CT200NI

Ah naw, they agreed this time to use genuine parts no argument or anything. I’ll be double checking! I wonder if it’ll take ages. Nothing too high tech and 15 years of production behind the CT unlike a RR so fingers crossed

My beloved CT is in for a new rear bumper and tail light (through insurance). They agreed to pay for and use genuine Lexus parts. Called up today for an update, they're still waiting for parts. Do any of you have any industry experience or body repairs that would know roughly what sort of lead time it takes to get genuine parts? I once waited two months for two new doors and a bumper to come from France for a DS3. I hope it's nowhere near that long!

Hey I specified I wasn’t particularly referring to you 😝

I can't afford it, but if I was working 60 hour weeks and had the means, I'd definitely to it. I pass some outstanding houses on the way to work, and very rarely, see a supercar level Porsche or McLaren parked at the back of the car park. And frankly, no matter what I do, there is a 99% chance I'll never be able to afford it. But I admire the people who are living that lifestyle. In this world, it's very unlikely they're being given that money for nothing. My presumption is they're working (or have worked) extremely hard and that's simply the fruit of their labour. Today I sat around in between work typing on this forum, it's obvious to me that while I do work hard, I'm not doing anything to the extent that I deserve anybody's millions for what I do. Nor is what I do, something that anyone else can't spend a few months learning to be able to do the same or better It always annoys me when people get salty about people who are 'well off' or successful financially. I'm not talking about GMB in particular. More so my generation of mid / late 20s people who are just so salty and rather than working hard to get there, they sit around and blame systems and governments for 'keeping them down' despite the fact they've never even tried. More power to the people driving around in the fruits of their labour. And anyway, it's a small group of 'those 1% people' who pay for I think the bottom 20% of income earners NHS and other things, doesn't 40p of every £1 they earn get taken, just like that?! Personally, I think there's a case that that's unfair.. And anyway, I get an odd satisfaction just knowing that the Lexus LC500 exists, and that even though I've got a lower spec, older CT, which is a little touch of some 'luxury' for me, I like the aspirational link there. It's a little like having a poster of a bikini model on your wall, even if you know you don't have a chance with her, aren't you just a bit happier to know people like that exist, and that they're walking around as we all live life? No point getting angry and bitter if you don't 'have one' lol

Well, in hindsight the government can always have done a better job. They definitely screwed up at times, certainly. But it’s better than the alternative we could have had… I wish we had more choice in the votes. If it’s any consolation, the same sad state of affairs seems to be true in most of the developed world 😕 I think people are too happy to go into debt these days. That’s definitely true of my generation, sink into debt and blame the <older generation> or <the tories>. I’m just glad they’ve retired blaming the recession.. brexit… Trump… Covid.. Putin… The latest fad is Hamas/Israel 🤦‍♂️ companies and consumers are both getting too greedy for their own good is my view

It's truly become shocking. I bought a two year old Fiat Panda in 2019 for £5.5k, that would have been just under 12k new in 2017.. NOW, to buy a two year old one, would cost more than double what I paid for the SAME car. The new price went from like around 10k to 14k in just a few years. The decent used first cars I looked at a decade ago, like Corsas, Fiestas.. you'd have got a decent one for around 2k. That's closer to 5k now for an equivalent aged newer design model. I don't understand it personally. I understand inflation as a concept. But the last 5 years has been well above even a bad dose of inflation. Mind blowing

I don’t know about you, but if my local Asda (or any supermarket) cost as much as Shell or BP, I’d go to Shell or BP. the supermarkets would be at a loss because of their own doing. The only signals we can send to these retailers is our choice to not shop there. Sure, they can afford for me to go elsewhere. But collectively we do have an impact and whether they like it or not, they have to respond by making a change somewhere - equally, their financiers, the taxman and people who keep their lights on won’t accept their pleas when they can’t pay the bill either

