Just had a family member recently deal with Tucson Lexus on 4373 E. Speedway BLVD. Our lexus ls 400 broke down on my sister and was towed to this dealer. The dealer diagnosed it with a bad starter and many other problems, but said the starter was the main issue. They said it would cost $1100 to fix the starter. My father was called in cave creek and informed of this. He decided to drive down from phoenix and pick the car up himself.

After picking up the car(4-5 hour round trip) this is what he found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjzV4xwzjeU

 

$1100 for starter?

Go to Lexus of Chandler... Staff are very friendly and courteous.

 

Starters failures are common on that model year. Jumping the car can cause an arch allowing the vehicle to start. Most likely it will fail again soon.

 

Right he will be fixing it on his own now. The car wasn't jump he charged the battery fully and it started right up. The starter didn't struggle at all-- not a starter issue. They obviously didn't do much trouble shooting if a simple charge caused it to start with ease.

 

Starter contacts and the starter themselves are a common issue for these years of this engine. Seems like they either just assumed that to be the issue. I hate dealer service, or any other mechanic service really. I've had mis-diagnosed problems on many cars by many different mechanics. I'll stick to working on my own vehicles.

 

So why does this make Tucson Lexus a bad dealer? How do you know your starter isnt infact bad and will fail again shortly. $1100 for a start replacement at a dealer is legit. Its not a simple job on that vehicle as its located under the intake manifold.

Misdiagnosis happens, it can happen at any dealer by any mechanic. Hopefully this just isnt a case of carelessness by a tech, but I wouldnt jump to conclusions and bad mouth an entire dealer over this one incident which in fact, may not even be legit.

 

Odds are it was carelessness on behalf of the tech. If a car does not start, one of the first things a tech SHOULD check is the battery charge.

 

TL dropped the ball big time. This is car repair 101.

It's complete BS to say it's okay and mistakes happen when you're looking at $1,100 in unnecessary repairs.

Eddie

 

Agreed. However I would have to say the error is not on behalf of Tucson Lexus itself. The technician and service advisor that let this happen are the ones to be held responsible, not the dealership as a whole.

 

i don't have a lot of patience for incompetence. you won't see me down there anytime soon.

just like, I took a vehicle to greulichs to check on a radiator issue because my car overheated on Raintree and 82nd street. they said the block was cracked and they did a compression test on my old infiniti g20 and said i needed a new motor and it would cost $2,500.

i was like - WTF?

i walked over since I worked near by and drove it out of there to my trusted mechanic who was further away. the car ended up going another 30k miles.

i was so pissed off that they tried to pull a fast one on me, I was tempted to camp out in front of their shop with a big sign saying "greulichs = scammers". luckily for them, i had to work...

but hmmmmmmmmmmm- now i don't...


lol.

c.