Linas.P

He is probably not ruined yet, so enjoy the service whilst you can 😄 Overtime they get smarter with the charges. I had this argument all the time when I had IS250, I lost count how many times I was told it is "large"... and I was like... so if this is "large", then what is GS? Also "large" and if GS is "large", then what we should make out of LS... ohhh that is "XL"... but if LS is XL, then GS is "large" and then IS must be "medium"... right? And the guys in the hand was were like "yeah whatever"... now that I have GS I probably wouldn't bother arguing and just accept it is "large". That said from detailing perspective I now see detailers simply giving personalised quotes and ignoring the size altogether. That actually makes much more sense, because for example despite IS and GS having more "surface area" than RC, the RC is absolute horror to detail, it just has so many shapes, angles and small details that it takes twice as much to detail than say GS. Because GS is just mostly flat and you can go over 90% of the car with 5" pad, but on RC I probably used 1" pad on 40% of the car and 3" pad on another 30%, so it is just so much more time consuming.

Ohhh, I have no doubt about that. I just as I said the private wash and vac is not their main business. And indeed - mobile detail is pretty much the most difficult way of doing it, as you mentioned there is dependency on weather, customer water and electricity, so it complicates a lot. Hence mobile usually comes at premium, so having it done for £40 is really good deal. This just remind me why you are in my ignore list. Now you basically conflated hand wash prices and mobile detailing prices... and honestly I lost you here, I am no longer sure where you quote the price from your favourite "Eastern European" hand wash (seems little bit strange to consider/highlight where people came from, but that is topic for another time) and where from actual mobile detailers. Yes I know British understanding of car sizes is ridiculous and Lexus IS is basically what would be classed as medium car in normal country. Not in UK. In UK "small" literally means Smart or maybe Fiat 500, "medium" is Golf and similar, "large" is BMW 3/5-series, so Lexus IS/GS comes into same category, then there is separate category for SUVs and VANs and there are "XL" cars as well, so presumably anything bigger than 5-Series. Drive away from mobile detailer? I would like to see how that looks like... Now indeed I have done that in hand wash, where I said "either you charge me medium price or I go elsewhere"... and they did charge me the medium price, but same trick won't work on call out detailer. You can continue having full details for £150 in your world and I am very happy for you, but the argument ends-here. Seems like you don't even know the difference between "full-valet" and "full-detail" and I am not going to guess when you mean dirty hand wash on the corner prices and where you mean good quality mobile detail prices.

No, I don't think you understood what I have said. Within London £90 gets you mobile wash, not a detail. The car like Lexus IS is considered Large, so that will be £120 for JUST A WASH. If you want to get interior cleaned as well, then you looking closer to £200. Detail is like £400+... you can shop around as much as you like, but when horrible hand wash charges £25, then don't expect decent mobile wash to cost £30. I am sure that when you go outside of M25 into suburbs, then suddenly that price halves... So I do believe you got decent wash for £30 and mini-detail for £150, but that is not the price you can get in London.

Taking car for MOT there would be literal suicide. Because then they have leverage against you and can manufacture literally anything and with new MOT rules you wouldn't even be able to leave before paying thousands to fix everything. Not KwikFrauds, but once I took my car to Halfrauds, mainly because it had Halfrauds battery that was failing (I have told this story few times), so I have booked free battery check and free safety check hoping that they would find their own battery faulty and then could not wiggle out of replacing it under warranty. They had car for whole day and when I came back in the evening they told me it will be something ridiculous like £900 (again if memory serves). They counted 2 rear tyres for £160 each, because "inside edge was worn", they said new front disks and rear pads are needed for £200+£120, "because of the lip", then £12 for parking light, new battery is needed for £140 (it was actually faulty and I knew it)... some other stuff... again prices are just from memory. So I said ok - "The tyres Dunlop RT2 are £80 fitted, what tyres are you offering me for £160" - he was like "ok you want Dunlop, ok we can do Dunlop for £108 each" and shows me the screen with Sport 001 (which at the time was the cheapest tyre that Dunlop made). No thank you. Brakes, I said "are you sure it is front brakes that need replacing"... and he is like "yeah yeah I can show you". We walk into the shop he looks at the front brakes and they are literally brand new, because I had them replaced 2 days ago and all 4 pads... and he is like... "ahhh maybe it was rear disks then". And the rear likewise were pretty much unworn except of little bit of contrast between clean face and rust on the hub. No again... Then the battery - I am like "sure, it needs doing, but it is your battery under warranty", show him the receipt and he is like "ohhh this is halford retail that sold it, we are halfords autoservices, so we can't replace it". By the way halfrauds retail as well refused to replace it, because as they explained the "warranty is not transferable" and because it was different card on receipt they can't honour it. Back then I was naive, so they got away with this BS. Finally, the parking light... I was like "I don't need it, it costs £2 for two, why would I pay £12"... and he is like "yeah but we have already fitted it"... me "I hope you didn't, because few weeks ago I have fitted all LED lights which literally last lifetime"... and he "ohhh whatever you don't need to pay for it, it will be good will gesture from us". yeah sure - "good will" when you are caught red handed adding random shaite onto the bill.

