I had bought a rebuilt unit for 3 grand, and new one was $4500. Nice!
The transmission would jerk hard at shift points, and when you'd "kick it down" it wouldn't shift, but go all he way to redline. At first it started doing this only when the ECT was activated, and latter it did it in any mode.
I was not told that I could have "saved it" if I would have brought it in for service when I immediatly noticed that it was acting-up. It's been a few years so I'm not certain what time period ellapsed.
My mechanic is not a Lexus mechanic. I personally do not like the Lexus dealership here in Ontario, CA. They've never seen a problem that they couldn't fix by replacing the part! My mechanic I've used for over 4 years now, and is very competent, and extremely honest. I've asked him to change the oil during another service, and he calls me and says, "You just changed your oil 1000 miles ago, still want me to change it?" He also put Freon in my A/C system several times at no charge when he couldn't figure out where the leak was coming from. Finally, he refered me to an A/C specialist who said, "compressor, replace it!" Thanks.
He had an transmission specialist look at the tranny before he replaced that as well. He was familiar with the car, and said that the electronics in the transmission were defective, and was shifting the transmission incorrectly. Again, that was several years ago, so I don't remember his exact words. My mechanic replaced the trans, and actually did if for very little. Charged me like $300 for labor (seems like he had 8-10 hours invested, but again, don't remember all the specifics very well), and he said he made nothing on the part which was around $2500. Still didn't make me feel very good.
Actually, that's probably the biggest reason I still own the car. It was such a big chunck of change that I couldn't get rid fo the car, so someone else could have a brand new transmission.
Kevin