Over a number of years, I noticed various parts of the dash turning "soft". In some places, it actually got sticky and mushy. This involved the entire dash area - the top of the dash, the center console, etc. After putting up with it for a long time and watching it get worse and worse, I went to my Lexus dealer who pointed me to an auto vinyl repair specialist they use, and he did quite a bit of "magic" to fix the problem - at least for the time being, until it starts to deteriorate again.

The vinyl repair guy looked at my car and gave me a call to discuss what he'd found. He described the problem as the dash "turning to jelly", which seems pretty accurate. The fix he proposed sounded pretty scary, but he did an outstanding job and now it looks like new again. What he said was that he scraped off the "jelly" parts and re-dyed everything, and did something else to various other parts - I'm not sure what. The result is that it looks perfect again now. I just hope that it does not do it again - I've had my car for over 11 years and it only has 63,000 miles, so I plan to have it for many more years.

Note that this car spends most of its time in a garage, and whenever I park it outside in hot or sunny weather I use a sun shade in the windshield. I do not generally use any chemical products like Armor All on the dash - I've perhaps done that once every few years. (and the vinyl repair guy recommends against ever using those).

I purchased a Lexus IS 300 and after 3 years the dashboard material started deteriorating so I contacted the Corporate Office for them to replace. I was accused of putting something on the dashboard to cause the sticky deteroiating. I was told my warranty had expired and I would need to pay for replacement. I was offered $500.00 for a 1500.00 dashboard. In October 2012, the same material the dashboard is the same as the console starting deteriorating. They thought the console warranted replacing but not the dashboard.