I had a coworker sitting in the passenger side yesterday.
First, he couldn't close the door. The door wouldn't stay shut. After a couple of tries, he managed to close it. Then when it's time to get out, the door wouldn't open. The door lock lever is in between locked and unclocked position. The chrome handle feels loose and not flushed with the door panel.

I tried to force the lever, tried the key from outside, and remote, and nothing worked. I heard a lot of people having problem with door actuator, but does this sound like it?

I took it to a dealer yesterday, and they havn't been able to open the door yet. The dealer coulnd't tell me if this is under certified warranty until they open up everything and find the problem.

 

I guess not many people had this problem.
Does anyone know if the door panel can be removed with the door closed?

 

The door panel cannot be opened with the door closed. It sounds more like the cable that is connected to the inside handle latch got loose or broke.

Without taking the door panel off....you can take the inside door handle off. There is a plastic piece under the handle you can just pop out. Under that there is a hex screw you can remove.

You should be able to solve the problem this way.

Good luck!

 

The dealer here didn't call me for 3 days after I dropped the car off.
I stopped by earlier today, and it took more than an hour to find out that they sent out the car to a body shop.

Does this sound right? They have no way of fixing the door lock from closed position?
This GS4 had more problems in a year than all the cars I had previously for 15 years.
The dealer here also charges $5/day for a loaner. I used to think complimentary loaner means FREE, but guess not.

Do you guys really think Toyota/Lexus has better quality than any other brand? I also have Toyota Highlander which had a bunch of problems. I used to own Infiniti, Nissan, and Honda before.

 

that's weird, they didn't call you before they send the car to body shop?! shouldn't they let you know what they were going to do with the car first?

 

This dealer is always like that. I called 3 times last couple of days and no one returned my call either.
Now, I'm not sure if they sent the car to a body shop because they damaged something.
They'd better not do any paint job or replace the door.

The last thing I ever wanna do is to take the car to this dealer, but I didn't have a choice.

 

man that sux, i think you should try another dealership if you can. this is ridiculous. they always let me know before doing anything to do my car, that's called status update. i think y ou can stick it up to the mangaer or so and find out what's going on, and what's EXACTLY being done at the shop. i have been thinking, no matter what's wrong with the door, i don't see why it's at the body shop?!