£30-40 is very cheap so I assume there isn't much profit in it. As you said yourself, the guy who did yours is looking more at commercial jobs, so I assume private jobs are just to plug the gaps on quiet days, or maybe as well to advertise the company and develop the clientele. After all if he already has all the tools and chemicals are bought in bulk, then material cost isn't high. For me it costs £20, because I buy detailing spray and all other chemicals in 750ml or similar stupid sizes, so every chemical I use is like £2, per use because bottle is like £10-£14. If he buys APC and similar stuff by 20L or 50L barrels, then it may cost him 20p per car. If he does 4 cars per day, it is still £160. As you said - if he takes cash, little tax paid, so he probably comes back with £100 per day. Not a massive amount, but probably more pleasant than working on construction site for not much more... and I assume he is always for lookout for bigger jobs, maybe mini-polish, or commercial job. Just checked the prices around me and as expected it would be £150-240 in my area. Prices start at £90, for what they call "small car", from experience Lexus almost regardless of the model is considered "large" and then suddenly just outside costs £120. Finally, if I could get somebody to do my car for £40, then I would definitely use them... not because I can't clean it myself, but because for that cost I just can't beat them even doing it myself.

I guess the biggest mistake and main reason was that I left, they told me it will be 1h 40 min and I can wait or come back latter. Realistically there is no wait area, just two plastic chairs in the corner and as it was ~10min walk home I decided to leave and comeback later. This is obviously speculation, but as you said they may have ran into complications with locating charge points (my past experience in Halfrauds was similar - I have to show them where the ports were, but from there on everything was smooth), complication with battery being in the way (although it would have taken 3 minutes to remove it and fit it correctly) and maybe they planned to do car eventually. In mean time they did performance test "before", realised it is working quite well left it for latter. As well as I didn't call, nor waited for their call and just walked in 2 hours latter he wasn't prepared. If I would have called, he may have said it will be another 2 hours or whatever, but now that I was standing inside and the car was not done he probably was embarrassed to say that I have to leave again and comeback later... so speculation again, but maybe in that split moment service manager decided to say it was simply done and avoid argument of why. Again this would be sort of thing for which people should be fired, but as their standards are generally so low he probably thought he could get away with that. His obvious mistake was that he didn't prepare any documents, that raised my suspicion and the rest is history. Honestly, if he would have given me generic print-out without registration number stapled to invoice and made-up performance test results I won't have had any second thought. Yes, I may have eventually realised something amiss, but by then it would have been too late. Again... the assumption could be made that anyone that knows anything about the cars avoids them like a plague, so they are just used to clients who have absolutely no clue what is going on and are not expected to be challenged about anything.

Indeed - this is not EV bash, it is bash on idiotic idea of banning internal combustion before making any steps to build infrastructure which could handle EVs and just expecting everything to sort itself out. I personally have no issues with BEV, but I do believe they need to stand on their own two feet, without subsidies, without coercion... and if people still buy them and they work for them... perfect! Maybe one day they will be so good that people just going to prefer them over "outdated" ICEV and ICEV will naturally decline and disappear (same as steam engines disappeared in the past) - that is fine as well. But every sane person understand that BEVs just don't work for most, so if left to their own natural evolution and adoption they won't get adapted even by the end of this century... what is the solution? Ban people form buying what they want and need... and then expecting everyone will be happy about it?

£40 is no brainer really, especially if work is done well. Obviously, I am considering this from London prices, which I am sure would not be £40 in London, but rather £200. Actually thinking about it, that would be at least £200, but probably more. 2h to get to you and back, 2 hours work, own equipment, £50/hour for intense labour... not many people would be doing that in London. Even horrible hand washes are now like £15, that is just pressure washing the outside and drying. In and out would be £25... and that is what 10-15min and horrible job. I reckon I spend £20 doing it myself just in consumables, so I would not even consider doing it if I could get person to come to my place for £40 and do it.

