ddoo3105

I'm the owner of a 2005 GX470 and was always curious whether there Is any advantage to servicing my Lexus at a Lexus dealership (besides the use of a loan car) as opposed to a Toyota dealership. Are shop rates different? What about the cost of parts?

SW17LS

Lexus dealers charge more, and deliver more "perks" for service, nice dealers, facilities, food, loaners, etc.

Stroock639

i'm a toyota salesman and people have their lexuses (lexi?) serviced here all the time. since the GX is essentially a 4Runner underneath and uses the same 4.7 liter V8 that could be gotten in the 4Runner and came with the sequoia, Land Cruiser, and tundra it'd be no problem. like Steve said, the lexus dealer will be nicer to wait in and likely have more "complimentary" items but in reality that's what you're paying more for.

if i were you, i wouldn't get ANY car serviced at a dealership unless you have to or it's a warranty paid service... some of the people in this shop are UNBELIEVABLY STUPID and i wouldn't trust some of them to turn a socket wrench from off to on... but of course there's always the master techs who do the big jobs. when you get an oil change and other items covered under the prepaid maintenance plans it's usually someone who's been minimally trained with no sort of ASE certification who will change your oil, rotate the tires, etc...

newyerker

Curious on the loaner service, as my recent lexus purchase is my first luxury dealership purchase.
When I asked my dealer if I can have this service at other lexus dealerships, they said it can only be done at the very dealer that I purchased the vehicle in.

Is this true? Oh and are you supposed to get any documentation for certified warranty stuff?
I bought a certified ued lexus and aside from the fact that it said certified on the window, ads, and what the salesman told me, there are no other documents that really say it (well, minus carfax evidence).

SW17LS

Your dealer lied to you. You can have your car serviced by any Lexus dealership, and in fact anywhere you like.

newyerker

Oh, no sorry I wasn't clear, they did say that, but the "service loaner" they said was limited to that dealer only. Wanting to know if this was true.

SW17LS

It depends on the dealer. Around here all Lexus dealers offer loaners, doesn't matter if you bought the car there or not.

sears1234

Besides Lexus dealer provide you a Lexus loaner car, there is no more difference.
They are using exact same parts, some Lexus dealer has better decoration, but some Toyota dealer is better.
For example, in Seattle area, Bellevue (WA) Toyota is definitely larger, cleaner, nicer, better than Lexus Seattle.
But Lexus Bellevue is definitely the best dealer.

Orzel

iTrader: (1)

We have our 16 GS serviced at our local Toyota dealer, did the same for our previous GS's and never had an issue. Also a whole lot cheaper, and about 100 miles closer.

jrmckinley

As is the case with everything related to dealers, it varies. For me, I love my Toyota dealer and have been exclusively taking our 2 Lexus vehicles (LS and LX) there for the last 4 years after my local Lexus dealer tried to rip me off on an un-needed repair. My SA is a former Lexus SA and has 2 Lexus certified mechanics (1 Platinum - or whatever the highest level is/was). I save a bunch on labor, they offer me a free Toyota loaner vehicle when I do services that take more than 2 hours, and most importantly they are honest with me.

Toys4RJill

Toyota service and Lexus service are the same. I do not see how people cannot understand this. The LX570 needs no more special oil change treatment than a bare bones 5.7 Tundra. I do know of a handful of dealers that still are split Toyota/Lexus locations. The Lexus service workers do not work on Toyota vehicles as they only work on Lexus. Usually they are long serve employees at the dealer I go to.

Lexus has brainwashed their customers IMO into thinking they need to go to Lexus.

jrmckinley

I agree with you for the most part about them being "the same", however I was part of a situation where they weren't the same at all. Last summer our LX570 hydraulic suspension was leaking- it was discovered during routine oil change at Toyota. My SA told me they couldn't do the repair, so I had to go to Lexus (reluctantly). I don't know why my Toyota team couldn't do it (it wasn't a parts issue- they have gotten plenty of Lexus-specific parts for me in the past- like a window actuator on my prior LS). Anyway, I wouldn't say Toyota and Lexus service are the same because there are certain things on certain Lexus models that aren't serviceable by Toyota. FWIW, my Toyota dealer can honor Lexus warranty and CPO work, so there's lots of synergy. Just not 100% synergy.

Toys4RJill

Makes no sense that the Toyota dealer could not do it. Maybe they just didn't want to do it

JDR76

Definitely no issue in going to Toyota for routine service but I still have questions about the warranty work part. I've heard a few people on here state that they have had Toyota do Lexus warranty work. The three Toyota dealers near me say they aren't allowed to do it. My dad works at a Toyota dealer so I asked him and he said they can do routine service, but Toyota/Lexus prohibits them from doing any warranty work.

SW17LS

What it likely was was that they did not have a tech that was qualified by Toyota to work on that particular component.

Or was it a warranty job? They won't do warranty work unless there isn't a Lexus dealer around. Lexus won't let them.