A negative review with Coliseum Lexus of Oakland

In my first two posts I discussed our new car the 2008 Lexus RX350, while we love the car and are glad we have it we are disgusted with the service at the dealer where we bought it. So while I would still love to continue to buy Lexus cars in the future, I will never buy one from Coliseum Lexus of Oakland, I will go else where.

What are my list of complaints? Here they are, they are many.

#1. After my wife and I purchased the car and before the paperwork was settled, I had to leave to tend to my puppy. The dealers took this opportunity to aggressively sell my wife the clear coat protection for the front and rear bumpers as well as the locks on the doors. They told her it would protect against bad parking drivers and in the Bay area there are many of them. They told her she had to decide one way or another right then and there and there was no changing her mind either way once the decision was made. She couldn't get a hold of me and decided to get it. It takes a long time to apply the clear coat so I took it in, they gave me a loaner and it took over an hour to do this simple exchange. I asked them to wash the car which they told us was free car washes for life with purchase. I pick up the car the next day and hadn't noticed they didn't wash the car or apply the coat on the rear bumper. I was there once again for over an hour and the experience was very negative.

#2. My wife called to complain about the clear coat and wash and the GM said that the service department had made a mistake and that they would schedule an appointment to have it done, which they never did. They then tried to tell my wife that the clear coat usually doesn't go on the rear bumper. So which one is it? The service department made a mistake or it doesn't go on the rear bumper, and if it doesn't go on the rear bumper why did they tell my wife it did? Which is the only reason she decided to purchase it.

#3. We leased the car and we made a one time payment for the total amount of the vehicle. So a few weeks after we purchased the car, we get a statement saying we owed our first of 50 something payments. We called to try and get it resolved and got the run around. So when we didn't send in the payment we didn't owe, we grew very concerned as that could affect our credit rating.

#4. We went in wanting to buy the car and didn't put up much of a fight on anything, and it still took us over seven hours to get a deal done. That just isn't right. This complaint is with the salesman in general. We wanted a fully loaded car and the salesman assured us, other than the optimal audio package which he didn't recommend, the car was fully loaded. When we got home and started to read the manual we got excited about the things the car was supposed to have, like height maneuverability and a special cruise control that automatically adjusts itself with the distance of other cars, and Sirius satellite radio which we have a lifetime membership for and wanted to transfer to this new car. The car had none of these things. So how is it fully loaded? When we called to complain the GM once again told us it was because the salesman didn't know the features of this vehicle. How can he sell a car he doesn't know about? The salesman assured us that he had to be checked out on each vehicle to be a Lexus salesman. This came up because before we looked at this car we went to Volkswagen to look at the Touareg because they wanted to buy my wife's 200 Jetta with 30,000 miles and we experienced a salesman who knew nothing about the car.

#5. The GM or the big boss lies to us. We call and complain and the GM tells us he can't do anything for us and he would have the head big boss call us within the hour, which she doesn't. We call the next day and the GM tells us the same thing and no call back. He assures us he directly handed our info. to the boss and he would have her call us back immediately which she didn't. The next day and the same thing happened. So finally on day four we get a hold of the big boss and she tells us the GM hasn't given nor told her anything about our complaints. So who's lying?

#6. To make things worse which doesn't seem possible is someone hit our car in the parking lot scratched the bumper and cracked a light which we were told is a thousand dollars to replace and it wouldn't have happened if the clear coat was applied to the bumper like it should have been.

We have an appointment to go in on Wednesday to try and resolve these issues, wish us luck. No matter the outcome we won't be buying anymore cars from Coliseum Lexus of Oakland and you shouldn't either unless you want this type of headache.