lexuslexus

CLICK HEREMatt - last week I used ( again ) Dent Devil. They claim on their website that dent removal is £75 per panel but on both occaisions I have used them they have done the lot for £50 - last time 4 dents. Can't see them when they have finished. And yes they come to you.Their website address is: www.dentdevil.com ( click above link).

If you wish to stay with Dunlops - Dunlop have brought out a ' super quiet' tyre, and are currently running an advertising campaign for it in the UK. Go to: http://www.dunloptyres.co.uk/site/tyres/ca.../patterns/SP01/ to see details.

I spoke to Lexus about this - they say that newer CD versions are released in October every 2nd year. One came out Oct 02 so no new till Oct 04. I'm still trying to get hold of a copy of Oct 02 as mine is older.

Just been to Bolton trading standards - they are going to pay them a visit.

Whoops - sorry I didn't read the bit which says it is there when stationary - its not the brakes then

Sadly if I litigate for the mis selling I expect they will just deny the whole thing - after all they have already told me they would - so I will litigate in the County Court for my losses and compensation due soley to the breakdown, ie financial losses and ruined holiday. They have, by refunding my purchase price already amditted the car was not of merchantable quality so this claim will suceed.

Received a letter from Bolton Lexus's solicitors today. I quote: 'They ( my clients ) are satisfied that they/or members of their staff have commited no act or default which renders an apology necessary. .......my clients don't intend to pay you any compensation ..... . ' Just about what I would expect. So they don't think it necessary to apologise for telling me it had 2 owners when it had 3, advertising it as 56k miles when it had 57500+ miles, telling me they would back their staff and say I was told all along it had 3 owners, and asking me to lie to a new potential owner about why I rejected the car. I wonder what they do apologise for. Strange but I forgot to hand in the service history when I returned the car so I phoned them immediately and apologised, posted it that day with an apology. Strange sort of world isn't it.

Regarding your Satnav query - there is a thread on the LS400 forum -' Ls400 Mk4 Sat Nav Cd ' that might help

Is the clicking sound coming from the engine? Is it there when stationary or only when moving slowly? If its only there when moving slowly it is very likely to be that the anti-rattle shims are missing from your front brake pads. You can not hear it with the windows up. Because there are 4 each side and it isn't obvious once removed how they go back some 'mechanics' simply throw them out. There should be one silver and one black shim with each pad. You can test this problem by lightly applying your brakes, if it disappears this is the problem.

went to Stockport today to have some work done on my car - what a friendly bunch they are, ran me home, rather than keep me waiting, when it became clear the job would take longer that anticipated. Even reduced the bill because they had forgotten to 'phone me with a quote before hand. Now that is customer service :)

I have just fitted one today - Watling Engineering do a complete towbar - and should be in stock - about £245 - it has a detachable fitting that just shows the end of a square tube below the bumper. You do have to remove the rear bumper - fitting yourself takes about 3 hrs. Do check that your car has an oil cooler fitted to the transmission - it should have - if not this is £235 plus fitting - one hour by Lexus - £70 ish. Hope this helps.

you are right about LS400 plug leads, they are a problem. There are two conventional coils - one for each bank of cylinders. The plug leads are the thin type and are prone to shorting between each other. Your local Lexus dealer can plug in their wonderful machine and tell you if you have any probs. and if so which cylinder ( this might be free if you ask nicely) . They also part company at the plug end. You can inspect them yourself - the nearside is easier, the off side you have to remove some of the induction air pipes to get access. Take care pulling the lead off the plug, they can be tight. Look for signs of shorting along the lead - usually whitish marks - you can wrap plastic insulating tape at this point simply to increase the distance apart. You can check each lead yourself with a simple multimeter set to resistance. The resistance of each lead should be appropriate to its length. A full set of leads before discount is around £252 plus VAT - how do they justify this? Similar leads can be found on certaing Jananese cars eg Micra bubble. ( about £5 ) It is strange that you are experiencing higher fuel consumption at motorway speeds - I presume you have the overdrive switched on? Does the overdrive switch work ie can you feel it change up? Have a good think about a Mk3 I bought a good one, one owner FLSH for £4900. Good luck.

Finally got LGB to email me a response - if that is what you can call it, pasted below: Thank you for your recent letter dated 6 August 2003, and for taking the trouble to write to us. May I firstly take this opportunity to say how disappointed I was to read your detailed and thorough account of your experience with Lexus Bolton. The service that you received is certainly not indicative of the usual excellence that is associated with our brand. We are of course sorry that you have had cause to write us about your dealings with this Lexus Centre. As I am sure you can appreciate we are not privy to the conversations that have taken place between yourself and the staff at Lexus Bolton, so it is very difficult in these types of situations to pass comment on what has or has not happened. However, given your strength of feeling expressed in your letter I felt that it was necessary to escalate your concerns to Lexus Bolton for their attention. I have therefore spoken to Nick Bailey, General Manager of the RRG Group. He strongly refutes the accusations that have been made about the service that you have received. Nick maintains that, that there was nothing wrong with your LS400 and is more than happy for this car to undergo another RAC inspection to prove this point. He does concede that certain aspects of the sale could have been handled better, and he will of course take any necessary action to ensure that this does not happen again. It is always unfortunate when an amicable resolution cannot be met and I am conscious that your confidence in the Lexus brand has been damaged as a result. I would advise that although we are able to monitor this situation we are not able to enforce a particular course of action on Lexus Bolton. Your comments are invaluable in our progression to provide Lexus customers with the service that they expect and require. Lexus (GB) Ltd will continue to work closely with our Centre Network with the aim of improving all aspects of customer handling. In closing, I would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and please again accept our apologies for the service you have received. I do hope that we will be able to restore your faith in Lexus in the near future. If I can help in any other way please do let me know. Another RAC inspection -

Bolton Lexus are now re advertising this car ( on the lexus website ) - 1999 fiord mist ls400 at £17995. I wonder if they will describe it correctly to a new enquiry - should be 58,000 miles and now 4 owners, and they should mention the breakdown if asked directly. Anyone want to try? If they do then at least some good has come of all this. Interesting how they are going to sell it with no V5?

