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Selling Cars with outstanding safety recalls to unsuspecting consumers
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February 14, 2012
Dear Sir:
I’m a current owner of 3 Lexus vehicles having purchased the third, a "certified" 2006 RX 400H, from Desert Lexus this past September in Cathedral City, California. I have now come to find out that the car I purchased had an outstanding safety recall, which could "increase the chance of a crash.”
In a letter dated June 29, 2011 from Lexus Customer Service to “All Lexus Dealers” which I have attached, it stated that no vehicles with the current safety recall could be sold as a “certified vehicle” and that the customer needed to be told that it was subject to a recall.
In September Desert Lexus sold me the aforementioned vehicle with no mention of any recall and with the “Lexus Certified” warranty in place. I subsequently received paperwork from Lexus confirming this warranty.
Neither the dealer nor Lexus disclosed the recall to me. In fact they made a representation that there were no outstanding recalls whatsoever and that the vehicle had passed a 171-point inspection.
This past Christmas Eve (2011) while driving the vehicle, it had a total loss of power, and shut down completely. I had no power steering, or power brakes and I coasted to a stop on the side of the road. Two minutes earlier I was driving on the I-10 and had the breakdown occurred then, I am sure it would have resulted in a much different outcome.
After having the vehicle towed I started looking on the internet to see if this had happened to anyone else, and at this point, I became aware of the outstanding safety recall. I went to the dealer and I asked why they had sold me a vehicle with an outstanding safety recall. The first time I was there they denied that they had done so. I informed them that I had found the recall on the internet and the service manager replied verbatim, “You can’t trust the stuff you find on the internet.” When I went back with a copy of the recall from the NHTSA, Desert Lexus said that since no parts were available to fix the problem Lexus allowed their dealers to sell the vehicles with the outstanding recall. When I contacted Lexus they confirmed this but said that they had “strongly recommended“ not to sell them.
Lexus also chose to edit the safety recall on their website to delete the wording "increasing the risk of a crash" which appears on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website.
On the Lexus website it states the following: “If the fuse blows, the hybrid system will stop and the vehicle will coast to a stop.”
Yet, in a June 29, 2011 letter (see attached) to it’s dealers regarding the recall they state, “The fuse of the power supply circuit could blow when the transistor is damaged. If this occurs, the hybrid system will stop while the vehicle is being driven and the vehicle will coast to a stop increasing the risk of a rear collision.”
Desert Lexus has now replaced the car with another vehicle that while newer, does not have the same options as the original vehicle (i.e. all wheel drive, hybrid system, or the Mark Levinson system). For both the original RX400h and the replacement RX350 certified vehicles, Lexus advertises them as being: 1) History Checked, 2) Meticulously Inspected, and 3) Thoroughly Reconditioned. The original vehicle had the safety recall and a broken sunglass holder, while the replacement vehicle has mismatched floor mats, paint flaws, and a broken gas tank filler cover. I would regard neither of these vehicles as meticulously inspected nor thoroughly reconditioned.
I was told that for any further action on the issue it would have to be escalated. This occurred on January 6, 2012, and since then I have voiced my concerns to Mr. Vaughn Wendelstadt. I have never been able to confirm Mr. Wendelstadt’s title other than he is an ”executive”.
I have repeatedly told Mr. Wendelstadt that I was looking for two things: firstly that Lexus would undertake a review of their policy of allowing their dealers to sell vehicles with outstanding safety recalls, and secondly, to make reparations for deceiving me into purchasing the faulty vehicle in the first place, and then allowing my wife and I to unknowingly drive an unsafe vehicle for 3 months. I stated that if people wanted to put their lives at risk that it should be their decision and they shouldn’t be doing it, unknowingly, by purchasing a vehicle from Lexus that may or may not have a safety recall on it.
What is particularly frustrating is the fact that the car was returned on 2 separate occasions for warranty work between September and the time it totally failed on December 24, and no one bothered to tell me about the recall even though I am sure it must have shown up on their service screens.
One of the reasons the vehicle came back was directly related to the failure. I was told that the abnormal clunking noise that I had complained about was normal in a hybrid. In addition Lexus Corporation would have authorized these repairs and should have noted the fact that they had certified a vehicle with an outstanding safety recall.
I would have thought that Lexus would pay much more attention to recalls, given that their parent company Toyota was fined $32.4 million in December 2010 for their failure to comply with the NHTSA rules regarding the reporting of safety defects. NHTSA rules state that, “Within a reasonable time after the determination of a safety defect or noncompliance, manufacturers must notify, by first-class mail, all registered owners and purchasers of the existence of the problem and give an evaluation of its risk to motor vehicle safety.” Clearly this never occurred here.
At a very minimum, I believe the dealer and the manufacturer have a duty to prominently display on the vehicle any and all outstanding recalls for that vehicle. On February 2, after more than a month of back and forth phone calls with Mr. Wendelstadt, he told me that after consulting with general council Lexus was prepared to replace the vehicle with a new 2012 hybrid, having the same features as originally purchased with the exception of the Mark Levinson system. It was not offered as a standard feature in this model year and that they would have difficulty sourcing the vehicle. In addition, he stated that they would be having discussions with the dealer with respect to their behavior in this transaction. He said that it would take a bit of time to work out the details and to be patient.
On Friday, February 10, I received a call from the Western Division Manager, Ms. Donita Saide (sic), who asked if I thought I deserved a new vehicle and that the offer was now the return of my original purchase price. My response was that this was not the agreement I had made with Mr. Wendlestat and she replied that she knew nothing about that deal. Apparently communication problems are not exclusive to Lexus and their clients, but also seem to exist between their executives. On Monday, February 13, Mr. Wendelstat informed me that he had been overruled by his colleagues. At this point Lexus seems more interested in deflecting the blame back to the dealer rather than taking ownership and responsibility for what has happened. I have now come to believe that the only way to influence Lexus’ behavior is through public opinion and public knowledge of their integrity and practices as it relates to their customers safety.
I think this is a story which needs to be told and that the dealer has a moral, if not legal obligation to cease the practice of, selling cars with outstanding safety recalls and secondly, all One final comment with respect to Lexus communications, in order to find the name and positions of any of the Lexus executives I needed to search the NHTSA site for names and contact information from filings on various recalls as well various internet sites, since the Lexus site carries none of that information. This is more of a comment on how much Lexus values their customers’ needs that have a problem and wish to contact them.
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