Personally for the most part, I’d say as far as world governments go, we’ve got a pretty good / reliable / charitable one (in fact, maybe being too charitable at the wrong times is part of one of its major flaws!). Not a perfect government at all, but objectively one of the “best”. That’s not excusing their ***** ups! look at Venezuela… Russia … China. The electric car stuff, sadly, is bowing to pressure from eco activist groups and an idiotic (my) generation and below making outrageous demands, crying about this horrible world they’ve forcibly been born into, blaming the old generation for climate change, and then making stupid statements like ‘just stop oil’ and expecting that if we all are forced to drive EVs, the problem will go away. I fear it’s governments trying to appeal to said groups and ideas that leads to these silly laws and rules, not just here but in the EU as well since we’re fairly in sync with the whole .. 2050..2035..2030..2035 dates on it 😞 At least we’ve realised it this far before any of those dates have come, that’s a positive at least. as for voting day, I dare say the long spell of Tories probably comes down to someone with the initials of ‘JC’ being so god awful, that even their mishaps are a drop in the ocean compared to what that jack@ss would have done…. Getting his photo taken with terrorists and promising to decommission our deterrents…. Can you really blame any one for voting Tory?! 🤣 (I hope you get my point, not defending their mistakes but just trying to poke some fun at the other choice we had). I wish we had more credible choices at the polling stations. still, if you ever feel bad about the Labour vs Tory situation, have a Quick Look over at Northern Ireland, we’ve got a real **** show going on here with politics 🤦‍♂️

Supermarkets don’t have a very big margin on most of their products to keep prices low and compete with the other supermarkets all trying to undercut each other. Supermarket fuel is just the same, if not way more competitive. I’ve read that at times they’ll even sell it at a slight loss to maintain the cheapest price in the area. Most of the fuel pricing in the UK is so high because of government taxes. apart from all that though, why should Tesco give any money to any of us? Shareholders and investors took a gamble with putting their cash into it - and it equally could have backfired on them. Profit isn’t a bad thing, it’s the incentive that drives our society. If someone’s making a lot of it, more power to them. We aren’t really entitled to it by default. I understand your sentiment, if they’re being unfair or harming people to make said profit, then sure, it’s wrong and they should seek to make profit fairly / respectfully. But just because Tesco is as financially successful as it is, and fuel is (as always) a rip off, doesn’t correlate to being entitled to its profit. Or expecting it to sell fuel at a loss for us (although I’d be quite sure they do / have done so a lot at times). Hope it makes sense. It’s just what I think.

Just curious if any of you use Lexus 'official' motor insurance, and what you think of it? Is the price reasonable for you? It's around 3x for me personally, no claims / 9 years driving so far. Do you find the specific benefits worthwhile? Have they ever 'saved' you? E.g. proper repair done or genuine parts without arguing when dealing with a claim etc

I remember in 2022 the price of fuel also spiked to all time highs, I remember reading something like 0.5% or less of the UKs oil / fuel comes from anywhere near Russia! They raised the prices just because the headlines looked like they justified it... b@stards indeed. Although I must say, even a change of government here in the UK won't make much difference. Unless they drastically cut the high taxes they put on fuel sales. But then again, if Labour got in tomorrow, they'd need to up said taxes to build all those miracle schools, hospitals and George Floyd statues they promise. So either way, the tax payer loses. The green advocates are also pressuring the governments into increased taxes and charges on oil products, which, annoyingly, the government is all too keen to do. Although the rich will still pay the obscene prices to fill up their Lambo's and pay the ULEZ charges without knowing how much it costs... and us poor will still have to take the kids to school and drive to work, sacrificing other life expenses just to be able to do it... and yet, the planet still suffers, right? ... Money is a weird one. In my local area... I'm one pending cycle lane (probably never to be built) away from scrapping car ownership altogether. Fuel prices... insurance rises... forced EV adoption around the corner. Part of me wonders, is that what the elite want us normies to do?

