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I bought my IS200 new in December 2004, and the DVD was already out of date!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:

I still think it's worth putting your points of view forward to Watchdog.  You never know how many other people are out there with Lexuses who have already put there views forward to this program.

At least if it does get aired you have had your chance to name and shame the dealership.

I'm not having a dig at you as I can understand you feeling negative towards Watchdog and others in your situation, but if everybody told nobody about anything then nothing will ever get done.

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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.

Just a thought but would your insurance company not be able to get involved? I am assuming that you have fully comprehensive insurance with legal protection? In which case technically the damage should be covered by this.

Now, your insurance company are not going to want to fork out for the repair costs so should take it up with the dealer and get things moving.

As far as I can see, this it likely to be the easiest way of getting some form of legal involvement with no cost to yourself. Minor risk of losing your no claims bonus though.

Chris

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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:

Just surprised a Lexus dealer takes that kind of approach , sounds out of character and maybe you have been unlucky to find a naff dealer.

If they don't check cars thoroughly when they come in thats their problem, and open to abuse from less honest owners

sounds like hard work there mate, can't deal with situations like that myself

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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!!!

I fail to see how they could even begin to blame this on you Dan :duh:

From the pics you posted a while back in the previous thread you can clearly see where the glass has caved in on the right.

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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.

The melting point of lead (solder) is about 250 degrees C.

If you have cold glass and suddenly heat it up to 100C at a small point the stress will be like a centre punch, "bang".

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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

hmm its odd that you say you had only just turned the ignition to acc. So did you switch the rear window heater on?? Can't see why there would be any current flowing otherwise

Sorry for all the questions mate, just never seen this on any car and find it odd :duh:

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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!

Wierd one

you can see that small localised area withinn the black bonded part on the right where the glass has caved in, I bet thats where in propogated from.

So what was the dealers story? did they say the connection got excessively hot?

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Well, the dealer just says that the connection block was faulty and caused the heat.

I have to say, I'm not entirely convinced about this. What I forgot to say, was that I only turned the ignition to the first point, in order to set the GPS. I wouldn't have thought enough power would have gone through at that point (if any!); come to think of it, I'm surprised there's ever enough power to do that!

Yes, you're right about the section on the right. That's where it started, and the glass was melted in that area!

My main worry now is that the dealer has gone awfully quiet now I've suggested that they fix the paint work that got damaged at the time, and in transport to the garage.

There are 4 panels affected, only one of which I reckon could be T-Cut. The others are far deeper cuts/chips.

I'll keep everyone posted, but I was very interested to hear about the Land Rover with the same fault. The dealer's manager said that in his 30 year's experience, he'd never come across such a fault (I think at that point he thought I'd hit something and was trying to con a new window about of them, but all the same...).

I'm glad to hear nobody else has had the same fault with the IS200, or else really they should be recalling them. This could have been a lot more serious than it ended up.

wow ! that's pretty shocking ! glad no one was hurt ............... kids etc.

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As you say, it was lucky there was nobody else in the car at the time. The back seat was covered in glass.

Mind you, it would have been pretty serious if it had happened going along the M40 at high speed too!!!

Just as well it happened when it did for everyone's sake.

All I hope now is that they sort out the paint work quickly (and without argument!).

Dan

I've been meaning to join this forum for some time, as I've been the happy owner of an IS200SE (the new version with Sat Nav and Spoiler as standard) since Christmas.

I took it round Europe over the Summer and the Sat Nav never failed me once, even down the country roads in Austria, and up the Gross Glockener mountain.

Imagine my shock then last Thursday, when I went out to my car, got in, turned the ignition and;

I really hope the picture has come out OK or else I'm gonna look really stupid!

Apparently, this is down to a faulty connector for the window heater.

Anyone else had this happen? They say it's a one-off but I'm a disbelieving kind of person having previously owned a Rover.

To make matters worse, I picked up the car today from the dealer, and it's scratched all over the boot area, spoiler, and both rear side panels. The dealer hadn't noticed, but is now getting clearance to get it fixed.