Juicedrinker

Hello @NemesisUK, thank you for the reply. Maybe it is just lubrication then and I am worrying about nothing (I hope). Just had a battle with Toyota dealer regarding a fault on my partners Yaris (under 11,000 miles on the clock) which I had bought from them and found the issue could be rectified by a Technical service bulletin update regarding a replacement ECU due to the fault. Anyhow after a long struggle they replaced the ecu free of charge and it all works 100% as it should do now but after that lengthy battle (over a year) I am dreading any future warranty work.

Hello @Linas.P it is good news to hear that about the warranty and I appreciate your reply as see that you have a lot of Lexus real world experience from the forums.

Hello all, Bought a 2019 RC300H Takumi version (under 17,000 miles) about 3 months ago from a Lexus dealer and this model has the factory sunroof installed from new. To my horror it sounds like it is about to fail as when I opened it yesterday it made a terrible creaking sound both on opening and then on closing. It is nothing to do with the rubber seal or something simple like that it is something mechanical sounding. Has anyone had this issue with their sunroof at all?! I am dreading what is going to happen and will contact a Lexus dealer... I only hope that their used car warranty is actually good and not one of those 'get out of repairing' types that second hand dealers offer otherwise I will not be buying another Lexus in the future.

@Gary HWOW! Thats barking about Vauxhall and the brakes! As brakes are a very important component on the car you would like to think it would be sorted asap. I had a very serious / dangerous problem with brakes on my company Renault Laguna which had done c30,000 miles once at Olympian Renault who were at the time in Wallisdown Bournemouth. Won't bore you with it but after them failing to sort it out and handing me back a dangerous car that didn't stop when I braked as I left them the company lease company told me to throw the keys back at the service manager and leave car in the road where it was for them to sort out and lease company cancelled any further work by Olympian at any of their dealerships; Then I ordered a new car (not a Renault I should add). Had a really bizarre fault on a company Vauxhall Cavalier in early 90's that have never experienced in any car since (fortunately) or even heard of. I stopped the car one day and removed the key from ignition and the engine was still running then it stopped. I started it again and turned it off and this time all fine. I knew I hadn't imagined it so tried again as if I had just pulled up and found that if I turned the key to the off position while my foot was still on the brake pedal the engine kept running (even if I removed the key) however once I lifted my foot off the brake pedal it shut down. I tried to explain this to the local Vauxhall dealer over the phone and it was clear that they thought I was mad until I took it to them and showed the mechanic, then he went in and a number of people from service and sales came out to see it themselves and they were all completely dumbstruck. I left it with them and a few days later was told it was sorted but they never ever told me what they did and as it was a lease vehicle (and we had over 1000 in the company) I could not find out.

Or what about a Fiat Multipla!!!!!!!! When I worked for Guinness GB years ago I could not believe with all the vehicles that were available for Sales and Technicians from the fleet company a muppet in the sales team actually ordered one of these as his company vehicle thinking it was really cool and 'funky'. He regretted it at every Regional meeting thereafter😂!

Hello.... I live in Oxford also and from someone who has had Lexus cars for over 8 years and serviced / repaired only by Lexus may I suggest the following - 1. You never ever go to Jemca Reading for any work (I have very good reasons to state this) which has been mentioned on other areas of the forum 2. Apart from the one huge mistake of going to Reading I have only ever dealt with Lexus Swindon and they are absolutely SUPERB They have always tried to make the experience the best dealer service you will have. I have had probably 30+ cars in my life both personal and many business ones across most brands and averaged 45,000+ per annum for over 25 years. Lexus Swindon are the best I've ever dealt with they also operate the Lexus parts direct website that a lot of people across the UK use and you will se mentioned on this forum as their pricing for genuine Lexus parts is very competitive. The only one issue that i have is that their service department is closed at weekends but apart from that nothing else. They have always offered a loan car, lift to and from town centre whilst car being worked on or if I sit and wait an endless supply of drinks, biscuits etc.

