Boothby Coggles

Looks as if Done Deal is a subsidiary of Fortis so they are presumably a reliable company, but then all insurance companies are struggling at present. Bear in mind that any insurance quote that is cheaper than others is possibly cheaper because they don't offer the same benefits as the pricier ones, and/or their terms and conditions are more restrictive.

You definitely deserve an award for using the word "hobbledehoys" on a Lexus forum for what must be the first time ever. Well done that man! :) "Lexus - The Pursuit of Perfection - and a greater vocabulary" Thank you for that. Is my award a straight exchange of my '06 220d for an '08 250 SE Auto? at no cost?

With the doors it's about 2.5ft & probably a similar distance with the boot. When you press the door handle button to lock the car you should hear the locks activate and will also see the buttons inside the doors snap shut. The indicators will also flash as the locks come on. If the car's locked the red light on the dash panel will flash on & off to indicate to all of the miscreants and hobbledehoys who frequent the darker corners of society that the car is secured and the alarms are active.

I need to add more to this unfortunately :( . I got the car back after Christmas & the oil leak seems to have been fixed ok, but now have "another" problem with the gearbox. The dealer says they've fitted, (under warranty), a new seal to the input shaft but, needless to say, they didn't admit that the old one had been damaged or fitted incorrectly. During this cold spell, when using the car first thing in the morning 1st & 2nd gear have been very difficult to change between until the car has been driven for 10 or 15 minutes and things have warmed up. It's not just a matter of being "notchy" etc, but I need to use a fair amount of brute force to get up & down between 1st & 2nd. It's so hard that there's no way that my wife could do it. This morning, although it had been pretty cold overnight, it was about 6 deg. but I still found a change from 3rd to 2nd harder than usual. The problem didn't exist before September when I had the modified selector fork fitted to 3rd, and certainly not last winter. In October or November this year I had this problem for a couple of days when we had a short cold snap, but it had been ok until the latest one. It's been suggested to me that, when the box was re-assembled after the fork was fitted, that the 1st/2nd synchro wasn't set up correctly. Has anyone any experience of a similar problem with 1st & 2nd on a 220d box? I'm obviously going to get it looked at, but is it worth taking it back to the dealer that fitted the selector, or take it to another one for someone else to have a go? I'm favouring either Derby or Nottingham, as they're within fairly easy reach.

That makes me feel a lot better, it's due Speaking of which, has anyone managed to negotiate on the cost of a service? Mine was done last January but it's only just done over 2000 miles since the last one. When my 30k service was due last June or July I got quotes from 4 dealers within a reasonable distance, (Leicester, Hull, Nottingham and Derby). If I remember correctly there was a £50-75 diff between them. I rang Hull & they matched the 2nd lowest quote, saving something like £35-50 off the highest. In these times you might be able to get an even better deal somewhere ;) .

Avge tank does reset automatically when refilling. Avge can be reset by pressing he Display button in the wheel & holding it until it zeros the display

Glad you finally got it sorted. Thanks for that - but I had taken the precaution of putting it in to dispute with my credit card co. just in case they c*cked it up again. They put up absolutely no argument about repaying the full sum so they must have realised that they had got it wrong. Just to underline their incompetence, the renewal date was 20 Dec & I didn't get the docs until the 24th . When my wife's insurance comes up for renewal they're going to get it in writing.

That doesn't really alter the fact that the person you originally spoke to had the opportunity to "misunderstand" you, whether or not it was deliberate on his part, and thus involve you in making yet another phone call to cancel the policy. If you had been more assertive and not, to get rid of him said you would think about it, then this would possibly not have happened. Whilst you say your policy was due for renewal on 20th. you don't actually say what date you phoned to cancel the renewal. I rang them on the 8th. The policy documents arrived on the 24th, and my credit card shows a charge dated 22nd for the premium. I rang them again on the 24th as soon as I received the paperwork, when they promised a full refund when they got the certificate back. This is being posted this morning. Just to finish (?) my chunter off: A credit for the full amount of the premium was back in my account on the 30th. Whether it was the stroppogram I sent on the 27th, along with the certificate of insurance, (by recorded delivery), or not that did it I don't know. However, the incompetence at BISL continues. Yesterday I received a letter saying that I had not returned the certificate and telling me that it was a criminal offence not to do so. So - another stroppogram to them, this time to one of the directors whose name was on the letter. They seem to provide insurance on behalf of a lot of household names, e.g. M&S, Post Office, Budget Insurance, and from different addresses in Peterborough, and Dial Direct at an address in Coventry. I've found three on 192.com in addition to the one on the certificate, (where it was sent back to), and the one on the letter I received yesterday. Maybe if these separate offices actually communicated with one another they might get their act together.

