Boothby Coggles

Try Espares - they have parts for just about everything, except Lexii . Don't know what the cost is likely to be but worth a look

Lexus have given buyers very high expectations with their claim to "pursue perfection" and their positioning themselves at the top of the customer service ladder. This may have been true in the past, but standards seem to have slipped in recent times, That in part is due to the attitude and actions of some dealers, but also due to build quality and reliability problems with some of the cars. It's also not helped with the apparent attitude of Lexus Customer Services. There seem to be instances of owners being given the brush off when they have a complaint. In my own case When I had issues with the purchase of my car I wrote to Lexus and in May 2008 I had what can only be described as a standard letter of apology telling me that they had referred the matter to the dealer I had complained about. They made no attempt to contact me directly or mediate. The letter ended up by saying that they would write to me again when the matter had been resolved. I'm still waiting for that letter. It looks as if once a car, used or new, is in the hands of the buyer Lexus wash their hands of it except for recalls and warranty repairs. As I written elsewhere on the board I've recently sold my 220 and will never buy another Lexus. It has often been said that a satisfied customer will tell 1 person & a dissatisfied one will tell 10. Lexus need to remember that in this age of electronic communication a disgruntled customer can, and probably will, tell hundreds, if not thousands.

Thanks

Thanks, I certainly am.

Thanks for the wishes. It's certainly been better so far. Having driven around in the VW for a while now it's made me realise something - I actually like driving and want to drive this car, and that I didn't want to do that with the Lex. Irrationally, just before I got the VW I decided not to go on my monthly trip down to Leicestershire to see my aunt as I didn't trust the car to get me there! Now I'm trying to think of excuses to go somewhere, just so I can have a really long run in the Jetta . Can't wait until May for a week's holiday in Sussex! Anway, as regards your question, It's just like an "ordinary auto", i.e. with drive, "manual change" if you want it and sport mode. I'm glad it's not an SMG box. I drove a couple of BMWs with that and found it a bit difficult to get a smooth change with it.

be careful now. Why?

I thought I might get that question :D - I collected it this afternoon - it's a VW Jetta SE 2.0 TDI with the DSG auto I test drove one of those before opting for the IS250. Great fun to drive and a really impressive gearbox. Unfortunately, I read too many horror stories about the reliability of the DSG gearbox and had to listen to my head rather than my heart. I hope that the DSG gearbox doesn't let you down and that you enjoy the car. Can't be any worse than the sum of the problems I had with the 220, but they were, to some extent, down to the dealers rather than the gearbox. At least I've got just over 2 years warranty to act as a cushion.

Thanks for your wishes Robert. So far I'm well pleased, especially with the consumption. I've done about 200 miles in it at an overall average of 49.2. On a run to Chesterfield & back the other day I got about 54 out & 55+ coming back, and that was driving it with more "vigour" than the 220d. In that I would have had to work hard to get 40. Around town it looks as though I'll get be able to continue getting about 40 or more with no trouble. The gearbox is, as you say, impressive but then the box on the 250 auto is pretty good as well. It certainly seems faster than the 220, but if I remember correctly the official 0-62 figure for the 220 is faster, or about the same as the VW. Perhaps that's down to not having to change gear manually. It has things that the 220 didn't and lacks things that the Lexus had, but they are fairly minor, e.g. it's a bit more noisy but it's not as cramped inside with a far bigger boot, and has auto rain sensor as standard. Best of all it cost me less than £1k for a '57 plate car, including having rear sensors fitted as an extra, whereas the 250 auto I was going to have would have cost about £4k with the cost of sensors on top.

That 1000 mile/30 day return promise is conditional on taking a replacement vehicle from the dealer's stock! You can bet that they won't give you your money back, and any replacement available will be at a higher price than the one that you are returning.

Lexus offered me £9.5k for my '06 220d SE MM, 35k miles. VW offered me £11.3k. Guess who got the deal!

Thank you for that DGMAN - I have high hopes & don't expect to become disillusioned. However time will tell.

I thought I might get that question :D - I collected it this afternoon - it's a VW Jetta SE 2.0 TDI with the DSG auto

I've had enough of my 220 & traded it in today. I don't trust the car any more, and have little faith or trust in the Lexus dealers involved and not much faith in Lexus GB customer services either. I've had mostly hassle and trouble since December '07 when I handed the money over and drove off in it, and I've not had much pleasure since in driving it. Lexus have their good points, but for me they have been outweighed by the bad. I won't bother going on about why and boring you all with the reasons, unless anyone wants to know what they are. However, I know that many of you are delighted with your car(s) and I'm pleased that you are and hope that it stays that. Good luck Boothby

I had the steering rack recall done on my 220 about a week ago & my steering is, as you say, twitchy. My son in law, who is a senior BMW tech, thinks it could be that the geometry was not set up correctly when the new rack was fitted. I suggest that you speak to your dealer about the problem and get them to check it and put it right if it's out. I'm not bothering to have mine checked as I've sold my car & am getting its replacement on Friday. As regards the gearbox, I had mine swapped by the dealer as I wasn't happy with it after it had an oil leak fixed which was caused, possibly, by poor re-assembly after I'd had a modified selector fork fitted, (under warranty). I found it nearly impossible to select 1st & 2nd at startup during the cold weather. After it had been running for 10 minutes or so the gears eased up and became more acceptable. Mention the other things as well. Any half decent dealer will at least look at the problems you highlight.

