I purchased a certified pre-owned Lexus GS 350 from a NJ Lexus Dealership. The Car was advertised as Certified Pre-owned, but of course, upon purchasing the Certification was an additional cost. The Certification was supposed to provide bumper to bumper warranty as well as a complimentary maintenance package on the vehicle. Upon attempting to get the vehicle serviced for its 6th-month maintenance I discovered I was given a completely different warranty (Platinum Warranty only allowing 20k miles WTF) and not the certified pre-owned package I purchased. After contacting Tri-county Lexus I was assured this was an error and would be rectified. A month later I attempted to have the vehicle serviced again after being told the issue was fixed by tri-county Lexus, only to discover that the vehicle has no warranty. After contacting tri-county Lexus again I was informed that I would need to bring the vehicle in for a certification inspection. The Inspection was done and following that I was again assured that the certification was now valid and active. Again attempting to get the car serviced, I’m informed that the certification is not active. After being given the run around about which department is responsible for this error I still don’t have the warranty and maintenance package active nearly 1 year later. After getting legal counsel and contacting BBB and Lexus Corporate (I should have done so far sooner) Lexus corporate apologized and the dealership president contacted me and has been on it ensuring the issue is fixed and pleading with me to remove the negative reviews and BBB case.

My questions are
1. Has it been anyone else's experience that the dealerships are now selling the certification warranty as an extra (first lexus I bought in 2013 I didn't have to pay extra)
2. What is reasonable for me to ask for from Lexus for this inconvenience they have caused me for nearly a year?
3. Would it be reasonable to ask for the reinstatement of the platinum warranty (with correct terms of 100k coverage)

any other info and help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It is actually very common for dealers to sell their cars with the CPO optional. It lets them list the car at a lower price since Lexus charges them about $2,500 for the certification that they pass on to the consumer. You paid for it in 2013 you just didn't realize it as it was included in the cost of the car.

 

Here is my experience with Toyota, not Lexus.
I will try to keep the complicated story short:
Car: 2016 RAV4 AWD Limited
Issues:
- ~2 yrs, 25k miles: oil leak from transmission. Dealer attempts repair, first attempt unsuccessful. 2nd attempt, replaces transfer case, leak stops
- ~5 yrs, 42k miles (one month before powertrain warranty expires): leaks again from the same spot. Dealer attempts repair, unsuccessful. Make formal complaint to Toyota corporate about recurring issue and multiple unsuccessful repair attempts. Dealer attempts 2nd repair, replaces transfer case again, unsuccessful. Dealer attempts 3rd repair, replaces transmission, leak stops.
Obviously I wasn't happy that solving the problem took 5 repairs, including replacing transmission and transfer case (twice). So after the car was finally fixed I called Toyota to express my displeasure. Two weeks later I received Platinum VSA for 7 yrs, 100k, free of charge. Toyota supposedly only sells VSAs while the car is under original bumper-to-bumper warranty (3 yrs, 36k miles), but in this case they gave me one after the powertrain warranty expired (the car was 5 yrs 1 month old, although the problem was reported before the warranty ended).
I think you should ask Lexus to give you a full-coverage extended warranty (Platinum VSA) for at least 7 yrs / 100k. Just tell the Lexus case manager that you are very dissatisfied with the service you received from the dealer, the fact that they did not resolve the problem after multiple attempts and over 1 year, and that you don't trust Lexus anymore. Typically, he will ask you what they can do to make you happy (that's part of their standard "script"). Tell him that you think it would be fair if Lexus gave you the warranty you originally intended to buy free of charge. I suspect he will tell you that he will have to consult it higher up, and then send you the VSA paper.

 

You understand that "warranties" don't cover maintenance, right? Whatever service agreement you thought came with your CPO, it has nothing to do with the CPO warranty.

 

CPO Lexus vehicles do include some free maintenance

 

You are wrong. The CPO warranty does come with a certain number of free maintenance. As agreed upon by the dealer. That was resolved already though.

 

Thank you for this, I have a scheduled call with corporate tomorrow and will be requesting they restore my trust in their company for the inconvenience.

 

I am not wrong. It comes with a warranty AND a maintenance program. A warranty fixes things that go wrong; maintenance is just general upkeep on the car, not repairs. "Free maintenance" is NOT a "warranty". I owned a CPO BMW - same deal. Warranty and maintenance.

