jpw

We bought an 07 RX400H last November and love it. Didn't mind the 180K miles and it was in absolutely perfect condition and they performed all of the maintenance.

Thanks to this forum, I found out about the quasi-recall on the dash, called Lexus to verify our car was covered. I visited the dealership who saw a tiny cut about 4mm long, so they ordered the dash. This visit took place in late April, knowing the claim had to be started by the end of May. They couldn't tell me when it was going to arrive. Meanwhile, another dynamic added to this was the fact that we were moving from Virginia to Phoenix in early July.

I asked my local dealer what would happen if we moved before the dash came in. He just said "Oh, you'll be covered - it'll transfer". This sounded weird so I called Lexus and they said 'no, it doesn't transfer - you have to report the defect before the deadline or it won't be covered".

I then called the Phoenix Lexus dealer shop and gave them my VIN and some pics of the dash. She said we're good, and she ordered the dash. I kinda hated to do this but wanted to make sure I was covered either way.

Then in early June I got the call from my local dealer who said the dash was in. woo hoo! I had some misgivings about having such a major job just a few weeks before we were driving this car about 2000 miles, but I figured it was the dealer and the chance of them screwing it up was low. So I made the appointment with the local dealer and called to cancel the one in Phoenix. The Phoenix dealer's dash had not arrived yet so that was good.

Went in, had them change it out and they gave us an NX loaner , picked it up and it was all good, just 2 weeks from our moving date. All looked like it was OK, and everything on the dash worked perfectly, or at least I thought.

So 3 days before we were pulling out we had dinner with local relatives and holy crap - on the way home I noticed that the HVAC controls were NOT illuminated. I felt so stupid since this was the first time we'd driven the car at night in the dark since the dealer swapped the dash. It seemed like the tech forgot to connect a connector when he put it back together.

Next morning, one day before the move, I just drive to the dealer and waited in the service appointment line on a Friday morning and got there about 45 minutes before they opened. I knew if I didn't want to have to pay to get this fixed, I had to take it to the local dealer even though I didn't have an appointment.

I drove into the bay, told the service adviser what happened and that we were moving the next day (we were). He just shook his head and said "I'm all booked up, there's no way I can get your car in". I just stood there in the bay and just stared at him with a blank stare - not angry or intimidating, just a blank stare (at this point I thought maybe I should've sent my wife since she has a way with 'men behind counters' and always gets her way with them).

Finally the service dude capitulated, started punching stuff in his PC, and said "Please wait in the waiting room - lemme see what I can do"...

So thankfully, I was out of there in about 2 hours and everything worked great.

Oh well, kindof a mildly interesting occurrence. The Lex performed absolutely flawlessly. We have 2 German Shepherds and a cat. I drove a 26' Penske truck and my wife drove the RX. We initially rotated the dogs around between driving with me and inside the Lex, and it was funny - after a few days we could tell that both dogs definitely preferred the quiet, smooth Lex over the loud truck with a bench seat, so they stayed in the Lex for the rest of the trip. My wife had folded the back seat down and put down a big comforter for them.