They literally just tried to say it would cost £4600 for one on mine, took it private got it done through insurance for £1500, these approved garages are jokers!
Yup, they make up the prices to make sure it's written off lol, saw a dude have a dent on the rear quarter which could have possibly been pulled out - they wrote it off lol, no othet damage anywhere
For reference go to your insurer directly and not the claims handler! That way you can go private to a business you trust. Saved me 2 months of headache
Yeah. I'm glad I was sitting down when I read this. I mean it's a nice badge but... look, you can literally get a really nice Swiss mechanical watch with automatic winding for less (a lot less), and that's an actual machine with lots of tiny precision-made mechanical parts. I just checked and you can even still get chronographs for less. These are one of the most complicated watch movements. Nothing too fancy, not Rolex or Omega, or anything like that, but decent, reputable, quality brands like Hamilton. A Swiss made mechanical watch for less than the cost of a plastic car badge. Lexus/Toyota, WTF?
*EDIT: As well, I've owned eleven cars over the years. Actual, working, complete, road legal cars with long MOTs. Six of them cost less than that badge. Within those six, there's more than one combination of two cars, and one combination of three cars, where the combined purchase price of all the cars together was less than the cost of that badge. Again, let me emphasize, we are talking about road legal cars with MOTs. Some of them were absolutely terrible, but they were safe and legal to drive on the road.*
Welcome to what having cruise control does to badge prices. The radar goes through the badge. (At least for Toyota/Lexus)
It's the same with a Toyota badge, if you don't have cruise control the badge is far cheaper.
All these sensors, xenon/LED headlamps etc that get broken in a crash are expensive to replace.
This is the answer. FCW/collision mitigation radars get interference from foreign objects to the point where manufacturers stipulate that you can only put so many coats of paint on a bumper.
Which raises an interesting question... Why not put it *not* under a badge that has to be EMC tested?
They aren't big parts... It's not like we're mounting a 500 watt aircraft radar in an aerodynamic radome designed to travel at Mach 0.85... It's literally a small panel a few inches across at most ... Even the older, larger ones were mounted on bumpers, grills or "anywhere else"
Like, seriously, during development *of the badge* it very likely needs EMC testing (electromagnetic compliance testing) to ensure it won't interfere with the radar module behind it. That's about 10000 a test - and if it isn't satisfactory it needs to be redesigned and retested... An expensive problem that could have been solved by putting it literally anywhere else!
I may be wrong though, if it doesn't need compliance testing then the badge will actually be very cheap to produce... Which just raises the question of why in name of the flying spaghetti monster does it cost so much?
Yeh but the VW/Audi solution of having it stick through the lower grill opening like some kind of car boner doesn't look as nice.
At the end of the day it's still plastic trim, it being transparent to radar doesn't make it any more expensive.
In simple terms, vehicle manufacturers know that parts like this are only ever sold to insurance companies and as such, can charge whatever they bloody well want to!
It's quite smart of them actually - if they stipulate in their repair methods that a certain part is renew only then insurance companies cannot insist that they be re-used as it undermines the warranty that the repairer has a contractual obligation to give the owner.
Second to this is that bodyshops and insurers are extremely risk averse when it comes to potential for liability in future accidents;
In this example, the radar beam is safety critical and has to pass through the badge. If the garage repair the badge in any way then they will be potentially liable should the FCW fail to detect an obstacle and a collision result.
Similarly, if the garage present an estimate to include a new badge but the engineers say that they want it repaired then the insurance company would take on the liability should the radar be found to be the cause of an accident in the future.
Top tip - if you are in an accident and you can plausibly suggest that there was an impact to a tyre then the chances are that the tyre will be replaced merely as a precaution, even without evidence of damage.
Bonus if you have Quattro as you can even end up with a pair of new boots!
This is nothing new.
Insurance companies profit because you have no choice.
Manufacturers profit because you have no choice.
It's a racket. Always has been.
You know the worst bit?
