Originally Posted by lexus600hl

Thanks for posting this cjitty.. I am seriously considering selling my last 600.
I am seriously consider talking to the dealer today or tomorrow - to replace it with a used ls 460.
I don't use the 600 myself anyway.. my employ gets to drive a "lower car". In the past, had actually offered him a newer ls460l in the past and he chose to wait and take the 600 later. Given the cost/risk, I think he will understand the "downgrade". I have to say.. the 600 truly, is an amazing car to drive!
It seems that I have to spend $5000 on the hybrid battery. I knew their warranty was only for 8 years, but I assumed that they would continue to work, even if under diminished capacity. Anyone know how long the prius batteries are lasting?

Originally Posted by CJITTY

Well, it still worked on mine. But it was the battery degenerative code but who knows, maybe I could of reset the code and it wouldn't of come back for awhile. But, I had depreciation concerns as well once I started doing more research on manheim. $18k to $22k is going rate right now for 2008 600s at Auction.

Originally Posted by CJITTY

Well, it still worked on mine. But it was the battery degenerative code but who knows, maybe I could of reset the code and it wouldn't of come back for awhile. But, I had depreciation concerns as well once I started doing more research on manheim. $18k to $22k is going rate right now for 2008 600s at Auction.

Originally Posted by riknchar

I'm going to respectfully take a contrarian view on the current state of LS600hL deals... I'm repeating myself from a response I posted to another thread, but I think it's an important point, so please forgive my repetitiveness...

If 2008 LS600s are currently selling for $18-22K at auction, I think it's fair to say that the value HAS plummeted (past tense), but not necessarily that value IS plummeting (present tense). In fact, I can't see much room for additional heavy depreciation from this point forward for the 2008s.

I compare this current selling frenzy for the 2008 LS600s to the behavior I see time and time again in the stock market, which is almost completely dominated by herd mentality. "Irrational exuberance" when things are going well, followed by "irrational fear" when things start to level out.

Smart investors always buy when everyone else is selling (irrational fear) and sell when every one else is buying (irrational exuberance). In this case, that means smart car shoppers would actually see today as a PERFECT time to acquire a low-mileage 2008 LS600 for a real bargain basement price (wish I was in the market for an LS right now, I know which way I'd go!).

The last thing I'd do in this situation is succumb to the "panic" and sell my beautiful LS600 for $20K. I'm not saying that prices are likely to rise significantly for the 2008s, but that there's no way they will continue to freefall below the current price point, so the major depreciation we've felt over the past 2 years is history, and we can relax and enjoy our cars for the next few years with almost no additional depreciation (in my view). My car is has the CPO warranty for another 4+ years and 53K miles. If the batteries crap out along the way, I'll try to convince Lexus to cover part of the cost, but I already have an Independent shop that specializes in hybrid battery replacements waiting on deck to help me if that ever happens.

I say now is the time to ****** up those undervalued LS600s before everyone comes to their senses!

Originally Posted by CJITTY

Well, just know I got way more than $20K and wasn't about to give the car away. I got what I needed for it and focused on the next ride. I wasn't going to keep the car more than another year anyway because the other warranty expiring. Good points about the was plummeting and is plummeting. I just know when I was looking at values less than 6 months ago, they have gone down quite a bit since then. For ME, it made good sense to sell it while I could still make some good money, so I did. Now, I'll take my time and find my next beast. I'm not the type to keep a car more than 4 years. Not a car of this level. An older car with far less involved electronically/mechanically, sure I would keep it a longer period of time. I don't regret selling the car. It was fun, but I've moved on.

Originally Posted by CJITTY

Ok, I'll try to be as brief as possible with this story, but I feel it is necessary that I share my experience as to what occurred with my 2008 Lexus LS600hL. Especially now that the car sale is complete.

Some background. I bought my 2008 Lexus LS600hl with appx 40K miles on it back in the summer of 2012 as a Certified Pre Owned vehicle. It was a true bucket list item for me and I was fortunate to have sold my 2007 LS460 and found a killer deal on my 600hL so I went for it. Many of you have followed my journey in my modification thread in the build thread forum and I am truly grateful for all of you as we cheered each other on with our car adventures. And the friendships I have gained through the Lexus community has been awesome.

Ok, lets get to it. I was on a road trip with my family. We stopped to get some food and as I was backing up when I received the chime of death and saw on my info center between the tach and speedo to "CHECK HYBRID SYSTEM" Stop in a safe place and call dealer immediately" Well, we are in the middle of nowhere and it's a Sunday and it was getting cold. I have my wife and toddler with me, so not an option I want to do and just stay there. So, I tested the car for driveability on a frontage road with no traffic. The car behaved normally other than the warning on the dash. I check the INFO screen to observe the hybrid system and all seems well. Proper charging, sequential arrows going in the proper directions when accelerating, braking and standing idle etc. Got the car up to 70mph, no problem.

So, I had confidence that we could make the distance back home and decided to go for it with familly members and or AAA on standby to rescue us if need be. Also thought I had Lexus Roadside Assistance, but that was another story..more on that later. The radar cruise still worked so I set the car speed using the needle speedo since I couldn't see the radar cruise info due to the warning that won't disappear. All was normal. Drove the 90 miles back into our city. I immediately stopped at my dealership just to see if they were open since it was on the way and just do the night drop off. Realized they put the big entrance gate up so I couldnt even get on the lot at all.

I called Lexus Roadside, because I did purchase a 5yr/125k CPO wrap warranty at time of purchase. Lexus Care basically told me that since it was 3 years since purchase, I am out of coverage? Uhhh wutt? I explained I had the extended wrap CPO, but I didn't know the roadside ended at 3/100 regardless of extended warranty period. They then told me that I couldn't leave the car there as it wouldn't be covered if something happened. ANd then basically they wished me luck and hoped I could get everyone home safely and to have a nice rest of the evening. Yeah, that's just great. I was still about 20 miles from home so I kept the engine on and just drove it home with no issues.

