2017 Lexus LS460 Normal or Abnormal Problems? Lemon?
11-30-17, 10:07 AM
#46
Lexus Champion
Well, all we can go off of is our own experiences right? Based on my own experiences Lexus dealer service and corporate service today is nowhere near what it was when I was first a Lexus customer in 1998, and it lags behind service I've gotten from other brands I've owned today. I would rate Lexus as quite difficult to deal with when it comes time to get them to really stand behind their product.
I've had many conversations with my mechanic who was a Lexus master tech for 15+ years before opening his own shop as to why it is the way it is. Lexus empowers dealers to make decisions about what to cover and what not to, BUT after the fact if they decide a repair should not have been covered, they stick the dealer with it. The dealer has no way to know if Lexus will or will not honor the repair until they've done the repair, which is why dealers are so skittish about committing to warranty work.
Will they take the risk for you? How good a customer are you? Are you somebody who uses the dealer for everything? Are you a new customer they have no history with? Are you the type that seems hard to please?
I've had many conversations with my mechanic who was a Lexus master tech for 15+ years before opening his own shop as to why it is the way it is. Lexus empowers dealers to make decisions about what to cover and what not to, BUT after the fact if they decide a repair should not have been covered, they stick the dealer with it. The dealer has no way to know if Lexus will or will not honor the repair until they've done the repair, which is why dealers are so skittish about committing to warranty work.
Will they take the risk for you? How good a customer are you? Are you somebody who uses the dealer for everything? Are you a new customer they have no history with? Are you the type that seems hard to please?
01-24-18, 05:12 PM
#47
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Well, thank you all for the responses. I wanted to follow up. I received a call from Lexus today and to no surprise they said they will not do anything either from the buyback department. To answer the question that kept coming up bring it into another dealership. I did about a week ago because it’s still happening, I brought it into Lexus of Ontario. They by far did the shortest test drive 1.1 miles while it was in their hands. They said the car drives normally and there were no codes. So 3 dealerships have evaluated my car 3 dealerships have put minimal miles on it, only one of them found a faint scraping noise coming from
under the hood which they documented. They are unable to determine where or what’s going on or if it’s related. It’s noted in my paperwork though. They tell me that it’s good it’s documented, which doesn’t help me when my car hesitates when I’m pulling into traffic. Anyways I have no solutions. I just wanted to follow up since I don’t like threads with no conclusions or final answers. My issue I think is evolving but still intermittent. Yesterday while traveling home from work on the freeway I didn’t pick up or reduce speed but my car just kicked like I was bumped from behind, no loss of power or anything just a kick and then when I got off the freeway it was hanging on to gears like revving pretty high between gear changes for about a block then it stopped too short for me to record it while driving . Also they didn’t do anything about my headliner either besides tell me it’s normal. So far I’m sorry but this is my first Lexus and it hasn’t been the best experience. I don’t know what else to do or where else to go I could have told them it doesn’t qualify under lemon law as written. I was hoping that they would not make their customers deal with something problematic or at least maybe force the dealers to put more than one mile on the car or maybe had a solution to monitor the problem. Oh well, now I’m rambling. I hope that answers all of your questions if anyone has additional insight it would be appreciated.
under the hood which they documented. They are unable to determine where or what’s going on or if it’s related. It’s noted in my paperwork though. They tell me that it’s good it’s documented, which doesn’t help me when my car hesitates when I’m pulling into traffic. Anyways I have no solutions. I just wanted to follow up since I don’t like threads with no conclusions or final answers. My issue I think is evolving but still intermittent. Yesterday while traveling home from work on the freeway I didn’t pick up or reduce speed but my car just kicked like I was bumped from behind, no loss of power or anything just a kick and then when I got off the freeway it was hanging on to gears like revving pretty high between gear changes for about a block then it stopped too short for me to record it while driving . Also they didn’t do anything about my headliner either besides tell me it’s normal. So far I’m sorry but this is my first Lexus and it hasn’t been the best experience. I don’t know what else to do or where else to go I could have told them it doesn’t qualify under lemon law as written. I was hoping that they would not make their customers deal with something problematic or at least maybe force the dealers to put more than one mile on the car or maybe had a solution to monitor the problem. Oh well, now I’m rambling. I hope that answers all of your questions if anyone has additional insight it would be appreciated.
01-24-18, 05:26 PM
#48
May try a Toyota dealer if you don't have another Lexus one close by. You won't get the level of customer service you're accostomed to at a Lexus dealer, but they might fix the car...I'd take that as a trade off.
01-24-18, 06:08 PM
#49
Lexus Fanatic
Toyota won't do any warranty work on a Lexus unfortunately...unless there aren't any Lexus dealers around and they have to.
01-24-18, 07:36 PM
#50
01-24-18, 07:54 PM
#51
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
I didn’t know how that would go in Southern California quite a few Lexus dealerships have a Toyota dealer nearby. I was picturing going to Toyota escondido and then saying, why don’t you go to Lexus escondido. Or Toyota and Lexus of riverside or crown Toyota and crown Lexus. The only ones I could think of that aren’t accompanied by Lexus dealers are like Toyota Temecula or Toyota Hemet and both are about as far as riverside Lexus from me. Good thought though!