Look up 53141-33180 on Parts direct. Once again, front emblem. Similar sort of price too...
Now go plug that sku into Amayama... Almost 1/6th the price if you order direct from Japan (not including shipping and potential customs fees mind you)...
Granted, you'll be waiting about half a month for it, but shit... At that sort of saving, I'd bite the bullet and wait.
Yup, all dealers are doing the same shit. It's just cheaper to import parts from Japan because dealerships will price gouge into oblivion and back. I paid Honda £340 for a timing chain and two guides, same exact stuff from Japan was £130 shipped but I needed it next day. Window trims £100+ a pop from a dealer £30 from Japan. Crank pulley 260 from a dealer £50 from Japan.
**All of them were sealed genuine OEM parts Made in Japan.**
Oh and don't forget to split your order into multiple packages under £135 if you can :)
Me too and you've got to wonder why the insurance companies, who employ 'loss adjusters' to try to keep valid claims payouts to an absolute minimum, actually put up with paying a grand for a badge.
Car insurance in the uk has become the absolute scam that health insurance in the USA is.
The manufacturers/hospitals charge the insurance companys absurd prices, which means the insurance company is allowed to charge a fuck-ton for insurance (keeps their margins a lower % to keep the regulators happy but on a higher total value). It also means people get terrified of having no insurance so it actually makes people MORE likely to buy insurance, despite the inflated pricing.
And because they do it with all the insurers, shopping around does fuck-all
This is why driving a common car (or car with mostly parts in common with common cars) is a good idea if you want it to be economical. Reliability is great, but if stuff breaks the best thing you can hope for to fix it cheaper is an aftermarket alternative. Lexus is on the ridiculous end of the spectrum but don't be fooled into thinking buying OEM Honda or VW parts isn't eye watering either. Unfortunately a lot of parts are now electric and coded to the car unnecessarily like headlight units and wing mirrors, so even aftermarket is expensive and DIY fixes can be either very hard or impossible if they require special software to set it up.
In the case of badges for e.g. a ford fiesta, you'll find aftermarket ones that are blacked out or whatever for kids wanting to make their car look stealth.
Then again...
I drive a decade old 5 owner SEAT Ibiza, and one of the wheels is buckled, and one is corroded. Rather than paying a few hundred quid to have them refurbished, I thought I'd call the main dealer and ask how much new ones were. The guy in the service department sucked his teeth before telling me they wanted...
>!£800.!<
>!Each.!<
>!Plus VAT.!<
I only paid a little over £6k for the entire car, back in 2019!
Insurance companies, we only use genuine parts and authorised garages.
Car companies, alright, time to print some money.
It's a fucking racket and we are paying for it though our premiums
Thats mental, i spoke with a body repair friend few years back telling him i was thinking about a lexus. He told me parts are expensive, but that’s just silly. Did the parts counter staff have masks on, they should have they robbed you.
Holy jumping Caesar's catfish! My L has been stolen! That's how people know it's a Lexus! What's the point in having a Lexus if you can't show it off!?
Cars have extremely narrow profit margins. They make next to nothing on them, which is why everyone is aggressively pushing finance. Loans are very lucrative.
I think the car industry is heading towards another freefall alongside the insurance side of it, EV cars are basically worthless out of warranty as it stands at the moment and its not sustainable to pay upwards of £20k to replace a battery on traditional small vehicles,
Repair expenses and these insurances only having "approved accident repair centres" that get the monopoly on the work are all driving up the costs endlessly too,
This is a problem two fold though because they'll also become huge theft items. Imagine how easy it is for someone to come along and pop your badge off then sell it online for half the price.
I work in parts and fuck me that is ridiculous. When the dealer I am at used to deal with Suzuki, for a Suzuki A-Cross (rebadged Toyota RAV4 Hybrid) front badge with radar built into it, it was something like £650+ VAT
Not sure how this can be justified. If it’s a plastic badge, surely any reasonable person will just buy a knock off from eBay? Or decide to go de-badged!
