Is Mercedes or Lexus much better? - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Bluewater M5 · 20th February 2002, 15:24

I seem to have noticed a trend that a lot of the members on this board are complaining more and more about their dealers. From the lack of knowledge of the sales department to poor service even abuse from them.

My question to you guys is whether anyone has had much better experiences with MB or Lexus? I know for sure that MB will not allow their dealerships to charge over MSRP which is already ahead of BMWs policy. How about Audi? I have a couple of friends that say they are very bad too. Are we destined to get bad service? Does BMWNA realize that they would actually sell even more cars if they were know as a company with good service?

tfung · 20th February 2002, 15:33

Check out this month's Roundel... there's a little thing about service rankings.. of course, Lexus is way up on top, but suprisingly, Mercedes service is ranked below BMW....

Bluewater M5 · 20th February 2002, 15:38

I dont know too much about Lexus but I heard from a friend that use to work as a mechanic there that they would often give repairs on car that exceeded their warranty by 20k miles for free.

cohenfive · 20th February 2002, 15:38

i think the rankings are significant in that lexus has been at the top of the heap for years now. they get it in terms of customer service...

when i owned one i was very, very happy with my treatment every minute i was at the dealer. now i'm lucky in that i have a good relationship with my bmw dealer for service but would hate to have to buy one!!!

Charlie · 20th February 2002, 15:50

Lexus certainly is one of the best dealerships around, offer the best customerservice you can expect. I don't think that BMWdealers are that bad, or a lot worse then. It's just that we drive the greatest car there is, either the M3 or M5(and it can be any BMW really) and we care a lot for our car. We expect our dealers to handle our cars with the utmost respect, maybe a bit too much. And our dealers just see it as just cars and tend to be a little bit less respectfull of our cars. At the dealership where me and my dad always go to there's is this mechanic that does a very good job on our cars and we always tip him a little bit. We know he cares for our cars as much as we do. Good luck everybody with your dealers! Take care

RM5 · 20th February 2002, 16:00

A friend of mine had a 35k lexus and any little thing he wasn't happy with was taken care off. the dealers give the same survey lexus sends them in advance to fill it out for them. and anything less than excellant they approach the customer saying what can we do to make you completly satisfied. While BMW customers have to go to bmwna to complain and all they do is offer an apology no results speaking from personal experiance. Also bmw dealers know the cars are selling they are making money why do they have to give us service, that would actually mean they have to earn that money

M5Laser · 20th February 2002, 16:23

Okay ill put in my $.02.. from whatever small experiance I have.

The only car dealers that I have ever done any business with is Mazda, Volvo, and Mercedes.

Mazda = They were complete a$$holes!! We were nto at all impressed with them. They treated us badly and tried to rip us off at every opportunity.

Mercedes = They were very very nice. We didnt actually buy a car from them, but they treated us with a lot of respect and tried their best to make us happy.

Volvo = GREAT company!! (read story) Also very nice people. Some times they seem to be a little bit dissorganized though. We had an appointment to take the car in and and they were supposed to give us a loaner...we show up on time and there is no loaner... but they made up for it by giving us a showroom S60 T5.
But heres the best story: A few years ago, our engine blew when we were drivign on the highway. It was wrecked. And we also were long out of the warrenty period. They said that it cost $10,000 to get the engine over here, and $3,000 for labour. So we were ready to just sell the car off, but then one day I answered the phone and it was Volvo's head office calling. They said that the dealer called them and said that that should never happen on any of their cars, and they agreed. The guy was very appologetic that it even happened to us and said that he looked through our files and said that we were obvioustly a loyal customer because all our work is done by Volvo, and not a normal mechanic. I was kind of wondering where the conversation was going, and then he said that they are going to pay to ahve a new engine shiped in from Swedden and have it installed!!!!!

So Volvo payed for absolutely everything on a car that was 5 years old and had 120,000kms on it! The bill said $0 to us, but a little over 13k to the head office!!!

And we had a loaner car for 2 weeks!

Now THAT is good service IMHO!

nycesam · 20th February 2002, 16:32

Lexus definitely takes the cake. If you want great cars and exceptional service then Lexus is the one for you. MB cars are great but the service just as BMW doesn't come close. I have a '95 Lexus and they still treat me like royalty. Pam at Rallye Lexus is the best. I also own a MB, 2 BMW's, Jaguar, Toyota, Chrysler, Nissan, and let me tell you that no one comes close to Lexus! That is the reason I will always have a Lexus. Don't get me wrong, the last service I took my beast to I was treated great, Ray Zwergel and Neil Fogel are great (thanks guys), but once again Lexus takes the cake.

