serbarry

Mine also passed the Irish NCT (MOT) with no advisories last October and in December I had to replace rear discs and pads which had been still fine at the last service in March 2023. And from March till December 2023 I only did 4,000 kms.

Hi Jason, I have a 2008 GS450H that I bought from a private seller 2 years ago. My suggestion is to check the shock absorbers, the exhaust system and the discs and pads. I had to fix all these in mine last year and only the exhaust was repaired and partially replaced by a specialized garage. The rest was done by the local Lexus dealer for a lot of money. I know I could have probably saved a lot of money by searching for spare parts on my own, but due to lack of knowledge and for peace of mind I preferred to go to Lexus.

May I suggest to those owners having only one key (but also to the other owners having 2 keys) to attach to the key ring a label with your mobile number written on it? One of those labels that you can buy in an ironmonger shop or a shoes repair shop for a few cents. At least there is one chance that someone who finds your key may call you.

Yes it is usually fair if a friend lends you his car for some time. I think that the only Lexus dealer in Co. Cork which operates in a status of monopoly and charges its customers a lot of money even for the silliest work, should not ask its customers to fuel the loan cars. And if they do, they should not give a loan car with the low fuel light on. I would accept if they had told me to return the car with the same fuel level (even though if I were the dealer I would not ask the customer to do so), but honestly for me it is unacceptable to receive a loan car with the low fuel light on.

I personally would not swap a 3 year-old car with a same but newer one. It would make sense to me to replace it with a different model though (NX?) especially if it is less vulnerable to theft. In general I would prefer to settle the payment as soon as possible and this is why I tend to keep a car for a long time rather than replacing it with a newer model after 3-4 years and keep paying it.

Last week I was given a loan car from the local Lexus dealer while they have my car and I had to put petrol in the loan car at my expenses as the warning light for low petrol was steady on. I don't think they will refund me when I return the car but I will keep you updated.

Are you looking for someone better than the local Lexus dealer in Dublin?

When I bought my GS, it had the Kumho Ecsta put by the previous owner. They were good, not noisy and never had any problems in nearly 2 years (from December 2021 until last 3rd October when I replaced them). I must say that my mileage is very low: about 4,000 - 5,000 Kms per year and very relaxed driving only commuting to work 5 days a week, 20 Kms per day. The reason why I chose Nexen is because they were cheaper than Kumho though being labelled A for grip on wet and B for fuel consumption and a friend of mine had tried them already and was positively impressed and I read many good reviews online.

I have just replaced Kumho with Nexen in my GS. They were good but I decided to try Nexen.

I have Nexen N Fera SU4 and I find them a good balance between quality and price if you are looking for moderate price.

I don't know Vector but for sure I would not pay for overpriced Michelin.

The website I used, tirendo.ie, also has a list of fitting garages with affordable prices for fitting. Unfortunately the list is not updated and I have personally informed the website that most of their partner fitting garages simply refuse to fit the tyres ordered from tirendo.ie and the few ones which fit the tyres charge a fee which is at least double or even triple of what advertised on tirendo.ie.

For me the liability of the garage in case of crash is just an excuse: it's actually the opposite: they can't be responsible for the tyres exactly because they didn't provide them but they only fitted them. If there's a crash is the only responsibility of the customer who ordered them online. How can a garage be liable for something he didn't sell? The truth for me is that by refusing to fit the tyres ordered online they try to discourage people from buying online hoping to sell them their tyres. Obviously most of the profit for a tyres garage comes from selling the tyres and only fitting them is a minimum profit.

I suppose that if you bring the tyres ordered online any garage would charge you for fitting them. What I find ridiculous is that the price for fitting varies according to the size of the tyre for some garages. As for Nexen 111.36 euros per tyre does not seem to me a premium price given the size. For same label on wet and fuel consumption all other brands I checked were between 130 and 180 euros and were mostly famous brands.

Edit