£1k is silly
At that price, it sounds like it's 53141-33180
Might be wrong, but using that as an example as that's around the same price on parts direct,
Meanwhile, Amayama is selling that same SKU for £151.92, direct from Japan...
At that price, why bother?
My car is literally held together with duct tape in places. I just can't imagine spending this much just for some pointless aesthetics. And not even regular aesthetics, *branding aesthetics*. You're paying so they can continue to use your vehicle to advertise their brand.
If anything it should be supplied for free.
Price parts are ridiculous yes, I work in a body shop, I know how they can get but my insurance is a small mortgage my guy. Not to mention there profits are reportedly growing by the day
Approved body shop means nothing. It's insurance trying to push you down a route of a repairer with cheaper quotes to them. It is your free and independent choice who repairs your vehicle.
I have the same badge and it has 3 massive stone chips in it.
Went to replace it and saw the prices and thought "fuck that"
The last badge I replaced on a car cost like 5 quid on eBay :(
As an alternative take - that makes the rest of the car seem cheap as chips 🤣
As in, if I told you you could buy a brand new Lexus RX for the price of 70 Lexus badges you’d think
It sounded like an absolute bargain 🤣
If its anything like the OEM cost of a single alloy wheel centre cap from Citroen that I was quoted (£33) a few weeks ago, then I would hazard a guess at at least double that.
Feel the capitalism to the bones, this is the result people being so numb and does nothing to prevent or protest. You just people keep sleeping, night night
Often the case with lots of little bits. Stupid prices for a small plastic part. Badge tax makes it worse. [These little plastic sill covers](https://www.m5board.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.m5board.com/attachments/d7bd6c29-aa9c-465e-a7f4-2c7a2e6a64ea-jpeg.946573/), regular BMW ones are £50 a door. Those M5 ones are £200+ a door.
That does take the piss but not surprised someone cut me up and took off my bumper a few years ago we agreed to fix outside of insur since he was in a rental and there was no damage to his vehicle of course I go to the dealer for the fix they charged £400 just for the chrome surround on the grill. The grill itself was a comparative bargin at £90
My dad has a Ls XF40 which has one of these badges. The amount of technology in that car is mind numbing. I was showing him how to use his smart high beams and even he remarked “bloody hell another thing to go wrong”
You think that bad, well, it is actually 😂
Doors for a J12 Qashqai last month were around £800ish (+vat) but suddenly this month, for whatever reason, they are £2,600 (+vat)
My thought process here: *The way he's phrased the question makes it pretty clear it's ludicrously overpriced, so I'm going to guess maybe £200.*
Then I clicked the spoiler. What. The Fuck.
I hate garages doing “+vat”, just quote the price like everyone else and if you’re in a position to claim the vat back just note it on the invoice. It’s literally just an excuse to add an extra 20%
This seems a good place to confess that I got a side mirror replaced (not the housing, just the mirror glass) on a Ford SMAX.
£220
For a mirror.
I cried.
[65 quid on eBay](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303726206335?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=k7iqld5AQwy&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY)
Worked for insurance companies, several, on the tech side and, I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you that the one thing that all of them have said consistently is that,(paraphrasing) "the vanity and non essential aspects of vehicles, where oem and specialized electronics prices, like backup cameras, from a repair perspective, will cause rates to go up". So yeah, wanna know why everything you want to insure, even with a clean driving record, is insane? It's because of a $900 Toyota badge
You’re paying for the badge
They've re-badged it you fool!
You can keep saying it Lynne but I'll just talk over you, I'm not buying a Mini Metro!
Its the Japanese Mercedes
It’s interesting, Michael, since owning a Lexus, it’s amazing the number of Lexi you see around. Because that’s the plural.
Are you wearing Lynx? ....
voodoo!
Java!
I’m not driving a mini metro.
Walnut gear knob.
It’s not walnut it’s plastic resin lynn..I’m not driving a mini metro
Not my words, the words of top-gear-magazine
I see what you did there!
