fil4362

Has any member moved abroad and took there car/cars with them. Which country did you go to and how much was the import/export costs. MY mother in law moved out to spain a few years ago but bought a new car out there, so i dont know ho wmuch the cost is. I have a black 200 which would look real good with black and silver number plates on (looks stupid with yellow on the back). I know for a fact foriegn registered number plates are not in the mot test and i presume a foriegn registered car is allowed to drive over here. My car already has an Irish number plate on it but is registered over here. I think you can work out what my plan is.

£700 a year fully comp on any car i have owners consent to drive and any car i own. I currently have standard is 200 the wifes people carrier (imported honda stepwagon) rover 220 coupe turbo with some serious mods (all declared) 1985 escort cabriolet toyota mr2. The policy also covers me for any motorbike or quad or any other vehicle as long as my licence entitles me to drive it i am covered fully comp. I am 37 just with 6 points my wife is 40 with no points she is also covered the same as me on the same policy. I have had this policy for 2 years they dont charge to add new cars i dont need to tell them for 2 weeks if i buy a new car i dont need to inform them if i borrow a car. i was paying £450 for my coupe turbo and £780 for the wifes car and couple of hundred a piece for the other 2 cars so massive savings for me. I recently sold a tatty but sound nissan micra to a 17 year old kid. He has a M11 post code (very near city centre Manchester) he is paying £2100. he has to have it home by 7pm and locked in the garage. He cant use it before 7am and he has to have a tracker on it so they can check. I told him to shop around but he says he has. My apprentices gilr friend works for an insurance broker they have been rufused quotes for the M11 postcode. Try on the internet sites and try changing your postcode. If needs be register your car at a mates house in diffrent postcode use your grans house and see what happens with diffrent postcode. May be a way of getting cheaper quote.

I still cant believe some people on here think they get a better standard of job when taken to a dealer. the bloody mechanic isnt a god because he has Lexus wrote on his overalls. Hes got the same tools and did the same course at collage as any other mechanic. Going to the dealer IS NOT dead cert for getting a job done properly. You and your car has the same rights were ever you take it. If you take your car to a dodgey looking arch way garage with a 12 year old looking mechanic expect to get a crap job, even if you do this you still have same rights as taking your car to a dealer. Any dealer not just Lexus. There is such a thing as trading standards in this country you know. and before anyone says it no you dont have a better chance of getting the job done right first time going to the dealer. Theres some people on here that are making out indies are all dodgy back street garages that rip people of and cant be trusted to do a job right. This infuriates me. Yes there are dodgey garages out there hell knows i have worked at some of them, but there not all bad. I also think you will find its not a dogey garage its a dogey Mechanic at that garage, who may get the sack for shoddy work and guess what his new job is at your local dealer and his first job is your car will he do any better job there just because he now has a dealer name on his overalls. NO hes the same mechanic he was last week with the same knowledge and tools. He may eventually do more courses spacific to his new company but this will be after his "trial" period so for his first 3 months the only diffrence is his overalls. Lets face it you hand your keys over and thats the last you know until its done for all you know they could be busy and nip your car to the indie down the road trust me this happens i know dealers that dont even do mot testing but you can drop your car with them to get it done, who does them ??? yep the indie down the road. where the idea a timing belt kit cost £120 quid. If people want to pay £120 for them Send me your cash i will send you 2 for that money. I priced one recently £58 for 3 peice kit. Belt tensioner idler I will order on tomorow and put it on ebay will post the listing number on here should anyone wish to bid on it. Packaging and storage shouldnt be dearer where ever you are the bloody parts are not made in London so why pay London prices. Strictly speaking if your in London the prices should be cheaper than up here if they come in out of country chances are they come through or round London to get to me so i should be paying more not less. As for buying your own parts Inides hate this I work my suppliers one against the other to provide better parts prices they out bid each other for my trade. I then put a mark up on the parts as afterall i have got the best discount. Maybe this is why i can get a timing belt kit for half the price everyone else can. If the kits £58 to me i would sell it out at £70/£80 this is still cheaper than your paying and i make a profit for doing nothing therefore i would keep my Labour prices down to what they should be. You getting your own parts would cut my profit and not make the usual indie happy. I personally would warrenty any job done when parts are supplied by the customer. If the Part fails its not my problem, if the part falls of this is my problem and the job would get fixed in full at my cost. I was recenty ask by a memeber on here to do valve stem seals on his aristo. He said theres a method of doingi t without removing the head, ye there is he even printed the pics of this site to show me how to do it with a bit of drain pipe and a load of sticky tape. i refused the job. He has recently drove the car to oxford to a Lexus specialist he found on here who is dong it for him in the method i discribed above. That was 3 weeks ago he hasnt got his car back yet. You see for every dodgey back street garage theres a dodgey specialist to go work for him

