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Small claims court is the only remedy Lexus understands. The ydeny and stonewall as they have doen for years and now is coming to light.
You have been defrauded so the warranty is not the issue.
I am not defending Toyota/Lexus, am merely trying to note that the majority of owners are not having issues.
Just the other day I actually stopped someone in a parking lot and asked them what year and how much...it was a 99 with 170k on it and they never had transmission problems with it.
JBL
I thought we had put this issue to bed...
The Camry A140E transaxle cannot be used in the RX300 without a complete swap of the engine, transaxle, engine/transaxle ECU control module, and the entire wiring harness.
The U140E/F ("F" for F/awd) used in the RX300 from the "get-go" has a completely different transaxle control setup, solenoids, etc, plus the transaxle internal structure is quite different mechanically.
My guess is that if you found an A140E transaxle in an RX300 it wasn't shipped from the factory that way.
I agree with avery1. A 10% failure rate of an essential component with a huge replacement cost is unacceptable and rather astonishing, IMHO.
Just the other day I actually stopped someone in a parking lot and asked them what year and how much...it was a 99 with 170k on it and they never had transmission problems with it.
That is certainly impressive but a sample size of one is just too small to be meaningful.
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
Wouldn't it be just as valid if I stated that I had read "somewhere" that the actual number of premature transaxle failures for the '99 RX MY was closer to 50%...??
"..trying to note..."
Good try...But....
Fraud is the question. Where Lexus buyers who thought they were paying for a luxury car defrauded by being sold toyota major components like the transmission which then failed. AT $40,000 +
plus for an RX 300 that sure sounds like a luxury price to me.
Who can trust Toyota anymore after they spend years denying they had an accelerator problem and tried to off load it on a floor mat!
Long story short.... Bought a Fram filter kit, 5 qts Valvoline MAX... the magnets looked like flowers, and the screen was full of gunk. Car drives fine again, so I'm looking to trade it in.... I think I'm on borrowed time. Thoughts anyone?
I don't necessarily disagree.
Just the other day I actually stopped someone in a parking lot and asked them what year and how much...it was a 99 with 170k on it and they never had transmission problems with it.
That is certainly impressive but a sample size of one is just too small to be meaningful.
I guess what I am trying to say is that this is the answer you will get with the overwhelming majority of folks with regard to their RX300's of that year.
If we had all of the folks that came to this and other boards to express how they have NOT had problems with the transmissions in their 300's, your server just might crash...
Isn't that exactly what you would expect with a 10% failure rate? 90% might be regarded as an "overwhelming majority" but that does not make the 10% figure acceptable.
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
Whether its Toyota, Honda, GM et al, or a another product area, its a shame that the manufacturer in many cases do not honor their workmanship and at least inform their customers about a defect in their product.
A long time ago in my law school days, CA at least via case law, made it a duty by the manufacturer to at least make an attempt to contact the owner if their product was defective.
No I don't practice law, but in the late 1970s case law ala Rose Bird SC, did much to aid the development of products liability law and consumer protection.
I hope I didnot offend anyone as my law experience is old and limited. I decided to stay in my law enforcement profession and then retired.
Good luck to all and I hope all enjoy the SB today.
jensad
:mad:
I truely believe Toyota should recall and provide free replacements. The sudden jerking problem from no transmission engagement (during the reverse) in parking lots could be quite dangerous to the people passing by.
Did you get that in writing? If so, then it's a contract and they should pay what they promised. Otherwise, you and the original owner did get 80,000 miles of use off the old transmission which has got to be worth something and they consider that to be worth about $3,600. A couple more friendly phone calls to corporate might persuade them to move a little further in your direction.
tidester, host
SUVs and Smart Shopper
At 101K my transmission failed. Lexus Service Manager said, "happens all the time." Lexus corporate said too bad. They don't repair, they only replace. Replaced it. Second transmission developed weird noise after 1.7K. Replaced again. Third developed a slamming of reverse gear. Replaced after 10K. Pray every day for fourth. (Thank you Lexus for trannys 3 & 4, the loaner cars were awesome).
Now my wife's RX tranny has failed at 147K. Think I'm going to try an independent for fixing. Lexus will replace for $5K but in this economy, would rather eat and pay mortgage.
So to the guys that think that transmission failures is a small %, I have two cars and 6 transmissions...what % is that? :lemon:
What Lexus is not telling you is you have a Toyota not Lexus transmission.. Now let me ask you, ' do you think you were
defrauded when no one told you your premium priced Lexus
transmission was actually a Toyota?'
What no one is saying is that you must replace the transmission
filter and fluid every 25,000 if you want the transmission to last.
And I strongly suspect that the burned and dirty ATF you find in '01 and later RX300's and should replace every 25k or so is an indication of a problem, NOT the core problem.
If someone has an email address where I can send a complaint to Lexus please post it.
