JellyBean

Ooh-er.

When I bought mats from Lexus for my LS400 in 2004, they cost £170, which remained the most expensive single purchase I had on that car in eight years - apart from tyres. So I reckoned they would now cost at least £200 for my 460. Wrong!

Today I rang Lexus out of curiosity and was quoted £109 for a full set of mats. Ooh-er indeed.

I could take a piccy of my new mats, but they just look like... new mats.

New mats are a perfect fit - exactly same size as Lexus ones. They are also thicker and stiffer. The stitching of the borders is not as good as on the Lexus mats, but when in the car this isn't an issue.

They cost £58 inc delivery and as this is about one quarter of the price of the originals (this could be checked) I am well chuffed.

www.tailored-carmats.co.uk/

As it happens, last night I ordered a set of mats from TCM (Tailored Car Mats). I ordered the super-duper, heavy-duty, premier-luxury, double-wrapped for extra favour set, which still cost about one quarter of the 'real' ones from Lexus. If you can wait a day or two, I can give my opinion of them.

"Naughty naughty boys..."

Perhaps you are right! Those Government fuel consumption figures are all a bit unreal, too.

It would be good to see how the ratings are achieved. After all, something just at the top of an C rating is probably not noticeably different from something that's just squeaked in to the bottom of the B rating.

I reckon that these scare stories about how cheaper tyres are so inferior are put out by the Big Boys whose giant advertising budgets make their offerings so expensive.

(S'funny, my pound signs come out all funny.)

The prices I quoted were both for an LS460, so they would be 18s.

Meanwhile, I am amused to see that a pair of Accelera tyres for an LS460 cost 218 GBP, and a pair of Bridgestone Turanza 570 GBP.

AND THEY HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME FUEL ECONOMY, WET ROAD GRIP, AND NOISE RATINGS!

Good posting, Rythm & Bluesman. Thanks.

I had a peruse of Black Circles website and found that Falkens have a better rating for wet road grip than the Bridgestone Turanzas currently fitted to my LS. I was very pleased with the Falkens I had on my last LS and will surely buy them for the current car.

Oh yes, nearly forgot... Falkens are £356 for two (fitted) and the Bridgestones £548.

I guess Bluesman and Ambermarine are right - I must not come over all petulant and do something silly.

But [a] I did buy the car from the local Lexus dealer and it has rotted through which to my mind puts it into their 12-year perforation scenario,.about seven years early.

Cannot decide whether to pursue Lexus UK under the perforation warranty, or the Lexus dealer for selling me a car that was rusty.

Thanks, fellow Locites, for your replies.

Yes, my car has a full LEXUS service history, which may help a teeny bit. Or not. I am also on the local Lexus dealer's service plan - however, they said "We will get back to you" and after four weeks of hearing nothing I emailed again with the appalling evidence in pictures. Still no response, although that was only two days ago to be fair.

I copied this from the Warranty & Service booklet (it seems to have come out huge - but you can read all of it if you click on it). Since it is obviously NOT "surface rust", the 12 year offer must apply. Hmm. IMHO, the bigger the company the more they behave like slippery eels - although to say I am disappointed with Lexus UK would be an understatement.

When I said I would put a wee video on YouTube if I received no joy, my trouble & strife said "I will put it on Twitter - and that'll waked them up!".

Ooh-er.

Thanks to Graham 8370 and Steve 2006 fpr helping me to put these horrid pics on.

Believe it or not, I had never actually seen the rust until I took the flash pics. I could feel it, but when I looked up in my garage it was too dark and when I looked up outside with the s/roof open (obviously) the brightness of the sky prevented a proper view of the problem. I was startled when I downloaded the photos and immediately sent them off to the dealer.

Yes, the seal was split when I bought the car, so I just superglued it together again. But the rust was obviously already well under way when I bought the car, so that will be the basis of my claim.

No sign of blocked drain tubes and dunno if car lived by the sea - the reg document these days only tells you of previous owner.

I rather like the YouTube idea!

Dunno if this has worked...

I would like to attach two photos of the rust as it has to be seen to be believed.

But I just don't know how. Can anyone prompt me, please?

Yes, it says to replace belt at 100,000 miles.

The 100,000 mile quote was for a 1996 LS400.

To clear up the confusion, perhaps someone should contact Lexus directly - not just the dealer - and ask them. On second thoughts, a pukka Lexus mechanic would know best.

I don't ever remember hearing of a belt breaking, though.

Cam belt change is every 100,000 miles. I have a letter from Lexus stating this.