not a fair comparison,the passat will be much lower in bhp than the lex but if you were driving the tdi 170 then you would se similar mpg as the 220.balance restored. True, but I reckon the Passat 170 would still have better consumption and "driveability" than the IS. Also I doubt very much that it would have the turbo lag that the IS has.

I've had my '06 220d just over a year and I'm well fed up with it. Not had problems with it, yet, that others have complained about, except consumption. It's a real fight to get an average of close to 40mpg and I suspect that it is starting to drop off since I had the 5th injector done. I have to drive it pretty gently other wise I would probably be in the low to mid 30s. This entails a lot of working of the gear stick. It's been in dock for about a week with an oil leak on the gearbox, which don't think is down to a normal problem with the car, but more likely to be a garage-induced problem when they fitted a modified gear selector fork. I've had a base model 2l diesel Passat on loan during this time and, for me it knocked the living daylights out of the Lexus. Far more comfortable, a lot easier to drive, a far better gearbox and as for the consumption, avge 53mpg on a 70 mile round trip that would be struggle to get 38 with in the Lexus. The only crib I have about the VW is the size, larger than my needs. Lexus Customer Services are, as far as I'm concerned, a total waste of time. When I wrote to them about issues I had about the dealership service, I got a standard letter back saying they had referred it to the dealer! I'm still waiting, after 7 or 8 months, for the response from Lexus that was promised by them. The Upshot: If you must have a Lexus, have the 250 Auto and don't touch the 220d. As soon as I can convince the wife, I'm going to look elsewhere & dump mine.

Rob - I take it that you mean the "excess baggage" - if so it wasn't personal belongings so much as stuff he'd bought, I think there were probably about 7 tango dancing girls and 473 pounds of best Argentian steak in there :D

A couple of years ago my son had some "excess baggage" shipped home from Argentina as he couldn't carry it. He had it sent to my address as he was continuing on to Peru. I eventually got a bill from DHL for something like £200 in customs and other charges . Needless to say he got the bill passed on to him from me .

That doesn't really alter the fact that the person you originally spoke to had the opportunity to "misunderstand" you, whether or not it was deliberate on his part, and thus involve you in making yet another phone call to cancel the policy. If you had been more assertive and not, to get rid of him said you would think about it, then this would possibly not have happened. Whilst you say your policy was due for renewal on 20th. you don't actually say what date you phoned to cancel the renewal. I rang them on the 8th. The policy documents arrived on the 24th, and my credit card shows a charge dated 22nd for the premium. I rang them again on the 24th as soon as I received the paperwork, when they promised a full refund when they got the certificate back. This is being posted this morning.

As far as I'm concerned I made it quite clear that the insurance was not to be renewed unless I specifically, at a later date, changed this. The fact that I have been told that I will be fully reimbursed on their receipt of the certificate supports this.

A lot of motor insurers will renew you insurance unless you specifically tell them, before the renewal date, that you do not want it to be renewed. However some either by design, inefficiency or incompetence will still renew it and charge you even have you have told them to cancel. Mine was due for renewal on the 20th, and I got a better quote elsewhere, so I rang my current insurers, BISL Ltd at Peterborough, and told them that I had a better quote and that I did not want to renew. The call centre monkey tried to get me to change my mind and to get rid of him I said I would think about it and get back to them if I changed my mind. Surprise, surprise, when my post came on the 24th, there was an insurance certificate and I had been charged, (on the 22nd), for the renewal . I rang them straight away and told them what had happened. Fortunately I had kept a note of the date, time of my original call and who I had spoken to & I was promised a full refund of the premium after I had sent the certificate back to them. This is going back tomorrow, with a stroppogram. Having done a quick google it's apparent that it's not the first time BISL have done this. They provide insurance for the Post Office and Yes Car Insurance and probaly others. I've also written to the actual insurers, Fortis, and also the insurance company I dealt with who use BISL as a broker. Tomorrow, when my credit card company is open again I'm going to put the charge in to the dispute procedure. So, if you change company when your insurance comes up for renewal, make sure you make a point of telling your old insurer, preferably in writing and keep a copy of the letter and a note of who you speak to at your old insurer & when you did it.

