Our "own" car reviews

MacGuffin said:
Lexus never caught on here, because despite the different brand name everyone simply considers it a Toyota.

To buy one over here, you must consciously decide, that you don't want a Mercedes, don't want a BMW, don't want an Audi, don't want a Jaguar but that you want an expensive Toyota. It doesn't help, that Lexus was originally created for the American market and not for the more demanding European market.

Things would maybe be different, if Lexus had any technologically or other advantage over their competitors. But neither are their cars better, nor are they particularly pretty. They also still lack a brand identity, that goes like a red line from the days of the LS400 until today.
Click to expand...

Though I completely agree with you in that I would easily buy a BMW, Audi, or Mercedes over a Lexus, there is one big benefit of the Lexus. The major reason why it does so well over here is due to its reputation for long term reliability and maintaince. Though there were some issues with I believe some v6 engines failing (exact reasons I cannot recall) you typically do not have major issues with them. People who buy a Lexus trade style/performance for reliability. It also helps that Lexus has a pretty decent image in the states.
 
p0w3r said:
Though I completely agree with you in that I would easily buy a BMW, Audi, or Mercedes over a Lexus, there is one big benefit of the Lexus. The major reason why it does so well over here is due to its reputation for long term reliability and maintaince. Though there were some issues with I believe some v6 engines failing (exact reasons I cannot recall) you typically do not have major issues with them. People who buy a Lexus trade style/performance for reliability. It also helps that Lexus has a pretty decent image in the states.
Click to expand...

Oil Sludging, all of the early 2000's (through middle of the decade maybe?) Toyota V6's were effected. I believe the general consensus was keep up with your synthetic oil changes and you'll be fine. Always questionable whether a used owner did though... However it was a significantly lower fraction of engines that failed compared to say, Honda Automatic Transmissions.

I think the bigger problem is that it was a sign of the culture change at Toyota, and their old cars were almost legendary for having unkillable engines.
 
Last edited:
Well, I believe recent events showed, that not even Toyota is immune to failure :)

And while some objective surveys in the past decade have shown, that Toyota always gets ranked very high in reliability issues, one must also say, that the others have caught up again. But it always takes some time for objective results to manifest themselves in people's minds.

I generally do not trust user or owner surveys, though. Because when you state realiability as being your main motivation for buying a car, you will hardly admit faults or go hawking with them ;) On the other hand, it is fairly well-known, that customers of most premium brands are particularly picky and demanding, while others don't care much about details, as long as the vehicle still moves at all.

You are going to excuse faults more willingly with brands, that don't come with such high claims. People are less willing to forgive you for even tiny glitches, when you advertise yourself with being "The inventor of the car" or "The best or nothing", as Mercedes currently does. However, some brands have made it a virtue to be imperfect and live fairly well with that and their customers are willing to forgive even serious faults just to be "different" and non-conformal with the masses ;)
 
Last edited:
Well Lexus advertises themselves as "the constant pursuit of perfection" so its not different from "the best or nothing" ;)

Either way, the same general type of customers who shop for Lexus shop for the Germans as they are both premium brands of around the same price. So they would be just as picky and demanding for either. Even still you cannot argue with the fact that many 90s audis and mercs had electrical problems down the line while lexus probably had some of the most reliable cars at the time. Though quality has improved, I still think this stigma hasn't left the consumer's minds yet. I have had to go through coilpacks in my A4 when it was just 3 years old. My friends in their Lexus have no issues at all...they dont do any maintenance cept oil changes once in a while and they run without complaint. On the other hand, my friend in his 335i has had limp mode and fuel pump failures and another has spent a couple thousand on his 2004 325i on various small (and some larger) issues.
 
MacGuffin said:
Well, I believe recent events showed, that not even Toyota is immune to failure :)

And while some objective surveys in the past decade have shown, that Toyota always gets ranked very high in reliability issues, one must also say, that the others have caught up again. But it always takes some time for objective results to manifest themselves in people's minds.

I generally do not trust user or owner surveys, though. Because when you state realiability as being your main motivation for buying a car, you will hardly admit faults or go hawking with them ;) On the other hand, it is fairly well-known, that customers of most premium brands are particularly picky and demanding, while others don't care much about details, as long as the vehicle still moves at all.

You are going to excuse faults more willingly with brands, that don't come with such high claims. People are less willing to forgive you for even tiny glitches, when you advertise yourself with being "The inventor of the car" or "The best or nothing", as Mercedes currently does. However, some brands have made it a virtue to be imperfect and live fairly well with that and their customers are willing to forgive even serious faults just to be "different" and non-conformal with the masses ;)
Click to expand...

I agree on pretty much all accounts. You probably write an interesting psychology paper on people's beliefs of reliability. Like you bring up are people more upset by a premium brand breaking, or a bread and butter "reliable" one? What counts as "broken" in either case. Who takes better care of their cars (excluding enthusiasts). (I should note that I've definitely read people saying "Since this car is a lease I'm not doing anything but changing the oil once a year"). I'd also like a bunch of hard statistics from the TUV, whoever does the British MOT and the various states that do inspections in the US.

