When dreams of luxury cars turn into nightmares

Released on = November 9, 2005, 8:02 am

Press Release Author = NPA communications

Industry = Automotive

Press Release Summary = A consumer report.
Many people dream of owning a luxury car such as a Lexus, and, once finances allow, often head for the up-market car showrooms with their comfy sofas, gourmet coffee, overly relaxed sales people and gleaming cars to pore over brochures and listen to the sales patter why they should buy a Lexus. With all their awards for customer
service and satisfaction, it seems reassuring, but is actually owning a prestige car such as a Lexus all its cracked up to be? We investigated one mans genuine case and found quite the contrary.

Press Release Body = Mr B (not his real name) is a hard working “30 something” entrepreneur; a man who appreciates quality, and has worked his way up from a deprived inner city childhood to become a successful business person. He expects quality and looks for that in all he buys. So when, after a successful year in business, he wanted a car that fitted his newly found status, he hit the road and
trawled around the car dealers to find what he wanted. After many test drives and much research, he opted for a Lexus, an IS200 SE, to be precise, and headed to the Plymouth Lexus dealer, owned by Marsh Garages Ltd., NOT Lexus themselves, to buy his dream car. A 1 year old blue Lexus is200 SE with a cream leather interior, the car
he had always dreamed of and had worked very hard to get.

On test driving the vehicle, he found one or two faults, and to be honest, the car wasn’t that clean, but the salesman (who was incidentally aged about 20) said all will be done to Mr B’s satisfaction, and pointed out the “Lexus used car agrement”
which stated that the car, even though it was second hand, would be fully services, RAC inspected and supplied almost in an “as new” condition. They even said they would deliver the car to his house, the 1st point in their literature not to be honoured. They also said they would supply it with a full tank of fuel. Only honoured after Mr. B reminded them, and even then, he had to go & do it himself.

So confident were they, about this commitment to selling a used car in a condition that allegedly was supposed to be as good as new, that Mr B was convinced, and made his purchase. £20,000 is a lot of money to pay for a used car, and Mr B didn’t take the decision lightly, but made the purchase anyway, on a signed finance agreement
through Black Horse finance Ltd, of Cardiff, Wales.

Upon collecting their car, Mr B;s family raced off up to London to a business meeting. The fully checked and serviced car was sluggish to say the least, but Mr B resolved to return it to the dealer next week. Little did he know that this was to be the 1st of around 15 separate visits to the dealer to return the car for problems. The journey to London was marred by the fact that it started raining! Nothing
unusual in England, however the driver’s side window wiper started to detach itself from the car!! Not good at 70mph! Mr B had to pull over onto the hard shoulder, in driving rain, with his 3 year old daughter in the car to affix the wiper arms (not the blades, the actual arms) back onto the car as they were about to fall off. As can be surmised, Mr B started having doubts that his car had been prepared at all, especially as when he lifted the bonnet (the hood) and he found that the engine was utterly filthy and had never ever been cleaned, despite what the salesman had told him.

Upon arriving back at his home days later, he appraised the car himself and found that, despite he had paid £250 extra for a product called “supagard”, which apparently would protect the interior and exterior, the car was utterly filthy with dirty windows, filth encrusted around doors and the engine that had never ever been cleaned.

The problem was they had not even cleaned the car prior to applying this. Saying that, once the British rain had subsided, he realised that they had not even given the car a polish and wax either. Bear in mind at this point, Mr B had just spend 20,000 pounds on what is essentially a second hand car. He was also a little upset that he had paid £250 for what was essentially a car cleaning kit which similar
products would sell for around 30 to 40 pounds and contained largely ineffective products.

Sounds bad? It got worse! Not long after Mr. B had the vehicle, a creaking started happening from the front end. They took it back to the dealer who said he would look into it. They told Mr B they had replaced the shock absorbers (which wasn’t the problem but they did anyway, no receipt of proof was given). The creaking went on.

