Shielding Your Anger....

[Greedy80]

Ok well this little topic is a fairly light hearted, if i think interesting topic about what is the worst thing that has happened to your IS at the hands of someone else?

To further illustrate this I'll kick off by saying clearly I love my cars, always have but I feel especially strongly about my IS200. I care for it love cleaning it and try to keep it in tip top condition. Recently I haven't had the chance to give my car the TLC it deserves due to moving home, having a baby boy and getting ready for my wedding but my love hasn't deteriorated and I can't wait for the day I can get back out there with buckets of water and some good polish. When I look at my car at the moment I feel a mixture of guilt as a result of it not being pristinely clean and of excitement as I look forward to getting out there and renewing the car to its glorious luster.

However just the other day I and my partner were off out, baby safely secured in the back and as my lady got in she let the car door swing open. On any other day this wouldn't have mattered as the door would have swung freely through the air to a stop. However on this day the door did indeed stop but at it's end was a skip that a neighbour had thoughtfuly plonked next to my parking space. :shutit: I did, i think, incredibly well to hide my anger as I pulled the door back to see a 2ml chip in the once perfect paint work at the very edge of the door, no dent though thank god. I can't describe just how frustrating it is when little but to me significant things happen to my car, god it frustrates me.

Anyway I've ordered the chip stick from Lexus for my platinum ice car and will set about resolving it by base coating then building up layers of paint and allowing to dry before finally lacquering the small area. I pray this works out because I have heard horror stories about trying to match this colour paint and it's my first time doing this. If it works out though it'll mean I can cover two other chips on the car too.

Anyway the point of this thread was to ask you guys to share any accidental damage stories that have happened to your pride and joy. Plus any tips on repairing my car are of course wellcomed.

[Parthiban]

Lol I know your pain, I had someone once do the same thing to my car when it was almost brand new

But it was much worse, it bent in a small section at the edge of the door and the paint split there too..........wasn't economical to have it repaired properly so just had the dent knocked out and lived with the split in the paint for a while - eventually had it repaired as part of a claim but it was annoying for a while.

[Greedy80]

Lol I know your pain, I had someone once do the same thing to my car when it was almost brand new

But it was much worse, it bent in a small section at the edge of the door and the paint split there too..........wasn't economical to have it repaired properly so just had the dent knocked out and lived with the split in the paint for a while - eventually had it repaired as part of a claim but it was annoying for a while.

I know what your saying these things just stare at me , everytime I look at my car the imperfections standout sooo much to me it's grating. In fact I know it's sad but I've lost sleep over these things in the past.

[Parthiban]

Is it low down on the door? If so might be worth trying chipsaway, should only cost around £50 (especially if it's small) and they do a pretty decent job :)

[Yeldarb]

I tried to get the reverse camera wiring under the number plate light trim without removing it all from the car, almost did it, Then it split :o £45 to replace, but came painted so no real hardship just a lot of swearing. My own fault. My wife still reminds me about it...................

[VVProtocolVV]

I too love cleaning my car (as many of you here do im sure), but what i dread is knowing without doubt new sctarches will be found. The one i have always been dreading is people who have rings or have keys in their hands when they go to open the door. I always make sure i open the door for the person who i know will have rings etc in their hands. My gran has rings and walking stick, so i always open the door for her (it's also out of courtesy ofcourse). But a while ago, when taking my gran and mum out, i opened the door for my dear granny (she likes to sit in the front passenger seat lol) and to my right i heard a bunch of keys being hit against the panel. I looked over and saw that my mum had keys in the same hand as the one she used to open the door. "Aaarrgghh" is the sound inside my head. Now theres a nice scratch on the door handle. I could probably polish it though, so not really a biggy.

I find family members are the worst for that kind of things, right next to "parking in supermarkets", which i will never do again, and if really had to i would park as far away from the supermarket as possible and not during busy hrs (e.g 8pm onwards). I've collect a nice 11cm dent on my rear nearside passenger door (with deep scratch to door trim to match) and one hit at the front which was hard it's chipped the paint and i can see the body work underneath the paint!