On another note, I looked through my apartments parking lot on may way to the Laundry room, and the only Camry's that were in better shape than the 22 year old car I passed on to my sister were less than 10 years old. Neglected body damage or paint or exhaust on a couple others. I also ride my bike by two that always seem to have the the fuel filler cap open.
 
p0w3r said:
Well Lexus advertises themselves as "the constant pursuit of perfection" so its not different from "the best or nothing" ;)

Either way, the same general type of customers who shop for Lexus shop for the Germans as they are both premium brands of around the same price. So they would be just as picky and demanding for either. Even still you cannot argue with the fact that many 90s audis and mercs had electrical problems down the line while lexus probably had some of the most reliable cars at the time. Though quality has improved, I still think this stigma hasn't left the consumer's minds yet. I have had to go through coilpacks in my A4 when it was just 3 years old. My friends in their Lexus have no issues at all...they dont do any maintenance cept oil changes once in a while and they run without complaint. On the other hand, my friend in his 335i has had limp mode and fuel pump failures and another has spent a couple thousand on his 2004 325i on various small (and some larger) issues.
Click to expand...

Just a question: Do you believe, Lexus owners would openly admit problems with their car? After all, they usually justify their decision of buying it over the other possible options with "reliability". If that quality even gets as much as a shadow of a doubt, the whole reasoning falls. Lexus owners can become quite snobbish about the reliability issue.

People do not like to admit errors with purchases, especially they will never ever admit having bought the wrong car, if they don't wanna be considered clueless ;) Sometimes they are plainly kidding themselves and no matter what you do, you cannot convince them. They will only admit error, when they got rid of the car and bought another one by their own free will. But never try convincing someone, that they bought the wrong car. It's absolutely pointless.

Goes for all brands, btw. A colleague of mine bought a Dacia Logan and claims he is happy with the car. But I know he isn't.
 
Last edited:
MacGuffin said:
Just a question: Do you believe, a Lexus owner would openly admit problems with their car? After all, they usually justify their decision of buying it over the other possible options with "reliability". If that quality even gets as much as a shadow of a doubt, the whole reasoning falls.

People do not like to admit erros, especially they will never ever admit having bought the wrong car, if they don't wanna be considered clueless ;)
Click to expand...

Absolutely. People still like to complain, and have to explain why they're driving a loaner while their car is in the shop. It will probably be rationalized somehow though.
 
Unfortunately Lexuses are being sold so few here, they usually fall out of every objective survey and are listed under "others" in most cases, because The ADAC or the T?V don't get representative numbers.

However, the German "ADAC Pannenstatistik 2010", where is listed, which cars broke down the least on the open road, the "upper class" category is lead my Audi, BMW and Mercedes, with Volvo being the only foreign brand in the Top 10.

Toyota can score with the micro cars, though, but Fiat (!) is runner-up. With small hatchbacks, the Mini is on place 1, while the highest scoring Toyota (Yaris) is on 17.

And it goes on like that. The Toyota Auris is on eye-leve with the Golf/Jetta in the second half of the Top 10, while the 1-Series is on first place, followed by the Audi A3. The Toyota Avensis is on 13 in its category, while the Mercedes C-Class is on 2nd.

Only cars registered from 2005 to 2010 went into that statistic, btw. When cars get too old, you cannot tell anymore, if the reasons for failure are neglect or owner's fault or if the car has a constructional problem..
 
Last edited:
MacGuffin said:
Just a question: Do you believe, Lexus owners would openly admit problems with their car? After all, they usually justify their decision of buying it over the other possible options with "reliability". If that quality even gets as much as a shadow of a doubt, the whole reasoning falls. Lexus owners can become quite snobbish about the reliability issue.

People do not like to admit errors with purchases, especially they will never ever admit having bought the wrong car, if they don't wanna be considered clueless ;) Sometimes they are plainly kidding themselves and no matter what you do, you cannot convince them. They will only admit error, when they got rid of the car and bought another one by their own free will. But never try convincing someone, that they bought the wrong car. It's absolutely pointless.

Goes for all brands, btw. A colleague of mine bought a Dacia Logan and claims he is happy with the car. But I know he isn't.
Click to expand...

My parents had a new IS200 around the time when IS250 was launched and Lexus got rid of the old models. Three years and around 80k km don't give you a good long term impression, but based on that experience I really understand where the reputation comes from.

First the service was just excellent. When you had made an appointment they reserved a place in front of the dealership with your name tag. Costs about nothing and gives you a nice feeling that they're remembering you had the service booked. They always washed and vacuumed the car too. On the technical side, we never noticed any problems with the car, but there were some. For example, once the mechanic told "We noticed a small leak from driver's side front shock absorber, so we changed both front shock absorbers". They fixed things before customer noticed. That's maybe the biggest thing that separates Lexus/Toyota (I assume the mechanics do both cars and the working principle is the same) from most others: they service to avoid problems, while most others try to find out what causes the problem the customer is complaining about.

I know other premium brands probably offer same kind of service especially around the capital area (in the countryside I can't imagine BMW service being much different from Ford service), but no one does the whole package as well as Lexus.
 
