lex430

Just brought home a Flint Mica LS430 with UL. I am back with the Lexus family once again Very excited.

The car currently has 44k miles on it, the dealer offered me an extended warranty that will cover the car for 7 years(from car's inception, so ~5 years remaining) or up to 100k miles for ~$2k. I got it down to ~$1500. This is through a 3rd party warranty company, not lexus direct, but according to the dealer, it provides bumper to bumper coverage (other than normal wear items).

Questions:

1. Should I get extended warranty for the car with the lexus quality? Although there are alot of electronics in there that kind of concern me about potential repairs (dynamic cruise, backup camera, bluetooth, Nav, smart access... and others that i don't remember)

2. Is ~$1500 a good deal for this type of extended warranty?

3. On a side note, I thought with the UL package, there are 4 zone climate control. On the 04', I noticed that the rear passenger can only control the temperare setting, there is no left rear/right rear control as in several of the 02 that I've seen. In addition, the temperature change affects the whole car. Is this correct behavior?


Appreciate any feedback or comments.

thanks,

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

Congratulations! That's a beautiful car.
Regarding the warranty, IF the dealer convinced me that the warranty would actually cover things as opposed to managing to weasel out of most stuff, AND if there's little or no deductible per visit, I'd probably take it. The '04 appears to me to be perhaps the most problem-prone LS (NOT saying that it's a bad car, but just that I seem to hear of more little issues following the '04 facelift than any of the other years), and even though you probably wouldn't have occasion to use it much if any, it could certainly pay for itself at $1500 by the time you hit 100K miles. For one thing, the UL could quite possibly need some suspension work by that time if nothing else.

NOW, if you were looking at a 100K warranty on a MB for $1500, you'd have to kiss the dealer square on the lips for such a wonderful deal that would probably pay off about 6 times over.

MadMax96

$1500 for that type of warranty on that type of car doesn't sound like a bad price - assuming they don't fight you on every claim. I've heard of ext. warranties on cars half that price go for the same amount.

Congrats on the purchase!

LexLaw

Congrats on the Flint Mica LS430. Excellent car and color. By the way, what color is your interior? Too bad that color wasn't available on '01 models. If any one could answer his questions regarding temp settings. I'm curious as I'm still in the market for my (possibly)future LS.

john1529

Congrats on the new car. Sounds great. Be very careful of 3rd party warranty companies. Several have just gone bankrupt. One was in business for decades, another for 10 yrs. Both were sold through new car dealers.

lex430

Thanks for all the congrats! So far, love all the gadgets and toys, the bluetooth headset esepcially. Connected right up to my Treo, and works like a charm. From the people that I called, no background noise, wind noise, or speaker like feedback. Most couldn't tell I was in a car.

This was 1 reason I went with Lexus vs MB. I was debating about E500, or S500..etc, and potential repair/maintenance cost concerned me.

Interiror is Black.

Any recommendations? or Names to these that went under so I can avoid them.

Lastly.., any one knows the anwer to Question 3 above?

Much appreciated for any feedback. Happy new years everyone!

GRAND_LS 4

iTrader: (2)

Nope, the LS430 has only two temps, the rear is included as the passenger temp. It was never 4 zone.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

oh really? hehehe somehow i thought it's a 3 zone, a third in the back

now we know what's going to be in the new LS

lex430

CL has great info buried! For those that are looking for Lexus warranty, Troy is the person to talk to.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...86#post1657786

textaz

I would never buy a third party warranty for an automobile, especially a Lexus. Lexus will be here three to five years from now. Do you know if the third party will still be around? I'd say nothing but a Toyota/Lexas warranty. I recently bought 100k Lexus warranties for my low mileage '03 and '04 LS430's for $3,500; so your $1,500 price doesn't sound bad, except it's not Lexus.

BrickHead

Congratulations on the new car. I have been thinking about getting a certified 04 LS to replace my 98 LS. But when I read about the reliability issues with the 04 LS in Consumer Reports I was shocked to see a "full black circle" on transmission. On the Consumer Reports repair history chart the 04 LS has more problems than the other years. I really didn't expect to see this. I am not saying your LS will have problems but I wish you the best of luck. I am curious how accurate this information from CR is. Has any 04 LS owners had transmission or other types of problems with their cars? Thanks.

ffitzgerald

Lexus rcalled and replaced both the transmission and fuel pump on the the first 6 months of production for the 04 LS430. My replaced fuel pump failed this summer. I am now on my third fuel pump. The passenger side automatic mirror also went out and had to be replaced. Not what I expected.

lex430

I got the lexus platinum program. Same reason for what you stated above for 3rd party company Plus it does not make sense if anytihng major that goes wrong with the lexus, that I would take it to anywhere else but lexus for repair.

Most lexus dealers that I price shopped with, all tried to sell me 3rd party warranties. I think the owners of these dealerships usually own the 3rd party warranty company. They all pursuaded me to NOT buy lexus warranty, gave me erroneous information that my car does not qualify because it passed the 36k miles mark......, not very ethical in my opionion.

350g

$1500 is "not bad," but when it comes to 3rd parties, there's so much legal jargon that no one, except a contract law attorney, can decipher its meaning. Dealers push extended warranties because its a great money maker for them. The certified Lexus program is great, but typically causes the list price to become over inflated. Too bad they don't offer the vehicles at a set price with an option to purchase the "certified" coverage. That way, you would actually know what it costs (similar to separating your trade-in value from the actual deal when purchasing a vehicle).

In any case, I'm checking into www.warrantydirect.com . . . I've heard good things about them.

lex430

are the subsequent replacement covered under factory warranty?