jloftus

Hello my fellow Lexonians,

What's the best place to go to get small nicks/ paint chips/ dents fixed in a Lexus? I'm sure the dealer would be
very costly even for tiny issues.

Does anyone know if Lexus offers any type of insurance to cover such matters? Probably standard car insurance won't cover it,
or if it does, it wouldn't be worth the rate increase.....

bostonsnow

I fix these myself. For each car, i will get touch up paint - both a little bottle with brush, as well as touch up paint pen.
I order through: www.paintscratch.com, although can get through the dealer also.
paintscratch.com will even give you primer and clear coat as well if you want to do those also.

DIY has worked fine for me. The other option would be to try to find a local body shop place who will be nice, and do small repairs at low cost (or even free), hoping that you will be happy and then for major body work come to them. This is not easy to find but is possible - but I found a local guy to do minor things (drilling holes or fixing jammed license plate screws etc) for no charge. I even offered to pay for such things and he refused to take any money. Then, eventually, when my wife's car had a substantial wreck, we did indeed go to him for the body work over any other place. worked well for both him and us. Smart businessman...

Brent1944

I have a dent and ding plan from the dealer that covers wheel scrapes as well..

jloftus

Thanks Bostonsnow and Brent. I'm not sure I could trust myself to do the painting well. I'm not even sure what 'primer' and 'clear coat' are. :-)

If you don't do it right, can't you end up leaving a pretty visible smudge?

Brent: how can I get the dent and ding plan? I think they mentioned this when I bought the car, but I opted out at that time. I didn't
think I'd really need it, but now I find where I park there's an awful lot of big SUV type vehicles with huge doors parking next to me.....so I know it's only a matter of time b4 the nicks etc. start to accumulate ......

bostonsnow

very true - actually even myself I don't always do a good job Sometimes I'm in a rush and skip the primer and clear coat part. I just put a couple coats of paint on. But then there can still be a little depression there, and up close it can be visible still. If you really goof it up, there can be a smudge. Smudge errors can easily be corrected though with some compound. The depressions can be a long term cosmetic issue. My last lexus was classic silver metallic and even good DIY tough up jobs still showed afterwards. Whether you want to tolerate this depends on your fastidiousness and also whether you have a lease or own the car. With a lease, you may well want a dent and ding plan to protect you.

Another good DIY tip - keep a bottle of compound around. My last lexus did not have parking assist - so Frequently brushed up the bumper against the yellow painted parking lot dividers and poles. This usually results in the yellow paint getting on your lexus, rather than a dent or ding. Compound is great to get such paint off and often is all that is needed.

Brent1944

2.5 hrs Id just call the dealer and bargain and ask them. I think mine was being offered at $1,100.00 for 72 months, But I got it for $700.00.. AND since I dont live close to a Lexus dealer (2.5 hrs away) I can take it to the Toyota dealer, which I have confirmed with them. It is actually thru a 3rd party , but the Toyota dealer said they have never had a problem with that.... I do believe the price on mine was a pkg that repairs everything, and think you can get a pkg that say.. may not include the wheels

jloftus

Hi again Brent and Boston.

I just called the dealer, and they're willing to negotiate a price for the dent and ding plan - since it's only a month old (although I'm a bit embarrassed
to admit I have almost 3000 miles on it). They will want to 'inspect' it to see that it doesn't currently have any issues, which I would expect anyway.

I'll have to see if the price they quote is still doable. The car is leased, so I suppose that's an issue also.

I park the car in an apartment complex, and it was OK until shortly after I bought the car. Then unexpectedly we had a huge influx of
people parking out there - including some w pickup trucks, SUVs etc with BIG doors. So I know it's inevitable that my car is going to
get nicked.....no matter how careful my neighbors are.....

I once had this place do work on a decent dent on my last car (an Accord EXL V6), and it was perfect - just like new. But quite expensive.

Brent1944

If you like the look, and I do... You can also get body side moldings and install them or have dealer do it.. helps some with dings. at least they may ding it rather than the door..and on a leased car,, they will "ding" you when you bring it back at lease end..

jloftus

Yep you end up getting Double Dinged. :-)

I didn't know about the body side moldings....I can inquire when I go there about the D and D coverage.

Arty101

I'm not so sure if your d&d will cover small paint nicks or chips. Bodyside moulding sort of helps but not 100%. I have it, and I like them.