Lexus Dealer Bad Experiences

[Kennyr]

Here's your chance to vent. Just the bad and the ugly, we can do Lexus dealer good stories next week.

[nc211]

$950 for an alignment and balance job and a new strut, swore to me it fixed my vibration issue and clunk noise. Which lead to 90% of the repairs listed on my signature. Had to damn near sue dealership to get my ecu fixed under their 90 day / 3,000 mile "window" warranty. I could get divorced for less money and hassle than getting a freakin' tune-up. Greesy smiles from service dept., you know that kind of smile "yes sure, it would be our pleasure to SCREW over your summer vacation fund."

Good coffee and free cookies though. Should be for $105 a cup!

[Kennyr]

$950 for an alignment and balance job and a new strut, swore to me it fixed my vibration issue and clunk noise. Which lead to 90% of the repairs listed on my signature. Had to damn near sue dealership to get my ecu fixed under their 90 day / 3,000 mile "window" warranty. I could get divorced for less money and hassle than getting a freakin' tune-up. Greesy smiles from service dept., you know that kind of smile "yes sure, it would be our pleasure to SCREW over your summer vacation fund."

Good coffee and free cookies though. Should be for $105 a cup!

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give up the dealers name and location, they earned it

[nc211]

Johnson Lexus of Raleigh, NC.

[flash213]

Not really a bad experience as opposed to a ridiculuos quote. Lexus in Bellevue Washington quoted $3000 for timming belt and lower ball joints. I had a hard time not laughing.

[razahyde]

sewell lexus of grapevine, tx

charged me $100 to get car looked at for electricla problem wanted another $500 because it would take longer to repair went to local mechanic and fixed theproblem for $20 said the radio had a short

ARENT THESE LEXUS DEALERS SUPPOSE TO HAVE SEEN IT ALL BY NOW ESPECIALLY FOR 96 MODELS. i find it a bit outragous i got the problem fixxed for $20 when lexus was charging me $600 toatl w/o tax's

and are the garages suppose to be used as football fields. i went back to look at my car see what was going on and i caught about 12 "mechanics" playing football and there were numerous customer cars around (probably how they messed up my windshield and wipser that day)

[blake918]

Lexus of New Orleans's service department is horrible. It took them 3 trips to find a bad alternator in my ES300. Not to mention, their service dept staff is incredibly rude. I'm young, but my money will spend just as well as the other clients'. The other 2 Lexus dealers in the state have treated me wonderfully; I don't know why they can't do the same.

[Losiho]

Well, I'm from Australia, but ;

- for a start, how about stuffing up the timing belt service ? I had a hose clamp loosen from the radiator, and if the hose didn't drop just as I pulled into my garage, it would've cooked the engine. This happened 24hrs after the service.

- I can also add FIVE separate visits to this dealership to try and rectify and squeak in my rear suspension. I took it to another Lexus dealer and they diagnosed the fault in 2 hours.

- There was a clip that wasn't clipped in properly in the boot/trunk lining. I asked them to clip it in properly at service, they wanted to charge me A$350 for a whole new boot/trunk lining !

I can also add rude (depending on the service advisor), and completely lacking in courtesy or interest for cars out of warranty.

Should I name them ? Nah, no point....I sent a 1,500 word, 4 page letter / complaint to Lexus Australia, who informed me that they'll look into it. ;)

[lkirchner]

Here's your chance to vent. Just the bad and the ugly, we can do Lexus dealer good stories next week.

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:chairshot: Lexus of Sacramento is staffed by Larry, Curly and Moe plus their relatives. My experience was so bad with an '04 SC430 that I traded the car after 9 months and 1,750 miles on it. The experiencve was so bad that I will never buy another Lexus as long as they continue in business in the Sacramento area.

Lou K

[GRAND_LS 4]

Lexus of Tampa, lol, dunno what to say, but for starters, prices depend on weather you asked before the bill, or after, and what you look like. When you call the up, the price for alignment is 89.99, when you get the bill, its 110 + 10 for insurance (???) for a total of $120 + Tax. Same issue with oil changes, and other services. They will also charge you $15 for a remote battery

Parts are 2x what Swell charges.

[LexusLooker]

Razahyde, check your dealership names. The Lexus dealership in Grapevine is Park Place Lexus, not Sewell. Sewell Lexus has shops in Dallas and Fort Worth. It's easy to confuse though - right next door to Park Place Lexus in Grapevine is Sewell Cadillac/Saab! I just went back to Sewell for a Lexus after a 15 year "marriage" to Park Place Mercedes in Dallas. And of course "she" got everything in the divorce! Anyway, I feel your pain. Just don't get rid of the ride yet!

[branshew]

Charles Barker Lexus in Va Beach - Dealership has good sales & customer service overall, but their service department has become notorious for overselling bogus/unnecessary services. They took my mom for $500 in repairs that she didn't need. On one trip they wanted $70 to change a foglight so that her car would pass inspection.

I took my old ES in for 90K service. Dealership wanted $1500 on top of the service to fix a leaking rear main seal that wasn't really leaking. I never had any spots on my driveway and I never lost any oil between changes. Service tech claimed that he saw oil residue "in that area". If those boneheads couldn't recognize that the oil was from the poor filter position that drops oil all over the bottom of the engine every time you remove the filter....

Needless to say that they never saw my car again after that.