That is much worse, A-pillar trim is extremely easy to remove and put back. The last thing you want is to muck about with door rubbers and damage them and then have leak or wind noise.

1L per 900miles would make massive puddle under the car over 5+ years. Somehow I doubt such leak could be missied. That is good point - would explain why there was oil under the air intake, which I was quite confused about at first. Although the outcomes is the same - it is cheaper to replace engine than it is to replace piston rings.

If it is really consuming that much oil then your cheapest option would be to replace the engine. Reality is that there are no experts that would be able to do complete engine rebuilt for reasonable price, they either do not exist, or it will cost more than new engine (and I mean new new). That said I am not convinced that your problem is head gasket, it would look different - depending on how it is blown you would either have milk in oil (which clearly you don't have), or you would have loads of white smoke, which again sounds like you don't have. But these engines have quite common issue for modern DI engines and that is "low friction" piston rings which get stuck and lets oil in... or rather out (depends on perspective). Short of complete bottom end rebuilt (meaning pistons out, new rings in) there isn't much you can do about it. Again if the oil burning is so excessive then you may as well have scored/generally worn out bores (meaning new block). As for blue smoke there wouldn't be much... only really for a second at the cold start-up. In grand scheme of things 1L per 120-180L of fuel isn't really that big amount, some gets captured and burned in the catalytic converter as well, so you would not see any visible smoke. Again I could not guess without looking at it, but by the time you burning 1L of oil per 900miles it is the case of engine replacement. Not because your engine can't be fixed, but because replacement engine is £600 + as much labour and rebuild will be £2000-£3000, so rebuilding is just not economical. Are there other ways? Maybe... you could try flushing, decarb, thicker oil, generally shorter oil change intervals. Theoretically stuck rings could get unstuck and if enough carbon and other deposits get's cleaned they may seal properly again, but don't get your hopes very high - I mean it was doing it for 5 years already... and that sort of thing probably should have been done 3 years before you acquired it to really work. Likewise flushing can make situation worse, but in your case you don't have much to lose - so you can try few of these "non-invasive" methods and if it doesn't solve the issue then plan replacement of the engine or the whole car maybe. Why this happens? Simply poor maintenance, no regular oil changes and that kills these engines. Realistically 6000 miles is the most any engine should ever go on same oil, for DI ideally 3000 miles. In UK people run them for 10k+ and by 100k miles this is what happens.

Probably the pair of cars that are worst models to buy from the dealer. LS600h you really need to buy privately to get it for decent price. RX400h again - very very old car to be in the dealer, so it is listed for absolutely criminal price. I am actually surprised it is even listed, dealers usually do not touch anything older than 10 years old. As well LS is bog standard, no options. Sure they were well equipped even as base models, but this one seems the cheapest version of LS600h and was run on the budget... like budget tyres on car of such calibre is always bad sign. As well what happened to the wheels, all paint looks dull and smudged over with rag from the floor?! I just can't see how dealership could expect to get £19,000 for anything in such condition. I would say closer to £5,000-£6,000 for RX and maybe £9,000-£11,000 for LS, but only after it is detailed, wheels refurbished and tyres replaced... and that is just on the surface. Finally - why such selection of the cars? Or you just found examples of what looks overpriced for age/condition? In which case - yes they are!

Just these: BUT, you may need to replace these if your matching donor parts do not match the rest: I know it is confusing, because it is confusing. So let's say you have ID Code Box as xxxxx-53010, steering lock as xxxxx-53010 and smart key module is xxxxx-53010. If you get replacement set as xxxxx-53010 as well, then you don't need to replace anything else. However, if you replacement set is something like 53014, then it may not work. In my case I have replaced SmartKey Module, because my parts were 53014 and the set came with SmartKey Module anyway. I don't know if my 53010 would have worked, so I just replaced it because I had it. My set as well had Gateway and Power Source ECUs, but they were same numbers as already fitted so I have not replaced them. The SmartKey Module in my set was 53011. I have as well replaced power button, but that is not required, the replacement was simply in better condition and mine was scratched-up. I have not replaced anything else (not for this reason anyway).

