Good afternoon all. Been lurking in the forums for quite awhile but never really had much to add to the conversation, That is until now when I find myself looking for advice that I think can really only come from other owners. I am going to leave names off of this so as not to appear to have an agenda of any sort, just looking for kind of a "If you were in my shoes how would you react?" reply. I'll try and keep this short as possible but that will be hard to do.
Recently I took my White 2018 LC in for some warranty work(sticking fuel door) and also to have its 15k mile service completed. My closest dealership is about 4 hours away so I schedule a day out of the office to take my car in. I don't really mind this as it is reason to not be at my desk and they always give me a nice loaner to bounce around with to get some lunch and raid a nearby record store. About an hour after arriving I am informed that they can't complete the fuel door fix because they didn't know the new door had to be painted(nobody thought to open the box apparently) so I would have to make the trip again soon once they could get the fuel door painted. I'm not overly pleased but I can figure it out. They complete the 15k mile service for like $260, I pick the LC up, and I'm on my way back home.
Here is where the real fun starts though, half way between my home and the dealership as I am cruising around 85MPH on the interstate the LC suddenly starts to violently shake and all I can hear is the sound of metal scraping. Once I make my way to the shoulder of the interstate and notice no gauge warnings and the engine idling smoothly I know exactly what has happened. Someone didn't bolt a metal underbody shield up right after the 15K mile service. I verify this visually and with no way to even improvise a fix since the shield is still bolted up in the back and been bent backwards from the front edge that fell and hit the road. I call Lexus Roadside immediately while also realizing my dealership was now closed, it was 5:36PM on a Friday. Lexus Roadside calls an hour later stating that they would be unable to send anyone that day as their local provider was overwhelmed. Luckily enough I have someone available who can make the 2hr(each way) trip to retrieve me. Jump forward and the LC doesn't move for almost 96hrs. Lexus Roadside finally goes to plan B, gets a supervisor involved and sends out a transport company instead of a tow company.
Almost a week later the LC finally makes it back to the dealership so they can begin repairs where they have been informed that as soon as I get the LC back it will be going up on a lift for me to inspect. Few days later repairs are completed on the the shield and the dealership assures me there was no collateral damage. This morning they deliver the car to my driveway. Within the first 60 seconds of inspecting the car I can see damage to the front bumper from where it was pulled on to the transport. Call the dealership, they say call Lexus Roadside first to start a claim, they are very apologetic, etc etc etc. As I am sending pics of the damage to the dealership the real concern off all this hits me. Even if Lexus and the dealership make this right and fix it, I am still going to be dealing with a repaired and repainted front bumper and once I get over the realization that it will probably never match paint wise, the other larger red light in my head goes off that any repair will now probably show up on a Carfax report as front end damage. Which could cost me thousands in trade or resale value in the future.
So there it is!? Am I overthinking the long term implications of all of this? Is this repair something that will show up on a Carfax? What would be a sufficient gesture of goodwill from the dealership knowing that none of this happens if their tech just puts the shield back on right?
Nightmarish experience on every basis, especially the horrendous response of Lexus Roadside.
I wouldn’t be worried about the repair matching, if done by a reputable body shop, and I don’t think the CarFax would suggest an accident, but…not really sure what, if anything, it would show.
No longer a priority, but for the heck of it, when you returned to that horror show of a dealership, did it at least have the fuel door ready to install?
That's really crappy. I had a recent Mercedes incident where they damaged my door and had to repaint it. I was so peeved, since I no longer had original paint.
Always disappointing when you can see a problem, but the garage cannot/did not? Terrible service from start to finish and the dealer must do whatever it takes to put matters right. Given it is a white finish then there is every prospect of a good colour match and in practice it must be a bumper/trim off job or better still a new bumper. Perhaps you could judge the quality of their painting skills by asking them to paint the fuel cap and using that as a would be benchmark? In regards Carfax then (being from the UK) I would suspect if it's an insurance job it will be recorded, but again you could suggest the dealer must not claim on insurance for the very reason(s) you have thought through. Okay that might mean he has to pay for his mistake, but given the circumstances that should be the very least he should do.
I'd also be very keen to forensically check for any other collateral damage, as I, for one, would be very surprised there isn't something somewhere on the underside that didn't suffer as a consequence.
Appreciate the feedback. Yeah as a business owner I have had projects that just seem to never go right for customers and I am sure the talk in the dealership right now is why couldn't this have happened to an IS or UX. I've been so flabbergasted by the bumper I haven't even looked at the new fuel door or even tested to make sure it no longer sticks. I'll take a look at the fuel door this evening when I get home and see how the paint match looks. Currently waiting on a call from the Service Manager.
