Lexus Car Stolen

ijjub

My Lexus car was stolen in August 2024.
2019 reg. RX450

Lexus has accepted that the car is subject to vulnerability of being easily stolen and has been offering security enhancements to some customers, but failed to inform me or offer these protections for my vehicle.

The car was now found due to an unknown tracker installed by Vantage Lexus, and I had to pay £1500 to get the car released by Bud Rescue, St. Albans. 

Lexus is refusing to pay for not-informing me or lack of arranging security enhancement. 

My car insurer has deducted £1500 for the tracker and Vantage Lexus is not responding to my emails for investigating why I was not informed of the tracker which was apparently secretly installed by the VANTAGE group.

The Motor Ombudsman refuses to investigate Lexus. 

How do I get my money back from VANTAGE LEXUS and compensation from Lexus for negligence.

DullGreyGuy

So has your insurer settled the claim as settled unrecovered or is the claim ongoing?

Why have you paid for its release? Your insurers would pay for it normally.

born_again

When did you buy the car? New 2nd hand?
Lease?

Does the car have the Lexus app, which can be used to track car?

Car_54

Did you buy the car from Vantage?

Grumpy_chap

ijjub said:

My Lexus car was stolen in August 2024.
2019 reg. RX450

Lexus has accepted that the car is subject to vulnerability of being easily stolen and has been offering security enhancements to some customers, but failed to inform me or offer these protections for my vehicle.

The car was now found due to an unknown tracker installed by Vantage Lexus, and I had to pay £1500 to get the car released by Bud Rescue, St. Albans. 

Lexus is refusing to pay for not-informing me or lack of arranging security enhancement. 

My car insurer has deducted £1500 for the tracker and Vantage Lexus is not responding to my emails for investigating why I was not informed of the tracker which was apparently secretly installed by the VANTAGE group.

The Motor Ombudsman refuses to investigate Lexus. 

How do I get my money back from VANTAGE LEXUS and compensation from Lexus for negligence.

What money do you want to get back from Vantage Lexus?

It seems as though the "secretly installed" tracker is the sole reason the car was recovered.

Having a "secretly installed" tracker seem unusual - do you mean you purchased a used car and the tracker installed by the previous owner was simply not removed?  Then, after the car was stolen, you were in conversation with the dealer and they managed to activate the tracker and locate the vehicle (which they probably did not need to do).

Your reference to a "secretly installed" tracker seems rather to imply underhand behaviour of some kind whereas a previous owner's tracker that did not get removed seems more likely and not underhand.

I don't understand what you are saying when mentioning that the car insurer deducted £1.5k for the tracker.

forgotmyname

Bought an ex-taxi and when parked for a couple of days the battery died, thought its 6 years old so just popped in a new one
and the same thing happened.

Whilst checking fuses for current draw I noticed a green and amber light under the dash, there was a small tracker box
tucked away high up. Wondered if the owner had a policy based on mileage?

Mildly_Miffed

Presumably, Vantage are the dealer you bought it from - given it was a used car, how do you know THEY installed it, not a previous owner?

Given the tracker is how the car was recovered, I presume you want to thank whoever installed it...

ijjub

The car was bought from Vantage. The "secret" tracker is the wording used by the Vantage team.

Yes, it was the tracker which found the car, but no one is claiming who activated it.

I was not aware of this when i bought the car and we have trolled through all the paperwork

But the insurance won't pay for £1500 for tracker activation!!!!

ijjub

Car_54 said:

Did you buy the car from Vantage?

yes, bought from Vantage

Car_54

It seems to me that neither Lexus nor Vantage have done anything wrong, in fact Vantage have given you a free trackers.

As for insurance, what do you mean by "My car insurer has deducted £1500 for the tracker". Deducted from what?

If the car had not been recovered, presumably it would have cost them (say) £20k. £1,500 seems a bargain.

born_again

ijjub said:

The car was bought from Vantage. The "secret" tracker is the wording used by the Vantage team.

Yes, it was the tracker which found the car, but no one is claiming who activated it.

I was not aware of this when i bought the car and we have trolled through all the paperwork

But the insurance won't pay for £1500 for tracker activation!!!!

So new or 2nd hand?

Given the tracker must be activated for them to have found the car, why are you expecting the Ins co to pay for activation?