Hi all

You may remember my thread http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=9552& about the problems with service book (took a year).

Wrote an e-mail to Lexus GB yesterday, and so it's all moved forward a very long way this morning. LExus GB, incidentally, have been a great help in pushing this forward.

Got call from dealer manager half hour ago......long story short, the 42k mile car I bought from them with FSH to follow........DID NOT HAVE THE 30K SERVICE DONE. I'm not happy!!!

So.....he said to me, as gesture of good will, we'll pay for your next 2 services (approx £400 !?!). No way. So my car has been driving around on the same oil, filter etc. for 20k, and, more importantly, I'll NEVER be able to sell it.

He said, other possibility we have is to swop your car for an equivalent car, or offer you a very good deal on a slightly newer car.

I said ok, go away, come up with some numbers, and let me know this afternoon what your offer is.

FYI, my car is a 2000W IS200sport in granite sky, exmoor leather, parking sensors, 50k miles. (when bought it was 42k ish). (no sat nav). Bought for £13500.


So, my question is (and I'd appreciate advice from Chris Shipley and other dealers on this).....what do you think I should ask for / do ?

I'm really quite worked up and adrenalin filled about this now.....my pride and joy which I've been cleaning for a year (and had bumper sprayed, wheels refubred etc purely to make it look nicer) I now find out I will be unable to sell, and is now probably worth £1-2k less.

HELP!!!!!!!!

What's your thoughts people !?!?!

Anyone any thoughts ?!

Someone elses point of view on this really would help

Thanks again
Tony

If you like the car why cant they supply you with a NEW service book and stamp it up to date along with the offer of free servicing and get something else thrown in as a good will gesture,or wait untill they get back to you with some no's before you make up your mind on purchasing a newer model.

Push them as far as you can go with the freebies though.

My main worry is for when I come to sell the car.

They can, and are, stamping up the service book for the 10/20/40 services as we speak, regardless of my decision.

As you say, I'm not going to make a decision until they come back to me with numbers, and even then I'll go away and think about it. I just really wanted everyone's opinions on if I'm expecting too much, too little etc. etc.

Oh, and I just spent £400 on new tyres (literally 3weeks ago)

I would go for a new car to the same value yours was worth when they sold it to you ,Not having that oil change has efected your cars resale and its certainly not done the engine any good ,plus its not the car you thought it was .Why should you pay any extra for a new car .If you had known this two weeks after you bought it you would have backed it .I thought lexus only sold cars with fsh and on this basis i think you have a right to a car to the value of yours when you bought it or a full refund

Phew, i'm glad someone's thinking along the same lines as me!!

I agree with you, Mudzs.

My two big worries are:
1) The car's now worth alot less
2) I won't be able to sell it

Personally i would'nt worry to much,as long as its stamped in the right place so it wont look out of place on the srvc book.I would certainly make them service it straight away,and i'd want to be there too to watch that its done and if they find ANYTHING wrong with it then they can do it for FREE(might be worth taking it somewhere else to get a pre-test)in case ball joints,and more expensive things need doing to it.

At the end of the day Tony its wether YOU are happy with the car or not.....

its ultimately your decision,you are in control here dont forget that.

Good luck.

I think your right tony the car is unsellable unless the price was much lower to allow for missed service .I think the least you should expect is a car the same spec as yours with all the extras you have on yours fitted free plus a goodwill gesture of a few free services etc.But i would aim high and see what happens i think you are in a win situation no matter what.

Unsure if we're confusing one another, scorpion?

It did not have the 30k service, so there will be NO stamp in the "30" space, ever, in my service book - that's the problem I'm faced with.

Oh hang on, do you mean it's just going to stamp the next available space, so it will say 10/20/40, and not look out of place? Ah, think I'm with you now.

I love the car to bits, but I'll be honest, it really has made me feel uneasy about it now. I don't know why....it's still exactly the same car.

Maybe I'm being a bit stupid about this....!

Even if they stamp book as above you can not sell or advertise the car claiming it has a full lexus main dealer s/h

If you feel its not right,then push for eveything you can.

Just to throw in more confusion then.....when you buy a car and it comes with a FSH do you contact the service department to check that its had all of its scheduled servicing done on the said dates!!!...i know i dont?

If your saying the space is empty between the 20k and 40k stamps and they service it NOW you could ammend the dates so that it all ties in,you know the cars fine mechanically and you've been driving it around for all this time.

It's a good point that, Scorpion.

I'll speak to them more when they ring me this afternoon, and see what they are suggesting, I'll then take it from there. Certainly it would be hassle to change car (change plates, change my wheels [std, but refurbed and 4 x brand new eagle f1's] etc)

Thanks again for your points of view, people

i reckon go for the new car.. land get them to pay for changing your plates over. and also tell em your taking the wheels over to the new car. on top of a few free services. and anything else you can get.

