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.  

9 minutes ago, Tickedon said:

Seems entirely fair that you’d need to fuel a loan car (and return with same level of fuel you’ve used) - you’d be putting fuel in your own car to drive around, so why should a Lexus dealer give you free fuel ?

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. 

17 hours ago, Sergio isf said:

Hi. It’s been a while since someone commented here. Hope it reaches anyone. 
I imported my ISF from Japan around 6 months ago. Loving it. I’m thinking of doing a full service on it replacing all the fluids, spark plugs and engine valve cover gaskets. 
Can anyone recommend a Lexus specialist who would be familiar with ISF in NI or South? Thanks

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.  

3 hours ago, ps2403 said:

Good afternoon all,

 

Quick question on everyone's favourite topic here - tyres! Currently looking for a new set, was looking at Crossclimate 2's, as per the general recommendation and consensus on here but have seen that Costco have Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 SUV's at the moment for less than £480 fitted which seems like great value. 

 

I guess the question is whether or not Crossclimates are really worth the extra £200? 

Thanks 

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

1 hour ago, Littorio said:

If you order tires from Black Circle you pay for the tires to be delivered to a selected garage of your choice from a list on the site with fitting included in the price. Used them several years ago on my old Volvo XC70 which had not very common SUV rated tires so most garages I visited didn't have any and didn't even offer to order any.

https://www.blackcircles.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvOKmre79gQMVRYRLBR3rAwyEEAAYAiAAEgIJAfD_BwE

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.

5 hours ago, HighlandJohn said:

I have in the past run both Nexen and Falken tyres on a variety of BMW models and found them 'adequate', given that they were regarded as mid-range.That said, I live where the nearest motorway is c 150 miles away and drive like I'm not in a race - NOT suggesting you do].

Garages here charge c £20>30 for 'customer supplied' tyres, in fact some refuse to fit either tyres or parts not bought from them, as there is the disposal fee to cover and the possibility of liability if there's e.g. a crash and they're found to have fitted defective parts supplied by the customer.

Life used to be simple.....

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.

On 10/16/2023 at 2:54 PM, Linas.P said:

Never heard anyone in UK charging extra for fitting any standard sized tyres... perhaps some 24" or "stretched" set-ups, but not for 18" 245 tyre... an Irish thing? 

As for the choice of the tyres, it is always compromise. My first experience with Nexen was as it happened on my first Lexus and I was massively disappointed and never consider Nexen as a brand again. That was very long time ago and if memory serves the tyres model were something like N2000 or N5000, I literally could not accept the tyres and replaced them less than 100 miles later (I think it was exactly 200km). Main issue was unpredictable understeer on wet and noise... obviously that means nothing when talking about N Fera SU4, which is completely different tyre design 10 years later.

I know for a fact that Nexen has improved significantly since my experience, but I still consider them budget brand perhaps trending to mid-range now, which is why I just can't accept their pricing... as they price themselves like premium tyres.  

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

I have ordered the Nexen N Fera Su4 245/40/18 for my GS. I too hope not to have any issues. Anyway I found them a good balance between quality and price. Not expensive like the premium brands but still performing well. At least according to what I have read and heard.   

May I please ask you which type of Nexen you put?

After the retirement of my trusted tyres garage 3 months ago, I have been looking for another garage and I have enquired about prices and tyres brands knowing that now at the end of the month I would have to buy new tyres for my car. Well, after visiting 4 different tyres shops and been told that every one of them had top quality tyres, even though the brands were unknown to me (but also to tyre reviews websites), and unless I went for premium brands at crazy prices (170-230 euros per tyre), these unknown brands were priced at 110-130 euros per tyre. So I eventually ordered online 4 Nexen N Fera SU4 (after suggestion of a friend who has tried them and after reading many positive reviews) which were labelled B on fuel consumption and A on wet grip. I paid 459.20 euros in total with free shipping to my new trusted garage which will fit them for an additional 23.50 euros per tyre. I found ridiculous that many tyres garages refuse to fit the tyres which they do not sell and a few of them charge for fitting according to the size of the tyre and in my case it would have been 33.50 euros. I think it is ridiculous that the size of the tyre changes the price for fitting like if it was an enormous extra work to fit my 245/40/18 compared to 185 or 195. Just stupid for me.  

