LPD Service pack deals

[Linas.P]

I have received the offer from Lexus Parts Direct (a.k.a Lexus Swindon) about Service Pack Deals (free oil with service pack etc.) and was just wondering how good of a deal it actually is. If you look at "complete" pack, then it seems to reduce price from £327 to £231, which sounds good in isolation, however it wasn't exactly clear how much saving on the oil helps with overall price. 

Throw some numbers together and here are the results:

Not horrible, but not great either... and that is before actually considering that sometimes aftermarket quality is better. For example Bosch oil filter is better quality than OE Toyota, Castrol Edge or Mobil ESP are better oils than generic Toyota 5w30 Synthetic, not only that, but you can get Castrol Magnatec sometimes for £20-30 for required amount and it is at very least on par if not better. I would argue that even Bosh air/cabin filter is marginally better quality. Where I am not so sure is coolant - Toyota Pink SLL is pretty much the best coolant on the market and if you were to buy it alone it would still cost the same £48. How much worse is premixed pink from say Valvoline... who knows, but then anyone could still just buy Toyota coolant separately for same price.

In actual fact, the "oil promotion" doesn't seem to even be there - because oil on it's own costs £71.45 and all services after that says it has oil promotion, but in fact they add exactly the amount one would expect them to be considering the parts they add. So it is little bit disingenuous... unless I am missing something?

In summary - with discount in place you will not be overpaying for service kit, but it isn't as amazing deal as it sounds. It is just discounted in line of what you would pay elsewhere, but probably for slightly better quality parts (oils in particular). 

 

[Las Palmas]

Lexus philosophy: You buy an expensive car, so you must have a lot of money. We have to have as much as possible.

Not much different from many other companies.

[J Henderson]

I don't think the discount has been applied to those prices.

Either that, LPD's prices have increased dramatically in recent times. An intermediate service kit only cost me £67 in August 2020. Now the same thing is £100.

I guess engine oil pricing might have gone up due to Putin's shenanigans, but a quick look on eBay suggests not really.

[Mr Vlad]

All I can add to this is the service plan I've recently bought. 2x Major and 1x Minor and 3x MOT total cost £1035. Plus a free loan car fir each service. 

Personally speaking it's a no brainer getting Lexus or a trusted independent to do services. To me nowadays its a malarkey to get everything needed for a service then jacking the car up then securing it so it doesn't fall over then getting the tools out then cursing you've got the wrong spanner etc etc etc. I'm of an age now I can't be farsed. 

[Mr Vlad]

Funnily enough and what a coincidence. After I did my last post in this thread I went Into my emails and low and behold. Lexus Parts Direct 40% off sale service packs lol.

[johnatg]

It sems to me to be a bit odd to lump all those service items together. If you stick to the recommended intervals you don't need them together - eg Air filter (Interval 40K miles), Plugs (60K), Coolant (100K then 50K). If my arithmetic is correct the first time you need them all is at 600K miles!

I suppose if you bought a high mileage car with no service history you might want to do the whole lot and start again.

And oil. Nearly £150 for 7 litres? Come on - buy 10 litres and keep the 3 and a bit for next time. Anyway, there's  a lot of nonsense written about oil. If it meets the specs, that's all you need. Maybe one brand is 'better' than another - but you won't notice. I used GM Dexos2 over several years but I've recently switched to Mannol.

I've been thinking about what to do about my GS300h major service, due imminently. Lexus want £630 - it takes them about an hour to do (a couple of years ago I had it done while I waited at Lexus Stockport). What I have done is bought 5 Litres of Mannol 0w20 Legend Ultra, 2 Blue Print Oil filters (a deal - one for next time) and a Blue Print Carbon Pollen filter all for less than £45 (BTW Nothing wrong with Blue Print - I've used them on and off for the last 30 years with no problems. They are part of Febi Bilstein these days)

(My GS300h only needs 4 and a bit litres of oil)

I don't get the Lexus warranties 'tis true, but I've got nearly £600 in my pocket. And I still enjoy doing my own spannering - at least I know it's been done correctly!

YMMV!

[rayaans]

Genuine parts have almost always been more expensive than aftermarket though which is the same across most manufacturers.

For example Mercedes filters are made by Mann but they still cost more. They're the same parts when ordering from ECP. 

