Nich7914

I'm new to the forum and I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on my situation.

I purchased a certified pre owned IS 300 about six years ago. I recently discovered rust on the rocker panel and when I took it to a body shop they said the car had been in an accident and repaired before i bought it. Whoever did the work did not replace the under coat after the repair and now there is rust.

I initiated a complaint with Lexus corporate and started working with the local dealer (not the dealer i purchased the car from, I have moved). What kind of response do you think I should expect? Should a car with a replacement rocker panel and quarter panel qualify for the certified program? There is no sign of any rust on the passenger side of the car that was not involved in the accident.

03LexIS300

normally i would say it would qualify for some sort of buyback, but you have 3 issues here. issue one is you bought it 6 years ago, issue two is you have put X amount of miles on it since you bought it, which over 6 years may not be a lot but a considerable more amount than it had when you bought it, issue three you have no way of proving to lexus or otherwise you yourself did not do the repairs or have these repairs made to the car. although you didn't you have no way of proving that. so personally i dont think anything will become of it, unless all the work done was documented on a carfax or autocheck, or at a lexus/toyota dealership. if it is not documented on any of those then you are more than likely wasting your wasting your time. hope this helps and sorry to hear about you buying a CPO Lexus like that! also my guess is the repairs are not documented anywhere because if they were I'm sure it wouldn't have been sold as a CPO Lexus 6 years ago. basically whoever owned your car must have got in some sort of accident and didn't report it to police or insurance and had it fixed and settled out of pocket, this is becoming more and more common as people don't want to get in trouble with the police and get tickets, or higher insurance rates, and they want the carfax and autocheck clean.

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iTrader: (1)

+1 definitely agree

If it bothers you soo much just get a new front fender for $100 and get it painted/installed for another $100 - $150 and call it a day..
No sense getting all worked up over something soo small.

But yes I do agree that it is shady that they sold you a car that is supposed to be certified clean even though the car is not.
That is your fault though for trusting a car dealership, aka stealership.. Why do you think they say used car dealers are the devil..
If you want a perfect car buy new, if you get a used car you never know what you are going to get...

When I buy used cars I look for the cheapest deal, don't believe the hype.
"oh this one is certified pre owned perfect with 6 months warranty so it is $3,000 extra"
Screw that!!!!!

03LexIS300

definitely agree^ that extra 3,000 you spend would cover a lot of the problems you may have with the car after you get it. think of it like this too, with almost every used car there is usually always at least one flaw with it hence the reason the last person got rid of it lol. unless your buying barrett-jackson used cars that have been on jack stands since new with 43 miles you aren't going to get a perfect used car, usless you buy a car new, and even new cars could have possibly had some work before if per say it took a spill off the truck and did minimal body damage. so you really never know what you are getting, also buying a new car there is no carfax or autocheck on it yet since it hasn't been sold to an owner, so if it did fall off the truck you would never know lol.

Nich7914

This has definitely been a learning experience and if i ever buy another used car i will be asking a lot more questions.

I learned a little more this week. Lexus corporate directed me to take the car back to the dealer to confirm the condition of the car. The dealer sent me to the body shop they also own. The guy there told me that it looked like everything from the middle of the rear door on the driver side to the rear bumper had been cut out and replaced (that's at least two body panels). I understand that all used cars go through some type of reconditioning, pulling dents, new paint, etc, before being certified but replacing whole body panels seems like a lot of damage to still be considered certified in my opinion. Lexus markets the cars as like new, I now know that is hardly what i got with my purchase.

The guy said that it would cost about $2,000 or more to cut out the rusted areas, depending on how extensive the rust really is, so it is by no means a cheap fix. I appreciate the opinions, for now it's not costing me anything but time to push the issue, we'll see where things end up.

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iTrader: (1)

That's another issue.
If you are taking your car to the Lexus Dealership body shop they are going to give you a ridiculous quote!! Try going to toyota dealership body shop, the price will be 1/4 to 1/2 less, and it is still a factory dealership body shop if that's what you want. And Lexus is toyota.. So you're all good.

But if it's just your front 1/4 pannel then seriously you can get a used one for like $100 then get it painted and installed for another $100-200. Depending on how bad the rust is you could even just put a grinder to it and repair the rust yourself easily.

I wish I could see pics of what you have going on there.
And you should be taking pictures as you go if you are trying to make a case of this.

slidingIS

i dont think its the front broski. I think its the rear quarter panel

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iTrader: (1)

Oh that would suck

03LexIS300

ill tell you what you need to do, if the car has a clean carfax and autocheck and qualifies for buyback protection, talk to one of them and see if they will buy it back.