Warranty Claims

[Bowserman]

It would be interesting to know what people have claimed for on the used car/extended warranties?

I had the extended one on my 2011 CT and never made a claim, but got a good refund when I bought my IS which really surprised me. Its a pity motor insurance doesnt do the same thing!

[Linas.P]

At ~60k miles I have claimed driver seat electric motors on RC, which is basically the same seat as IS, but has hinge to fold and let passengers into the rear. It was still working, but the back was struggling to raise-up, at first I would need to bend myself forward and later even assist it with the hand. Otherwise it would just buzz and would not raise-up

To be fair I was surprised with the costs £4200, imagine that without warranty! Secondly, one would think the whole seat is worth less and they could just replace entire seat, but instead they replaced 3 motors and bottom cushion for such amount.

Probably I should have been more vocal and demanded seat replacement rather than repair, this would have been far better considering it already had some wear on outside bolster. What I don't know is 1. if Lexus makes whole replacement seats at all 2. if Dealership simply wanted to make some money in labour time and hence decided to repair instead of replacing i.e. maybe new seat is £3000, but replacing it is 1 hour labour for £180, whereas repair parts are £2400, but required 10 hours labour.

But overall experience with Lexus warranty was very good and effortless, got the car in to get diagnosed and took the courtesy car out for nearly a week, then they called me again saying they found the issue and made claim, but the parts will take a month to ship. Actually, they didn't even demand the courtesy car back, they gave me option and I just kind of agreed to it. And after the month again they gave me courtesy car and my car was in dealership for nearly a week. During entire process I never needed to negotiate anything, dealership did all that and I don't think Lexus warranty even challenged the claim that much. Compared to third party extended warranty... especially for such cost it would have taken probably a year to reach agreement and I doubt they would have even agreed just to hand over £4200 like that.

[paulrnx]

Bought approved used last July. No claims so far.

[wharfhouse]

Made a claim on my extended warranty for a windscreen washer bottle sensor that failed (apparently around £400 to replace) and front wheel bearings (went in for noise on one front wheel but after that bearing had been replaced Lexus deemed the other side also should be replaced so did it under the extended warranty too). Not sure what the cost of replacing the front wheel bearings would have been. 

[Joe43]

Half way through my 12 month cover and not had to make a claim but it takes a lot of stress away when you see reports from those that have.

Great to see you had your seat repaired Linas.P but frightening cost of £4200 is ridiculous, must be over 10% of the original price of your car.

Having a warranty on any Lexus is a must when you see the price of parts plus labour at £180 an hour. On the plus side the Lexus warranty is possibly best on market covering a host of items not normally included and from what I've read it's a smooth straight forward procedure with courtesy car at the ready. We all want peace of mind in these uncertain times.

[Shahpor]

Have had extended warranties on both my cars.

My current GS is 2 and a half years into my ownership and hasn't had any claims (yet!).

My old IS had a few though:

• New dual mass flywheel (which was worn but wasn't causing the juddering) and heavily discounted engine mounts (that did fix the issue).
• 2 new wing mirrors.  The drivers side wouldn't dip in reverse so they replaced it.  Amazingly, they thought the passenger one would fail soon (there was no sign) and changed that at the same time.
• New drivers seat.  Was getting a popping sound on the backrest, which they thought was a broken spring.  Complete new seat frame and motors sent over from Japan and then it turns out there wasn't anything broken on the old one, so it was probably just worn out.  Horribly expensive but again, warranty covered it without fuss.
• 3 x new brake calipers.  Well know problem on 2nd gen IS's with their slide pins seizing.  Never were greased on mine, so they just replaced them instead.

All of these were done without quibble, and in most cases they had already had the work authorised by the warranty company before calling me to tell me about the issue.

Got my monies' worth out my IS warranty but not on the GS, however, regardless I still wouldn't own a Lexus without one.

[Linas.P]

17 minutes ago, Shahpor said:

• 3 x new brake calipers.  Well know problem on 2nd gen IS's with their slide pins seizing.  Never were greased on mine, so they just replaced them instead.

That is amazing, I am pretty sure callipers comes under wear and tear items and generally would not be covered. Certainly, nobody else does that on the market. I seen so many times that even where owner claims that for example shock absorbers should be replaced in pairs as recommended by workshop manual and even service centre agrees warranty... company would still reject it and only replace the broken one. 

Lexus Warranty is kind of interesting one, because Warranty is based on dealership estimation, but dealership in this case is interested to support your case and find some more thing to fix while doing so, because that is profitable for them.

29 minutes ago, Joe43 said:

Great to see you had your seat repaired Linas.P but frightening cost of £4200 is ridiculous, must be over 10% of the original price of your car.

Yes, adjusted for inflation it is almost exactly 10%. More importantly that would be ~25% of the price car is actually worth. I am still not sure whenever it would have been easier to replace entire seat.

And as for having cover or not... it kind of depends. If car is fairly new then (and being as rare as Lexus) then I would say yes indeed - Lexus warranty is great value. When car is over ~5 years old not so much. For example such used seat from US would be £800, so not as astronomical as £4200 it costed to fix it. 

I would still want to have warranty as long as possible on "F" cars - they are even rarer and if something goes wrong it may be very expensive.

[Joe43]

I can live with minor faults such as seat electrics Linas.P  Started driving in the late  '70s with Escorts Allegro's Viva's etc. all needing plenty of attention. Never afraid to skin my knuckles under the bonnet but modern cars are difficult to work on. 

I'm thinking a Lexus even after 5 years old needs to be protected with warranty, just too many electricals with potential to cause real grief but that's the price to pay for owning a desirable car. 

[Vespasian]

Hi all

I have badly corroded front brake calipers on my NX, which is still under the 3 year warranty. I took it to Lexus,Chester and was told that as the corrosion is merely cosmetic and will not affect performance of the brakes, therefore it is not covered by the warranty. I told them that I was concerned that if the corrosion is also on the back of the calipers, it may lead to leaking brake pipes which will be an MOT failure. They took the case to Lexus UK but, still...'just cosmetic and will not affect the performance of the brakes'. 

I am still not convinced, even if it is just cosmetic I think that on a car which cost almost £50k new it should be addressed! 

Any thoughts? 

[Herbie]

33 minutes ago, Vespasian said:

Hi all

I have badly corroded front brake calipers on my NX, which is still under the 3 year warranty. I took it to Lexus,Chester and was told that as the corrosion is merely cosmetic and will not affect performance of the brakes, therefore it is not covered by the warranty. I told them that I was concerned that if the corrosion is also on the back of the calipers, it may lead to leaking brake pipes which will be an MOT failure. They took the case to Lexus UK but, still...'just cosmetic and will not affect the performance of the brakes'. 

I am still not convinced, even if it is just cosmetic I think that on a car which cost almost £50k new it should be addressed! 

Any thoughts? 

I agree with Lexus - for now - but a photo or two may help us make a better informed decision.

The calipers are thick chunks of metal and any rust will just be surface/cosmetic; it's not like they could rust through. Plus, nothing is actually wrong at this moment in time. A rusty caliper may lead to rusty/corroded brake pipes that may lead to MOT failure, but none of that is happening yet.

If or when it does, that's the time to claim on the warranty.

[Vespasian]

Many thanks Herbs