Juicedrinker

Hiya, long story short I have switched back to summer tyres (Bridgestone Potenza's) from my Goodyear Vector 4 Season tyres as we should (at least in theory) be getting warmer weather here in the South form now. The Goodridge have been phenomenal throughout the Autumn / Winter especially in the rain with all the standing water and I would of left them on but they are adding approx 10% to mileage recorded and as I ramp up my distance covered during the Spring and Summer did not want to over record mileage during this time. Within the first few metres of driving my car I could not believe how hard the ride is now in that it picks up every ridge / nuance in the road surface whereas the Goodyear were a very comfortable tyre. The pressures are spot on 2.4 front and 2.5 rear, I appreciate these are XL tyres BUT my Goodyear were appropriate for the weight of this car too, has anyone else found the Bridgestone's harsh on their RC?

WOW how generous Lexus are offering you a packet of wild flowers.... surely you can't move across to another brand when they are rewarding you so richly for your many many years of loyalty to them.

Do you have no claims protection? What is the total excess on your insurance? You will need to make a decision based on this because if you do not have no claims protection you will be shafted on the insurance price and if total excess is say £800 thats 20% your contributing anyway. Even if low excess and no claims protected this will then be noted on your policy and definately have an impact on your annual premium as they will know you are in a high risk are (if they didn't in the first place)

Ha ha you are the same as me.... I will never ever let any dealer wash my car following a service and they are always surprised that I refuse. I used to visit a local Aston Martin, Bentley and Lamborghini dealership to collect parts for one of my customers. That is the only place I have ever witnessed a really high standard of car cleaning. I had a chat with the two people who were working on a Bentley that had just been serviced, they had an undercover dedicated area, with a unit attached. They had so much equipment available like air dryers, blowers, paint depth checking tools they even used deionized water; They wore gloves and were clearly meticulous. They told me that before they worked on anyone's car they requested to know what work had been done on it previously and ideally spoke directly with that detailer concerned. They then used product that had no negative effect on the product that was applied on the car. There were two staff working at a time all day, 6 days per week. Obviously the cost was built / hidden in the no doubt exorbitant servicing or repair work bill but at least they were extremely professional.

I'm into detailing and a work colleague of mine does concours detailing he just spent 3 full days polishing, ceramic coating etc (AFTER a complete washing process and decontamination process using fallout removal products, clay bar etc) on his RX8 in one of your units. He uses paint depth tools to check and utilise the appropriate products for machine polishing, removes all decals, wheels so that he can access calipers insides of alloys, parking sensors on bumpers, masks plastics, rubber and even removed his rear spoiler. Obviously you would not expect Lexus to go that far BUT I can guarantee that if you get any form of main dealer detailing done it will be a half arsed job and no comparison at all to a professional detailer. There is no way at all that Lexus will have the car moved off site to a professional detailer with at least a day of pre preparation work completed before the ceramic coating is applied. The preparatory work is absolutely critical on any car and if not done properly then any wax or ceramic coating applied will be poor and whilst may look ok / good to the untrained eye it will not gleam as it should and above all not last anywhere near as long as it should. There is an intensive amount of labour in doing the job fully and hence why the cost is so high. I remember when an ex had bought a 3 year old Black BMW5 series from a dealer and she paid c£500 for their version of special paint protection back in 2005. I dropped in at the dealer a day before it was due for collection as has a spare Alfa key for the one that we had traded in. The sales guy said their detailer was only half way through out back but I was welcome to take a look. I walked around the back to watch a lad working on it who was very young. Cigarette in one hand, headphones on power washing the car, then sponge into a bucket washing a wheel, then straight up onto wheel arches, paintwork and back to wheels. Sponge in bucket and back out onto paintwork (no two bucket method used so dirt / grit put back onto paint). This is the person who was supposed to be applying the special paint protection. I tapped him on shoulder to stop him as he couldn't hear me and went to see the sales guy. I told him to remove the special protection off my fiancees invoice and I would do the car myself and I got her over to the centre and we took the car as it was and I then dealt with it at home. A few years later went to get my Mazda from its annual service and again a muppet was washing it and more worringly pressure washing really close up all around the convertible roof seals and the rear, the next day I had water inside me nearside rear light cluster, boot and behind the passenger seat. From that day forward I have refused all car dealers offering to wash my car for free as part of the service. I use specific polishes and waxes and don't want cheap products with high PH values reducing or ruining the effectiveness of my work.

