Lexus IS-F saloon long-term test review

How often does your car need servicing? My last long termer, an Audi Allroad, didn’t need its first service until 19,000 miles thanks to Audi’s variable servicing schedule. The more gently you use the car – and the Allroad had done a lot of long trips – the longer the car can run before needing attention.

BMW’s M3 uses a similar system and can last up to 20,000 miles before needing any work done, although it does need an old fashioned running-in service at 1200 miles. The Lexus doesn’t need a running-in service but it does need one at 10,000 miles.

That’s so unusual these days that I managed to convince myself that the IS-F didn’t need attention until at least 12,000 miles. Fortunately my nearest dealer didn’t seem to think that our car breezing past its first service point by 2500 miles point was a problem, particularly as it’s barely six months old. I was more pleased about that than I was to find that my nearest city, Peterborough (pop close to 200,000), seems to be host to every other brand of car except Lexus. Lexus Leicester said they would pick it up next time for the longer, more involved 20,000 mile service, but this time I was going to have to make the hour long trek from home myself.

It took an hour to get there but when I arrived at Lexus Leicester I was greeted by a smart showroom, courteous staff and a decent cup of tea. I was even offered my own room to allow me to work while I waited, a nice touch.

The service itself highlighted no real problems other than the front tyres, which have worn heavily on their inner edges suggesting an alignment problem. The bill was £273, which sounds a lot considering what is actually involved in a first service today, but nearly £140 of that was accounted for by oil. Several days later a letter arrived at home from the garage just checking to see that I had been happy with the service. With attention to detail like it’s no wonder Lexus constantly romps away in the JD Power competitions.

Source : Lexus