Next day is Monday. I get the car into service promptly at 7am. Me and my Service Advisor talked about the issue and then I got my loaner and headed to work. I get a call about two hours later. Confirmed, bad hybrid battery pack. MSRP $4900 by the way. So, he feels warranty should cover and proceeds to call Lexus Care. They denied the warranty because that item is specifically not covered. So, they check into the factory hybrid warranty since the car is under 100K (88K) miles but original in service date was unknown to me. Ok, here starts the crazyness....

Service advisor tells me that car was put into service 8 years to the day of my failure occurring. In other words, 2,920 days worth of warranty and my car literally has the issue on the 2,920th day. I mean, are you f'n serious?? I was in disbelief. I verified with the original dealer and they confirmed. But, I figured I should still be good since the issue occurred on a Sunday and I called Lexus care to be on record about the problem.

THe dealership talked to the Service Manager and some Regional Director. The dealership said Lexus will NOT cover the repair under the factory warranty and offered me a 50% goodwill toward repair. So I laughed for a few minutes, came back to the phone and asked them to repeat that in my good ear. 50% was what they said, my bad ear heard correctly. Cost would come out to about $2,250 out of my pocket is what they asked me to pay. I immediately refused and worked my issue up the dealership chain. Got nowhere, so I had to call Lexus corporate. They assigned a case manager. At this point, about 5 days went by. Case Manager calls me, states they are still reviewing. So about a week later and with some people going to bat for me, they come back with a 75% goodwill offer, leaving me with an appx $1,500 bill. I'm still besides myself over the circumstances and how all of this is even in dispute. Dealership said they were in my corner and felt it should be covered, but I believe deep down they could of done more if they truly wanted to. I then hear from other people outside of that dealership that many dealerships are slowing down on goodwills due to profit losses. Can't confirm, just word of mouth. It is a business decision, I get it...

So, I reluctantly agreed because I felt like I was not going to get much further on this and I was so heated that I was pretty much over the brand. I know people who received full goodwills on transmissions and engines well past warranty coverage, but they want to give me a hard time about hours??? Making comments like "well, think of it like your birthday" and blah blah blah. Technically, if my car was put into service at 6pm on the delivery date and my issue happened at 3pm..I still have 3 hours of coverage by my math if we want to play the birthday game. You aren't a year older technically until you hit the minute of the time of your birth. But, they said they don't go by that yet couldn't produce that in writing.

So, I paid for the new battery. I immediately noticed the car behaving completely different. The car would stay on hybrid power way longer than before. It was a dramatic difference. I had my car idling while talking to a neighbor. 30 minutes later the engine still didn't kick on and I had 3 bars left of battery. I am not joking. I have never had that kind of battery performance. There are no indicators to tell you that your battery is not working as well as it should until you get an error, which is a major flaw in my opinion.

After this experience, I was left disappointed in Lexus. A company that I always stood behind, promoted and felt they really bend over backwards to help their customers. Now, I know some of you will be sticklers for fine print and say "wellllll, technically you were out of warranty and you sound ungrateful...". I get that, so fire away. It was more about the principle. The uncanny timing of the issue happening the anniversary date of warranty expiration. After talking to some other Lexus employees from other dealerships, they feel I got a bad deal. Perhaps I went to the wrong dealership, but I get all my service there and I never once thought I'd encounter a situiation like this.

I decided that now that I am out of hybrid warranty and noticing the manheim pricing on 2008 LS600s dropping dramatically, so I decided to sell it while I could stay ahead of things. I received an offer that was more than my loan balance so I sold it for about $700 less than what KBB said I could as private party. I sold some of my aftermarket parts to friends and moving on to something else. I am going to take my time and I considered doing something different to hold me over until about 2021 when I can pick up a 2017 LS460L featuring the new design. So I've considered the Equus Ultimate or a 2013 LS460L. I love the LS, don't get me wrong. But, I will ensure that I sell or trade prior to warranty expirations whether factory or extended. I trusted the notion that Lexus would stand behind their flagship. In my case, they "sorta" did, but not to the level I was expecting.

For those considering a hybrid, I highly advise you know your original in service date for factory hybrid warranty. I also advise you to get an extended warranty that covers hybrid components past the factory warranty. Most will not cover the battery itself, but other vital components are included. At least the Platinum Lexus VSA warranty does. But driving a 600hL with no warranty, you are rolling the dice. I know of two friends with hybrid failures. ONe has a 600 and the other was a GS450h. So failures do occur and you need to be prepared. I am not opposed to getting another Lexus, but I will not for a minute think they will 100% stand behind the product past warranty coverage..I mean, if they dispute the timing I had, what would happen to someone else who was one day or one mile past the warranty? Who knows, but I wish you luck. I'll be back, just going to take my time and find the unicorn of a LS460L most likely. I love the LS too much to give up on it. Good things come to those who wait.

Uncle Jitty out

Originally Posted by mjeds

sadly if you were in a CARB required state, the repair would have been covered.

my wife's 2007 Camry Hybrid suffered the same issue as you, and nearly to the day of purchase as well, actually she was about 2 weeks past her in service date.

In CARB required states like California, Toyota upped the warranty to 10 years 150,000 miles for the Hybrids due to backlash from the EPA over the failures.

and FWIW the battery pack isn't technically what failed. the pack is made up of multiple batteries connected to each other with copper connectors, the connectors get corroded and the batteries can't communicate with each other..




here is a good site that talks about the issue, and a how to fix yourself, for under $10..


http://www.greencarreports.com/news/...ot-4000-to-fix