Lexus Dealerships - Any good recommendations please?

[HGUS]

I recently took my Lexus in for a service.    Sad to say, from beginning (initial booking call) to end (receipt of car after service) was pretty dire in my opinion.  NOT the Lexus luxury brand experience that I have come to expect.

I was so disappointed with my last service experience that I have cancelled an appointment to purchase a new Lexus this weekend.  I just can not do with a dealership that don't make me happy, whether it be Sales or After Sales.

My recent experience has definitely tarnished my opinion of Lexus which is sad because I love their cars.

 

 

[Linas.P]

There are quite a few Lexus dealerships run by different groups in Yorkshire and I am sure somebody local could advise on their experience there.

Second point - don't be afraid to name and shame. In my experience Lexus dealerships are not exceptional... sales staff is much better in comparison in general (although my personal experience says otherwise), but after sales is hit and miss at best. 

Few examples:

• When I bought my RC (which was 2 years old at the time), they failed to do pre-sale inspection, didn't come to pick me up from the station on day of pick-up, didn't really prepare the car properly and after 3000 miles it turned out car had no brakes left (pads were metal on metal, diagnosed by different Lexus dealer). This is Lexus Reading... on semi-positive side when threatened with miss-sell lawsuit, they replaced all brakes with all brand new parts at no cost. Servicing car with them was just about fine, nothing wrong, but as well nothing exceptional. 
• More local to me Lexus Woodford always forgotten something, either they forget to book courtesy car, or they forget to say "local taxi service" is provided at my own expense, or they forget to wash the car, or they forget that I have asked them not to wash it... Once Lexus GB called me and offered "special invitation to special event" and Lexus Woodford didn't have a clue about it, so when I came they were like "how can we help you... no we don't even have this car in stock and we don't have that care available for sale". 
• Now comparing that to my local Volvo and BMW, Lexus are still better - BMW could not offer me the test drive in 530e and "perhaps were able to offer me to try 520d", similar story with Volvo S90 - T8 not available, they told me they will call me back on availability... never heard from them since.

But needless today Lexus is not what it once was... no champagne parties to customers, no gifts when buying the car, seems to be completely not interested in servicing the cars, seems to be not interested in selling used cars... seems to be only interested to sell new cars on lease. The only reason I used their service was that it used to be genuinely good value for money (Lexus "Essential Care" for car over 5 years old), but they no longer do that. So now the only reason to use them is Lexus "Relax Warranty" if your car is less than 10 years/ 100k miles.

Again - my experience Lexus is still better than most brands, but really not exceptional and in my experience not even satisfactory.

[Spacewagon52]

Do not be put off Lexus cars by a poor dealer. They are cracking cars, especially with regard to other makes for reliability. Go to another dealer if you get bad service. 

 

Out of interest, did you purchase the car from that dealership? Not that should make any difference!

[rayaans]

Which dealership did you book in with?

Lexus Leeds are pretty good overall I think although not a patch on Lexus Bradford who used to be much better IMO

[HGUS]

Many thanks for all your replies guys.

My current dealership is down south.  Same dealership for purchase (brand new) and yearly services/MOT.  They have actually been pretty good over the years, that is until my recent experience.  I  have been left with the feeling that something is wrong/out of order there.  As they say, you're only as good as your last performance AND their last performance was definitely not up to scratch.

I'm happy with the cars but now I'm considering a new dealership to purchase my next new Lexus from and provide decent aftersales.  They MUST be focused and give me the experience I want, both in Sales AND After.  A "Good Experience" used to exist in the UK as I've had it but now I'm trying to find it again.

I don't expect the same standard of service I receive at my local Lexus dealership when in Japan but I do expect quality and professionalism.

Enough of my moans and thank you for your suggestions of Leeds and Bradford, they are not too far from where I frequent from time to time.

 

 

 

[Herbie]

Lexus Preston are superb.

[GEN]

I have a 2007 Lexus bought from a independent dealer and I have taken it to Lexus Sheffield and they have been excellent: with service, with advice which has saved me money.  All delivered in a friendly, helpful manner.  Shame I don't care for the coffee and biscuits which are always on hand.  I won't go anywhere else.

