Tourbillon

I have a 2006 RX400h that I received a Warranty Enhancement Notification (WEN) stating that they would replace my cracked dash and that I would be notified when a replacement part was available. I made the mistake of glancing at a notification that I received later and assuming that it was the notification that the replacement part was available and that I had until Dec 31, 2017 to have it replaced. It turns out that was another WEN about a brake actuator and because I was never notified about a part being available, like the WEN stated I would be, I discovered that the WEN for the dash had expired. When I contacted Lexus, they told me that I needed to take my car into a dealer to have inspected in order to get on a waiting list for the replacement part. I had the car in the Lexus body shop and asked at the time if they could replace the dash while it was in the shop but they said that it would probably be a year before a dash was available and to wait for the letter from Lexus informing me that the part was available. They did not tell me that I needed to have the service department inspect the car nor did the WEN mention that but Joy at Lexus Of America said that I needed to have had my car inspected in order to get notified. THAT IS NOT WHAT THE WEN STATED! I strongly feel that this is an attempt by Lexus to avoid replacing as many of these defective dashboards as possible. I've read about others who waited over a year for a replacement to become available and those people mentioned having the service dept. inspect their car in order to get on a list and then there are others who gave up because the parts were never available. I wonder how many people have been cheated out of this WEN because it sounds like only people who had their cars serviced at a Lexus dealer or somehow knew to go have the service dept. inspect their car.

Toys4RJill

Did you buy your RX brand new?

The WENs I have heard of require and inspection before replacement. Not all the time but some.

Tourbillon

No, I purchased it used but received the WEN because I am the registered owner. I feel like I'm being penalized because I don't have my vehicle serviced by the dealer. The WEN didn't mention anything about having the vehicle inspected in order to qualify to be notified about parts availability nor did the Lexus dealer body shop mention it when I asked if they could replace the dash while it was in the body shop.

Toys4RJill

Can you post a copy of the WEN so we can better evaluate? Hide the sensitive data of course.

Tourbillon

The envelope nor the document has any kind of date of when it was sent...

Toys4RJill

Can't read it. Too low rez

Tourbillon

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense that Lexus likely waited for people to have their vehicles inspected at a dealer before actually having the replacement parts manufactured in order to limit the number of replacement dashboards they needed to produce with only people having their vehicles serviced at dealerships, and those fortunate enough to have a service department inspect their vehicle, getting put on the waiting list. That way, Lexus would have been able to get a relatively accurate count of replacement unites that they needed to produce as opposed to manufacturing the number of replacement units based on the WENs sent out. This was NOT an issue where Lexus decided to replace these defective dashboards out of the goodness of their hearts; there was obviously some sort of class action lawsuit that forced them to do it so it is not unreasonable to believe that they would do everything they could to limit the number of units they replace.

Tourbillon

Click the image to see a full resolution image of the WEN.

Toys4RJill

Still can't see it. Maybe it's my phone.

Tourbillon

In fact, perhaps the REAL reason they are refusing to replace the dash in my car is because they only manufactured ones for those who had their vehicles inspected and got put on a waiting list. I know the WEN expired in May but I was never notified of a replacement becoming available and it is easy to forget about distant deadlines. And with the corporate office telling me that I needed to have had my vehicle inspected in order to get on a waiting list in order to get notified despite the WEN not stating that, I really feel like Lexus was being deceptive to limit the number of defective dashboards they had to replace. I'd really like to know more about the class action lawsuit that initiated the recall.

Tourbillon

Yeah, I can't read the WEN on my iPhone, it's very blurry but is readable on a computer.

MattyG

That is unfortunate you're having these problems Tourbillon and it definitely looks like Toyota/Lexus wanted to limit the amount of time and dollars on this issue. The bad thing about these sorts of warranty notices like this is that they bury the final important bit in the fine print right at the end and that's where they get you.

That notice says at the bottom: *Please see your Lexus dealer for additional details. And that's where they kind of screen out anybody who's not jumping right over to the dealership to get this looked at and done.

There are some threads on this right on CL too. So you might want to search around on the RX, GX forums. Here are a couple of them.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...005-rx330.html
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...-replaced.html

This other website talks about this too.

https://www.carbuyingtips.com/articl...sh-repairs.htm

comotiger

Sorry for your predicament. I apologize for the MMQBing, but there are a couple of things in your letter that hint at a vehicle inspection. At the very bottom it says "Please see your Lexus dealer for additional details" in connection with the WEP. On the WEP sticker, it also states "If this condition is verified...", implying that the vehicle has to be inspected. Having noted these, I probably would have done what you did. Perhaps you could try a gentler approach with Lexus Corporate for goodwill replacement rather than a strident "Lexus is cheating" approach. It might work. Good luck!

Htony

Lexus should've told you in the notification to have the vehicle inspected to go on waiting list. Lexus made one mistake. You knowing the expiry date, let it slide. In this day and age this kind of miscommunications
are happening a lot. If I were you I'd call Lexus and told them you did not get the second notification. My guess is second notification was issued as a result of inspection. Whoever managed the program goofed..

MattyG

Or the possibility that I'm thinking is, that they didn't want owners flooding dealerships with inspection requests where they are having to put out free labor to inspect and document. This way they limited the number of people who did the due diligence and could then figure how big a problem they were facing. Limit the number of owners, you limit the amount of dealership time and subsequently create a buffer to spend money on new dash production. That notice was probably written by the company lawyers.