Billst

Car packed , about to set off from South of Spain.
My wife in car.
I cannot open door to get in.
My wife cannot get out.
She presses SOS button.
Nothing happens.
Wife in tears. We bought the top grade Lexus on the grounds it was safe and did not break down.
Eventually I ring European Lexus Assistance
They will send out someone within 90 minutes.
Something resets on car and I can open the doors with emergency lever.
i realise the battery has become flat after loading car and my wife getting in.
At least my wife is out of the completely dead car.
After 90 minutes the helpful Lexus guy arrived and starts car with external battery
So we think everything sorted - but NO

The car demands the security code.
I try the Lexus password - have found frequent need for that whenever my wife trys to drive - it will not recognise her key and provide a profile.
But that password includes a symbol - @. - and symbols are greyed out on the security code screen.
i ask the Lexus mechanic to sort it - luckily ? He had not left.

But No -,he tells me I must talk to Lexus.
So back to the telephone. Talk to my dealer after 5th in the line for service. I can now understand that Lexus is so unreliable that dealers cannot cope.
Dealer takes info then tells me I must ring the dealer I bought the car from new,less than a year ago.
So I ring and speak to a helpful lad who tells me, after consulting Lexus database, that I must bring the car.

I agree to this after explaining it will take me 3 days to get there including almost 2,600 miles and a ferry crossing . He is sorry, nothing else he can do.
I try to ring Lexus UK for help. No one available and message terminated - try again. After 20 similar attempts I realise that Lexus are so unreliable that their help system is totally overloaded. It will be much quicker to ring The Mail and BBC.

So I set off to drive.

After first night I realise that I cannot switch off the movement alarm while on the ferry.
so I assume the alarm will go for the 26 hour crossing of the bay of buscar, and I will have a flat battery again when we arrive in the UK.
I am parked just inside the doors so can imagine the fun and games while 200 other vehicles try to pass to get off the ferry.

A least I can look forward to telling them all why not to buy Lexus.

I spent £80,000 buying what I thought was a top quality reliable car.
can anyone tell me that I made the right choice? Where do I go from here.???
At least explaining my experience in detail may help others to escape the Lexus Disaster..

Droid13

Just for clarification/curiosity, you were not able to use the emergency lever on the door prior to having called Lexus assistance?

Billst

Correct. Car completely dead. Tried to find socket for emergency key and could not find it despite pulling desperately on the emergency lever. My wife thinks she tried the lever but was so upset, she is not sure. She was locked alone in a dead car. Possible Lexus assistance reset something because it did work about 15 minutes later. SOS button was also dead, but I have never had prior occasion to test this.
My wife is now convinced the car is dangerous and not fit for purpose . Lexus Help is also not fit for purpose. I am currently sitting on a ferry anticipating the next installment. No way to contact Lexus except through dealer (Parks, Carlisle) who says bring the car in. I will if I can.

Droid13

The inside lever must be pulled fully TWICE to open the door manually so probably this got missed in the heat of the moment. I haven't tried the external key myself but there is a small plastic cover that pops off the handle to access it.

I assume you were able to unlock the doors just fine initially to begin loading and the battery went flat while loading, how long were the doors open for? Any chance car was also in ACC mode for the radio to play during this time?

Billst

never use the radio. It may have been some minutes loading the car but my wife simply opened her door, got in and closed it. When I went to get in, the lock was dead. No warning. Thanks for the tip pull twice.

marcel488

I don’t understand why you thought buying an expensive car from a reliable manufacturer would prevent the battery from going dead. As newer cars get more and more electronics, this is becoming a more common problem. Even the warranty on replacement batteries are 1/3 of what they were 10 years ago.

Billst

Battery problems have become a known issue with NX. What is not known is the severe results. Locked in car, SOS dead, Lexus dealers overwhelmed with service calls, Lexus UK Help completely useless. Battery is just too small for the car needs, that is a design failure that should not happen on a premium car.

