My sister has extended warranty from Lexus on her 08 ES350. We tried to bring the car to Lexus of Queens, NY for repairs because there is no sound(no audio, phone, navi, etc.) and we're having difficulty getting a loaner even though the car was purchased there. We had to make two trips to the dealer in the past 3 days and loaner was denied both times.

The first time, I took the car to the dealer because my sister has work and i usually have free time during the day. I dropped off the car for her and picked up the loaner in the past without any problems but this time loaner was denied because they said i wasn't under her insurance. I even offered to give my own insurance that i have on my '14 es350 and they still refused. So we made another appointment at 7:30am this morning so my sister can drop off the car herself before going to work...

When she went in this morning, they made her wait until they were running diagnostics and only to come back to say they had to place an order for the part(the amp) and she couldn't get a loaner until the part arrives in a day or two. So she ended up driving the car back home and was 2 hours late for work which got her in trouble at work..

So now, she has to make another trip to the dealer when the part arrives with the uncertainty she'll get a loaner then, and this just didn't seem fair...

I called the sales person who i usually deal with and he got me through with the GM. He told me the insurance company won't cover if i got into an accident with the loaner which is complete bs and i called him out on it and he changed his story to "insurance will give them hard time". Then, he says its a new company policy that was recently changed which i asked the sales person to verify its validity and he had no idea what i was talking about and tells me "that's not right"...

The GM also said they couldn't allow a loaner to my sister this morning because the part would take two weeks to arrive... (when the service adviser from this morning told her it would take a day or two to arrive and where are they getting this part from? Japan?) and he went on and on about how they couldn't couldn't allow loaners for long period of time unless the car has safety issues. It seems like every word that comes out of this guy's mouth is complete bs...

Can't help but to feel being dicked around....
Sorry for the language...

Thinking maybe i should bring the car to a different dealer.... Will I be able to bring the car to a different dealer and still get a loaner? From what i heard, they only allow loaners from the dealer the car was purchased from, is this true?

Wow, that was long...
Any input would be appreciated and thanks for reading!

 

No that's not true

 

no i got loaners from dealerships i didnt purchase from

 

The loaner policy is set by each dealer, not by Lexus corporate.

 

When I purchased both of my cars, I signed an agreement with the dealer about the loaner cars during service visits. Mine states that the dealership will provide a loaner when the repair time is over 2 hours, otherwise a shuttle service is available. It also states that you need to request a loaner when you make the appointment, and there is no guarantee that the loaner will be a Lexus, however they will try, but in cases where they run out of loaners, they'll get you a car from a rental agency.

It also makes it clear that the dealership itself is providing this service, and not Lexus.

Did she receive or sign any paperwork about loaners when she bought her car? Since the car is drivable and safe, I can understand why the dealer would not offer a loaner for up to 2 weeks while waiting for a part to come in. I don't think they're being unreasonable.

 

Thanks for inputs guys.

JDR, no, i've never heard of an agreement for the loaner when purchasing the car before... I can understand it if it really takes 2 weeks for the part to arrive but the loaner was denied in the morning when the service adviser said it would take a day or two to arrive and my sister was sent back home. Then, I was told it was 2 weeks by the GM later on that day when i made the call to complain.

 

You probably missed it, or the sale person did, unless that dealer has some funky business. I always heard about the Loaner program and agreements to sign in my lexus dealer, and other things too. But yeah, loaner program is varies by dealers

 

Last time I scheduled an appointment at the dealer for a TSB issue, the rep on the phone confirmed on the phone that I would be getting a loaner. Did your rep confirm whether or not you should be expecting a loaner?

 

Yeah, like Allen said, you should give out calls to see the best dealer of getting your service done for the offers you like most, includes loaner. I think you can do so with the Online appointment system nowadays too, I don't know, never tried it, but i got a note in the mail saying that I could.

 

Of course... I made the appointment for a loaner a week in advance.

I looked a little deeper into this dealer (Lexus of Queens) to see if anyone else was having issues with their service and not to my surprise they're rated 1.5 stars on Yelp with nothing but bad reviews...

 

My Lexus dealer did not have a loaner agreement at the time of purchase--and I wouldn't have signed it. They should want to entice me to get my car serviced there, not box me into restrictions. My dealer provides a loaner for any service, no matter how long, as long as they have cars left (if you get there at 10:30am, you may be out of luck). Same with another dealer locally that I didn't purchase from. And the dealer I did purchase from--if you schedule 2-3 weeks in advance, they will come pick up your car at your location, and leave the loaner with you (within a certain radius--60 miles I think). All without some agreement at the time of purchase.

Now--it doesn't hurt that there are 4 Lexus dealers in the greater Philly area...

 

time to take your business elsewhere...

 

Damn. What a joke. Longo in SoCal will give you a loaner for an oil change if they have one available. And you can request a loaner when you make an appointment. One time, they didn't have a loaner available, so they arranged a Enterprise rental for me and it was not a Chevy Aveo but it was an Escalade and all I had to pay for was gas and insurance (which I could have declined).

I hope you have another dealership near you.

 

I do consider a written guarantee that they will provide me a loaner as exactly that - an enticement to get my service. No boxing in. I can take my car to one of the other area dealers if I want. But this puts the dealership on the hook to provide me with a loaner for any service over 2 hours, or otherwise provide me with a free shuttle service. Works for me!

 

Agreed, if they're dishonest on something as simple as a loaner, who knows what else they're doing.