[Illogan]

I can recommend Lexus in Sheffield

[Juicedrinker]

On 8/9/2023 at 9:04 AM, HGUS said:

I recently took my Lexus in for a service.    Sad to say, from beginning (initial booking call) to end (receipt of car after service) was pretty dire in my opinion.  NOT the Lexus luxury brand experience that I have come to expect.

I was so disappointed with my last service experience that I have cancelled an appointment to purchase a new Lexus this weekend.  I just can not do with a dealership that don't make me happy, whether it be Sales or After Sales.

My recent experience has definitely tarnished my opinion of Lexus which is sad because I love their cars.

 

 

Interesting that you have said this as has been this very discussion on the forum under 'Lexus service a natural decline'.  I've experienced very poor dealerships but also a brilliant dealership (namely Swindon Fish Brothers).  So there are still some good ones out there but sadly Lexus have definataly been dropping the ball over the past couple of years.  A very foolish thing to do as premium standard of customer service was always their USP and kept brand loyalty against competitors with better ranges / choice of vehicles.  If they lose this key advantage they will lose a lot of market share very quickly.  

[Juicedrinker]

16 hours ago, Linas.P said:

There are quite a few Lexus dealerships run by different groups in Yorkshire and I am sure somebody local could advise on their experience there.

Second point - don't be afraid to name and shame. In my experience Lexus dealerships are not exceptional... sales staff is much better in comparison in general (although my personal experience says otherwise), but after sales is hit and miss at best. 

Few examples:

• When I bought my RC (which was 2 years old at the time), they failed to do pre-sale inspection, didn't come to pick me up from the station on day of pick-up, didn't really prepare the car properly and after 3000 miles it turned out car had no brakes left (pads were metal on metal, diagnosed by different Lexus dealer). This is Lexus Reading... on semi-positive side when threatened with miss-sell lawsuit, they replaced all brakes with all brand new parts at no cost. Servicing car with them was just about fine, nothing wrong, but as well nothing exceptional. 
• More local to me Lexus Woodford always forgotten something, either they forget to book courtesy car, or they forget to say "local taxi service" is provided at my own expense, or they forget to wash the car, or they forget that I have asked them not to wash it... Once Lexus GB called me and offered "special invitation to special event" and Lexus Woodford didn't have a clue about it, so when I came they were like "how can we help you... no we don't even have this car in stock and we don't have that care available for sale". 
• Now comparing that to my local Volvo and BMW, Lexus are still better - BMW could not offer me the test drive in 530e and "perhaps were able to offer me to try 520d", similar story with Volvo S90 - T8 not available, they told me they will call me back on availability... never heard from them since.

But needless today Lexus is not what it once was... no champagne parties to customers, no gifts when buying the car, seems to be completely not interested in servicing the cars, seems to be not interested in selling used cars... seems to be only interested to sell new cars on lease. The only reason I used their service was that it used to be genuinely good value for money (Lexus "Essential Care" for car over 5 years old), but they no longer do that. So now the only reason to use them is Lexus "Relax Warranty" if your car is less than 10 years/ 100k miles.

Again - my experience Lexus is still better than most brands, but really not exceptional and in my experience not even satisfactory.

You have hit the nail on the head with all that you have said here.  Ironic that Lexus Reading did not check your brakes properly pre selling to you as they are notorious for recommending pad and disc changes that are not even required (as happened to me last year).  They stated (and I still have service paperwork) around 20-30% left on front pads and discs badly scored, 30% on rear pads.  Change pads immediately all round and discs on front and even told me to sign paperwork as I would not do it and was taking car away from their dealership 'when not recommended for driving'.  They did not know that I work in Motorsport and I said unless something dramatic has gone wrong with the braking system the pads can not have worn down that much and the reply I got was 'so you know more than a Lexus technician do you?'.  As I regularly have my car up on a ramp to check underneath, suspension, brakes etc by an ex Rolls Royce mechanic I work with who moved across into race engineering I decided to take it home as it was.  Anyhow long story short my service a year before said 70% front pads / 80% rear pads and the discs had been replaced by Lexus less than 20,000 mile previously and I am very gentle on my brakes on all cars.  A few days later took it to Swindon Lexus and asked them to change whatever needed as per Reading Lexus, front discs and all pads and check braking system as maybe something wrong.  The Lexus technician spoke to me 30 minutes later and said 'Why do you want the front discs and all pads changed?'  Front pads 60% left on them, rear pads 70% and nothing wrong with discs at all, tested on MOT test system and braking perfectly and fully balanced.  I showed the the Reading Lexus service report and the technician said 'they clearly must of been looking at a totally different car!'. 