My fiancee did not want me to but I did go back however as I had raised the issue a couple of months after and there was nothing wrong with the work they would not entertain any form of redress. I contacted their UK customer services and remember the letter / reply basically stated that when their own body shops were extremely busy (it was 2005 and Carlisle had just had one of the worst floods in the UK ever) outsourcing work to other BMW assured / professional repair personal was acceptable rather than to have extended delays in repairs for the customer. They also questioned the cost and work involved that I stated but had to be careful / mindful of the fact that my friend had lots of work given to him by these main dealers and I couldn't drop him in it. For the past 15 years I have worked in Motorsport and also deal with components and bodywork parts for private cars like Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren for my customers sometimes. I have had Lamborghini electronic components that arrive in their Volkswagen group brown cardboard packaging, the part number starts differently but is EXACTLY the same as a part for a VW and yet because of them categorising it as a Lambo part number it is 10 times the price!!! It is crazy what goes on with the groups with a lot of shared parts that are 'dressed' differently for their more premium ranges but are exactly the same core parts - except many many times more expensive.

That is completely mad!!! I would suggest you try to find a reputable bodywork repairer. I can't say this is true of Toyota BUT with a number of other brands mostly use specialist independents but claim it is done by them. EG I used to know a person who was a specialist PDR (paintless dent remover) and apart from dealing with private people he used to go to the local Audi, BMW and Honda dealership and repair customers cars at the dealership. Where he charged between £30-£90 for dent removal (which often took 10-30 minutes max) to the dealership they would massively profit from it by telling a load of porkies about how the car was taken to a specialist centre, had parts removed etc to charge a lot for labour. I found this out because my fiancee at the time had a 5 series and a stray golf ball from Carlisle golf club came onto main road and hit bonnet while she was doing around 60mph. A bad dent in the bonnet was caused although paintwork appeared ok so she took it into BMW Carlisle. A week later got it back along with a £500 bill and was told they had to get the bonnet and its insultation removed to access the dent and labour time was a few hours. A couple of months later by pure chance I became friends with a PDR person and when he came to our house we quickly established that he had fixed her bonnet as he was often called out to the dealers around Carlisle. It took him 20-30 minutes and not bonnet removal and he had charged them £60.00

Yes good idea try to keep it out of insurance claim if you can because you will have a nightmare getting insurance next time and the premium will jump even higher. Eventually Lexus will update the security on my model and I will keep it until my next insurance which is April 25 and then move away most likely to Honda. Whilst Honda hybrids are for old people (and I'm old) they do not get stolen like Lexus and insurance is very reasonable indeed

I'm thinking the same way as you, the ES is ridiculous for car parks as are all SUV's (which i don't like even Lexus ones). I test drove a Civic hybrid the other day and WOW!!!!! Practical size, brilliant dash / layout of controls and what a fantastic transmission / drive train!!! It really shifts and feels / drives like a regular auto in sport mode... was extremely impressed with it.

It does seem to vary but not so much on the model as more to do with where you live I think and if you have a garage, park on private drive etc. I do have front and rear dash cam installed and LV have just reinsured my RC300H (2019) no issue at all and it only increased 23% from last year (fully comp, no claims protection, maximum legal cover, maximum personal injury insurance and an additional driver) @ £765.00.

Lexus RC Executive & performance, I queried this with the Lexus dealer Service Manager who sold it to me at the time and he said it was correct so I assumed as they are Lexus and use the registration number they must know best. I was pretty livid to say the least when I found out by pure chance (through an ex Toyota technician 7 months later on a Facebook page discussion) that it was wrong! The Lexus dealer said that It had happened to others but no apology or any form of redress offered.

Just in case this may affect anyone else, I found out two weeks ago that the service plan I had been paying for past 7 months was set up at the incorrect price because EMAC (who handle the Lexus plans) had my vehicle as a different model than it is. I own a RC300H and when I set up the 3 year plan including MOT's I questioned why it was so expensive and was told it was because of the 6 year service (that was part / included in it). However I felt it was still too high for two minor and one major service but got told all was correct by two other Lexus Dealers when I questioned it. A few weeks ago on a Facebook site I noted a person had just been quoted for the service and MOT plan which included the 6 year service and it was significantly less. Following confirmation of my concern with an ex Toyota technician (who was on the site at the time) I contacted Lexus HQ and they told me nothing to do with them and I needed to speak direct with EMAC and not the dealer who sold it to me. I contacted EMAC and they said nothing to do with them and I needed to speak with the Lexus dealer who sold me the plan. I emailed the dealer and a few days later they phoned and we went through everything again and apparently the EMAC system sometimes gets 2019 and 2020 RC300H and IS300H confused with the RCF 5 Litre V8 model instead! The upshot is that I was paying £18 per month more than I should of been (£450 for the plan term) and they actually had a car in for service a few days before and were expecting a RCF when it was a RC300H. No apology at all just told that it is a fault on the EMAC system that does not know the car is hybrid version from the number plate and defaults to RCF for 2019 and 2020 onwards!