The car was brought back to the dealer yet again (Marsh garages Ltd, who have franchises in the south west, in this case, Devon), to cure not only the creaking, but now the alloy wheels which had started to rust and corrode quite badly. The junior salesman, who commented on this, said that there was no guarantee that the wheels they gave Mr B would not rust again!

They cleaned the car for the 4th time, this time to his satisfaction (after 3 months) and presented in back in the condition it should have been sold in. Marsh Garages appeared to want to help Mr B, even getting one of their directors involved, but the problems kept appearing with the car, and Mr B’s pleas were being ignored.

He even phoned and wrote to Lexus themselves, who merely said that, they, and I quote “we’re only the importers, and have nothing to do with the cars once it goes to a dealer.”

They also said that “If the dealer could not resolve the problem, its basically tough luck”. Those were the actual words as told to Mr. B by a person representing Lexus, a luxury car dealer. TOUGH LUCK!

After Mr. B had spent 20,000 pounds and had been let down and disappointed with the car since buying it, this was not what he wanted to hear. He then contacted the Lexus owners Club, who were not interested and didn’t even reply to his email. He then contacted Black Horse finance, the legal owners of the cars as it was on a HP hire purchase agreement, They also were not interested. He
then emailed JD Power, the people who awarded Lexus for customer care and satisfaction. Once again, no reply.

On reading Lexus’ range of glossy sales literature it’s hard to believe that anyone could not be happy with a luxury Lexus, but shown below are a few quotes and comments from their literature.
“The finest experience”: Exclusive events for Lexus owners.
Mr B was NEVER made aware of any one of these events. Only on complaining, 2 weeks before he handed the car back to the dealer in disgust was he given an invitation. Many consumers pay more for a car like this as they expect more.“Unrivalled customer service making owning a Lexus relaxing and enjoyable.” It is clear from the evidence we have seen so far that Mr B’s experience of owning a Lexus was anything but enjoyable and certainly not relaxing “After sales service designed to suit you.” It could be suggested that the after sales service is patchy and is based more upon the competence of an individual salesperson than Lexus as a whole, as it would seem
that they cannot enforce their policy to their dealers, in this case, Marsh Garages (Lexus) Ltd of Plympton, Plymouth.“……the Level of service you experienced while buying your car will continue for as
long as you remain a Lexus owner.” Once again, from the evidence we have seen, this is not the case. In fact, as the months went on, their reluctance to help Mr B, became all too apparent.“Your Lexus centre will send you a reminder before each service is due…..”

No they wont………… Mr. B discovered, 3 months late, that the car was over due its 1st MOT and thus he had been driving illegally without a valid MOT. He never bothered to check himself, as of course, he was assured that all is taken care of and he would not have to check, after all surely that is why he paid 20,ooo for a used car?

We also discovered that the vehicle (registration HF02 NKS) had not been serviced at all prior to being presented to Mr B. As part of the “used car commitment” offered by Lexus, all vehicles are supposed to be serviced, in fact one may argue that when buying a prestige car, from the main dealer, it is presumed that it is presented fully serviced, clean and free from defects. This of course was not the case. At Lexus, we put as much effort into getting our customer service right as we do our cars. ………continually asking you the customer, how we can improve our service.

Without putting too finer point on it, if Lexus had asked and then responded to the concerns of this consumer, they would not have ever had any problems with the customer’s vehicle, and the customer would be happy and not telling the world how awful it was to have owned a Lexus is200.

When the consumer approached a director of the dealership, Marsh garages, he told him about the problem with the car being sluggish. It went into the dealer and they found “nothing wrong at all” with it. So perhaps that is just Mr B being an awkward customer?

NO! Further investigation by the consumer revealed that the air filter (which he still has proof for when he sues Lexus) had NEVER been changed. At this point Mr B was incandescent with rage to think that all the times when the “factory trained expert fitters” in the Lexus/Toyota dealership in Plymouth, had not even checked
something as simple as the air filter or ever replaced it.!

It was the most clogged up air filter element that we had ever seen. Mr B was in disbelief that not only could the dealer not pick up a simple solution to the car’s poor performance, Mr B was now fixing the car himself, a task he thought he had left behind when he purchased a Lexus.

