EvilAudi

And by the way no airbags popped!

Yes, it was a muntjac deer - literally got on the road and ran towards me, single carriageway so nothing I could do apart from anchor on the brakes. Literally no other damage apart from slight cracking of the plastic housing around the registration plate.

With all due respect, you're not correct. I got Lexus UK involved in my case as I could not believe what I was hearing from the Lexus "specialist" in my area. This kind of problem will write off a 5 or 6 year old car.

Hi JonnyWil Sorry that this has happened to you - a very expensive fault which thankfully looks like it will be picked up by Lexus. In case you hadn't read the full thread, when my pop-up hood deployed, my car was off the road for about 3 weeks, the main reason for this time was colour-matching the new bonnet which meant painting the adjacent bodywork. Total bill was over £4k.

Firstly, I was originally told that the work would be complete in a week which was bad enough but clearly not as bad as the three weeks which it eventually took to repair my car. Secondly, I was liaising with Lexus UK as soon as the costs escalated who confirmed these costs were in the right ballpark. Therefore, I did not think it appropriate to contact other Lexus dealers - closest one was over an hour's drive and going around in a car with a pop-up hood activated is not too much fun. You are of course fully correct in your assertion that I was not dealing with a full Lexus showroom, and it was never made clear to me at the time that the bodyshop was not Lexus certified. I think that unless needs must, I will travel to Cambridge in the future to get any servicing etc completed. But at the time I just wanted to get my car fixed and get on with my life.

Thank you. I think you have encapsulated the spirit of my post and feelings towards Lexus. I'm really struggling with my thoughts on the brand, as I love the product but would not recommend Lexus to anyone given their pretty awful customer service.

Hmm is that actually a Lexus showroom. Im a bit concerned as I have googled it and it seems as if they only do pre-owned Lexus cars and servicing, not new ones. It just seems really weird. It makes me think that they aren't a Lexus showroom at all and are in fact, just a Toyota showroom which do Lexus servicing. Its very odd. Ive never heard of Lexus Norwich either......... Also their cars dont seem to be on the Lexus Approved used website, whats going on here then? :O Technically you're correct - no showroom but in fact they are listed on the Lexus UK website when you click on "Book a service". I suspect that this is one down from a Lexus Centre but how could one deal with the terminology when you just want Lexus to fix your car and give good open communication? By the way, I did see some nearly new IS300h models there when I was considering my options, and borrowed one for a few hours which was also nearly new. As mine is a company car I have no control over where it's ordered from...

Fully agree, and I have taken it up with Lexus UK already. Dealer was Lexus Norwich, run by Dingles.

rayaans, I took my car to the Lexus dealer. Same company also has Toyota and Isuzu dealerships. Was offered an Aygo which I flatly refused and then an Auris 1.4 diesel estate, which was effectively offered as the only alternative available. Interestingly, when I took my car back to Lexus today to get the USB ports checked (dealer hadn't reconnected them when they did the work) I had a bit of an issue trying to get either a loan car or someone to pick up my car from work (10 minutes' drive) - if I wanted either I'd be looking at mid-April for them to fix an issue created by them. I ended up setting up office in the Toyota/Lexus reception and sending emails / making phone calls there for about 80 minutes. They were able to sort out the issue and I went back to the office. Received a call a few minutes ago asking whether there was a drill left in my car which I found on the back seat. Interestingly there was no delay in being able to pick up the drill. I was sorely tempted to say that I could return it mid April. We haven't had anyone pick it up yet, I may leave them in reception for 80 minutes...