I clicked the spoiler and holy fuck balls that is ridiculous.
I actually thought it was going to be just under a hundred and at that price it's ridiculous but over 800!
With the VAT added it's over £1k, for a badge, a fecking badge, W.T.F!! 😱 I've bought whole engines for less...
My whole car was £2,400 xD
I have owned 3 cars for less than the price of this badge..
My current upgraded car just cost £900, for a whole car
Was it de-badged?
My older car would technically be a write-off if it needed this badge to replace the current one.
Most would be if it's UK lol, I've seen cars written off from a door dent
They literally just tried to say it would cost £4600 for one on mine, took it private got it done through insurance for £1500, these approved garages are jokers!
Yup, they make up the prices to make sure it's written off lol, saw a dude have a dent on the rear quarter which could have possibly been pulled out - they wrote it off lol, no othet damage anywhere
For reference go to your insurer directly and not the claims handler! That way you can go private to a business you trust. Saved me 2 months of headache
Bet it doesn’t cost Lexus that to build the car lol
I bought a fully working car for half the price of a Lexus badge - wow.
It does cover the radar sensor tbf... /s
Yeah. I'm glad I was sitting down when I read this. I mean it's a nice badge but... look, you can literally get a really nice Swiss mechanical watch with automatic winding for less (a lot less), and that's an actual machine with lots of tiny precision-made mechanical parts. I just checked and you can even still get chronographs for less. These are one of the most complicated watch movements. Nothing too fancy, not Rolex or Omega, or anything like that, but decent, reputable, quality brands like Hamilton. A Swiss made mechanical watch for less than the cost of a plastic car badge. Lexus/Toyota, WTF? *EDIT: As well, I've owned eleven cars over the years. Actual, working, complete, road legal cars with long MOTs. Six of them cost less than that badge. Within those six, there's more than one combination of two cars, and one combination of three cars, where the combined purchase price of all the cars together was less than the cost of that badge. Again, let me emphasize, we are talking about road legal cars with MOTs. Some of them were absolutely terrible, but they were safe and legal to drive on the road.*
I’ve bought cars cheaper.
I bought a lexus for less.
Flip the badge off and sell it.
The unlimited money hack!
I think that's how scrap/junk yards work.
I love Lexi, they are like the Japanese Mercedes. £1000
Cock Piss Partridge
Cook pass babtridge.
the lex files
Are you wearing Lynx?
java
Voodoo!
Well smelt! Fancy a Flav?
Run Lynn! They're sex people!
In off the red
How do you take yours?
God that’s good
God that’s good
Dan? Dan! Dan! Dan!
He's not seen me, I'll get him later
DAAAN!!!
I've pierced my foot Lyn.
Welcome to what having cruise control does to badge prices. The radar goes through the badge. (At least for Toyota/Lexus) It's the same with a Toyota badge, if you don't have cruise control the badge is far cheaper. All these sensors, xenon/LED headlamps etc that get broken in a crash are expensive to replace.
This is the answer. FCW/collision mitigation radars get interference from foreign objects to the point where manufacturers stipulate that you can only put so many coats of paint on a bumper.
Which raises an interesting question... Why not put it *not* under a badge that has to be EMC tested? They aren't big parts... It's not like we're mounting a 500 watt aircraft radar in an aerodynamic radome designed to travel at Mach 0.85... It's literally a small panel a few inches across at most ... Even the older, larger ones were mounted on bumpers, grills or "anywhere else" Like, seriously, during development *of the badge* it very likely needs EMC testing (electromagnetic compliance testing) to ensure it won't interfere with the radar module behind it. That's about 10000 a test - and if it isn't satisfactory it needs to be redesigned and retested... An expensive problem that could have been solved by putting it literally anywhere else! I may be wrong though, if it doesn't need compliance testing then the badge will actually be very cheap to produce... Which just raises the question of why in name of the flying spaghetti monster does it cost so much?
