lexusfreez

So went to pick up my 'demo' 2014 GS car on Friday evening. And boy, what a third rate display of Lexus service standards it turned out to be.
I was getting a 'demo', driven lightly by their sales staff. I was told that any minor scratches, rock chips on paint etc would be taken care of.

When I went to take the delivery, a pre delivery inspection showed some glaring holes in the Lexus delivery standards.
The car wasn't even nicely detailed from outside, leave aside fixing any scratches or rock chips. When I pointed this out, the delivery coordinator agreed with me and asked me to schedule another appointment for fixing these things up.
But the more closely I looked at things, the worst I felt. So I told her that I won't take delivery of the car until these items were fixed.
And just as I was leaving, the Sales manager-the most incredibly rude and boorish sales manager I've seen-wanted to talk to me. He said, 'What do you expect from a used car?'
Used car, I blurted? Then what's this new car invoice? And the new car admin fee? And the PDI and other new car discount?
And why all this BS about the discount from a 'new car' price etc. Just sell it as a used car.
Then one by one, he went on to contradict all the things my sales rep and delivery coordinator had given to me(some in writing) about the car warranty, in service date and the overall vehicle.
I had never had anyone behave so unprofessionally and tell such blatant lies, right in front of their staff who had mentioned things completely opposite to what this guy just said.
So, I just walked out of their dealership.
Seems like I'm done with the 'brand' that cares for the dealership experience. When you have morons like this running a dealership, the hundreds of millions you spend on branding and everything goes to naught, at least for one person.
I guess, the dealership is just as good as the people running it. I'll be better off going to Hyundai. At least, I will know what i'm getting into.

jjscsix

You are blaming the brand on one dealership????

I'm on my second Lexus from two different dealers and they have both been fantastic in the delivery process and how they handled some issues I had.

lexusfreez

I guess for a brand that prides on the 'dealership experience', is there any other way? And when you have just two dealerships in town and both of them are just as lousy(and owned by the same person), do you have any choice?

bclexus

I strongly suspect the dealership probably had an entirely different perspective of what occurred. Just sayin'...

ItzFilyO

Just stay away from demo cars. Demo = Used no matter how u look at it or what they tell u. Ur almost always gonna have problems with it.

My dealer experience has been great and it's definitely better than my Toyota dealer experience.

AL13NV8D3R

Ive been treated much worst from Mercedes and BMW dealerships where cars cost much more than Lexus. I have owned 4 lexus during my lifetime two of them used like yours and never got a bad experiance. Heck till this day since i bought my first used Lexus 15 years ago the sales guy still calls me on my birthday and even wedding anniversary to thank me for my purchase. Dont let one bad experiance ruin it for you. Just take your business to another Lexus dealership. I am sure you will be treated right in other Lexus dealerships. After purchase you will either recieve a survey in the mail or a phone call by Lexus corporate. You can then give them negative feedback if you like. Make sure you mention the service managers name when you take this survey he will lose some end of year bonus if you do. I am sorry you have had a bad experiance. Good Luck.

lexusfreez

Oh Absolutely. The dealership thought that they were doing me a favor by giving me a great deal on a 'demo'. And here I was whining about little things like 'lying', 'misrepresenting', dramatic mismatch between the invoice and the sales manager's blurb and expecting a clean car. It's always like that. Poor businesses always think that they are right. And customers are demanding.
Great businesses want to make it 'right', no matter who is right. I thought that was the Lexus philosophy.

But it's all about the petty trader mindset at the dealerships. They care about the 'margin' on a 'deal' and ignore all the bigger picture efforts that go on to create a brand. For less than a couple of hundred dollars and absence of friendly service, they ruined my experience.

RyanC

iTrader: (1)

Sorry to hear - I don't know if you can judge an entire brand from 1 dealership though. Are there any other Lexus dealerships other than the 2 you mentioned that might be a slightly further that you could try?