I suppose you pay for the brand and in some cases genuine is the only way to go i.e. BMW screenwash etc

[Razor61]

11 hours ago, J Henderson said:

Either that, LPD's prices have increased dramatically in recent times. An intermediate service kit only cost me £67 in August 2020. Now the same thing is £100.

For my LS400 I bought an intermediate service kit at the end of March this year - cost £80.92
The same intermediate service kit now - cost £91.30
Gone up by just over £10
I seem to remember the old 'Oil promotion' was 0.01 for the first 5 litres or something like that, now it's first 5 litres £21.82

[Bluemarlin]

2 hours ago, johnatg said:

And oil. Nearly £150 for 7 litres? Come on

 

With oil at those prices the minor service at £300ish is starting to look reasonable by the time you add on the filter, fluid top ups, inspection, valet and tea and biscuits 🙂

[Linas.P]

9 hours ago, johnatg said:

It sems to me to be a bit odd to lump all those service items together. If you stick to the recommended intervals you don't need them together - eg Air filter (Interval 40K miles), Plugs (60K), Coolant (100K then 50K). If my arithmetic is correct the first time you need them all is at 600K miles!

 If it meets the specs, that's all you need. Maybe one brand is 'better' than another - but you won't notice.

The "complete" service price is only there to calculate the jumps between the packs, which clearly shows that discount was either not applied or does not exist.

As for oil - it is just anecdotal evidence, but in my experience Toyota/Lexus generic oil only last ~4k miles, before I notice burning and start to hear valve lifter sticking and engine generally getting noisier. Magnatec could do maybe 5k-6k miles before same happens, I have not tired Edge in IS250 (although I had it in other cars) and Edge is better than Magnatec, So say 6k-8k miles. What I have tried was Mobil ESP 0w40 and after 6k miles it was still looking fresh, didn't burn at all etc. 

So in my experience these fully synthetic oils are better then generic Toyota oil (I did notice it), but whenever it matters is another question. For example I would say that it is better to replace cheaper oil twice than run 10k miles on "better oil". However, in this particular case I am just saying I rather pay same £75 on better oil than same on Toyota oil, I still going to replace it after 5-6k, but even at that low mileage I tend to believe it will be marginally better. Other consideration - if I am not doing a lot of miles, maybe I can last whole year with 4k miles, rather than replacing Toyota oil every 6 months.

15 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Personally speaking it's a no brainer getting Lexus or a trusted independent to do services.

For me it is more the case that I tend to do service in between Lexus service plan i.e. I would take car to Lexus once ever 10-12k miles, but I would always do oil change in between at 5-6k miles as I consider 10k to be too much and taking car to Lexus every 5k miles too expensive/inefficient.

8 hours ago, rayaans said:

Genuine parts have almost always been more expensive than aftermarket though which is the same across most manufacturers.

That is true, but I would go even beyond that. As I said for example comparing Toyota vs Bosch oil filter, Bosch filter is not only cheaper, but it is better. Toyota filter just has glued ends and cardboards skirts, whereas Bosch had like rubberised plastic skirt and the filter itself is moulded into that plastic rather than just glued. Now whenever that makes difference I don't know - perhaps Toyota filter is "good enough", but it is still objectively true that Bosch filter construction is stronger/better.

[Mr Vlad]

I get what you mean Linas. I take my car to Lexus once a year. I cover no more than 4k miles a year (lucky me). I disagree with you whole heartedly however you saying it's too expensive/inefficient to take a car to Lexus every 5k miles. That statement of yours almost contradicts what you've stated about doing your own services in-between those done by the dealer.

[J Henderson]

My car is due a service so I've been shopping around and noticed this deal on eBay.

Service Kit

Another 1.3L of oil would have to be sourced as only 5L is included, but all genuine OEM gear, for £50 delivered seems pretty good.

Even accounting for having to buy another 2L of oil, that represents a saving of about £30 on LPD.

 

[AFlex]

In these times of high cost of living I can vouch for buying big barrels of oil and changing it more frequently

I find that I get better MPG with cleaner oil anyway (a bit obvious really isn't it) and it helps longevity of the engine to change it more frequently. Let's say i get 2 or 3 extra MPG, the oil change probably pays for itself with current fuel prices!!!!

I have been using Mannoil with zero issues - super cheap

Combine with a bosch or blueprint filter - roughly 5 to 8 quid as the price fluctuates on amazon

I also bought a bunch of crush washers and use a new one each time.