It was purchased from a used car dealer who bought it at auction in Denver in Oct. 2014. Mileage was 104,000, on 2/25/2015 while driving on I-70 vehicle lost power, warning lights and sounds came on that indicated hybrid system failure, check engine, abs system failure and other warnings were flashing. Coasted thru heavy traffic from center lane to a stop. Engine still running and would respond to throttle movement but wouldn't move. After recycling key several times vehicle would move slowly and i proceeded to the exit only a 100 yards or so and then down the exit ramp and stopped under the freeway. Again it failed to move.

After several attempts at recycling the ignition key it again moved very slowly and again stalled a quarter of a mile to a side street and again refused to move. Car was towed to Lexus dealer who reported they were unable to duplicate the problem. After setting for some time it stared up and all the alarms were silent. I began driving the car again and on 6/13/2015 the exact same failure occurred, mileage now at 116,732 miles. Recycled key several times and got it to move under its own power to my house. Sat overnight and again stared, showed no warning lights. I drove it back to the used car dealer I bought it from, who I had kept informed of the issues. He took the car back and replaced it with an 2008 RX350 for a slight up charge.

In the meantime while I was dealing with the above detailed issues I learned about the Lexus Web site where you could register you vehicle and review the service details about your vehicle. I learned that the same vehicle had a similar problem in the first few days of Oct. 2014 and was towed to the Lexus dealer in Fredrick, CO, who told the owner that the problem was the inverter and would cost nearly $10,000 to fix as it was out of warranty by a few thousand miles. Previous owner opted to trade the vehicle and a couple of days later the car was run thru the auction in Denver with no reports of any issues.

I contacted the Fredrick Lexus dealership and discussed the issues with the vehicle and they pointed out the vehicle was out of warranty and accepted no responsibility about reporting the service problem either moral or legal about running the car thru the auction without disclosing the inverter issue. They were happy to give me the phone no. of the Lexus national warranty department who I contacted and was giving a case number and was told i would receive a telephone call in the next few days to discuss my issues. I did receive a call and it became evident early in the conversation that the vehicle was out of warranty and no further action would be taken even in light of the fact that a recall (87559) 6/29/2011 had been issued to replace the faulty inverters.

My take away from this experience are several. Compliments to the used car dealer to make my deal with him right. My trust in new car dealers to do the right thing to keep customers satisfied has not been earned. I am reminded that policies that determine the light shed on a company and its dealers trickle down from the top and that is where the problems originate. VW's recent debacle with diesel emissions is a case in point. Trust us to to the right thing?