03-09-18, 10:01 AM
#52
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Response from Toyota Japan Corporate Headquarters.
So before everyone says I told you so, I did the following because I wanted to. I assumed it would amount to nothing I did it purely because I wanted to. What I did was send a letter to Akio Toyoda/Toyota corporate headquarters in Japan about the headaches and ongoing headaches with my car. I had zero expectation of a response and if I received a response I had zero expectation it would amount to anything or resolve anything. Anyways to my surprise I received what appears to be a hand signed letter from a department manager in Japan. It didn’t solve anything and I feel when Lexus corporate reached out to me I was told to pound salt. But the cool factor, all disappointments aside, was that they wrote me back obviously they didn’t have to. Anyways I wanted to let everyone know what happens when you write Toyota Japan. Just in car anyone had the same curiosity.
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sha4000 (03-11-18)
03-09-18, 11:17 AM
#53
Racer
Sorry that the OP has had a disastrous experience with a brand new LS and unresponsive dealerships. I would be very annoyed to have paid all that money only to have bought endless problems with the car and be dismissed after the sale. Definitely not typical from a Lexus LS. Probably a perfect storm of circumstances to produce such a subpar LS.
What about brining it into an independent mechanic? It would probably entail some out-of-pocket expense for a diagnosis but perhaps the indie shop will pay more attention and be able to reproduce/document all the issues. Can indie shops perform warranty work? If not, then at least it can be verified by the mechanic that there are problems and then send the invoice to Lexus for reimbursement, or send it to a lawyer or to the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.
What about brining it into an independent mechanic? It would probably entail some out-of-pocket expense for a diagnosis but perhaps the indie shop will pay more attention and be able to reproduce/document all the issues. Can indie shops perform warranty work? If not, then at least it can be verified by the mechanic that there are problems and then send the invoice to Lexus for reimbursement, or send it to a lawyer or to the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.
03-11-18, 03:47 AM
#54
Response from Toyota Japan Corporate Headquarters.
So before everyone says I told you so, I did the following because I wanted to. I assumed it would amount to nothing I did it purely because I wanted to. What I did was send a letter to Akio Toyoda/Toyota corporate headquarters in Japan about the headaches and ongoing headaches with my car. I had zero expectation of a response and if I received a response I had zero expectation it would amount to anything or resolve anything. Anyways to my surprise I received what appears to be a hand signed letter from a department manager in Japan. It didn’t solve anything and I feel when Lexus corporate reached out to me I was told to pound salt. But the cool factor, all disappointments aside, was that they wrote me back obviously they didn’t have to. Anyways I wanted to let everyone know what happens when you write Toyota Japan. Just in car anyone had the same curiosity.
03-11-18, 06:48 PM
#55
Since I was a dealership mechanic doing warranty work along with customer pay work for 25 years let me say a cannot duplicate situation is just as big a nightmare for the service writer and mechanic as for the customer. As everyone knows all dealership mechanics and service writers are on 100% commission. Nobody gets paid to troubleshoot anything (although Mercedes has the best warranty compensation I have been told by their mechanics). All you get paid for is replacing the parts usually. So the more time you spend looking for intermittent problems or any problem, the more time which is money you are losing. They want to help you but their hands are tied. It was stressful on a daily basis so I'm glad I'm retired.
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sha4000 (03-11-18)
03-11-18, 07:35 PM
#56
Since I was a dealership mechanic doing warranty work along with customer pay work for 25 years let me say a cannot duplicate situation is just as big a nightmare for the service writer and mechanic as for the customer. As everyone knows all dealership mechanics and service writers are on 100% commission. Nobody gets paid to troubleshoot anything (although Mercedes has the best warranty compensation I have been told by their mechanics). All you get paid for is replacing the parts usually. So the more time you spend looking for intermittent problems or any problem, the more time which is money you are losing. They want to help you but their hands are tied. It was stressful on a daily basis so I'm glad I'm retired.
03-21-18, 08:07 AM
#58
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
So I figured I would post this on the same thread since it’s the same car and it is more issues. I’ve had an issue with my trunk lid recently with it not opening correctly or opening then grinding and beeping it’s way halfway back down. I found out the dealership even with a video of the trunk problem will still not attempt a repair unless they can duplicate it. Well this trunk problem is intermittent as well. Please see the video. If anyone on here has had the exact same issue please let me know what was done to resolve it. The dealer shop foreman said the trunk shouldn’t do that even in a driveway. I am unsure of what to do with this as well as they sent me away with another unable to duplicate problem. I push the button it opens and then without being prompted it comes back down and makes a crunching grinding noise and stops about half way back down. I still have my running issues, my headliner issues and my loose front bumper issues which seem to be unfixable now I have a trunk lid issue. Attached is the You Tube link.
Last edited by alexsystem; 03-21-18 at 10:44 AM.
03-21-18, 10:47 AM
#60
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
I have been to 3 dealerships so far. If I have to go to a 4th it’s not going to be a Lexus dealer and it’s not going to be for service 😅 I appreciate the reply. If anyone has had an issue like my trunk issue before I’d be interested to hear what had to be fixed.