Diamond Dave · 20th February 2002, 16:42

While I've never owned a Lexus, I did grow up in a family that always drove Mercedes Benz automobiles. I think they are fabulous cars with that German look and feel and I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. On the other side of the coin is Jason's (Atomic80) experience with a MB before he upgraded to his M5. Clearly the car was a lemon and the dealership offered poor customer service from what he told me.

Without a doubt you're taken care of to the nth degree at the Lexus dealership. They really will jump through hoops to assure your satisfaction which I think in today's day and age is most commendable. My only gripe about the car is that it doesn't impart much road feel and can't get anywhere near BMW or MB in this regard. Again, I've never owned one but have driven a few. Also, my intent here is not to anger Lexus owners - I'm just giving my opinion.

Don't think you could make a bad choice with either. I'd just stick with the German make.

Regards,

DWP

edjsaratoga · 20th February 2002, 17:15

Jimmy,
Since I also own a MB, I'm happy to give you my opinion. The Mercedes dealer here in San jose is too overloaded. I've had to wait weeks for an appointment. They sold a ton of cars in 98-00, and never grew their service dept to handle it. I recently traded in my old MB , but did not shop at my local dealer. Instead, I drove to Fremont. It takes 30 minutes to get there, but, at least I can get a service appt. when it's convenient for me.

Ed

P.S. The "sales experience" was better in Fremont as well!

01-Titanium/Black
02-MB C320w (family sled)

Lonman · 20th February 2002, 17:21

Stay away from Ferrari if you want customer service. It sucks...

atomic80 · 20th February 2002, 17:30

Here's my .02 cents, especially of my experiences with MB regarding my ML55.

They did treat me like royalty up to the point when I actually purchased the car. I felt like I was being welcomed to the family! My salesperson personally went over everything in the ML55 with me and then went as far as to introducing me to every key member at the dealership including my new service advisor. My service advisor, Ed, is a step above and beyond the call of duty at any dealership. I did have a lot of issues as Diamond Dave mentioned but everytime those "issues" came up Ed was always quick to try and help me out. I would be able to either just call him up or just drop by and I'd be taken care of ASAP by Ed. I do have to confess that my experiences at that dealership was enjoyable. I'd be given a loaner car even if it was really a rental paid for by the dealership. I never got that from either BMW dealerships that I've gone to. I did get a loaner car twice from BMW but that was only because of exenuating conditions. I'll explain about that later. Back to the MB dealership...I did get all my issues resolved to an extent but it was the number of times that I had to do it that got really annoying. That was what caused me to decide that it was time to sell the ML55. That coupled with the whole driving dynamics. It just didn't feel "sporty" enough for me. At one point, Ed, had to get the MBUSA regional rep involved and he wasn't exactly a "peachy" guy to deal with. I downright hated him and made it clear that I preferred to have Ed deal with him instead. It's a shame though. I knew that I would miss the red carpet treatment when I sold the MB but I knew that I would definitely be going back to them again one day in the future if I ever decide to get another MB. In fact, my mom is having euro delivery done soon on her new E500 through that dealership so it looks like I'll be heading there soon again. Kudos to Barrier Motors of Bellevue.

Ironically, Ed used to work for Toyota as their SA. And I have nothing but good things to say about my Toyota dealership where my family has bought countless cars/trucks/suv's from. They're not bad for a non-luxury dealership. It helps being friends with the head of the service department too.

I can't say that I enjoy dealing with BMW of Bellevue's dealership as much. It actually feels like a slight cut above dealing with Toyota's service department. I don't get the "red carpet" treatment at either BMW dealerships (Bellevue and Seattle). Like you folks, I have noticed that their service department has been clueless about a lot of things that I ask about such as the navigation software updates and other tidbits of information that I get from this board. However on the other side of the coin, my salespeople there (Robb and Corey) have been exceedingly enjoyable to deal with. In fact, I'm heading back to the dealership next Monday to deal with the vague braking pedal issue and I plan to take a printout of the thread I posted on this board and the suggestions I received in turn. Hopefully that'll get that issue resolved!

Soon, I do plan to be buying the GX470 from Lexus so it looks like I'll have an opportunity to see just how good their sales/service department is! I've heard so many stories about how they go the extra step. The one about where they actually pick your car/suv up from your driveway and drop it off when it's done has got me really intrigued!

This is why I love this board! You guys have been awesome!

Sorry for the long winded post.