Lexus service experience

[Notamech]

Was just wondering how people's experience has been with servicing at Lexus. After reading and hearing so much about them going above and beyond and that you feel satisfied when you leave the dealership. I had my hopes up and unfortunately I found the service experience quite underwhelming and I've had much better experiences at independents / my local independent mercedes specialist (I previously had a merc) was the best ive had. Perhaps its the Christmas period or i dont know what... But my experience wasn't that great with Currie motors Lexus Twickenham. 

Positives:

- Friendly staff all very courteous 

- Overall came across as somewhat professional 

 

Negatives:

- I wanted to get the hybrid transaxle oil changed but they came across as very resistant. I would much rather their attitude be "we don't recommend it but if you want to do it it will cost you xx"  rather than its a sealed box we just don't touch it. I didn't want to argue with the service manager so I just let it be, thought id get it done at lexus Hayes that quoted 150 to get it done. 

- I was told that they would do a health report and send me a video and I will receive a call from the mechanic to talk through / get approval on any work needed. I received the video at 4:45 in the evening. In all my service experiences before I have always got a call from the person working on my car latest by mid-day to seek approval and get jobs that are possible done the same day. 

- I drove nearly an hour to get to them and was called at 5pm in the evening telling me my car is ready (only servicing done) 15 mins after they sent me the video and report with several things that potentially needed doing. So if i approved any of the jobs it just meant id have to pick the car at a later date. Also  5:30 is their last collection time. It takes me an hour to get there calling me at 4:45 / 5 in the evening to tell me to come pick up my car when there are potential things i might still need to do and the fact that i now cant get there on time didn't make sense to me. But fine maybe its just a different way of working to what ive experienced so far. 

- So I approve some jobs thinking they will do it first thing next day only to call next day and find out that the car is out of the workshop and either they have to order parts or that they will need the whole day to do something simple like brake shims and they cant guarantee they will give me the car by afternoon. We will do it the next time you come is the answer I get. So im like fine il just come and collect it with only the service done. 

- So i arrive and were going over jobs done and i had asked for an 80k major service to be done. I clearly spot that they've not replaced the differential oil. So i ask them why when thats what it said online and its what i paid for. Because we will do it at the next major service im told. Im like no i asked for an 80k major service and thats what i want. So they call the mechanic and come back to me saying yeah sorry actually we ran out of fluid (sounds like BS) so we will do it the next time you come free of cost. I mean wtf, if you ran out of fluid you should have told me you didn't do it and it will be done next time. Why was i told this only after I called it out? Also I think of myself as a bit car savvy and was able to spot this many others wouldn't. Customers shouldnt have to  double check that the professionals have done what they were supposed to. This last point really wound me up as its almost cheating. Had i not said anything I would have ended up paying for stuff that was supposed to be done but wasn't.

Overall quite a disappointing experience and frankly other than the hybrid check I don't think I'll be servicing my car at lexus once the warranty runs out. Forget legendary this experience was a bit worse than what ive experienced at local independent garages. 

[Alan305]

My experience with LS400, LS430, IS200, GS300h, IS300h and NX300h over 20 years has been very good.

Currently use Milton Keynes who have been great.

Sheffield was exceptional. Flowers and chocolates when taken in for a warranty recall. When they diagnosed the wrong motor on the steering column they found the correct one in Cambridge and put it in a taxi to ensure my car was returned at the agreed time.

Only the old Bracknell dealer failed to deliver and they closed a long time ago.

[NemesisUK]

I use Lexus Swindon and have always had the very best experience, highly recommended. That's not just with routine servicing but also ad-hoc enquires and purchasing consumables, quick efficient service from knowledgeable staff. Usually get a discount on the consumables (wipers, screen wash) as well 👍

Regarding your dealer's reluctance to do the transaxle oil change, if it's not a Lexus requirement, them doing it could leave them open to any possible subsequent consequences, without Lexus support/contribution? 