I phoned Reading and said what another dealer had told me (would not mention which one as did not want to cause any issues as get on really well with Swindon) and after going on hold for about 5 mins they said 'oh maybe when the technician wrote there was only 20-30% left he actually meant that they were only 20-30% worn!'.  I asked how then does that logic affect the front discs being scored badly and need replacing when they do not and he said the technician thinks that maybe me driving it afterwards had 'smoothed the surface off'.   

[Juicedrinker]

2 minutes ago, Juicedrinker said:

You have hit the nail on the head with all that you have said here.  Ironic that Lexus Reading did not check your brakes properly pre selling to you as they are notorious for recommending pad and disc changes that are not even required (as happened to me last year).  They stated (and I still have service paperwork) around 20-30% left on front pads and discs badly scored, 30% on rear pads.  Change pads immediately all round and discs on front and even told me to sign paperwork as I would not do it and was taking car away from their dealership 'when not recommended for driving'.  They did not know that I work in Motorsport and I said unless something dramatic has gone wrong with the braking system the pads can not have worn down that much and the reply I got was 'so you know more than a Lexus technician do you?'.  As I regularly have my car up on a ramp to check underneath, suspension, brakes etc by an ex Rolls Royce mechanic I work with who moved across into race engineering I decided to take it home as it was.  Anyhow long story short my service a year before said 70% front pads / 80% rear pads and the discs had been replaced by Lexus less than 20,000 mile previously and I am very gentle on my brakes on all cars.  A few days later took it to Swindon Lexus and asked them to change whatever needed as per Reading Lexus, front discs and all pads and check braking system as maybe something wrong.  The Lexus technician spoke to me 30 minutes later and said 'Why do you want the front discs and all pads changed?'  Front pads 60% left on them, rear pads 70% and nothing wrong with discs at all, tested on MOT test system and braking perfectly and fully balanced.  I showed the the Reading Lexus service report and the technician said 'they clearly must of been looking at a totally different car!'. 

I phoned Reading and said what another dealer had told me (would not mention which one as did not want to cause any issues as get on really well with Swindon) and after going on hold for about 5 mins they said 'oh maybe when the technician wrote there was only 20-30% left he actually meant that they were only 20-30% worn!'.  I asked how then does that logic affect the front discs being scored badly and need replacing when they do not and he said the technician thinks that maybe me driving it afterwards had 'smoothed the surface off'.   

I just saw that you mentioned 'Essential care' has that been discontinued?

[Spock66]

18 minutes ago, Juicedrinker said:

They did not know that I work in Motorsport and I said unless something dramatic has gone wrong with the braking system the pads can not have worn down that much and the reply I got was 'so you know more than a Lexus technician do you?'

I have no professional qualifications as a motor engineer but have previously maintained and repaired my own cars, although I no longer do so I still like to understand how things work and if something goes wrong what the problem is.

Unfortunately the average motorist seems to have no knowledge or interest in the engineering of their vehicle, hence dealers get away with these scams.

[Juicedrinker]