Absolutely Dazz. Glad I didn't try to drive it to Hull, might never have got there . Haven't heard anything as yet back from them as yet, but no doubt they are on a half day today.

UPDATE (Just to finish it off) On Saturday my son in law had the car on a ramp while he was at work and found that the leak was coming from the input shaft seal and was producing a small drip every 2 seconds or so. There were traces of oil on the underside along the car and towards the rear end which indicated that the leak had been there for some time. There was also some indication that there could be oil contamination of the clutch. He thought it a bad idea to drive it the 50 or so miles to Hull. On Monday morning I rang Hull & let them know this & they advised me to get Lexus Assist to bring it over to them. So later in the day it was driven off on the back of a breakdown and is now at Hull for sorting out. I had a modified selector fork fitted by Hull in late September, so the problem must have originated then, as there had been no problem before that. My son in law thinks that it was due to the fitting of a fault seal, or that the box was re-assembled properly after the fork was fitted. I must say that Lexus Assist, (the RAC by another name) were very good and sorted everything pretty efficiently, and by lunchtime I had a rental car (VW Passat) under the warranty. Probably be early next week before I get my car back.

This morning when I went out I noticed an oil patch, about 6-8"" wide, on the drive under where the car had been standing overnight. The oil was clear in colour. When I came back I parked the car in a different position and about 2 hours later when I checked again there was a patch about 3" across. There appears to be oil on the underside of the car behind more or less where the engine is. This makes me think that its the gearbox rather than the sump. I went down to Market Harborough yesterday and had to go over some speed humps, (slowly). I don't for one minute think that I bottomed the car. Has anyone else experienced similar problems with leaks? I've booked it in to Lexus Hull for Monday morning to see what the problem is. Only thing is it's just under 50 miles. As I don't know how long the leak might have been there I don't know how much oil might have leaked. Am I likely to cause/suffer any problems on the way there?

Just noticed my typo - put it as 48YR not 48hr :duh: - anyone know of a dealer offering 48yr please let me know

On the subject of 48 hour test drives, the local Lexus dealer has an unregistered 250SR parked on a roundabout at the local shopping centre with £19995 down both sides. In the windscreen is a banner saying "Win a Lexus free for 24 hours". Didn't see what conditions there were in the small print. Bearing in mind that you can have a 48 yr test drive, this 24 hr prize seems to have a hint of desperation about it.

I can't help but agree with every word of this and couldn't have put it better myself. I'm actively considering getting rid of my 220d. If it hadn't been for the dealer & Lexus GB I would still have the 250 high on the replacement list, but it's well down now, even below Skoda .

I have averaged just under 40 mpg, (& this is getting lower, from about 41.5 in August), since I bought my 06 220d about a year ago, but some of this is probably due my using Millers DPS 4 since mid-July. I had the 5th injector change & ecu remap in mid-Aug. When I had this done I queried the EGR valve & was told that it wasn't something that was normally changed. If it weren't for these factors I imagine I would probably now be somewhere around 37mpg average. I can now only achieve 40/42 on a run if I take it very steadily and keep an eye on the revs all the time. If I drove it "normally" I reckon the consumption would be below 40, again somewhere around the 37 mark, or maybe lower. Can any one tell me if the consumption I'm now getting is reasonable and if I should be able to get the injectors, EGR & bleed down valve changed, and will this improve things. Or would I be wasting my time? Many thanks Boothby

I got the "invite a friend letter" as well. Might write back & tell them that I wouldn't want to take the chance of losing a friend :D :winky:

Looks like exactly the same photo Ad says mileage 56702

Lexus GB will probably do nothing apart from write you a letter saying that they have referred/will refer the matter to the dealer and that ye will contact you in due course to see if all of your issues have been resolved. The dispute I had with "my" Lexus dealer was "concluded" some months ago & I'm still waiting for Lexus to write to me as they promised. So, don't hold your breath!