I purchased my first Lexus, which is a 2008. The salesman assured me the car had no damage history and gave me a copy of the Carfax as proof. I told the salesman it is important the car hold its value as I intend to trade up to a newer model in a year or so. The car is a certified pre-owned vehicle.

I took the car to another dealer, which is about an hour closer to my home, because the interior panel on the rear door is coming off. That dealer pointed out that the car had been in a crash and that not only was the interior panel removed and not replaced properly, but the rocker panel is coming off and the vehicle identification sticker was removed when that area was re-painted.

My question is this: Is the value of this car less because it now has a history of being damaged? If so, does the dealer have an obligation to reimburse me for this reduction in value? Shouldn't the dealer have known about the rocker panel coming off and the missing vehicle identification sticker when the inspection was done for the certification? Didn't the dealer have an obligation to tell me of the repaired areas?

My first inclination is that the dealer does have an obligation here and I would expect him to reimburse me the amount this damage has reduced the car's value. However, I don't want to be unreasonable or unfair. What say you?

 

Unfortunately in most cases,whether it's Chevy or Lexus dealer,if a Carfax is clean,they won't admit a car has been in an accident.It's all about the profit number.Never trust any dealer of any brand.
In most cases if not all, a dealer will inspect a trade in and know if the car has been in an accident whether Carfax has the report or not.They use a trained eye and a paint meter to check paint thickness.
Carfax is far from a perfect service.
The accident wasn't too bad if the car is CPO'd.The repair wasn't done properly.
I doubt very much if you have any chance of getting anything from the selling dealer but you can approach the dealer and try.If you bought the car recently,it might help.
The value of the car is less.Especially if you trade.
Just my .02.

 

Thanks for your reply. I feel like if the car value is less once the damage is known, then the dealer mis-represented the car when they didn't tell me about that damage when I purchased the vehicle. I have an appointment with the dealer next Saturday to see what can be done.

 

From what I have read about the CPO program, your vehicle shouldn't have qualified as being a CPO vehicle. I believe you do, in fact, have a case with the dealer. If they bock, contact Lexus Corporate.

Lou

 

"That dealer pointed out that the car had been in a crash"...hmmmm...something does not sound right here. Was the car repaired under insurance (it thats case it has to be reported). Had it gone thru a body paint job. If yes, you might be able to see some over-sprays.

Where does CARFAX get its information from. I always wondered the same question

 

Do you know who and how I would contact someone at Lexus corporate?

 

A vehicle that was in an accident can be CPO'd.Depends on what type of damage.
The OP's Lexus dealer should have known the '08 ES was in an accident and I'm sure they did know.

 

The second dealer saw that the vehicle identification sticker had been removed from the driver's door jamb, and found evidence of repainting near the rocker panel. The second dealer lead me to believe the insurance company downloads information to Carfax from claims. If the vehicle was repaired without involving an insurance company, Carfax would never know. At least that's what the dealer told me.

 

Carfax isn't perfect.Insurance repairs aren't always on Carfax.I had a Camry with a $9K repair from a deer hit and that incident never showed.It was about 5 years ago.Maybe Carfax is better now but I've read of Carfax being far from perfect.There's Autocheck too now.

 

I disagree with you. There is no requirement for an insurance company of repair company to report the damage to a service such as Carfax. Some do and some don't and then, some insurco's will only report if damage is above a certain amount. A lot of the info that Carfax has, comes from state databases of accidents as the local LEO reports to a state database for statistical data collection. Much of their service records comes from dealers because Carfax gives away free or for a substantial discount their service when a dealer reports... I have had several rear ends on several cars and none have ever been reported.