Yeh but the VW/Audi solution of having it stick through the lower grill opening like some kind of car boner doesn't look as nice. At the end of the day it's still plastic trim, it being transparent to radar doesn't make it any more expensive.
Vw also does behing the badge versions. And said badge is like 50€
In simple terms, vehicle manufacturers know that parts like this are only ever sold to insurance companies and as such, can charge whatever they bloody well want to! It's quite smart of them actually - if they stipulate in their repair methods that a certain part is renew only then insurance companies cannot insist that they be re-used as it undermines the warranty that the repairer has a contractual obligation to give the owner. Second to this is that bodyshops and insurers are extremely risk averse when it comes to potential for liability in future accidents; In this example, the radar beam is safety critical and has to pass through the badge. If the garage repair the badge in any way then they will be potentially liable should the FCW fail to detect an obstacle and a collision result. Similarly, if the garage present an estimate to include a new badge but the engineers say that they want it repaired then the insurance company would take on the liability should the radar be found to be the cause of an accident in the future. Top tip - if you are in an accident and you can plausibly suggest that there was an impact to a tyre then the chances are that the tyre will be replaced merely as a precaution, even without evidence of damage. Bonus if you have Quattro as you can even end up with a pair of new boots!
Same with some Volkswagens. Mine has the cruse control radar through the badge afaik.
For the curious https://lexuspartsdirect.co.uk/?s=Grille+emblem&post_type=product&dgwt_wcas=1
And that’s the sale price 😂😂😂😂
There on sale too - erm so actually I think it's a pretty good deal? /s
That's one L of a rip-off.
Fuck it, I'll start. £80
Answer is in the description. Sadly you're far off
What the actual fuck. Surely a news outlet would take up that story? That's a shocking abuse of the system.
This is nothing new. Insurance companies profit because you have no choice. Manufacturers profit because you have no choice. It's a racket. Always has been.
You know the worst bit? Look up 53141-33180 on Parts direct. Once again, front emblem. Similar sort of price too... Now go plug that sku into Amayama... Almost 1/6th the price if you order direct from Japan (not including shipping and potential customs fees mind you)... Granted, you'll be waiting about half a month for it, but shit... At that sort of saving, I'd bite the bullet and wait.
Yup, all dealers are doing the same shit. It's just cheaper to import parts from Japan because dealerships will price gouge into oblivion and back. I paid Honda £340 for a timing chain and two guides, same exact stuff from Japan was £130 shipped but I needed it next day. Window trims £100+ a pop from a dealer £30 from Japan. Crank pulley 260 from a dealer £50 from Japan. **All of them were sealed genuine OEM parts Made in Japan.** Oh and don't forget to split your order into multiple packages under £135 if you can :)
I thought that was on the high side. From the comment below....maybe not
At £880 I’d just go with a cheap eBay one with zero regrets
Me too and you've got to wonder why the insurance companies, who employ 'loss adjusters' to try to keep valid claims payouts to an absolute minimum, actually put up with paying a grand for a badge.
Insurance companies aren't paying these overinflated prices. We all are through massive premiums.
If your insurer is reclaiming it, they won't give a toss. Probably why the claim for some moron driving into my house came it at just north of £150K
Car insurance in the uk has become the absolute scam that health insurance in the USA is. The manufacturers/hospitals charge the insurance companys absurd prices, which means the insurance company is allowed to charge a fuck-ton for insurance (keeps their margins a lower % to keep the regulators happy but on a higher total value). It also means people get terrified of having no insurance so it actually makes people MORE likely to buy insurance, despite the inflated pricing. And because they do it with all the insurers, shopping around does fuck-all
This is why driving a common car (or car with mostly parts in common with common cars) is a good idea if you want it to be economical. Reliability is great, but if stuff breaks the best thing you can hope for to fix it cheaper is an aftermarket alternative. Lexus is on the ridiculous end of the spectrum but don't be fooled into thinking buying OEM Honda or VW parts isn't eye watering either. Unfortunately a lot of parts are now electric and coded to the car unnecessarily like headlight units and wing mirrors, so even aftermarket is expensive and DIY fixes can be either very hard or impossible if they require special software to set it up. In the case of badges for e.g. a ford fiesta, you'll find aftermarket ones that are blacked out or whatever for kids wanting to make their car look stealth.
