After three years my view of Lexus has changed. This is my advice if you are thinking about buying a Lexus Don't! Unless you have lots of free money. I bought a certified 2014 Lexus ES300h with an extended warranty. I have 77K miles on the car currently. One of the reasons I bought a Lexus was supposedly they were cheaper to maintain and repair than some of the other high-end brands. Last week the heat on the passenger side (only the passenger side) of the car stopped working. We were told politely that for them to troubleshoot the problem, it would cost $2,000. Now that is to troubleshoot, not to fix. If I was lucky and the problem was with a part that was covered that I would not have to pay but, if it was hose or another part not covered by warranty, it would cost at least $2,000. The reason given is that they have to take apart the whole dash to look at the heat system. I call that bad engineering and poor design. No car should cost you $2,000 to have someone check your heat system to find the problem. I am very stressed and disappointed. I still have to decide if I want to take the $2,000 gamble, which is not what I expected to have to deal with when buying this car and the extended warranty.

Has anyone had a problem like this before?

 

So it sounds like your car is no longer covered by your warranty, correct? If not, take it to an independent shop to have it looked into vs the dealer. Or take it to a Toyota dealer instead.

If it is still covered, you shouldn't be paying any sort of inspection or troubleshooting fee - it should just get fixed.

 

So, are now understanding why everyone told you not to purchase the warranty? That $3,500 would have come in handy now, wouldn't it?

That said, I would take it to a different dealer if I were you. I've never heard of a diagnostic fee that was anywhere near that high. It's usually based on an hour of their time.

 

It is still under the extended warentee. However Inorder for them to troubleshoot it the said it will take them 12 hours to take the dashboard apart to check the problem. If it is a part that is covered then I am good to go otherwise I owe then 2k. Mine blown.

I am having my own personal mechanic take a quick look to see if he thinks it might be a covered part because i don't trust Johnson Lexus.

Of the extended warentee I did get it a little cheaper then the $3,500 but I am currently regreting it.

 

The problem is not that a Lexus is more expensive to maintain. Instead, the problem is that the service departments at Lexus dealers operate under the assumption that, if people are willing to pay a premium to buy a Lexus, they will also be willing to pay highly inflated prices for for maintenance and other service.

I'm guessing that, if you took the car to a Toyota dealer, they would be able to diagnose and fix the problem for well under the $2000 that the Lexus dealer wants just to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, going to a Toyota dealer (or another mechanic) makes your extended warranty worthless, but charges for service at a Lexus dealer are generally in the range of twice or more what the same service would cost at a Toyota dealer.

Also, for future reference, extended warranties are generally nothing more than enormous profit generators for dealerships, and it is quite rare ever to recover the cost of an extended warranty with claims done for covered repairs.

 

I can just imagine a production manager saying to his QC department, “Be extra careful with this next one because it’s going to be sold with an extended warrantee.” NOT! Any warrantee is a bet on possible future events and extended warrantees are an even riskier gamble.

 

Here's a thread from 7th. gen showing how the dash is removed. May be slightly different than yours but not much. I can't see where it would take 12 hours.
$2000.00 divided by 12 = $166.66 per hour. Yowza! Mucho dinero...

Good luck and as the other members say, look around and find someone else to check it for less.

 

2 grand to tear the dash out - that dealership is trying to screw you... I've never ever heard of a diagnostic charge that exorbitant. Good idea to have your own mechanic, someone you know and trust to take a look at it, short of that, I'd take it to a Toyota dealer. That "beginning" price is ridiculous. Good luck with it.

 

Lots of missing info here?

1. Is the Car still under Warranty? What Warranty?
2. Did you take it to the Lexus Dealer? Who told you $2k to check it out?
3. Ask a Lexus Dealer if it could be the Servo behind the Dash?
4. Ask the Lexus Dealer, if that's where you took it to run a test on the system. They can.

Let us know to answers to the above, then we can help you from there.

FYI: I just Sold my 2013 ES350 with 147k. Did a lot of work Travel with it. I did do lots of extra maintenance on my own also. It was very Minor cost, like drain and refill Transmission fluid. Under $75. I did not ever have not one problem with my 2013 ES350. Never. Kept the GS350 with 36k. Its a different story. But the ES350 was perfect.

 

Dealerships. Anyone who has ever worked for one will tell you that the maintenance (repair) department is where they make the serious money. It's what keeps them going. As far as extended warranties are concerned, less than 20% are ever honored. We have all learned the same lesson you have gone through. Lexus makes a very good car, but nothing lasts forever.

 

>Lexus makes a very good car, but nothing lasts forever.

And it's cheaper to fix at either your local garage or a Toyota Dealer.

Regarding fixing things at a local garage, Toyota's are now the world-wide standard. So, like in the old days with a Chevy, every corner shop can fix anything that breaks on a Toyota or they wouldn't have a garage and would only sell gas and snacks.
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My karma just ran over your dogma
Current Hers: '13 Lexus ES350
Current Mine: '15 Jaguar XF (it's aubergine)