I am not underselling myself i mearly charge a fair price for a fair job. I charge labour rates as set down by Auto data who collect their information from the dealers. If the auto data says 3 hours for a service then i charge 3 hours. If it takes me 4 then thats my loss. I have never rang a customer to tell them that "the job is taking longer that i thought i will have to charge you more" If i undersell labour then thats my luck out. This very rearly happens and i usually find the labour rates excesive. As for doing the job frequently and knowing the job so i can do it quicker, the experiance i have with dealers is they do work thats unrequired. I know for a fact on the new model Focus, Ford techs remove the offside head light to give better access. Ford work from a standard set of tools so to remove the timing cover you may well have to take out the headlight, personally i have a very extensive tool kit and have never had to remove the head light yet and get the job done in time. I also know that the new focus doesnt come with a pollen filter as the techs refuse to replace them as to access it your required to remove the fuse box. both of these facts i was todl about by a Ford tech. With regards to low ash oils and particulate filters yes i know what they are i also know of the pig urine is used in diesel engined cars they used to call it Add Blue. I keep abreast with most manufactures and if theres still something i dont know i use the good old internet or the telephone and ring the dealers and ask. As an example of dealers not knowing or having it all, a few years ago i serviced a 206 gti. It was 2 years old but the girl who drove it was at uni in sheffield and traveled up and down every weekend she did 30,000 a year in it. I couldnt get plugs on the aftermarket so i had to get the from Peugeot. I was amazed to be told they didnt have any and would have to get them in. A two year old car i asked and you dont stock the plugs. We havnt had one in yet that has done that kind of mileage so we havnt had a use for them yet. Two days later my plugs turned up. Of course to the customer it was my fault, i actually rang the dealer and put her on the phone so they personally could confirm it wasnt my fault i had her car 2 days. It shouldnt really have mattered as she had a courtesy car with a free tank of fuel in it. My point that no one has addressed yet is when does a mechanic become a tech. I dont understand this tech thing. does he fix cars?? then he is a mechanic. If the car has a fault that he diagnoses then repairs hes a mechanic. If some one tells him "thats broke" and he replaces the broken part then hes a fitter. If he services cars all day including timing belts air con regas brake lining changes brake fluid changes then hes a mechanic. All the jobs i have just listed are service jobs as far as i am concerned Even quickfit fiters do this kind of work are they now to be known as techs. Maybe its just me, i am rarely quite if ever. I dont advertise anywere except yellow pages i have only recently signed up to the good garage scheme. I am a memeber of the retail motor industry and a memebr of the local fair play charter. when i was an apprentice i was the most qualified mechanic in the country for years as i did every exam and course there was to do when most people did just what was required. i dont advertise this except on the inside of my garage were my qualificatios are displayed. My work is repeat custom and word of mouth.I am not drumming up bussiness,Have i once mentioned which garage i work at?. i wouldnt mention it or even tell people if thed messaged me and asked. Good trades men are hard to find i agree maybe this is why i am always busy. Or maybe it just because i do a fair job for a fair price. There is no reason at all not to use an "indie" as long as they are vat registered and carry out the service to "dealer spec" then it doesnt invalidate any warrenty. Today i serviced a 09 plate sciroco. my Auto data cd doesnt list this car so i requested the service specs from my local vw dealer and by law they have to send them. The car got the required service to the required specs.

I can understand labour rates being more expensive but the parts ??? i Agree the cost of living is quite possibly higher in London but does that make the parts prices higher and therefore the price of the actual car when new higher? i still dont understand why your happy to pay all that money for a cambelt kit when i can get them for £58 and why they have the cheek to ask for £185 My foremans brother inlaw has his car serviced up here while he is visiting relatives so it does work out cheaper for him. He only comes visiting when his car is due a service though so seeing his family is the bonus not cheap car bills.

