Is this really necessary? I drive mostly in the city, but drive about 200 miles once a month on the highway.

 

It is just a form of insurance. You could drive for some time without any insurance on your car, but when you need it, you need it.
Same with the grill screen, you may never need it. There are several other
vehicles out there that have this very same condition. The first one that comes to mind is the Honda Element.
If you are capable of doing this little modification, then my suggestion would be to do it.

 

$45K vehicles with the possible need for a homemade screen and some say Lexus quality is not going down..

 

So who held the gun to your head and said that you had to buy it.

 

Someone should hold a gun to Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda's head and have him recall the RX and do a airdam modification.

 

Hey – with options and extras my vehicle was over $50K, and now is in pieces 130 miles away awaiting a new engine coming from Japan. Approximate delivery date, end of November. Freak accident as it may be, for a few bucks why gamble.
Joe G

 

My feeling is it would take 100+ others waiting for new engines from Japan for Toyota to acknowledge its a problem and come up with a fix.

 

I've read Joe G's post and I'm sorry to hear what happened. This is disappointing but just for peace of mind I will do this mod today.

Thanks for all the help and info guys!

 

I hope Home Depot does not read this thread. Otherwise you will see the price of the gutter go up to $49.99.

 

The alleged screen issue is a design issue not an issue about quality. Every vehicle has design issues.

Why? How many actual failures have there been? I've driven RX's for 7 years for 000's of miles on roads far worse than the US has and had not a single issue. Some things are simply bad luck.

 

As you have been an owner of more than one Lexus (as the majority of us) you know that Lexus quality really hasn't gone down. But like any car on it's 1st or 2nd year run, there will be things we (owners) wish had been done differently. This is one but not major. It took me less than 30 min to do mine as I had the benefit of learning how Anita did hers so I was prepared going into the job. And I have the satisfaction knowing if it takes any object there big enough to ruin the condenser, then it'll probably be big enough to take the bumper too. Then air bags, then most likely an insurance replacement. But I fixed it myself as a preventative measure and I feel pretty good about it.

I'll let you all know after my windshield is replaced on Thursday how that went. Lexus doesn't do the glass themselves. They call the glass people in to do it there. Then they re-hook the electrics up in the top of the windshield.

 

Cruiter - C'mon to be fair, I have to respectfully disagree with you.
Do to the fact that our brand new engine had to replaced because the radiator is exposed. I feel this is major. Granted not great that the condenser can be damaged, but at least the car would have been able to be driven.
As a first time Lexus customer, I still feel somewhere down the road Lexus needs to take responsiblity for the fix.
Again just my thoughts.
Good luck with your windshield.
Joe
Th

 

Wrong. While arguably this is a design issue (not quality), design has to balance off the probability of something occurring as part of the design process. You were unlucky that's for sure however if a large rock struck and shattered your windscreen, is that a design issue that Lexus should be responsible for? The chances of such an occurrence happening to a statistically large portion of Lexus buyers is pretty minimal I would have thought.

This is accidental damage and that is why you have insurance.

Sorry if I don't sound sympathetic (I am actually) but the amount of complaining that occurs on this Forum insisting that Lexus should wrap your vehicles in cotton wool, attend to all servicing free etc is absolutely astonishing. They sell a product, a pretty good one. It will have it's faults as any product does but some of them are down to dumb luck.

 

harlydjce - speaking for myself, no way do I feel my car should be wrapped in cotton wool, on the contrary - this is an SUV, it should be able to be driven off road, up mountains, etc. Freek accident, yeah, potential for it to happen again, definately. Radiator should be more protected which is why some of us were interested in the mesh screen.
As I have said, RX350 is a great seller for Lexus, they should want to improve on the design. Hell, there letterhead reads "we pursue perfection."
Joe

 

Joe is not the first guy to have damage done because of the design flaw with the air dam. It at least goes back to the 2005 RX. There were a number of cases of damage back then reported on this Lexus forum, and that's why I did the mod to my 2005 RX. When I bought my 2010 RX I could not believe they had not corrected the air dam design flaw yet. Of course I did the mod to my new 2010 RX.

There have been far too many cases of damage done because of the air dam design flaw to say it's just bad luck that Joe had with his new 2010 RX.