wharfhouse

The Lexus service schedule says to first change coolant at 10 years or 100k miles (which ever comes first) - my car is nearly 9 years old and with 135K miles. I did ask Lexus to change the coolant at 100K miles (and was happy to pay for it - at that time it was a charged for extra) but they tested it (I assume the pH level) and said no need to change it yet. Once the coolant has been changed it should then be changed on a 5 year (and I think 50K miles if that comes sooner) interval - I assume as not all the old coolant will have been drained out at the 10 year/100k mile change. My plan is to have the coolant changed at 150K miles (the car will be 10 years old based on current annual mileage at that time) along with the inverter coolant (which the service schedule says to be done then too) and then keep to the service schedule of every 5 years going forward from there. I have no leaks from the cooling system to date (keeping fingers crossed)...

Nice to hear a positive dealer story as there have been a few howlers on here of late! Maybe some are starting to take note that one of the advantages they used to have of above the norm customer service does have its rewards when it then comes to ongoing customer loyalty.

Maybe a data sync issue in that systems aren't updated on real time but it takes a day or two. As you have the email confirming cover then I'd just keep that to hand should you have any issues until that expires on 18/3/25.

Oh - if one camera worked I don't see why others didn't - it does know direction of travel and so if they were on the other side of the road it wouldn't beep, but of on your side it should. Did the cameras that didn't get a beep at show up visually on the maps?

Interesting about the private plate as I have one too but I've only had the one Lexus I have at the moment - if I change that for another Lexus I'd be in the same position as you... Will have to watch out for that. Hope you manage to get through to someone to solve what is essentially an IT issue. As you said sometimes a piece of paper and a membership card works with so much less hassle!

If it helps I had a dialog last year over email about LRA. This as you know is administered by the AA but has specific Lexus features. There is no documentation or card sent out anymore (reason given was "we no longer provide postal documents for complimentary cover and you will no longer receive new membership cards as we are working on reducing our carbon footprint and reliance on plastics") which is a bit unnerving as to whether cover is in place or not! However, they did confirm over email my cover. The email address I conversed with was initially cr@lexus.co.uk and my mail was forwarded from there to: lexusoperations@theaa.com and they were helpful. I also had emails directly from Johnathan Saunders, Roadside Assistance Sales Advisor (Lexus) - if he is still with the AA then his email was: johnathan.sanders@theaa.com. Hope one of those might help stir someone into action...

Yes, that's the way I have mine - I don't use the internal sat nav much now (I use Google Maps mainly on my phone) and my Voice setting (as above) is about one-third up and I hear the bongs (regardless of whether or not I'm using the sat nav or not) at what I feel is a sensible volume for me.

Have you got the Standard (rotary) or Premium (mouse pad) nav? If the Standard nav (like I have) then there is nothing about the speed alerts it in the sat nav manual but in the Owners Manual P328 it says that the volume of the voice setting is controlled via the Voice setting that IIRC controls the sat nav (and the linked bong) volume - see: If you have the Premium nav (I don't) then looking at the online manual there is more control over the Voice settings for nav I think and it looks like the beep sounds can be turned on and off (if that is the camera alert beeps - it's not clear) but it still seems to be linked to the Voice volume otherwise - see:

Have a read of the thread I've pasted below from 2020 - it covers what we have been discussing above - one of the posts by @Derant says: "Regarding the speed camera beeps, I have found you can turn them off/on by turning voice off in the set up menu, I don’t like voice directions when using the sat nav so turned off the voice option in general settings, this switched speed camera alert beeps off. Turned it back on and the beeps returned" and @Colin Crow also added: "On reflection, I think that's what happened to me in reverse. I turned the voice on to see what the spoken directions were like, and on a later journey I noticed the beeping - I didn't make a connection with the voice setting at the time." @Tony1452 it does seem like your sudden lack of speed camera alerts may be the same as the above observations and so possibly caused by inadvertently turning the naviagation voice volume down?

Sorry just reread what you wrote and may be a misunderstanding - yes my bongs work without the sat nav giving directions when I have no route set (with or without maps displayed) but if I have a route set then IIRC the sat nav directions volume is turned right down then the bongs are turned down in volume too. I think this then persists when there is no route set - so no bongs as the sat nav voice volume is all the way down still. There is definitely some link between the speed camera bongs and the sat nav voice volume but I remember it was not well explained in the manual and took some playing around with. Trouble is you have to keep driving around looking for speed cameras to test any changes...!

As I said I'm trying to remember when I first set it up as I know I struggled for a while and so when it was working as I wanted I left it alone after that! I don't have maps on very much but do like the bongs for speed cameras so that could also be a difference too. Another one is that I have the standard (rotary knob) nav and not sure if the premium (mouse controller style knob) may work differently?