Droid13

Well, in any case, sorry for your troubles. It did kind of make my smile for unrelated reasons as it reminded me of this past Saturday trip. I went on a day trip with an old friend in my NX. He hates new cars (probably because he spent his working career in a GM assembly plant, the last 10 yrs fixing all the problem cars at the end of the line), he has 5 cars ranging from 70 yrs old to 20 yrs old, most don't even have power windows. So for fun, just to watch his eyes roll, I gave him the full safety briefing on how to operate the doors in case of emergency. LOL, his reaction was so funny. I don't normally do the full safety briefing speech but for him I could not resist.

Sounds

Sorry to hear. I always travel with a fully charged jump start bank battery.

gamma742

It's pretty sad when you can't even leave your car door(s) open long enough load up the car for a trip and the battery goes dead. Lexus really needs to step up and allow the HV battery to maintain the 12v when it realizes it needs a boost. Other car manufacturer do this. We bought the Lexus for the reliability we have grown accustomed to.

sightdev

time for OP to read the owners manual. there are manual overrides to opening door, gate, and etc. passcode is six digit number you had to input when you first took ownership. usually Lexus dealers have a dedicated person to go over the features and assist with configuring the basic stuff before leaving the dealer. this is important now days as tech features are some what complex if it's been a while owning a new vehicle.

midcow3

This is terrible sorry.

However, there are emergency situations, that the Lexus dealer should go over. @Droid13 alluded to some of these emergency procedures. There is a manual inside door release , but it is not intuitively obvious if you are not aware of it. I think this could have been used by your wife to get out of the car. The manual outside key should work without any power; I am am not sure why this didn't work it doesn't make sense. But again, it is not completely obvious and has to be done correctly.

Again, sorry you were involved in you stranded /panic situation. That is never fun.

YMMV,
MidCow3

weaver483

This 12V issue is becoming a safety issue. Recently heard the story of a grandmother in a Tesla strapped her grandbaby is a car seat with obviously the door open and by the time she got around to the drivers door the 12V had died. She not being familiar with the Tesla didn't know the manual overides and had to call 911. The fire dept had to break a window to rescue the baby. As a side note, no one at my dealership showed me any of these safety issues. There really should be some kind of warning when the battery gets below a certain level. Law suits in the future????

clmk

Yes there's unnecessary complication in these cars these days, yes the 12V battery going flat is an issue, but people really need to take a bit of responsibility for their own actions and understand the expensive and deadly piece of equipment that they're using. That means spending an hour or two after buying the vehicle, familiarising yourself with the important aspects and functions of the vehicle. The amount of posts I see from people on here and facebook complaining about things that are well and truly covered in the manual, as well as things that they should think of and/or discover for themselves is crazy.

Whenever I get a new car, the very first thing I do is give the manual a bit of a flick through for any critically important things, but also I go sit in the car and go over all the buttons and menus and so forth. I think about things like the battery failing or whatever and how I might get in or out of the car. Also for example, what if the brakes fail.

How many folks here know what to do if the brakes fail while driving at speed and you need to stop?
What about if the battery goes flat in the key fob or key card and you're locked outside your car?
Same goes with the 12V battery running flat and you're outside or inside the car?

If you have a car and you don't know the answer to all three of these questions, then you have some study to do.

Billst

OK I can accept that - I did try to read the on-line manuals when I got the car - all 1000 plus pages of them.
I am told in lexusownersclub.co.uk that it is in pages 700 or so. A complex procedure for resetting the car after battery failure. A procedure that the Lexus breakdown mechanic clearly did not know. And the two UK dealers I spoke to were unable to help with the Security Password. They Only solution they could come up with is bring the car in - which I am attempting to do with 3 days travel and a ferry crossing.

Lexus UK Help simply useless as they continually end attempted conversations with “No agent available”.
At least now I may be getting assistance when they open after posting on the US Facebook page