WOW!! regarding your seat that is really incredible to say the least!! There is definatley something that goes on with warranty claims at main dealers. My Uncle was a dealer principle of a Jaguar Land Rover dealership and then a Honda Dealership until his retirement. I used to be able to find out all the ins and outs of 'how things work' in dealerships eg he used to explain to me about the massive bonuses / rewards they earned for hitting certain sales targets on certain models at different times of year (I'm sure its linked to market share growth target figures vs other brands) even if selling at below net price and especially huge bonuses on service department with Honda regarding customer service satisfaction reports. He said they made negligable amounts on the actual servicing but were targeted to increase customer base numbers and got huge bonuses for doing that. Years ago an ex fiance of mine had a 4 year old BMW 5 series and her feral kids twice(!) in one year broke the rear armrest retractable cup holders and each time the Carlisle BMW dealer replaced the whole armrest free of charge (even given my fiance a loan car) each time!! I had told them it was the kids fault as wanted them to learn some form of responsibility (previously) they had dented her 3 years old Alfa Romeo roof because they climbed onto it and jumped up and down a few times! I was flabbergasted that they did the armrest / cupholders for free but guess they just claimed the work cost back from BMW centrally.

Ah that is very interesting and again makes sense! Im sure the only reason they really want to service the cars is to find either a fault to make a sale direct to customer or a warranty permmissable fault to claim back from Toyota. Or maybe I am wrong about that. You mentioned about your seat warranty claim. I guess you have been through it all on here before but basically was there an issue which they seemed more than happy to pursue / rectify? If so I assume they get full payback from Toyota HQ.

I guess that makes sense, as now "Relax" offers level of protection which is unmatched in the industry, so providing it with discounted servicing would not make sense. I guess they could have added "Relax" only to normal servicing and not "Essential Care", but probably they didn't want to advertise "Essential Care"/make it look like you paying for "Relax Warranty" as the point of marketing is that you getting it for "free". So if you can get cheaper servicing without it, then one may deduct that "Relax" isn't actually free. Obvious problem is just that now it no longer makes sense to service cars that are no longer eligible for "Relax" with Lexus, because Lexus servicing are now priced in line with it being combined service+warranty, yet on older/higher mile cars you only get half of the value. Now I wish they have kept "Essential Care" for cars over 10 years instead of 5 years, but that is moot point - they didn't. All very good points and 100% correct in what you say. They probably also don't want to deal with over 10 year old cars which is fine with me. If I have a car over 10 year old again I will go to one of the really good independents that I know of for servicing and repairs although the hybrid battery will still need a Toyota / Lexus annual check.

You are 100% correct about this, sadly a lot of people (maybe because they just have no interest) do not even have the most basic of understanding about cars they simply drive them. Which is all fine and dandy until you get someone unscrupulous take advantage of this fact and charge for work not required. I've recently got an issue with a Toyota main dealer regarding my fiances car that I bought 3 years old 3,000 miles from them a couple of years ago. Basically she has had an issue with it from day one which I told them about and have shown them (it has now done 11,000 miles / 5 years old). It has become a real issue over the past year as front proximity sensors trigger for no reason at all can be on an open motorway, parked 10m away from a building, driving up a slope etc etc. They start screeching and warning of an imminent collision and although you can temporarily stop by pressing a button it is only temporarily bas re triggers a few moments later if still parked opposite wall, going up slope etc it drives us both nuts. Toyota dealer whilst acknowledging an issue said not a warranty claim and they would charge me to look into it and repair it. Anyhow through further investigation via my day job I found a technical service bulletin that was issued by Toyota for her exact model / year of manufacture regarding proximity alert ecu issue and how to rectify. Toyota specifically advise dealers to replace with a new ecu that fixes the fault that is present on the original ecu. I requested the Toyota dealer fix this (quoting the Toyota Service Bulletin code) whilst it is in for annual service and whilst they acknowledged this TSB code etc they have told me that I will be charged for the repair / fix as not a warranty issue! I have told them that if they charge me I will be getting my money back from Toyota HQ and reporting them because you can not have a fault with a car that is a clearly recognised as a potential issue by Toyotas own TSB admission and then charge the customer. I should add that I bought the car from this dealer and also a 3 year service and MOT plan so am a good customer of theirs. I really despair at main dealerships and once my service plan is finished with them apart from a Hybrid battery check which I will pay for I will go back to using a very reputable local garage that has maintained all her cars in the past perfectly.

