I think for the dealer to try to 'sneak' a charge like that to their customers, especially one like Lexus, is totally wrong. I'm glad you got your money back and they were nice to make the correction. However, had you not caught the charge or for those uninitiated, they would have gotten away with robbery. As Bob said, did they wear a mask and carry a gun?

BTW, where is this dealer located?

 

Glad to hear that it worked out. I suspect that a significant part of the dealer's willingness to give a refund was that they are hoping that this thread fades away without you identifying the dealership and giving them bad publicity worth more than the $180 that they are refunding.

I'm also not buying the explanation that it was an "unintentional mistake". It is not uncommon for dealers to routinely add charges in the final paper work for things like the nitrogen fill, glass etching that supposedly is a theft deterrent, Scotchgard interior protection, etc. The dealer is figuring that many customers won't check the paperwork carefully enough to notice that the extra charges have been added. For the customers who do notice, the business manager will be able to convince many that the charges are normal or that they are a good deal for the customer. And, only for the customers who make it clear that those charges will be deal-breakers, the dealer will remove them.

 

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase! While I would prefer Nitrogen in my tires over regular air I wouldn't pay extra for it. My ES came with Nitrogen but was part of my dealer's new car get-ready sheet so there was no charge. Hopefully they will make your dissatisfaction up to you with a refund or dealer credit.

PS - After I posted this I was glad to see they took care of you!

 

For the benefit of those of us in CA, who is the dealer?

For those reading this thread - please know and let all your friends and relatives know - as has been said, our atmosphere is made up of almost 80% nitrogen already - so there is little to no reason to pay someone anything to put "pure" nitrogen in your tires.

 

When you do a little research, you'll discover that many knowledgeable car folks indicate there is very minimal benefit in trying to increase the already 78% nitrogen content that regular air provides our tires.

 

This is kind of like the regular vs. premium fuel discussions. The benefits, or lack of, can be vague.

 

There are some sites like tire rack and edmunds that have published specific info/data that supports minimal, if any, benefit by purchasing nitrogen inflation for tires.

 

My dealer provided nitrogen filled tires for free. I agree with all of the above posts that this was just pure dealer profit. I'm glad that your dealership did the right thing by offering to refund the unwanted "option" to you. Don't be surprised if they take their time doing so; be prepared to ride them on this if necessary. I've been down similar roads with my car purchases in the past and now I go through the final figures with "a fine toothed comb" when I'm in the finance office. From now on, I will tell them that I will walk on the deal if such unwanted charges are not immediately removed....live and learn.

 

There are valid reasons for using nitrogen in tires for specialized applications, but none of those reasons apply to passenger automobiles.

Nitrogen is used in airplane tires, because they need dry gas (nitrogen contains no water) to avoid the weight of ice causing a tire imbalance when very cold tire spins up to 180 mph in a fraction of a second during landing. Many race-car teams use dry gas to avoid pressure changes when tire temperature exceeds the boiling point of water. Some specialized applications are concerned with oxygen feeding a fire if a tire bursts. But none of those issues is a concern for passenger automobiles.

If there is a little bit of ice inside a passenger-car tire on a cold morning, the first little bit of driving breaks it into fine pieces, and the first mile or two or driving heats the tire enough to melt the ice particles. On the hot end, passenger car tires just don't get hot enough to boil the water. And fires are so uncommon that the little bit of oxygen in a tire really is not a concern.

Clearly, the only reason to put nitrogen in passenger car tires is to charge money for the service. There is no actual advantage, except to the vendor who sells the stuff.

 

Great post! Thanks for the info.

 

189.00 for Nitrogen in your tires.... that's robbery!!!! I took my 4 Runner to a local tire shop here in town and had them put nitrogen in my tires.. I believe the bill was around 24 bucks.... plan to do the same with my es here in the next week or two now that the temperature is cooling.... as someone else mentioned, it is not necessary to put nitrogen in your tires, but the tire pressure doesn't fluctuate nearly as much in nitrogen...

Poppa

 

Cooling? To what, like 60? I would think you're too far south to worry about that.

 

Studies show that Nitrogen fluctuates 2 pounds for every 3 that regular air does - so you still need to check your pressure on a regular basis. In my opinion, a one pound improvement is not worth paying for or having to seek out the folks who have the equipment to do this service. You already get 78% nitrogen for free and it's readily available - just don't understand going through all the effort and expense to increase that to about 90-93%. Again, just my opinion.

 

Put that $24.00 in your gas tank instead of your tires. Since you already have 78% in there already, ask your dealer if he'll only charge you $5.28 for the remaining 22%...

 

Bob, too funny