[Notamech]

3 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

I use Lexus Swindon and have always had the very best experience, highly recommended. That's not just with routine servicing but also ad-hoc enquires and purchasing consumables, quick efficient service from knowledgeable staff. Usually get a discount on the consumables (wipers, screen wash) as well 👍

Regarding your dealer's reluctance to do the transaxle oil change, if it's not a Lexus requirement, them doing it could leave them open to any possible subsequent consequences, without Lexus support/contribution? 

Good point on the transaxle oil. If thats true perhaps they could have just explained that to me. But I guess they could always cover themselves by saying the customer insisted. Also it appears that some dealerships have no problem doing it. 

[iamlgcfdd]

Same as you, I don't like Currie motors Lexus Twickenham, I currently use Lexus Guildford which is the best.

[Inazone]

Save yourself a load of money and potential agro and do the servicing yourself. None of it, is rocket science. All they will do is change the oil and filter, possibly air filter when required. Everything else is a visual check. Question is do they even do that... You are probably better off getting the car mot'd for 45 quid to show up any problems... 

[D Johnson]

5 hours ago, Notamech said:

Overall quite a disappointing experience

That’s got to be the understatement of the year…. 😂  

[Illogan]

6 hours ago, Notamech said:

Was just wondering how people's experience has been with servicing at Lexus. After reading and hearing so much about them going above and beyond and that you feel satisfied when you leave the dealership. I had my hopes up and unfortunately I found the service experience quite underwhelming and I've had much better experiences at independents / my local independent mercedes specialist (I previously had a merc) was the best ive had. Perhaps its the Christmas period or i dont know what... But my experience wasn't that great with Currie motors Lexus Twickenham. 

Positives:

- Friendly staff all very courteous 

- Overall came across as somewhat professional 

 

Negatives:

- I wanted to get the hybrid transaxle oil changed but they came across as very resistant. I would much rather their attitude be "we don't recommend it but if you want to do it it will cost you xx"  rather than its a sealed box we just don't touch it. I didn't want to argue with the service manager so I just let it be, thought id get it done at lexus Hayes that quoted 150 to get it done. 

- I was told that they would do a health report and send me a video and I will receive a call from the mechanic to talk through / get approval on any work needed. I received the video at 4:45 in the evening. In all my service experiences before I have always got a call from the person working on my car latest by mid-day to seek approval and get jobs that are possible done the same day. 

- I drove nearly an hour to get to them and was called at 5pm in the evening telling me my car is ready (only servicing done) 15 mins after they sent me the video and report with several things that potentially needed doing. So if i approved any of the jobs it just meant id have to pick the car at a later date. Also  5:30 is their last collection time. It takes me an hour to get there calling me at 4:45 / 5 in the evening to tell me to come pick up my car when there are potential things i might still need to do and the fact that i now cant get there on time didn't make sense to me. But fine maybe its just a different way of working to what ive experienced so far. 

- So I approve some jobs thinking they will do it first thing next day only to call next day and find out that the car is out of the workshop and either they have to order parts or that they will need the whole day to do something simple like brake shims and they cant guarantee they will give me the car by afternoon. We will do it the next time you come is the answer I get. So im like fine il just come and collect it with only the service done. 

- So i arrive and were going over jobs done and i had asked for an 80k major service to be done. I clearly spot that they've not replaced the differential oil. So i ask them why when thats what it said online and its what i paid for. Because we will do it at the next major service im told. Im like no i asked for an 80k major service and thats what i want. So they call the mechanic and come back to me saying yeah sorry actually we ran out of fluid (sounds like BS) so we will do it the next time you come free of cost. I mean wtf, if you ran out of fluid you should have told me you didn't do it and it will be done next time. Why was i told this only after I called it out? Also I think of myself as a bit car savvy and was able to spot this many others wouldn't. Customers shouldnt have to  double check that the professionals have done what they were supposed to. This last point really wound me up as its almost cheating. Had i not said anything I would have ended up paying for stuff that was supposed to be done but wasn't.

Overall quite a disappointing experience and frankly other than the hybrid check I don't think I'll be servicing my car at lexus once the warranty runs out. Forget legendary this experience was a bit worse than what ive experienced at local independent garages. 

It's a darn good job I live 200 miles from Twickenham!

