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jrobsea

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    John

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  • Lexus Model
    IS250AWD
  • Lexus Year
    2007
  • Location
    Washington (WA)

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  1. Nice - I have the same color '07 AWD IS. I love it. You might consider getting the transparent film hood/bumper/headlight protection before you drive it around too much. It doesn't look like one is on there yet. I called around some local installers for mine and got a much better price than the dealer wanted to get it done. I bet you got an awesome deal on an '08 in December '08 in this economy.
  2. For my 15k service, I had good luck with the local Toyota dealer. I brought in my Lexus maintenance book and went through it with the service manager. There were a couple of checks that weren't included in their normal oil change / maintenance check-up service. They added them as extra labor items and then ended up doing them for no extra charge. In my experience, if you get the '15k maintenance' or '30k maintenance' from a dealer, they just charge you 2x or 3x the normal price but don't do much extra work. When I first pointed to the 15k maintenance in my Lexus book, the service manager pulled out the summary of their $150 15k maintenance service. When I said to charge me for an oil change and add on the extra line items, the price was supposed to be about $70, but then they only charged me about $50. I had a similar experience with my Siena minivan at the same Toyota dealer. When I asked for an oil change "plus do these extra things", the price was about 1/2 of the 30k service price. There were a bunch of things in the 30k service that were not supposed to be done on that car at 30k, and which I don't think they would actually do, but the service price included them (new spark plugs, coolant change, etc). The service description included an asterisk with a note at the bottom saying "if applicable" on a bunch of the items, but there is only one price whether they are applicable or not. You could try a similar approach with the Lexus dealer if you don't mind paying the baseline amount they charge for an oil change. My dealer charges something like $150, which I consider to be unreasonable, so I go to the Toyota dealer to service my IS instead. Your Lexus dealer will probably tell you only they know how to work on your car properly, but I see quite a few Lexuses at the Toyota dealer service shop, and I've been happy with them. I also have them stamp my maintenance book with a 'genuine Toyota service' stamp. It might not be as good as having the Lexus service stamp when you go to sell the car, but I'm doubtful that a buyer would actually pay that much of a premium for that.
  3. What did you do about the TPMS system? I've considered getting a set of winter tires, but the extra cost of making the TPMS work ($450 sensors + ~$100 to get the Toyota dealer to enter the codes) makes the cost seem a bit ridiculous to me. Are you doing without the TPMS sensors? Do you have a bunch of annoying beeps and warnings on the dash or is it a little more subtle? I become a weenie every time it snows and leave my shiny, nicely waxed, AWD IS in the garage. We have snow tires on our AWD Sienna (TPMS sensors not needed in the 05), and we drive that instead. We have to go up and down a fairly steep hill - so I like having some extra traction for the snow. I was all set to get some snow tires and wheels for the IS until I realized how much it costs to deal with the TPMS system.
  4. IS350 with snow tires will probably do fine unless you need to get up a lot of hills. I have an IS250AWD, and I love it, but I don't think the AWD is going to help me stop any faster. I think snow tires (and not using all the HP of the 350 on slippery roads) will make more of a difference than AWD for safety. Just keep in mind that snow tires are a hassle for new cars because of the TPMS sensors. The Lexus TPMS sensors cost about $110 each and you have to have a Lexus or Toyota dealer program the codes. A basic set of 4 wheels, snow tires and sensors will be at least in the US$1,400 range.
  5. It seems I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum from SW30ES on this. I'm willing to pay for experienced technicians who know what they're doing, I'm willing to pay a little extra to go to a shop that has the Toyota/Lexus manufacturer diagnostic tools, but I don't want to pay any extra for the experience of marble floors, granite desktops and plasma TV's in the service offices and waiting area. Therefore, servicing my Lexus at the local Toyota dealer is the best solution for me (I should admit my local Toyota dealer does have a plasma TV, free cookies and drinks). There are obviously people who knowingly and willingly pay what the Lexus dealerships charge for service. SW30ES is obviously aware of the cost premium and still chooses to go there. He has pointed out some attributes of dealer service that some people do value: high-end waiting area, convenience of purchase/service at the same place, treated well by the staff, don't need to research alternatives - the dealer can get whatever you need for your Lexus. I have the impression that the majority of people on this forum have a similar opinion to mine, but I might be biased and just be focusing on the comments that are consistent with my opinion. Anyone know how to start a poll? Lexus parts & service - Overpriced ripoff --- or --- a fair price for a high quality service experience ... and sorry I hijacked this thread, but the original topic is related to whether Lexus service/parts pricing practices are reasonable or if they are just trying to rip off their customers.
  6. I see thread after thread of people indicating they feel ripped off by dealer parts & service when they realize how much they were charged for something (you just posted about getting charged $20 by the dealer for a quart of oil that was worth much less). My experience with my local dealer matches that, although in my case I asked about prices ahead of time and chose to do business elsewhere. I think it is sleazy to run a business this way. People do need to take responsibility an realize what they are paying, but don't you think businesses should take some responsibility as well? The US would be a pretty crappy place if every business was constantly trying to overcharge you. In my opinion, Lexus makes great cars. The quality of their cars has built a brand that people trust. I think almost everyone who buys a Lexus comes away from the experience feeling like they got a good value because of the high quality of the car. The way the dealerships run their parts & service operations is a disservice to the brand. I'd be surprised if anyone looks at what they pay for dealer service and thinks they got a good value. I can believe they might continue to go there because they like the idea of dealer service or because they find it convenient, but they are still being overcharged. You would probably think you were getting scammed if you brought your new ES home and found out it was actually a Camry, and they pulled off the Toyota Camry label, replaced it with a Lexus ES label, and marked up the price by $5,000. They don't do this with the cars, but they do it with the parts and service business.