Oh yes i forgot your live in London area. So my prices are correct if you factor in the Postcode. Timing belt kit all 3 bits £58. £185 is mental price. My formans brother in law lives in London area. He drives up to Manchester for the weekend and gets his car serviced while hes up here including his fuel its still cheaper. 60,000 mile service on is200 is quoted at 3 hours acording to the latest auto data cd. at my garage this works out at £110.00. Timing belt is additional task on this service labour is another 2 hours £73.50. timing belt kit is £58 althoug that with hugh discount as i work my supliers to outdo each other for my trade. £85 for an aircon gas re charge is mental price. £40 i charge £9.45 for engine flush and same again for fuel addative???? what they adding to the fuel and why they flushing an engine on a car thats serviced regulally. Theres another 20 quid saved. £69.40 + vat labour hell if i charged that i would go bust inside a month. Does this garage you got a quote from do mot testing. i bet they dont because at that labour rate they would be loosing money maximum charge for mot test on class 4 is £57.20 (not checked in a while as i charge 47.50) The national average time for an mot test is 52 minutes so give or take 8 minutes the garage you got a quote form is loosing £12.20 an hour doing mot test. The good garage scheme rates garages they have feedback scores for the garages i presume if people in your area are happy paying the prices then there wont be any bad feedback on costing issues in your area recorded on the site. The A.A pay better wages for "servicemen" within the London ring road so maybe this is why the cost of living is twice as much.

I think some people are missing my point on the parts. There is nothing in it quality wise whatever the name on the box. You cant buy non o.e. spec parts in this country. Every part for sale in this country is or was origianal equipment on a model of car some where at some time. If a brand of part is good enough for Volkswagen Ford or even Rover its good enough for Lexus. Any one heard of Puralator filters. In this country no i dont think so but in truth they are the second biggest selling filter company in the world. They have vertually cornered the entire U.S market. If they make filters good enough for 100 million cars in the states and there £15 cheaper than a filter with Toyota wrote on it then its good enough for my Lexus. As for getting a proper job, there is still no diffrence betweent he job i do and the job a guy with Lexus wrote on his overalls does. Why is he worth twice what i am worth just because he works in a a garage with Lexus onthe front door. There is nothing at all stopping me opening my garage in the morning and declaring myself a "Lexus specialist" would you be happy in my labour rate doubled over night ?? My point is a guy working for me last week doesnt suddenly do a better job if he leaves my place and goes to work for Lexus or any other dealer so why is he worth twice as much. Its the mechanics with the spanners not the name over the door if hes going to miss somethng or leave a wheel loose it doesnt matter what name he has across his back

Come on you can see your brake pads with out removing the wheels, 3000 miles on most peoples cars is 3 months driving. UNless your a motorway driver in which case your mileage is higher but you press your brakes less for that mileage. If you want to change your brake pads with 8,000 miles left on them fine personally i would bear it in mind there getting due, have a look at what the garage is actually talking about by checking the through the wheels when i got home, then simply keep an eye on them as i clean my wheels each week Priced a timing belt set today £58 for 3 piece kit. must cost a fotune to have Toyota printed on the boxes the markup is incredable. Good garage scheme is a good place to start if you want to look up an "indie" garage. Being an "indie" Lexus specialist or being any other specialist usually means they actually worked for that particular dealer for some time. I know a guy who can claim to be saab, vauxhall,volkswagen, audi, seat, skoda, fiat lancia alfa romeo specialist. Thats a hole lot of specialists. Saab and vauxhall are same company and share engines volkswagen audi seat skoda all same company fiat lancia alfa romeo all same. At some point the companies mentioned have owned one an other hes worked at the agents/dealers for all of them but does that make him a specialist. He worked there passed there in house training courses, and while there, was one of their "techs". Personally i wouldnt use him on the basis hes a "specialist". Specialist in what?? leaving jobs??, getting sacked?? not doign the job right??. My personal opinion is anyone who changes jobs every 12 months is either not as good as he thinks he is or a power hungry time waster. Either that or all the dealers are crap and he wants to do it the right way!!

