SpeedFour

Went out to wash the fleet yesterday since the temps rose above nut retreat and noticed something. The corrosion on the almighty attention to detail built supposedly to the millimeter of perfection Lexus is just..... pathetic. The wheels, these are less than 10 years old, are just embarrassing. For sheets and giggles I thought I'd post these pics that I took yesterday after the wash:

The BEST wheel on the GX:



The WORST wheel on the other, supposedly more poorly constructed, ute in the stable that is a decade older than the GX:



Now squint:





The relentless pursuit of rusting worse than the British?

What can I do to stop this corrosion on the wheels? And FTR both vehicles have suffered teh same winters on the same roads, one of them has just been doing it for 10 years longer

RCsGX

Nothing new.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gx-...ls-defect.html

SpeedFour

So to fix my wheels I need to get some plasti coat which I've only ever used to fix the bar ends on a yamaha I lowsided on diesel oil...... I'm beginning to think I should've just bought another land rover, this is my first toyota product thus far and it has not impressed me enough (to say the least) to sway from my normal staple of euro vehicles come next purchasing cycle, amazing what the power hype has to it

RCsGX

Wheels are one thing, over all dependability is another. From owing several Toyota's in the past I can tell you first hand there's no "hype" when it comes to Toyota's all around dependability. I'll take a Toyota / Lexus w/ crappy flaking wheels over a LR w/ perfectly looking wheels any day of the week.

SpeedFour

I dunno, the GX has more frame and body (obviously) rust than the landie, when all is said and done I''ll be doing a Toyo V8 swap into a Land Rover best of both worlds

stiles_s

Don't know what you guys are doing differently than me. None of this on my '07 with 90k miles. All hand washed, though. You guys using car washes? Spray wheel cleaners?

YoshiMan

maybe it's location/humidity that affects them.

Of the numerous GX's I looked at here in Colorado, none of them had cracked dashes or flaking wheels. Heck, even mine with 161k on it and has no cosmetic issues (other than the parking lot scrapes and such of course!)

I'm going to flat out say that I think the problem with the doubts about Toyota/Lexus reliability is the fact that they are expected to be perfect and have no problems whatsoever, But they are still cars with tens of thousands of moving parts, and they are going to have problems at some point or another. Not only that, if you are one of the worlds largest automakers, you are bound to get a few bad egg cosmetic parts in the mix, and we just happened to get some of them on some of the GX's with the dashboards and the wheels.

It could always be worse, we could be dealing with things like the engine problems that new Cadillac buyers had in 1982-85!

470reasons

Or driving an out of warranty Land Rover!

burny

lmao too funny

SpeedFour

Especially considering that I'm directly comparing the reliability of a land rover to a lexus and the lexus is thus far sub-par by mileage/age at time of ownership.

Lmcqueen

Let's not forget last time Japanese and British cross-breeded.




and I don't mean....

RCsGX

Other than the wheel issue what other problems, if any, have you had w/ your GX?

I've had a hand full of friends w/ LRs / RRs and all had major issues that cost a lot more than replacing the wheels.

SpeedFour

Up to 100k miles? Nothing to fix on the Landie. The Lexus, thus far has rust on the wheels, the frame, and the body that are in my opinion unacceptable. It has also the well known ‘clunk’, periodic differential lock for no reason, a vibration through the steering wheel that is still as yet un-diagnosed, an indicator light that randomly doesn’t want to work, and the 1970s tech buick engine in the landie never needed a t-belt replacement

And I fully expect to replace the air suspension, though to be fair I went into this knowing that no one, not even Toyota, can make a reliable air suspender system, so I made damn sure arnott made a coil replacement before time of purchase

100k+ miles? The landie has needed a rebuilt steering box (original started leaking, a few hundred to replace, and a BFH to get it off, seriously, the old landies are made of left over tractors, you need to update –read get bigger spanners- your tool chest to work on them), window regulator fix (plastic bit that connected the regulator to the window broke, fixed myself ) , cruise control vacuum hoses replaced, IAC replaced, plug wire gave up, and the brake switch replaced (FTR this was the only failure that left us stranded, at the grocer’s no less ). NOTE: this was a truck, much like the GX, but with far fewer electronics (despite the few that were on it were still made by LUCAS, I kid you not).

Mile for mile the lexus is losing the battle thus far, I am disappointed (to say the least, I went from the bottom of JD powers to the top ). Maybe it will shine once the *ahem* issues are ironed out.

Don’t get me wrong, the lexus is much more refined and quiet than the nearly 30 year old design of the land rover it ‘replaced’, and the gaps in the rusting body are tightly put together, I just hope it lasts as long as the drivetrain reliability promises

danmm7

SpeedFour, there are no perfect cars, period!

What is the history of your GX? Are you the first/only owner? If not, do you have any records of when/where and IF your GX was maintained properly.
Based on the issues you're describing - i would guess that your GX was not maintained/diagnosed properly. My GX has over 120k miles and it has NONE of the issues you're describing. Also, some of the "problems" you're listing are cheap/easy to fix.

Clunk - you need $5 of grease and $10 grease gun. it is a DIY if you know how to use a grease gun. Search this forum.

Bad wheels - this is a COSMETIC issue, yet embarrassing. If you want to fix it, it will cost you $800 in new/used nice set of wheels. If you don't want to fix it, you won't be stranded on the side of the road.

T-belt - you know that even today, in 2014, 70%+ of new cars/SUVs are sold with T-belts. Does this make them bad cars? Do you know that chain driven engines also have problems and that when a chain or a chain tensioned or both fail, it is very expensive to repair the engine? Trust me, chain driven engines do not live forever and they are not maintenance free. The V8 in the Lexus is bullet proof. I challenge you to show me an LR engine that has the same reputation and track record.

Steering vibration - who is diagnosing your car? Aside from the air parts in the rear, the GX has a fairly simple setup and easy to fix suspension design. After all, under the Lexus badge, you have Land Cruiser Prado. These things are sold, driven and maintained in every part of the world. They have stellar reputation.

It is unfortunate that you have a bad apple. I am sure you're not happy but do not make general conclusions that a Lexus is less reliable than a LR.

SpeedFour

To be clear, the rig is not a bad apple, I'm just mostly concerned over the rust, I keep my vehicles a long time (and since I still have the landie it shows that I don't tend to get ride of them ) and looking new, hard to do when they fight against me. I'm squeaking about this because I've never owned a vehicle that rusted like this one..... ever. It is inexcusable, doubly so since this is a known issue per the linked thread above. And for the record my comparison was not general, it was direct