So I took my car to Koons lexus of wilmintgon for a noise i was getting from the steering wheel. They checked it out told me i needed a new steering rack and that mine was cracked and they would cover it under warranty. While fixing it he told me the sub frame was cracked and i would have to pay out of pocket. I called my insurance company and my adjuster went to check it out to cover the sub frame only, since the steering rack was done under warranty. Today i talked to lexus told them my adjuster is coming out Monday for a second time and all of a sudden they wont cover the steering rack because it looks like it happened due to an accident. This is after he said they covered it under warranty and the work is already completed. I find this very unfair and if it goes under my insurance its going to cost me a limb in the long run. My main concern was they said it was covered, finished the work and now its an issue? Any ideas or options.

thanks,

jesh

 

Call Lexus corporate and report it.

 

They cant retreat like that.

Escalate the issue and dont accept whatever they tell you.

 

tell them you refuse to pay coz' they have declared item under warranty

 

I'm not taking anyone's side here, but the dealer might have a case. If you are reporting it to your insurance company, then they may feel the damage was the result of some type of accident or road hazard. If that is the case, it is not a manufacturer defect. Some dealers generously cover certain failures under warranty even though the cause was the driver's fault.

Don't misunderstand me Jesh, I'm not in any way saying it was your fault. I'm just saying I can see where the dealer may have concerns about the cause of the damage.

On a side note, I'm not sure this forum should allow the posting of the names of dealers (or individuals at dealerships) where there are complaints since they aren't here to tell their side of the story.

 

The issue is that they agreed up front to do it as a warranty repair. Perhaps that was a mistake, but it was their mistake. If they wanted to change their mind before the work was done that's one thing, but to complete the repair, then say they want to charge for it is unethical.

There was no authorization from the customer to pay for the work, legally I don't think they have a leg to stand on.

And as for posting names of dealers, dealers get both positive and negative reviews on here, hopefully the good ones will benefit and the bad ones will suffer. I say keep posting the names.

 

Was this a pre-owned and/or has the car been in a collision? If so, the initial service write-up was under the presumption there was no damage to the item in question. Having found it was damaged due to a crash, they wouldn't be obligated to warranty the assembly since the damage was not a manufactured defect or failure of a normal use part.

Certainly take it up with them and see what they will do.

 

Let me ask you this. Did the dealer submit and make you sign any paperwork that authorized the steering rack replacement? You clearly never verbally agreed to it. Most states require any auto repair over $100-150 to be authorized by the customer before the repair can be completed. If you never received any paperwork and never authorized the repair, then they are in direct violation of the law. They must pay for the work and must release the car to you. I wouldn't allow them to complete any more work on the car. They are done. I would tell them you are coming to pick up the car and see what they do. If they refuse to release it, call the Police, file a report and threaten to sue them for illegally detaining your property and to stop them from putting a lien on your title. Just calling the Police may be enough to end this.

 

Most likely when they found out an insurance company would be involved they figured the rack would be included on it. If there was a past accident the it would be covered under that claim. The dealer does not want to have the rack $$ go against their dealer if it is not a Lexus issue.

That being said they should have said something at the point where they saw it was accident related. Not when it was done. My guess is in the paragraph above. They now know an insurance company is involved and were actually going to cover the part they agreed to as a customer service even though they realized it was accident related but were stopping at that point. Run a Carfax and maybe it can be covered under the past accident.