I'm not surprised, people were saying this 1, 2, 3 years ago and all they got back on Facebook or forums was smart comments from owners or excited EV fans making sly remarks. And I get that there are some annoying snarky folks who are overly anti-EV too, arguably deserving said remarks. I can't afford one, nor can anyone in my immediate circles. Those who do have the nicer cars are spending their money on 3 year old BMWs and Mercs, not an electric Corsa for the same money... Some of the people I've spoken to at work (usually managers / older folks more advanced in their careers) got them through work and initially, had a honeymoon period of 'this is the best car I've ever owned, I'll never drive an engine car again'. And have also all since been caught short, had issues and a hard time resolving them via the dealer and the final straw for most, work recently had to start charging a cost for EV charging which for years, was a niche, free thing - demand for spaces and electricity is too high even with a modest uptake of EV ownership. Now, most of the same people say: never again. I only had a short test drive in a Tesla, for an hour, with some friends. It's one hell of a fun car. I don't see them going away or getting worse. I think the government, and car companies, are learning a very hard lesson about reality, in the only way they ever learn anything, with great expense and wasted resources. EVs are only a small fraction of the solution, for a small fraction of the population, in a small fraction of the most congested town and city centres across the country. If you're going to legislate them, legislate them THERE. Offer your big government grants only to those who otherwise can't afford anything than an old banger.... what? You can't do that? But wait, you said it was a climate 'emergency', so why not pull out all the stops? ... This isn't China or any other regime. People aren't stupid enough to believe the governments lies. We are able to look at the facts for ourselves and see the bigger picture. We can ask questions and the tiptoeing around them or outright 'laugh in your face for not understanding EVs' had led to this. And I'm not ripping on people from China, it's not their fault they are denied access to freedom of information, thought or choice. Frankly, any statistic from the CCP should be taken with a grain of salt, and even if it is true, it's only because they're decided for millions of people it to be true, cars are no exception. It's a sad factor that us, in the UK and beyond, are contributing towards its parasitic EV influx by buying lousy 'MG' motors and their other TikTok-esque brands flooding the market, shame on us for that.

Speaking solely for myself, I'm 28 and have just been given a fairly high spec new 'Vauxhall Grandland' crossover thing as a courtesy car. This only reaffirms to me that unless it's a proper, stable, large 4x4 like car - I don't want it. I drove a relatives old Vauxhall Zafira and later, Peugeot 2008 (before they got ultra stylish) and this is every bit the same car underneath, a big, empty space, van with more stylishly rounded edges, and it handles that way too. I have no interested in these 'crossovers', they are just modernised people carriers to me. Perhaps Lexus and some of the more premium / more expensive brands drive better? (Scored out more expensive, because this Vauxhall monstrosity cost the same as a Lexus UX!) Toyota going for the 'crossover styling' makes sense to me even with the Aygo 'X' and the Yaris 'Cross' / Lexus LBX. The closer they can keep it to a hatchback / lower and better handling, the happier I'll be. Cars can be 'normal cars' and still easy to get into, look at city cars with tall profiles like the Fiat Panda etc, those are very easy to get into and favoured by older people. Equally (more so in mainland Europe) young people don't see the stigma of them being old people cars as much, they're used / appreciated as flexible young family cars too on a shoestring budget. All of this SUV styling and 'crossover' stuff other than for the Motability scheme buyers who probably genuinely do appreciate the space and the ride height, I think is more the mainstream car makers forcing it on us all, because there's simply no other way to hide the batteries in the EV powertrain configurations elegantly. Now that the CT is gone and not being replaced, the LBX is probably the next model for me to graduate to down the line. If it's closer to a hatchback than a crossover / MPV, I'm happy with that. I hope it sells. Although I know a couple of people I know who drove and loved various regular Yaris models over the last 20 years test drove the Yaris Cross, only to go for a Corolla in the end up as it drove noticeably better / more refined. I wonder if the Lexus refinement solves that (albeit, at a cost)

I would definitely call them and tell them the fitted part is missing a detail. If they tell you 'some of them look like that', first, ask their name (full name) and ask them to put that in writing. If they refuse, ask for their complaints contact info. Was it recent? And if so, did you pay by credit card? If so, go to the bank if they don't play ball (if they fail to respond to you within two weeks, is reasonable). Sadly, even in the first world, we still have to put up with crap parts, crap service and failures.

