Lexus Of Route 10, Whippany Nj

[setback99]

I recently purchased a 2013 GS-350 from Lexus of Route 10 in Whippany,
NJ with 20k miles on it. This is not the closest dealership to my house as it is about 90 min
away but it had the certified vehicle in the color and options I was looking
for. When I got to the dealership, I noticed that there was significant
wheel scuffs on three of the four wheels. Some almost would I would call
gouges. The salesman told me that they would refurbish the wheels and
would be good as new upon delivery. I was surprised that they would have a certified
car on the lot with such an issue but they promised to make it right and I
ended up purchasing the car. Two days later the salesman called and said
the car was ready, as I had to work, my wife volunteered to go pick up the
car. When she arrived she said that the wheels looked good but there was
a gouge now in one of the tire sidewalls (photo attached). She told the
dealership (our salesman was not in) and they apologized and led my wife to believe
they would then put a new tire on the car. An hour later my wife drives
the 90 minutes home and I inspect the car when I got home from work.
First, I was amazed to see that the wheels that were "repaired"
looked good as new. Based on the original condition of the wheels it would have
been impossible to restore them to the current condition of what was installed
on the car, but I wasn't complaining, yet. My second observation was that
the tire that was installed to replace the tire with the gouge was far from
new, based on the wear on the tire and to top it off it had a plug in it.
(see attached photo). When I called the salesman to complain he said that
they never promised to install new tires and that based on wear they met the
criteria of the certified inspection. He apologized for the issue with
the plug and that he wasn't there for delivery and if he was present none of
that would have happened. OK, I give everyone a chance to make it
right. Mistakes happen. Two days later the wife drives back up to the
dealership to have the tire with the plug replaced. Salesman was there
and apologized up and down how sorry he was. They replace the tire, again
with a used tire. Wife returns home again and now the wheel that had the
plugged tire has three separate gouges in it.(see photo) It is obvious to
me at this point that when they are repairing the tires on this car
they are simply swapping them with wheels from other cars they have either in the
loaner fleet or on the lot.

I have a couple issues:

1. Is it that difficult to get 4 wheels and tires on the car that
don't have gouges or plugs in them?

2. When I purchased the car I was told the three gouged wheels would be
repaired, it is now obvious they were replaced with wheels from other
cars. Now I have four tires on the car with who knows what mileage on
each tire and I can guarantee that the wear is different on each one.

3. All I have heard since walking through the dealership door is Lexus
customer service and quality, blah blah blah yet here I sit experiencing my
worst car purchase event ever. I have had better service and quality ay
Honda or Toyota dealerships.

Is it crazy to ask the dealsip to replace all 4 tires with new ones as they swapped
equipment on the car after purchase without my consent not to mention I am now
running on 4 tires with different and unknown mileages?

What is the best approach to take at this point with the dealership and I
can already tell they have grown tired of me. I have been nothing but
polite and professional with them.

This is my first Lexus and I love the car but the service I am getting in horrendous.
Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

[VBdenny]

Like the rest of us you will find that while the Lexus automobiles themselves are the very best, the Lexus dealerships are among the worst. They are out to make money and more than half of them have no idea what they are doing. I can't imagine that Toyota's Toyoda would let them run things like they have.been. Having been in Caldwell for 5 years off and on, I know that you are located in a particularly difficult area to find reasonable work (well sometime any work) in an acceptable manner.

Your best bet is a local Toyota dealer for service. And yes, they screwed you on the tire deal. Welcome to the wonderful world of Lexus. Luckily, you will love the car itself which I guess outbalances the negative dealers since I went back a couple times.

Denny

[LEX-SV]

Welcome to LOC Seth.

My local Lexus dealership would never deliver a CPO car like that. That's not how Lexus dealerships here take care of customers. The Lexus dealerships here are very good and usually better than a majority of dealerships, including Honda and Toyota.

You should be very disappointed and take future business somewhere else. In the mean time your reasonable requests via current dealership should be acted on.

[VBdenny]

You should consider yourself fortunate to have a dealership that you feel cares. I just have never had that feeling. Great coffee though.

[LEX-SV]

Yes very fortunate and expected here in CA from a Lexus dealership. Even the Mercedes dealership a block away has stepped up its game to be as good as Lexus dealership. Both are better than Porsche, Ford, Honda, Toyota, Audi, Mazda and Chrysler/Jeep experiences here.

[VBdenny]

Regarding the tires, here is exactly what I did recently. My wife arrived back in Boston one evening and took a taxi home as usual (I don't like her parking at airport @ $25/day) and needed stuff from the store having been away 3 weeks. She goes to the garage and drives her 2013 RAV4 Limited to the grocery store with the front right tire completely flat. When I say flat, I mean flatter than a Canadian pancake. She stops at Sunoco (calling me in VB annoyed) and pumps so air in but the damage was probably done before she hit the end of the driveway.

I drive up the next day to deal with the tires. The boys over at Sullivan tire in Rockland took one look at the (235/60-HR-18) tire and declared it cooked. Of course the car had obsolete tires which they would have to find one to kind of match somewhere but said that was a really poor option which I of course knew. Jimmy suggests replacing the front two as an option. Again, negatory, the current factory (Dueler H/T) tires had 15,000 miles on them and with AWD the last thing I want is mismatched tires.

Rather than !Removed! foot around, I had them install 4 new Goodyear Assurance tires. I even got a $60 rebate from Good(ft)Year.

Yeah, a very slow leak cost $1000. Lesson learned. Make the dealer replace all the tires or return the car. Even my Lexus dealership would never pull that kind of thing.

[LEX-SV]

setback99 - What's the latest report on the wheel/tire situation on your CPO GS350? Has the Lexus dealership finally done its job right?

[VBdenny]

Steve, saw a sweet IS like yours this morning going to Lowe's. Of course I was in my truck so didn't get a glance. Roads nasty here so it is what it is. I do like the color, especially in the sun. (sunny and 16F here).

[LEX-SV]

Mine's coming out of the garage tomorrow, weather sb 65 F and partly sunny.

Lexus called the color smoky granite mica (fancy name for dark graphite metallic color), it was popular on IS, GS, LS, RX for several years.

btw - I hope OP had success in getting the issue resolved.

[VBdenny]

This may sound weird but I only have a few choices for color. I like white, black and just about anything in between. My favorite of the toned is certainly your color. There was another car at the dealership that was that color but, in the south, white is still the best option for me. I love black but black cars because nothing looks better gleaming clean. Even the President has a gleaming black car. Black cars are work, and a lot of it.