to rectify the faults found.

[Linas.P]

In other hand - this may make Lexus over 100k miles cheaper to buy in the first place... I know not exactly good thing when you are on selling end... but sounds good for me when I may be buying 😄

[paulrnx]

I wonder if it is going to be possible to register for this new warranty from 1st June, or whatever the start date is, to the date that the next service is due. I can’t believe they would expect people to bring forward their next service just to enable the warranty?

[Linas.P]

I guess they are working on the assumption that people get warranty at the same time as the service, so basically when your current warranty runs out, they would expect you would be due for service anyway. That probably is true in most cases...

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, paulrnx said:

I wonder if it is going to be possible to register for this new warranty from 1st June, or whatever the start date is, to the date that the next service is due. I can’t believe they would expect people to bring forward their next service just to enable the warranty?

You get warranty from the date you have a service, provided that service was conducted 1/6/21 onwards.

The whole purpose is to get people servicing their vehicles at Lexus dealers, which is where they make their money (aside from selling finance products).

For the majority of people warranty expiration and servicing coincide as most people do less than 10k miles a year and so service at 12 month intervals. It does represent a problem for people where this is out of sync though with no solution other than getting an additional service 😞 

[paulrnx]

10 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

You get warranty from the date you have a service, provided that service was conducted 1/6/21 onwards.

The whole purpose is to get people servicing their vehicles at Lexus dealers, which is where they make their money (aside from selling finance products).

For the majority of people warranty expiration and servicing coincide as most people do less than 10k miles a year and so service at 12 month intervals. It does represent a problem for people where this is out of sync though with no solution other than getting an additional service 😞 

Yes it does seem this way

[Linas.P]

I guess the other area of reduced value is for people who do more than 10k miles per year - obviously, if you done over 10k miles you need to service your car regardless (in fact I much prefer 6k miles instead), but previously one would have warranty separately and it was for 2 years... and serviced the car whenever it is due.

Now it is going to be that one will be forced to have warranty every 10k miles in order to keep warranty. In theory that is not a problem, because warranty is free, but who is to say that service price won't creep-up overtime to reflect extra cost of warranty? 

[Phil xxkr]

2 hours ago, Linas.P said:

In other hand - this may make Lexus over 100k miles cheaper to buy in the first place... I know not exactly good thing when you are on selling end... but sounds good for me when I may be buying 😄

Key stat to know would be how many cars running around over 100k with no warranty - I suspect a lot! So  a good support ecosystem will appear as with most older/modern classic cars. However as I mentioned before I am equally sure Relax will encourage people to keep their cars beyond the initial 3 years, why not? The biggest depreciation hit has been taken so it represents very very economic motoring. The other possible implications are for the pcp/leasing firms who may end up offering longer contract lengths. 

[royoftherovers]

3 hours ago, Linas.P said:

I guess they are working on the assumption that people get warranty at the same time as the service, so basically when your current warranty runs out, they would expect you would be due for service anyway. That probably is true in most cases...

It will be interesting to note going forward, the number of warranty claims which are rejected ?

[Phil xxkr]

14 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

It will be interesting to note going forward, the number of warranty claims which are rejected ?

Exactly so John. Toyota having outsourced the entire process to a world-wide third party the dealer is just the execution element and will have little input to the validity request. As a result they will be the butt of annoyed customers who are denied what they consider to be a valid claim,not a good look for the brand. I am just hoping the KPI's Toyota has signed up to include a huge dollop of customer Sat's. 

[royoftherovers]

11 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

So there we have it! Commer, coma, comma, commode, commiserations on trying to learn the English language 😎

You are a right little Page Boy Phil.😉

[Las Palmas]

34 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

It will be interesting to note going forward, the number of warranty claims which are rejected ?

Really interesting. how much has the level of service gone down the last couple of years and how much can we expect it to continue in that way. Lexus did build a good reputation, but after having joined this forum I am slowly learning that other brands are going to take the crown of excellence. About 10years ago, we had a MR2 Spyder serviced here in the same garage that now has the Lexus (and Toyota) service. 10 years ago the service was fine, ordering a pre-MOT service and they would take the car to the controlling station and have it approved in the afternoon after service. Now it seems that all they try is to misinform in order to write big bills.

The good thing is that the car we bought is well made and as all is still OK with it so all we need is the hybrid warranty. As long as that can be bought for 65€ yearly it is OK as the hybrid Battery is the only thing in the car, we thought could possibly be going bad. Hope for customers that have bought newer cars that the mechanical quality level still is fine if service is slowly smelting.

[Las Palmas]

11 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

So there we have it! Commer, coma, comma, commode, commiserations on trying to learn the English language 😎

Be glad you are not learning Arabic, Chinese, Danish or German.