Priced a timing belt kit today, good quality make £58. Thats a 3 piece kit belt tensioner and idler. As for experiance it shouldnt be an experiance. Drop car of collect when ready. What experiance. My company has a courtesy car if required, we also have a collect and drop of service we even have a heating in our reception area and a coffee machine that i dont know how to work (too many buttons and i just want a black coffee) all this and i am only an indie. Oh and i have a cleaner who comes in once a week so my reception area is clean as well, we even have a plastic plant in the corner,just to add a little colour.. my staff have clean uniform every day the workshop is clean and all cars serviced get a full valet before collection. So i offer the same service for half the parts cost and half the labour cost, personal choice?? or wasting money?? the choice is yours. My point when starting this thread was at what point does a mechanic charging £36.75(my labour rate) an hour become a Lexus tech charging £73 an hour. Why does a denso spark plug costing £38 for 6 become worth £70 for 6 when it says Toyota an the box. My mate owns an is200 navman sport. He rarely services it and only repairs it when its broken and or despratly needs doing. Its got 145,00 showing on the clock hes owned it from 12 months old. Other than a bloody good wash and polish the car is still mint and as tight as a drum to drive. This is due to build quality of the car not the maintainance. Dont expect great things from dealers, in my experiance there just as dodgey as any other mechanics can be. i have worked for dealers and know many people that still do. I even know of one certain dealer chain that pays a cash bonus to their staff for selling "additional proceedures" above what the car was booked in for. Just because the garage has a nice reception area with courtesy cars (that they later sell as ex demonstration models) doesnt make them a good garage. As for word of mouth check out the good garage scheme on the internet. they recomend garages in every area and have a feed back rating for each garage based on customer testamonies, which cant be cheated or faked as they check.

Licensed mechanics !!!! now theres a thought. Theres nothing in this country at all to say who can and cannot open a garage and start repairing cars. Theres also no governing bodies who come and check your work from time to time. Any one can start taking in work and repairing cars. MUst be diffrent in Japan and for the better i say

I bought my is200 with no service history i didnt even road test the car and it had done 145,000 when i bought it. I will always by a car with my ears and eyes. I had a mercedes c class a few years back it had 200,00 on the clock, but had 2 stamped up service books. The garage on the stamp didnt exsist the phone number was dead.Someone had a stamp made up and spent some time with a pen making the service history up. The car was right and must have been serviced at some point in its life i think probably by the guy i bought it of but as you say a fully stamped up service book makes the car worth a few more quid. As for qualified staff i have qualified staff i also have 2 apprentices any work done by the apprentice gets checked and a watchfull eye is kept on them at all times. I cant how ever say the same for all garages, all mechanics have to start some where as does any tradesman so dont expect your car to be worked on by a fully qualified staff member every time you take your car in. I for one have been in the trade 25 years or so i dont count myself "Fully" qualified. i sat exams and 5 years of collage, but theres always something new on the market always a new engine or new model car thats out so no one and i mean no one has ever done every job on every car. Experiance is what i look for theres never anything that new that it cant be related to something else simular.Changing a timing belt is pretty much the same on any car. In its simplest form you undo stuff until the cover comes of,time up the engine, change belt and tensioner and any idlers, bolt all bit back together. I dont need to have Lexus on my overalls to work on a Lexus i draw on my experiance (and an auto data cd for timing marks, specs and setings) when i do any job. As for a clean car, any car that comes in my garage for service gets a wash and hoover no matter how dirty it is when it comes in. Have a look at "good garage scheme" on the internet gives an out line of what garages in your area do what, and more importantly customer feedback. The feed back cards are given out to customers and a filled in and sent back to the good garage scheme and not the garage, and the good garage scheme do spot checks on garages to check that feed back forms have actually come from customers and not the mechanics families!!

