Hey guys,
I spent a little time in my Lexus dealer today while they were failing a repair on my Rx400h, and spent some time in the showroom. They had two '12 RX350's however on one of them, it had some sort of "door edge guards" which caught my eye... just take a look (they're hard to see in the last pic).
Upon closer inspection, i realized these weren't "rubbery" like one would expect, but absolutely rock hard, painted metal. I opened the doors, tried to see if the strips had any "give" to them, but they seemed to have been welded/epoxied on tight. I asked a salesman what they were, and he said they were dealer installed. They also installed painted "mouldings" that stretch across, half-way down on each door (which IMO is a must as without them the doors look naked).
What i don't get though is what these "door edge guards" are supposed to do? I understand they're "supposed" to protect neighboring vehicles if the door is swung open, as well as to protect the edge of its own door if it's opened onto another car... But the ones on this RX weren't soft (AT ALL), and the one on the front door wouldn't even make contact on a neighboring parked door as the "moulding" would be first to hit. The only thing i could think of, is if someone opened the door onto another car, it would scuff only this thin strip rather than the edge of the door... but seriously how much damage could be done to the edge that touch-up couldn't fix? Most of the damage done when swinging door A into neighboring car B occurs to car B in the form of a door-ding! That's why these strips are supposed to be soft rubber, right?
Not only would these strips be ineffective on the front because of the moulding sticking out, but the strip doesn't go down enough on the rear doors; the bottom "edge" of the rear door would be contacting a neighboring car, not the strip. And the ones on this RX were painted METAL (not rubber) so they'd sustain just as much damage that the door's edge would... And i can't imagine a body shop masking and bagging an entire car just to re-paint this 1cm strip... and getting it to match?
Has anyone seen these installed on a Lexus before?