BUSTN

Well, I called Lexus customer service yesterday.I spoke to a really nice lady and said that "Lexus" would offer me a gesture of good will and replace them.I go over to the dealership today and speak with the service manager.He then says" customer service CANNOT offer goodwill gestures".He then states that "lexus might help me out but I would have to pay for a major portion of the lights.If it gets approved by the district manager.The car just past the warranty by 6500 miles.
I told him that a $51k car should not start having problems as soon as the warranty is over and so on.I am so freakin' pissed right now, I want to get rid of this car!!!I have to wait till after the new year to see what they will do for me but it won't be free.I think this is B.S and Lexus should fix this regardless of where I bought the car, it's their product.I hate Lexus right now and if I have to pay for the lights, I am going to sell the car and buy something else.I shoukd have gone with Infiniti!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cadd

I agree, sell that POS. Sell that POS for $15k to me. It's not worth more than $15k right? It's a POS anyway.

I'll buy it. I'll take out the 4 lights and seal them up make the condensation go away and I'll sell it for $20k.

Let me know if you're interested. I'll be glad to take that POS off your hands.

Threxx

This is probably the #1 quality issue I hear about time and time again w/ the GS. It's not quite as bad as it sounds... you actually have two headlights with moisture, since the inner and outter lights are a single unit- so if one leaks, the other will usually as well. Particularly during the winter since the seals tend to contract and let moisture in the headlights. (refer to my other thread about using 303 on all rubber seals and weather stripping to prevent this to your GS if you are reading this and have not yet experiened a problem with condensation in your headlights)

6500 miles past the warranty they should still replace them... why? Because this was obviously a problem that didn't just happen all at once... the seals were degrading prematurely probably from day one. It just got bad enough to be noticably right after the warranty.

Furthermore, are you past in terms of time as well? Because the seals on your headlights going out has little to nothing to do with your milage, but much more to do with time.

Believe me... Infiniti most definitely has their own problems as well. Thankfully with Lexus, almost all of our problems are not crippling. These cars will run and rarely ever let you down over as much as half a million miles, but that doesn't mean they won't develop some kinda annoying/superficial problems along the way, such as things that don't look or sound as good as they did when new (rattles, headlight moisture, etc).

I agree it's annoying, but I'd rather have a car who's headlights are likely to fog up after 5-6 years of use then a Infiniti who's automatic trans is likely to self-destruct after 5-6 years of use. One is completely ignorable if I don't have the time, money, or interest in fixing it. The other one is gonna leave you on the side of the road, with 2000 dollar emergency repair job to your car, like it or not.

BUSTN

I think i am going to sell the car.They basically said since I didn't buy from them and I am a second owner, I would most likely have to pay the major portion.

melarainc

My Uncle owns an ifinity G35 and has had a bunch of issues with it, Good uck man if you want to be worry free and you are not a LEXUS fan go with BMW you will get what you pay for.

NT2SHBBY

just pay the $$$$ and get new lights...

its really not a big deal

Threxx

Hehe... they definitely aren't any better in my experience. They are not total junk but they cost a TON to fix when they break. A good friend of mine just had to have the window motors replaced in all four of his 2001 X5's doors at a cost of 400 dollars per window motor NOT including labor. He has around 80k miles but NEVER puts his windows down (he's an older guy). He has tail lights and headlights go out on him all the time, and his motor sounds like it's dying already (sounds rough/gritty/grainy).

Mercedes is even worse in terms of just stupid little electrical/computer problems mainly because they incorporate such cuttng edge electronics in their cars that they really don't know how they are going to hold up long-term.

LexFather

I am noticing more and more Lexus newbs who truly expect things to be perfect and its getting a lil sickning. Sorry but Lexus does have faults. One of them is condensation in headlights. The SC/older ESs have this problem too. Sadly, since Lexus does offer avante garde headlight designs, its harder to keep condensation out. If you want a nice square headlight without condensation, you'll have a nice square car.

I guess since I know people have handled this problem differently then just venting on a forum, I feel no remorse. We can all name people that have found a way to replace headlights. Venting on a forum fixed nothing.