I just saw that you mentioned 'Essential care' has that been discontinued?

You have hit the nail on the head with all that you have said here. Ironic that Lexus Reading did not check your brakes properly pre selling to you as they are notorious for recommending pad and disc changes that are not even required (as happened to me last year). They stated (and I still have service paperwork) around 20-30% left on front pads and discs badly scored, 30% on rear pads. Change pads immediately all round and discs on front and even told me to sign paperwork as I would not do it and was taking car away from their dealership 'when not recommended for driving'. They did not know that I work in Motorsport and I said unless something dramatic has gone wrong with the braking system the pads can not have worn down that much and the reply I got was 'so you know more than a Lexus technician do you?'. As I regularly have my car up on a ramp to check underneath, suspension, brakes etc by an ex Rolls Royce mechanic I work with who moved across into race engineering I decided to take it home as it was. Anyhow long story short my service a year before said 70% front pads / 80% rear pads and the discs had been replaced by Lexus less than 20,000 mile previously and I am very gentle on my brakes on all cars. A few days later took it to Swindon Lexus and asked them to change whatever needed as per Reading Lexus, front discs and all pads and check braking system as maybe something wrong. The Lexus technician spoke to me 30 minutes later and said 'Why do you want the front discs and all pads changed?' Front pads 60% left on them, rear pads 70% and nothing wrong with discs at all, tested on MOT test system and braking perfectly and fully balanced. I showed the the Reading Lexus service report and the technician said 'they clearly must of been looking at a totally different car!'. I phoned Reading and said what another dealer had told me (would not mention which one as did not want to cause any issues as get on really well with Swindon) and after going on hold for about 5 mins they said 'oh maybe when the technician wrote there was only 20-30% left he actually meant that they were only 20-30% worn!'. I asked how then does that logic affect the front discs being scored badly and need replacing when they do not and he said the technician thinks that maybe me driving it afterwards had 'smoothed the surface off'.

Interesting that you have said this as has been this very discussion on the forum under 'Lexus service a natural decline'. I've experienced very poor dealerships but also a brilliant dealership (namely Swindon Fish Brothers). So there are still some good ones out there but sadly Lexus have definataly been dropping the ball over the past couple of years. A very foolish thing to do as premium standard of customer service was always their USP and kept brand loyalty against competitors with better ranges / choice of vehicles. If they lose this key advantage they will lose a lot of market share very quickly.

Yes thats absolutely correct and I've used them a few times. They are also less expensive for installing parts than Lexus Reading along up the M4. Last year an offside front caliper cost £412.00 at Reading, a few weeks later I decided to have the NSF caliper changed as was the same age as the other one was and thought that it may fail. I went to Lexus Swindon and they charged £299.00 for the NSF caliper a saving of £113.00 for just being in a different location! (thats the dealer not the location of the caliper 😂)