Meanwhile the creaking under the car, which Lexus could not identify, started to get worse, and louder. Mr. B resorted to keeping the car in his garage, and driving his wife’s car and he felt the vehicle was unsafe. Lexus were still not interested, and Mr B started calling various motor industry associations to see if they could help.
Alas, NO! Once again, the consumer came up against a brick wall in his attempt to have some form of recourse to end the horrible saga of owning a Lexus once and for all. Surprisingly, the organisations weren’t interested as the car was not bought brand new, even though it was sold “as new” from the main dealer.

Upon getting an examination of the vehicle, he found that the creaking was a worn ball joint, a point that should have been picked up by the Lexus dealer, marsh garages, but as now predicted, wasn’t picked up at all. In fact Mr B was labelled as a time waster by the garage.

Bear in mind Mr B does a lot of driving in his business and this was a fault that potentially at speed, could have been the cause of a fatal accident.

The director of the dealership intervened once more when Mr. B complained for about the 15th time about the unroadworthyness and poor condition of the car as supplied and it was plainly obvious that they labelled him as a nutter and they had enough of him. By this time no one would listen and it would seem, no one cared anymore.
While it could be suggested that Mr. B’s case is perhaps not the normal scenario, it may be argued that upon buying a luxury car, although the consumer thinks they have the most reliable and prestige car in its class that is sometimes NOT the case.

Mr B then got involved in a childish “cat and mouse” type scenario whereby the director of the dealership said he would do this, that and 6 others to help Mr. B, and the people who worked at the dealership had other ideas and did not offer any help at all. The director, when we handed the car back said that he could no longer help Mr B as he had exhausted all his options. He even said that he allegedly offered Mr B a replacement vehicle, a Land Rover discovery, which would have been most acceptable as a replacement, although Mr B was never ever made aware of this, so now he was in a situation where no one
believed what he was saying, the directors of the dealership were telling untruths, the people in the showroom didn’t want to know, and it would seem neither did anyone else involved with Lexus or the sale of this particular car. The car was eventually given back to the dealer as no-one would do anything to rectify the problems and issues with the car; this news article, only highlighting a few of them. Now Black Horse finance have disposed of the car (for a rock bottom price) and are threatening to take Mr B to court for an outstanding £6,000 they say they now owe him, even though he had paying £340 a month for 18 months and is now left without a car, and a black mark against his credit history. When buying a used, nearly new vehicle from a main dealer and NOT a backstreet garage, it is still worth checking EVERY single point that they say they will do, down to the smallest detail, no matter how credible they seem. It could be suggested also that, upon buying a luxury Lexus, surely the point is that the consumer doesn’t have to check to see if they have done what they have promised and they consumer surely is not expected to continually take the car back with defects and problems, and be given the cold shoulder when help is asked for?

If a car is a “lemon” it should be easy to give it back to the dealer shouldn’t it? In addition, and in Mr B’s case, an owner of a Lexus should not have to resort to DIY maintenance on the vehicle, paying for parts to be replaced that should have been covered under a warranty, and should not have gone wrong anyway.In summary, from the evidence we have collected on this matter, it would be a
prudent suggestion to NOT purchase a Lexus, after all, there are plenty of other car manufacturers who DO want to sell a quality vehicle without faults so why not go to them instead?
These manufacturers also LISTEN, genuinely listen to their customers, Lexus don’t take that view.Don’t buy a car from Marsh Garages Ltd, and don’t buy a Lexus IS200, the consumer would be better off shopping elsewhere. Who wants a car that is the
same as Alan Partridge?

After all, if buying a used Lexus from Marsh garages is supposed to be a relaxing experience, maybe stronger medication is called for before buying one?

Shame on Lexus
Shame on Marsh garages Ltd.

Stay tuned for part two of this saga, released worldwide at the end of the month (November 2005)

Web Site = http://www.neverpaintagain.co.uk

Contact Details = NPA
suite 106, city business park, devon
theboss@neverpaintagain.c.uk