Where to service 2012 Lexus IS250 in London UK?

[FranciscoMarinheiro]

I bought a 2012 IS250 in 08/21 with 61K miles. The car is now at 66K and Am looking to have it serviced for the first time since I bought it. I know that it needs an oil change (it’s been 5k miles) despite me only driving it on weekends for 10-20miles each time. Can someone please recommend me where to take it for a service in London UK, preferably NW/N region of London?

[Linas.P]

Lexus Dealership. I know for other makes it doesn't make sense, but for Lexus the dealership service is really the best option. Ask your dealer if they do "Essential Care" (which used to be available for cares over 5 years old) and they can do service for ~£160. Major service I believe is around £380, so does not make sense, but I used to get 2 year service plans with discount for £450... so basically each service costing £225. This price is hard to beat if you consider you can as well get courtesy car from them and usual good Lexus service in nice building with coffee and comfortable seating + some peace of mind considering that they most likely know what they doing.

The chains like halfrauds and kwikfail actually charge even more. Although they say service from £99, when you start looking at the engine size etc it turns out a lot more + they will try to scam you. Not joking - literally scam you for parts you don't need and if you doing MOT at the same time, they will miss report fault to fail your MOT and then keep your car basically hostage (because with certain faults you can't drive) until you pay very high prices for fix. The only chain I have decent experience with is ATS Euromaster, but their prices are about the same as Lexus, but does not include bells and whistles. I use them for tyre fitting, wheel alignment, but not for service.

I have used many independent garages over the years, but I can't really recommend any of them - in my case I knew exactly what was needed, brought the parts and pretty much pointed them to where it is and what they have to do and they just did it under my instructions. Apart of that they have never shown any knowledge about the cars generally, nor specifically about Lexus which wouldn't inspire me with confidence leaving car with them. The way I used independent garages was only for specific jobs e.g. dealer says you need new shocks for £660 a piece + £400 labour (£1720), then you get 2 shocks for £580 and take them to independent garage to replace for £120 (£700) - to save over £1000 this way makes sense and really it is hard to mess up shock replacement, but for general servicing in inspection I would not bother with independent servicing. 

Note: oil needs to be replaced every 10k miles or one year whichever is first. So even if you covered 5k miles over the year the oil still needs replacement regardless. Besides this only applies to cars which qualifies for "extended service plan" and basically none of our cars qualifies for that, cars driven in the city, in the traffic, or on motorway does not qualify for this service, just nobody bothers to tell that to owners. As such most of cars really need to be serviced every 3k or 6k miles (or equivalent number of months), I personally did my oil services every 6k miles / 6 months and it was big improvement on oil burning and engine smoothness overall. As your car is relatively low miles I would recommend starting proper service schedule (i.e. every 6k miles) now whilst it still matters and engine is worth protecting. I only started doing it when my car was like 160k miles and was already burning some oil and it still improved things, but at that point it can't restore the wear on the engine.

[Texas]

The IS250 is nothing special with regards to servicing and any garage worth its salt should be able to do it all day long or they should’nt be calling themselves a ‘Garage’

DIY is quite realistic with basic tools and this is the route I take, as the car is now 15 years old then the ‘stamps in the book’ are not required for me as I have no intention of ever selling mine😀

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, Texas said:

The IS250 is nothing special with regards to servicing and any garage worth its salt should be able to do it all day long or they should’nt be calling themselves a ‘Garage’

So basically those no longer exist around me... For german cars there are usually "specialists", but not many for Japanese cars or specifically Lexus. For example my mate owned Audi and dealer was out of question - not only that they were crazy expensive (he paid £1500 + was quoted another £3300 for lumpy idle), but they failed simple things like resetting the Battery after replacing it and tightening drain plug, so he basically leaked half of oil on the way home. Eventually after some research it turned out that nobody takes their cars to Audi and even prefers for the book to be stamped by certain independent Audi specialists who were able to diagnose the car properly and fix it for more reasonable price (£660 for injectors). 

But this certainly not the case for Lexus, there are few Japanese specialists, but to be fair they mostly work on "tuner" cars, so if you have modified Nissan GTR or some sort of Honda they are good, but standard Lexus isn't their bread and butter. 

[royoftherovers]

15 hours ago, FranciscoMarinheiro said:

I bought a 2012 IS250 in 08/21 with 61K miles. The car is now at 66K and Am looking to have it serviced for the first time since I bought it. I know that it needs an oil change (it’s been 5k miles) despite me only driving it on weekends for 10-20miles each time. Can someone please recommend me where to take it for a service in London UK, preferably NW/N region of London?

Take a look at this Francisco

Lexus Indie Garages (1) (8) (3) (1) (1) (1).docx

[Linas.P]

Jemca isn't really "indie", they are the company behind one of the largest groups of Lexus Dealerships and to be honest one of the worse. I am not saying they are bad, but kind of more corporate and less caring the smaller networks. 

[FranciscoMarinheiro]

Thank you to everyone for your input on this, all the recommendations and tips. The car is running pretty smoothly,i believe it won’t need more than an oil change and possibly some break pads

[Linas.P]

Lexus cars are reliable, but they need proper maintenance to stay that way.

[Bluemarlin]

If you're looking to get an extended warranty then you'll need to take it to a Lexus dealer, otherwise there's Japex, who are a Lexus independent specialist in the Watford area. Oil change and brake pads can be done pretty much anywhere though.