You are 100% correct about this, sadly a lot of people (maybe because they just have no interest) do not even have the most basic of understanding about cars they simply drive them.  Which is all fine and dandy until you get someone unscrupulous take advantage of this fact and charge for work not required.  I've recently got an issue with a Toyota main dealer regarding my fiances car that I bought 3 years old 3,000 miles from them a couple of years ago.  Basically she has had an issue with it from day one which I told them about and have shown them (it has now done 11,000 miles / 5 years old).  It has become a real issue over the past year as front proximity sensors trigger for no reason at all can be on an open motorway, parked 10m away from a building, driving up a slope etc etc.  They start screeching and warning of an imminent collision and although you can temporarily stop by pressing a button it is only temporarily bas re triggers a few moments later if still parked opposite wall, going up slope etc it drives us both nuts.  Toyota dealer whilst acknowledging an issue said not a warranty claim and they would charge me to look into it and repair it.  Anyhow through further investigation via my day job I found a technical service bulletin that was issued by Toyota for her exact model / year of manufacture regarding proximity alert ecu issue and how to rectify.  Toyota specifically advise dealers to replace with a new ecu that fixes the fault that is present on the original ecu.  I requested the Toyota dealer fix this (quoting the Toyota Service Bulletin code) whilst it is in for annual service and whilst they acknowledged this TSB code etc they have told me that I will be charged for the repair / fix as not a warranty issue!  I have told them that if they charge me I will be getting my money back from Toyota HQ and reporting them because you can not have a fault with a car that is a clearly recognised as a potential issue by Toyotas own TSB admission and then charge the customer.  I should add that I bought the car from this dealer and also a 3 year service and MOT plan so am a good customer of theirs.  I really despair at main dealerships and once my service plan is finished with them apart from a Hybrid Battery check which I will pay for I will go back to using a very reputable local garage that has maintained all her cars in the past perfectly.      

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, Juicedrinker said:

I just saw that you mentioned 'Essential care' has that been discontinued?

Yes - it was discontinued at the same time as "Relax Warranty" was introduced (very quietly), I was still able to book the car on "Essential Care" in December 2021 even thought they no longer had it as an option on their website, but I just tried to do the same last month and was told it is definitely no longer offered, although they were happy to apply 20% discount if I were to go ahead with the service.

I guess that makes sense, as now "Relax" offers level of protection which is unmatched in the industry, so providing it with discounted servicing would not make sense. I guess they could have added "Relax" only to normal servicing and not "Essential Care", but probably they didn't want to advertise "Essential Care"/make it look like you paying for "Relax Warranty" as the point of marketing is that you getting it for "free". So if you can get cheaper servicing without it, then one may deduct that "Relax" isn't actually free. Obvious problem is just that now it no longer makes sense to service cars that are no longer eligible for "Relax" with Lexus, because Lexus servicing are now priced in line with it being combined service+warranty, yet on older/higher mile cars you only get half of the value. Now I wish they have kept "Essential Care" for cars over 10 years instead of 5 years, but that is moot point - they didn't. 

[Juicedrinker]

I guess that makes sense, as now "Relax" offers level of protection which is unmatched in the industry, so providing it with discounted servicing would not make sense. I guess they could have added "Relax" only to normal servicing and not "Essential Care", but probably they didn't want to advertise "Essential Care"/make it look like you paying for "Relax Warranty" as the point of marketing is that you getting it for "free". So if you can get cheaper servicing without it, then one may deduct that "Relax" isn't actually free. Obvious problem is just that now it no longer makes sense to service cars that are no longer eligible for "Relax" with Lexus, because Lexus servicing are now priced in line with it being combined service+warranty, yet on older/higher mile cars you only get half of the value. Now I wish they have kept "Essential Care" for cars over 10 years instead of 5 years, but that is moot point - they didn't. 

All very good points and 100% correct in what you say.  They probably also don't want to deal with over 10 year old cars which is fine with me.  If I have a car over 10 year old again I will go to one of the really good independents that I know of for servicing and repairs although the hybrid Battery will still need a Toyota / Lexus annual check.

 

[Linas.P]

2 hours ago, Juicedrinker said:

Ironic that Lexus Reading did not check your brakes properly pre selling to you as they are notorious for recommending pad and disc changes that are not even required (as happened to me last year).  They stated (and I still have service paperwork) around 20-30% left on front pads and discs badly scored, 30% on rear pads. 

Indeed... isn't it funny... 