BTW, you esclated wrong. Lexus customer service is the last place to go. Step 1 is where you bought the car from. Tell them your problem. If you have a good relationship, they CAN offer a 1 time goodwill gesture or at least go 1/2 price on the lights.

I believe KayGee got that done to his GS 300. They paid for 1/2 and he got the nice new, bluish tint GS 430/300 01 up lights.

SC300Es

Hey man, don't sell the car because of stupid headlights. That would be the biggest mistake you make.

Ed

NT2SHBBY

yup..thats what they did for me....paid for half

rominl

iTrader: (4)

seriously, i have to agree with sick here... a little problem and then you have to sell the car, gosh good luck in changing cars every month. when was the last time we saw a "perfect" car anyway? and have fun owning a bimmer or so too, maybe you will get tired screaming on problems on the car every day.

with that said, you should have talked to lexus dealerships anyway. it's going to be under good will for sure anyway. 6500 miles over, or even 1 mile over, that's over. that's black and white written down so nothing you can do. just be nice and ask for coutesy. maybe you can talk to the lady at lexus corporate again and see what they can do (fax paperwork or so...)

on the other hand, about the headlights, personally i don't think it's a quality issue. if so, i think lexus would have fixed it long long time ago. i think it's more of a design issue, but why they can't fix it that i can't really understand.

and about the dealership, just to be fair, i think they are full of BS... what does you being a second owner has anything to do with the car? so what, you being a second owner would make the headlights more easily fogged out by moisture? pleeeeese....

and even if you have to pay partial for the headlights, get it done now... what's the big deal, your car is over the warranty for god's sake, you know it well... and don't even say "it's a 51k car and not *supposed* to have this problem" that's BS. if you wanna whine, first look at the people in the 70k ls430 with problems here and there, or the people with the 120k sl500 with tons of problems. and you still get people driving 30k car yelling the same statement...

NT2SHBBY

henry is 1000000% on point here......just like the origiinal poster, I too am EXTREMELY **** when it comes to cars but come on...realize this

if humans can't be perfect, car's can't be either....every single car will have problems

I have come to realize this....it's just part of reality

gs4rocks

GS400 (2000) I got last year had more problems than all 6 cars I had in the past 18 yrs combined. (Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Infiniti). I have been to a dealership only once for warranty repair and that was for Infiniti. I've been to Lexus dealer more than 10 times in last one year.
They are things like door actuator, mutiple suspension components, steering shaking, etc.
I think I got one of those that features all known problem to GS.
Since I got most of them fixed under warranty now, I'm keeping the car.

BTW, my neighbor got BMW 530 at the same time last year, and they haven't had one problem yet. Then again, my friend who works at BMW dealer got 2 new BMWs last year, and he's already having problems with them.

The bottom line is that not every Lexus is better than every BMW or MB. It just means that statistically Lexus cars have the lowest rates of problems per car in average.

And yes, I have the condensation problem also which I'm trying to ignore.

Cadd

Why don't you do a search on Condensation in the GS forums. There may be a cheaper solution for you.

I personally have condensation too. I swore I posted a pic of it, but I can't seem to find it with the SEARCH option. To tell you the truth, it ANNOYED the crap outta me. Like you, I said to myself "a $50k car should have a problem like this". However, after some time, I got used to it, and I figure I can live with it. It doesn't really hurt anything. It doesn't really block the light from hitting the road.

What other problems are you having with the car? What other issues are making you want to sell the thing? How much are you selling it for? Btw, before you buy your next car, make sure you go on their forums and read up on the "known problems".

Example: Tranny issues with Honda/Acuras, Window regulators with E46 3 series, brake issues with G35, etc.

LexFather

Werd


I agree. Sadly, there are a few Lexus out there that for whatever reason, are less reliable than others. As you stated, mathematically speaking, Lexus has the lowest chance of your car having problems.
The other part of this equation is people expect used Lexus to be perfect. You really have to check maintenance records or preferably a low mileage Lexus. Yes a used Lexus will be probably the least problematic used car but some people simply don't take care of their cars then re-sell them or they turn up on used car lots when leases end.


And Rominl is correct. Great post.