On September 2006, John bought a 2004 Lexus GX470 for me from a car dealer in Santa Monica. The car had extremely low miles on it, and it seemed like a good deal at the time.
Because we were buying the car from an independent dealer rather than a Lexus dealer, we took it to Park Place Lexus to check against their certification guidelines. They reported back some minor things that needed to be corrected (the car had been sitting in the lot for a while), but otherwise did not give us any recommendation against a purchase. So we finalized the purchase.
Fast forward to 2008. The car's warranty was up so I wanted to purchase an extended warranty for it. I took the car back to Park Place for an extended warranty inspection. The car passed inspection and Park Place Lexus brokered my purchase of the extended warranty from Zurich Insurance.
The entire time, my vehicle has been serviced only by Park Place Lexus (now called South County Lexus due to an ownership change).
Last month, I brought my car in for it's 55K mile service. Brakes were replaced. Fluids replenished. Service rep called me and said that the right rear axle is bent. "Did I get into any car accidents," he asked. Nope. But I've driven over parking lot curbs. He said that the service would cost around $1400. He recommended going through my car insurance to reduce my cost. So, I did.I picked up my car from Lexus and paid the >$500 it cost to service the vehicle.
Allstate Insurance recommended that I bring my car into Sterling Body Shop. Allstate towed the vehicle, got me a car rental and Sterling called to say, "we can't see anything wrong the car." So, I pointed them over to South County Lexus. Sterling confirmed the issue, ordered the part, fixed the car and then called me to say the car was ready. I came to pick up the car, and Sterling reps said, "Um, listen, we drove the car and it's not drivable. It's not aligned and when we looked into it, we saw that your frame is bent. This car's been in a major accident. Let's walk over to the car and we'll show you what we saw".
Walked over to the car, and saw that 1) the right passenger side has been replaced, the paint color didn't match the rest of the vehicle; 2) the right front wheel is closer to the back wheel frame than the front. Essentially, the car's been in some major damage and somebody had used heat to correct the frame. Car's not driveable - keeps pulling. "What can I do?," I ask. Well, they recommended having an AllState adjuster come take a look at the car to see if the damage can somehow be covered by insurance. Another few more days of waiting...
I got a call - AllState can't do anything because this qualified as prior damage. So, I pay the $400 deductible for the rear axle work, drive my car out of the lot (all the while fighting the pull of the misaligned frame) and then call South County Lexus to say, "Listen, my car was driving fine until I took it in for its regular service. Please fix this."
Brought car back into South County Lexus. Got a loaner vehicle in the meantime. South County Lexus called me to say, we've tweaked it so that the car drives straight. But the car is jacked. If you drive over a pothole, it may become misaligned again. Sick of the drama, I ask about the potential trade-in value of the car. Sales was going to look over the car and call me.
So, today, I finally talked to sales. "Ma'am, we can't buy the car back from you because it's a liability. At this point, we recommend totaling the car." F*****K! This is not a cheap car. It's a friggin' luxury vehicle that drives.
