Bolton Lexus - Never Again

[93_LS400]

I paid about £300 for an external (non-garage ) AA inspection that was very critical , included up on the lift and a road test and didn't pull any punches - when it came to negotiate it was like gold in the pocket.

Caveat Emptor. Remember at the end of the day you are dealing with a 'used car salesman'.

Since I'm in Ireland - was the price LexusLexus paid above or below the norm for the car ?

[MsW]

Copied to the Editor of:

Auto Express

Top Gear

Car

Japanese Performance

Autocar

The Sunday Times Motoring Section

Mike Rutherford (of Talksport Motor show and Daily Mirror)

James Whale ( cos he is a C U Next Tuesday)

:

Don't forget Honest John the Saturday Telegraph's motoring chap

(We like his website, too)

[lexuslexus]

The price I paid was about right - but it has been suggested to me that as the car had accident damage and the underneath was covered in thick mud it may have been in an accident and perhaps off road into a field. Maybe the gearbox was damaged and as the mud was not cleaned off they couldn't have checked the undeneath for damage very carefully. What is interesting is that I rang the previous keeper who told me the car had had no accident damage. I think you are right about the quality of the RAC inspections, this car had paint flaking off but t was not reported. I have emailled this thread to Lexus Bolton and asked LGB to have a look. Strangely the customer services person who I spoke to seemed not to be aware of this website - heads in sand?

[insider]

lexus gb dont in fact pay for local dealer advirtising that is dealer specific although lexus as far as i am aware have guidelines and templates dealers r supposed to use to sell the brand,lgb are aware of the club and of this site as are many dealers,people sometimes are to ready to blame lgb for everything rather than battling with the dealer who sold/damaged or just fails to deliver the experience and ownership that the customer expects.lexus as a company work very hard at impressing on dealers the need to deliver and live up to the lexus experience and in particular to deliver this to customers at all times,it is a shame not all dealers/salespeople/technichans are able to perform to these standards,i know this doesnt help anybody who has been let down by their dealer but sometimes there r things going on behind the public eye and people working to get these problems resolved and while things cud always be better the cars and most of the dealers do deliver, suppose people r gonna say what a t**t and have a pop at me now for posting this but sometimes there r things going on that people arnt aware of and unfortunatley bad dealers are always going to be present as all companies have sum bad personnel ;) :(

[Monster-Mat]

well said insider...........

[rhaines]

insider why would people have a pop, your comments are true and straight to the point and needed to be sadi :D

[lexuslexus]

Local dealers may well pay for their own local advertising but they cetainly don't pay directly for, or design, the various glossy brochures that you can pick up in any Lexus dealership. or for the website. Next time your'e in one have a read of the claims that Lexus GB make about 'the lexus experience', 'putting customers first' and I quote - 'At Lexus, we believe what makes owning a Lexus special, unique even, is the way we treat our customers' This I presume is a corporate 'We' - Just have a look at some of their claims on their website. My point is that you should get what you pay for. If I wanted this kind of service I would have gone to a back street garage. I reckon I paid nearly £2k extra to get the security and quality of the 'Lexus experience' and look what I got. When you compare this with my experience of buying privately - one owner car, FLSH, cambelts changed early, no faults, a '98 car with 58000mls for £12400 and the man I bought it off was charming and honest or the Bolton Lexus car - '99 with 57500 miles, 3 owners, accident damage, mud caked underside, just coming up to cambelts, poor rear tyres, at £17000. and the salesman treated me like a fool. I appreciate I had no warranty so I have just put an AA parts and labour warranty on for £52 for the year.

[Claire G]

Still hope they take some action though, this seems a resolvable situation.

I think Lexus are getting a little complacent due to their success with the JD Powers survey etc. Ever heard of not resting on their laurels ?! :)

[lexuslexus]

very resolveable - I have already told them I would accept a sum of £200 to cover my expenses but so far no response - I will litigate in the County Court on the 1st Sept. if I don't receive a response soon. Incidently I registered the car in my wife's name and we are still waiting for the V5 to come back to us from Swansea, problem is we are going away on holiday for up to a month soon.

[Loz]

Tip,

Take the papers you intend to submit to the court to the dealer principle. Ask him to read them in front of you and Respond before you submit them to the county court.

I am almost certain you will not wind up in court. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if nothing else I said is worth a damn. take this advice on board!

[lexuslexus]

wrote to Lexus GB on the 6th August - still had no response from them or Bolton. Lexus GB told me ( when I phoned them) they had posted a letter 1st class last wednesday, its now Sat and no sign of it. Wrote to Bolton stating my intention to go to County Court on Sept 1st. to recover my expenses etc. I'll post the outcome of that action in a few months.

[lexuslexus]

Update - I have still not received a response letter from LGB for my letter of 6th Aug. I have received no response from Bolton Lexus. LGB tell me that Bolton Lexus are refusing to talk to me. ( ahh didums ). So presumeably they have no interest in resolving this matter out of court - so much for customer service. I am awaiting an update from Bolton Trading Standards later today and I will litigate in the Salford County Court on Monday 1st Sept. Interestingly though, Bolton keep phoning me for the V5 for this car, sadly I am about to go away caravaning for a month so unless I feel like going to the trouble of having a friend check the mail and post it on they are in for a long wait.

