Car arrived late yesterday, dealer was kind enough to allow an overnight test drive/inspection prior to signing. Car was perfect except we found all four wheels had small pitting/damage to the clearcoat on the edges of the spokes, almost seems like the wheels were placed face down on a concrete floor before installing (car was fresh off the truck with 6 miles on odo). They came by and picked up the car this morning, but I never heard back from the GSM who I emailed last night making them aware, only a text from a porter saying they want to come by and pick up the car. Called the salesperson this morning who was apologetic about the wheels and asked what they planned on doing and await their reply (they have no other new one in stock they could have swapped the wheels and tires from).

With respect to the car, it's very nice and very well built, paint was perfect as was the interior from what we could see. I will say however, Lexus over-did the "enhanced road feel" for '23 as you can feel every ripple in the pavement even in comfort/comfort and we checked the tires to ensure they weren't overinflated. I'm sure the run flats have something to do with it, but as a GT car they shouldn't try to make it feel like a 911 because it simply isn't, nor should it be. I think Lexus caved to the magazines on this one and was a mistake imho...my M850 rides like a Cadillac in comparison. Was it a deal breaker? Not at all. Will report back once I hear back but at this point not getting a reply from the GSM to my email and just a text form a porter was a bit disconcerting.

 

Assuming that this car has spent the majority of the last 30 days just sitting, the tires may have developed some minor flat spotting. It take a few miles of driving to get em back right. That may have been the excess road feel you experienced during your test drive. It was great for your dealer to allow the test. I was not afforded that option when I picked up mine.....How many miles did you get to test?

 

No flat spotting but the suspension adjustments for the new enhanced road feel made themselves known, as mentioned it was not a deal breaker at all just wish they left it as before. To and from our home each way approx 10 miles or so although we did take the longer route returning from dealer as it was rush hour. Once we noticed the clearcoat pitting on the wheels we decided to no longer test the car as a courtesy to the dealer to keep the miles down for them.

 

Nice….You are a bad man…..Hope your dealer isn't a lil p’ed….Hope he works it out.....

 

can you believe they've made suspension changes every single year since 2018? its softer and softer every year and yet people still say it rides harsh (demographics probably). If you want a harsh ride, try the FRS/BRZ/GR86 twins. those things ride like fred flintstones car in comparison.

i dont think they should make it any softer. its already pretty damn soft as is.

 

Not saying it needs to be softer, but the enhanced road feel was dialed up too much even in comfort/comfort and I’m coming out of an M850.

 

I think they wanted to make the steering more communicative with this enhanced road feel thing, but i doubt it... its not going to be a 911 in terms of driving pleasure and you are right, they shouldn't chase that goal anyways.

i think the runflats dont help with that. Did you happen to get Michelins or Bridgestone's?

 

B-stones. Unfortunately the enhanced feel goes beyond the steering

 

Regarding the pitting, sadly there's only two solutions. You live with it or they swap the rims with ones from the parts counter. I had the same issue on my IS350 and chose to just live with it. I arrived and stood by my car at 6AM after being dropped off at 4AM so I got to see the root cause of the issue. At the factory they apply a protective film over the wheel which is designed to protect the wheel. The problem is that at some point along the transport process, the poke holes in to get to the valve stem caps to air up and down the tires. Despite not being a big hole, it lets pebbles to get in there and since they are basically trapped between the wheel face and plastic they rub and rub until it eventually leaves little chips or pits in the wheel. Swapping wheels with another car would also have the same issues as it undergoes the same process. The only solution for a 100% perfect wheel would be one from the parts counter and sadly I don't personally see a dealer dropping $8-10k on wheels over a couple of chips. Keep us posted.

 

Wow, thanks for this information. Interestingly my wife asked if these cars are transposed in an enclosed trailer from the port and was told they are not. I asked what position the car was on the trailer hoping it wasn't right behind the truck's front wheels or at least on top being a convertible, but they said they didn't remember yet its delivery was that same afternoon. I have asked the dealer to either replace the wheels or find another vehicle two days ago, but it's been radio silence from them on that. If I don't hear back from them with a solution by later today, I will be moving on, as the true test of a business is when a problem occurs and how they choose to handle it. I have friends at other dealerships MB etc and they said if it happened to one of their high-end vehicles it would be a warranty claim and new wheels would be on the way. It's also more than just a couple of pitted areas as it on almost every spoke of all four wheels. Furthermore, the car was to be an outright purchase, and I'll be damned if I'm dropping $115,000 on a vehicle with pitted wheels.

 

im not knocking you at all. It’s a lot of money to be dropping on a car that is essentially pre damaged. In my case they were super minor especially since my wheels are Matte. But you’re absolutely right that in theory Lexus corporate should cover it under warranty. One option you can certainly try exploring depending on how badly you want the car, is to contact corporate directly and try opening a case, though I’m not sure how willing they’ll be to work with you on a car you don’t technically own yet. Do you have any pictures you’d be willing to share?

 

Thanks, no worries, didn't think you were.
I'm now at the point and see how these folks actually handle problems, and I even asked before the car arrived how they'd do so just in case as they know I could have bought out of state and saved thousands...the GSM's response was "we've got ya covered". I do have pics and will post once this is resolved or not.

 

NiceCars I have to believe the Dealer will run this thru warranty as was stated earlier in this post. All will work out.

 

can we see pics of rims now? and sorry for the hassle.

one thing i've realized though is that as pristine as we want a car to be when we buy it, even though we might not notice it, it will have something happen even in the first few miles of driving.

 

Thanks.
Not until we see if they're going to replace them or the vehicle.
That's why we always ask every dealership now not to touch the car (other than removing exterior wrapping which they need to do) until we've inspected it, as we've had collateral damage done by the new car get ready folks in the past (swirls, scratches, etc.) and once when the vehicle was pdi'd. The paint and interior appeared to be perfect from what we were able to see but unfortunately the wheels weren't. We also said we didn't want them compounding the wheels or a curbside repair job which they'd probably have done. I'm going to wait until I see what they offer, but at this point it appears that car is not for me. I guess it just wasn't meant to be