I presume the Polo is the same as what I'm about to say, but one of my friends mum's has one of the latest shaped Fiesta's. A 3-door, sunroof, heated seats, CarPlay and the ambient lighting etc, high spec. Shutting the door, even gently, gives a massive metal twanging sound! Apparently, it's no mistake. Ford have consciously removed some of the unseen sound deadening and 'quality of drive' factors to cut the production cost down and try to compete with the wave of high-spec, modern looking alternatives from the South Korean's that dominated the last decade of UK car sales. I can only guess VW have done the same to stay competitive. Coincidentally, the inspector guy for the claims company had a Polo GTI, latest shape. Although much more 'modern' and better spec than my CT, my eyes were drawn to all the rough plastics everywhere surrounding the little fancy inserts of the GTI. It had a similar all screen instrument cluster, very similar to this Vauxhall Grandland actually. But sitting back in the CT is an infinitely nicer place to be. It's funny because, for years, I looked at ads online for used CTs and never was fussed on the interior layout or anything, but the first time I sat in one - right after testing a modern Corolla - I was smitten with the comfort and the relaxing aspect of it. The red glow of the instrument cluster in 'Sport' mode, is as much 'sport' as I want in my car. The fake stick on plastic body mouldings, fake carbon fibre pattern and 'flappy paddles' can go to hell! lol

So, after having a motorbike guy drive into the back of my 2017 CT I've just been told I'm not at fault according to the claims teams of my insurer and a claim management company. Therefore, they've commissioned the repairs and given me a courtesy car. I asked for an auto (like the Lexus). This is what they gave me... A 2023 Vauxhall Grandland 'Ultimate', 1.2 turbo petrol (never a good thing) with a clunky old automatic gearbox. In terms of features, it has everything. Heated steering wheel, radar cruise, LED matrix lights and such. On paper, it's a superb car with a tonne of features. In practice, it's not nice to live with. Maybe I'm too used to the CT and Hybrids in general, prior to my CT I never really had an auto so I presumed even a 'bad auto' was better than changing gears. I think I was wrong. This thing is choppy, leans around corners, engine doesn't know what to do nor does the gearbox. In stop and go traffic, it literally stomps on the brakes to shut the engine off for 'start stop', then takes about half a second for it to come back on and get into gear. The power transfers going on can be felt through the car noticeably up until around 30mph. The worst bit, the cost. You'd think a high spec Vauxhall fake jeep thing would be around 20k, then close to 30k for a top spec auto, right? Wrong. It's 31k for the basic model, a whopping 37k for this one as configured!!!!!! Who is paying for this? Other than hire companies and Motability buyers. I checked, you can configure a brand new Lexus UX crossover with a similarly high spec (heated steering wheel and the likes) for the price of this thing. With the smooth, electric drive. 70 more horsepower. No doubt zero or close to zero rough plastic trim pieces and ergonomically designed seats... The new car market is confusing. Choose wrong, and for the same money, you're getting a much worse experience 😕 The MPG is also not great, turns out, a tiny little 1.2 with a big turbo struggles. Despite what it does in lab testing. My Lexus isn't being picked up until Monday - so it's been sitting since Friday. The engineer said the sharp edge made it not roadworthy in case someone got hurt walking by it. It'll easily be this week for it to be repaired. I miss it already. Drove the Grandland 140 miles yesterday and I was wrecked after. Even in the old and newer Fiat Panda's I've owned, my back wasn't as sore after a long drive - and those cars couldn't drive themselves like this one virtually does.

I'm glad peoples experience with Hyundai / Kia have generally been more positive than mine. But the way the dealer network / warranty has massively let down owners within my close circles multiple times, shocks going on an i30N which only had 3 years of hardly harsh driving, high pressure fuel pump going within warranty period (definitely not a consumable part) and them leaving him out of pocket etc, I'm just totally off the brand. In terms of Hybrid / EVs, I hear they are second to Toyota / Lexus in Hybrids, and one of the leaders in the brave new EV world. For all I know, the Hybrids may be as reliable as the ones we love, and the EVs as reliable as they come. They're coming out with some original designs now too, finally, which is good. Personally they're not for me though. As for MG, even if it wasn't for some of the glaring issues in quality, copying design, lack of craftsmanship, the fact they're CCP owned means even if they cure deadly diseases, I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot barge pole.

