rogersmith

I bought my first, brand new. LS460. Although the car has been pretty flawless, the service experience at the dealership has been pretty average. Sure they wash the car, and offer up Costco cookies, but I've had numerous instances of dropped *****. A horrible experience with the auto body shop that they referred me to. Restoring tire pressure to deal with the low tire pressure error on the dash that arose from cold weather, and then forgetting to fill the spare so the error glares at me every time I start the car, and losing a floor mat that I only noticed after I departed, and other lost items.

I had this idea that when you spent close to $90,000 on a car, they'd be very attentive about such matters. Instead, it's not much different than having a Corolla serviced at the local Toyota place.

Maybe you need to buy a BMW or a Mercedes S550 to get good service? Or are my expectations out of line?

Rog

Oliver Enterprises

Roger - For years I worked in the automotive field, for oems, in engineering. But I spent a fairly large amount of time at dealerships, service departments, etc. And hearing about warranty work. And in my opinion, it is normal to EXPECT better service based on the amount of money spent on a car. But in my history in automotive, I never experienced an oem dealership service department that were after anything but a quick buck. Whether from the customer or from corporate. First, the guys in the back are not rocket scientists, but that's not to say they're Neanderthals either (at least not all of them). And secondly, they system is set up so that they get paid "shop time" for a job. If they can do a 2 hour job in 1.5 hours, they (or at least the shop) gets the full 2 hours of pay. I don't know exactly how they split that up. Meaning I don't know if the "technician" gets it all, or what. But that combination of the first and second points leads to absolute crap for work quality.

It's unfortunate. Especially at a Lexus dealership. I do top quality work to my own cars. But I'm guessing there's going to be a day and an age, where I'm not going to want to do that kind of labor any longer. And then I will leave a service experience fuming every time.

Jason

Wandl

I've found my Lexus dealership experience stellar at Park Place Lexus in Dallas, unfortunately I've heard of many stories that provide a very differing Lexus experience. Be it a $18k Lexus purchase (was a pre-owned ES with a friend) or a LS purchase, the experience for me has been consistently good-great. Significantly better than the dealership experience at Honda (for my wife's Pilot) or Ford (my previous car). I'd either explore a different Lexus dealership or, like many, just explore doing your maintenance at the Toyota dealership for less-frills but lower cost for a very similar mechanical expertise?

SW17LS

Service is VERY uneven from dealer to dealer. Thats not unique to Lexus, its true of dealers of all brands. Some dealers are great, some are lousy, and some are middle of the road. Do you have any other dealers locally?

Junglequac

Roger,
That is both surprising and disappointing. Even in little ole Knoxville, the Service Department have been quite good and aside from being a little email survey crazy, have been excellent.

Especially when buying a flagship from a company that aspires to being held in the same light as MB, BMW, et al, you truly deserve more. Have you brought up any of your concerns to the Service Manager? And should you not get a satisfactory response the General Manager?

As for the body shop, I would think they would have ever reason in the world to recommend the best possible place to have your car fixed. What happened at the body shop?

Kennyr44

A dealer service department has too many moving parts. Service writer, minimum wage kid to move your car around, tech, wash guys or girls, more kids moving your car around, cashier etc. The list goes on. This is an accident waiting to happen. A good owner operated brand specific indie shop eliminates some of this but your stuck during the warranty period. The system is set up to work but anything can happen sooner or later like in your case.

bostonsnow

Thats too bad. As some have mentioned, dealer quality can vary considerably. When I was in MA, I used to go to Herb Chambers Lexus in Sharon, and had great experiences with being a customer there, but that was 3 years ago . If you are near enough to them, consider it and ask for Service Advisor Ronni Travers.

rogersmith

After four weeks in the shop, they returned the car with a parking sensor pushed into the bumper, the trunk absolutely filthy with auto body dust and dirt, missing fasteners in the trunk, a huge chunk of dust adhered to the paint, and a mismounted two way radio antenna that thanks to improper drilling location, now bangs on the roof when I open the trunk. And to finish up, the shop stole a case of Poland Spring water from my trunk, and stiffed me for the rental that they promised to pay for. Took me four months of multiple phone calls to get the rental paid.

Junglequac

Jesus wept. Did you raise cain with the body shop? It makes no sense for a mainline dealer to recommend an incompetent place to have a $90,000 car fixed. Kickbacks or not as if it is that bad, they would lose all credibility.

Might have been a rogue advisor whose father owns the shop! That is crazy. Especially there being dust when repair shops working on expensive cars and most cars do it in a dust free space. The water might have been an honest mistake...

mcomer

Log onto www.dealerrater.com Place a comment in either or both the New Car Dealer and the Body Shop.

SW17LS

That works by the way. I had a negative experience servicing my Kia minivan and did that, the dealership GM contacted me and Kia contacted me.

Kennyr44

Sounds pretty bad. I just picked up my 4 runner from a body shop repair and got down the street and had my miles to empty show 1 mile left. I dropped it off with a full tank. They must have drained it to do the repair and left it dry.

UZ214

I agree ; my local Delaware dealer is horrible- I never have a pleasant experience with them.
I usuallygo to dealer 40 to 60miles north or south.
Have bought about 11 Lexus last few years none from my local dealer

Doublebase

Obviously the huge advantage to a dealer is they know the brand, they know the tricks, other than that? Keep in mind they are moving fast, time is money, it's a race to beat the clock...nothing more, nothing less. All the frills are built into the labor rate. If you can find yourself a good one it means that at THAT point in TIME they have themselves great techs and service writers. It doesn't mean it will stay that way, a lot of these guys move around for greener pastures, there aren't too many techs that want to stay in that rat race...and there aren't too many writers that aren't on the look out for service manager jobs and moving up. As they all should.

Junglequac

While quite pleased with my now local dealer, when I lived in SW Florida, I was not a big fan of Wilde Lexus in Sarasota. Thankfully, I lived about an hour North of two dealers and was able to go elsewhere. Blessed are those who have multiple dealers within a reasonable driving distance as the competition has to make an impact on how they choose to treat their customers.

In truth, I have heard mixed experiences about the dealer I use and fear much of the goodwill I have been extended is a byproduct of my family purchasing I think 11 brand new Lexii and all being serviced there until they purchase another. Of my parents/stepparents, only my mother does not drive a Lexus (ML350 and she is getting rid of it) and the other 3 have purchased between 5 and 3. In addition, I did all my servicing on my LX470 and the short time I had the 430 at the dealer and spent thousands between them.