[Greedy80]

Is it low down on the door? If so might be worth trying chipsaway, should only cost around £50 (especially if it's small) and they do a pretty decent job :)

Sadly not mate it's at the top of the door, my biggest fear is building up the paint work so it's all level because if not it'll stand out even more than it does now. Needles to say I'll be going very carefully at building the layers up, lacquering and then polishing when completely dry. I'm looking forward to having a go at sorting this but it is with great trepidation too.

[Greedy80]

I too love cleaning my car (as many of you here do im sure), but what i dread is knowing without doubt new sctarches will be found. The one i have always been dreading is people who have rings or have keys in their hands when they go to open the door. I always make sure i open the door for the person who i know will have rings etc in their hands. My gran has rings and walking stick, so i always open the door for her (it's also out of courtesy ofcourse). But a while ago, when taking my gran and mum out, i opened the door for my dear granny (she likes to sit in the front passenger seat lol) and to my right i heard a bunch of keys being hit against the panel. I looked over and saw that my mum had keys in the same hand as the one she used to open the door. "Aaarrgghh" is the sound inside my head. Now theres a nice scratch on the door handle. I could probably polish it though, so not really a biggy.

I find family members are the worst for that kind of things, right next to "parking in supermarkets", which i will never do again, and if really had to i would park as far away from the supermarket as possible and not during busy hrs (e.g 8pm onwards). I've collect a nice 11cm dent on my rear nearside passenger door (with deep scratch to door trim to match) and one hit at the front which was hard it's chipped the paint and i can see the body work underneath the paint!

Tell me about it mate the elderly and infirm and, those who just don't really care (my lady, maybe not entirely fair she usually is pretty respectful, mostly) are the number one enemys. I'd rather have my car marked by an unknown than a relative. Like you I love cleaning my car but like you I fear the new scratches I may find or the old ones that may need rebuffing. I have to say I find the boot lid is the absolute worst, new light scartches appear here all the time inexplicably. I just don't know how it happens, I guess it's a flat surface and during normal use natural grit could fall here and with water movement these light scratches form.

In addition to my previous post other things that have happend to my car are marker being drawn across the petrol cap. Luckily it buffed out completely but I had seen several cars in my road had been done including a white estate which now has a black wavey maker line the full length of it's body. However owners have done nothing to salvage it. Once parking in a multi storey in Weymouth I came back to find some chavs left the rubbish from their McDonalds on the back of my car. Also in the same place I came back to find a traffic cone on the back of the car. Also I was hating the fact that when we had all that snow my car was parked at my parents while I was working but when I finished I came back to see th abligatory swathes of snow removed from my bonet, doubtless at the hadns of some prepubescent snow ball armys. I could be wrong but I doubt they took car not to rub the zips of their jackets up the side of my car while stretching to get the snow from the roof. My fault I guess I should have got my parents to clear it. It makes me angry just thinking about this stuff! lol rant over!

[Mincey]

I got side-swiped and pushed off the road yesterday by a lorry. The passenger door mirror has gone, the front wing is mullahed around the wheel arch and there's a wide scrape along the back door and rear wing. Other than that, it's ok. My underpants had to be condemned though.

That's about the worst that has happened to me (so far) in any of the IS's I've owned.

[shanem]

I know what your saying, most of us like to take pride in the way the car looks and it creases me up inside when i see new scratches or dings :tsktsk:

Heres a few of my woes :(

I was once parked in Tescos car park and a woman who was parked behind me (back to back) was trying to swing a bag full of tinned food into her car boot, but ended up clattering the bag straight into my boot and put 2 small creases right in the centre grrrrrrrr !

My car also seems to attract cats and ive often caught them up on the bonnet or the roof licking of the water when its been raining... I can just about handle the paw prints, but the little beggers some times slip and use their claws as brakes, so ive ended up with quite a few hair line scratches that have took me ages sorting out !

I also get a lot of inconsiderate gits parked next to me in car parks that just open their door straight onto mine, damn door dingers make me livid !