Update - I have still not received a response letter from LGB for my letter of 6th Aug. I have received no response from Bolton Lexus. LGB tell me that Bolton Lexus are refusing to talk to me. ( ahh didums ). So presumeably they have no interest in resolving this matter out of court - so much for customer service. I am awaiting an update from Bolton Trading Standards later today and I will litigate in the Salford County Court on Monday 1st Sept. Interestingly though, Bolton keep phoning me for the V5 for this car, sadly I am about to go away caravaning for a month so unless I feel like going to the trouble of having a friend check the mail and post it on they are in for a long wait.

I've used a company called Dent Devils, they removed a dent in the front wing of my LS400 about 50mm by 30 that had a crease line on it. They normally charge £75 per body panel ( ie all dents on that panel. ) For this one he charged £50. You could only see the repair if you knew it was there and where to look. I suppose they are all the same but it depends of course on the skill of the particular agent that you get. Having a panel resprayed is much more likely to show afterwards as a repair. He did comment on how thick the LS wing metal was compared to other cars!

wrote to Lexus GB on the 6th August - still had no response from them or Bolton. Lexus GB told me ( when I phoned them) they had posted a letter 1st class last wednesday, its now Sat and no sign of it. Wrote to Bolton stating my intention to go to County Court on Sept 1st. to recover my expenses etc. I'll post the outcome of that action in a few months.

I have just been to Lexus Stockport they took the trouble to get it right. The oilcooler kit for the LS is £235 inc VAT. and about £70 to fit, not the £1800 I was quoted from one Lexus dealer. At this price it's not worth risking it without. :) Thought I'd put the record straight.

very resolveable - I have already told them I would accept a sum of £200 to cover my expenses but so far no response - I will litigate in the County Court on the 1st Sept. if I don't receive a response soon. Incidently I registered the car in my wife's name and we are still waiting for the V5 to come back to us from Swansea, problem is we are going away on holiday for up to a month soon.

Local dealers may well pay for their own local advertising but they cetainly don't pay directly for, or design, the various glossy brochures that you can pick up in any Lexus dealership. or for the website. Next time your'e in one have a read of the claims that Lexus GB make about 'the lexus experience', 'putting customers first' and I quote - 'At Lexus, we believe what makes owning a Lexus special, unique even, is the way we treat our customers' This I presume is a corporate 'We' - Just have a look at some of their claims on their website. My point is that you should get what you pay for. If I wanted this kind of service I would have gone to a back street garage. I reckon I paid nearly £2k extra to get the security and quality of the 'Lexus experience' and look what I got. When you compare this with my experience of buying privately - one owner car, FLSH, cambelts changed early, no faults, a '98 car with 58000mls for £12400 and the man I bought it off was charming and honest or the Bolton Lexus car - '99 with 57500 miles, 3 owners, accident damage, mud caked underside, just coming up to cambelts, poor rear tyres, at £17000. and the salesman treated me like a fool. I appreciate I had no warranty so I have just put an AA parts and labour warranty on for £52 for the year.

The price I paid was about right - but it has been suggested to me that as the car had accident damage and the underneath was covered in thick mud it may have been in an accident and perhaps off road into a field. Maybe the gearbox was damaged and as the mud was not cleaned off they couldn't have checked the undeneath for damage very carefully. What is interesting is that I rang the previous keeper who told me the car had had no accident damage. I think you are right about the quality of the RAC inspections, this car had paint flaking off but t was not reported. I have emailled this thread to Lexus Bolton and asked LGB to have a look. Strangely the customer services person who I spoke to seemed not to be aware of this website - heads in sand?

Stockport does seem to get excellent comments, thats where I'm going now.

As I tried to explain to Lexus GB it is they who pay for and produce the Lexus advertising that contains the claims about how good the 'Lexus Experience' is. I think, therefore, they have some responsibility when it doesn't turn out as they promise. Is is after all they who through their advertising induce us to visit a dealership to make a purchase. I personally think Lexus have got overconfident with the JD Power results etc. It doesn't take much bad publicity to undue a great deal of good, after all bad news travels faster than good! It would have been so easy for them to resolve this issue but they just can't bring themselves to do this, even though they repeatedly state that' the customer comes first' . If they do sort this out I will of course be the first one to let everyone know, because I am honest. The really sad thing is the cars are so good, good job they sell themselves without the need for Lexus salespersons.

Had a chat with my local trading standards dept. They were very interested and will take the matter up on my behalf via Bolton Trading Standards. Incidently they tell me that if a manager asks a customer to lie to a potential customer, ie say to anyone who rings up - I just did not like the car and not mention the breakdown, he/she has committed a criminal offence. What is so sad is that had they just made a gesture to compensate me for my actual losses and a bit of goodwill because it ruined my holiday all this would not have been necessary. He seemed more concerned about his own loss repeatedly telling me it would be about £1000.

I bought a 1998 R reg LS400 Mk4 privately, one owner, it has 58000 FLSH, and had even had the cambelts changed early, at a lot less £s.