Dealer Damage to my Prius Dashboard

Don't let them rub your dash board. I had a similiar problem with a mark on my dash on another car.. I rubbbed and rubbed and took the coating off the dash. Luckily there is a company who can repair the dash. They had a can of spray paint that matched the dash, and you could never see the spot. Have you tried a product such as Goo Gone on the dash?

 

don't use googone on a plastic dash. Most gloves are coated with talcum powder so can't understand why it's embedded in the plastic dash. What I'd try is Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, it'll take off most stuff like printing ink and such from the steering wheel where I sit and read the paper in the car in the morning. This would be my first line of cleaning the dash.

 

Might also try a piece of wide clear tape....I've used it to remove all sorts of random lint from my Pri. Simply rub it over the top of the stuff you want to remove, press it in really good with your fingers, and remove. Hopefully the talcum powder goes with it.

 

Is it possible that when he used the high pressure air, it embedded the talk into the plastic?

 

Why isn't the dealer rectifying the situation? I would insist they make it right one way or the other.

 

So it's just a powdery residue sitting on the dash? Can it be wiped off? I don't have my 2006 Prius yet, but I clean the dash of all my cars using leather cleaner (it's like a lotion or cream). I then treat the dash with a leather protector. If the powder is stuck in a crevice, maybe a Q-tip would help?

 

Try <a href=\'http://www.303products.com/main.php?infopage=protectant\' target=\'_blank\'>303 Protectant.</a> It cleans and will hide the powder. In addition, it will protect the dash from UV. It's antistatic, which is probably why the powder is stuck.

 

if nothing is getting that stuff out, go back and demand they replace the dash pieces. if they did the damage, they are responsible for fixing it. period. your visit for that should not be for anything more than getting a list of parts that are damaged so they can order them. you shouldn't have to leave it with them or anything like that until they have the parts in to install them.

 

I work for a Toyota Dealership
Ask to speak to the customer relations manager, tell them your problem, don't be a jeark about it but stand your ground have them fix it. let me know how it goes

 

i would look up who did the original work, and insist someone else does it.

ckacey has a good idea, but the customer relations mgr is only going to send you back to the service dept to have it replaced anyway, why not skip the middle man and save some time? ask to talk to the tech before he works on you car and just ask him to please be very careful because of how visually important the dash is. he should be able to accomodate that if he has any customer service skills whatsoever.

 

galaxee this is true, if the tech doesn't consider customer interuptions a bother many do. the CR(customer relations) manager has a great deal of pull within the ranks and if it is a recurring problem they are the only ones who can effect change (other than the service manager or the general manager) in a timely diplomatic maner and they may give you a free oil change for the trouble

 

and those who do need to learn to shut their mouths and understand the needs of their customer, who pays their paycheck week to week.

my husband does a lot of the nasty diagnostic work- he enjoys figuring things out and making stuff work. he likes to get the story from the customer if it's a really complex problem, often the writer won't include all the important details and he has to call the customer anyway. he'll even have the customer show him what's going on. it's very appreciated on the customer end and it shows.

considering that many jobs can be done in less than the flat rate time they provide for, an extra minute of their time for the sake of a happy customer could earn them a regular customer and more money down the road.

now if the customer is hanging around the car asking questions, or if the customer wants to hang around and talk forever about irrelevant things, yes. that's a nuisance. but one minute to hear someone out when they say "hey someone else wore powdered gloves and left marks and i was unhappy, please keep an eye out for that issue" shouldn't be that much trouble. what's the chance a service writer will actually record that?

besides, comebacks due to customer dissatisfaction and bad surveys are also a nuisance and a black mark on your job statistics.

 

I agree fully, if we could only have some sort of rating system so that only those there to satisfy the customer would remain that would be ideal (my personal opinion)

 

I remember another post by someone who was trying to get white marks off of the dash. In that case they had marked it by just running their finger over it, a white or light colored mark just from skin cells I think. I don't remember how they got it out.

But my question, since this kind of thing does happen and seems hard to clean, is there a good way to protect the dash before it happens? Is there a product such as Armor All or something that could be applied that would make the dash easy to clean? I've been afraid to try anything because I don't want to create a problem by trying to solve one.

Bill, will the 303 Protectant you spoke of do this?

 

Bill uses 303 and says he's very happy with the way it works. i use mother's back to black and am also quite happy with the result. so it sounds like both work just fine for the prius. they're good for protecting and bringing out the richness of the color of the dash.

i know with the b2b you need to really, really wipe it down afterward with a clean cloth in order to get the desired effect. and i recall from other posts that you had to do the same with the 303, but i'll leave Bill to elaborate on that.