Very Dissapointed With Lexus Bradford

fallwood · August 25, 2011

Hi everyone, took my car in to Lexus Bradford on tuesday to have the brakes checked as they were making a noise under hard braking. I received a call about an hour later and was told by service that the pads and disc were 'completely worn out, not 80-90% worn , completely worn out' and needed replacing immediately, I was quoted £316 for new front discs and pads, I was also told that my front tyres were very worn on the outer and inner edges and should be replaced at a further cost of £285. I told the service guy that I thought the prices were far too high and would get the discs and pads replaced by my local garage, I also stated that the tyres had only done 8000 miles and I found it hard to beleive that they could be so badly worn already.

So this morning I took the car into my local garage that I've used for years, he removed the front wheels and immediately stated 'theres bugger all wrong with those discs , theres at least 40000 left in them, your pads have had it though' , he then changed the pads at a cost of £57 (parts & labour) , he then inspected the tyres and again said that they were fine and would do at least another 10-15000 before needing a change.

As usual he gave the car a quick look over whilst it was on the ramps, immediately he pointed something out underneath the car that was so obvious only an blind person would miss, there was oil splattered all over the underneath of the car near the rear diff, he said that it looked like the rear diff pinion oil seal was on its way out and should be replaced. Now seeing as Lexus had the car on the ramps 2 days earlier and failed to mention this made us wonder what else they could be missing, we then discovered that the spare wheel had not been checked at the last service as it had not been lowered and rotated (to avoid chaffing on the underside of the car) and there was only 18psi pressure in it, also the rear pads were down to the metal on both sides and need replacing, Lexus bradford never mentioned the rear pads when they did the brake inspection.

I am left feeling less than satisfied by these findings and have contacted Lexus bradford who will be taking another look at the car next Tuesday, I feel that they have blatantly tried to rip me off with the front discs ,pads and tyres whilst at the same time failing to spot 2 major components that need attention .

Very poor service from a supposedly premium brand dealer.

fallwood · August 26, 2011

I have since found out that the discs in question have only been on the car for approx 11000 miles, they were fitted by Lexus Derby 6 months prior to me purchasing the car from them last october. I also had another independent inspection done this morning and the results came back the same , disc were fine but rear pads badly need replacing.

I will be very interested to hear Lexus Bradfords response to their claim (in writing) that my disks are 100% worn and the reason that the leaking rear diff was not spotted on the 3 times that they have inspected the car over the last 3 months.

Also the inspection sheets they issue showing the condition of parts vary wildly , in May they have the pads at 50% worn and disks ok then when it went in for rear wheel balancing in july it shows that the pads and disks all round were all in the green, it also shows the spare tyre as having 6mm in january when it was serviced 7mm in may and 8mm on tuesday, must be a magic tyre as the tread seems to be increasing ;), and my car has apparently covered no mileage since january as all the sheets state current mileage as 31768.

Parthiban · August 26, 2011

Wow that does seem like some pretty poor service there, to be honest with that kind of behaviour I'd be a bit nervous about sending the car there at all!

Could be worth escalating to Lexus GB - probably won't be of too much use to you personally but might at least make them keep an eye on them.

wow300 · August 30, 2011

Its a great shame as the cars are great but the dealers are total rubbish, i ordered a new rad and they wanted the box to send the old rad back in and expected me to take my £320 rad home with no protection,

Then i ordered a touch up pen and a spray can, they said would ring when its in, they didnt so i rang a week later, yes its all here, drove up to pick it up and they could not find it, 35 mins later they found the touch up pen but no can, said we will post the can to you, this is 2 weeks ago now, still nothing!

I bet if we was in Japan the service would be spot on.

Another thing, i do Auto tinting and back along i tinted a Lexus in there workshop, all very young lads working on all the cars, only 1 adult in the whole workshop watching over the lads, i would never go to lexus for a service etc for a YTS boy to work on my car at £90 per hour!!!!