Regarding my RC300H I can now update the outcome of the dealer rectifying issues. n a nutshell the dealer collected the car and left me a loan car to action the correct major service (they had sold me a 4 year old car that was meant to have full Lexus service history) but actually only had 3 services which were all minor ones and totally at the wrong times / mileage! Also to supply and pair the second key which they had failed to give me and set up global opening and closing. The loan car (I guess was taken without the sales person who used it knowing it was going!) as contained empty vape cartridges, a bag of what looked like womens clothing, school leaflets, sunglasses, sweet wrappers, school fleece, dirty interior, exterior etc. It didn't bother me but my fiance thought that was poor especially the children's school info etc. Anyhow I was grateful to be able to try the UX model out in case I wanted one on the future. They said it would take a couple of days but due to factors it ended up being a week which was fine with me I was able to Autoglym the exterior of loan car thoroughly and give it a good trial. This was very helpful as the UX would not be suitable for us at all especially the ridiculously small boot. The service person called me after it was completed to say that all ok except I needed a new OSR tyre now and in the next 500 or so miles would need a new NSR tyre. This infuriated me because I have worked in Motorsport for over 12 years (tyres and tyre compounds are something that I deal with nearly every day of the working week) and when I looked over the car I specifically discussed with the sales guy that the OSR was close to limit on part of the tyre and the NSR wasn't looking great either. He spoke to his manager and came back with 'it passed our Lexus service standards so all is ok and we can not change the tyres or discount'. They informed me £255 per tyre special price (I can get the same tyres for less through my work but wanted it sorted while it was with the dealer), so explained what I had said about the tyres when I looked at car and said I also had email communication regarding this (I always get email confirmation of anything discussed when buying expensive items). I said that she needed to speak with the sales manager as I had only had the car 6 weeks, it was at the top end of price it should of been and I would not pay for new tyres. In all fairness to them within 10 minutes I had a call back saying both tyres would be replaced free of charge. I then suddenly thought that I had better check the key fob situation and surprise surprise she knew nothing about the second key or the pairing of it and setting up for global opening and closing. She looked into it and sales had forgotten to tell them or give them the key fob. I received the car back and major service done, new tyres and key fob supplied but they had not programmed for global opening / closing; Anyhow all else was fine. They were trying to sell me a service and MOT plan but I didn't want to give them anymore business so contacted Swindon Lexus where I have always had my previous Lexus's serviced. As usual they could not have been better, I set up the plan with them easily and then they asked me about what had been done to resolve my issues with the dealer that sold me the car. They told me that under no circumstances would they ever loan a dirty car and even more so with personal belongings in it, I said it didn't bother me only my fiance. I then mentioned the key fob global opening and closing and could I get it in / pay to have this set up and they replied 'just let us know when you are in the area and we can arrange with you to drop it in at a convenient time and we will do it for you free of charge'. I am utterly amazed at how good Lexus Swindon service department are, I have never had a bad experience from them in all the years that I have dealt with them and although well over an hour from where I live (and there are two much closer dealers) I will continue to use them everytime.

Lexus LBX..... oh no what are they thinking!🤮

You are absolutely right with what you have said there about the inconsistent practices - its ridiculous. Also because of this it seems you have to question, check everything that they say and provide evidence to support your case which is so irritating. My partners 4 year old Yaris Hybrid had its service and I had told them that there was a fault with the front parking sensors in that they get triggered at very random points when driving by a leaf blowing past, exhaust vapour from a car a mile away, spec of dust drifting across (ok a bit of an exageration :)) but makes my partner edgy when the car suddenly warns of an obstruction ahead that isn't there. They are ridiculously sensitive and trigger for no reason at all. They said no fault found and all ok, I went outside with her to drive off and as soon as I started the car was warning me of proximity danger at front, I was still stationery and the object in front was the dealership building but it was at least 8m away. I went back inside they sent the service person out and he said oh yes that's not right but don't know what it could be and we haven't got any available appointments today so bring her back in future and we will keep her for a day / look at it again. When I got home I did some research myself through my work system and found that Toyota were very aware of this issue on the 2018 Yaris models and had implemented a free 'chip' change / fix completely rectified this but were not doing it as a recall and only if the customer complained about the issue and insisted it to be done. Toyota however had rectified it for 2019 models onwards. I PDF'd the information and emailed the dealer and they said they knew nothing about it at all but would order the chip and replace free of charge. Its a bit mad that its the customer who has to do the work to identify the fault to get it sorted especially with a company such as Toyota who seem to recall cars for the pretty much everything.

