After 7 plus months and 1750 miles of ownership, the LS went to the dealer service department this week just after hitting 64,000 miles. It was due for an oil change and I wanted them to disable the automatic steering wheel retraction as well as order an additional master key.

It sure was a pleasant experience and damned well should be for the prices they charge! The good news was that they disabled the steering wheel retraction at no charge. Further, their multi-point inspection showed only one real need - a burned out parking bulb.

The bad news: no surprise - high prices. No, make that ridiculous prices. Cabin air filter - $89.40. Air filter - $82.40. Timing belt/water pump - $1516.00 WITHOUT idlers or tensioner ("they don't go bad"). Oh, and they wanted $42.50 for the parking bulb! As always, I'll be shopping on-line for parts.

Although there are 2 Lexus dealers here in Columbus, they have the same ownership, so their prices are no doubt the same. If dealership service is really needed in the future, there's a much closer Toyota store nearby.

 

No surprise.... Best to research for a dependable and with good references an independent shop that specializes in Lexus cars.... Start with Yelp... When you find one, ask for a quote on the timing belt with water pump included. You do not need to do that until 90K....

The cabin filter can be found on Amazon and you can replace that one on your own.....

Welcome to CL....

 

welcome....wow, your car really only has 64,000 miles on it?!

there is a independent shop around here, i actually grew up with the owner. he worked @ a Lexus dealer before opening his shop, so he really knows the cars well. I work at Napa & we have the Aisin timing kit. he let me supply the parts, and charged me $400 in labor to replace everything (including tensioner & idler). after talking with him, he is the reason why i'm going to keep the car. i figured @ 200k it was on it's last leg. but he convinced me otherwise.

 

I want to buy Lexus vehicles that were maintained by a Lexus dealership but I certainly won't use a Lexus dealership to service my own vehicles. Most repairs are pretty straight forward for the average DIY-minded individual and pretty much everything has been covered in depth on this forum. For a first time TB job, I believe the Lexus recommendation is to not replace the idlers or tensioner. I had a local independent Lexus garage do my TB and they left the idlers and tensioners alone (whole repair covered under 2 year warranty) and I trust their judgement.

Check the forums here for advice on anything you need, including replacing the parking bulb. You might check around and see if you have an independent Lexus garage. Their is one here in Houston that has two locations and they offer great service that is cheaper than the dealer.
FYI, Bell Lexus has the OEM cabin filter for about $26 shipped... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lexus-OEM-C...53.m1438.l2649

 

My first visit I wanted a brake flush and coolant drain/fill. They misquoted me saying brake flush $89, and coolant $159. I accepted these prices. When I was done, it was $59 and $129 ($59 makes no sense, it's less than Midas but now I will DIY), in my favor, but incompetent. They were so friendly, each SA had their own office (totally unnecessary and a waste of space). One guy even held hands with his SA and introduced her to his mom? I was thinking this is too much. when you get like that you get ripped off. Oh, and they also said I needed almost $6k of work on the multi-point, all bogus!

Me, if I had to pay, I want competence, not great customer service and incompetence. What I did not appreciate was when I asked if LCA bushings would cause me to fail inspection, the SA said I don't know, maybe. The indie said these aren't even bad and was trying to tell me I didn't need to do it (Because an indie doesn't want you to think they are doing unneeded services, but I was the one who brought the bushings and wanted the work).

If one looks at the Aisin kits and the price delta, why in the world would anybody do the TB/WP and omit the tensioner and all idlers/pulleys? The delta is like $40 or $50.

edit I get that it's tough these days to make money in the car business, cars don't even need much service anymore. Even on YouTube, people get ripped off at Lamborghini service, and prices are all over the place from one dealer to the next...even on Lambo...I think the fallacy is that people are rich, or that rich people don't care. They actually care more on certain things, especially on honorable expensive service...

to further illustrate, I have always considered BMW service to be a bit arrogant and rude, but it was always free with a loaner, so I tolerated it. Then, I guess I experienced GMC and Toyota. Not nice, not competent, and no loaner! My buddy who has BMW and Honda, says Honda is the worst, and Subaru is pretty bad. They wanted to replace a "PVC" valve, and spark plugs with a throttle clean, on his Legacy, at 30k, for $600.

