Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Transmission Problem with Lexus RX300

I own a Lexus RX300. This is year 2000 model. It has around 100K miles on it. Recently I started experiencing lots of Power Loss in transmission. Basically car will not go above 25 miles/hr and also will stall on uphills. I showed it to Lexus of Bellevue and they said that transmission is not working fine and it needs to be replaced.

Total cost: 4200$.

I told them that I need to do some more research. I checked on the web and found that this was very common problem with Lexus made in 1999 to 2001. I asked dealer to give me some discount because it is a well known problem in Lexus. They refused to give me anything and asked me to contact Lexus USA.

I contacted Lexus USA. They asked for my Vin and were able to pull the entire record. I told them that I have been very loyal customer and have done all the services with delaership and they should help me with it. They said that they will review the request and get back to me in two days.

After two days I got a call from dealership that Lexus of USA has offered to pay 50% of the price and that also they will charge me wholesale price. This will reduced the final cost to 1700$. I accepted the offer and got it repaired for 1700$ and it is working fine now.

Blogging this so that anyone who runs in to similar situation can benefit from it. Saving 2700$ by spending 30 minutes on research and 15 minutes on call was sweet:)