Lexus Thefts on Watchdog tonight

YvesD · March 13

Apparently our plight has reached BBC Watchdog and will be shown tonight, 7pm.

Brian R · March 13

You'd like to think this might shame Lexus into action, but being realistic, it does seem they sell very few cars here in the UK. I only have figures for 2022 when they sold a mere, 9034 cars. Is this a sustainable market share, or could they afford to bow out gracefully? If the former then surely Lexus would want to do all it can to inspire confidence in their product, if the latter could we see Lexus disappear from the UK. Frankly, I suspect the former scenario, but let's see what Lexus has to say for itself later today.

Tickedon · March 13

4 minutes ago, Brian R said:

You'd like to think this might shame Lexus into action, but being realistic, it does seem they sell very few cars here in the UK. I only have figures for 2022 when they sold a mere, 9034 cars. Is this a sustainable market share, or could they afford to bow out gracefully? If the former then surely Lexus would want to do all it can to inspire confidence in their product, if the latter could we see Lexus disappear from the UK. Frankly, I suspect the former scenario, but let's see what Lexus has to say for itself later today.

2023 was a record for Lexus in the UK with 15,963 cars sold. I believe they also had a global sales record too.

Toyota cars are also affected by theft issues, albeit less desirable, so you’d hope/think they have the UK (nevermind global) volume to justify a proper fix.

YvesD · March 13

2 hours ago, YvesD said:

Apparently our plight has reached BBC Watchdog

The article contains an official response from Lexus so lets see

PDM · March 13

Looks like the person who alerted Watchdog has set up a website to record theft cases:

https://reportcanbus.com/

YvesD · March 13

Sounds like there's a fix coming in addition to the plates👍

Pete-r · March 13

Is there a list of affected models?

I have a 10 plate IS250 so not likely to be a priority for a recall

Lanzodave · March 13

https://youtu.be/uHIwtiA963M?si=7UfbAfXVNaXSQaIo

Lanzodave · March 13

This was interesting

Jim1977 · March 13

The Lexus official response was that security hardware was being rolled out for pre Sep 2021 cars. This being in additional to the headlight plate. Lexus said customers should contact their local dealer to book in for both to be fitted for free.

Ive just emailed the head of parts at our local dealer to try and book in 😂

Lanzodave · March 13

Did the guy who said his key was in a Faraday pouch check it stopped the signal.

Just checked mine no signal in the pouch.

Jim1977 · March 13

3 minutes ago, Lanzodave said:

Did the guy who said his key was in a Faraday pouch check it stopped the signal.

Just checked mine no signal in the pouch.

This is Canbus theft, not relay theft from the keys. A pouch does not protect from Canbus theft sadly. Would need an immobiliser fitted to stop it.

Lanzodave · March 13

Thanks for clearing that up Jim.

Brian R · March 14

9 hours ago, Jim1977 said:

The Lexus official response was that security hardware was being rolled out for pre Sep 2021 cars. This being in additional to the headlight plate. Lexus said customers should contact their local dealer to book in for both to be fitted for free.

Ive just emailed the head of parts at our local dealer to try and book in 😂

Exactly what I will be doing, but for the time being I will continue to use my wife's car as a physical barrier. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to arrange a visit and also how long before insurers acknowledge its problem solved, albeit I think I already know the answer to that!

Kumar · March 14

Here is the link to the article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3WrCMf89TRpFCFKXX9SDJtw/lexus-car-security

Tickedon · March 14

Lexus have published a statement and for the first time detailed models at risk…

https://mag.lexus.co.uk/lexus-uk-statement-on-vehicle-theft/?

On the plus side, it sounds like they have something planned beyond the protection plate for the previous RX generation.

wivenhoe · March 14

In terms of Lexus staying in the the UK market I think the biggest threat is the EV fine. They need to sell over 22% of the total sales as pure EV’s.
As The RZ is a dismal failure and the sales of the UX haven’t taken off then Lexus will be heavily fined or have to buy credits from the Chinese manufacturers or Tesla as they will have a massive surplus as they import only EV’s or only a small number of ICE’s.
The Lexus announcement of 2023 trumpeted the proportion of electrified sales but didn’t carve out the pure EV’s - I reckon they represented less than 10% of total sales. So if they achieve the same figures as last year they will have to pay 12% x 16,000 x £15k = £ 28.8m.

Tickedon · March 14

14 minutes ago, wivenhoe said:

In terms of Lexus staying in the the UK market I think the biggest threat is the EV fine. They need to sell over 22% of the total sales as pure EV’s.
As The RZ is a dismal failure and the sales of the UX haven’t taken off then Lexus will be heavily fined or have to buy credits from the Chinese manufacturers or Tesla as they will have a massive surplus as they import only EV’s or only a small number of ICE’s.
The Lexus announcement of 2023 trumpeted the proportion of electrified sales but didn’t carve out the pure EV’s - I reckon they represented less than 10% of total sales. So if they achieve the same figures as last year they will have to pay 12% x 16,000 x £15k = £ 28.8m.

There is also a complicated way, in the first couple of years of these mandatory ZEV rules, to earn credits based on your average co2 emissions being lower than a few years ago. Lexus are in a good position for this as PHEVs will help bring that average Lexus emissions figure for sales down significantly (as PHEV is generally 25-30g/km) - and those PHEV are approx 50% of new NX and RX sales.

The UK market had approx 16.5% of BEV sales last year. Lexus aren’t alone in this issue, but yes, don’t have great EV model options.

Tickedon · March 14

Although in January, it looks like UXe and RZ were 24.5% of their sales…

https://media.lexus.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/pdf/Lexus-UK-Sales-Figures-January-2024.pdf

whether they can keep that up, we’ll need to see!

my pride & joy · March 14

About time...

wharfhouse · March 14

1 hour ago, Tickedon said:

Lexus have published a statement and for the first time detailed models at risk…

https://mag.lexus.co.uk/lexus-uk-statement-on-vehicle-theft/?

On the plus side, it sounds like they have something planned beyond the protection plate for the previous RX generation.

Interesting that there is no mention of the IS on the list - I thought facelift models from around 2017 also had the CANBus vulnerability through the passenger side headlight (but not the original pre-facelift from 2013-2017)

Alan305 · March 14

I sent an email to Lexus Milton Keynes regarding Watchdog this morning.

Perhaps Lexus are waking up. Here is part of their response regarding my 2018nx.

“There are plates that can be fitted by us on the RX model and in the correspondence we have had this morning from Lexus GB the other models have their measures in development and we will be informed as soon as they available and I will be in contact to get you booked in they are anticipating this to be towards the end of April”

Bounce75 · March 14

31 minutes ago, wharfhouse said:

Interesting that there is no mention of the IS on the list - I thought facelift models from around 2017 also had the CANBus vulnerability through the passenger side headlight (but not the original pre-facelift from 2013-2017)

I have emailed them to ask this question as mine is a 2020 model.

ColinBarber · March 14

2 hours ago, wivenhoe said:

The Lexus announcement of 2023 trumpeted the proportion of electrified sales but didn’t carve out the pure EV’s - I reckon they represented less than 10% of total sales

Lexus EV sales were 5% last year of total sales.

Toyota EV sales were 0.5% (0.53% if you include the 25 Mirai sold). Figures for the bZ4X were 1,249 in Jan 24 (20% of total sales and compared to only 553 for all the months on sale in 2023) so I suspect they are pre-registering and forcing demo / courtesy on dealers and company cars on staff to minimise fines/credit purchases.

Dippo · March 14

The Lexus response talks about 'security hardware'. To me, this sounds like more plates restricting access, rather than enhancements to the canbus security system, which I would call software.