I literally remarked the same to them, so when I inspected the car I said - "brakes seems to be worn out, lipped at the front", the sales guy told me "car had pre-sales inspection and brakes are fine", I then jokingly said "you saying it now, but I am sure that when I bring the car for service next year you will tell me that all brakes needs replacing because discs are lipped"... Then I asked to see pre-sales inspection and it was from August or September, when I was negotiating on the car in December. Car has not done much miles, 2000 maybe, but I insisted on them doing pre-sales again. They agreed in writing as part of the closing of the deal to do new pre-sales inspection. When I came to pick-up the car and asked about pre-sales inspection I was told they did it and nothing worth noting came back. 

3000-miles later another dealer diagnosed brakes as non-existent. And by the way they didn't try to scam me, because I went there for seat issue on warranty and I as well said my brakes are squeaking and kind of making scraping sound... so I myself asked them about it and it wasn't just coming out of nowhere. Now - I normally do such things myself, and do inspections myself... but because it was nearly new car and it was under warranty I both not bothered and almost deliberately stayed away from it, because I didn't want to have any issues with them saying I did something on brakes.

The inspection results - front pads 1mm, discs below minimum thickness, rears, 3mm outside, worn down to metal inside, disc badly scored (which makes sense if there was metal on metal contact and I literally could hear it). Reading try to argue that maybe I tracked the car or something (seriously tracked RC200t?!) so I went back to another dealer and said "is it possible that pads would wear down don't to the metal in just 3000 miles"... and they kind of didn't want to commit to it "saying yeah maybe, if you tracked, but realistically... no.. not possible... even then perhaps pads could wear say 4-5mm, but the disc could not wear so much below minimum thickness in 3000". Finally, I said please show me pre-sales inspection from December, quoting e-mail where they said they will do it... and they said "last inspection was done in September"... ooops! So that was end of the story - "sorry guys you didn't inspect the car before selling it to me, so how can you claim that is wear and tear?!".

24 minutes ago, Juicedrinker said:

All very good points and 100% correct in what you say.  They probably also don't want to deal with over 10 year old cars which is fine with me.  If I have a car over 10 year old again I will go to one of the really good independents that I know of for servicing and repairs although the hybrid battery will still need a Toyota / Lexus annual check.

Agree - it makes sense, working on old clunkers isn't every mechanics dream... and effort required may not justify the income. But to be fair in my experience Lexus doesn't really like to service cars at all... ever. When I came for seat warranty claim, they jumped on it and had field day... but when it comes just to regular service seems like it is not their key income source and they kind of deal with it more as liability. 

[Juicedrinker]

Ah that is very interesting and again makes sense!  Im sure the only reason they really want to service the cars is to find either a fault to make a sale direct to customer or a warranty permmissable fault to claim back from Toyota.  Or maybe I am wrong about that.  You mentioned about your seat warranty claim.  I guess you have been through it all on here before but basically was there an issue which they seemed more than happy to pursue / rectify?  If so I assume they get full payback from Toyota HQ.  

[Spock66]

But servicing should be a high profit margin product for the dealer, an interim service is just an oil & filter change and a quick look round at things.  You can check out the price of oil and filter for yourself and a dealer probably can get them for half that cost, does not require a highly skilled technician who is probably only paid slightly above minimum wage.

Seems like a no-brainer to me, or does all the money go the Lexus rather than the dealer?

[Linas.P]

47 minutes ago, Juicedrinker said:

Ah that is very interesting and again makes sense!  Im sure the only reason they really want to service the cars is to find either a fault to make a sale direct to customer or a warranty permmissable fault to claim back from Toyota.  Or maybe I am wrong about that.  You mentioned about your seat warranty claim.  I guess you have been through it all on here before but basically was there an issue which they seemed more than happy to pursue / rectify?  If so I assume they get full payback from Toyota HQ.  

Yeah they totally went to town with it, presumably because it was guaranteed profit on the account of Lexus UK. The problem was that one of the motors was getting "weak" (the one that moves back of the seat forwards backward) and I would need to lean forward to "help" it out and it would take long time to get the back of the seat-up. 

Anyway - they had car for 2 weeks, completely replaced everything - all motors, wiring, screws etc. at the cost of £4200, not sure what part of that costs was parts and what was labour, but I presume labour was major part of it. Now to my surprise Lexus does not sell complete seats and one would think it would be cheaper to just replace it for such cost, but apparently that was not an option. 