[lexuslexus]

Bolton Lexus are now re advertising this car ( on the lexus website ) - 1999 fiord mist ls400 at £17995. I wonder if they will describe it correctly to a new enquiry - should be 58,000 miles and now 4 owners, and they should mention the breakdown if asked directly. Anyone want to try? If they do then at least some good has come of all this. Interesting how they are going to sell it with no V5?

[Loz]

interesting.... I feel some mischief comming on....

now when was the last time I accidentally left my mobile phone in the "record" mode...?

[lexuslexus]

Finally got LGB to email me a response - if that is what you can call it, pasted below:

Thank you for your recent letter dated 6 August 2003, and for taking the trouble to write to us.

May I firstly take this opportunity to say how disappointed I was to read your detailed and thorough account of your experience with Lexus Bolton. The service that you received is certainly not indicative of the usual excellence that is associated with our brand.

We are of course sorry that you have had cause to write us about your dealings with this Lexus Centre. As I am sure you can appreciate we are not privy to the conversations that have taken place between yourself and the staff at Lexus Bolton, so it is very difficult in these types of situations to pass comment on what has or has not happened.

However, given your strength of feeling expressed in your letter I felt that it was necessary to escalate your concerns to Lexus Bolton for their attention. I have therefore spoken to Nick Bailey, General Manager of the RRG Group. He strongly refutes the accusations that have been made about the service that you have received. Nick maintains that, that there was nothing wrong with your LS400 and is more than happy for this car to undergo another RAC inspection to prove this point. He does concede that certain aspects of the sale could have been handled better, and he will of course take any necessary action to ensure that this does not happen again.

It is always unfortunate when an amicable resolution cannot be met and I am conscious that your confidence in the Lexus brand has been damaged as a result. I would advise that although we are able to monitor this situation we are not able to enforce a particular course of action on Lexus Bolton.

Your comments are invaluable in our progression to provide Lexus customers with the service that they expect and require. Lexus (GB) Ltd will continue to work closely with our Centre Network with the aim of improving all aspects of customer handling.

In closing, I would like to thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and please again accept our apologies for the service you have received. I do hope that we will be able to restore your faith in Lexus in the near future. If I can help in any other way please do let me know.

Another RAC inspection -

[Claire G]

Ask them to consider an independant inspection and watch them back track.

I really think you've given them all opportunity to resolve the situation and Lexus Bolton are behaving like school kids. Hope your litigation goes well and that you'll get some satisfaction in knowing how many people see this site and will read your dealer review. I can't imagine any of us hurrying to bolster Lexus Bolton's profits.

[mylexus]

I,ll go along with that , Stockport it is in future, had no problems with them so far, can't believe Bolton are being so childish. Good luck with your litigation.

[Loz]

Seeing as RRG are being absolute Bast*rds about this, I'd be quite happy to give up a saturday morning or afternoon (maybe even the day) to park up outside with a few of our Lexus Brethren and protest ( peacefully) about the service levels. Wouldn't be hard to get some banners made up and even a handful of protesters would be very "news worthy" if someone were to tip off the local and trade press...

I say lets 'ave em! but lets 'ave em legit. Anything that would put a dent in there rediculous approach to customer service works with me.

Guess I woke up feeling militant ths morning...

[Monster-Mat]

.........sounds like a bit of a fob off from LGB....umbrellas at dawn maybe

[Bazza-old]

I say lets 'ave em! but lets 'ave em legit. Anything that would put a dent in there rediculous approach to customer service works with me.

Guess I woke up feeling militant ths morning...

whos militant ??

[mudzs]

It would be nice to know just how much lexus garages pay to trade under the lexus name your letter sounds so familier to the one i got from volvo .I think lexus gb will stick by them as they have to much to lose .Have you tried to contact any of the previous owners of this car for some ammo should it go to court.

[TonyGoose]

whos militant ??

I think you'll find she was a character from Viz

[Loz]

not one of the fat s l a g s I hope.... no. I remember her... black pig tails! right stroppy mare!

[lexuslexus]

went to Stockport today to have some work done on my car - what a friendly bunch they are, ran me home, rather than keep me waiting, when it became clear the job would take longer that anticipated. Even reduced the bill because they had forgotten to 'phone me with a quote before hand. Now that is customer service :)

[lexuslexus]

Received a letter from Bolton Lexus's solicitors today. I quote: 'They ( my clients ) are satisfied that they/or members of their staff have commited no act or default which renders an apology necessary. .......my clients don't intend to pay you any compensation ..... . ' Just about what I would expect. So they don't think it necessary to apologise for telling me it had 2 owners when it had 3, advertising it as 56k miles when it had 57500+ miles, telling me they would back their staff and say I was told all along it had 3 owners, and asking me to lie to a new potential owner about why I rejected the car. I wonder what they do apologise for. Strange but I forgot to hand in the service history when I returned the car so I phoned them immediately and apologised, posted it that day with an apology. Strange sort of world isn't it.