quine

Hi, looking at buying a 2017 nx or rx but have some rather unsexy questions

1) Lexus financial- how easy are they to work with? And is it easy to make principle only payments? Often I hear horror stories where somebody pays but it doesn't get registered and the person's credit is trashed. Or it's virtually impossible to make a principle only payment (which I would like to do).

2) Prepayment maintenance plans- are they worth it? Easy to use? What if you total your lexus and still have another year on it? Do you get a refund or does it suck to be you?

3) Tire and wheel protection- I'm not terribly convinced of this, but I'll keep an open mind here...

4) GAP insurance- is it better to go through Lexus or my auto insurance. Also, since this is my first time financing, is it necessary? Thinking about putting down 30-40% down and paying it off in 4yrs. Will be doing 15,000 miles/year.

Personally I'd probably junk all the stuff except for the prepayment maintenance plan

Thanks!
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dseag2

Being a former Lexus owner, I can hopefully answer a couple of your questions.

I've found Lexus Financial Services to be competent, but I think questions like paying principle-only payments may better be directed to the Finance Manager at the dealership.

I would absolutely buy tire and wheel protection. I used it several times on my GS when I curbed the wheels. They refinished them each time at no charge. I declined it on my S5 and ended up getting nails in 3 tires and having to replace all 4 of them because the car was Quattro. I probably came out even on the wheel refinishing. On the tire replacement I would have come out way ahead if I'd had wheel and tire protection. I definitely bought if for my A4. I guess it depends on where you drive.

I would buy Gap insurance through my insurance agent, but that's because I have 3 cars and a house insured with them, so they tend to take that into account.

Hope that helps.

jer

Regarding principal only payments to Lexus Financial- check to see if they still have a separate mailing address for principal only payments. I had made what I thought would be a principal payment that was just credited towards my regular monthly payments, Found out I had to mail to a different address, but this was a couple years ago. Not sure if this has changed or not.

quine

Finance companies that do take principle only payments always have a way to make a principle only payment.
BUT... some companies have convenient ways of doing this, and others make the process more painful than passing a kidney stone.

arentz07

Toyota/Lexus Financial Services has been fine for me for the majority of the time I have been a Toyota/Lexus customer. I got a 2010 Camry back in 2012 and got a 2016 IS this year, and I basically kept the same account.

However, I am currently dealing with a weird issue where they somehow closed my account by accident shortly after I got the new vehicle, and I can't sign up using my same email address again. Been on the phone with them for several weeks now, still no luck resolving it. As such I have been paying via phone for a couple months now.