Lexus/Toyota Should Monitor Maintenance Habits of Owners to Prove How Long Their Cars Last.

[Aaron G]

I don't mean in a big brother type of way. But I wonder what the results would be if Lexus had a scheme that compared mechanics or people that can prove they've maintained their cars correctly to those that just took them to the dealer or independant mechanic. Assuming each owner wants to keep the car for as long as possible.

It would be interesting I think for them to say: "Here's John who serviced his car himself for 10 years and knew exactly what filters and fluids were going into it, and here's Jane who took it to the dealer...".

I'm willing to be John would get the higher mileage and still have a bit more money in the bank than poor Jane. All the tech that's about these days, and none of it is being used to prove dealers or mechanics are being honest with car owners.

 

[Las Palmas]

If you know how to fix cars and problems with them plus have all the needed tools and working place, you would be better off than the poor at least 90% of car owners.

Service here consists in writing big bills.

Unfortunately, very few of us have the knowledge, tools and working place plus - the time to fix it all ourselves, so we are stuck with the service centres.

Still, Lexus, Toyota and all other car companies would not like to admit that the service they have is of not satisfactory quality.

[Linas.P]

Not sure what is long term benefit of such monitoring for Lexus...

I agree with your point that people who knows little bit about the cars and maintains them outside of what is provided via dealership service will have cars which lasts longer. 

I tend to think I would be John in your example 😁 I used to do Lexus service every 12k miles, but I used to have oils/filters changed by myself in between. As well I always tricked dealer into investigating issues for free during service hoping that they can get bunch of money from me, but I have never fixed any of the additional items they recommend via Lexus.

So my car was basically services twice a year, every 6k miles, but once by dealer and once by myself or by independent. And all recommended items during the service I would do separately, because it is less than half the price e.g. callipers + pads + discs from Lexus would be more than £1000, yet I done it myself for something like £480 and on top of that I got them power coated and thus much more resistant to rust and looking better.

At that rate I don't think it is surprising car lasted easily to nearly 200k miles without any major faults and if not for small accident and getting written-off, I probably would still drive it. 

[Malc]

7 hours ago, Linas.P said:

Not sure what is long term benefit of such monitoring for Lexus...

a good indicator could be simply  checking how many of which model are still DVLA'd ............. in some way ...  those road taxed and SORN'd ....  maybe MOT'd too with mileage .........  jeez, a complex process I would imagine ............  long time to do unless some whizz can develop a teccy programme somehow

that would give some indication of longevity and therefore probably good maintenance etc

Malc

see I used the English spelling of the word p ..........  and that's rare too these days 

[ColinBarber]

There is nothing magical about Lexus main dealer servicing. It's mainly fluid changes and a look around; very difficult to justify the prices they charge.

I imagine for a large number of people they are using the main dealer because they want to maintain FLSH to protect their resale price, but for someone looking to keep their car for a long time that reason goes away, or they have an extended warranty (or now Relax warranty) and therefore have a requirement to use the dealer.

For someone with tools and capability then they would probably do a better job. They can do proactive things such as lubricate the brake sliding pins etc. and therefore would have less issues/expense than using a dealer.

 

For faults a main dealer should be the place to go. They have the correct diagnostic tools, access to the TSBs and head office, and have probably seen the fault before and can therefore diagnose and resolve the issue quicker than an independent or home mechanic. This isn't always the case though, but at least they have access to some similar cars to swap parts if necessary to help narrow down the problem.

[Linas.P]

12 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

There is nothing magical about Lexus main dealer servicing. It's mainly fluid changes and a look around; very difficult to justify the prices they charge.

vs.

For faults a main dealer should be the place to go. They have the correct diagnostic tools, access to the TSBs and head office, and have probably seen the fault before and can therefore diagnose and resolve the issue quicker than an independent or home mechanic. This isn't always the case though, but at least they have access to some similar cars to swap parts if necessary to help narrow down the problem.

That sounds like contradiction to me... because the reason I justified taking car to dealership was specifically their knowledge about the car. As I alluded in my pervious post I would get them to do inspection on the car outside of standard (fluid and filters change) and thus I would get good indication if anything obvious is wrong with the car. 

Once I know what exactly is wrong, I no longer need dealer to do the work.

As for the service itself, Lexus service is quite cheap, especially if you get discount of service plan (not sure if they going to continue discounting now when "relax" came into picture). Not much money can be saved servicing car elsewhere.