He wanted to keep his Lexus from being stolen. Now he faces a $20K bill and voided warranty

A North York couple has found themselves facing a massive car repair bill mere months after buying a brand new Lexus and it's all because of their attempts to protect their new vehicle — one of the most stolen makes in Ontario.

Mitchell Levine and his wife considered themselves loyal Lexus customers, even after they lost two vehicles, including a Lexus, to thieves within the past 16 months. So when they visited Ken Shaw Toyota last July, the couple say they told the sales person they wanted to add extra anti-theft measures to their new $75,000 Lexus RX 350h.

That's something the dealership didn't offer.

They say the salesperson told them it was okay to add extra anti-theft measures, an assertion the dealership has denied.

Now they're facing a $20,00 repair nightmare and a voided warranty.

"Very upset, very annoyed, sort of at wits end," Levine said last week. "It's at the point where my wife and I stare at one another and say did you sleep last night? And the answer is no."

Last fall, the number of vehicle thefts in Ontario increased for the fifth year in a row, according to Bryan Gast, vice president of investigative services at non-profit Équité Association, which investigates and analyzes insurance fraud and crime. In 2021, the company said Lexus RX series vehicles were Ontario's most stolen vehicles.

Levine and his wife say they were well aware of that, and that's why they wanted the added protection. 

"We were just gobsmacked that after the fact, someone's saying they'd informed us not to install an alarm," Levine told CBC Toronto.

The couple says even before they installed the after-market anti-theft ignition lock, they were noticing problems with the vehicle. They didn't immediately return it, they say, because at first the problems were only intermittent.

Shortly after getting their new car home in July, the fob, and an associated online app, would only open the vehicle intermittently. And starting the car was also iffy, Levine said, because it wouldn't always start.

Despite the problems, Levine took his new vehicle to Car Systems Installation (CSI) in North York to have an anti-theft device installed.

Soon afterward, the couple says the problems with the fob and the app became dire. They say they couldn't get the car to start at all, and they had to have it towed back to the dealership.

There, Levine says technicians told him the car's wiring had been compromised, and that he'd have to have his new anti-theft device uninstalled before they could work on the vehicle.