eightk

Crap. This is exactly why Lexus need to pull their fingers out of their arses and get something useful announced. May I ask exactly what happened - did they get inside the car or into the engine bay? Any wiring damage anywhere other than the headlamp loom? What exactly was damaged? Do you have any warning signs or stickers advertising that the car has a Ghost? Steering wheel lock? Hope it’s not put you off the LC - don’t let the bastards win!

No idea on Tidal but I have a Spotify playlist downloaded on my phone and the Lexus (or any car) has never switched audio source on me while I’m using Spotify via CarPlay. Might be specific to Tidal?

As above one was recovered from a container bound for Dubai. From what little I know the cars are stolen to order then shipped overseas either whole or chopped into big chunks eg the front end with engine and suspension still attached so unless the evening’s shopping list includes an LC along with the usual half a dozen RXs I think the LC could be classed as low risk comparatively speaking. That doesn’t stop me worrying that my bumper will get ripped off the car though, or the car vandalised when they realise an immobiliser is fitted…

I just think an immobiliser installation paid for in quantities of hundreds of installs might be the cheapest option as if there was a simple fix as outlined in the post-Watchdog statement I’d have thought it’d have been introduced by now. Doing nothing will result in secondhand values dropping, lease and insurance costs going up and the same situation JLR was in.

£1800 insurance contribution and £15 million spent on retrofitting a solution to previous gen cars. Shame it was only after values plummeted and owners deserted them, but at least they’re trying. Over to you Lancia… Oh, sorry, I meant Lexus.

Good post from GLSV6 that sums up what will happen to Lexus if they delay any further or worse - do nothing. JLR have been in this position and realised the only way to get at least some of their customers back (although their reputation is ruined - it’ll be decades before this is forgotten - remember Lancia?) is by direct action to fix the problem on every car they produced. It’s not just Lexus/Toyota - Kia/Hyundai have a similar problem in the US - but it’s the company that steps up and addresses it that will keep their image intact https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-12930701/hyundai-kia-thefts-insurance.html I’m convinced Lexus themselves chucking a cheap immobiliser on each car is the fastest and cheapest option. Short of a wholesale redesign of the canbus system I don’t think there’s another option, but I hope someone more knowledgeable can correct me. edited to add JLR’s offer of £1800 towards your insurance premium following their now-£15million investment in retrofitting security to previous gen cars at risk of theft. Lexus take note - do something like this fast enough and you’ll still have customers, dealers and a brand image left. https://www.am-online.com/news/more-oem-support-to-tackle-jaguar-land-rover-customers-insurance-woes?utm_source=LexusOwnersClubUK&utm_medium=ForumLinks

Owww that stings. Having said that the handles on our Honda are £680 per side. Hopefully a few people will have crashed their LCs by the time I need one! Wheels - I have a spare set sitting in the garage from eBay for less than the cost of an LC door handle. It’s an undred grand car so it’s not surprising repair parts are expensive. Thing with Lexus is, in theory I shouldn’t need too many of them. Right? RIGHT?!

You are not the only ex-customer. As above, even a Ghost type thing would do far more good than Lexus sitting on their hands for weeks. Until every single car is protected none of us are protected against damage from a theft attempt. This is a brands reputation that’s at risk. Lexus don’t have the history, the motorsport or the ubiquity many others do - their reputation is solely based on customer service and quality - if as a business you lose that you may as well pack your bags. If they teamed up with Trackerteam or someone similar who has a network of fitters they could roll out simple immobilisers incredibly quickly at less than £200 per car. Brake light switch, gear selector, trans ECU, fuel pump relay - there are plenty of options that’d be easy to fit but a pain in the backside to locate, access and hack. Meh. I’m disappointed. It’s now May.

No, we’re destined for a class action court case unless Lexus pull their fingers out of their Sanderos.

Yeah, as the canbus tin plates are just, errr, tin plates they won’t be Thatcham approved and therefore no insurer will take them into account - this is the same as the Ghost type immobilisers - they’re not categorised under the Thatcham system. Unless EVERY single at-risk Lexus is protected AND theft rates go down AND insurers and the press and the public realise ANY Lexus is at no more risk than another manufacturers car we’re ALL stuck with insurers pricing in the high likelihood of theft, together with the resultant knock on effect on resale values. The only way that’ll happen is via Lexus’s ‘imminent’ solution (stop laughing at the back) protecting every affected car in the UK.

I’d disagree it’s a waste of time harassing your dealer - the more flak they get at a local level (loudly, front and centre of showroom, weekends preferably) the more likely it’ll be passed up to the ivory tower that is Lexus UK’s anti theft team (unless, as I suspect, they all left their laptops in their now-absent company cars a few months ago).

Does look good!

Congrats! 5 weeks October/November, garaged, 2021 car with no problem at all. My tracker has a voltage display on the app - it got to 12.5 ish volts I think, started no problem at all- it’s a Lexus!

Latest article (I agree it's not the original post-BBC Watchdog statement) is here https://mag.lexus.co.uk/lexus-uk-statement-on-vehicle-theft/ They said 'from April' - and here we are. I might email my dealer again and see if anything has progressed.

As above, the actual numbers are irrelevant. It’s the feel, the experience. 20 mph in traffic in this GT can in some ways be as rewarding as 70 mph on a country road in other supposedly similar cars. It’s mostly down to the engine but the design, quality and so on also play a part.

If the dealer won’t include something to protect against canbus theft I’d walk away. And I don’t mean a twenty quid steering lock - tracker and immobiliser should be included on any used Lexus at this point, until the ‘April solution’ that was stated in their post-Watchdog press release is introduced.

They’re not ceasing production, just ceasing import into the UK/EU so maybe there’s a chance of a grey import? No idea if that’s still allowed, but the cars are still being made in Japan for the foreseeable future.

Anyone missing half an ES? Might repair with duct tape. Note Maersk shipping container in background. From Essex police stolen vehicle unit on twitter… again…

That is a quality issue. It should be covered under the warranty surely. Yours is, what, 5 years old? Yes it's a seal but it's not exactly a moving part that would wear like an oil seal for example. Diagnosis would have taken time but the repair would have been a few minutes.

You can't start most modern cars without the brake light switch working - that's a very easy DIY option. There's also the fuel pump relay if it's not a hybrid. Even the gear selector is electronic - cutting the earth feed to that would stop the car driving.

There's two new cars showing on Autotrader at Cardiff Lexus. Stockport were advertising one recently but that's gone. I agree - the total number of 2024 UK cars will be vanishingly small.

I have a cat S5 tracker that my insurers required and upgraded to include an immobiliser on that for another £100. Well worth doing. Ghost etc also works but all these solutions are invisible - I've also added a sticker off ebay in the hope the peasants will leave my bumper alone.

No 😁

Yep - my dealer emailed me back last week as I thought it worthwhile to try and get near the front of the queue : "Good Afternoon Mr Eight, As per the article you have highlighted, we are awaiting Lexus to advise us which models are affected. I have kept a log of your enquiry and will be in touch as soon as we have an update, Lexus have advised we should have this by the end of April this year."

Yeah, I've fitted the Etsy controller and can't tell the difference. I need to mess around unplugging the valves and see if that does improve it a bit. Sticking a custom made mid pipe on to delete the secondary cat is still legal I think - the GPF is upstream of that somewhere I think - cheaper than a full catback and maybe a bit more subtle than an Armytrix or similar. There are loads of youtube videos on different exhausts but all the american/non-EU stuff is still without the GPF which really doesn't do the engine justice.