Thanks
JBL
#2) Unfortuantely your transmission was a Toytoa not a Lexus design. If you have AWD these transmissions cannot handle the torque
#3) AAMCO fixed mine, replaced everything for $2,700
I bought this car thinking that this was a reliable company and car and that I would get well over 100k miles on it. My father has a lexus and 2 of my aunts have RX models as well.
It is clearly evident with recent events that Toyota/Lexus is more concerned with their bottom line than safety, quality, and customer satisfaction.
about $2,400.
Second, these transmissions are toyota transmissions not a Lexus.
Finally, Toyota is being exposed for their failures. You need to go into smalls claims court and argue you were defrauded. You thought you bought a Lexus, which is a premium priced car, but you were in truth
sold a transmission that is made for a toyota which is an economy car.
are toyota transmissions. Ask you lawyer why you paid for a luxury car but in reality got an economy car transmission???
I am sorry this happened to you but in this sentence you just described just about EVERY COMPANY ON THE PLANET. Don't be naive, Toyota is really one of the better companies in the world. If they are truly at fault, then their luck just ran out...do you really think that other car companies don't skirt the rules and the laws to maximize profits??
I know life stinks for you now but Toyota really is one of the better companies, it's easy to kick her when she's down. The transmission problems on the 1st gen RX's is a whole nother can of worms. I personally think the problem is with a smaller percentage of the cars made...at least that's what I'm hoping because I own one.
One more question...the Lady in front of congress yesterday from Tennessee who's Lexus sped to over 100 mph on it's own...when exactly did she find time to call her husband using the bluetooth in her car while it was wildly out of control????
attempt to cut corners to maximize profits.
Now let's look at Toyota's last decade. Poor quality control, across multiple vehicles and management's failure to be honest and forthright with its customers. Hell, these people are qualified to run for political office!
I hope a class action attorney jiumps on RX 300 tramsmission problems.
I read that all she had to do was push a button on the steering wheel and say "call home" and then she was connected. Bluetooth is supposed to be hands free, right?
Check out Toyota on the mend for 2010? for more stuff about SUA.
It's hands free after you push a button and calmly say "Call Home", or in the case of some cars where you don't activate voice, you have to push the button on your display OR call on your cell phone as you would normally.
So I ask again, where do you find the time at such a terrifying moment while trying to supposedly control your car from being wildly out of control and thinking "He I think I will call my husband". First of all, if she did have voice activation set, the system would never have understood her if in fact she was in distress since her voice and speech would have been impaired.
But we're really off-topic in here - try that link above please.
The real question is why are you taking such pains to disparage what the lady did.
I have little doubt that my wife would do exactly the same thing after exhausting all the remedies she might think of.
"..What do I do now.." would be the gist of the initial contact.
Oh, just what would be YOUR first action after exhausting all your known methods and none worked...call 911..maybe...??
My position is this: I drive a lot for my job and have done so over the past 20 years. In that time I have seen people do some galactically stupid things behind the wheel. The problem I have with the lady in front of congress is that everyone believes what she says carte blanche...
Too many people want to blame someone or something else for their mistakes or shortcomings, and the chances of this lady's story being 100% true is just not that good in my opinion.
transmission pan removed and low and behold it was
filled with metal shavings. Our transmission failed at 103,000 and again was filled with an incredible amount of metal shavings. A metallurgist told me that using softer metals reduces machining cost and is confirmed by all the metal shavings and wear.
This transmission I discovered is a Toyota not Lexus, we were all deceived and defrauded I believe. Another example how Toyota over the last ten years cut many corners and it is now coming back to bite them. I would advise considering suing in smalls claims court.
The engine/transaxle ECU control module's firmware is often revised, changes from year to year, and sometimes even during a year's production run. So if the transaxle itself isn't well matched with the firmware version......
On top of all that there is a well known design flaw in the transaxles for the early RX300 production series, '99 & '00, so there was likely quite a few "running" changes to the transaxle control firmware. From an outside observation, while both years seem to have an unusually high failure rate, the '99's seem to have an extraordinarily high failure rate in comparison to the '00 series. So my guess would be that somewhere around mid-year of the '00 production run a "final", more "robust" firmware fix was instituted.
But a "true" fix, workaround actually, wasn't arrived at until DBW was adopted for the RX330 series. The very same design flaw is now incorporated throughout the Toyota/Lexus "fleet", but very well "plastered over", virtually hidden, by various firmware "fixes".
Thanks,
other at 101,000. These cars never towed anything, never had a teenage driver and were never driven off road.
Shame, shame, shame on Lexus for such a piece of junk.
These transmissions at $5,000 plus each are a rip off.
I hope some lawyer does a class action lawsuit.
Overstressing of the transaxle was resolved in the RX330 series by dropping the viscous clutch for F/awd models and adopting DBW to prevent the engine form producing torque before the gears were fully and firmly engaged.
But that "fix" came with its own set of problems.