OUCH ! thats goota smart. What varriant do you have? Add one more car to that earlier list: Used Maserati Quatroporte, saw some cracking deals on the internet. The fuel bill would be the killer. But the insurance is only £600 fully comp. SE with multimedia - good condition as well - the car against which I was going to trade it in, (but didn't) was a 250 SE, '06, 30k on the clock and messy paintwork - too many chips, some of them quite big and very badly touched up. When I saw it I said "NO" - they said they'd have the front resprayed etc & I agreed to look at it afterwards. I did, but by then I'd decided not to have it. I think the invoiced price for this was £14k. After I'd said no they had it up for sale with a price of something like £16-16.5k. I had a week after the Lexus quote one from a none Lexus dealership of £11,200 for my 220.

The trade in price for my '06 220d, 35k miles was £9500 - from a Lexus dealer

Lincoln for me, but spent my childhood in Scunthorpe - Lincoln Gardens estate & then Willoughby Road.

I agree up to a point with you, any insurance is money down the pan if nothing goes wrong. Your 200 was perhaps built when Lexus were building or still had an unquestionable reputation for reliability and quality. Unfortunately that seems to have been lost a bit in recent times, mainly due to the 220? I've never had a car that has had to go back to the dealer so much for various things and I've got this nasty nagging in my head that some time in the future that it might need expensive attention which I'd rather avoid.

Thanks for that Dave. I won't use Lincoln, even tho' it's less than 1 mile from my house, or any other Lister's dealership no matter what make of car they have the franchise for. I have been using Hull who have been pretty good. The way their S.M. was talking they won't want to deal with Warranty Direct etc.

My '06 220d is just out of warranty & I have been quoted about £600 for an extended warranty, inclusive of Lexus Assist recovery etc. I've also been scouting around the independents, including Warranty Direct. Their initial quote online was £481, but they rang me this morning. As my car is just out of warranty & annual mileage is low they revised the quote to £360, (excluding recovery), which will cover Lexus dealers, including the one I use at £120 p.h. labour. Has anyone used or got experience of Warranty Direct, especially how good they are about settling claims? The service manager at Lexus, not surprisingly, was not very well disposed towards non-Lexus warranties. One of the things he said was that some dealers will not consider warranty repairs from the likes of Warranty Direct. They countered this by saying that if a dealer will not play then the customer pays, with settlement within 5 days or so. Thanks

Question answered - booked in for a service today and asked question myself and no, my car not part of recall as 'it must have the modified parts already' That figures. I imagine that late built cars will have been fitted during manufacture with the modified parts once the fault was discovered. Mine is an '06 so it could be that pre '07 or maybe even (early?) '08 or so vehicles will be subject to the recall.

The loan car I had was a '58 reg SR with about 3,200 on the clock, (and a crunch on the fns corner done by the service manager when it had done only 10 miles Have you thought about driving barefoot :D

I had a letter about the recall for my 220d about a week ago & it went in on Friday to be done. The letter had a certificate for completion by the dealer to return to Lexus to certify that it had been done. It's not reliant on when a service is due, as my next one is not until July. I imagine that you'll get yours any time. No doubt they've got a whole shedload to get through and are possibly having to do it as & when they have the parts available, or maybe they're working though it according to age, reg no of the vehicle or alphabetically according to owner's name.

I've had repairs done to my gearbox without any hassle or argument. A modified selector fork has been fitted to improve the change from 2nd to 3rd. It was "catching" and the new fork has improved it. This was done as a "satisfaction" issue under warranty. Unfortunately the re-assembly of the box seems not to have been done properly which caused further problems. The car is at the dealer at the moment and they are swapping the box for another one, without any argument. I just hope the replacement is not worse than what I had :o . I think what it probably boils down to is which dealer you use, some will be pretty good about it, others will try & fob you off. Get it seen to under warranty while you can. You ought not to have any problem with the dealer - when all is said & done the cost doesn't fall on them, Lexus pay them, but may be not as much as you would get charged outside warranty. Having said that, it might just be that Lexus are leaning on them to keep the number of warranty repairs down - it might be costing them too much . Collected my car from the dealer today. They tell me that the gearbox has been swapped nd it certainly seemed on the 45 mile run home to be better. 1st & 2nd gear were far easier to select and third also seems better. Time will, (of course), tell, particularly when starting up first thing on a cold morning. BTW - I've never had a problem with it slipping out of 2nd.

38mpg is perfectly normal on a 40 mile run if you're driving at a steady speed (which rules out anything other than dual carriageways, with few or no roundabouts). The warmer weather of the past week would also contribute to the overall economy slightly. But around town this figure will quickly drop below 30mpg. I reckon on an overall average of between 32 and 34 mpg per tank. I wouldn't expect the economy of an '06 250 to be any different. That's not bad as far as I'm concerned - Had a long term average on my old Volvo S60 of 30. 32 to 34 betters the official rate, and the 2.5 v6 is far sweeter than a 5 pot 2.0!