toyota/lexus service

gji25 · May 22

Try not to laugh but i phoned toyota southampton/millbrooke branch to book a lexus in for a service and was told by the dealership the dont have the facilties to do it.

How do they service vechicles if they have,nt the facilties or do they farm them out to a back street garage for servicing ?

Spock66 · May 22

I believe it's Lexus policy not to service Lexus vehicles at Toyota dealers, probably to do with positioning Lexus as a premium brand.

My local Steven Eagell dealer is a combined Toyota / Lexus dealer, separate showrooms but no doubt a shared workshop.

John Adams · May 22

I used to have My RX serviced at a local Toyota dealer 10 miles away rather than travel to the Lexus dealer 100 miles away. However when I tried to get my NX serviced just over a year ago they told me they could no longer do it as it was no longer Lexus policy

gji25 · May 22

55 minutes ago, John Adams said:

I used to have My RX serviced at a local Toyota dealer 10 miles away rather than travel to the Lexus dealer 100 miles away. However when I tried to get my NX serviced just over a year ago they told me they could no longer do it as it was no longer Lexus policy

But a lexus is a Toyota

John Adams · May 22

7 minutes ago, gji25 said:

But a lexus is a Toyota

Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota and they obviously want to keep Lexus cars serviced by Lexus dealers. Probably makes sense to them to keep them separate.

Spock66 · May 22

44 minutes ago, gji25 said:

But a lexus is a Toyota

And a Rolls Royce is a BMW, and a Bentley is a VW.

gji25 · May 22

2 hours ago, gji25 said:

was told by the dealership the dont have the facilties to do it.

your missing the point. i think my asumption is they farm them out to a back street garage for servicing is correct

Bob99 · May 22

I have had mine serviced at my local Toyota dealership as it’s only 1 mile away as opposed to 30miles away. They have carried out a full service (without the hybrid health check as they won’t/ can’t carry this out, even though it would be the same for a Toyota). Also they have done air con regas and discs and pads renewal. I reverted back to Lexus to have the relax warranty and also they pick up and return my car. The Lexus dealership is the same franchise as my local Toyota and have Toyota dealership in the same building so probably the same workshop, so which mechanics will carry out the routine maintenance, I can make a guess? They also have an over 10 year maintenance price for Lexus which I can’t see at sole Lexus dealers.

Notamech · May 22

I don't get it either. What could have driven this decision? Surely its more efficient for customers and better for their brand to be able to market a larger service network if all toyota workshops can service Lexuses?

Also as far as premumness goes.... I am yet to experience their "premium" service quality. So far it has only been average at best.

Linas.P · May 22

That is actually strange, must be some sort of agreement that specific Toyota dealer has, or maybe they own Lexus dealer nearby... My local Toyota actually tried to upsell me for service some time ago when I was buying Lexus parts there. The guy run the quote saying "service with us it is the same service", but then the cost just didn't make sense. I think Toyota service turned out to be something like £218 and back then Lexus "Essential Care" was £180.

And there were some other omissions, I don't remember what exactly, but no wash (which to be fair I don't care about) and maybe no hybrid check on Lexus cars (which also I didn't care about as mine wasn't hybrid). I just remember joking with the guy saying "how comes it works out more expensive than Lexus, yet you do less?!" So it was kind of funny, because he literally approached me and was like "do you own Lexus? Why don't you service with us, it is way cheaper!"... and then it turns out it is more.

That said - Lexus "Essential Care" is long gone, so perhaps nowadays it would be slightly cheaper e.g. minor service for my GS300 is something like £320 or £340 at Lexus, the do make 20% discretionary discount when I ask why they not doing "Essential Care" anymore, but it still works out ~£270. So £218 would be cheaper, but that said this whole story happened like 6 year ago, maybe more... so I wonder what Toyota service costs now, surely it didn't become cheaper!

