Wow. That's expensive. I assume this is only one side right?
Maybe I should turn the auto folding feature off. I have it turned on on both of my cars because I use it as a door lock/unlock indicator.

 

Dude, you paid for a feature, use it. Don't be afraid of it breaking. When the time comes, the value you got out of the feature will far outweigh the costs of replacing it. Enjoy your car and worry if and when the time comes. And you can get used motor assemblies for pennies on the dollar and you can replace it yourself quiet easily. What the original posted is getting quoted is time and material at dealership rates, of course it will seem expensive.

 

I would have swapped the internals of a working used power folding assembly for a couple hundred dollars. That's exactly what I did when I did the power folding mirror mod for my 2013 GS. I love the feature, thats my indication for the doors are locked, if I doubt myself I can just glace at the car. At least on this forum, there have been very few cases if hardly any other than yours of failure. So I would not worry about it.
Also if you bump the mirror the top can get dislodged from the base slightly and the mirrors will not fold, just turning them manually will put them back into the gear/track. This has happened to me before.

 

Just a reference but BMW has rattles and usually they just say its normal. We had a rear trunk rattle that they wouldn't fix because it was normal with the body flexing, mind you this was a brand new X5 which was $70K. Lexus just cares about its customers and that's why I continue to come back to them. Also my friends Maserati QP has rattles and they never fix them free they charge him, his car was around $148K. Cars will not always have rattles but trust me Lexus goes far and beyond to address the issue compared to other companies. Also nothing wrong with complaining its your right, you paid for it, so its expected.

 

Actually no. I didn't buy the car for the auto folding mirrors when it costs over 1k to repair after about 3-4 years of usage.
I never need to park the car in such a place that the auto folding mirrors are beneficial so the only thing I use it for is to see if the car is lock or not. I can just simply press the lock button again on my remote.

 

The irony of it all is by not using your auto folding mirror feature, it is more likely to break down. If the gears and motors are not activated every so often, things will dry up and seize.

 

Seems like more effort than dropping my car off at the dealership, getting my (complimentary) coffee & snacks while waiting for them to pull around a loaner car for me to try out for the day If I actually had to pay for it, that's a different story for sure

Yup - passenger side only
Plus it sounded like they were replacing the entire mirror assembly (SA said the part comes prepainted) - glancing over the car diagram/part breakdown, the motor can be purchased separately, but I'm not complaining about getting rid of a few rock chips
Seemed like my car was the exception and not the rule - SA said he didn't hear of one failing in any Lexus in the last 10 years at his dealership across their entire lineup. Confirmed the motor was the culprit and not the plastic housing. I personally purchased a 2014 over 2013 b/c of the folding mirrors (used to park on the streets in DC and NYC quite often). The necessity of this feature definitely depends on where you live/visit/park often.