riknchar

Had a sort of bad experience with my local Lexus dealer yesterday and wanted to share...

I've had my car for exactly 1 year; it's a 2008 LS600hL that I bought as a CPO last June. The car had 58K miles on it when I bought it, and had just gone through the full 60K service at the Lexus dealer prior to delivery.

I had the free first service completed uneventfully in December at 63K miles. Oil change only.

I recently had the warning message appear "Change Cabin Air Filter," so I did that myself using instructions I found on this forum (easy job, and $13 for the filter via Amazon).

Anyway, I now have 68K miles on the car and my warning message "Change Engine Oil Soon" appeared, so I took it in to Lexus for an oil change. When I dropped it off, I asked about the Fuel Pressure Regulator recall, and my service advisor confirmed my car was affected. I told him I had just changed the cabin air filter, and that all I needed was an oil change and a tire rotation (figured it was worth it after 10K miles on the new tires they had put on when I bought the car last year). I also showed my service advisor something I had noticed when washing the car a while back -- a bit of what appeared to be duct tape hanging down from my driver's side undercarriage. It looked like it was sort of holding one of the underpanels onto the car, which concerned me, since the car had supposedly gone through a 'Rigorous 161 point inspection" as a CPO. Anyway, I got a nice loaner ES300H (which I was actually not that impressed with, but that's another story), and away I went.

I went back to pick up my Lexus yesterday, and out it came, all clean and looking good. The dealer presented me with a bill for $182. I said, "Wow, that seems pretty high for an oil change, even for a Lexus." The service advisor explained that they had done the "Full 65K mile Service," and not just an oil change. I was confused by what that meant, since I really didn't see anything else listed as required at the 65K mile point, and I had already changed the air cabin filter myself. The advisor said, "we do a thorough inspection of the car, test drive it, and clean all the filters." Huh??? I could tell from the trip odometer that they hadn't driven the car anywhere, and I've never heard of a dealer "cleaning" the air filters (why bother?).

So anyway, I calmly explained that I really had only requested an oil change and tire rotation, and asked how much that normally cost. Turns out the answer was $82, so in the end, that's all I ended up paying. The advisor was not too obnoxious about the whole deal, but I really felt like they were trying to tack on bogus charges to pad the bill, which made me unhappy.

After all that, I took a look under the car to see what they had done regarding the duct tape issue, and saw that they had done nothing (so much for the "thorough inspection of the car..."). I asked the service advisor about it, and they took the car back to the service techs to check it out. As it turns out, they said they didn't know why there was duct tape on the panel, but when they took the panel off they had "like 20 pounds" of mud/dirt/dust come out from under it. They thought maybe the previous owner had taped it up to stop a rattle or something.

When I asked why no one had noticed this during the CPO inspection process (or during the last two service visits), the advisor had no good answer.

So away I went, my faith in my local dealer's service dept a bit shaken... I'm sure many of you have similar stories, but I wanted to vent and I figured this was the best place to do it (my co-workers all drive Hyundai's and Chevy Cobalts and just wouldn't relate...).

Maybe it's time to find a good independent shop? I just don't want to mess up my CPO warranty (or Extended CPO warranty I bought).

Vansibel

Well, to be honest it's still a far cry from my own experience when I bought my first ls600, see it there: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...hing-only.html

Personally I don't mind paying a bit more if the service show. You get a nice loaner, car was washed properly. You do have to expect to pay a bit more than the toyota dealer. But I do agree that getting lied to is definitely not pleasant. I also believe that they did cut corner during the inspection. Replacing a plastic panel should have not cost them much. In the end your experience will depend more on the actual team and employee working at that dealer than the brand itself. You might want to try another dealer even if you have to travel a bit farther.

Devh

My CPO car experience when I went looking was laughable on what they pass off as certified pre-owned. I skipped the fraud and applied the savings towards a used newer car with significantly lower millage that was still under the factory warranty.

Tape under the car is a good sign that previous body work was done to the vehicle. The body shop guys in the interest to save time do not remove all of it and leave behind tell tail remnants that get caught on inspection.
You can bet those multi point inspections are a fraud too.

retlex

I too have an extended CPO warranty, and I don' want any complications when I may have a warranty claim at the Lexus dealership, I.e., proof of maintenance records. I bought my 2011 with 30k, and it now has 38k. My first service was complimentary at 35k. Fresno Lexus quoted me $216 for the basic service or $104 for just an oil change. The dealership said it was important to inspect the engine, fluids, suspension, brakes and chassis. I believe even if you opt for the oil change only, the techs will obviously look for things that are in need of attention, wear items, control arms, leaks, etc...else, how will they ever make money. It is in their best interest to inspect the car.

Hermes16

sorry to hear about your incident, i just so happened to have a bad experience today as well from a lexus dealer

Doublebase

I've worked for dealers and I can personally say, most of these inspections, preps, services, are totally BS. Especially when you buy a car and they "total" up the expense of the inspection and the things they replaced, it makes me laugh. These techs work as flat rate technicians...the faster they go...the more money they make. Trust me they are not going over your car with a fine toothed comb.

Also there is quite often a serious disconnect from a technician and a service adviser and a customer's car, sometimes things aren't explained very well. We don't talk to the customer and at times we are working on something entirely different than what you complain about (because that something else, was also broken).

I wouldn't take my car to a dealer, unless I had to, because there is a lot of fluff going on with these "services"...much of it is a joke and the joke's on you. Cleaning a filter?? You have got to be kidding me?? Who would even write that on a repair order? You'd incriminate yourself - especially with a Lexus customer - these people, although they have money, are also smart. It's silly to think they'd fall for that.

I think what does happen at times, is a service writer gets on a roll in terms of sales, commission, etc. And they maybe were able to get away with a few liberties in a row - then they take it a bit too far and ruin a customer's feeling about the place. But then the next guy will come along.

Devh

My own personal experience from working at a dealership and later meeting with knowing technicians as acquaintances at many of the car meets I have attended is that they are far removed from the dealership shenanigans.
It's not easy being a service writer or sales man because you need to be comfortable with taking advantage of other peoples ignorance.