 

Just a friendly FYI.....If you do decide to give any repair job to Lexus, most of them have a policy (if you bring your own parts) of not warrantying the work. Independent shops may or may not have the same policy but you can ask. The few times I needed my local Lexus dealership for work I was pleasantly surprised. For 2 front struts (dealer OEM parts), one ended up leaking almost 2 years later and was replaced free of charge.This particular dealership will warranty their work for the lifetime of your ownership, but you do pay dearly for the work.
Another dealership replaced the radiator with an aftermarket Denso which started leaking 1 1/2 years later, replaced again which started leaking almost 2 years later and replaced again! That equates to me having 4 radiators in my car after paying for the first install at Lexus.which was about $500. Lexus is pretty good at keeping their customers happy.

 

I dunno dawg, Actually I do know .... I'd be VERY unhappy with that radiator situation and wouldn't use those guys ever again. Not even for the next radiator. I'd just buy the best one I could (not aftermarket) and be done with it once and for all. My OEM is still chugging along 15 years after it was installed.

 

With my Maxima I did not want to spend the money so I got a $80 amazon radiator (rock also sells it), it's been fine for 4 yrs. If a aftermarket one had more than one problem, I would say quality control. Because I had to do my Maxima starter 3X, I had gotten lifetime warranty "new" not remanuf starters. Well that's great but it was my labor. Good thing the job is not as hard as the LS430.

So cheap aftermarket is not bad in itself, however, multiple issues to me means a quality control problem. Worst case scenario use OE, it's still under $400 if I am not mistaken. It's rare that big ticket items are the same quality as what came from the factory 10+ yrs. ago. For most all cars.

 

Just to put things in perspective, these cars were new when some of the mechanics in the dealer were still in middle school
its not an excuse, but one of the downsides to owning a 15+ year old car. The support and level of quality advice diminishes as the car (or any product) ages.

 

Yes...under most circumstances no one wants to go back more than once to replace a defective part....However, for me it's not big deal as I'm semi retired and have the time. In addition, I am fortunate to have a good repport with this dealership and they have helped me with a number of issues over the many years of ownership with my LS430. Getting defective parts does happen and can be frustrating if it's either a DIY or paid for at a dealership, but good customer relations is very hard to find these days and for me it's a plus.

 

Would that include doctors as well?
After all, both MDs and their products are getting older.

 

I tend to agree with Bocatrip here. I frequent the dealership for oil changes (Best 49.95 I spend every other month!) and in turn they've treated me fairly with little things that have been found. Bulbs swapped for free, window tint replaced when it was damaged, lug nuts replaced when they were showing wear.
Sure it's all small things, but it keeps me coming back and I'm fine with not dealing with old oil.

 

I used to prefer older doctors, but not anymore. I used to think that older doctors "cared" about treating patients, as opposed to cost/benefit analysis. This does not seem to be the case anymore, so I would rather go with the younger doctor who may just have that ideality or "save the planet" mindset.

imho just like anything else, there is a peak. For an athlete, it's at a fairly young age. For a doctor, I would guess 45. You can run a fortune 50 co. when you are 35 y.o., so how much better would you be as a doctor past 45? We all rise to our level of incompetency, hopefully, that is a high level.

 

I ran into this when I had a V6 Volvo. My car was 13 y.o., which back then was OLD! Put it this way, the dealership did not want to service a no start condition. Since when does a dealership turn away business? When they know that there is a very strong likelihood that a) nobody in the shop knows how to work on the vehicle b) they have already tried but could not solve the issue on another customers' vehicle. I was thinking the same thing, some of these techs were 5 or 7 y.o. when my car was on the road, things back then changed a lot over 10 yrs.

I have a three ring binder for that car with all the factory unathorized ways of fixing things.

 

I don't want to hijack but I disagree with this opinion, and specially the age points.
In any case it is a moot point. Unless you are a cash-only practice, a good amount of the way an md practices is dictated by the the insurance companies.