Yep, agree. Go for the newer/another equivalent car and try to get away with any additional money they may try and charge you. Tell them about any additional work you had done to your current car (ie spray jobs) and make sure the newer car is in top condition.

Also, take your wheels with you and get them to pay for the plate transfer.

You could be cheeky and ask for some free servicing as well.

Good luck Tony

Depends on how you're planning on selling it. If it's going to get traded in then the price offered by a deal won't be affected by this to any significant degree in my opinion. Every car I've ever traded in the dealer cares not a whit about the full history. Might mean a hundred quid or so, which you can get back by haggling anyway.

If you're planning on selling it privately that's different, cos private buyers do care more.

Yeah, 99% sure it would be private sale - which is why I'm fairly annoyed by it.

I seem to be in agreement with the consensus here......go for the new car, swop my wheels over, and get them to pay for plate transfer. Also see what else they'll offer me as it's been a long hard struggle (1year exactly on 1st feb!) and I've had nothing but trouble with them.

Thanks all
Tony

Been doing some looking on lexus.co.uk at the current cars they have there. A few granite sky sports, around right mileage and price, with sat nav. the sat nav could be my bonus as it were!

ooog sat nav,,, cant live without it now...

Check the service history

already thought of that one !

Whatever they come up with, don't accept the first offer.
They'll obviously be looking to benefit from it themselves too.
Probably by a 'good' trade in against an overpriced new car.

Free servicing is a VERY cheap offer for them to make.
Interim service will cost them an oil filter and some oil.
So about a tenner all in then - if that !!

I have sold quite a few cars wear the buyer hasn`t even looked through the service book!!

In short, you will still be able to sell it for about the same price. If you advertised to for sale, i`d bet my bottom dollar that someone would buy it even though it missed its 30k service. If you love the car and don`t want to get rrid of it yet do so.... otherwise if you can get another car that you like with some extras thrown in for good measure for their ***** up even better.

Have to admit when I bought my GS it was based on it being a FSH. When the ACTUAL moment came and the handover was made, I looked at the service book and one was missing. Decided I didn't care, especially as I'd traded my existing car in on the basis of a FSH and when I ACTUALLY handed it over remembered it wasn't...dealer didn't care either.

There you Tony!!! i rest my case

Let us know what goodies you get for there error mate... good luck

Will do guys....I'm awaiting for his call now (he said he'd ring me back this afternoon sometime)

Thanks all for your comments!

Oh that's good - i am relieved ...
because we all know they're completely reliable when it comes to calling back

If they do, it simply confirms there's a profit in it for them somewhere

Cynical?? Moi??

Glad to see it's moving now.

I would deffo go with a swop of some sort. As well as any deal you sort I would insist that they swap foc any bits you have added to yours and repay any money you have spent on it. After all they have misrepresented the car and failed to rectify / notify you quick enough. To me this is a very serious offence.

You want a car same age or newer, same spec or better, same miles as when bought or less .......... the list goes on.

assuming u have a space where the 30K service stamp should be just get them to stamp that bit- on paper has FSH, so no loss in resale value. Even if there is no space get another service book, its not hard for them to do.

They will not stamp the book if they ain't done the service its a bit like fraud

Would you want to be the buyer that had bought the car next not knowing (until you came here) that the car's 30k stamp was missing?

No no no....stamping service book when it hasn't happened is fraud, plus, it's a genuine car I want - and also a genuine car that I want to sell on to a genuine person as well!!!

So, anyhow.....update. They (Worcester Manager) rang me (lateish) last night. I'm fairly sure I want to go down the alternative car route. So we started looking at what's in the Lexus range at the moment. Unfortunately there's everything but what I want. I really want to stick with a sport, and I really do like granite sky (it took me long enough to find a granite sky sport!!!). Must be manual.

So...I said to him, ok, now that we're talking and you've agreed to sort it, I don't mind if it takes a week or two (maybe more), because I....still....want the best car for me. He's going to search further, and ring me tomorrow to let me know what cars he has found.

I'm considering to myself though that, as I'm going to get the hassle of a new car.......why go for an identical one? Why not a different colour, or +sat nav I'm thinking to myself!?

So....that's where we are at the moment.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled through the Lexus website, and w'ell take it from there

Thanks again for all your comments guys......they are appreciated!

As a garage owner this is how you stand.

as the law stands if you buy a car or indeed anything from a dealer in this case with fsh and you find in a reasonable period of time that it does not have what has been sold to you i.e fsh then the dealer is in breech of contract and as a result you are intitled to a full refund, they are by no means going to make this easy for you all you have to do is mention trading standards, or indeed court action if the car is on hire purchase you can also hold the finance company in breech of contract, you do have the upper hand here,

the above info is totaly factual.

