Junglequac

Thanks! This time, I decided against air ride even though I had zero issues with either my LX470 or LS430 Ultra Luxury.

This time I went after vehicles equipped with at least the Comfort Package (at least for the 2007-2009) meant heated rear seats, back window sunshade, heated steering wheel, and prolly forgetting something. It is only a $1250 option and for a Lexus a pretty good bargain. The Levinson/Navigation package, and the parking sensors were also compulsory. For some reason, 460's sans navigation bother me. I think it is the $60,000 plus starting price. I do miss the super high grade leather of the UL 430. Especially on the armrest.

After having Precollision which comes bundled with Radar Guided Cruise, I definitely did not want that. Simply put, the following distance even at the closest setting was such that I would end up having multiple cars cut me off. If I lived in a sparsely populated area, I would be all over it.

Junglequac

Some more mostly interior shots. I do have some amazing pictures of my best friends multiple award winning 1970 Ford Torino GT that he just turned down $50,000 for, Had a complete nut to bolt restoration using entirely NOS Ford Parts and is easily one of the nicest if not the nicest Ford Ranchero's in the country.
Holla if you want to see some!

FatherTo1

Very nice, Junglequac! I didn't spot it in previous posts, can you please share the mileage and price, please? As you're already aware, I just started shopping around for one myself. Happy motoring!

Junglequac

Of course. I did mention it on the intro thread for this car, but heaven knows there is so much info here that I completely understand not seeing the post where I disclosed all of this,

It is a 2007 SWB with around 85000 miles at time of purchase, One owner and had the best service history of any Lexus I have entered in the Lexus Driver website. It went to the dealer every 5000 miles like clockwork and he used full synthetic for every single change.

I owner Southern car from North Carolina with no accidents, Has the Comfort Package, Mark Levinson./Navigation Package, and the parking sensors. The sticker was $70,000. I paid $16,500 and that is solely due to luck as I was the first person to call (he had literally just put it online) and he was asking $17,000. I called him on a Sunday evening and told him I would be there next Saturday with cash,

He is a VP for Wells Fargo so thankfully he was in San Francisco leaving the day after he listed the car. While he was in San Francisco, he received dozens of calls and offers for asking after folks entered in the VIN into the Lexus website. He even had another guy offer $18000 while I was on my way to North Carolina. He showed me the texts when I met him.

Thank goodness I purchased it from a wealthy individual and that we hit it off when we spoke as wholesale is $17000 and it is considered a "high demand car" according to my brother's old boss who owned both a collision center and briefly a small dealer. That price is from Black Book which tends to be the most accurate of pricing guides as it figures in auction prices and all manner of things,

When I took it in yesterday to have the oil changed and 90% of the 90K Service, the Service Advisor said it was the best serviced 460 she had ever come across. He even had the tires purchased at the dealer. And the aforementioned full synthetic every 5000 miles (I realize that many might question the wisdom in using full synthetic with such short oil change intervals)

It truly was the service history that sealed the deal for me. That said, in my area, 460's with not nearly as good of a service history and even accidents still go for around $20,000 to $23,000 at dealers. I truly consider myself blessed and the interior looks brand new.

With it being black and almost 10 years old, there are some surface scratches and so forth, but I am blessed to know several folks who have extensive in both collision repair (my older brother was the Body Shop Manager of Mercedes Benz of Knoxville for over 10 years and know works for Allstate. So I have made friends with many people in that field which is great as I have already buffed the right side of the car and will get the rest done as soon as it warms up.

FatherTo1

That is a great purchase story, Jungle. Thank you for sharing. My apologies if I missed the intro thread. I have also always changed the oil in all of our cars every 5k miles with Mobil1 full-synthetic (Tundra, Sequoia, Sienna, ES 330, LS 430, etc.). It is pretty cheap by the jug at Costco. I either DIY or take it to the dealer with a coupon. I figure the full-synthetic gives me a little breathing room on the few occasions life got too busy and I didn't change the oil until the 7,500 mark. Glad you acted fast and that the seller didn't get persuaded into a bidding war.

Junglequac

Father,
I take my Lexii to the dealer as they charge $39.99 for the service, provide a loaner car (they are usually angling to find other things that need replacement and my family have purchased I think 8 cars brand new at this particular dealer; not all dealers provide loaners for oil changes!)

They also of course top off all fluids and best of all offer a car wash easily on par with what you would pay around $30 for at a car wash. They even apply a tasteful amount of wheel dressing!
Best of all of course is by having the servicing done at the dealer, it will show up on CarFax which will be a major plus down the line when/if you decide to sell.

AJT123

You get loaners for oil changes at Lexus of Knoxville? They've never offered me that and I've requested it just about every time over the last five years. For any "service" or repair a loaner is provided but not simple oil changes. Kinda irks me, honestly. I can take an Integra over to Harper Acura and get a loaner for an oil change but my flagship Lexus LS I can't. I also pay $50, not $39.

