900 dollars? lexus dealer quoted me $120 2 years ago to fix one wheel.

 

Yes, that's why the $900 insurance has not proven itself to be worth it yet.

For me, I also paid $900 for the insurance on my 2016, but fixed curb rash twice and replaced an entire wheel. So it was pretty much a wash. At least it was already paid for when those incidents happened.

 

I've put almost 90,000 miles on my 2018 and have not scratched or had to repair/replace a single wheel/tire.

Where did you people go for Driver's Ed!?

In my experience, you're at the mercy of the dealer to tell you whether or not a particular wheel is bent. So, expect frequent back and forth with them on this issue to actually get the policy honored.

Minor cosmetic wear can be fixed usually for $100 or less. That alone is not a reason to get the policy. If you expect to replace 2 or more wheels during the lifetime of the policy, it might be worth it. I did have one policy pay for itself, but it is not something one hopes for... let's put it that way.

This is just my personal experience, yes it is anecdotal, yes your experience might be different depending on how much you spend with the dealer, whether you regularly lease cars from them, bring the car in for service, etc.

I do my own work and typically dealers aren't going to lift a finger for this type of customer. If you are a squeaky wheel and annoy the heck of them to get a wheel replaced, sure you can probably get it replaced. But these policies are *not* a panacea, so manage your expectations.

Just remember, insurance companies are not in the business of losing money by blindly honoring their policies...

 

A small town in the South, where we don't have potholes or many opportunities for parallel parking. I don't know if this was meant to be teasing or joking, but leave the judgmental comments at the door, thank you.

If it matters so much to you, you can feel relieved that I have not curbed or scratched a wheel on any car I've owned since. We have to learn somehow.

 

I've never purchased a wheel & tire care package from any dealer. I guess it could be worth it for those who deal with curbs and potholes regularly... depending on the price of the package.

Sidenote: friend of mine works at a Lexus dealer in PA and they don't offer the wheel and tire care for 2021+ IS models because the black chrome wheels are near impossible to color match if/when repaired.

 

Why is this even necessary. Doesn't insurance cover rim damage caused by potholes?

Regarding the curb rash, yeah I would've left the damage. It sucks but unless youre selling your car, nobody really cares. Even most buyers wouldn't care. Again, just go slower when \\ parking. You guys are from Boston. Roll down your window and yell "HEY IM PAHKING OVAH HERE!"

 

Yeah I heard the same for the black chrome. Looks nice but seems to be PIA to deal with curb rash.

LOL parking here is intense at times. I have seen many people get out of the car to confront people for taking their spot....quite comical

 

I understand the human reasoning of paying for a peace of mind, but it has been abused by the evil people into economic devastation of the masses. Not this "tire+wheel" thing specifically, but as a general approach to a "problem".

What happens is that when it is time to shop for the place to fix a wheel/or whatever needs to be done, you actually already paid and thus, dont care to find a good place with low prices. However, what you will find is that it would be a lot cheaper to actually pay for fixing it out of pocket. That way you can influence price/quality when you need it at the point of exchange of a service for money. But because it has been prepaid for and the dealer is the one selecting it, now it is out of your hands. What is worse is that now have less incentive to deliver quality service. What is more - for example, Tirerack already has accidental tire damage included in the price of each tire.

It is the same with car/healthcare/social insurance. These things in theory allow to cope with sudden expensive bills, but in practice they are precisely much more expensive because the free market has been effectively removed from the equation, and replaced with a disconnect between price and product.

How often you go to a hospital and they cant even tell you what the estimate will be. People often say "well, I dont care how much it costs - I have insurance" except they are the ones paying for it, and they are the ones inflating the cost, because they dont care/have no way of "price discovering" it beforehand. Imagine buying a new car where you just get a bill after you got the car, and where you see the price for the first time.

Thus, it is this mentality that causes a huge increase in cost and a drop in quality of service, and a gradual economic enslavement. Then the argument comes full circle because this is used to propose more insurance plans to "alleviate the cost and economic suffering", even though this was exactly what had caused the price spike in the first place.

It is human psychology exploitation, and a constant need of feeling "safe" that is being manufactured and propped up by those who collect money from such "economic" activities of the masses. Then when the masses beg for some "economic help" they "get it" by paying even more for the "solution" programs created as a result of said "problem".
problem, reaction, "solution" (that creates even more actual problems down the road). Rinse, repeat, and suffer.
This is insidious and VERY effective at selling it to the masses, while destroying them and future of their children.

 

Whoa. This got really deep.

I simply don't think it's worth it because it's just a wheel, you already have car insurance, and to a certain extent you have some control over this.

I buy pet insurance for my dog, a totally optional and debatable thing, because he's a big trouble maker, very unpredictable, and I love him a lot.

But some wheels? On a ES350? You guys must have a lot of disposable income.

 

What is ironic is that from well-versed economically mid class (thousands of dollars disposable income per month) to actual rich people with hundreds of thousands of dollars of disposable income every months (not what 80-90% of americans are) they rarely use things like insurance or prepaid plans "just in case". They know that usually long term, they are far better off with paying it up when they need it.

It is the "average voter" that gets scared and prepays several fold for everything "just in case" thus creating more waste of their dollars while getting nothing in return, but an illusion of security, while throwing out their actual security/economic power out the window.

And so, inevitably, when the time comes, that tire will get fixed "almost adequately" for x2 the market price, that medical bill will still be high, and that car insurance will still underpay you to the tune of 70-80% of the market value for a total loss, even when they otherwise should have paid a market value of 100%.

 

I live in MA and I've never purchased wheels and tire package for any of our cars including GS F. The way these managers pressure to purchase these "must have" packages (always just before you sign the papers) feels like a scam to me. Something tells me most buyers don't end up getting their money's worth. Maybe I am missing something?

 

lol that’s a good one.

 

We have never bought any extended warranty or wheel protection or leather protection or paint protection. When I was working was putting on 40,000 miles a year. Calculated between my wife and I have over 1.4 million miles driven and would have never filed a claim or any of those protection policies.

When I read the OP and saw $2,336, thought that was high for a bumber to bumper extended warranty then realized that was only for wheel and tires.

 

I thought the same thing. Those warranties are nuts!

 

Yes, they are nuts. However, the cost of replacing one Lexus rim and one tire today is nuts too. I've already spent over $500 in the last 12 months to repair the rims on my Mercedes Benz E300 which I just traded in for a brand new 2022 Toyota Avalon Limited. I purchased the 5 year/unlimited miles Wheel & Tire Warranty for the Avalon for $650 which was at cost at what it cost the Toyota dealership. The initial price for it was $850.