Sooooooooo...... we have kind of a problem here...... yeaaaaaaah... ("Office Space"... nevermind)

So, about 8 month ago at 60K some hissing noise starts. Mechanic at a local shop noticed it while changing oil. Take it to the dealer. "Uh, you've got a cracked exhaust pipe!", "Great... fix it!". Fixed it. Under warranty, no questions asked.

Last week this sucka starts to growl like a big V8 on moderate acceleration... Take it to the dealer today. "Uh, you've got, er, well, ... a cracked manifold. It's not coverefed under warranty. It's $450 and I don't have the part". WHAT?!?!?! Yeah-NO!... The truck just hit 70K this week... Now, I'm no mechanic, but I figure I'll ask if it's covered under the drivetrain warranty. He said not sure. It's over 70K. So I get a little upset - it's like 70,120 I say. He said he'll see what he can do... Comes back with a complete attitude change, and said he'll cover it under warranty, no problem. "I want a 100% on the customer satisfaction survey!" he says. Kind of funny if you ask me.

Now, something else... apparently Lexus of Sacto is changing their loaner cars to Enterprise?????? I got to drive a freaking Suburban home... How lame.

Anyway, has anyone had experience issue with your RX warranty services? How'd you handle it?

 

Hi All,

I'm new to the board and a first time Lexus owner (Just bought one about 2 weeks ago - first time poster too!) but I've experienced an issue in getting serviced already. You see, I live in Atlanta but I bought my Lexus in Charlotte because I got a really good deal on it. It was at a Cadillac dealership where the previous owner traded it in for an Escalade. It's a 2001 with around 37000 miles on it. It's still under factory warranty.

On my way home from Charlotte, my sister (who was following me since I was driving the Lexus) noticed some serious exhaust coming out of the RX. I noticed the same in South Carolina when I made a gas stop. I figured "it's under factory warranty, shouldn't be any problem getting this taken care of". I contaced Hennessy Lexus of Gwinnett and made my service appointment.

The first appointment was last Friday. They told me that I had some sludge in my engine as if no one's changed the oil in a year. I informed the service tech that I did not know the history of the oil changes as I'd just purchased the car (but the car was still under the bumper to bumper factory warranty). He asked me to have my salesman send him some information on the maintenance of the vehicle. I contacted my salesman and he promptly sent the information the next day. I called the service tech on several times Friday to try to get a status update as to whether they were going to do the repair. I finally caught up with him (by paging him since he wasn't returning my calls) and he said that they would repair it but they needed to order some parts. I said "OK, so are you going to order the parts?". He says that they would and he'd call me back with an update. All day Monday I received no call. I called and left messages on Tuesday and received no call. I leave a message on Wednesday morning saying that if he doesn't call me back then I'm going over his head. I had totally lost patience by this point. As a Honda owner I've never been treated like this and this being my first luxury vehicle I expected a heightened customer service experience.

Anyway, he calls me back Wednesday morning and tells me that they need to take another look at the RX to determine what parts they need. Now I'm thinking to myself at this point, didn't you determine this on Friday, but I didn't even say anything. I just wanted the vehicle fixed. We setup the appointment for yesterday. He told me that the vehicle should be ready around 5:00PM. I have some friends drop me off to get the RX and my tech informs me that it's not ready and that they'll have to get me a rental. I don't have a problem with that, I've had a long day at work and just wanted to go home at this point. Hennessy also owns a Cadillac and a Jaguar dealership that are almost right on top of each other. We walk over to the Cadillac dealership to get me a rental. I have no idea what I'm gonna get but I figure as long as it's something nice, I'd have no complaints. I talk to the Enterprise guy a bit and he informs me that I'll be driving a Chevy Malibu. I just gave him a look like 'what?!!'. He tells me that for some odd reason Jaguar owners get Jaguars, Cadillac owners get Cadillacs, but the Lexus owners don't get Lexus renters. I'm a bit disgusted at this point and thinking - 'maybe I'm just being treated like this because I didn't buy my car here'. But that shouldn't matter. I was planning to buy a new Lexus within the next 2 years and was probably going to buy locally when I did. But the service I've received so far pretty much nils any chances of me buying that car from Hennessy. I was forced to drive home in a car that couldn't hold a candle to my 9 year old Prelude let alone my RX.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get it back today and can put this whole scenario behind me. I've never had to have much work done on the Honda but was always treated with respect and concern whenever I did need something done (and I bought it used from a non-Honda dealership). I haven't felt that way with Hennessy Lexus through this whole ordeal.

RX300wannabee... I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I just hope this type of treatment isn't typical for Lexus or I'll definitely be looking at something else next time I go car shopping.

Am I a finicky customer or is it usually like this? Was I expecting too much to have this issue fixed under warranty? I was always hearing about how great Lexus's customer service is, which is what swayed me to buy an RX over an MDX in the first place. Anyone have any input on my experience. I really hope it isn't always like this.

 

I also use Hennessy Lexus of Gwinnett for all of my major service and I even used to have my oil changed there. I have always received a Lexus loaner. Usually it is a RX but I have had an ES once. Did you contact the service manager (Joe)?

