LeXuSrAcIn

Today on my good ol' reliable LS400 the power steering seems to be goin out. I had the pump replaced 20k miles ago from the Lexus dealership and the pump will need to be replaced so soon. I have found about $5000 in repair reciepts and will be posting them either tonight or tomorrow. Since this car is now having reoccuring problems, I want to do something about it. From all of you CL guys I have concluded that there is something seriously wrong with my car. This is completely uncommon in a Lexus. The dealership I bought the car from has went out of business (the guy went back to China). Carfax claims that this car is NOT a lemon, but I disagree with them. I will hire a lawyer shortly, but in the mean time there are some questions I want to ask if anyone is familiar with Lemon Laws. 1) The dealership is out of business so do I go after carfax for false claims or Lexus for a defective product? 2) Any idea how long this whole process might take. The only money I am looking for is the cost of my repairs which is over $6500 now (I can only find about $5000 in reciepts which like I stated before I will be posting shortly so all you guys believe me). Before you guys say that I had something to do with all the problems I am having thats just BS. Its not like I floor my car every single chance I get. 99% of the time I dont even let the RPMs go past 4000. So contrary to many of you guys' believes, I do not rape the car. So please dont blame this on me. Have any of you fought in court arguing a lemon? Currently I am searching for lawyers and trying to get my case organized. Another thing I was wondering about is... carfax said this car was NOT in an accident but if the car actually was and wasnt reported to insurance then it wouldnt show up right? I am not being greedy... I just want my repair money and some depreciation money. I will then sell this car or return it (whichever is the case) and buy a GS400 because because of CL members I no longer discredit Lexus reliability. Anyways do you guys have any tips/ advice on how to approach this subject?? Again I will be posting reciepts on some of the repairs Ive done so dont say Im BSing. (BTW I would sell this car but Id be loosing atleast $11,000 in depreciation and on top of that the pointless repairs I have done so I would be nearly throwing away $20,000 on this car). I got the car for about $19,000 if you're wondering, but of course that was over 2 yrs ago and some 40,000 miles ago. When I had Carmax appraise the car they said $7,000 because they found a transmission leak. I am just looking for advice on how to approach this problem. Do I need to make up a case against Carfax or Toyota? Thanks in advance.

Kansas

LeXuSrAcIn,

I know that you are not going to like what I am going to say but ...

You have zero chance of recovering anything from Carfax, Toyota, Lexus or anyone else. The only person who is going to make money is a lawyer who will tell you the same thing that I am telling you here for free.

Apparently your car is not under any warranty, either original or extended, the dealer is out of business, and Carfax is a company that only reports, in good faith, information obtained from others. There is no one to sue.

I also have spent over $5,000 on repairs on an LS in a two year period. So what? Lots of people have. When things go wrong LS cars can be very expensive to repair.

Dump the car and move along with your life. The only person that stands to lose is yourself.

nk1983

Isnt lemon law only applicable for like 30 days? I dont think theres anything you can do honestly, unless carfax gave you a $5000 garauntee thing and you can prove they were wrong. Lexus' are expensive cars to maintain, Ive def. spent at least 3K on my car in the last year or so. Just MO

LeXuSrAcIn

Hmm thats weird... where were you guys when I posted about this before??? I thought only my car is having all these problems. I guess it gives me a little reassurance that the LS is not bulletproof like I had previously thought. And as for the $5000 guarantee... I did get it with Carfax. They claimed that if any major info is inaccurate then I could recieve I think its 20% or 10% of the cars wholesale value up to $5000. This doesnt give me much money if I infact do find a way to fight them. I guess Ive just had bad luck with Lexus. Its the one car I thought would be trouble-free to own. I guess I'll keep this atleast this year and then chug it for a GS400 or LS430(if prices drop).

lsfrankel

Lemon Laws are in place in each state to assist customers with vehicles that do not conform to their applicable warranties in place at the time of the needed service. Most of the time that means cars under manufacturer's new or extended warranties. I'm driving a replacement 2002 LS 430 now as a result of my due diligence with the identical car from 2001 that I purchased new from my Lexus dealer. My brand new $61,000 2001 LS 430 was a big fat LEMON. In fact, in my glovebox, along with the owner's manual, is a booklet entitled "Owner's Manual Supplement Lemon Law Information". It's in every late model Lexus. Pick one up and look up your state's guidelines in place with Lexus specifically to find out what's what. Here in Georgia, my car qualified as a Lemon due to the number of days out of service since my date of purchase. It doesn't have to be the same ailment three times unrepaired necessarily as there are other criteria. My car was out of service for 26 days in the first six months. All different problems. From the day I started to do my research with the BBB of Georgia, it took two months to receive my brand new 2002 model direct from Japan. Lexus jumped in and we negotiated a deal without going to arbitration or court. I had to pay a couple of grand for the usage and wear over the nine months I drove it, but that is the way the system works. A newer model year for about $1700 was a no brainer for me. This 2002 has been flawless. Nobody I know has ever played this thing out to get a new Lexus. Nobody at the dealership had ever encountered one of these situations. I was feeling pretty proud of my pulling this off. But it was legit. Not being able to enjoy my new luxury car really sucked. I was embarrassed. I was on a first name basis with the whole service department at Lexus. Hope this helps.

Rx900

lemon law is when ur car is in the shop for at least 30 days and that the dealer hasn't solved it. then when ur 30 days come, i think u need to consult a lawyer.