Its similiar for any car with a pop -up hood. The Mercedes E-class cabriolet, S class and C-class use a pop-up bonnet, Nissan also uses this technology and the new BMW 3 series which is coming out is going to have a pop up bonnet too. The pop up bonnet did its job - you hit something and it set off. The bonnet is designed to pop up very fast which requires a lot of force, some of which may have damaged the "insides" so to speak. I can confirm that every vehicle which has a pop up bonnet has huge repair costs if it goes off. The "point" of the system is to reduce serious head injuries. When hitting a pedestrian, the bonnet is the most likely place for a head impact. If you push down on a bonnet of a car, you'll realise that its quite malleable provided you put enough force into it. The engine components are very close to the bonnet, hence if you had hit a pedestrian and they smashed their head onto it, its very likely that their head would hit one of the engine components so the pop-up bonnet increases the distance between the bonnet and the components. Many parts associated with pop-up bonnets are not conventional and only authorised repairers can actually carry this work out, possibly resulting in the long time frame. The pop-up bonnet is also only supposed to be activated once in its lifetime at which point its deemed unsafe and therefore the whole mechanism needs replacing. I would suggest paying through insurance rather than through your own pocket - thats what its there for You hit a deer and hence, the pop up hood may seem irrelevant. Imagine if it was a 10 year old boy and the mechanism failed to deploy resulting in serious head injuries? My beef is not with the safety feature, but around the technology employed getting the car up and running following this sequence of events. There was no way of resetting the safety feature, ordering parts in and delaying repair until the dealership was ready to do so. Therefore I'm without my car for a month and had to borrow something pretty horrible from the bodyshop until mine was ready. Then, the dealer had to store my car for a couple of weeks before he could proceed with the work as the parts take too long to get in. From everyone's perspective, the current situation of not having the parts to hand and not being able to have a "make do" plan harms the dealer and the customer. Thankfully not as much harm will be done to the pedestrian.

OK, so now the process is over I can fill you in on the grisly details. Woman at Lexus UK got her knickers in a twist re the damage relating to the "impact". However, in a day or two an expert from Lexus UK talked me through the work which needs to be done when the pop-up hood activates - new bonnet, new hydraulic struts, colour matching with adjacent panels, replace front sensor, replace airbag sensors (they didn't go off), reset system, etc etc. So by Friday that week I was able to give the go-ahead for work to be done. The delay was due to spiralling costs and nobody being able to tell me how we got from initial verbal quote to nearly 3 times the cost. Sorry to say I smelled a rat which could have been avoided with good communication from the body shop. I finally picked my car up 3 weeks after they were able to start the work. Significant waiting time for parts and a final bill of nearly £3,500 plus VAT. Slightly different to while-u-wait reset bonnet and do the work at a later date, which was the original information provided. So the big question remains - what is the point of a safety system like this if you end up with a black mark on your insurance and the car off the road for 3 weeks? Answers on a postcard but unless anyone can confirm it's similar for BMW or Audi this will be the last Lexus I own...

Afternoon All Been a happy is300h driver since mid 2014. I own an F-Sport in the lovely blue colour. Sadly, on 15th February, I hit a deer (RIP Bambi) but it was a small-ish muntjack and death itself was I think caused by a blow to the head on the tarmac rather than speed. This caused only minor damage to the car itself (some cracking around the plastic housing the number plate) for which I was thankful but the pop-up hood activated itself. So, I called the dealership on Monday morning and was told that this was minor and I could get the hood reset while I waited. Unfortunately when I got there I was told that this was not a 30 minute job, as there was some distortion to the bonnet (which would now need replacing) following the safety feature activating and my car would be out of action for just over a week, and the cost would be a little over £1,000 - all to do with the pop-up hood, no other damage noticed on the car. Clearly I'm a little upset as I took this to be some kind of design fault, or perhaps a way of appeasing dealerships with lucrative repair work. I then decided to escalate to Lexus UK to get some sense because quite frankly the dealership has not convinced me of their knowledge at this point. Let's not forget that it is now 16/02/15 and I got in touch with Lexus UK who assured me that someone else would get back to me ASAP. On the next afternoon (Tuesday 17th February) someone did indeed call me back from Lexus UK. Her stance was that the repair costs were reasonable in the circumstances. "What circumstances" was my question, the reply being that a cost of nearly £3,000 was acceptable considering all the damage caused by hitting a large deer. As you might imagine this put me into a bit of a spin and call me a cynic but I then thought that something was definitely wrong as the damage was minimal. I think I will leave this story here and perhaps if there is enough interest I will come back and let you know what happened next.