Bob99 · May 22

When my car was being returned from the last service I received the post service call from the service manager to go through things. I was told all 4 tyres were cracking and would need replacing soon, when I informed the him that the tyres were less than a month old he stuttered and said he was looking at the wrong paperwork. He told me to throw away the paperwork that was in the car and that he would send me the correct paperwork in the post (paperwork was for 2018 NX). It took over two weeks to get the replacement paperwork and even then I don’t think I received all of it, and I had to pester to get that. Quality has certainly dropped

Duggie B · May 22

3 hours ago, John Adams said:

Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota and they obviously want to keep Lexus cars serviced by Lexus dealers. Probably makes sense to them to keep them separate.

I use two separate Lexus dealers and both use the Toyota workshops attached to the Toyota/Lexus sites as not all Lexus dealers have their own workshop...save for Maidstone (Marshals) when it was there which it shared with all the Marshal dealers (Hyundai, Maserati etc etc) never had issue with either as apparently they have Toyota techs who are also Lexus master techs .....end of the day its all Toyota and my warranty is kept intact for both my Hybrid and petrol V8.

Spock66 · May 22

3 hours ago, gji25 said:

your missing the point. i think my asumption is they farm them out to a back street garage for servicing is correct

I would be surprised if that was the case, quick bit of detective work on google shows what looks like a well equipped Toyota workshop.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Snows+Toyota+Southampton/@50.9155256,-1.4544919,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMrfLLtuGvxAw1gDZvUSbCyNhLYJ0EsN2i5h1_o!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMrfLLtuGvxAw1gDZvUSbCyNhLYJ0EsN2i5h1_o%3Dw203-h133-k-no!7i6120!8i4024!4m7!3m6!1s0x487476799c1d3a37:0x2af1556071e77d79!8m2!3d50.9154822!4d-1.4546954!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1td6xl9p?entry=ttu

gji25 · May 22

6 minutes ago, Spock66 said:

I would be surprised if that was the case, quick bit of detective work on google shows what looks like a well equipped Toyota workshop.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Snows+Toyota+Southampton/@50.9155256,-1.4544919,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMrfLLtuGvxAw1gDZvUSbCyNhLYJ0EsN2i5h1_o!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMrfLLtuGvxAw1gDZvUSbCyNhLYJ0EsN2i5h1_o%3Dw203-h133-k-no!7i6120!8i4024!4m7!3m6!1s0x487476799c1d3a37:0x2af1556071e77d79!8m2!3d50.9154822!4d-1.4546954!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1td6xl9p?entry=ttu

quick bit of detective work on google shows what looks like a bunch of

gji25 · May 22

4 hours ago, John Adams said:

Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota and they obviously want to keep Lexus cars serviced by Lexus dealers. Probably makes sense to them to keep them separate.

Thats whats known as pure snobbery

H3XME · May 23

Unless it's Lexus & Toyota dealership like my local one (two separate showrooms side by side, but share the parts counter & workshops too when needed). You're unlikely to get your IS250 serviced at Toyota. Toyota UK never had any cars with this engine etc. IS300h for example is essentially a smaller Camry and RAV4 uses the same engine too, blahblah. Bottom line, they have parts and they're cross-compatible. IS250 was solely a Lexus car built on a Toyota Mark X platform but that's Japanese model only, so again, Toyota UK is highly unlikely to service this particular car because they probably wouldn't have parts.

gji25 · May 23

2 hours ago, H3XME said:

Unless it's Lexus & Toyota dealership like my local one (two separate showrooms side by side, but share the parts counter & workshops too when needed). You're unlikely to get your IS250 serviced at Toyota. Toyota UK never had any cars with this engine etc. IS300h for example is essentially a smaller Camry and RAV4 uses the same engine too, blahblah. Bottom line, they have parts and they're cross-compatible. IS250 was solely a Lexus car built on a Toyota Mark X platform but that's Japanese model only, so again, Toyota UK is highly unlikely to service this particular car because they probably wouldn't have parts.

Hence they said they dont have the facilties to source 6.5 litres of engine oil and a filter lol

H3XME · May 23

25 minutes ago, gji25 said:

Hence they said they dont have the facilties to source 6.5 litres of engine oil and a filter lol

Probably don't have oil filters for that car either etc. And some corporate wrench monkey wasn't "trained" how to work on it.. it's all bs

geller1968 · June 2

Alway have my Lexus convertible serviced at Lexus I have a service contract with them, 2 years service parts and labour and two MOTs excellent value for money.