Dear Feathered One

I agree with every word you have written, and can add nothing new to them.

I shall not give in on this one, and will post any 'developments' as they occur.

- JellyBean

Well the LS400 does seem to be the most durable of the LS series. The apparent quality of a 460 - the way things fit and the way they operate - is on a higher plane. But deep down the 400 seems better screwed together.

As for Mercs... bought my wife a three-year-old E320 CDi estate, with 25,000miles. In the first year it cost £3k over and above servicing costs, in faults.

And the servicing! Says in their shiny brochure for their "Menu Priced Servicing" that the fixed price servicing cost for this model is £329. And they add that the "servicing costs for your Mercedes Benz have never been so economical..."

So we had a bog-routine service with only fluids and filters needed. Nothing else. The cost? £912.

Mercs? Never again. Oh yes, and I don't think the beastly thing has any suspension at all: it rides like a tea trolley on a gravel path.

Someone from the dealership did take pics and showed/sent them to Lexus who said "No".

I then rang Customer Services at Lexus with the same result.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Alas, I believe you are correct.

Found nasty, bubbling rust on the sunroof's leading edge, but only about a 100mm strip near both front corners, on the underside. Some of it fell into my Barnet - what's left of it.

Lexus Customer Services just said, "Car is over three years old, tough". No discussion.

It is surely a manufacturing fault, since the sunroof will not have had a 'cheap' repair, such as on a front wing where rust might appear where it would not normally.

What Lexus seem to be admitting is that it is allowed that their cars only last three years before rusting.

My 1996 LS400 was fifteen years old when I sold it and had not a spec of rust on the sunroof.

I am rather peeved, but now await to see what dealer has to say.

Yes, they sometimes are a bit disappointing.

When I bought my LS400, from a dealership in the midlands, there were a number of faults with it. The most annoying was an inoperative driver's seat heater and the most serious was that the front tyres were really cheap & nasty ones which made a horrible whining noise but also had the wrong speed rating. Thing was, they tried repeatedly to fob me off - even telling me that the driver's seat heater only worked in cold weather. Then I got cross.

My wife, who writes legal stuff as part of her job, wrote a six-page letter and we sent it to the dealer principal as well as to the boss of Lexus UK. I never forget the last line which I copy here:

Please be assured that if I am not satisfied with your response I will send a copy of this letter to Akio Toyoda, Senior Managing Director, MD of Toyota Japan.

Bingo! Grovelling dealer rang me, car was collected and everything fixed.

If they do not deal with my rusty sunroof, I feel a bit of déja vu looming.

Bought car from Lexus main agent, but looking at my year's warranty, it seems to a Toyota Silver Cover one.

Still reckon they sold me a car with rust on, though.

Harrumph.

Thanks for this - mine also has the five lighted buttons. So I won't have to call in to Local Lexus Lot before my year's warranty expires. Not that anything has been fixed FOC so far anyway. E.g. undertray flapping about - "not covered under warranty"; most of the engine covers' fasteners missing - "not covered under warranty"; tyre valve faulty "not covered under warranty".

And when I found many rust bubbles on the underside of the sunroof's leading edge - "not covered under warranty". But I squawked loudly and they are reconsidering, but I bet I know what they will say...

Please could a kindly 460 owner take a butcher's in the dark and tell me if all the buttons in the driver's armrest should be illuminated.

Specifically, is the door lock switch illuminated with two 'tell-tales' or just one?

And does the window lock swtch have illumination?

Last night in the dark, as my trouble & strife tried to get out, I could not unlock the doors whilst I fumbled about for the switch, like a silly old f@rt.

Thanks for the replies.

I will ask my tyre supplier what they think, when I am next passing. Even though it is very reassuring to be told if a tyre is losing pressure, £128 per corner is a bit daft.

I had a Mk 3 LS400 for 7½ years and there was far less trickery on it, yet the basics were still there: speed (if not from a standing start); quietness; build quality; wonderful sound system. I don't love the 460 any more than I did the 400. But that would be difficult anyway!

As for my tyre valves, the other three are behaving again. So far.

Hello everybody peeps

My LS460 had a leaking rear tyre valve and it was replaced, for £128. This apparently absurd price is because the valve contains the magic gubbins which tells you the tyre pressures on the display.

Fine, but two weeks later one of the fronts is now leaking. If I take it in to Lexus again, this will no doubt be another £128. Over £500 for a set of four tyre valves is not edifying.

Has anyone else had this problem and is there a cheaper fix?