Hi Rich and welcome to the LOC. I have a 2008 GS 450H that I bought in December 2021 with 189,000 Kms, no full Lexus service history as the last 4 services had been done by an independent garage. I bought it from a private seller and I found it in the specs I wanted after looking for one for nearly one year with constant monitoring of car sales websites. The seller told me that the previous owner had replaced the rear shock absorbers but he didn't have receipts to prove it. Anyway I bought it and for the first year of ownership until March 2023 I didn't have to spend money on it. In March 2023 I had it serviced by the local Lexus dealer and some issues came up: the rear shock absorbers needed to be replaced (so the previous owner had lied when he sold the car to the person who sold it to me); the exhaust system was defective and needed to be replaced and also the AFS sensor had to be replaced. As I didn't want to spend a fortune in replacing the entire exhaust system as quoted by Lexus I found a local garage which fixed the issue of the exhaust system for much less money. For the rear shock absorbers I brought it to Lexus and paid 1,200 euros for new OEM ones. I could have saved some money probably if I had searched for non OEM ones and get the job done by an independent garage but lack of time and knowledge and especially for peace of mind I preferred to go to Lexus. The AFS sensor was probably a stupid decision to let Lexus replace it as I could have saved a lot of money buying it on eBay for much less but here again I had no clue what to buy and what to look for so I went for the easy and more expensive way. The last thing I replaced was a TPMS sensor and valve 3 days ago and I went to a local tyres garage as it was obviously cheaper than going to Lexus. I actually went to inflate the tyre with the leaking valve as I had been doing since I bought the car and the garage offered to replace the sensor and valve. I thought that I had to go to the Lexus dealer for it as another garage had told and instead this garage replaced it for much less money than Lexus. I guess the GS you intend to buy should give you more reassurances than mine with much lower mileage and full Lexus service history. Best wishes.

10 hours ago, rayaans said:

Some toys are better than others....

Linas thinks his is better than everyone else's all the time 🤣

Yes you are right: some toys are better than others, but do we really need a competition to decide who's the best toy? Like children fighting because one child doesn't like other's toy? Can't just everyone be happy with his toy and say:" I don't care what you think because I love my toy". 

Linas never said I am better than everyone else here, nor I know lexus better than others here. He is just critical of the brand, probably harsh and straightforward in his comments but he never insulted anyone. You just have to accept a different opinion than yours even if you don't agree with it and after all what matters is that you are happy with your car. I wish everyone here had told me that my GS was rubbish and wasted my money and not paying 2,800 euros for service and repairs, rather than congratulating me for the purchase like you did and paying that huge money. And actually my wife told me that, and it hurted me because she is my wife, not someone in the forum.

6 minutes ago, rayaans said:

There's nothing personal here. I could ask you the same thing, why do you care?

Am I offended because Lina's criticises Lexus? No. And indeed I don't care about Lina's criticism towards lexus models, but you do. You are bothered. 

2 minutes ago, rayaans said:

What's so astonishing?

Opinions are fine but how many forums do you go on where an owner slags off every, single car in the whole line up? 

Most Lexus IS owners are annoyed it wasn't brought to the UK for example but literally all I have read for 3 years from Linas is nothing but ****.

Are you Mr Lexus? Do you own the Lexus brand and Lina's is offending your products? You are taking it too personal. Relax. It's just one negative voice out of many positive ones. Why do you care?

7 minutes ago, Bounce75 said:

This has been an interesting topic to follow.

 

I don't necessarily agree with all the comments made by Linas, but he is entitled to his opinion & some of what he is saying is true.

Some of his comments though you do have to take with a pinch of salt, but it does make for interesting reading none the less.

I love my Is300h & I know Linas has a dislike for them, but I am the one who owns it & that is all that matters to me.

 

 

And it's exactly what I have been trying to say in my comments: you are happy with your car, so why is important if someone doesn't like it! I can't believe what I am reading. It reminds me of children arguing who has the best toy.

11 minutes ago, rayaans said:

You don't own an IS300h. I've owned one for over 6 years. I can categorically and confidently say that my experience and assessment of the vehicle is superior to yours. I can also confidently say Stevens assessment of his ES300h is better than yours. Your claims are naturally ridiculous and inaccurate as a result. 

My point is that you're acting like a butt hurt baby on every single post you make and it drags on and on and on. When I say you don't have to own them, I literally mean don't own them, don't drive them and ***** off. I love how you slag off basically every Lexus yet you don't buy the "superior" competition. You've had a long time to get yourself a BMW!

Let's not forget you spent about 3 years claiming how superior your IS250 was to then IS300h owners. 

Give your opinion, move on. Stop dragging it out like you're going to brainwash current owners into thinking their car is inferior to something else on the market in literally every thread that asks for any kind of opinion. Most prospective owners want opinions from current owners, not someone who doesn't even own the car yet tries to be the expert.

But seriously?? I am astonished! Why don't you ask the moderators to put in terms and conditions that only positive and flattering comments about Lexus models are allowed here?

6 minutes ago, rayaans said:

I'm not going to read the essay you've written.

Like an uneducated child trying to win an argument by blabbering on and on

You have no arguments, no basis. You saying I am an uneducated child but you didn't even read what I wrote so you can't judge if I am blabbering. You just insult me and Lina's because he doesn't like your car and I like his comments. So who is the child? I let others to judge.