[Phil xxkr]

10 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

You are a right little Page Boy Phil.😉

I don't have a basin haircut thank you 😇

[Phil xxkr]

1 minute ago, Las Palmas said:

Be glad you are not learning Arabic, Chinese, Danish or German.

Actually I am trying to grasp Ancient Summerian cuneiform hieroglyphics because it's harder 😎

[Las Palmas]

4 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Actually I am trying to grasp Ancient Summerian cuneiform hieroglyphics because it's harder 😎

So, you are studying on the university of Indiana Jones?

[Linas.P]

3 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

Key stat to know would be how many cars running around over 100k with no warranty - I suspect a lot! So  a good support ecosystem will appear as with most older/modern classic cars. However as I mentioned before I am equally sure Relax will encourage people to keep their cars beyond the initial 3 years, why not? The biggest depreciation hit has been taken so it represents very very economic motoring. The other possible implications are for the pcp/leasing firms who may end up offering longer contract lengths. 

I had IS250 without warranty very long time and without many issues either (126k - 192k). However, new Lexus cars are not build the way they were built in the past and very few cars comes with no-nonsense petrol engines like IS250. I was quite happy to run IS250 without warranty and would do it again, but that was because the biggest risk in car I had was engine/gearbox and those only cost £800 to buy assuming replacing the engine is even economically viable for such car. 

That said I would not be as "relaxed" on new Lexus cars... not only because of hybrid systems, but overall I don't feel they are build as well as in the past. Back in the day when IS300h came out I felt like older IS250 was more solid overall, and this theory was kind of reinforced with my experience on RC200t - seat motor replacement was eye watering £4k (covered by warranty) I know they are expensive to fix. 

Your second point is as well valid - Lexus does not mind people keeping their cars a little bit longer, because "good and reliable" car experience creates returning customers and even after 3 years people are still key demographic for Lexus (basically they can up-sell them with newer model) and they still likely to use Lexus service, the only thing Lexus does not want is for people keeping cars "too long" and it seems they decided 10y/100k is that limit.

And finally longer leasing is great point as well... Lexus makes quite a lot money from interest on leases - more so than margin on sale of the car... longer lease = more interest... and if service plan allows it, then it all just makes sense.

I still think this is "genius" move from business perspective, but I can see that they decided to trim some excess liability to achieve that.

[Phil xxkr]

8 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

So, you are studying on the university of Indiana Jones?

No Mrs Jones, she's my Mesopotamian next door neighbour 😎

[Las Palmas]

58 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

No Mrs Jones, she's my Mesopotamian next door neighbour 😎

Good to have friendly neighbours.

[royoftherovers]

2 hours ago, Phil xxkr said:

No Mrs Jones, she's my Mesopotamian next door neighbour 😎

A Tigress ?

[Phil xxkr]

16 minutes ago, royoftherovers said:

A Tigress ?

What's an ES and I between friends 😅

[MadJam250]

Really disappointed in this new Relax scheme. Have been a Lexus owner for years and always utilised the main dealer for servicing and with my car being 7 years old, using the Essential Care reduced price option. That's now gone so Lexus is now purely aiming this at newer car owners only and, for me anyway, have priced me out of the market with increased servicing costs as well as a hike in insurance. Such a shame and bad marketing decision, in my opinion. 

[Casa1862]

My local has gone very quite when I asked the best way forward. I’ve got a 60k service £625, but no response if any discounts available and what happens to my 14 months remaining 2/1 warranty, my current warranty has the aa cover for two and 2 free mot’s, take that out of it then current warranty is just over a couple of hundred per year and I could have kept the car another 4 years easily. 

[royoftherovers]

23 hours ago, MadJam250 said:

Really disappointed in this new Relax scheme. Have been a Lexus owner for years and always utilised the main dealer for servicing and with my car being 7 years old, using the Essential Care reduced price option. That's now gone so Lexus is now purely aiming this at newer car owners only and, for me anyway, have priced me out of the market with increased servicing costs as well as a hike in insurance. Such a shame and bad marketing decision, in my opinion. 

Mark Lexus down in any future Survey ?

[royoftherovers]

9 hours ago, Casa1862 said:

My local has gone very quite when I asked the best way forward. I’ve got a 60k service £625, but no response if any discounts available and what happens to my 14 months remaining 2/1 warranty, my current warranty has the aa cover for two and 2 free mot’s, take that out of it then current warranty is just over a couple of hundred per year and I could have kept the car another 4 years easily. 

You must read the Forum more widely Casa.

You current 2 for 2 warranty remains in force until its completion and you must continue to use Lexus for your servicing. I have kept mine in force as it is superior to the new RELAX warranty.