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3 Lexus dealers have quoted me £170 plus VAT for a genuine Lexus LS430 Bootliner - I had expected it to be about £100 even if it's a bit of plastic with the Lexus logo on it.

I'm going to buy a universal boot liner and cut it to size instead - way cheaper at around £30.

When I owned my 1998 LS400, I spoke to 3 Lexus dealers and asked whether they would reduce their charge rates given the age of the vehicle and my local dealer agreed to reduce their labour rates by 20% and their parts by 15%. I didn't need to haggle particularly hard as it happens.

I used to get my regular servicing completed by Lexus with any other maintenance jobs done by my local garage and this worked very well for me.

Most franchise dealers are usually open to offering some incentives to drivers of older vehicles if it means they get the business rather than a smaller garage.

Bottomline is that franchise dealers need more owners to use them for servicing beyond the 5 year mark as most owners understandably seek out cheaper alternatives.

I am entitled to comment and give my opinion on this - what exactly are you taking exception to ?

I have simply spoken of my experience and I'm very careful about what I say.

Maybe you need to be the one who should be careful. There's absolutely no need for this comment / post from you.

It's a members forum and we are all entitled to give our opinions !

Are you using the car on a regular basis ? On most cars (not just Lexus) which have keyless go, if cars don't get regular use the car's ECU will start to shut down various systems which consume Battery power including the keyless go function.

It might be worth investing in a Battery trickle charger to keep the Battery topped up if you aren't using it regularly.

Changing an ECU seems a bit OTT !

I had to replace the windscreen on my LS400 a few years ago (around 2004) and I got Autoglass to supply & fit this. At the time my insurance excess was £50. It would have cost me £400 if I had been expected to pay the full cost. There was no problem with this new screen fitting and definitely no leaks.

The excess on my current 3 cars is now £70 so not a huge increase compared to a few years ago. Some insurers have been raising their excesses in order to offer lower annual premiums. Most of them will let you reduce your excess but then the premiums will rise.

For the last few years, a number of jobs such as changing windscreens and mechanical jobs like changing the oil, changing brake discs and pads can be done by the majority of local garages - anyone who says you must go to a franchise dealer is talking rubbish.

I sourced a replacement steering column via a number of breakers yards - one of the breakers buys perfectly working cars and breaks them for parts.

My LS430 is the facelift version. I wish the replacement steering adjuster switch had cured the issue as this part only cost £60 whereas I paid £375 for the entire column.

Hope your amplifier gets fixed quickly and for not too much money

Unfortunately for me, despite my local garage saying the motors were working fine, I ended up having to replace the entire steering column in my LS430

We did try swapping the steering adjuster switch but this didn't solve the problem.

Lexus dealers also recommend replacing the entire column rather than throwing time and money at replacing individual components.

Very annoying given that this was never an issue with the LS400

The electric steering column in my car stopped working and although my garage thought they had found a cheap fix with a replacement steeting adjuster switch (the motors for the moving mechanism seemed to work fine), in the end I had to source a replacement steering column

I tracked one down on a vehicle being broken up for parts and paid £375 all inc for this including a 6 month warranty.

Lexus dealers don't offer to fix these columns with individual parts - they insist on replacing the entire column. New cost is £1500 plus VAT which is crazy and annoying as this shouldn't happen on such a car !

Not entirely sure if any of these links would help for the LS400 but feel free to have a look :

http://www.carcommunications.co.uk/car-accessories/dension-ipod-accessories/lexus_3812

http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/lexus-car-ipod-iphone-interface-adaptors.html

http://www.ipodcarkitdirect.co.uk/Dension_ice%3ELink_Gateway_300_Car_kit_for_Lexus

http://www.dension.com/product/iPod-iPhone-car-adapters/gateway-300

http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/ctalxipod001-lexus-ls430-ls460-es-vlx470-ipod-iphone-adaptor.html

http://caraudiosecurity.com/lexus-ls430-ls460-ipod-interface

http://www.xcarlink.co.uk/product.php?productid=138&cat=29&page=1

Hi guys. Just to let you know that unfortunately for me the replacement steering column adjuster switch I bought didn't fix my faulty steering column so in the end I did have to replace the entire column but the car is back in full working order thank goodness

Just a quick update to let everyone who posted on this know that I got my car back and it's in full working order.