That’s good they were fine with you, it is weird how things vary and seems to depend on who you get on the day. Unfortunately for me with Reading it started when I went with my partner to look at an IS250 they had for sale, my partner said that the way the receptionist was and how she spoke to us (looked down) forget it and spend your money elsewhere which is what I did. As an example the last (and only time in late 2022) I went there for a service as couldn’t get to Swindon (they are closed on Saturdays!). Needed a minor service they identified a small leak on Air conditioning condenser (ok), new nsf calliper required (ok as I was expecting / hoping that due to something not feeling right occasionally although two independents couldn’t see anything wrong). They also said I needed new front pads (30% left) and discs (heavily ridged) and new rear pads (25% left) I had new Lexus discs / pads less than 20,000 miles before and am known for being gentle on brakes / making them last a long time even on sports cars I’ve had in past. I challenged this as it is a thing that most if not all Reading dealers often say you need new pads and or discs when you don't, my friends with Aston’s, Range Rovers and Audis have experienced this also. the service person said well it’s clear you think know more than a Lexus technician, I didn’t bother answering that but what he didn’t know is that in my workplace every couple of months we get our cars up on the ramps and a Motorsport mechanic friend of mine checks underneath, pads, discs, tyres and a quick look for any potential leaks on suspension etc as a favour. the price for discs and pads seemed high and I wanted to get car checked over by another dealer, so I just had calliper done at c£410 and said leave the rest. I contacted Swindon branch and chatted to them and they were amazed the discs and pads needed doing as on prior service figures had 70-80% left on them, but they ordered in a set of pads and front discs, air condenser and a new calliper as I didn’t want one new one one side and the original on the other (I had full history of everything done to the car and it was still on the original callipers amazingly)! the upshot was that Swindon did the other sided calliper for £120 less than Reading, condenser £100 less and what a surprise they said why did I want my pads and discs replaced as they had a long time to go in fact my pads at front were c70% left on them and the slight ridges were negligible and my braking on the test centre rig was fully balanced and fully compliant. I showed them the info that Reading had given me on the service report sheets regarding the pad depths and they said they must of been looking at another car or should have gone to Specsavers 😂

That’s great to hear. I am pleased for you that Reading Did not answer. To say I’m disgusted with their service and attitude would be an understatement and I will never ever get my Lexus or Toyota serviced in Reading, I drive over an hour away for both vehicles for each service

Hello all, I am now in a position to give my view on the standards at the Lexus dealership I bought my RC300H from. I did not want to give full details before until I had given them the chance to rectify (which they have just completed). The dealer I used to have my last Lexus serviced at (Swindon) could not get a used model that i required so I had to purchase from another dealer. At the time I bought I explained I was not happy with the offside rear tyre at all (wont go into the specifics but I have worked in motorsport for many years and had a good reason to not be happy about it. The sales guy said Lexus technicians would not have approved it during the very recent service if it was not ok so I had to accept that. Anyhow I was delivered the car and the driver said 'you do know it only has one key?'. That riled me as it was an expensive purchase and at no point did the sales guy say it was short of a key. Then after the delivery driver had gone I looked at the service book which had not been shown to me before, I was told 3 services done by Lexus and all as they should be. The service book didn't match at all and I spoke to a Lexus contact I had who validated that the service book was accurate which meant that they had in fact not completed any major service at all and it was now 4 years old. Long story short I complained to Lexus HQ and within 30 minutes the dealer principle phoned me to sort things out. He agreed their service department had failed to do the correct service, he agreed that I was meant to have a second key but he said he couldn't do anything about tyre as passed the service. He said I needed to bring it back asap to have the brake fluid etc changed and have the full 4 year, 40,000 mile service done foc plus the second key paired. This dealer is 2 hours from my home and I said I was not prepared to lose time off work and drive over 2 hours each way in my own time to put right what should of been done in the first place. In all fairness to him he was brilliant, he arranged for a really nice loan car to be delivered to me and my car collected for the work to be done. When the service was completed a service person contacted me to advise that lo and behold the rear tyre was close to limit and would need changing in the next month or so and they would do at a special price of £255! I knew that the other tyre on the axle would need changing in next 8-10k so I said there is no way I'm paying for a brand new tyre when I queried this at the start and was told service said it was fine plus they did not supply me with any of the service paperwork to cross reference. They said they would speak with dealer principle and ten minutes later phoned back to say they were replacing both the rear tyres free of charge!!! They have now returned the car to me with all work completed and nothing to pay and collected the loan car. The driver was a really nice person as well and clearly passionate about Lexus. So I am extremely happy with what they have done, they acted rapidly, sorted the immediate issues (service and key / pairing) and also replaced the two rear tyres free! Absolutely brilliant work and I would highly recommend Snows of Southampton to anyone looking for a Lexus and will not hesitate to buy my next Lexus from them.