Hope it helps

Many thanks Stu,

Comments taken on board and noted for next discussion

From Stu Sandy comments above, it would seem that you are entitled to a full refund. If you get this then you have had a years worth of depreciation free motoring, which in itself is worth quite a bit.

On top of this you have paid out on resprays etc, I reckon you should go for full refund plus what ever you have spent on it (excluding tyres if u want to keep them) you can then go and get yourself a car that is 1 year younger than your own and will have a few hundred quid in your back pocket plus a clean set of boots

seems like a fair settlement to me!

sorry forgot to tell you the law i refered to is "the sale and services goods act" this protects you from situations just like these, i think you can also claim for "out of pocket expenses" like paint and servicing costs this has to be a reasonable amount, you will also have to be able to prove the you spent the money

My 2pence worth is that if it was me I'd be reaaalllyyy p'ed off... and even if they sorted out the service book etc, I'd still think of the car, and all the bad times I had with it (same as when it sort of happened with my Beamer)
It's a bit like having a big crash in your car, it doesn't feel the same even when fixed (If you see what I mean?)

I'd go for the new car... Like you said there are some Dealers here so they could tell you if its a good deal... and try and get them (lexus uk?) to pay for any wheel/plate change etc.

at the end of the day its up to you.. Good luck!!

personally, I would ask the dealer to replace the car with a similar one based on the price you paid when you bought the car. Plus look for something a bit higher, to take into account the inconvenience and stress etc you have had.

Therefore, when you got your W-reg for 13,500 say 2 years ago, and a Y-reg now is say 13,500, tell em you want at least the Y, either with sat nav or go for an 01 plate. Therefore you are getting the equivalent of what you should have got originally when you bought yours, plus compensation for the hassle and errors.

Also, ask for free servicing and a load of other stuff as compensation. At the end of the day, they are in the wrong, and quite heavily. You could take them to court, through watchdog and give Lexus Used Car scheme and Lexus a very bad name.

They have a rep to uphold, and will do nearly anything to uphold that in this instance. I am sure there are plenty of car mags that would love to knock lexus of their top spot - what a story it could be for them!!

Keep to your guns and good luck

***UPDATE***

We have what appears to be a result!!

I won't say anything more at the moment, as it's only verbal, and I don't want to tempt fate.

It should be concluded (i.e. cars swopped) by the end of next week. I will say though that Tim Huxley (manager at Worcester) has, albeit following my e-mail to those high up, been very good in this matter. It was a problem he inherited, as he has only been there a few months, and has been fair and understanding.

The offer he has made, once haggled slightly, is fair on both parts I think.

I didn't want to claim for the earth (I wasn't shouting that I want a new car or anything like that!) but equally I wanted a fair swop with advantage my way because of the hassle - and that I have!!

So......tentatively I say.....thanks to Tim at Lexus Worcester!

When it's all confirmed and I have the different car, I'll explain the exact specs to you all!!

Thanks all for your support, and your comments, they have been incredibly valuable in helping me trying to decide what to do.

Watch this space......!

Tony

Is there any news?

Lexus Worcester have my old sport on their forecourt.
Sapphire blue with sat nav and body kit and quannan sensors all fitted by myself.
Also it's got the quad rear light conversion.
Is it this one they have done a deal with, coz when I got my 300 towards the end of Jan they said they had a home for it a gave me an unbelievable deal on the 300 with body kit. If it is shall we go halves on the 6 bottles of champagne for recommending a new sale

Well done mate! (Touch wood!)

Trust me your feel a lot better having got a different car. It wouldn't of felt the same in the old one, you'll feel a new man now its gone.

Its not nice to spend all that money and then get sc#*wed!

Has anyone heard how Tony got on with his car?

**An update for you all !! **

Sorry it has taken so long but, to be honest, the deal took a long time!!!

The result is that I now (received Friday) have an exchanged car, and I am a happy bunny. It's in great condition, has alot of my "bits" on it (sensors, wheels, tyres, bumper) and I am now truly happy with the car. Did get a bit angry because some clever sausage thought they'd do the locking wheel nuts up with the same torque as the std nuts......so I couldn't wax my wheels on Saturday morning (had to wait till this morn to get a breaker bar), oh and the sensors didn't work because they used a dicky earth connection.

All in all though, I'm well chuffed, and pleased that my car-saga is now over and I'm somewhat "settled" with everything.

Thank you to everyone for your comments and help through everything, and my sincere apologies for not keeping you more updated. It has taken a while, which hasn't helped, but my only other excuse is travelling too much with work.

Thumbs up Lexus Worcester (the new team.......not the old!)

Glad to see you got it sorted Tony and more importantly are happy with the outcome.