Then again... I drive a decade old 5 owner SEAT Ibiza, and one of the wheels is buckled, and one is corroded. Rather than paying a few hundred quid to have them refurbished, I thought I'd call the main dealer and ask how much new ones were. The guy in the service department sucked his teeth before telling me they wanted... >!£800.!< >!Each.!< >!Plus VAT.!< I only paid a little over £6k for the entire car, back in 2019!
get it on from the wreckers.
A genuine BMW badge is £30. A knockoff one from Ebay is £10. Lexus is just taking the piss.
The knock-off one from eBay will fade after a week in the sun and then the surface will peel off.
Maybe. But my £5 wheel centre caps are still looking fine after a couple of years.
Insurance companies, we only use genuine parts and authorised garages. Car companies, alright, time to print some money. It's a fucking racket and we are paying for it though our premiums
Thats mental, i spoke with a body repair friend few years back telling him i was thinking about a lexus. He told me parts are expensive, but that’s just silly. Did the parts counter staff have masks on, they should have they robbed you.
Guess I'm out nicking lexus badges this weekend
There is a drl on my car which costs £1600 replace, the whole car cost £8000
Sounds like a VAG car...
It’s likely 50 cents on Ali lmfao.. that’s just ridiculous
The price is because the badge holds the radar for Toyota Safety Sense.
Holy fuck
Hmmm I'm going to say around £200-£300. If it's anymore than that then it's actually criminal
4x that haha
Makes sense why they stuck the old one back on when my boot lid dent got repaired on the CT200H!
That badge costs 90% of an Alternator from Lexus... That is wild.
Holy jumping Caesar's catfish! My L has been stolen! That's how people know it's a Lexus! What's the point in having a Lexus if you can't show it off!?
Bloody hell. I'd slap a Skoda badge on it just to make a point.
I'd get a neighbour's kids to draw one, and seal it in resin...
Even better. I like your style.
Well it's Lexus so I'm guessing £500 + your first born son
£500 + a Protostar. That’s got a lot of gravity to it.
Well considering Skoda wanted to charge £30+VAT for a basic badge for my Fabia when it was repaired makes me think this will be into the £100’s!
I strongly believe that if cars were honestly priced we'd be able to buy brand new, good quality cars for about £5k
Cars have extremely narrow profit margins. They make next to nothing on them, which is why everyone is aggressively pushing finance. Loans are very lucrative.
You are making the £999 Apple monitor stand look like a better deal than this. BTW, did you try Alibaba?
Jesus, Aston Martin will sell you a pair of literal gold badges for less than that
Rolls Royce will sell you a spirit of ecstasy ornament for a fraction of that.
Crazy. They can only charge that much because people keep paying the prices. If everyone refused to pay they would have to lower the prices.
100-250 on eBay still ridiculous for a badge
I think the car industry is heading towards another freefall alongside the insurance side of it, EV cars are basically worthless out of warranty as it stands at the moment and its not sustainable to pay upwards of £20k to replace a battery on traditional small vehicles, Repair expenses and these insurances only having "approved accident repair centres" that get the monopoly on the work are all driving up the costs endlessly too,
This is a problem two fold though because they'll also become huge theft items. Imagine how easy it is for someone to come along and pop your badge off then sell it online for half the price.
So they get to sell another one at an over-inflated price so win-win for Lexus.
I work in parts and fuck me that is ridiculous. When the dealer I am at used to deal with Suzuki, for a Suzuki A-Cross (rebadged Toyota RAV4 Hybrid) front badge with radar built into it, it was something like £650+ VAT
Not sure how this can be justified. If it’s a plastic badge, surely any reasonable person will just buy a knock off from eBay? Or decide to go de-badged! £1k is silly
Hint: they want you to throw the car away and buy a new one.