  7. Yes - I think you have a good point. There are certainly some customers who are aware of how much of a premium they are paying to go through the dealer for parts/service - and they still choose that route. I think at the same time, there is a contingent of customers who are under the impression that they have to use the dealer for service and that the dealer is charging a reasonable price. I consider my local dealer service sleazy because they mislead this customer group into thinking they have to pay the inflated prices to maintain their car. I'm pretty sure a healthy chunk of this group does not know any better.
  8. There is a fine line between a healthy profit margin and ripping off your customers. From my experience with my local Lexus dealer, I'd say they are more on the end of ripping off their customers. They rely on the assumption that the customer will trust them to charge a fair price... and then they charge an unfair price. Is $250 a fair price for the 10k mile service? When I said that was too much, they said I could probably do without replacing the cabin air filter and they would only charge $150 for an oil change and tire rotation. The cabin air filter isn't supposed to be changed at 10k miles, but they try to get you to pay for it so they can jack up the service fee - and $100 for changing the cabin air filter is excessive. I got the service done at a local Toyota dealer. I once needed to replace a fuse that blew while installing a subwoofer and they wanted $15 for one fuse. I have not given $0.01 to my Lexus dealer after purchasing the car. I get any parts or service I need from my local Toyota dealer. They sold me the $15 fuse for about $1.50. Yes - that's the way business works - they lost mine, but they are still ripping off all the other people who don't know better. I consider the Lexus dealer service & parts business to be one of the sleaziest automotive operations in business.
  9. The stock amp uses non-standard wiring harnesses, so it would be difficult to swap it out without doing a bunch of wiring. Also, I think it has some type of communication back to the head unit in the dash. The most common upgrade people have done is to add a sub in a small box and a sub amp. You can tie in to the signal from the stock sub into a high level input in the new amp. This requires a little wiring (new power and ground, turn on lead & 4 signal wires from the dual voice-coil stock sub). Anything more than this becomes a fairly major project - but with a little more bass, the stock system is actually pretty decent.
  10. The added amp is only for the new sub. Many sub amps have speaker level inputs, which saves you the hassle of adding a hi-lo converter. The sound quality of the sub is excellent, and it's a significant improvement over the stock sub. Regarding RCA pre-outs and low-level signals, they are not always necessarily better than using a speaker level signal. I reviewed the wiring diagram from my Pioneer Elite home receiver, which has preouts for all the channels. The main speaker left/right preouts come from an internal preamplification circuit, which I think is the 'clean' way to provide the signal, and which probably results in better sound than you would get from an amplifier->high/low converter->amplifier connection. The center and surround channel RCA preouts just come from an internal high to low conversion of the amplifier output. So my point is that having an RCA pre-out connector does not necessarily mean that you are getting a cleaner source signal. I bet if you look at the circuit designs of some car stereos, you'll probably see some of the same thing. Some might use a true preamp circuit to provide a clean signal to an RCA output, but some will probably just have an internal high-low conversion to the RCA outputs. I think the internal high-low in my home receiver only involved a couple of resistors, so it's got to be cheaper to manufacture than a true preamplification circuit.
  11. I put mine in myself. The stock amplifier is in the trunk. You can make all the connections there, so there is no need to tear apart the dash. It's not an easy job - it dook me about 6 hours, so it's not a bad deal to pay an installer $75-$100. Just make sure you go somewhere where they know what they are doing.
  12. I have some useful information on #3. I was rear ended by someone at low speed. His insurance paid for a new bumper for my AWDIS250. The bumper was a little deformed in one spot. The original insurance estimate was about $600 to repair and repaint. Supposedly the bumper can be pushed back into shape if you heat it up - if there were any cracks on the inside, it had to be replaced. When I took it to a shop, the guys said the insurance adjuster was an idiot, they were not going to heat it up to try to bend it back into shape, and it needed to be replaced. The shop and the adjuster worked it out that it would be replaced. The final bill for replacement and painting was about $1200 - all paid by the insurance company. I consider the shop I went to to be a fairly high end place, so you might be able to find a cheaper price if you shop around. They did a perfect job, and I can't tell that it's not the original bumper. For anyone in my area, the shop is RNR Collision in Bellevue, WA. I am really happy with the quality of their work.
  13. The most common upgrade I'm aware of is to add a subwoofer in the trunk. Sub + mono amp will cost around $400-800 depending on what you get and how much of the work you can do yourself. I don't think I've heard of anyone puting in an aftermarket amp to power the stock speakers. You might try the sub first and see how you like the sound. There doesn't seem to be much aftermarket support for the IS audio system, and the subwoofer is the only simple upgrade I know of.
  14. That is a great price for this standard Northeast configuration. I bought a 2007 AWD IS250 Smoky Granite Mica last year with no NAV. I think I got a fairly good deal, and I paid about the same price. I think the NAV is somewhere around a $2,000 option, so you probably couldn't have come close to this through a regular dealer purchase.
  15. That's the button you push when you want the car to feel more sporty and you don't care about getting worse gas mileage. It changes the gear shifting points and allows the engine to rev higher before shifting. It's kind of fun to use once in awhile, but I rarely use it. It probably puts more wear on the engine, but you'll probably have to drive the car that way for a long time before you find out if it makes much difference on the life of the engine. The life of the car might be shorter when you're driving aggressively and crash.
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