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26 Posts
I have a 2002 IS300 which I have owned since day one. My car is a CPO since I had it certified when I bought out my lease about 3 years ago. I still have about six months left on the warranty. It has 85K and has had very minimal problems all of which have been fixed by the dealership. I actually have been very happy with my dealership and plan on buying another Lexus their in the next 6 months or so.
About a month ago I was cleaning the inside of my car and noticed the dash was stick, specifically the glove box. Then as I continued cleaning I noticed a couple of scratches on certain portions of my dash. I touched the airbag and it marked with my finger. In an insconspicous area right down on the drivers side by my radio on the dash I touched with my finger nail and the dash just kind of peeled off in my fingers - kind of like dried up elmers glue. I have kept my car in pretty good shape and these scratches/mushy dash abd f*cked up air bag were really pissing me off. I honestly was in shock that a Lexus product would do this. My wife's previous car was a Lexus RX 300 and we got 105K out if it and it looked great when we got rid of it - inside and out.
The first thing I did was go on this forum and I found several threads on this issue. I also found another Lexus site with message boards and they had similar threads. There does seem to be a common point in a lot of the cars are from Florida. I have found some people who have had Lexus replace the air bag.
Anyway to make a long story short I took my car in the other day to have some warranty work done, the timing belt and also address this issue with the stickyness and scratching. Lexus calls me back and says that this issue is not covered by the CPO warranty, but they will try to see if Lexus National will fix it. They said they would get back with me. When I went to pick up my car they said they had not heard from Lexus National yet.
Now here is the kicker. When I go to get in my car I notice my dash is beat to shit. The airbag cover is all marked up with imprinted finger prints and the dash is really scratched up. I had them come out and look at it. I told them it sure didn't look like this when I brought it in. My advisor goes and gets the service manager and I show him. First he tells me that they had to touch the air bag cover to see what I was talking about. Then he proceeds to ask if Armor All was ever used on the dash. I said probably yes at some point, what does it matter. That is when he blamed the whole thing on using Armor All. He told me that Armor All is not supposed to go on dashes. Wow, you could have fooled me, but last time I checked I am pretty sure the label say it goes on dashes. Also, I have had the car 6 years and all of a sudden Armor All eats my dash. What did Armor All come out with a new ACID version that eats IS300 dashes.
At this point I started getting pissed. I am a lawyer so in the back of my mind I was already drafting my complain for the suit I was going to file. I asked him about the scrathes which were new and he proceeded to tell me that there are a bunch of other scratches on the dash anyway. I was like well that is not the point. I finally asked him if there was something they could do to at least buff it out and make it look decent again since I want to sell the car in the next six months. He agreed to a "one time" Lexus fix of the dash by their dash guy at their expense. I am taking the car in next week and will let you know what the results are.
If anyone else has had their dash "fixed" by the dealer, please let me know how it turned out.
UPDATE: I got my car back from the dealership (Lexus of Clearwater) on Friday and I am very happy with the results. They refinished the entire dash. From the smell of things in the car I can tell what they did. The sanded down and removed all sticky and scratched areas. Then they applied several coats of paint. It looks really nice. I am not going to let anyone touch my dash from this point forward. While I am not sure this is the best answer for the problem, at least it looks nice now. The cost which the dealership paid the dash repair guy was $250 according to the receipt I signed. I would say that is pretty fair considering the amount of work. I was happy Lexus ate the cost.
About a month ago I was cleaning the inside of my car and noticed the dash was stick, specifically the glove box. Then as I continued cleaning I noticed a couple of scratches on certain portions of my dash. I touched the airbag and it marked with my finger. In an insconspicous area right down on the drivers side by my radio on the dash I touched with my finger nail and the dash just kind of peeled off in my fingers - kind of like dried up elmers glue. I have kept my car in pretty good shape and these scratches/mushy dash abd f*cked up air bag were really pissing me off. I honestly was in shock that a Lexus product would do this. My wife's previous car was a Lexus RX 300 and we got 105K out if it and it looked great when we got rid of it - inside and out.
The first thing I did was go on this forum and I found several threads on this issue. I also found another Lexus site with message boards and they had similar threads. There does seem to be a common point in a lot of the cars are from Florida. I have found some people who have had Lexus replace the air bag.
Anyway to make a long story short I took my car in the other day to have some warranty work done, the timing belt and also address this issue with the stickyness and scratching. Lexus calls me back and says that this issue is not covered by the CPO warranty, but they will try to see if Lexus National will fix it. They said they would get back with me. When I went to pick up my car they said they had not heard from Lexus National yet.
Now here is the kicker. When I go to get in my car I notice my dash is beat to shit. The airbag cover is all marked up with imprinted finger prints and the dash is really scratched up. I had them come out and look at it. I told them it sure didn't look like this when I brought it in. My advisor goes and gets the service manager and I show him. First he tells me that they had to touch the air bag cover to see what I was talking about. Then he proceeds to ask if Armor All was ever used on the dash. I said probably yes at some point, what does it matter. That is when he blamed the whole thing on using Armor All. He told me that Armor All is not supposed to go on dashes. Wow, you could have fooled me, but last time I checked I am pretty sure the label say it goes on dashes. Also, I have had the car 6 years and all of a sudden Armor All eats my dash. What did Armor All come out with a new ACID version that eats IS300 dashes.
At this point I started getting pissed. I am a lawyer so in the back of my mind I was already drafting my complain for the suit I was going to file. I asked him about the scrathes which were new and he proceeded to tell me that there are a bunch of other scratches on the dash anyway. I was like well that is not the point. I finally asked him if there was something they could do to at least buff it out and make it look decent again since I want to sell the car in the next six months. He agreed to a "one time" Lexus fix of the dash by their dash guy at their expense. I am taking the car in next week and will let you know what the results are.
If anyone else has had their dash "fixed" by the dealer, please let me know how it turned out.
UPDATE: I got my car back from the dealership (Lexus of Clearwater) on Friday and I am very happy with the results. They refinished the entire dash. From the smell of things in the car I can tell what they did. The sanded down and removed all sticky and scratched areas. Then they applied several coats of paint. It looks really nice. I am not going to let anyone touch my dash from this point forward. While I am not sure this is the best answer for the problem, at least it looks nice now. The cost which the dealership paid the dash repair guy was $250 according to the receipt I signed. I would say that is pretty fair considering the amount of work. I was happy Lexus ate the cost.
My dash is more or less ok, I have more problems with that plastic material that trims the stereo/AC/shifter.