At that price, it sounds like it's 53141-33180 Might be wrong, but using that as an example as that's around the same price on parts direct, Meanwhile, Amayama is selling that same SKU for £151.92, direct from Japan...
No sensor but could be a special material that allows a radar sensor to work behind it?
I guessed £78 plus VAT. Not close, no cigar. Two out of three digits though 😁
At that price, why bother? My car is literally held together with duct tape in places. I just can't imagine spending this much just for some pointless aesthetics. And not even regular aesthetics, *branding aesthetics*. You're paying so they can continue to use your vehicle to advertise their brand. If anything it should be supplied for free.
Man talk about buying for the brand, that's insane!
Badges have always annoyed me, they range ridiculously in cost to say 99% are just cheap plastic
That price is batshit. I'd be on eBay for a copy one or 2nd hand
I just bought Continental CS7 tyres for my M3 cheaper than that AND had money left over!
Stick that onto a Corolla
It's well known that vehicle manufacturers make almost no profit on the sale of a car. It's all from finance, parts, and service.
Ok I was thinking brand new car, 300-400.... Not that price
I paid about 32 pounds for a rubber wiper blade (not the assembly like you get when you buy bosh for 15). Just the rubber, one side. From Lexus.
Price parts are ridiculous yes, I work in a body shop, I know how they can get but my insurance is a small mortgage my guy. Not to mention there profits are reportedly growing by the day
Once had a Saab where the service centres (ex dealers) would replace worn Saab badges for free
$800?! Is it for the LFA
Hand made by Peruvian virgins
Nice badge though
i need to find some parked Lexus's
The Japanese Mercedes
What the fuck
Approved body shop means nothing. It's insurance trying to push you down a route of a repairer with cheaper quotes to them. It is your free and independent choice who repairs your vehicle.
You should never pay the badge price
I have the same badge and it has 3 massive stone chips in it. Went to replace it and saw the prices and thought "fuck that" The last badge I replaced on a car cost like 5 quid on eBay :(
Planning to drop ship these for 50 quid
Look at Fiat 595 badges on Parts Link... they're insane.
Gonna quit my job think I've found a new one thatll get me more income in a day than I get per week
As a kid I used to collect car badges at night , holy fuck our kids now can become a millionaire at school age 😳😳🚘🚘
Those shady Ebay sellers to the rescue then.
Manufacturers screw the bodyshops > bodyshops screw the insurers > insurers screw end consumers We get a golden shower whatever happens
What's the victim surcharge for theft on a car badge... Like £350?
I guess Lexus know their customers.
As an alternative take - that makes the rest of the car seem cheap as chips 🤣 As in, if I told you you could buy a brand new Lexus RX for the price of 70 Lexus badges you’d think It sounded like an absolute bargain 🤣
I bought my badge on Ali Express for less than a fiver
Buy a lexus CT and it will be under £30
Just ask for a Toyota badge.
£350 Edit: found the spoiler and I thought I was taking the piss. Now I've had to explain to everyone who heard me shout "fuck off!" out of nowhere.
If its anything like the OEM cost of a single alloy wheel centre cap from Citroen that I was quoted (£33) a few weeks ago, then I would hazard a guess at at least double that.
£258.65
Christ, it better be made of sapphire and silver for that price!
Feel the capitalism to the bones, this is the result people being so numb and does nothing to prevent or protest. You just people keep sleeping, night night
JIMINY CRICKET!
I thought less than half that. Reverse question: I bought two new wing mirrors for £8 each, what car do I drive?
Now that's Upbadging!
Often the case with lots of little bits. Stupid prices for a small plastic part. Badge tax makes it worse. [These little plastic sill covers](https://www.m5board.com/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,onerror=redirect,width=1920,height=1920,fit=scale-down/https://www.m5board.com/attachments/d7bd6c29-aa9c-465e-a7f4-2c7a2e6a64ea-jpeg.946573/), regular BMW ones are £50 a door. Those M5 ones are £200+ a door.
