Lexus Has Polluted My Rx Interior, Not Able To Use Our Lexus. Suggest

[David_B]

My family has chemical sensitivities and one person is undergoing treatment for advance stage cancer that has spread to the lungs. We can not tolerate any offensive odors or irritants.

We purchased our new 2015 RX350 back in June, primarily to travel to medical facilities such as Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and to MD Anderson in Houston. We have put on 10K miles since June in these travels. It has been the perfect car for us.

Then we took it into the Lexus dealership for a 10K mile service and detailing activity. I had requested the service advisor not to use any products with smells or odors within the interior and he noted the request into the service instructions. When we picked up our RX the next day and opened the door, the odor hit us immediately. We notified the staff immediately, but the service advisor was not there. They told us that they would inform him of our concern.

We drove it home and discovered that it also caused us sore throats and eye pain.

It turns out that the service advisor had instructed the detailing staff to use the spray can of glass cleaner in place of the normal citrus base cleaner for detailing the entire interior (except for the dash). The service advisor thought that this was better since it was water based. The glass cleaner has some chemicals other than water, one of which is: 2-Butoxyethanol (111-76-2) http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0070.html

2-Butoxyethanol: irritation eyes, skin, nose, throat; hemolysis, hematuria (blood in the urine); central nervous system depression, headache; vomiting

The warning label on the Glass Cleaner Can includes the following:

If swallowed: Induce vomiting, Call physician immediately

If inhaled: Remove to fresh air. Consult physician if irritation persists

If on skin: Flush with soap and water. Consult physician if irritation persists

If in eyes: Flush with with liberal amounts of water. Consult physician if irritation persists.

Using this product on glass and wiping it away right away is the normal use. Using it on surfaces such as carpets, interior panels, and perforated leather seats (with absorbing type materials underneath) is not the labeled use for this product.

The dealership has performed three additional detailing activities to the interior, to attempt to remove the odor and irritants. Twice they used water only and the third using "Seventh Generation" clear and odor free products.

Even after these three cleanings, the odor and irritant problems are still there. Within minutes of being in the RX the problems strike. Some other Lexus owners who have been in our car, also experience these problems. It seems to only effect some people, others are not able to smell it or to notice any irritant effects.

The dealership at this point is not offering any further cleaner options and does not want to change out any of the interior components.

Our preference is to get our car back into an odor-free and irritant-free state if this is possible. We have tried airing out the RX for days but that has not worked.

The dealership is offering us the opportunity to pay an additional $10,000 plus in order to get back into a new RX that has the same features. We had only own the car for four months when they caused the problem. We have not been able to use our RX for over 1.5 months, it is just sitting in our garage.

We do not wish to have to buy another new Lexus and twice suffer the hit of immediate depreciation. We had purchased the eight year/125K mile extended service agreement and the 75K mile prepaid maintenance, we had intended to keep this RX350 for many years.

I am also concerned that the owners manual care and maintenance section warns not to use certain products on the leather and not to use water for cleaning the interior. They have used water three times for detailed cleaning.

If this dealership had simply asked me which products were acceptable for cleaning the interior, we would not be in this situation. You would have expected that the dealership would have a formal process in place to respond to such a simple request. I can not believe that in all the years that this dealership has been in operation that they were not properly prepared to handle our request.

I also contacted Lexus corporate via the survey. They called me. I described our situation. They said that there was nothing that they could do. That this is something we must resolve directly with the dealership. That each dealership is an independent business. I asked if sending a letter to the president of Lexus, USA would help. I was informed that the executive would not see the letter, that it would be sent to the customer satisfaction department and then filed away. I asked for the phone number for the executive office. I was told that the call would just be routed back to the customer satisfaction department. I am astounded at the lack of concern or assistance by corporate Lexus USA. I had such higher expectations of the customer support of the Lexus brand. I suspect that if I lived in Japan, our situation would be very different.

We had the perfect Lexus and then Lexus destroyed it.

Any suggestions?