Generally speaking it would be fine, but price makes absolutely no sense. Mods are subjective thing, but one thing for sure - they never add value to the car. Maybe some small, universally acceptable mods, but massive, oversized, shaite quality wheels, slammed suspension etc. always going to reduce the price, not to increase it. So all that said, the car of this age/mileage would be already £4000-5000, Cat-C is -40% if not more. so we are looking into £2000-3000 at absolute maximum. Then we need to look at bad mods - wheels -£500, because they are horrible and would implode just driving close to pot hole (he said it is Vossen, but I know from experience 99% of them are counterfeit and even when they are not Vossen is for style, not for quality). Air suspension if it works then adds no value, but I would not count on it... and if it doesn't then add set of normal shocks which is £1000. All lights must be restored (hopefully they are tinted with film) or replaced (I don't even understand how it is legal), GS headlights barely illuminates road already, so these tinted one at night must be horrible. So what we end-up with? £1000? £2000 at best if I am being generous and everything is in perfect condition. To be fair as soon as I read "show car" next to this I would not give £1 for description alone. And I am not against modifying cars, but not all cars could be modified and not all mods makes car look better. This would count as ruined.

Quick update - so after 2 weeks of backwards and forwards e-mails and Centre Manager trying to call me they have refunded the amount in full. I did not pick-up the calls, partially because I was on holidays, but partially because I just don't want to hear their excuses and BS. I asked them very simple thing which they clearly didn't have and which is basically the only possible proof of AC service being carried out. If there is no print out of recovered/refilled amount and leak test then there is nothing else to discuss, they can tell me anything, but there is no way to actually check it. They did send me invoice week later which had both incorrect registration number and incorrect mileage, so again laughable proof of work. If they have not checked the mileage then I doubt they were even in the car for much more than just moving it between parking spaces. I think from legal perspective that would count as no proof as well - as even if I am asked to provide proof myself, I have nothing (lets say if I decide to sell the car) - no performance test, no refilled amount, no leak test results and even registration number and mileage is wrong. Regarding the parking fine - they asked me to send them over the receipt of me paying it and the picture of the charge itself, so I expect them to cover it soon. All in all, they are completely useless for any work, but I must give credit to their customer service team for at least refunding it and not making even bigger issue here. But imagine somebody less knowledgeable going there - would come out without money, without service and with extra £65 parking fine.

Most of the plastic trims you can easily pop out and route the cable without needing anything extra to secure it. Surprisingly on Lexus clips rarely breaks and further you don't need to fully remove any pieces. I just fitted dash cam into GS300, but I have done a lot of work on IS250 as well (like removing whole dash)... so on IS250 my approach would be simply to push the cable behind the roof liner (it is soft and has no clips in the front, so just squeze the cable behind it and it should stay there), then pop the A-pillar cover which pops about 15mm out and stays attached with plastic hook (you need to pull it firmly at the top, but with brain), route the cable behind that, finally pop open side of dash cover, which pops easily and that should get you down to fusebox for hardwire kit. To clip everything back - just alight the clips and give them the light tap to get them back in place ("light" I guess it relative term). If you want to reach to cig lighter instead of hardwire kit, then I would go further and remove door sill cover, again it pops easily and over dozen time I did that I never broke any clips, then you can follow the main body harness and run the cable to ~middle of the passenger seat and route it under the seat.

I have replaced it. Myself I simply contacted like 5 sellers on ebay who were braking IS250/220d for parts and ask them specifically for matching kit... and one of them agreed to go and get it for me.

Before it is too late and thread is inevitably closed I just wanted to add this little video which conveniently appeared in my recommended videos list. I am not saying it is true or false, make up your own mind, but when somebody says "china this or china that", just remember china is not normal country, normal rules does not apply there and never trust what communists puts out in the statistics:

Just proves the point that UK government is failing when it comes to building the "infrastructure for the future".

Not worth updating this old sat-nav system, I don't believe maps after ~ 2016 (maybe 2019 for HDD version) are available for it and 4 years could make a massive difference. But even if you had the latest map... it is still slow and inaccurate, does not have real-time traffic updates and frankly quite useless. It is okey for general directions like driving from London to Birmingham, but apart of that gets quickly overwhelmed with traffic and small street layouts etc. Or indeed whole replacement system.

Yeah - you had odd issue there. But that is example of 1 out of 1, not saying you wrong, just that majority of owners do not have this issue. Asymmetric 3 = RT2 = Debica Presto UHP 2 = Sava Intensa UHP 2 ... all 4 are more or less same tyre, made in same factories, by the same company - all subsidiaries of Goodyear. Obviously with Goodyears Asymmetric 6 (F1 Eagle no less!) you get the most current technology and design, the rest in the list are more obsolete and approximately equivalent to Asymmetric 3, which if my math is right will be 12 years old product now. I had both Dunlop RT and RT2 and loved both of them, but again by now they are obsolete tyres which are outclassed by anyone in premium or midrange, they are kind of sold at mid-range prices as well so not a bad deal. I think common complain for RT and RT2 is crabbing, but for me that is not an issue, I understand that is the design of the tyre and trade-off between some noise in basically stationary car and aquaplaning performance.

