When you think about it - A class action lawsuit could exist against Lexus for their air suspension issues on the ultra.

We all know that they exist - cars don't sit level, right rear air shocks fail, and Lexus refuses to acknowledge any problem nor do anything about it.

Acura lost a class action suit regarding the poor tire wear on the NSX. They settled it by offering free tires for the life of the car while the orig. owner had the car. I don't offer this as an equivocation, but rather to show that car manufacturers have lost suits based on lesser issues.

The more I think about this problem, and the Lexus rep telling me that there is nothing wrong with my Ultra, the angrier I get.

 

mafpolo,
Did you ever hire an attorney to handle your class action lawsuit? With Toyota now coming under fire about other issues, I'm wondering how many Lexus problems should have actually been a recall. Have they just been hiding from the truth?

 

Since Toyota lost 5 1/2 billion dollars last year, my bet is they're ignoring it and hoping the problem will go away.
I have a UL, too. <sigh>

David

 

I'm curious of the details. What are your car's symptoms? Is it still under warranty? Is the rep seeing what you're seeing, but refusing to acknowledge it?

 

If Mercedes won't fix (or admit a problem) the airmatic suspension system on the 00-06 S class (which had 10x more issues then any LS), then I surely can't see Lexus fixing any of their cars. Normally the only one who wins in a class action suit is the law firm taking on the corporation. You may get something like $16.78 out of a win, but that's about it.

 

Yes, the car may lean slightly, but to my knowledge it's neither a safety issue or something that hinders the operation of the vehicle in any way right? I know that you can pretty much sue anything (a tree, a dog, a statue), but in this case, I don't think the issue goes beyond being a cosmetic issue.

It's not like the sludge issue of the 3.0L V-6 engines in the Camry, RX300, etc. which was an obvious flaw that impacted the operation of the vehicle.

 

I think the OP's emphasis is on the "premature" air suspension/strut failure, not so much on the gangsta lean or how the car looks.

 

Ahhh.... okay. If so, from reading here on UL owner's who have had the issue, most are occuring around 80K to 100K right? No court is going to side with the owners here, especially on a suspension part which is just wear-n-tear. Also, just based on forum numbers, the issue is probably skewed because most members that come on are coming on because they're experiencing issues. So on the forums it may seem the issue is affecting 6 out of 10 people, but in reality, it might be 12 out of 100 people. Plus, it's not like the air suspension is blowing out at 40K or something.

Anyway, I'm not an UL owner, so don't affect me... Actually the air was one of the reasons I kind of stayed away from the UL. Didn't think it would last very long even without the "issue" noted, and I had no use for the rear entertainment extras as I have three child seats in the back.

 

If by "premature" people are meaning prior to the expiration of warranty and they will not fix or recognize the problem, that's one thing. If they are asking a company to, in effect, extend the warranty, that's silly, IMO. There's a similar discussion on the GX board about a small fraction of the GX vehicles that had cracks develop in the dash padding after warranty expired and some think Toyota should fix all of them at no charge even though there is no warranty. What's next? A class-action suit asking for a lifetime paint guarantee?

Tort reform needed.

 

I italicized and quoted the word premature on my first post, because that word can be subjective, depending on who is doing the evaluating.

From an owners standpoint, most would agree if it had a pattern of failure before an "unreasonable" amount of time or mileage (REGARDLESS if it's in/out of warranty), then yes...it's premature.

If you're the manufacturer, your perspective (probably even for Lexus) would include: Is the vehicle still within it's warranty period? If not, then sorry, nothing we can do about it/no goodwill.

Ahhh...but then again, there's those darn italics and quotes again around the word unreasonable.

Hypothetically----what if a high percentage of UL owners (~40%) see failures ~45,000 miles or ~5.5 years?

What would your take be, regarding Lexus' obligations, if any?

 

The OP never came back and answered questions about the circumstances -- failed under warranty, or post-warranty? If the latter, none of the scenarios noted above create a legal obligation for replacement or repair. It's up the the company to decide whether or not they want to replace a wear item that is beyond the warranty period. It has no place in a class-action lawsuit.

First of all, I'd guess that frequency (40%/45K miles) is several times over-stated from reality. That aside, assuming that the failure did happen that often, it would STILL be up to Toyota to decide how they want to handle out-of-warranty situations. It should not be up to a judge to decide if he wants to impose an extended warranty on a wear item. A warranty is the statement from the manufacturer of how long they will guarantee the servicability of a product. Beyond that, there isn't, nor should there be, any legal responsibility for a manufacturer to guarantee anything to people who didn't do their homework, but just "expect" an air suspension to last as long as a conventional suspension. As a whole they never have, and probably never will. I see no justification for the courts to be deciding if wear items should carry longer warranties than the manufacturer clearly states.

 

Every air suspension system fails overtime. Im not sure why this one would qualify for a recall. Power steering leak was a huge issue for early model LS' and they were never recalled, despite being a more serious concern then A/S.

It was the buyers choice to buy this option to begin with. Considering that many of us are second hand owners, i dont frankly think Lexus will do much anyways.

Mercedes owners have been crying for years over costly A/S systems and no one moved an eye lash in the German corporate office.