Sorry to ask this guys but i read many of the threads on here. I still cant understand why some of you rely on Lexus dealers. Or ex Lexus mechanics for that matter. Why some of you are hapy to pay over the odds for work thats done by a "Lexus mechanic " is beyond me. The diffrence between a Lexus mechanic and an "inde", as some of you call them, is the badge on his overalls. I know one garage near me they used to be Rover agents, when Rover went bust they took on Nissan and Subaru. They now have 3 diffrent labour rates. £73 and hour for Subaru. £58 and hour for Nissan, and £43 an hour for Rover plus vat. Funny thing is the guy in the back wears the same overalls and uses same tools and ramp no matter what car hes working on. Before any of you start saying this isnt allowed or fair i never said it was i just said this is what they are doing. If i shut my garage an "inde" and went and got a job for Lexus, does that mean i am a Lexus mechanic then. When do i become worth £70 an hour instead of £37.50. I know dealers run their own in house training, but a lecture run by a dealer for a dealer mechanic is sure hard to pass. I have been in and around the motor trade 25 years and worked at some dealers myself and believe me my time spent working for a Ford dealer was some of the most corupt time ever, hence my leaving. I was an aprentice back then and cleaning oil filters and checking brakes through the spokes in the wheels was comman place. The Ford escorts back then never had the front wheels took of until the pads had worn out. I work on many cars all day, just because they dont all say Lexus on the boot does this make me a lesser mechanic than the guy down the road. If you turn it around a guy who works on Lexus cars all day leaves a Lexus dealer and goes to work for an "inde" first job in at new place is a Ford does that make him a crap mechanic??. Forget the dealers fellas go find an experianced mechanic who charges realistic prices for a fair job. Find a guy(or girl for that matter) whos been working on cars for years and use them. In its simplest form a car is a car its 3 boxes one for the engine one for the driver and one for your shopping. They stuck together with nuts and bolts. Any decent mechanic will repair your car for you and if its a complicated job he cant do he will tell you he cant do it. Dealers tell you that you have to take your car to them for service to keep your warrenty ANY and i mean ANY dealer that tells you this should be reported. This practice is now illegal and telling a customer this is a crime. Theres a new garagweb site running now called the "good garage scheme" look them up read the customer reports on these garages and pick one save yourself some money guys

holy crap guys i working in the wrong area. i got to shut up shop and move now. never ever in my life have i ever heard of anyone happy to pay Nearly £1000 for a service mot and timing belt change are you all mad. Iridium plugs are £38 quid for set of six air filter is £15 oil filter £10 good quality oil £25 quid. even an air con recharge is only £40 couple of litres of gear oil for diff and gear box £20 tops Labour at my place is £37.50 an hour 1.5 hours for service 3 hours for t belt fitting as someone has mentioned a t belt kit from lexus is only £120 so whats that quick guess 270/280 ?? i know the service prices are right i recently did mine i bet the t belt is now where near £120 either ont he after market. Oh and no them service parts are not Lexus parts or even toyota for that matter but then Lexus and Toyota dont make there own service parts so the ones your getting are not dealer parts either. sorry guys i refuse to pay £60 for plugs that are made by ngk that come in a box labled toyota. As for warrenty, as long as you use O.E parts "or" equivelant it doesnt invalidate your warrenty. As trading standards wont allow the sale of non O.E standard parts any make will do even if you have to keep to warrenty. When i service a car i change plugs, oil and filter. i check the air filter if its clean and will go another 10,000 leave it alone put it back in. If your aircon is icey cold, leave it alone dont touch it. if your pads have 3,000 miles left on them bring it back to me in 3,000 miles. dealers work to the service times. If your car gets serviced every 10,000 miles and you have 8,000 left on the pads the dealer will tell you there worn out and recomend you change them as they wont make it to your next service. And dont check your timing belt they just snap or rip the teeth of, you can remove the cover and have a look but if it looks ok what you going to do remove cover next week and have another look just change it when it due then forget about it until its due again.

Yes that will work to reset the ecu. Why do you want to reset it though ???

ye sorry guys wrong ebay item number. I have tried the correct number it doesnt show now as i bought the item in may and ebay only keep the listings 3 months. Any way some light at end of the tunnel, i paid through paypal ,so i started a dispute through them.The very next day in the post came a replacement ballast pack. It came minus the wiring loom to connect it to the car but a few spade terminals and a length of wire and my hids are back in action. I have still emailed the seller to forward me the wiring loom as well so i await the results of that email. As for the paypal dispute i have left it for now as in theory i still dont have a "complete" set of working hids.

