Thread: Lexus Edinburgh - Misold Warranty!

Hi,

I bought my 2005 BMW 530d from Lexus Edinburgh last September and at the time specifically ask what kind of warranty it came with. Before I agreed to buy I wanted to be assured that it had a fully comprehensive warranty as I was paying nearly £20k. I was told that it came with a full Lexus dealership warranty which covered all pasrts and labour, the only things not covered were the usual wear and tear items. On this basis I agreed to purchase the vehicle.

Put my car into the dealership 2 weeks ago to get it checked out as it was not running right. Turned out to be the turbo! The car was transfered to Lexus Edinburgh's sister dealership Eastern BMW.

Eastern BMW say that the intercooler and particle filter also need to be replaced at the same time.

BMW UK have offered to supply the parts free of charge however Lexus Edinburgh are now saying that my warranty is not infact a 'Lexus Main Dealers Warranty' but instead a lesser protected 'Mechanical Breakdown Insurance' Policy supplied by a 3rd party insurer!! They tell me that this policy will pay for the labour to fit the turbo....but not the intercooler and particle filter. The reason being that there is nothing wrong with my intercooler or particle filter therefore not liable for a warranty claim. BMW say that it is essential to replace both parts when changing the turbo!

I have found a signed letter from the Lexus dealership principal which I received the same week I collected the car back in September 2008. The letter was thank me for the custom as well and to advise me that my car was covered by a 'Lexus Warranty'! At this time this confirmed my belief that I had a main dealers warranty at therefore did not challenge this point at the time.

Last Saturday I drove to the Lexus dealership in my wifes car armed with this signed letter and demanded a meeting with the principal. What a complete c*ck of a man! He simply refused to take any responsibilty for my car and said that I needed to deal directly with the warranty company myself. I asked again for clarification on who this 3rd party warranty company was, and at what point I was going to be notified that they were covering my car. He said that this would have been fully explained to me at the time of purchase and that he was surprised that I was unaware of the 3rd party warranty company. I explained that I never received any written notification of their presence or indeed any policy pack detailing what is or is not covered. He told me that this would have been sent to me. I then produced the signed letter I recieved from him directly detailing that my car was covered by a 'Lexus Warranty'......that shut him up!

He paused for a few seconds and then continued to decline any repsoniblity for my car. I handed him a letter instructed him that I require the car to be fixed and returned to me within 7 days or else I would officially reject the car. I pointed out to him that his dealership had clearly mis-sold my warranty product which in itself was a separate legal matter. I told him that I was not prepared to waste anymore time on this matter and stood up to leave his office, as I stood up I throw my letter into his lap. He replied by saying his solicitors would be in touch.....this was like a red rag to a bull for me!! I turned round to him and told him I was about to make a scene in his dealership showroom.

I walked downstairs and in the middle of the busy showroon raised my voice for all to hear. I told all present to be extremely cautious when buying a vehicle with this dealership as the warranty you are sold at the time is not the warranty you end up with!!


I have spoken to Lexus finance whom the car is financed through and make them aware of this situation and they are assessing the situation. I have also spoken to Lexus UK however as this is a independent franchaise they are powerless.

I have met with my solicitor to instruct a fairly sharp letter to by served as this my make them think twice! I think that this is going to end up in small claims court personally!!

I have seen this before, duplicate thread!!

Yeah sorry, my last one was removed as I had included personal details on it.

I bought the car with 31k on the clock, and I have put roughly 20k on her since Sept last year. The car cost £20k.

BMW will pay for all parts as good will but Lexus will not pay for any of the labour to fit them. The warranty they have signed me up for will only pay for the labour to fit the turbo and not everything else totally £650.

The car has been with them now for 14 days and they still refuse to pay for the repairs. I have hand delivered a letter to them last week demanding the car is repaired and followed this up with a letter delivered via special delivery. I received a response saying that they still refused to pay for the repairs.

I have now instructed my solicitor to contact them with a strong worded letter to see if this moves things on. Failing this I guess small claims court will be the only option.

The main point here is that I was completely mis-lead and lied to when initially purchasing the car. I specifically asked for details about the Lexus dealership warranty and I was told that it covered all parts and labour for the first 12 months. The warranty was not meant to be "mechanical Breakdown insurance" supplied by a 3rd party insurer!

I hate to say this but this is endemic in the industry. It's something the OFT need to address asap. It also applies to new cars as well. Generally, it should be taken as a rule of thumb so to speak that the only warranty with a car is for 12 months. Any additional warranty, possibly upto 5 years has to be signed for and is not actually a warranty but an insurance policy. So it's sold as a manufactuers warranty but reality it isn't. Then you come to used cars. The warranties supposedly supplied are insurance policies and generlay have limits, conditions etc which do not meet the original manufactuers warranty.

I know a lot about this and is one of the reasons I got out of the trade. It's a rip off full stop.

So in this case, the only part covered is the failure. Consequential damage is the one to look at. BMW are following good engineering practise but in reality a clean out will suffice.

Time for a real good look at the used car system I think and ask the underwriters to talk to sensible engineers when writing the policies.

**Update**

Spoke to the warranty company again.......

When I picked the car originally from the dealership the parking sensors were not working. I dropped the car off that week to get sorted and I was told that Lexus would pay for the repairs.

I now transpires that the cheeky b*stards have claimed for the repair work off the mechanical Breakdown insurance they had mis-sold to me despite the fact that the fault was with the car before the policy was even in place!! Complete chancers!!!

I have now received a scanned copy of the invoice submitted by Lexus Edinburgh to the warranty company, claiming for the rear parking sensor repair. The chancers have forged my signature on the claim form!!!!

The warranty company say that Lexus Edinburgh first submitted the claim form on the 3rd Dec 08, however the claim was declined as the policy holders signature (mine) authorising the claim was missing. The form complete with forged signature was then resubmitted 2 weeks later!!! Unbelieveable!!!

I have sent a copy of my passport to the warranty company to prove that the signature displayed on the submitted claim form is not vaild and they are now conducting a full investigation and have contacted the Eastern Western Group head office (group hq for the Lexus Edinburgh franchise) with full details of this matter and they are now conducting a full investigation as are Lexus UK, Lexus Finance & AXA UK whom supply the car warranty policy.

This matter will go into the 5th week on Monday and the car is still sitting in the dealership car park awaiting repair! Argghhh!!