I'll never buy one. I'd sooner quit driving, and pick up an electric bicycle and then 'hire a car' from Enterprise for road trips once a month.. It's a poor, poor personal financial investment. Sure enough, if an engine was 'one sealed unit', which when damaged or goes wrong, was a £12,000+ single cost replacement option, so would any other 'normal car', even cheap ones. Then there's the whole... if the power station isn't using clean energy, then is your EV any greener? Only advantage is cleaner air around it. But that's all good and well if the whole queue of traffic inner-city are all EV's, cleaner air, but that one old beat up VW Passat, with the black suit all around its exhaust pumping out diesel fumes will still ruin everybody's experience and pollute the air. Thankfully, the car companies and even governments are rolling back on their extremist plans to switch entire company strategies and legislation over to 'EV' forced ownership so soon, hopefully forever. Turns out, a lot of them had to lose a lot of money from their own pockets in missed sales projections and owner backlash before they cared - who'd have thought?! Hyundai / Kia are an AWFUL brand. Don't be fooled. Sure, they are getting drastically better with each generation, but the quality in their engineering is lacking and despite making cars that look modern, have all the amenities (for a lower cost!) and surface level look and feel fine to use, they fall apart within the warranty period. And that '7 year warranty' doesn't cover even half of what your average Ford / VW / Toyota new car warranty covers. All a marketing ploy. Avoid like the plague. The only thing worse is the modern 'MG' and the likes, who in comparison, make Hyundai look like Lexus! Deep breath..

Just took a look, £366 it came to. Postate to NI was £17. Service Kit (Complete) was £213 - 5L genuine oil, oil filter, sump plug washer, air filter, pollen filter, spark plugs, 7L of coolant Transmission Fluid £44 Various Drain Plugs around £14 Brake Fluid £6 New wipers front and rear / genuine £42 Paint touch up kit £9 Air con cleaner £12 Fuel system cleaner £12 So that pretty much covered all the service items (and some that the Lexus services don't, like gearbox fluid. In my eyes, the car is set right now to pick up from the schedule with the minor / majors Unfortunately no link, but I'll tell you how I know. Where I live there's a 1.5 hour drive to Belfast for the only genuine Lexus dealer in Northern Ireland, part of the UK network of course where I live. There's another dealership just across the border in the Republic of Ireland, a Toyota / Lexus split dealer complete with the Lexus showroom and all. I was passing it on a trip one day, stopped in and enquired about their prices. They work out around £25 cheaper for both services after converting it from Euro. I explained to the service advisor there that I'd serviced it (as above) and was checking that there would be no issues in terms of having it serviced in another country. It was then he said that I didn't have to put it in for a full service since I do the work on my own, he said an oil change with them would be enough to trigger the Relax Warranty. Of course, it's not in writing and I'd have to hope he or someone else agrees. My plan was, nearer the time (around summer when it's been 6 months since my servicing) to contact Lexus Belfast and *hopefully* have them confirm / agree that it's possible. There's a very real chance they won't agree, however then I'll call Lexus themselves and see what they say. Only downside of going to Lexus in ROI, is that if I needed to make a claim under the Relax Warranty, I'd of course, have to do it via them. They're only a 40 minute drive right enough. The only other Lexus dealer to 'dispute' things with down there is in Galway... a near 4 hour drive! Although even with Belfast (in the UK network) I suppose there's still no other drivable Lexus dealer here for me to get a second opinion on any issue. The consumer protections in ROI will be different too. I'm familiar with our Consumer Rights Act etc here, and unfortunately have had to send letters in accordance with that over the last 9 years when dealing with the motor trade (mostly to help family members) before getting results. I always act now in such a way that I think I'd have a back up plan should I get a difficult or lying technician / service advisor. I have high hopes that Lexus will be above such cheap and nasty tricks, but only time will tell..

Make sure you count the 21 days as a 'full policy term, with no claims made' no claims bonus. Get them back at their own game, those annoying insurers..

Check it regularly so you can get a feel for it going down, how fast it's going down etc. Unless you're checking it on a hill (as said above), if the car is older could be perishing seals in a number of places with a fairly costly job to get it fixed due to all the things that usually need to come apart. If it's a newer car, it could be something that needs fixing under warranty. Bought a two year old Fiat Panda in 2019 and noticed a lot of wet spots under the engine, turned out it needed some sot of big seal replaced. Done under warranty, no arguing (rare for a Fiat dealer!). Perhaps something like that is why it's dropping?