Following on from my initial post regarding sub standard dealership service, I have just established yet another issue! Following a discussion on an RC Forum it turns out (the dealer who used to service my previous Lexus cars) that I then bought the 3 year service and MOT plan from.... has in fact overcharged me for this plan by a LOT! I queried it at the start but was told it was definitely correct and now I have found out that rather than charge me for an RC300H service plan they in fact charged me for an RCFV8 service plan at about £500 more!! What a complete bunch of muppets. I spoke with Lexus HQ this morning and they said nothing to do with them and I needed to speak with EMAC who handle that side of things. I then spoke to EMAC who said nothing to do with them and I need to speak with the dealer that sold me the plan, so I sent a long email to the dealer early this morning and am now awaiting their reply. Why oh why can they not do things right for crying out loud they are not some dodgy back street dealership, in fact I've never had issues with small privately run car dealers thinking about it. To summarise - My last Lexus went for its annual service and the dealer told me I imediateley needed new pads and discs all round. I challenged this as had new Lexus parts less than 20,000 miles before and the service manager got arsey and said 'if you know more than a Lexus technician perhaps you should work for us'. I took car to an independent MOT testing centre who I use and they said nothing wrong at all, a week later went to another Lexus dealer and they said pads about 30% worn and discs at least 3 years left on them at the mileage I was doing. Also while they had it they were worried and took me into workshop as very low on oil as in below the minimum. I told them and showed them it had been serviced the week before by Lexus and they then spent a good 30 minutes trying to locate a leak but couldn't find anything so they kindly topped up oil free of charge and told me to check oil weekly. Two months later I had used about 0.5 litres of oil and nowhere near the minimum on dipstick so clearly the original servicing dealer had failed to put correct amount of oil in! Then Lexus dealer I bought last years approved car from did not repair what was agreed with the salesman prior to delivery, short supplied me keys (got only 1) and had the wrong service completed on the car (!). I had to complain to Lexus HQ who jumped on the issues and got the dealer principle to contact me, I told him the issues and he said all had been arrange for the service department to sort out if I could lose the car for a few days. They gave me a loan car which had childrens and womens personal belongings in, was filthy inside and had womens underwear and clothing in carrier bags in the boot. It came back (in the end 10 days later) and they had not rectified two of the issues that I had sent it back for and the service department said they had not been instructed to even look at them. Then they emailed me and phoned me repeatedly one day a month later to say they were taking money from my card for the dash and rear cameras that were installed prior to delivery or they would need to pursue me for payment, yet I had already paid for them and had receipt of payment prior to the car being supplied to me in the first place . Then I went to book it in for its first service and MOT that is due in a few months and asked about the dealer rectifying something that I had originally complained about after receiving the car that will break at some point as its making a goddam awful noise and not operating properly and they refused and said they can only fix it when it has completely broken and not look at repairing it or rather stopping it from braking completely and anyway to just look at it would cost me about £150.00 minimum. I have owned and had a huge number / range of cars in my life privately and in business where I did over 50,000 miles per year for over 20 years and to be honest my Lexus experience is nowhere near the best that I have had. In fact incredibly the best I have had in past were with Honda, BMW and amazingly Alfa Romeo who couldn't have been nicer people to deal with. I am now wondering if it is more area based and how people are / act in the UK rather than the brand. My Honda, BMW and Alfa experience were all when I lived and worked up In Northumbria and Cumbria for a few years and the people there are simply amazing. I think down South most business people basically do not give a toss about anyone.

Thats good to hear, at least some are still ok then

I just wondered if any other people are noticing that some Lexus dealers have been lowering their standards over the past few years. They may be fine with a persons PCP finance car (as they are in most cases going to get it back to sell on again so will probably nurture it as its to their advantage) but how are private purchase people finding things? Lexus have always tried to set themselves apart from other premium marques with their satisfaction scores / face to face dealings because lets face it in most cases they can not compete against the equivalent alternative marque offerings with far too limited engine choices and huge security / insurance problems for a start. I bought a 4 year old very low mileage Lexus from a main dealer last May as was very satisfied with my dealership experience over the previous 12 years with two older / high mileage Lexus cars. However the purchase of that 4 year old car last year was anything but smooth once they established I did not want it on PCP or HP, then issues with car on receipt that were hassle to get them to rectify. I will soon have it due for annual service and MOT and am going to the dealer that used to always service my older Lexus cars. Last year I had taken out a 3 year Lexus service and MOT plan with them and told them of a couple of concerns that I have, one minor and one potentialy major and they were obstructive, the one that may become a major issue I accept has not actually physically completely broken yet but you can clearly tell there is something that needs addressing urgently (the noise and movement show there is a big issue) or it will fail completely at some point and not something you want to fail on a car. They will not deal with it at all as said if it still works the fact that it is very noisy / clunky and temperamental in operation means that it still works and they will only deal with if it totally fails. I cant believe that I have to put up with the noise above my head and worry about using the moonroof in a supposedly premium car that cost me £34,000 from a main dealer that started having issues at 19,000 miles and is only 23,000 now. I also can't believe that they would rather it totally fail and then replace an expensive part rather than remedy / fix now and save future failure. I guess it could be because most mechanics at dealerships are not actually proper mechanics at all and just parts replacers so they have no idea how to preserve or repair but only replace. I had COMPLETELY the opposite experience with a 6 year old BMW bought from a main dealer and a 5 year old Honda from a main dealer when issues occurred within the first year. In fact with the BMW it wasn't even the cars fault it was my fiancees (at the time) feral kids and I told the dealer this and yet they / BMW replaced the parts (unbelievably!) under their approved car warranty as said a BMW should not have failure of components / should be hard wearing until at least 80,000 miles and the car had done 30,000. I know that they withdraw a few models from the UK market and major in USA and Japan and just wonder if maybe they will close their limited dealerships down and put inside other Toyota dealerships. I was planning on sticking with Lexus long term but the past years experience has meant that I am now focused on moving away to another brand in the next two years and in fact may go for an older ICE car / away from hybrid next time and just get proper local mechanics / engineers that I know service / repair it.