Not to **** anyone off or anything, but that is one reason why I don't like preowned cars. You never really know the service history. So many people lease cars these days for 24 or 36 months and never have any service done because they feel that they don't have to because they are not keeping the car. Just my $.02. Flame me if you wish.

 

KayGee,

I appreciate your response. But should a Lexus owner that bought new be treated any differently than a person that bought a CPO Lexus? Yes, mine has the CPO sticker in the window and it only had one previous owner according to the CarFax report. I just recently read an article about how 56% of Lexus customers that buy new are coming from owning a used Lexus previously. Why would you want to disenfranchise a potential future customer? Doesn't make sense to me.

I won't submit my opinion on the new car vs. used car issue. To each his own.

 

thats no way to be treated.. really you should talk to the service manager at your dealer, our dealer (westside lexus is great) our first service rep has since been promoted to teh manager, and anytime we have a problem it is taken care of :P... so far we have been happy with our service
but as people have the same cars in our family
we all have ls400's we notice what goes wrong and can generally predict when things are going to fail.... thats the only thing i do not like, usually waht we do is get a rental car, and keep it until they car, hey i figure.. there looseing money by giving me one of there cars, if there not going to call me about my car why should i call them about there car, i bet after you have had it for a week, ( non major repairs) they call... they usually call when the service is done until then i never get calls and dont call... but i do get call's if there are major issues, and what not.. this is great for me...

thats about it..
also our dealer is nice, i used to go there when i was young and i would still be treated the same as if i were my father.. this is where any dealer will show there true colors, is when a kid goes in and gets things done :P

great work westside lexus

 

I agree. It is still a Lexus and they should treat you with the same respect. That is why I suggested that you contact the service manager. Customer Service is one of the main reasons that I enjoy owning a Lexus over other imports. I wasn't trying to slam anyone who buys preowned. Hell, if I could have waited another year, I would have been looking for a preowned 400 myself instead of a new 300. My only point was that you don't always know the complete service history. Maybe Lexus should offer free scheduled maintanence like others so that people will have their oil changed and this sludge problem would not be an issue. I think that ANY engine will sludge if you don't change the oil.
No disrespect intended.

 

I also bought a used a RX from a Cadillac dealer.

I had told several sales people what I wanted - and what I was willing to pay - and if they could get one from an auction, to call me. I've found that you can get a better deal that way because they know they have the car sold.

The Cadillac guy called me and went to check it out. I then checked the service maintence schedule with Lexus. They have a system that lists all service done a Lexus dealers. It checked out that all the required service had been performed at a Lexus dealer.

 

So your car really is not CPO then? U bought it from the Caddy dealer, right? It is jacked up on how they treated you but I'd rather them take their time to fix it than hurry and mess something up.

And DEMAND a Lexus loaner. The couple of times they tried to give me the Enterprise crap (BTW, I bought my GS CPO) I told them hell no. Last time I got an 2002 ES 300 with 239 MILES on the clock. You got to ASK. And he is JIVING, Jag and Caddy dealers are THE WORST, they ALWAYS get Rentals. He is pulling your leg.

PM VVTi on th board. BTW, coming to our next meet.

 

I'm surprised that a CPO Lexus has sludge in the engine Then, what does CPO mean, do they not check and certify these vehicles?? If I were to check a vehicle to make sure it was okay to sell I would make damn sure the engine oil wasn't gelling ESPECIALLY since it is a known issue with this engine.

 

it was not a cpo if he bought it from another dealership besides lexus.

 

I just bought my RX as a CPO with 14K miles on it. I have to say that my dealer (Lexus of Smithtown in NY) has treated me like I bought a new car. I picked the car up at night, so I wasn't able to give it a real good look, but my salesman told me to check it out in the morning and let him know if there were any problems. When I looked at my RX in the morning, I noticed quite a few chip-marks on the grill, most likely a result of pebbles kicking up from the road. I immediately called my salesman and he told me to bring it in so he can look at it. Once he took a look at it, he told me they would take care of right away. And, here's the impressive part: Since there were quite a few chip marks, he said they will spray the whole area instead of touching up the chips. He also noticed a very small ding on the rear passenger side and said he would take care of that also.

I guess the customer service will vary from dealer to dealer, but there is no way you should have been treated that way...even if your RX was not CPO. In the end, it's a Lexus and exceptional service is part of what you have paid for.

Good luck to you and enjoy your RX!

rEXUS

 

So, my wife got ticked off by the Suburban deal... This thing is a tank! The service guy says, come on over we'll trade it in for a Lexus - good thing it was on her way from work... Got a new ES300. Today he calls back, says the truck has been fixed. So things are not that bad... Until I go to pick up the truck....

Walk in, ask to get the RX back, get a receipt... Not sure if you guys ever read Lexus receipts... not easy to read them! So I ask this little 15year-old-white-trush-tramp to see if she can tell me why it says I've got billed $60 for an oil change... You know what she replies... "Well, it's a Lexus!" with this huge smart *** attitude. So I school her for about five minutes on how to talk to customers. Manager comes over clarifies the receipt ($20 for exhaust gasket).

Point to this lame story: Service has been degrading at Lexus. Switching to Enterprise (which by the way is a hassle to deal with) for their rentals is a prime example. Hiring minimum wage illiterate high school kids to sit at the front register is another.