Good morning, not sure if this comment was directed at myself but if so I am in both Berkshire and Oxfordshire in the UK

Hi all, unfortunately there is definitely a dramatic downward change with regards to some Lexus Dealerships. I have to say that Swindon branch where I used to get my IS250 serviced and recall work done are brilliant in everyway and really excelled in both their attitude and the work that they did. However my personal direct experience of two other dealerships has been really infuriating and costly! I am currently in the middle of a huge issue regarding an RC300H 2019 that I bought a month ago from a main Lexus dealer. I will not go into details on the specific branch as I have reported them twice to Lexus HQ for the sales guy clearly misleading me and for them NOT working to or knowing the Lexus servicing schedules; I will not name them as trying to resolve amicably. As soon as (if) this is all resolved I will explain fully but for now all I will say is that while I have a Lexus I will only ever use Swindon for servicing and repairs, although it is over an hour from where I live they have always been honest and straight with me and really do all they can to act / represent a Premium brand as it should be represented. I became a loyal / avid Lexus fan over the past 7 years but sadly my current experience has made me think that I will never buy another Lexus in the future or at the very least never buy from a main dealer and only use Swindon for work required.

Hi all, just wanted to give an update as I have finally (at last) had my airbag replaced, an essential minor service and air con cleanse / re-gas. I ended up going to Lexus Swindon and have to say I am extremely pleased with everything about them! The whole Atmosphere in the dealership, the service manager and front of house reception were lovely people and the technician who I met outside when I arrived was also brilliant. I am very thorough with my cars and check all lights, tyres etc at least once per week and had new Michelin Cross Climates less than 1,000 miles ago. The technician found a small (and I mean small) bulge / damage to the inside of a front tyre that I know could of potentials been extremely dangerous / have blown out!!! It was amazing he spotted it and shows just how thorough they were at checking around. When the service manage brought the car around to me we spent ages trying to find it and whilst extremely small I never take any risks at all with tyres so ordered a new one from a business I use. I get ridiculously good prices on tyres as work in Motorsport and have great contacts but unbelievably the service manger said he would not only match but try to better the price that I could get!!! On top of this I wanted two new wiper re-fills / rubbers, I have had a Michelin equivalent and whilst perfect at clearing I did not like the ‘J hook’ appearance. I still can not believe it but I was told they could not supply just the rubber but only the complete piece. I said oh well I will just have to pay the £50+ for the two and when I got the invoice the total for both of them was under £20!!!!!! In fact I am totally confused with their invoicing (doesn’t really make sense) but the cost of everything was superb and my Mazda MX5 is FAR more expensive for parts and servicing which I have done at Mazda. The best company I had ever dealt with before was BMW Carlisle but even though the service was fantastic it was all a bit too pretentious and uncomfortable in the dealership and the people were totally ‘up themselves’. The experience I had yesterday at Lexus Swindon was without doubt the best I’ve ever had and I have had a huge variety of brands both company and private. So I’ve decided that after the summer my Mazda is going and next year when I get a pension through i am buying a used RC as love everything about Lexus.

I was just really surprised by the variable response etc from the Lexus dealers I have dealt with so far, as prior to this I had seen all the reports about how good they are. I would never have a personal BMW again (dont like their image) but the level of service / back up parts department etc I got from BMW Carlisle was just unbelievable in every way (simply perfect the best I've ever known) during my 4 years / 90,000 miles of ownership. My Mazda dealer is excellent to, so much so that I drive 180 miles round trip for the service