9 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

Seems like a no-brainer to me, or does all the money go the Lexus rather than the dealer?

No - labour 100% stays with dealer, and the parts they get on highly discounted cost. 

I have never tried to calculate the profit margin on service, but just from my experience they don't seem to want it too much. Not sure why...

"Essential Care" was amazing value thought... I think I paid like £160 for minor service and you can't get car serviced for that price even at halfrauds or kwikfrauds... nevermind any mainstream brand dealership. So perhaps they didn't want to do those. And since then I always had service plans that were as part of sales package, so I never paid anything for servicing for like last 4 years. This may or may not have impact on how they were not interested to deal with me as I was not really "paying customer". 

[Juicedrinker]

WOW!!  regarding your seat that is really incredible to say the least!!  There is definatley something that goes on with warranty claims at main dealers. 

 

My Uncle was a dealer principle of a Jaguar Land Rover dealership and then a Honda Dealership until his retirement.  I used to be able to find out all the ins and outs of 'how things work' in dealerships eg he used to explain to me about the massive bonuses / rewards they earned for hitting certain sales targets on certain models at different times of year (I'm sure its linked to market share growth target figures vs other brands) even if selling at below net price and especially huge bonuses on service department with Honda regarding customer service satisfaction reports.  He said they made negligable amounts on the actual servicing but were targeted to increase customer base numbers and got huge bonuses for doing that. 

Years ago an ex fiance of mine had a 4 year old BMW 5 series and her feral kids twice(!) in one year broke the rear armrest retractable cup holders and each time the Carlisle BMW dealer replaced the whole armrest free of charge (even given my fiance a loan car) each time!!  I had told them it was the kids fault as wanted them to learn some form of responsibility (previously) they had dented her 3 years old Alfa Romeo roof because they climbed onto it and jumped up and down a few times!  I was flabbergasted that they did the armrest / cupholders for free but guess they just claimed the work cost back from BMW centrally. 

[Gary H]

I’m sorry to hear that @HGUS. I have multiple issues with my local Lexus dealer on the sales side (many of them I’ve discussed on the forum and some I’ve purposefully held back on discussing whilst I have an outstanding order), but the service side from my experience has been very good. They have once forgot to reset my oil service mileometer countdown but other than that, on the service side anyway, I’ve found them hard to fault.

On the sales side at least, I’m more or less settled that I’ll never use them again once I collect my new car from them next month. In 20 years of ‘new car purchasing’, this, without doubt, has been the worst experience I’ve ever had...and by quite some considerable margin I’m sorry to say. The lack of communication and understanding has been astounding. I’ll likely continue to use them for servicing due to convenience and my previous experiences, but that’ll be it. Whether I’ll deal with Lexus again as a company beyond my upcoming new car is very much in the balance at the moment. This final month or so of my long wait will ultimately make my mind up.

My outgoing UX was purchased from my ‘second nearest’ dealer and whilst the building is certainly an ‘older style’ Lexus dealer, the sales experience was significantly better. If I do decide to stick with the brand going forwards, I’ll likely go back to them instead.

@Juicedrinker  - You’ve reminded me about my local Vauxhall dealer when it comes to brakes. My family have been dealing with them, on and off, for over 25 years. Over that time I’ve seen some good work done by them and some ‘less than satisfactory’ efforts. Most of which rectified on a second visit, to be fair. However, one thing which have always let them down is that they simply will not touch brakes. If you ask them, they want to know why. On a service, they only ever give them a ‘visual’. You literally have to pay them extra to do something simple as a brake fluid change. I once had a new Astra Sporthatch from them which the handbrake was weak more or less from day one. I was told it would ‘take time’ to ‘bed in’. A month later, it had deteroriated to the point it was of no use. I was told the same thing again so I had to have the service manager out in the car with me so I could demonstrate to him how easily the car would drive forwards or backwards in the car park - with the handbrake fully on. We took it to what used to be a very quiet lane a few hundred yards away. He got in the drivers seat. Put the handbrake on and moved forwards. By the time we got up to almost 30mph with practically zero resistance and into third gear he accepted “Yeah...I think there might be a problem”.