MacGuffin said:
Goes for all brands, btw. A colleague of mine bought a Dacia Logan and claims he is happy with the car. But I know he isn't.
Click to expand...

What if he's really happy with it? (Not trolling, just curious about how you know he's not happy)
 
MacGuffin said:
Toyota can score with the micro cars, though, but Fiat (!) is runner-up. With small hatchbacks, the Mini is on place 1, while the highest scoring Toyota (Yaris) is on 17.
Click to expand...

Going off topic here, but could you provide some sources for that? I'd like to have some material to throw into peoples faces every once in a while. :lol:
 
As you may have noticed, I've got a rental Golf for a week.



It's the special edition "Match" with the 1.6 TDI (77kW/105hp/250Nm).

By Wednesday I'll have driven the majority of kilometers :lol:

Sunday:


Monday morning after quite some traffic, target speed 160 (where legal), average 88:


Monday afternoon after less traffic, target speed 140 (where legal), average 89:


That's not quite the advertised 4.5l/100km, but then the speed wasn't as tested either - you can easily get under 5l if you go slower.

At slow speeds it's quite noisy when compared to the Octavia TSI - there the loudest thing while idling is the fan at the lowest setting. At speeds the engine noise goes away though.
It drives like a Golf :dunno: not a lot to say. The 105hp TDI is sufficient when traveling alone without heavy luggage. With three adult passengers and some stuff in the pack it might be a bit on the slow side, but without that extra weight I rarely got overtaken this morning :burnrubber:

I can't fathom why this car doesn't have cruise control. There's dual-zone climatronic, buttwarmers, PDC front and rear, automatic wipers, automatic lights, the color computer, ... but no CC :shakefist:
I've tried to spec the car in the VW configurator, probably 25350? - an additional 205? for the cruise control wouldn't have hurt a tiny bit.

There may be more in the coming days :dunno: maybe a trip dedicated to beating the advertised fuel figure :dunno: maybe a trip to drive it like I stole rented it :dunno:
 
When you get the billing from Europcar, don't be surprised that the rental price is listed without tax but the total withdrawel sum is. We have lots of complains about credit card charges, because the Europcar bills suck big time.
 
MacGuffin said:
When you get the billing from Europcar, don't be surprised that the rental price is listed without tax but the total withdrawel sum is. We have lots of complains about credit card charges, because the Europcar bills suck big time.
Click to expand...

I have seen that the daily price is without tax, but couldn't care less - I don't get the bill, my company does through my master rental agreement. The lack of VAT makes sense there as it's not paid anyways.


PS: I've just remembered another factoid - it's on Goodyear Vector all-seasons :lol: snow and sleet forecast for tomorrow morning :burnrubber: oh well, my own car is on summers already :driving:
 
Last edited:
MacGuffin said:
Just a question: Do you believe, Lexus owners would openly admit problems with their car?
Click to expand...

Summon the Lexus owner!

I've owned mine for one year now, it's a 10 year old IS200 with all the toys. The following things have gone wrong so far:
- A warning light on the dash as apparently the air conditioning clutch took an unacceptable length of time to engage on startup; took it to the dealer. I was there for 8 minutes in spite of just turning up without prior notice. They cleared the code and told me to come back it if happened again. Cost me nothing and the fault hasn't reoccurred.
- Had to change the battery in the key fob.
- Battery died so replaced (OEM original).

That's not to say it's the perfect car, it uses more fuel than i'd like and 2nd is a bit clunky at times from a previous life being driven round town by an old person. But it's 10 years old and everything still works correctly.

So the alternatives:
- Mercedes was ruled out as i'd have been buying from the early 2000s quality collapse and having owned the Smart previously i'd already discovered that their dealers are a bunch of c*nts.
- BMW was ruled out because I don't spend my evenings and weekends selling products by the gram.
- Audi wasn't rear wheel drive.
 
McRae said:
Aren't rental cars typically on all-season tires?
Click to expand...

:no: See some of MacGuffin's reviews, he had proper winter tyres in the winter with the pretty sticker on the dash telling you how fast your winter rubber may go.



Concerning my baby TDI, it'll do an indicated 193 (GPS 183) on my private Autobahn (A215) with a mild headwind (my heading around 50?, wind from 100? at around 7m/s) while consuming 10.7l/100km (22mpgus at 120mph). For such a small engine that's quite alright, the last 15km/h add 2l to the consumption so it's out of its efficient range from around 175 indicated.
 
narf said:
:no: See some of MacGuffin's reviews, he had proper winter tyres in the winter with the pretty sticker on the dash telling you how fast your winter rubber may go.
Click to expand...
He rents from Sixt usually doesnt he? So can we conclude Sixt > Europcar?

Also my Lexus friend just bought a new car. Another Lexus, slightly used IS250. Lexus suck at attracting new customers, but whatever they do to their existing is working. He's a complete tunnel vision guy. Only Lexus exist. Wouldnt look at or test anything else.
 
Last edited:
AiR said:
He rents from Sixt usually doesnt he? So can we conclude Sixt > Europcar?
Click to expand...

Not really. The class of car may play a role, he usually gets better stuff. I know that other Europcar cars in proper winter did come with proper winter tyres, can't deduce much from this one example.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top