I use g3 cutting compound on a wet buffer head. Its a body shop cutting paste more course than t-cut. Polish after to prolong the effect. vauxhall astra and old shape mondeo had same fault works on these models to

Well i have been an mechanic for 20 years my foreman has done 18 years and my just qualified apprentice has done 5 years. thats 43 years between us, non of us clean brake disc mounting flanges, on any car when fitting new brake discs and certainly dont grease them. Never had it cause a buckled disc yet. If it has caused a buckled discs why didnt it buckle the repalcement set??,or am i just lucky?? As for the company brake parts uk what make of brakes did they supply i stopped using that company 5 years ago as all the products i got from them had a picture of a mouse with big ears on the box. i have used there parts many times and always end up with 30% coming back with squeeky brakes so now i dont use them.

There is a topic on here somewhere about this subject on which i suggested buying a certain kit from ebay. Recently one of the ballast packs failed and now i have nothing but agravation from the seller. Well its not actualy agro more like no contact. The item number was290355069340. I bought the item in May and think the item number will now be no use to find the item on ebay. The seller is called jam_performance_parts. There address is unit 154 London HA0 1NR. This is the address i was given to return the failed parts to. I of course sent the item recorded and know someone signed for it. BE CAREFULL if buying from this guy infact dont buy from him if your items fail you wont get a refund or items replaced.

I have been a mechanic 20 years and even i use one of the cheap obdII readers. Just fr a quick plug in and get fault codes. The one i use comes from Argos although i have had it 2 years. It doesnt always give all the fault codes and sometimes i have to use on of my other diag kits as well. I also have an Autodata cd which i use to double check the fault code. Most garages charge about 30 quid for a plug in so if you buy one and use it twice your quids in. I currently have alot of Vauxhalls with engine lights on, they show a Lambda sensor fault code. This is a sensor in the cars exhaust which detects a bad burn in the engine. Every single one i have found has a comman link they all use super market petrol from the same branch of Tesco. I use my little obdII reader to turn the light out and the fix is just not to use Tesco petrol. I dont charge for this fix and usually get repeat custom from it. so for me they worth the money. i think the one i bought was abotu 30 quid.

A pal of mine bought his 200 sport 12 months old back in 2000. The dealer had just started selling Lexus. His wheels were starting to go off, the dealer replaced them and the tyres. This may have been just because they had just started to sell Lexus but it has to be worth an ask

The servo on the is200 is a double diaphram type its perfectly normal to do as you decride. When doing an mot test theres certain information that the tester is given on his printout check sheet (vt20) the thing you mention (on a printout for is200) is described on this and is descrided as normal even by ministry of transport. if the car had drum brakes (which they dont ) this would be down to poor adjustment but on an is 200 its normal.

Never have cleaned or greased behind a brake disc. Never had a problem not doing it. I must fit at least one set of discs a week over 20 years thats a whole load of discs i have never had a problem with. Besides the first post said the brakes were ok for few thousand miles.If the disc were not sitting straight there would have been a wobble from day one not from few thousand miles after. Once the wheel is on its clamps the disc to the hub so no dirt is going to get behind there and any water ingress is burnt of when brakes are hot. Like i said i have never greased or cleaned behind a disc and never had a problem, maybe its luck, but if its luck i better play the lotto this weekend.

I wouldnt get the discs skimmed. It takes wear surface of them. Depending on how much they have to skim to get them back straight they could end up 1/4 worn when finished. A high spot will show up on a brake disc as a blue spot on your disc. If you cant see a blue spot chances are you did what i did a few years back on a turbo car i had. I got the brakes nice and warm braking hard. I then drove through a puddle instantly cooling the brakes it buckled them to death. These were drilled and grooved brakes and only been on about 1000 miles i returned them for full free replacement. i have been a mechanic/mot tester 20 years and have never once cleaned a hub before fitting a disc and never once had this problem cause a new disc to buckle. personally if i had bought a set of discs and they buckled within 12 months i would be sending them back. My garage warrenties any part for 12 months and 12,000 miles we simply send them back to supplier and claim our labour from them.

If you have 19" wheels what tyres are you running them on. A wide tyre with very low profile will give a very firm ride.