The worst one for me though was, driving to work one morning and coming the other way was a dumper truck with a load of rubble on the back.. I saw what i first thought was something floating in the wind, but it was a big rock that had fallen of the back and was bouncing straight towards me, it clattered into the side of my car putting a dent in the back wheel arch and cracking the back bumper :tsktsk:

[Dan_Harris]

Think I can make a good showing here :D here we go

August 08 - I buy my stunning low mileage IS200 in black :) happy as a clam

August 08 - 3weeks after owning it I have find a scratch from rear quarter down to drivers front wing, yep 4panels done by a drunk girl and a cig lighter (I can't prove it so I have to pay)

Dec 08 - a bmw driver decides to reverse after just pulling into a junction and reverses straight into me cracking headlight mount and scuffing bumper

Feb 09 - clutch fails on way home and end up getting towed back, go to look at the car the next day and a Ford Transit van has crashed into my car scuffing bumper (again) and cracking headlight and destroying front wing (this is still ongoing and again I couldn't prove who did it as no details were left)

Any advances lol?

[Rich OB]

Great thread! I always thought i was alone with the OCD of my Lex! Lol!

I've had mine since 2005 and i've had a few bad experiences.

Until 2007 it was just me who used the Lex. Looked after it lovingly, washed by hand weekly, polished, cleaned to an inch of its life. We had 2 cars and it wasn't financially beneficial so my Mrs sold her Fiesta Zetec S and we agreed she could use the Lex (yeah i know!!)

On the very first drive we went out together so she could get used to it, went to Lakeside. Cutting a long story short we parked in those drive in diagonal spaces. Parked nicely, within the lines, just ready to shift it into P and what does she do? Hits the gas instead of the brake!! Shock, disbelief, horror! I almost dragged her out the car (LOL!) not wanting to make a scene. I checked the car for damage and luckily there wasn't too much wrong, cracked plate, scuffed bumper but the other car was pushed out its space! Funny when you look back now but not at the time. All she could say is well its not that bad nothing is broken! She was sorry and shocked so i left the lecture til later! Lol!

Anyway now she is the main user and the car has many little scuffs here and there, none ever her fault though. Like the time in a multi storey car park coming out, mis-judged the turn and the front bumper ended up scuffed and cracked. I wasn't with her but knew where she went and saw it on her return and knew exactly how it happened. "It wasn't me" she said.

Think the worst one was what i noticed one day when i was cleaning it. Thousands of stone chips along the nearside from front wing to rear wing. Very small but noticeable when close up. Where the hell they come from i wondered? Then after racking my brains i got it! The grass had been cut next to where my car was parked. The lawnmower has spat out all the crap as it cut and it was against my car! Livid i was.

I still do get real angry when i see the marks i already know are on the car.

I know how all you guys feel and i think it is impossible to keep the car mint unless you wrap it up in bubble wrap and don't drive it. Either that or have plenty of money and time to keep it mint and keep calling on Chips Away! I'm currently trying to get some money together to give mine a facelift. (should last about 6 months)

Noone realises when you have a car that you cherish and try to look after. To most people i know a car is to get from A to B, yes they look after them but have no idea what swirl marks are or bother about stone chips or car park dents or scuffed rims or anything else.

Anyway i have waffled enough now sorry to bore you all. Interesting to read everyone elses stories and views.

[kenfoxy]

Rich OB,

Agree with your comment about not being alone in suffering damage. IMO there is no such thing as a mint car. Even brand new cars can be faulted on something, if you look hard enough. I have reached the stage where I expect something to happen at some stage, it is just a question of when. All I do is take reasonable precautions like parking as far away from other cars as possible, avoiding high kerbs, letting other people get out of their cars first, inspecting your car after it's been in for servicing, park nowhere near kids playing football or entrances of any description. The list could go on and on.

So far I have been very lucky with my 2001 SE. However what I have found impossible to counter are the stone chips on the bonnet. The slope on the IS is very stylish but begs to be chipped. When I took mine to a dealer for a part ex price he made a bee line for the bonnet. Definitely a week spot.

Perhaps if you're the sort who thinks mainly of the financial effect of minor damage then I think that if it's not going to rust, leave it alone and get a whole list jobs done at the same time either just before you sell it or when the sight is unbearable.

[Parthiban]

I got side-swiped and pushed off the road yesterday by a lorry. The passenger door mirror has gone, the front wing is mullahed around the wheel arch and there's a wide scrape along the back door and rear wing. Other than that, it's ok. My underpants had to be condemned though.

That's about the worst that has happened to me (so far) in any of the IS's I've owned.

Damn that's pretty scary and lucky it wasn't more serious than cosmetic damage.

I'm guessing he's all insured and stuff and it wasn't some polish lorry........ :shutit:

[Greedy80]

Think I can make a good showing here :D here we go

August 08 - I buy my stunning low mileage IS200 in black :) happy as a clam

August 08 - 3weeks after owning it I have find a scratch from rear quarter down to drivers front wing, yep 4panels done by a drunk girl and a cig lighter (I can't prove it so I have to pay)

Dec 08 - a bmw driver decides to reverse after just pulling into a junction and reverses straight into me cracking headlight mount and scuffing bumper

Feb 09 - clutch fails on way home and end up getting towed back, go to look at the car the next day and a Ford Transit van has crashed into my car scuffing bumper (again) and cracking headlight and destroying front wing (this is still ongoing and again I couldn't prove who did it as no details were left)

Any advances lol?

Like you mate the second day I had my car I woke up to the sight ok a light key mark the length of the entire side of my car. The second day!!! I knew who did it also but had no evidence so it just made me incredibly angry. Luckily I buffed it out immediately, couldn't believe I'd be polishing my car on it's second day of owner ship!

It's good to see so many like minded individuals here. :winky:

[Greedy80]

Great thread! I always thought i was alone with the OCD of my Lex! Lol!

I've had mine since 2005 and i've had a few bad experiences.

Until 2007 it was just me who used the Lex. Looked after it lovingly, washed by hand weekly, polished, cleaned to an inch of its life. We had 2 cars and it wasn't financially beneficial so my Mrs sold her Fiesta Zetec S and we agreed she could use the Lex (yeah i know!!)

On the very first drive we went out together so she could get used to it, went to Lakeside. Cutting a long story short we parked in those drive in diagonal spaces. Parked nicely, within the lines, just ready to shift it into P and what does she do? Hits the gas instead of the brake!! Shock, disbelief, horror! I almost dragged her out the car (LOL!) not wanting to make a scene. I checked the car for damage and luckily there wasn't too much wrong, cracked plate, scuffed bumper but the other car was pushed out its space! Funny when you look back now but not at the time. All she could say is well its not that bad nothing is broken! She was sorry and shocked so i left the lecture til later! Lol!

Anyway now she is the main user and the car has many little scuffs here and there, none ever her fault though. Like the time in a multi storey car park coming out, mis-judged the turn and the front bumper ended up scuffed and cracked. I wasn't with her but knew where she went and saw it on her return and knew exactly how it happened. "It wasn't me" she said.

Think the worst one was what i noticed one day when i was cleaning it. Thousands of stone chips along the nearside from front wing to rear wing. Very small but noticeable when close up. Where the hell they come from i wondered? Then after racking my brains i got it! The grass had been cut next to where my car was parked. The lawnmower has spat out all the crap as it cut and it was against my car! Livid i was.

I still do get real angry when i see the marks i already know are on the car.

I know how all you guys feel and i think it is impossible to keep the car mint unless you wrap it up in bubble wrap and don't drive it. Either that or have plenty of money and time to keep it mint and keep calling on Chips Away! I'm currently trying to get some money together to give mine a facelift. (should last about 6 months)

Noone realises when you have a car that you cherish and try to look after. To most people i know a car is to get from A to B, yes they look after them but have no idea what swirl marks are or bother about stone chips or car park dents or scuffed rims or anything else.

Anyway i have waffled enough now sorry to bore you all. Interesting to read everyone elses stories and views.

Buddy I've been pretty worried to as my partner wants to learn to drive too and the other day I took her for her pre-lesson, lesson and luckily (in some respects) she has decided against learning to drive. I couldn't bear letting her out in the car not knowing where she was going or who she was hitting. lol!

[Greedy80]

Certainly does seem our pursuit of perfection is an endless one......but overall I'm pleased with the condition of the car I have, on it's day it looks fantastic, nearly new. I can't wait to get out there and start cleaning and nursing the body back to health. Although I popped into Lexus Poole on Friday and I picked up my chip repair kit, all well and good but I couldn't help but salavate over the brand new IS250 in the show room it looked fantastic in black (althought to my taste maybe a little too big, wish lexus would make a smaller sedan sport), dare I say it almost perfect, not for long though as we all well know!

Thanbks for everyone's input thus far it's been interesting if harrowing to hear about fellow Lexus drivers and the trials they endure.

[P14NJH]

Love my car but also had some problems with mine.

baught my stunning is2oo in aztec red, 80k miles on a V plate in October 2008.

November 2008 - clutch failed, but it was the only clutch it had had since new, so i was just unlucky

November 2008/2 days later - had my car back, nice to clutch, stupid mechanics had knocked a pipe out of the engine, lots of smoke no heat ect, went balistic at the mechanics for shurking their responcibility

November 2008/4 days later - had the car back, running great, all pipes fixed in the right place, yeehaa develop misfire, not 1, not 2 but three coils faulty, AA man says he has never seen 3 go befor.

Boxing day 2008 - lexus has a fight with a faulty electric gate, damage = shattered rear windscreen, huge 6 inch long, half ince wide scratch and dent to boot, but the owners of the car park accepted liability and refunded me the cost of the all wrk, including £600 quid for a rear windscreen,

but since then, fingers crossed lexus reliability is holding up, what i hae learned though is that the AA and Auto glass are brilliant companies, whos engineers are nothing but reliable and do everthing they can and more to assist, and the mechanics at a midlands nationwide auto centre are nothing but a bunch of monkeys who have no idea how an engine works

[Andy-R]

Some T :tsktsk: sser done this to mine last summer.

All fixed now tho and they repaired the trim piece around the lock aswell.

[kam05]

Wow, guess I've been pretty lucky with my 200. Owned it for the last 6 years now, only damage I got to it was when I parked in the local supermarket, when I came back I noticed a nice bumperscuff to the NSR of my car. Local Chipsaway man sorted it for next to nothing.

Oh and a couple of dings to my NSF & NSR doors as well- yep in supermarket car parks. Got it sorted by a local Dentwizard/Devil type.

I now avoid supermarket carparks at all costs now (get the missus to do the shopping in her car )

[UzziWozzi]

No damage so far, but had a foodie accident last week, ketchup on the hand brake, coke on the seat and an entire cup of salty wedges on the backseat.. that was only after I had lifted a "no food ban" in my car. Needless to say, the ban is now in place again. :)

[LexusIS200Sam]

The first and last time i let my ex drive my IS off the drive so she could get her car out she bashed it up the curb scuffing my nice un-touched mint wheels!! as you can understand i wasnt best impressed! but managed to refurb them at my work and forgave her.... after a week or two haha!!

Another pain the backside was a nice young lad who decided to come down my street at warp speed and come off the road into the back of my IS... ripping the bumper off, smashing in the rear pannel and tailgate!.... didnt have alot to say as he had been drinking....such a nice boy, defently knew how to drive a car for only driving for a week he said!

[IS_man]

the first day we got our new car, the missus tried turning around in the road in one swoop. the first kerb she came to she hit with the wheel and marked it. (i felt it grinding) so i calmly said that "we" (i.e. YOU!!) had to be a bit more careful with the wheels as they werent just hub caps anymore, like our previous car, she just said 'yeah, yeah, they've got to be able to take some abuse', i let that one go, but as the car was was now beginning to face the other direction she hit the other kerb on the other side of the road, creating an even bigger mark around the edge of the wheel.

We have never spoken about this....

[D Robbo]

Had my front wing kicked in by some ******!

[tHomBleached]

After around 5 weeks of ownership I reversed into a car park pillar - the ones which aren't tall enough to see, and unless you know the car park, you'd never see :tsktsk:

I got a reversing cam for the Kenwood a week later.

Oh and the first time I tried putting my sons's babyseat in the Lex - or rather the moment of horror when I took the seat out a day later and saw the horrendous dents in the leather, they eventually came out with lots of heat, but he wasn't allowed in my car until he was heavy enough for a booster seat

I think on a subconscious level my love of my lex was quite high on my decision hierrachy when getting the OH a corolla - so my Lex never need other people in it but me!