As far as I can recall (as once I had set mine up I haven't changed it for many years) you only get the speed camera bongs if you have the voice navigation (telling you where to go) volume turned up as the volume of the bongs is linked to the volume of the sat nav voice (louder voice louder bongs). I don't think you can actually switch the nav voice off but can turn it down in the menu to zero (in effect the same thing but the bongs will not be audible then). Also, again IIRC a quick nav voice volume adjustment is when a nav instruction is coming out of the speakers turning the radio volume control up or down adjusts the volume of the sat nav voice (reverts to radio etc volume as soon as the nav instruction ends).

TBF lots of owners don't know what the bongs are - but as you say you would think he would have come across it before after all this time!

Mine is also a 2014 IS 300h and has always "bonged" when approaching speed cameras that are in the sat nav (though that hasn't been updated since the car was new). The loudness of the "bongs" is IIRC linked to the volume of the sat nav instructions - maybe worth checking that your sat nav instructions are playing correctly if you use navigation. If not then one of the menus controls the volume of the sat nav instructions.

I have the 10 Year Plus Extended Warranty on my 2014 IS 300h (as it's covered more than 100k miles) this is my second year of the warranty and it will be due for renewal again in November. It is true that some dealers are not that clued up on it but I'm surprised Lexus CR didn't know about it. It is a Lexus UK policy (not dealer specific) policy. I have all my car needs handled by Lexus Reading (part of the Jemca group) and not had any issues taking out the policy through them.

Interesting that they found it was a power spike that was the problem - presumably that happened on reconnecting the new battery.

As you have found NCB built up with one car policy is not applied to an additional second car policy. Some years ago my wife insured our campervan in addition to her own car. The (different) insurance company for the campervan granted her a starting NCB the same as her existing car NCB so worth asking the question. Another quirk though is if one has an accident on one of the two policies, when renewing the policy on which the accident didn't occur one still had to declare that as a driver on another policy one has had an accident which will then end up loading both policies. The insurance companies have set it up so they always gain and you always lose...

I think it's classed as 3rd gen hybrid

How many miles have you done since you purchased the car 9 months ago? Service interval is 12 months or 10k miles, whichever comes sooner. If you have done less than 10k miles then it likely wasn't reset at the last service but if 10k miles or more then the car is correct and a service is due to (regardless of the time since the last service).

By the punctuation I read that as LRA would pay to transport the car after an accident to the nearest Lexus centre but anything else would be for the insurer at the insurer's cost? In my case they took my car after the accident to the nearest Lexus centre which happened to be my local dealer at no additional cost to me.

Yes, unfortunately it's whatever the AA policy is on that. I am not really sure where drivers stand with accidents and breakdown companies. My daughters car was involved in an accident that left it undrivable (bent suspension). Called the breakdown cover and they said unless it's drivable (for example after they do a roadside repair) they do not assist, had to contact the insurance company (fortunately it was during the day) and they arranged collection. In another case I had someone run into the back of a trailer on my car. The car was drivable but the trailer was not towable. Again contacted my breakdown company (not LRA, another car) and had the same story, they could organise recovery but I would have to pay for that. I was able to contact my insurance company though who then organised moving the trailer to storage. When my Lexus was involved in an accident I contacted the Lexus assist and they did flatbed my car to Lexus for repair free of charge though.

Yes, maybe like you I am someone who will do their own independent research and then know where I stand (which I apply to many other aspects of my life) and so often I don't have so much push back as they know I won't take any BS. If I have an issue, once I've given the people in an organisation a chance to sort it out, if they don't then I generally escalate it to someone who can, no matter how high up I have to go. However, I know many people will not take a stand and organisations take advantage of that, pushing them from pillar to post to delay making any decision.

Yes as you say it's surprising when you see such differing reviews from the same place. I had the opposite experience when I asked Lexus Reading to check/replace some things and they came back and said no reason to change them when I'd already said I was happy for them to be replaced. They also listened to me over another issue including offering a tech to go out with me to listen to the noise I was reporting and then sorted the issues without a problem. Like you though I've had similar experiences in other dealerships (not Lexus) where I was told things needing replacing when clearly they didn't. It's a shame the whole car industry (and associated industries) seems to have such inconsistent practices leaving customers always on their guard and feeling that they are about to get ripped off.

Interesting - I bought my 2 year old IS 300h from Lexus Reading and I've been using them for the last 8 years for all servicing, MoTs and even tyres along with a couple of repairs and one body repair. I haven't had any reason to complain - in fact they have gone above and beyond a number of times. My wife bought a new Toyota from Toyota Reading (same company located next door) and again used for all her servicing needs and no problems with them for the past 4 years also. I've had poor service in the past (not from Lexus) and for a BMW went through many dealers before I found a good one so I don't put up with any BS. Unfortunately, I think it does come down to the people delivering the service and their attitude and how willing they are to listen and resolve issues as and when they arise and not to treat customers as a problem or with contempt.

It's a shame that you had to go through that experience - I have heard good things about Snows and pleased that they stepped up and sorted things out to your satisfaction. You would hope that the dealer principal would now be doing some "retraining" of those who clearly did not deliver the service they should have in the first place.