 

Use one of the other dealerships recommended by others on this thread.

[wharfhouse]

Let your feet do the talking and try another Lexus dealer if there is one within a distance you can get to. I remember when I had a new company BMW many years ago I went around many BMW dealers in the south east until I found one with a service I was happy with - I then purchased numerous private cars from them and had them all serviced there. No need to put up with poor service.

[Mincey]

For me, Lexus Leicester have been superb. Buying a car from Lexus Cambridge was painless. Marshall Lexus (Cambridge), the predecessor to Lexus Cambridge, were shocking frankly. 

[Notamech]

15 hours ago, Inazone said:

Save yourself a load of money and potential agro and do the servicing yourself. None of it, is rocket science. All they will do is change the oil and filter, possibly air filter when required. Everything else is a visual check. Question is do they even do that... You are probably better off getting the car mot'd for 45 quid to show up any problems... 

I agree. Might consider doing that eventually. Right now I have about 2 years of warranty left so might as well service it with Lexus. Their prices are decent for an official dealership. But as others have suggested will probably try lexus hayes next as they are much closer to me. Anyone with any experience with them? 

[Alan305]

23 hours ago, Alan305 said:

My experience with LS400, LS430, IS200, GS300h, IS300h and NX300h over 20 years has been very good.

Currently use Milton Keynes who have been great.

Sheffield was exceptional. Flowers and chocolates when taken in for a warranty recall. When they diagnosed the wrong motor on the steering column they found the correct one in Cambridge and put it in a taxi to ensure my car was returned at the agreed time.

Only the old Bracknell dealer failed to deliver and they closed a long time ago.

Could also add, covered 620,000 miles in those cars, with lots of miles in the two LS’s

LS400, plug leads caused misfire (172k)

LS430, g/box recall, fuel pump recall, steering column motor, new radiator, suspension sensors (220k)

IS200, wheels replaced, clutch (120k)

GS300h, no faults (48k)

IS300h, no faults (42k)

NX300h, noisy boot struts - warranty (18k)

[Las Palmas]

Sad that Lexus will allow poor service. Then again, you are lucky. Where you live there are several Lexus garages that can service your car. Here I have to take a ferry more than 30 hours to get to another Lexus garage in mainland Spain. Same company own Lexus / Toyota on all the islands.

[Notamech]

16 hours ago, Las Palmas said:

Sad that Lexus will allow poor service. Then again, you are lucky. Where you live there are several Lexus garages that can service your car. Here I have to take a ferry more than 30 hours to get to another Lexus garage in mainland Spain. Same company own Lexus / Toyota on all the islands.

Wow that does sound painful. I wouldn't even consider buying a brand if i had to go through all that trouble. I think most big cities benefit from having multiple centres to choose from. 

[JackIS]

I have used Lexus Sidcup in Kent and have had a positive experience with them. 

[Eddie Green]

I have six years experience of Lexus Hatfield with two IS300H cars and I can't fault them.

My Lexus cars have been covered by service contracts. After owning Mecs &  an XF Jag;  Lexus is by far the best I have experienced !!

[PCM]

2 minutes ago, Eddie Green said:

I have six years experience of Lexus Hatfield...

+1

[LenT]

On 12/23/2022 at 4:47 PM, Alan305 said:

Currently use Milton Keynes who have been great.

That’s been my experience of them too.

Unfortunately probably not too convenient for the OP.

[fourbanks]

My Lexus dealer is so so and will depend on what staff are working when you go in. get it right good get it wrong then you'll have problems 

[Frank the Hornet]

Hi yes have used Lexus Hayes albeit only for the Smart Water application for the Catolytic Converter. I found them obliging and efficient & pleased to have my custom. if I did my servicing with them they were offering discounted servicing. The only reason I did not use them was the location from me is awkward to get to.

I now use Lexus at Chalfont, they offer free pick up and delivery with competitive pricing, I did mention the Lexus Owners Club , they seemed unaware but the pricing seems to match that of Lexus Hayes.I have used them for servicing and a RELAX warranty claim, relatively easy to deal with with good communication with Technician.

Hope this helps.

