oceanboy

JM Lexus may be the largest, but my experience buying from them has been the absolute worst I (and my bank) have ever been involved in.

1. Salestwit wrote one option on the contract, installed another, blamed me for wanting what I ordered, which then had to be removed.
2. Took 2 payment cycles (7 weeks) to pay off my trade-in that I ate the interest for.
3. Five, yes FIVE months to get my license plates.
4. Registered the car in the wrong state.
5. Reregistered in correct state as a used car.
6. Correct state keeping title from bank because I haven't had emission testing done (something not needed on a new car)
7. Working in Florida on a temp contract, so to get registered have to make wasted 2,500 mile round-trip to get car tested.
8. Charged me for registration in wrong state (had to write to Lexus to get refund)
9. Have had car in twice in 4000 miles and each time Service has misplaced the car -- "Could it be under another name?"

As you can imagine from this summary, there were numerous phone calls and visits peppered throughout this misery.

JM's attitude? I'm the problem.
Lexus' attitude? "It's a dealer problem and we only give the dealer awards, we're not here to help (shudder) customers."

At 3,000 miles I asked JM to just take the car back. Too many screw-ups and too much bad karma. JM's response? "We'll give you market value." Translation: "We made $$$ on your trade. We made $$$ on your new Lexus. And we're happy to make more $$$ off you again." "We'll give you what anyone else will give you" is hardly an apology

My response after being called about the title from the bank this week? Made an appointment with a lawyer when I return from business trip.

All I can say to anyone else...RUN AWAY. My old Benz may have lived at the Service department, but at least I didn't have to wear a chastity belt to deal with the dealer.

The car? (2006 GS300 AWD) It's underpowered and without soul. Lexus makes perfect cars...perfectly boring.

tonydt1g3r

Wow that seems rediculous. Sorry to hear about your problems with JM obviously you read my post about their bad service. I cant believe so many mishaps could occur like that. especially something as simple as registering a car I would be furious if I were you, especially being blamed for wanting options ect...

oceanboy

I completely agree...there has not been a single part of this transaction that's gone right.

Coupled with no big, "Holy Crap, we've really *****ed you over, how can we make it right?" from them tells me all I need to about their customer service "ideals."

The option they couldn't deliver? Sirius radio. They wrote "Sirius" on the contract, installed XM without asking me and then badgered me to keep it, "it's the same thing," "they are both sat. radio," over and over.

Is AM the same as FM? Nooooo....

We all have prefrences, I made mine clear enough that Salestwit wrote Sirius on the contract.

I told them if they wanted me to keep it, they had to discount it. I said, "free." They said no, not a dime off. They'd rather pay a technician to remove what they'd already installed than pay me a little for their mistake.

Them paying off my trade-in? You can't inagine how many JM managers I talked with in addition to the MANY calls to Salestwit to get it finally paid off. I'm sure if I hadn't, I'd still be paying for the old car...8 months later!

It's like they are jerking me on purpose for getting a decent price...hmmm, I wonder...

TeeLex

iTrader: (24)

Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with JM.

I've bought 4 Lexus' from JM over the past several years and I've always been treated very fairly ( obviously why I keep going to them ). My second LX470 had a problem with the suspension system ( the ride height was adjusting on its own! ) and JM tried twice to fix it - problem came back - at my insistence JM replaced my 'new' LX470 ( at this time a couple of months old and 3000 miles ) with another new LX470. I could not ask for more relative to this problem and solution.

JM Lexus has earned my business based on prior experiences with them. Obviously this won't be the case with you based on the above, and I can't blame you. I just wanted to offer my experience with JM Lexus.

oceanboy

Not only wouldn't I buy a car from JM again, I'll never buy another Toyota product again.

Why should I punish Toyota because of a dealer? Because a friend had a similar experience with a Toyota dealer and because as long it's a dealer problem,Lexus/Toyota don't care and don't get involved -- they just keep giving the dealer awards.

VJ RC51

Sorry to hear. Reasons like this is why i'll never buy a new car.

LocknRoll

sorry to hear this story, its a good thing you let others know to learn from your expeirence, i appreciate that.

on the other hand, you said the lexus you bouight had no "soul", i think thats something you should have researched, discovered, and paid attention to before buying it.

i bought a 11 year old lexus, it runs amazingly good, has absolutly 0 problems and acts like a brand new car. the point: never buy a NEW car.

oceanboy

LocknRoll,

Thanks for feeling my pain...

Oddly, I did research my options extensively. It was down to an Infiniti M, an Audi A6 and the Lexus GS. The A6 was the best looking but Audi has quality issues. The M has a sorta cheap looking interior and had no option for a grey interior unless I went with the unwanted Sport package -- beige looks like phlegm and black might as well shout "oven" in summer.

I figured I could live with the lack of horses for a better interior. Turns out I was wrong. Not only were there fewer horses, but the transmission is kinda dead and unsporty in shifting.

Also, judging driving enjoyment from a trip or two around ANY dealer's pony track is really difficult. It's not like I was buying a Taurus that I could rent for a week from Avis...