I'm actually not too huge a fan of LOK. Maybe because I dealt with Harper with three vehicles prior where they truly provide excellent service (they goodwilled me a $2800 clutch job on my old TL), or because I've caught Lexus red handed trying to sell me $1200+tax worth of brake work I didn't need for 20k miles. (A year and change later I finally bought the OEM parts and went to Matlock Tire with them....everything parts plus installation totaled less than half at $550.) Also, when they did my timing belt they left something loose or disconnected which threw my CEL a few days later...not a huge deal but they didn't document it, and I could tell they wanted that all "under the table". Kinda skeezy. My SA came out with a handwritten service invoice (so their mistake wouldn't go in the computer). They also charged me a whopping $90 to switch a tire from a ruined rim to the full-sized spare and then mount that on the car. I noticed it after the fact and I'm due a $40 "service credit". Again, not a huuge deal but overall Lexus of Knoxville I wouldn't write home about, unfortunately. God only knows how much money they rip off from the people who just don't care.

I'm glad you've had a better experience, and I will say they do wash the cars up quite nice--I'll give them that. They even shampoo carpets and wipe dust off the gauge cluster, etc.

Junglequac

I am guessing a big part is my family's purchase and service history which practically spans the entirety of LOK's operation. I also spent a small fortune on my LX470 at the service department there and a few bucks on the 430.

Next time you go in there, I would tell them you are going in there for an oil change, but kinda hint that if there were items in need of immediate attention might be open to that. Moreover, that whatever day that you plan to bring the car in that you have an unbelievably busy day and would hate to go to a different shop for service. Heck, I think even Toyota can service Lexii (that might just be the 470/570 as they are ostensibly Land Cruisers)

When they come back to you telling you that you're car desperately needs fuel additive or wiper blade refills tell them that you need time to consider it and then reluctantly decline the offer. Unless of course the services offered make financial sense.

I just spent $520 there on Tuesday for a 95% of the 90K Service, a big reason I bothered to spend that much is that this car has such compressive Lexus records that I almost feel an obligation. They originally quoted me a touch over $700, but after declining having the wipers replaced and fuel additive, I got it down to around $500.

They did majorly screw up on the oil change as I could not have been more clear both that I wanted full synthetic (previous owner used nothing but since the factory fill) and that it not be Kendall Oil (what LOK uses). She said it would be Mobil 1 and left it at that. This is actually the first time that I had not brought in the oil myself.

Now that LOK has gotten high tech they sent me an invoice of the work preformed and lo and behold under the oil change section it showed Kendall being used. Thank goodness I could not make it to them in time on Tuesday as I called the advisor at 7:30 the next morning and pointed out what happened. She immediately said they were going to redo the oil change, but that Mobil 1 does not make 0W-20 (not exactly true: http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/m...758/10275177-P)

That said, off the rip, I had requested Toyota's 0W-20 which is a fantastic full synthetic which is coincidentally made by Exxon/Mobil and she said they did not have it. (spent about an hour on Bobistheoilguy and the reports and oil analysis from cars using this oil are fantastic) As I reckoned the ISF and GSF most likely use it, I did not agree, but did not care enough to fight about it. Regardless, amazingly the Toyota 0W-20 became magically available and that is what would be put in.

I decided to spend some money both to honor the car and to keep on receiving no issues when saying a loaner car is a must. Did feel slightly embarrassed paying labor on having a bloody air filter put in but....

Doublebase

Junglequac, it's interesting to hear your stories about your latest oil change experience at the dealer. It's why I never have my oil changed by anyone but myself - and I realize that's not an option for most people - so I don't want you to think I'm putting you down for having your oil changed at the dealer. It's just that in my experience you don't know what the dealer carries for oil, and what they are putting into your engine even if they do carry the oil you want. I find that in the grand scheme of things oil type is such a small thought at a dealer...it's an afterthought....similar to getting tires replaced at a dealer.

Look at the example you provided, the service writer didn't even know that Mobil 1 came in 0w20?? And at first they didn't have TGMO? Truthfully I'm not surprised at any of this, because oil changes aren't a priority at a dealer, it's just a simple service. And it is a simple service, but oil type, weight, quality are important to some people...other people don't care, in fact the mass majority don't care, therefore the dealer doesn't either. I would say 90% of the customers I see and deal with don't know or have any preference whatsoever about the oil that goes into their cars, they could care less. They're just happy to have remembered to have it done, and not go 5,000 miles past their interval (like they did last time).

I find that most dealers are very different in the brands of oil they use...doesn't matter if it's a Toyota dealer, or a Lexus dealer...or whatever manufacturer it is. They all seem to carry different brands of oil. Some charge more for Mobil 1 and make it seem like it's a "premium" service. My Lexus dealer advertises Mobil 1 oil changes like that, which I find to be hilarious because Toyota genuine synthetic motor oil is supposed to be a superior product to standard Mobil 1 synthetic, yet most of these dealers don't even use it, never mind carry it. Call a Toyota dealer and ask for a case of it, most of them will pause before saying...uhm I don't know if we even have any, why do you want it? They'll say that, which kind of shows you how unimportant it is to them.