The used steering column I sourced has worked absolutely fine and thankfully my local garage only needed a couple of hours to change over the old one for this unit and modify the replacement so that my existing keys worked too.

The used part cost me £375 with a 6 month warranty - Lexus wanted around £1500 for a brand new column.

Annoyingly, my garage said the motors in my previous column worked fine but for some reason the switches were not working with it properly - we did try a replacement switch but this didn't fix the issue.

I suspect one of the many reasons Lexus recommend replacing the entire column is that it's easier to do this rather than spend lots of time trying to replace individual components.

I've been using Roade Main Garage (01604 862262) for many years to look after my cars - I had an LS400 and an Audi A8 W12 and currently have an LS430 and a Porsche 911 amongst others.

These guys are very good and very professional and I'd have no problems recommending them to look after your Lexus.

Good luck

Here are some specialists in West Yorkshire who I heard of - I cannot vouch for the quality of their work but you can ring them and have a chat to see whether they can assist you

http://www.prestigeservice.co.uk/car-service/lexus-servicing/

http://www.leefordmotorco.co.uk/lexusspecialist.html

http://www.banksidegarage.com/index.php/services/manufacturers/lexus

Squealing brakes can usually be sorted out when a mechanic applies copper grease to parts of the braking system.

When I owned my LS400, the dealers informed me that if the front or rear brake sensor light ever comes on in the dash you have to also replace this when changing the brake discs. If a rear sensor has been damaged by the previous owner, that's unfortunate and it will need to be replaced.

Fingers crossed once you get this issue sorted out that your LS430 ownership is a painless one

You can buy CDs on-line from a well known auction site which will give you a breakdown of part codes for given Lexus vehicles.

I bought one recently for my Lexus LS430 - cost me £5 but for the information, it's well worth the money

There are a number of breakers yards now who increasingly are buying perfectly functioning cars, breaking them and selling off parts - I used to think they only broke up cars which owners and insurers couldn't repair or which were not worth saving.

Bit sad that perfectly good cars get broken up that way, but I guess if you can make money doing it then someone will

I'm sure you won't have any problems finding a decent used wing - if you can get 1 in your colour, hopefully all it will need is a good MOP / Polish and it'll be as good as new and save you the repainting cost

Good luck

I've seen a number of these reviews on You Tube and whilst some of them put down the looks and blandness of the cars, they are all SO impressed with the quality & engineering of these cars

Makes me realise how lucky I am to own one of these

I would go onto Google and send out some searches on various breakers yards such as :

www.247spares.co.uk

www.findapart.co.uk

www.breakersyards.co.uk

I have successfully used a number of these sites to source parts for a few of my cars including my Lexus LS430

I would suggest trying a number of breakers yard websites - they'll ask for the Year, Model and Chassis Number and should be able to come up with a used part and if you're lucky it might even be in the same colour as your wing

I have successfully used sites such as :

www.247spares.co.uk

www.findapart.co.uk

www.breakersyard.com

There are a lot of other sites if you use Google but I'm sure you can find a good used wing out there.

Good luck

Yes I have the original wheels on there,but they need refurbing desperately. At around £200-£250 to refurb them I thought I'd look around for some decent wheels from another car. Quite a few Toyota wheels will fit of course,some Nissan,some Mazda and the Suzuki Swift apparently. But it's knowing exactly which ones will fit with no problems.

I used a mobile alloy wheel refurbisher who charged me £50 per wheel to refurbish mine - not cheap for a full set of wheels but the results are worth it and in my opinion, these cars are so much better when they are kept as original as possible. If it was me, I'd pay the money and get them refurbished. Just my opinion though. I've seen a lot of LS cars over the years with alternative wheels and I don't think they look good because of the change.

Buying these sorts of cars is all about the condition and service history - better to buy a car that's been or appears to have been well looked after and that the owner has loads of service history and paperwork for it.