LocknRoll

i agree.


look on the brightside, the GS you bought will last you a long long time, and also has plenty of aftermarket options to make it faster.

oceanboy

After this experience, the GS will not be growing old in my garage...I dropped my first car in 11 months...the GS may break that record...

blk on blk

Sorry to hear that...it's amazing how different people have had such different experiences. My wife & I will never buy anything BUT Lexus from here on out. We have owned a number of cars and it seems to suit us best. Each to their own and sorry to hear about your experience(s) . Best of luck with your next ride!

oceanboy

My opinions about the car are mostly due to the experience of repeatedly dropping the soap at JM.

I'd be happier with the car if I was happier with the dealer...although it still needs more horses -- the Infiniti M35 has 285...the GS300 has 40 less and it shows -- heck, the IS350 and Avalon have more power! And the Avalon gets better gas mileage -- how does THAT work?!?

AsianGirl007

iTrader: (1)

I'm sorry to hear of your issues.
I have a few questions. It says you are in Florida but did you register out of state?
Because it's impossible to register to a wrong state unless you provided incorrect address. Dealers register based on info you give to them. And it's also impossible to register as a used car, there are 2 different sets of procedures.

Why did you wait until 3,000 miles before complaining you wanted a buy back? That's a lot of miles you drove already. (I've done buy backs in the first 2 weeks where a car has under 500 miles or so.)

As far as not finding you in service database, that isn't a big deal. The computers sometimes have glitches. I'm sure they found you after a couple tries. I've experienced this myself on several occassions.

It takes up to 6 months to get plates too.

I'm not discounting what you say, just trying to get a clearer picture of what went on.

Lastly, what do you hope can happen to reconsile your situation?

And please check your pm box, I might be able to assist you (if it's not too late).

oceanboy

AsianGirl,

Your note sounds a little “blame the messenger” to me…but since you asked…

I am on a long-term assignment in Florida, but live in Texas. On the sales contract, it lists my Texas address to register the car to. In fact, the only physical address JM has for me is my Texas address. We communicate via email, my cell and office phones. Believe me, just like having Sirius listed on the contract, my registration requirements were well known and written down. (FYI, my Mother doesn’t have my Florida address, only utility companies do – everything goes to Texas)

The car was first registered in Florida, listing my Texas address (I have no idea how THAT happened). It took a mountain of phone calls along with the three additional visits to the dealer for new temporary tags and the two service visits to keep the process moving. After that first communication that my plates were ‘in,’ I was never called about the plates.

Every visit to the dealer was a protracted 30-45 minutes waiting around while paper shuffled and the whole story was reconstructed. Clearly no one took ownership of this issue.

In January, I called the state of Texas after receiving mail from them. I told them my tale and they told me that the car requires an inspection as it was a “used” car – even though it was a 2006 – because the Florida registration was now part of the record. She agreed to send me the plates but could not get my inspection sticker. She told me to get it inspected as soon as I returned to Texas.

Also, for the record, I was told point blank that JM would de-register the car in Florida and register it in Texas as “new.” Clearly THAT didn’t happen.

Once I had the plates, again no call. Weeks later, I got a check for the $9 they thought I’d overpaid. In fact, they’d charged me for both Texas and Florida registrations and it took me over a month to get the $200+ refund check.

BTW, If it were standard to take “up to 6 months to get plates” the temp tags from the dealership would not, by law, expire monthly.

I waited until 3,000 miles because I finally was fed up. I was tired of every-cotton-picking-thing going wrong with this deal. I’d also just gotten a survey from Lexus in the mail and wasn’t going to let this slide. I also figured (so far correctly) that the dealership wouldn’t stand by their product (which is really a transaction service – Lexus builds cars). I also didn’t think 3,000 miles was too bad as they were selling a demo model that was in worse shape than my car and had 2,800 miles on it.

Bottom line: Had I known that I’d be begging for weeks to get my trade-in paid off (and getting screwed for the interest), spending months trying to chase down license plates, and in general treated like dirt, I’d have obviously never bought from them. But as I didn’t call Miss Cleo, I made the best decision I could at the time.

You are right that some of my issues are quibbles, but after all this, the scab continues to be picked and picked. Like this posting, a direct result of the bank calling be about the title that Texas won’t release until I get the car inspected.

Eight freaking months and this purchase still isn’t complete. That's why I've setup an appointment with a lawyer.

What do I want? I don’t want to have to deal with JM ever again. I don’t want to have to drive and depreciate my car 2,500 miles to spend 20 minutes getting a car inspected because of the dealer’s foul-up. I don’t want to look at a car that reminds me of this hideous transaction.

And if I have to burn 4 days and 2,500 miles driving to Texas and back, it shouldn’t be ME who pays for it.

AsianGirl007

iTrader: (1)

It wasn't "blame the messenger" at all, I apologoze if it read that way. I'm just trying to get the full picture here is all.

Okay, so your car's a demo and you registered in Texas, that explains a lot right there. I think I know what happened now.

Since you stated you contacted a attorney and don't want to deal with JM again, I will take a step back. However, should you need any assistance in the future please let me know and I'm happy to help in any way I can.

Good luck with everything, I hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction.