Word of Cautions to ppl that take their car to Lexus of Portland

[solarIS300]

Dear IS and Lexus enthusiast,

I hope what happened to my IS300 is just a random occurrence but please make sure you check your Lexus thoroughly before leaving the parking lot of Lexus of Portland.

It’s a really a long story spanning over 14 months so I’ll try to be as brief as I can and not go with too much details.

On 06/09/2005 I took my 2002 Solar Yellow IS300 to Lexus of Portland to get the passenger side seatbelt latch replaced under the factory warranty. The process involved removing the passenger seat.

After the repair I found about 4-5 scratch/cut marks on the center console and one mark on the lower part of the dash. Apparently the marks were caused direct hit from the seat rail. I notified the Service advisor the next day and bring the car over to be inspected.
The SA told me that they should be able to repair the marks but since it will take awhile he told me to schedule it on my next oil change.

After being reminded that I've been going back and forward to the dealership 4 times for "we need your car to see what needed to be done/ordered to repair the damage" they finally decided to keep my IS until it got fully repaired.

After a couple of fail attempts to repair the console and dash they told me that they are just going to replace the center console.
Nothing is being said about the dash and when responding to my voicemail messages about it the SA almost always chooses not to answer it. After being asked a few times he said that they don't have any record about the dash being one of the damaged area (even when I came down there 4 times to show them the locations of the damage, and putting 3M flags on each of the marks for the last two). But he said that he will talk with his manager for approvals since the repair would cost "thousand of dollars".

On 9/22/06 I came back to the dealership to pick up my IS since they told me that they got everything repaired. As soon as I get into the IS I noticed that the damage on the dash have not been repaired. So I immediately went back inside and inform a different SA since the one handling my case was already gone.
On the way home I noticed that the center console is not installed properly and the arm rest sticks, so I decided to give check them as soon as I got back home.

After inspecting the car I found the car is in worse shaped than before. I found the center console was miss-aligned; insulation foam sticking out from the center console; new cut, scuff and scratch marks around the dash and 2 long cut marks on the back of the armrest's post that was caused by bad installation of the armrest (the reason why it sticks).
So I left a voicemail message to the SA stating my concern the same day.

Lexus of Portland had me brought the IS down again and after going dealing with the technician that worked on the car, the Service Manager and then the Service Director. They re-installed the center console and replaced the armrest post. Nothing is being done to the dash since they don't think that they should be responsible for the damages there. I've been really sick and tired of battling this and deprived of my IS so I decided to just give it up and just get the car back

On 10/20/06 I went to the dealership again to pick up my IS.
I inspected the interior of the car with an SA ad the Service Director present. Off course the dash is still in broken condition but not much I can do there since they are firm on their decision. One thing that I found odd during the whole process is that the IS was moved from the side of the service building to a lot across from it when I waited for the service director to come and meet me. The car was parked with its back against the wall and sandwiched between 2 other cars. From my 4 years experience going there for service and/or repair they would always pull the car forward to the service building and left it there for pick up.

I don't know why they did that but all I know is I found my passenger side tail light to be smashed open after I got back home. I immediately took pictures and called (and left voicemail message) to the SA and director but have not hear back up to this date.

It seems that the tail light was broken for quite awhile since a lot of the chrome surface has bubbled up and some if it peeled off. There is water and water mark inside it also.

I hope this is not they way they threat all of their customer but please be careful if you ever bring your car to Lexus of Portland

[solarIS300]

finally saw a respond from Lexus of Portland being posted on 11/06/06 on BBB website (maybe because this is the last day given to them by BBB to respond).

I guess I should not be too surprised that they will deny all responsibilities (that my car was damaged when it was under their possession) or any wrong doing.
But they just hit the record low by claiming that they have an inspection form noting that taillight was "cracked prior to vehicle arriving to the dealership" and that they have brought it up to my attention.

Well, I guess it's a lot easier to lie then to admit that you screwed up and have to be responsible about it.


It might be a little bit on the paranoid side but please,please,please do at least a visual inspection on your car before and after taking it to your dealership..and keep written record of everything.

Just hope nobody in this forum or any other forum have to go through what I'm going through right now.