Couldn't agree more with you on this. I'm on my third Lexus BUT will not be getting a fourth if they do not sort out their appalling attitude to resolving their security weaknesses

@Skinnymangood choice, any tyre that works better in rain is a win with the UK's damp, drizzly, downpour type of weather that seems to increase every year. Unfortunately due to the country roads I have to drive on very frequently and also altitude of some places / hills I wont get away with summer tyres. Out of interest do you know what load rating your rear tyres have? I am trying to establish form Lexus what it should be as most tyre companies are saying 96/98 but a Lexus dealer put 94's on mine!

Hello @Skinnyman, I have just seen this old post and just been through months of thinkng about what to do as need all season tyres ideally Vector 4 Seasons. How did you get on in the end? Did you go 255/35/R19 or other? What tyres did you opt for? Thanks, Charlie

Sorry only just seen your message. Its interesting as I have experience of both Cross Climates+ and also of Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons (Gen 1 & 2). For all year round use as of course all seasons are intended for the Michelins are brilliant as an all rounder however that being said on the two different cars (RWD and FWS) that my partner has had that I've used Vector 4 Seasons on over 8 years there is a clear difference when it comes to more severe winter ands heavy rain. The 4 seasons are clearly a winter tyre with summer 'modification' rather than the Michelin being a summer tyre with winter modification. Luckily my partner only does very low mileage because the 4 seasons do have more noticeable wear if used during Spring and Summer whereas the Michelins (as you will know) last for ages! As we have particularly bad standing water in the area that I commute daily and its also often very cold due to altitude changes I decided to go for 4 seasons Gen 3 as they have incredible ability in the wet and very good in snow. I will then switch back to the Bridgestones in March / April. Fortunately for me I have a friend who has a tyre company so swapping them over each time is minimal cost and done at my home.

Sorry to jump i on this late but I had Michelin Cross Climates on my last IS for 4 years and did over 30k miles and they were absolutely brilliant. No pull to left or right, great in wet and especially snow. From what you had been told the tread pattern of a Cross Climate should not have been ok - but in fact it was and I am about to get them fitted to my RC300H.

Hi David, well I received the missing key card and a spare key fob last night!! So when I can get to Lexus Swindon they said they will pair them up and set up global opening and closing free of charge as I’ve used them for years!!! Now that’s really great service 😀 I took out the three year service plan with Lexus Swindon, I can’t fault them at all with every dealing that I’ve had with them. I hope that you are getting good service / support with your chosen dealer

Hiya, thanks for asking. No unfortunately it isn't and I am not able to get to a Lexus dealer anywhere near me. The nearest is Reading (and following how they dealt with me just over a year ago) I would never go there again. Swindon which is the dealer I like is not open on Saturdays and I am unable to have any time off work during the week until next year . I have just been told (after 6 months) that I should of had a Lexus Key Card with the car! So the dealer is going to try and get that to me and I will ask Swindon Lexus to programme it when I am in there.

Hello everyone, Bought a 2019 RC300H back in May and have had experience of Toyota hybrids before (also have a 2018 Yaris for past 3 years which my partner drives daily). Whilst the Yaris typically loses 10-15% MPG during the colder days I've noticed the RC has dropped around 20-25% on the same types of temperature days. I guess its because the hybrid battery is less efficient due to the cold, the increased resistance on the tyres, size / weight of vehicle and large interior to heat up. It possibly also doesn't help because of the E10 fuel. Out of interest has anyone tried Super unleaded during winter months and if so has the reduced Ethanol content increased MPG enough to more than offset the increased cost? Thanks, Charlie

Thanks for the reply I will need to make a special trip to a Lexus dealer