Personally, I bought a 2011 ES350 from a Lexus dealership near me a few years ago that was a fleet demo and had 8,000 miles on it and it was damn near perfect. The dealership also did a tremendous job detailing the car before I took delivery. At a different Lexus dealership - for my GS350, when I picked it up they had hand waxed the car and it looked amazing.

I know you were also looking at a TLX - so maybe you should consider the Acura.

HiepNotik

It's the dealership not the brand. Have you tried another dealership close by?

lexusfreez

Other than these two dealerships, the nearest one is more than 300kms. So, unless I move from my present location, I have no choice but to deal with these guys. Which might mean that my Lexus truck will have to be sold or handed over to my wife who will have to look after all the maintenance etc.
TLX might be an alternative, but at this point, I just want to stay away from any dealership.

dseag2

Unfortunately, it really varies from dealership to dealership.

When I lived in South Florida, I had a salesman make a $25k mistake... telling me I was getting $25k on my trade against a new GS430 when in fact the car I was trading was leased. I kept questioning the equity and he kept assuring me he was right. He then whited out the $25k in trade when I went to take delivery and insisted he never said it. The finance manager said he couldn't cover a $25k mistake, so I walked out. (County Line Lexus, FYI.)

On the other hand, I purchased a used SC300 at JM Lexus and they touched up everything as they had promised and delivered an immaculate car.

In Dallas, my dealings with Sewell Lexus have been beyond my expectations. They have gone above and beyond in both the sales and service processes. Heck, they even took in my trade early and let me drive a GS loaner until my new GS arrived.

As others have said, I wouldn't hold it against the brand. There are a few bad apples out there, and that is a shame. In this case, I think I would have done exactly as you did if they didn't live up to their promises.

Have you considered Infiniti? The new Q70 has been updated and the Q60 is a nice car. They tend to provide great service.

ItzFilyO

One Lexus dealer here undervalued my trade by $7K. Seven thousand Dollars!! Did they really think I was born yesterday and didn't know my car's true value?! That's an insult to me really. Then I went to my dealer and the whole experience changed.

dseag2

I was young when I went to trade for a Lexus the first time. They clearly thought I was young AND STUPID. I'm neither now.

SW17LS

Dealers are all independently owned, and quality varies from dealership to dealership. Lexus only has so much control, and the dealership doesn't care about building Lexus' "brand", they just care about their own business.

I'm sure theres another side to this story, as in how courteous were you when pointing out the issues, etc. It IS a used car, whether its "new" or "used" depends on whether it was titled or not. It was driven for several thousand miles as a demo car by some dealer guy who gets a new car every 2-3 months...how careful do you think he was? I saw a $120k demo Mercedes S550 with 3,000 miles on it that had more rock chips and pits in the windshield than a car I own after 50,000 miles. No demo is going to be perfect, thats why you get a discount below what they would sell you an actual new never driven car for.

Good customer service doesn't mean just doing whatever the customer wants. Its hard sometimes to smile and deliver good customer service when a customer is irate, rude, has unreasonable demands. Not saying this was the case in your situation, just trying to give you some perspective.

If you're so frustrated that you "don't want to deal with any dealership" I don't know what to tell you. You'll have to just drive what you have.

lexusfreez

The car was never titled. The whole 'great deal' charade was played out comparing the price of this demo vs a new car. The warranty was new car like, except for the mileage already on the car- about 6000 kms. The delivery coordinator got it all. It was the sales manager who transformed this into a used car. Which meant I lost the warranty, rock chip fixes and basically the idea of getting a 'new car.'
Then why did they give me an invoice for a new car?
If the sales manager recognizes this as a used car, it should be sold as a used car. No need to lie so blatantly.
That's what made me really angry- the stereotypical used car sales behavior at a Lexus dealership.
For other dealerships, I'm sure my love for a shiny new thing will be strong enough that I'll be able to get into another dealership soon.