 

[Notamech]

7 hours ago, Frank the Hornet said:

Hi yes have used Lexus Hayes albeit only for the Smart Water application for the Catolytic Converter. I found them obliging and efficient & pleased to have my custom. if I did my servicing with them they were offering discounted servicing. The only reason I did not use them was the location from me is awkward to get to.

I now use Lexus at Chalfont, they offer free pick up and delivery with competitive pricing, I did mention the Lexus Owners Club , they seemed unaware but the pricing seems to match that of Lexus Hayes.I have used them for servicing and a RELAX warranty claim, relatively easy to deal with with good communication with Technician.

Hope this helps.

 

This definitely does help. Didn't realise there was a service centre in Chalfont. The one is Hayes is almost the same distance for me so good to have options at hand. 

[08ISF]

I've used Lexus Twickenham for the last 4 cars and 14 years and generally they've been OK, but after all it's a premium price so you expect premium service.  I don't have a high opinion of the motor trade in general  and I've always taken the view that I was simply paying them to keep the exended warranty intact so that if anything went wrong I could just pass it over to them to be fixed at Lexus' expense.  They have dealt with  a couple of warranty claims fairly quickly and without problems. Not quite so clear cut now under Relax!

I did have a couple of issues  with them trying to upsell unnecessary work on the back of the health check video but a sharp word to the service receptionist seemed to make that go away.

In my opinion a  problem with Twickenham is that they have to use Currie Motors Isleworth workshops for the servicing and my experiences when trying to deal with them direct have not been rewarding, so I restrict my interactions to the Twickenham showroom.

You will get a questionnaire from both Twickenham and possibly Lexus about their performance so you can raise your concerns on that. I'm told that if  you give  them less than 9/10  they get into trouble

[Notamech]

9 hours ago, 08ISF said:

I've used Lexus Twickenham for the last 4 cars and 14 years and generally they've been OK, but after all it's a premium price so you expect premium service.  I don't have a high opinion of the motor trade in general  and I've always taken the view that I was simply paying them to keep the exended warranty intact so that if anything went wrong I could just pass it over to them to be fixed at Lexus' expense.  They have dealt with  a couple of warranty claims fairly quickly and without problems. Not quite so clear cut now under Relax!

I did have a couple of issues  with them trying to upsell unnecessary work on the back of the health check video but a sharp word to the service receptionist seemed to make that go away.

In my opinion a  problem with Twickenham is that they have to use Currie Motors Isleworth workshops for the servicing and my experiences when trying to deal with them direct have not been rewarding, so I restrict my interactions to the Twickenham showroom.

You will get a questionnaire from both Twickenham and possibly Lexus about their performance so you can raise your concerns on that. I'm told that if  you give  them less than 9/10  they get into trouble

Thanks for sharing. So essentially the service centre is not located on the premises? I thought it was. But sounds like they drive the car to their service centre and bring it back to the showroom. Anyway I echo your experience where they did try to upsell a lot of what looked useless to me e.g. An ac purge apparently they recommend doing this once a year. They also recommend re-gassing the ac once every 2 years i found this really strange as generally my understanding is unless theres a leak the gas should be flushed once every 5-10 years. Also £275 to install brake shims on the front. I do want to get the brake shims done but will probably just buy the original ones and get it done locally. I do have to go back to re-run the hybrid health check as i failed it as the 12v Battery was replaced so all the codes got cleared, they've asked me to come back after 500 miles and theyve agreed to do the hybrid health check and the differential oil while i wait. After this i dont plan to use them again. 

[Mr_Groundhog]

I also had something similar to the OP: my 1st experience with Lexus left me with mixed feelings.

Funny that one of the similarities was reluctance to change the the differential oil when it was something clearly mentioned in the service book, then offered to do it "free of charge" and all of that .. you can read what happened here more in detail: 

 

[immotek]

Oofff sorry to hear about your experience; I recently purchased a 2014 IS 300h on which I suspect one of the CV joints has gone but not too concerned as its got FSH and still under Relax.

Ive got a diagnostic +/- service lined up at Twickenham this week so will report back with my experience!