danspencer

Just wondered how old are these cars that need the ecu resetting? Mine's 2.5 years old and done 30,000 miles. Is it worth a reset?

I bought my IS200 new in December 2004, and the DVD was already out of date! Never had any luck getting a replacement though, so I don't think you stand much of a chance, unless Lexus Customer Services has greatly improved since then. Round Oxford it tells you to go the wrong way up one way streets, even going on roads that don't exist! And if you go on the Newbury Bypass, it claims your going across fields for a while. Not great for the suspension I guess! :duh:

Lex-aholic - No offence taken whatsoever! Hadn't really thought about it like that. There could be other cases against Lexus, you never know! Just had our post (3pm in the afternoon - complaint to post office?!!!!). Lexus Customer Service have finally answered, and are suggesting that the Regional Manager come see the car. What he's going to be able to tell I don't know. Surely they should be looking at the window itself.

The actual window was fixed by the dealer fairly quickly - no complaint there. The reason I am getting Head Office involved is; 1) I have had no viable explanation for why it happened. If my 6 year-old daughter had been sitting in the back, or I'd been shooting down the motorway, things could have turned out rather more seriously. I'm now faced with a 6 year old who won't get in the back of the car without a fight, and to be honest I don't blame her, as I'll never trust this car again. 2) Throughout my dealings with the dealer, they were forever accusational, and in each case I had to prove that the fault lay with them, rather than it being assumed that the customer is always right, and then attempting to prove that I'm lying! As it now stands, I wrote to the CEO to complain on both counts, and am now faced with the dealer ringing me. I've told them I am unwilling to speak to the dealer anymore, as I've had enough of being called a liar!

Never heard of anyone having any luck with Watchdog. I think it takes a lot of complaints against the same company before it gets televised. I really did think Lexus were different to the other companies. Seems they all have sloping shoulders syndrome after all!

You won't believe the latest on this!!! :duh: As I said above, I've written to the CEO of Lexus UK to look into this, due to the relationship between myself and and my local dealer having completely broken down (mainly due to the fact that they have not resolved the matter, not to mention the fact that they keep implying I'm lying!). So what happened today? Well, I picked up my voicemails and discovered a message from a guy saying that he had been put in charge of sorting the issue out. Was he the CEO? No. Was he the an assistant to the CEO? No. Was he from Customer Services at Head Office? No. They've only routed it all the way back to my dealer I was complaining about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :megaangry: "Dear National Newspaper............"

Interesting, but I don't think it's the same cause unfortunately. That one shattered all the way across, whereas the centre of mine actually exploded, leaving the outside relatively untouched. Thanks for the link anyway. :)

The mystery deepens! Still no news from the CEO, but I'm taking that as a good thing, that they're thoroughly investigating the matter rather than coming back with a rushed answer. Saw my parents over the weekend, and despite the dealer saying "I've never seen this before in the whole of my 20 year career in the motor industry", my dad had a similar fault 30 years ago!!!! This apparently happened in a brand new car, and it was the first time he ever switched on the rear window that it exploded! Even back then, this was taken very seriously though, and he received a fair amount of compensation, which was apparently just as well, as the day he sold it, glass was still appearing in the boot area. Of course in the case of mine, I never switched it on, which is why I'm completely bemused why it happened at all. But it does seem that exploding rear windows aren't so uncommon as first thought. :duh:

I hadn't actually thought about it that way to be honest. The way they approached me at the time, it made me feel "guilty", and I didn't even think by admitting they hadn't checked it in thoroughly, they were open to abuse. I've now had an e-mail from the PA of the CEO, so hopefully they will get this sorted for me now. Dan P.S. By the fact I'm located in Oxford area, please don't assume that this is the Oxford dealership because it definitely isn't!!!

Don't get me started!!!! The first time I went in, I was met with accusational comments such as "Well, I haven't seen this happen before in my who 20 year career. The only other time I've seen a broken back window was when someone reversed into a wall" (it was the way it was said, whilst staring at me for a reaction). There was also a major query over whether glass is covered by the warranty! Then I went back about the paintwork that had been damaged and because the car was still full of glass. "How can we know what was damaged before and after?" they said looking at an otherwise immaculate car! Third time still suffering from glass everywhere (in quantity!), I discovered what I thought was a new scratch by the petrol cap, that definitely wasn't there before it went to the body shop. "We don't check cars thoroughly when they come in, so it was probably there before". At that very moment, having looked from a 90 degree angle I pointed out that the damage was in fact not a scratch at all but a blob of paint splashed by the body shop. An apology? Yeah right! And yes, there's still a bump in the paintwork where it was! The fact is that I have two complaints; 1) The above - an apology for what happened and the accusational tone used repetitively. 2) More importantly, nobody has given me a viable explanation why it happened and hence I feel that my car may well not be roadworthy. It may happen again, but next time there could be someone in the back seat, or it could happen doing 70mph down the M40 in the morning! This exact same thing apparently occurred to a small sample of Smart cars, and all of them were replaced as a matter of course simply for safety reasons. I really must find out why it happened in the case of the Smart cars. All the best, Dan

Thanks for the information guys. I've now written to Steve Settle, sending pictures of the car, so we'll see what happens from here. I'll post back when I get a result. All the best, Dan

Thanks a lot for the information. I'll let you know how I go with them. All the best, Dan

You may remember my exploding rear window episode a month ago, in which I got into the car, turned the ignition to the first setting, and my rear window simply exploded!!! If not, see topic Rear Window Explodes After 3 separate visits to my dealer (30 miles away!), and numerous accusations towards me, the window has been fixed and the paintwork 99% repaired. However, I am not happy with the service I received, nor do I or my family feel safe in the car anymore. Because the dealer has spent so much time trying to prove I'm a liar (which I'm not! ), they have failed to provide me with a valid reason why this happened in the first place, and so I feel the car is dangerous, both to fellow passengers and other road users. In comparison, Smart Cars (who I'm sure we would all view as a lesser company than Lexus - until now!) replaced a number of cars earlier in the year, with this very same fault. Whereas Lexus' attitude was "Convince us you didn't connect the car up to the nearest power line, and make all those scratches and chips yourself!". Sorry to go on, just getting it off my chest Basically, according to the Lexus website, in order to make a complaint I have to write to the dealer! But the complaint is against them, so I don't feel much inclined to do so! Does anyone know of the address for Lexus UK, as I would like to write to a regional director or such like. Or any other advice would be appreciated! P.S. I would love to name and shame the actual dealer, but I'm not sure whether that would be against the rules of this forum.

It was more of a BANG!!!! than a "bang", but yes I guess that's it. Still weird, as I wouldn't have thought that power would have gone to the window at that ignition setting, particularly as I hadn't switched it on! All the best, Dan

Exactly! I hadn't switched it on even, so my thoughts are that there maybe something else wrong that sent a huge current in the direction of the back window. Apparently, the circuit block and surrounding glass were black. Monster-Mat - Strange. The dealer confirmed that the circuit block was on that side. Could it have maybe switched sides on the 2004/5 model? This just gets weirder and weirder!