factrans

I get my 2004 RX 330 on Saturday from Rallye Lexus of Glen Cove, here in NY, and sure enough, the thing up and dies on me in my driveway. I swear, I was shouting bullets, they came and towed it, and now they're "working on it." Any advice? Anyone have this problem with their lexus? It has 14 miles on it. The dealer says something is wrong with the computer, a result of a battery drain.

Am I going to spend the rest of my life with this P.O.S. at the dealer getting it fixed? The reviews I've read are all pretty stellar. Anyone help?

Stryke

From what I hear, Lexus service is second to none so if you're uneasy with this car, why not demand a replacement? You bought a new car and are entitled to take delivery of one that makes you happy!

factrans

Yeah, they just dropped off a loaner, they said if I want a new one, it'll take another month, so I guess I'll just see if this car is ok.

MellonC00

I'd second the "new one" option. You hardly have any mileage on it. Why mess with what could be a lemon? I guess waiting for a month is pretty tough but I am sure your dealer can arrange something for you.

factrans

You think I'll end up getting screwed if I just trust them to fix it? They gave me a loaner, and they said it should be perfect in 2 days. This is not a small dealer, they're pretty well established. The woman who owns the place just bought the first Mercedes SLR for like 2 mil.

blue_rx330

>>the thing up and dies on me in my driveway

Can you be a little more specific? For example, Any car can have a bad battery or bad alternator. Hopefully that's all it is.

If it were me, I'd take the new one. The loaner should be free while you wait.

Or if you can't wait -- negotiate!. They might be willing to give you something for your troubles such as a 7 year/100K full warranty for peace-of-mind.

Or better yet, exchange it for a SC430 and call it even.

parula

IMO Lexus is great with these types of things, I'll bet you have your car back as predicted. Mechanically I can rave about both cars so far, no problems, body issues are another matter but not too major. When I test drove a 330 for 10 minutes we loved it. Guess is you'll be fine in a day or so. Relax, Lexus is great.

nyca

get a new one, keep one of their loaners for a month while it comes in. Rallye can afford it.

why would she "buy" an SLR, Rallye has a huge MB dealership, she'll just drive it for a while and flip it as a "used" car at their dealership.

factrans

Update:

They were really nice, two guys drove the loaner to my house, dropped it off. I like the idea of using it as leverage for an extended warranty.

I read an article that she bought the FIRST SLR in the states at auction.

RX300-BV

I'd have to recommend you opt for a new RX and wait a month. If the car you had is possibly a lemon, as defined by your state's lemon law, it could and probably would completely sour your experience with Lexus. Although Lexus may service and repair your car, repeated trips into the service bay, even under warranty coverage would be a turn off.

Personally, I wouldn't take the chance and risk your RX being a lemon. Opt for the new one.

Oh and one other thing, although they may fix this current problem, if this RX happens to be the one bad one out of several thousand, there could be several other things really wrong with this one RX.

HarrierAWD

I get my 2004 RX 330 on Saturday from Rallye Lexus of Glen Cove, here in NY,

Not necessarily. I got my RX300 from that very same Rallye Glen Cove dealership. While the sales experience was very good, their service dept. absolutely sucked. The parts dept. guy was totally unfriendly. Good thing that I moved to Colorado. I found a good Lexus dealership service here, plus a Toyota oil change place.

My RX300 had alignment problem right from the start. The tech claimed that the left two tires had low pressure (F____ B__S__!) so he can avoid doing the work. And they overfilled the crankcase by at least 1/2 quart. Even Grease Monkey high school dropouts only overfilles by 1/4 qt. Although they eventually fixed the alignment and took out some oil. I never visited their service dept. again.

I'd demand a brand new replacement. Don't let the tech at this dealership mess with the car.

factrans

I got my car back last night, drove it and it seems fine. I filed a complaint with Lexus, and asked them to give me a 7 year extended warranty. The lemon laws in NY are pretty specific. Regardless it still pisses me off that this happened. I will definitely re-post if something else happens. Hopefully you all won't hear from me again, nevertheless, thanks for the advice.

Stryke

When I said service I should have been more specific. I didn't mean service as in repairs, but rather service as in customer service.

Hopefully not in a bad situation, but would love it if you stayed around to talk about the positives!

spinteews

damn....

i would had demanded for a NEW rx... if you have to wait a month... then ask what they had avaliable and see if they can MATCH or make better of the one you did have which lemoned on you.. ( as in packages) so you dont have to wait that whole month for your new car. If you have to wait then i would tell them to let you keep the loaner until your new car arrives.

I would also then ask for the extended warrenty... on top of the new car.. since you are worried somethign will happen...

if i was in this situation i wouldn't have kept the faulty car at all. and did the above.

but since you do have that car and kept it... i would go back at once and demand a new car if any other problems occur asap.

good luck...

parula

Factrans, I think its a great car from my test drive and seeing a bunch of them around, I WANT ONE.

Good luck, I can somewhat understand your apprehension but I'll guess it's fine from here on and you'll really like, or love, the car.

Give us an update in about a month.