Perspective matters... obviously coming from VW it is market improvement, but that isn't even valid comparison... because you comparing car for half the price and from completely different segment. It is like saying - "I got from Royce Royce into Lexus with Premier trim and I don't understand why they call it 'luxury car', it is all so cheap inside" - yes sure even best IS trim will be relatively poor compared with Royce Royce and even the cheapest trim will be exceptional compared to VW.

That is glass half-full vs. half empty argument. If BEVs market share is 38% (where in the world? UK, US, EU?) then it means 62% are NOT-BEV (again I do believe worldwide this percentage is significantly higher). I am not saying that I completely disagree, clearly there is a trend... but again people jump too quickly to the conclusions that if BEV market jumped from 25% to 38% in a year, then next year it will be 51%, and then 64% and so on... Again overlooked fact - 2/3 of BEV buyers are just upgrading old BEV only 1/3 are "converts". Now consider this - we all know that used BEV prices are just fell trough the floor, PX are horrible and many smaller traders don't even take them on. How long 2/3 of the owners will be able to continue replacing BEVs when they have such horrible depreciation? Remember - second hand market adds no value to car manufacturers. Again remember another fact - most of BEV owners are middle-class+, the people who can stomach 50% depreciation on 3 years old car and get another one. In short - I don't believe market expansion for BEV sales is limitless. I am honestly surprised it is more than 10%, nevermind 20%... clearly sometimes I am wrong, if you look for my post 3 years ago I said they will get stuck at 25% and I was clearly wrong. But still assuming opposite - that BEV sales just going to go up exponentially is also wrong. Let's not forget trend of converting back to PHEVs and ICE - some people tired BEVs, thought maybe it would work for them, it didn't and they are converting back... or simply because governments are now cutting back on subsidies the BEVs no longer makes sense, because taxpayers no longer paying 35% of the price... anyone remembers free charging for electric cars?! well those times well and truly gone now! And finally as for Chinese cars and the domestic market - I am yet to see really viable mainstream Chinese car being sold in UK at least, but even in wider Europe they are non existent so far, so I would not make any assumption on how well they will perform here. The chinese internal market was lucrative for automakers for a while, but it was big mistake and I would argue loss in long term. To sell to the market they had to give tech and form partnerships with Chinese companies, then their government stole all the trade secrets and now just within decade are selling cars 90% as good as western imports for cheaper... all based on stolen trade knowledge, patens etc. It is really surprising how people do not learn from their mistakes or "how blind if greed", but if I were on the board of major automaker I would write-off chinese market altogether, not worth doing business in and I would exit it right away, even as government official I would probably limit what company can own and what technology can they transfer to what is openly hostile regime and ideology. Remember - there is no probate industry in china, so any trade with china or any work is a collaboration with communist regime. I think after conflict in Ukraine this is becoming more appreciated and trade will slow down with China as well. So again I would not count too much on chinese goods or domestic market.

@santeri Sorry was away for some time Immo + steering lock + keys are codded together. So not only they must be matching part numbers, but as well programmed to work together e.g. regardless of what is part number for ID Code Box it must be from the same vehicle as well as keys and steering lock, even if all part numbers match they are not codded together and won't work. It is basically the same as taking your keys walking next to another Lexus and trying to unlock it, just won't recognise the key. That is literally what happened to me - I have replaced ID code box with keys, cars unlocks, engine starts, but the steering remains locked and I get DTC for steering lock communication. Then the rest of the parts must be just matching part numbers e.g. ID Code Box is 89783-53010 and matching Smart Key Module is 89990-53010. As long as they are matching part numbers they can be from completely different car. Say one from 2008 IS250 and another from 2006 IS220d. And there is some acceptable range but I don't know exactly e.g. in my case I had 53014 and 53011. Yes engine ECU can be reset to talk to new set of keys and immobiliser by connecting terminals TC and CG for ~40min. Strangely I have not found the way to do it on the diagnostics computer.

Ohhh... yes I get why he is doing it, the other reason as well is that RWD cars usually have staggered set-ups and that alters the balance of the car, so he tries to get the cars with square set-up. So I totally get why it is done that way. What I am saying - some of tyre characteristics, understeer, oversteer, communication, cornering speed etc. are not the same in FWD Golf as they are in RWD Lexus, so it is inevitable to filter trough what he concludes and sometimes it is hard to take review at face value, because it is clear the tyres won't behave as in the test.