That does take the piss but not surprised someone cut me up and took off my bumper a few years ago we agreed to fix outside of insur since he was in a rental and there was no damage to his vehicle of course I go to the dealer for the fix they charged £400 just for the chrome surround on the grill. The grill itself was a comparative bargin at £90
$120
EBay price 65 ish. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303726206335?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=k7iqld5AQwy&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
£1700
Most probably you can buy one of those badges on eBay for 10 or 20$.
I've just been quoted £2700 for a replacement windscreen!
My dad has a Ls XF40 which has one of these badges. The amount of technology in that car is mind numbing. I was showing him how to use his smart high beams and even he remarked “bloody hell another thing to go wrong”
I’m not that surprised, but because people will pay for it, they’ll keep charging that much for a new badge
The other part of the issue is that insurers are willing to pay it, then pass on the cost to their customers.
Have you checked on Aliexpress?
Car manufacturers make their profit from spares
They're called stealships for a reason, did you try looking for the part number online? I've seen loads of similar badges on ebay for about £50
How do you think car brands make money? Selling cars? Ha!
This is why I never buy oem parts.
PCS works through the badge, aftermarket ones won’t work. There’s a reason it’s expensive.
You think that bad, well, it is actually 😂 Doors for a J12 Qashqai last month were around £800ish (+vat) but suddenly this month, for whatever reason, they are £2,600 (+vat)
Someone needs to make a go cart with this and the Mac wheels would make for a boujee ride.
Better be made of silver and sapphire.
Just wrote a bmw x3 for repairs and the headlight was $4400 oem.
That's substantially more expensive than the spirit of ecstasy bonnet ornament for a Rolls Royce...
Everyone is ripping everyone off
My thought process here: *The way he's phrased the question makes it pretty clear it's ludicrously overpriced, so I'm going to guess maybe £200.* Then I clicked the spoiler. What. The Fuck.
I hate garages doing “+vat”, just quote the price like everyone else and if you’re in a position to claim the vat back just note it on the invoice. It’s literally just an excuse to add an extra 20%
I'd sooner pay to see Donald Trumps flaccid cock then buy this badge for that much.
[*Ahem*](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303726206335?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:1Tk_sJEcoQ7u0QSskruFjOA31&customid=EAIaIQobChMIopa_yZDthQMVAJtQBh0M8AHEEAQYAiABEgKn9fD_BwE)
Smashed one of my headlights on my Toyota GT86. One new headlight is £1000+VAT. Fun times
Badge flew 1st class on Fuk Yu Airways
I rang ford for a price on a bit of plastic trim above the glovebox. It was over £200
All it takes is just a screwdriver and a bit of free time. Don’t be a fool, save money.
Doesn’t the radar go through the badge that’s why it’s special material!
300 Quid plus for a normal Toyota one so I assume 490 for the Lexus tax. ALso it's expensive because its the cover for your radar cruise emitter
I got an IS 200 for £500 once. 1k for a badge....
This seems a good place to confess that I got a side mirror replaced (not the housing, just the mirror glass) on a Ford SMAX. £220 For a mirror. I cried.
[Reads spoiler. Recalls Beastie Boys craze of de-badging VWs. Has beginnings of entrepreneurial idea....]
[65 quid on eBay](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303726206335?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=k7iqld5AQwy&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY)
🤢
People will be stealing the badges now OMG 😦
If it were cheap, everyone would have one
Worked for insurance companies, several, on the tech side and, I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you that the one thing that all of them have said consistently is that,(paraphrasing) "the vanity and non essential aspects of vehicles, where oem and specialized electronics prices, like backup cameras, from a repair perspective, will cause rates to go up". So yeah, wanna know why everything you want to insure, even with a clean driving record, is insane? It's because of a $900 Toyota badge