Go with your instincts when you see it, feel it, touch it and drive it - if it doesn't seem right or there are issues which you think could be expensive, walk away.

If you can take a mechanic friend or get a mechanical inspection, it's better to get some reassurance this way about the vehicle.

Whilst these cars are not the most common, there will always be a better car that will come along.

Once these sorts of cars reach the £2k mark, depreciation tends to slow considerably and in my opinion, anything under £1k has to be viewed with some suspicion if the owner claims the cars drives perfectly - if it was like that, he would be asking for more money.

Good luck

I've still the same silly grin on my face from the day I picked it up... Used to go out the back of my house for a smoke but now always go out the front so I can admire the car more often, ,

I did like my GS but from about week 1 of ownership started regretting not sticking to my guns and going for a LS460....

silly reasons really main one being when I drove around ppl used to look back at my car as I past them in the LS400 but with Gs no one did.... Lol call me vain but I like ppl looking at my car in awwwwww, but hardly anyone did with the GS... Now with the LS600 ppl come up to me and compliment me on car and ask about it, even my boss is jealous and he's got a 14 plate LS460

Putting that all aside the GS was a nice drive and to be honest can't complain about it very similar performance to the LS (remembering it was a GS450h) comfort wise I found myself having to move about on seat after awhile (numb bum effect) which I never got on my LS400 (which I still have)

Only complaint ive got about the LS600 is......... Errrrrrr .....I haven't got anything to complain about ...no really I have one complaint when drop down dvd screen is activated in the back I can't see out of back window from rear view mirror.... Was going to get dvd headrests and deactivate the drop down but because of the way the front passenger seat headrest moves and folds away when the rear relaxation seat is activated I cant..... But no big issue I have 2 wing mirrors to see behind me..... Either that or I stop the kids watching DVDs in the back (not worth the hassle of 2 screaming crying arguing kids lol)

I must add lexus's up my way are like hens teeth.... A few IS's and a hand full of RXs and 1 LS (mine) the was a 07 GS once lol but was passing thru the area never ever saw it again

I totally agree with this. In the 13 years that I owned and ran my LS400, I used to get plenty of compliments from other drivers and people who knew very little about cars and they were constantly impressed with the aesthetics, the quality, the silence of the engine, the smoothness of the ride and my car even after 15 years and 230k miles was still an awesome and superb example.

You just don't get that with a GS despite how nice these vehicles are.

Once you buy an LS, nothing else short of a Rolls Royce or a Bentley can replace it - I've looked at the likes of the S-Class, 7 series and A8. All beautiful cars but not a patch on an LS in my opinion.

Have you not got your original 16" alloys on your LS400 ?

Unfortunately, I sold my set on eBay as I had sold my LS400 last year - I have replaced it with an LS430 recently

There are plenty of 16" alloys for sale on eBay - not sure if you'll find any original LS wheels though. I did have a set of the 17" DHP 7 hole alloys and the ride was still very comfortable. If you can find a set of those, they are definitely worth considering in my opinion

It all comes down to taste and what you like - as nice as the GS cars are, once you've had an LS it's hard to change.

The GS is a slightly better drive. I considered a GS430 when I owned my LS400 but felt it would have been a step down in many ways.

I have recently bought the facelift LS430 - I did consider the LS460 as prices becoming more keen but I'm very happy with the LS430.

OK thanks for the information - the breakers yard who supplied me the steering column said I could use my existing keys but they didn't say anything about having to re-programme my existing keys. The key they have supplied is damaged and taped up which isn't good.

And I have 3 keys with my vehicle and I wouldn't want to have to replace these as these are £200 each from a Lexus dealer !

This is turning into a real headache to say the least.

Appreciate your help though.

I'm looking to change the steering column in my 2003 '53' Lexus LS430 but the replacement part has come with a new ignition barrel and key.

Does anyone know if I can use my existing ignition barrel and keys with the new column or would I have to get my existing keys re-programmed to work with this replacement steering column.

Any help on this would be really appreciated