Hello LOC from a proud GS owner

Has anyone any experience of Lexus Canterbury - I heard they use same workshop as Toyota Showroom down the road. Are they honest, reliable and reasonable? (or is that a pipe dream?)

i have used there other dealership (tonbridge)and found them to be ok but they also use a toyota workshop and charge lexus prices .seems a long way for you to go for a service from twickenham

Most dealers use a Toyota workshop, not a problem seeing as Lexus vehicles are Toyotas anyway. You would pay a lot more labour if a Lexus dealer was to have their own workshop as there aren't enough cars out there to justify it - the other way would be to cut the number of dealers in half.

See your point on the newer cars colin but mine is 8 years old and an old supra under its skin.don't see why i should pay £20 an hour extra to have my lexus serviced at what is in the end a toyota garage with toyota mechanics just to get a service stamp that states lexus .would rather let a toyota mechanic do it and save myself a few £££'s as i am sure they are more than qualified .

Hello
I bought my IS200 from Lexus Canterbury & can honestly say they do a good job, you takes you car to them, they take your car to the Toyota garage, then you sit in a comfy environment drinking posh coffee while your car is worked on, it is brought back to the Lexus garage where they valet it for you then you pays your hard-earned
I think you can take it directly to Toyota, but its only about £10 pound cheaper (I think), but you wouldnt get it valeted which is well worth a tenner I think.
Your best bet would be to call around your local garages, both Lexus & toyota & compare prices, if you find any good results in Canterbury area let me know as its my neck of the woods.


Stuart

Canterbury is a bit of a hike from Twickers - but it's where the GS has been serviced since new and they previously forgot to stamp the service book and they said they would do that if I popped in.

As a service is due soon I thought I would take it there.

But can anyone confirm if the Toyota (Lexus) service computers are linked - if so can any garage pull up the service history?

Not sure about Canterbury, but they are the same group as Tunbridge Wells (Motorline) who i wasn't particularly impressed with (unwilling to help with a warranty issue) Twickenham on the other hand (part of Currie motors) were a lot more helpful! (and cheaper i believe)

Would it matter if you got your car serviced at Twickenham even tho it was previously done at Canterbury - its all FLSH isn't it?

you could always post your service book to them to get the stamp.

All good info, I will get a twickenham quote, as well as some others - but other posts seem to indicate Twickenham is very expensive compared to others. Has anyone experience of Reading?

Whilst on the subject, if anyone knows about suspension on GS300 MKII - its the first one I have owned - but seems there is a slight sideways "lollopping" when riding over some bumps - is this normal or an indication I should replace some shock or springs.

Many thanks for the advice

The suspension is sort of normal depending on how bad it is. What size wheels do you have? Get them to check things on the service just make sure they do work on it without your go ahead.

Wheels are the standard 225 R16 55 - (and well scuffed up - will replace them with 17s when I am allowed to spend the money (what with our first on the way).

I expected a much more level and stable ride from such a car but seems quite a sloppy ride (especially noticable side-to-side movement if only one side's wheel goes over a hump))

The lower profile tyres on the 17" wheels will help a little but there is quite a bit of body flex and the suspension is soft on the GS.

Been out in her today and took more notice of the ride.

To me is seems every single hump , bump and stone can be felt.

The slightest hump seems to be amplified and can throw the occupants around quite a lot. I am sure it is not right. There seems to be little overall stability.

I don't really know anything about suspension and would appreciate any advice.

I am cautious simply to give it to Lexus to sort without some prior knowledge to avoid being ripped off.

I bought my IS 200 from Canterbury - quite good on sales side but a bit of a shambles on the service side in the past e.g. forgetting to order parts required for warranty work, taking far longer than said they would for a service. Things may have improved since move to new showroom up the road. (haven't been back to them in a while.)

On plus side, price for services seem to be less than say Twickenham would be.

Mines the same especialy when on a corner or accelerating when i hit a bump the whole rear end seems to twitch .the dealer said it was the low profile tyres and large wheels ,still find it a bit unsettleing at times though

I have booked it in for a 9000 mile service and throttle clean. They are gonna check the suspension out as well and report. I will let you know what they come up with.

Not to sure about the service from Lexus Canterbury.

I bought a used IS200 Sport last year and they took a while to have the car ready for collection. When I did pick it up there was slight damage to a body trim which they'd not picked up upon and a small respray wasn't really carried out properly.

Also I've very recently found out that they didn't carry out the 20K service thoroughly (not replacing gearbox & diff oil nor the air-con pollen filter).
Not very impressed; will be contacting the manager shortly.

gearbox oil isnt down for replacement
diff is though

gearbox oil should be done every 40,000 miles (4 years)