[Juicedrinker]

@Gary HWOW!  Thats barking about Vauxhall and the brakes!  As brakes are a very important component on the car you would like to think it would be sorted asap.  I had a very serious / dangerous problem with brakes on my company Renault Laguna which had done c30,000 miles once at Olympian Renault who were at the time in Wallisdown Bournemouth.  Won't bore you with it but after them failing to sort it out and handing me back a dangerous car that didn't stop when I braked as I left them the company lease company told me to throw the keys back at the service manager and leave car in the road where it was for them to sort out and lease company cancelled any further work by Olympian at any of their dealerships; Then I ordered a new car (not a Renault I should add).

Had a really bizarre fault on a company Vauxhall Cavalier in early 90's that have never experienced in any car since (fortunately) or even heard of.  I stopped the car one day and removed the key from ignition and the engine was still running then it stopped.  I started it again and turned it off and this time all fine.  I knew I hadn't imagined it so tried again as if I had just pulled up and found that if I turned the key to the off position while my foot was still on the brake pedal the engine kept running (even if I removed the key) however once I lifted my foot off the brake pedal it shut down.  I tried to explain this to the local Vauxhall dealer over the phone and it was clear that they thought I was mad until I took it to them and showed the mechanic, then he went in and a number of people from service and sales came out to see it themselves and they were all completely dumbstruck.  I left it with them and a few days later was told it was sorted but they never ever told me what they did and as it was a lease vehicle (and we had over 1000 in the company) I could not find out.

 

     

[Julncamp54]

Lexus Preston. Have found purchase and  Service par Excellance 

[Linas.P]

17 hours ago, Gary H said:

He got in the drivers seat. Put the handbrake on and moved forwards. By the time we got up to almost 30mph with practically zero resistance and into third gear he accepted “Yeah...I think there might be a problem”.

That is interesting way of bedding in the parking brake, I reckon that would be first and list time the hand brake works after such procedure 🙂 

[Gary H]

@Juicedrinker - Indeed! I don't know what it is about the local dealer but they really are very 'funny' about brakes. Ask them to check them out, inspect e.t.c and they'll genuinely look at you with bemusement and have said along the lines of "Why? Are they working okay?". They're just don't want anything to do with them when it comes to maintenance. The next nearest Vauxhall dealer along (owned by the same company) aren't quite as aversive to servicing brakes, but still pretty bad. I'm just assuming it's a company-wide policy...and an incredibly odd/dangerous one to have in my opinion. Again, it's something they've always done for as long as my family have dealt with them. Barring this oddity, they're generally decent people to deal with and going back in time to when I had that handbrake issue with my Astra Sporthatch, the sales side was superb. They were actually embarrassed that I had to elevate my issue to the service manager before they reluctantly agreed there was a fault that needed to be addressed (one particular salesman knew our family on first-name terms - hence we always went to him). It's certainly one of the most surreal situations I've ever come across with one of my own personal cars, at least. It'll take some beating!

That issue with your old Cavalier really is utterly bizarre! I can't say I've ever come across anything like that before. I wonder what that was?! It sounds like some sort of odd earthing issue but that really is hazarding a guess. 

@Linas.P - You're telling me! It was barely working anyway, so to make it useless altogether made no difference! I remember him putting the handbrake on and then pulling away in first. Very little resistance of course. He then changed up into second and tried to tug the handbrake harder and looked a little confused as to why the car was still accelerating - thinking he hadn't applied the handbrake...it was literally hard-on. It was only once he changed up again into third and could see my arms crossed and the slightly cheesed-off look on my face of "I told you the handbrake isn't working..." did he accept I had a point and they will actually have to do some work on brakes. Shock horror! I'm going back to late 2005 so I can't remember exactly what happened, but I remember it was in for a few days and I think they basically replaced the cable, linkage...everything. I remember after picking up the car, he said they'd sent off my old bits back to the factory (which is literally three miles up the road...) for evaluation for a potential recall of a whole batch of cars. I can only assume they found quite a major defect, or defects, in it. I never heard anything back after that. 

We all know new brake pads and discs require a little bedding in for sure. But a handbrake?! It's something I've never been told before or since.