When I discussed one with my local dealer prior to getting my used 2017 CT, which had patchy service history, they insisted in sticking with the major/minor schedule as if the car had been serviced according to schedule from new. When I started asking about having particular things done to bring it 'up to speed' with the schedule, they didn't want to quote it, said 'just mention on the day'. Not falling for that one, to be told the parts are out of stock and/or they don't have the time... or some obscene add on cost on the day. Ended up doing it all myself, £400 ish from Lexus Direct Parts. Turns out... you only need to do an oil change at the dealer for the 'Relax Warranty', so at most, that's what I'll book it in for each year saving most of the £285 and a LOT of the £505

Just getting around to seeing this now. That's very interesting to read the procedure. I had it done at Lexus Belfast, £70 despite the app saying £50... Next time, I'll book via the app and kick off if they try to charge £70 online. Same issue with the local Toyota dealer here, doing various fluid changes for £75 where the app states £50. Paid it once, then the second time contacted Toyota who, after that, the dealer honoured the price. They ended up not bothering to change the (gearbox oil) in that case, and ultimately the franchise had to refund me for the work... did it myself. one of those, over pay, or they find some other way to shaft you... Hopefully Lexus (with it's usual clientele) are above such tricks

In the past, Axa did honour a 'genuine' part for my Avensis after Autoglass messed up the aftermarket replacement. Whether this was the technicians fault or a bad quality part I can't say for sure. But should that happen on the CT, I suppose I could ask for the same solution

An AutoGlass guy came out to repair it. He was quite friendly and we were chatting as he fixed it. He gave me a bit more faith in the brand / its work. He also confirmed as my car doesn't have the ADAS stuff that my old Avensis had, even a replacement wouldn't mean I need to take it to their centre - which is a plus. He told me what to look out for in terms of a lousy job - not removing the wipers, the scuttle trim etc which he reckons is a corner they'd never cut. He also basically said that because of their guarantee, if they were fitting 'crap' glass, it would only end up accumulating as a cost to them in terms of constantly replacing and re-doing the jobs so he thinks that their part quality is going to be high quality. He said he understood my want to keep the car 100% manufacturer parts, even at my own expense, as the stuff procured by the car makers is always the highest quality / most stringently quality controlled panels produced. Then, the rest will go to the various aftermarket brands. To me, it sounded like how computer processors are made, where the slightly more perfectly formed chips can perform better than the outer ones, though the outer ones still are fine, just becoming the more mid-spec ones. But he gave me the thought that, even if I paid out of pocket today for a Lexus windscreen and had it fitted perfectly, there is quite a high chance (certainly no guarantee or way to 'avoid') another chip or crack happening the next day, the next week... even say, the next year. And with windscreens that is incredibly common, hence why it's such a well thought out / cheap excess (if not free to repair) on every insurance policy these days. So even if I could pay more, I could end up being out of pocket more often than I'd like. It's not really like a premium tyre, which I'm sure can be reinforced and less likely to puncture by design, and then repaired multiple times before ever truly 'losing' that investment completely. Whereas even a good quality glass panel is as susceptible to a chip or crack caused by driving in the real world as such. So basically.... if I ever need a replacement. I'll probably not be so annoyed at Autoglass. And unlike in the past this guy proved to me that they're not all condescending know-it-all's that do a crap job and assert that their panels are 'better' than OEM. He was pretty rational and fair about it, and I believe what he said. Essentially, if I'm not happy with the fit, noise qualities, any condensation or even damage to the side trim (only on my Lexus not on previous cars I had) he said they'll cover it, do it again etc. If one aftermarket panel truly is crap, and causes issues, complaining (he said) is likely to just result in them doing it again. Apparently with the size and volume of work and the costs they've got it down to, they don't have to get too stingy with repairs or further replacements. I hope that is something I could, in theory, depend on should I have issues. The next time it chips, I think it will be a replacement in any case. It was a big U-turn in my thinking, and a positive one. On top of that, glad to hear that you guys all had good experiences for the most part too.