 

Unfortunate to hear of your situation. Being local to the NY/NJ/CT area, I know of Tri-County Lexus and their deceptive practices. When I shopped my GS350, their advertised prices seemed so much better than everyone else: this was because they advertise a lower price that is inclusive of all "discounts" and then tack-on the extras in the fine print if you don't qualify for them or just because. They make it ambiguous on purpose, counting on the consumer give in to paying thousands on top for warranties, doc fees, prep fees, waiting area bagel and sandwich fees, etc.

Here's an example of the fine print for an IS300 listed on their site where suddenly the price jumps to potentially $1800 on top if you decide to pay cash:



Generally, i've noticed you should stay clear of any local tri-state Lexus dealerships that have less than a 3.0 rating on Yelp or less than a 4.0 rating on Google Reviews. My recommended local dealerships are Lexus of Mt Kisco and Lexus of Bridgewater.

I think you did the right thing by contacting the BBB and leaving them a poor review. If its CPO, insist on the CPO inspection checklist as a form of proof with signatures of the tech and service/sales managers signing off. I think it still looks something like this:




If they don't CPO it, at minimum, the car should have an extended Platinum warranty up to 125k miles as courtesy for all the trouble. Someone from Tri-County should provide the VIN and its corresponding warranty as a hard copy for your records. You can also contact a different Lexus dealership and ask their service advisor to see if your car is associated with any warranties just as a check against Tri-County's word.

Also, i'd say maybe don't remove any of your negative reviews - i would only amend the review once you feel they've done their best to rectify the situation.

 

Here's some advice for your future Lexus/Toyota, used vehicle purchases...skip the certification and maintenance options altogether. They are complicated and prone to pitfalls and fraud. You are buying one of the most reliable brands out there, and paying for it in the used car price. Warranties, certifications and maintenance packages are simply expensive insurance. I suggest you pay-as-you-go, and you'll likely save a bundle, pending no bad luck! While it is a crap-shoot, your odds are in your favor with a Lexus, assuming you have the vehicle inspected by a qualified technician who can, among other things, rule out flood and accident damage.

 

Tri country Lexus is shady, I Almost bought a RX from them till I realized in the Docs they were adding the cpo warranty as an add on increasing the price to almost 3k vs the cpo advertised price. You won’t notice it unless you pay attention.

Their mo this was a mistake blah blah etc. but I walked out apparently they do this very openly and it’s a cheap sales gig , get the customer indoor tactic.
Regardless I took my business to Lexus of cherry hill: Lexus of Princeton

 

Careful if you're taking legal action, I would remove this thread ASAP if you are.

 

So after contacting the bbb The dealer became a bit more responsive. They admitted fault and processed the cpo warranty and provided complementary maintenance in the meantime.
I still don’t have the cpo warranty active (it shows up on the vehicle now as processed but not active idk) and they have been moving extremely slow on this, so I’ve had to proceed with legal action as well contacting the attorney generals office until they fully get the job done (as well as blasting them on my socials with my 100k followers).

Now where I am very disappointed is the customer service from Lexus corporate. It has BEEN HORRIBLE. First they give me a brand engagement specialist who closed the case without talking to me. Then when I called to find out why, they can provide no reason and direct me to another brand engagement specialist. This one attempts to reach out to the dealer and takes literally weeks to get back to me, (at this point BBB has already gotten me in contact with the dealer) to pretty much just say the dealer is working on it and they will be in touch. I spend weeks calling the Lexus corporate number to get in touch with my case worker and I’m told she will call you back tomorrow for sure. This goes on for literally 2 months before I request a supervisor because this level of service is extremely disappointing. They assure me a supervisor will call back within 48 hours.
A week later after 8pm on a Friday while I am at dinner with my family out of the blue I receive a phone call from someone with a noisy background who is the case supervisor for lexus corporate. He was completely dismissive of all my concerns, disregarding that it took the other case manager weeks to get back to me and then didn’t get back to me at all. He told me “be that as it may it’s nothing lexus can do for me, call the dealer myself.” So he closes out the case.

Is there a way to escalate this complaint further or file a bbb claim or review on lexus corporate? Because this level of customer service is unreal.
I’ve been treated better from single digit items I’ve purchased and had to interact with customer service,

 

my legal rep said this thread is no issue it’s an open and shut case. They admit all fault and I paid for something I still don’t have.