As for oil itself, I think any major brand of synthetic is pretty good (and Kendall synthetic is actually considered to be very good with an outstanding additive package and TBN). Kendall synthetic is not widely available in my part of the country or else I'd buy it. Mobil 1 is solid, along with Pennzoil, Castrol, Amsoil, and others. the only brand I tend to stay away from is Valvoline because they use sodium as their main additive rather than molybdenum. And who knows if that's "bad" to begin with?

I just don't trust dealers for oil changes because I don't know what's going into that engine. A lot of dealers use a local supplier...it's some sort of "house" brand. I don't know anything about it - it's probably fine - but who knows? And when they pull those oil pumps down from the ceiling and start pumping it into my car? Is it synthetic? Is it conventional? Who knows? You wouldn't know unless you were standing right there. I once worked at a place where we had the pumps hooked up wrong...everything that we suspected was synthetic was actually conventional and everything that we thought was conventional was actually synthetic (someone took the pumps out of the tanks and put them back into the opposite tanks by accident). I'd rather see the oil come right out of the bottle than anything coming out of a pump gun that is fed from a tank in some back room.

If I were to take my car to a place to get an oil change I'd want to go to a place that had large windows so I could see exactly what they were putting into the engine. And I'd want the place to use bottled stuff only...nothing from a pump. Nothing. Walmart quick lines in my area actually use Pennzoil Paltinum synthetic - which I was pretty surprised about - and they pour it right from the Pennzoil bottle (another thing I was surprised with). And you can witness all this from the large windows they provide in their service area. An oil change for the LS460 would run you around $90 dollars. But then again it's Walmart...not exactly first class. As far as the people changing the oil? Not exactly high end techs either, but we're only talking about oil changes (many dealers use their low end beginner techs to perform that task anyway). But the service absolutely is terrible at Walmart - still if you can handle it, at least you know you'll be getting a high quality oil for $90. Then again you could do it yourself for $50 and know it's high quality and done right.

Junglequac

I am 100% witcha about Kendall being a quality product. It is just seemingly hard to find in most stores around here. Also, most dealers and large indy shops get the oil for their oil changes from a huge barrel and it would not surprise me if some use the absolute cheapest possible. Exactly what you're post points out.

Speaking of things sometimes being difficult to find around here, I spent an hour and a half looking for a 7 inch bonnet (or pad) for my 7 inch orbital buffer as while black is a killer color, my goodness is it cruel unless it is taken care of fastidiously from the beginning. Worse, it was super overcast the Saturday I purchased my car.
So the past week or so has been devoted to buffing and polishing. Will say Maguire's Number 9 is a heckuva polish!

I too like to do my own oil changes. Worse, even Lexus and most other dealers put the lowest man on the proverbial totem pole on oil changes. Unfortunately my driveway has a pronounced slope downhill that makes it no fun to do things like oil changes. Shockingly, Lexus only charges $99 for a full synthetic oil change. The fact that deal sounds too good to be true is exactly why this is the first time I have not brought in my own oil and left it in the front seat. And includes the aforementioned thoroughly decent car wash and of course documentation of it being done at the dealer.

I suppose the best solace from all these questions of oil quality is with Lexus's 5000 mile OCI, at least it would be exceedingly difficult to be hurt from using lower quality oil. That said, the 5000 mile OCI does sometimes make me question the wastefulness of using such high quality oil and draining it with thousands of miles of usefulness left.

SW17LS

If you're paying $40 or $50 for an oil change, there is no way they're using a quality synthetic oil no matter what they tell you. They would be loosing money on oil changes if they did.

I just recently found out that my dealer uses a drum off brand oil for all oil changes, they don't even stock Toyota or Mobil 1. When I asked if it's synthetic I couldn't get a straight response.

From now on I will bring my own oil if it's changed at the dealer, or have my independent do it.

Junglequac

It is $99.99 for the synthetic change. I mentioned that in my wall of text in the previous post. It would not shock me if some places advertise such prices for a "synthetic oil change" now that Exxon Mobil lost their lawsuit to Castrol about whether Castro's much cheaper to produce (and to many not even really considered legit) qualifies as synthetic oil

Sadly, this being the world we live in, after Exxon lost their suit, they followed suit in their production of some of their synthetic oils. Guessing you already knew all of this though!

SW17LS

Just remember too that a difference with the LS460 is that it requires synthetic oil and has a 10k OCI, at least in later years to get that OCI.

Junglequac

Really? Is that for all years? I ask as the previous owner did a 5000 mile OCI with full synthetic.

roadfrog

My dealer uses oil from drums in bulk as well, BUT it is TGMO synthetic. I bring in my empty jugs and they fill them for me for 6 bucks/qt. I've had the oil analyzed by Blackstone after 10k miles and they reported that the oil was still good for at least another 2k miles. I never went that far and have settled on 6k mile OCI's.