[VBdenny]

I also have taken my car to Charles Barker Lexus in VB. They are very friendly but they have issues. They always find a long laundry list of expensive things. What really ticked me off was that their certified mechanics failed to reinstall the under engine splash pan adter they did an oil change I specifically requested that they NOT do. I had just done a synthetic oil change not two days before and they dumped it all and put in dino. I had to redrain and replace the filter and oil again. When I asked they said huh?

I would only ever go to them in a pinch because their prices are so dadgummed high for everything.

I took the same car to a Lexus dealer in Syracuse and thought they were much better.

[RX in NC]

My local dealer has been very cooperative in covering the numerous problems that my wife's 2000 RX300 AWD albatross has developed over the years. The vehicle is approaching 89,000 miles and I've never paid them a dime for any of the repairs they've had to do (transmission failure, rear main oil seal failure, exhaust manifold failure, front strut mount rubber bushing failure, mass air flow sensor failure, air/fuel ratio sensor failure, etc. etc. etc.). More than $9,000 worth of repair bills since September 2003, some during the warranty and some after the warranty expired. I research the problem thoroughly, back it up with plenty of documentation (sometimes originating here on this site), and then refuse to take no for an answer. This approach has always worked for me.

My problem is with Lexus Corporate. They refuse to acknowledge or address the relatively common transmission failures in the RX300 AWD even when the owner backs them up against the wall with the evidence, as I did. The owners manual clearly states that "your Type T-IV transmission fluid should not be changed over the life of the vehicle under normal operating conditions" while most Lexus service departments around the U.S. continue to recommend changing the Type T-IV fluid every 15,000 miles in an effort to dance around the well-known transmission failure problems.

It's well past time for Lexus Corporate to face the music on this particular issue. I don't fault the dealerships for that - the blame is squarely on the big boys....

[dianeq]

I had to take my '05 GX in for power steering pump failure. I had the Fresno, CA Lexus dealership repair the dimming portion of my mirrors since they had to have the vehicle for a week in order to repair the p/s pump. When I picked the vehichle up, the service dept tried to tell me I didn't have the dimming feature on my mirrors until I showed them the sticker that came with my vehicle when I purchased it a couple months prior. It blew my mind, that the service dept, thought I was a stupid and ignorant lexus owner and as if I would have no idea what my car was equipped with. This idiot I talked to apparently had no idea another service rep called me the night before stating they got the dimmers to work bypassing the relays and that it should be fixed by the next day. :chairshot: So needless to say, it had to stay there longer so they could fix the dimming.

My local dealer has been very cooperative in covering the numerous problems that my wife's 2000 RX300 AWD albatross has developed over the years.  The vehicle is approaching 89,000 miles and I've never paid them a dime for any of the repairs they've had to do (transmission failure, rear main oil seal failure, exhaust manifold failure, front strut mount rubber bushing failure, mass air flow sensor failure, air/fuel ratio sensor failure, etc. etc. etc.).  More than $9,000 worth of repair bills since September 2003, some during the warranty and some after the warranty expired.  I research the problem thoroughly, back it up with plenty of documentation (sometimes originating here on this site), and then refuse to take no for an answer.  This approach has always worked for me.

My problem is with Lexus Corporate.  They refuse to acknowledge or address the relatively common transmission failures in the RX300 AWD even when the owner backs them up against the wall with the evidence, as I did.  The owners manual clearly states that "your Type T-IV transmission fluid should not be changed over the life of the vehicle under normal operating conditions" while most Lexus service departments around the U.S. continue to recommend changing the Type T-IV fluid every 15,000 miles in an effort to dance around the well-known transmission failure problems.

It's well past time for Lexus Corporate to face the music on this particular issue.  I don't fault the dealerships for that  -  the blame is squarely on the big boys....

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[denslexusgx470]

I had to take my '05 GX in for power steering pump failure. I had the Fresno, CA Lexus dealership repair the dimming portion of my mirrors since they had to have the vehicle for a week in order to repair the p/s pump. When I picked the vehichle up, the service dept tried to tell me I didn't have the dimming feature on my mirrors until I showed them the sticker that came with my vehicle when I purchased it a couple months prior. It blew my mind, that the service dept, thought I was a stupid and ignorant lexus owner and as if I would have no idea what my car was equipped with. This idiot I talked to apparently had no idea another service rep called me the night before stating they got the dimmers to work bypassing the relays and that it should be fixed by the next day. :chairshot: So needless to say, it had to stay there longer so they could fix the dimming.

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i see that someone else isn't happy with my dealer. I've had to deal with them for the last 5 years. I haven't tried Bakersfield, maybe they'll do a better job. oh and for Fresno Lexus, if you want ANYTHING that's mechanical to be fixed, be very sure if you want to have them fix it. They always end up breaking something else at this dealer. For my GX, i just ignore the clunk cuz they've already practiced on my GX for that problem, and end up telling me that it's "normal".

and when u meaning dimming mirrors, did you mean the rear view mirror, or does the new GX have dimming side mirrors also??

but hey, wait till the new dealer is built and they move, maybe they'll be better. but i doubt it. and they're loaner policy, is DISCRIMINATING. If you ever have your car serviced at Fresno Lexus, make sure it won't take long that you need a loaner, or make sure that you bought the car from them because they don't let people use their loaners if you bought your Lexus from another dealer. :chairshot: