2016 GS350 F Sport - Atomic Silver

When I purchased the car Certified there were two vertical scratches in the rear bumper (a little into the plastic but not super deep). Each was about 3" long, parallel to each other, about an inch or less apart. Sadly I never took a photo of it. It didn't look like the car was backed into something, more like something being dropped near the rear of the car that caught the bumper. Very possibly something like just barely not getting the car into the garage far enough and maybe the garage door handle getting it just a tiny bit. There was no other apparent damage on the bumper, the rest of the joints all looked perfect. The car itself had 37k miles on it but looked like it had never been driven so my sense is that it was well taken care of.

Part of the purchase agreement was that the dealer would repair the bumper. We scheduled that and I'm heading out shortly to pick up the car (2 hour drive from my location)

My main question is - is there anything in particular I should really look for to see if they did things correctly? I've read horror stories on here about issues with Lexus paint when it has to be redone by a body shop.

What I'm told by the dealer is that the bumper was removed from the vehicle, the scratches were repaired (don't know exact details - I'm assuming filled in some way), the entire bumper was repainted, it was reattached to the car and they replaced the "Lexus" clear paint protector on the bumper lip that was there. I dropped the car off late Monday afternoon so they started work Tuesday. They called late morning Friday that it was done so just over three days repair time.

My plan was to have them pull into one of the well lit vehicle delivery bays and check it out (it's gray here in Oregon!). Anything to look at specifically? Any additional thoughts. There's the bit of second guessing myself now but just a little.

My sense is that they did a good job and everything sounds on the level and I don't have a lot to be concerned about. The dealer seems to be reputable, they're smaller and still a family owned/run dealer (although they own 28 dealer ships in the Pacific NW)

Thanks in advance!

 

It's a straightforward job. Check the bumper/body gaps for evenness. Make sure the sensors work. Examine the paint for quality of finish up close. Look at car from several angles for a color match. Only four years old so it should be a simple match to the rest of the car. CPO doesn't mean perfect.

 

Definitely understand CPO doesn't mean perfect and if the car had been at the dealer a little longer, supposedly this would have already been taken care of (not sure on that...but that's what they said). All of these things in the PNW region seem to barely hit the lot and they're gone. I looked at some CPO cars that definitely had very noticeable wear and tear. The one, espeically on the interior, looked like no one had been in it....maybe a long lost relative of my grandparents had this car and kept sheets over everything I just added as much info to the post to give folks enough context hopefully.

I figured at 4 years it wouldn't be hard to match, the joints and how things meet (angles) will make any slight color difference hard to distinguish. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something like "there was no way that could have been done in three days" or "you'll never match atomic silver" LOL.

Thanks for the tip about the sensors! I would not have thought to check that while there.

 

You won't know until you see it. I think silver is hard to match.

 

The time line is reasonable.

 

Silver is hard to match (previous GS was millennium silver). Keep in mind that the rest of the car is "older" paint and that newly painted bumper is fresh, new and hasn't been exposed to the elements - rain/heat/cold/direct sun/dust/etc. In my experience, every bumper that i've had painted has looked newer, brighter and fresher than the rest of the car.

My CPO '13 had quite a few blemishes on the bumper which the dealer reconditioned before delivery (it took them about 4 days). At certain angles, it looks like a perfect match. In other light, you can see that difference - i've learned to live with these types of things since all my cars are purchased used.

Here's my car after a hand wash...you can see the bumper looks different from the fender:

 

I think a key phrase is "learned to live with..." is sound advice based in reality. Good post.

 

Totally agree - but even when I look at brand new cars the bumpers, in certain light, can often look a little off at certain angles.

Here's a couple pics. Photos may seem like it's a little off, visually to the eye I think it looks better than the photos show. These were in the delivery bay under nice bright light. Also looked at her outside but it was very overcast an drizzlely outside with lots of ambient light bouncing around and was harder to notice any issue in that light. Gaps looked good as well - I don't have any before photos - kicking myself for not doing that.

Thanks again for the point about the sensors....checked them out before I even left and they seemed to work well.

 

looks good to me, if they blended it in correctly should be good. Only way to know for sure is to look at the bumper in direct sunlight. The repaint will not be 100% like factory, maybe 95%. Also feel the paint with your fingers after a few days to feel for bumps or imperfections that need to be buffed out.

 

@LexusGSboy It does look good from the pics - are you planning to get PPF or something on your bumpers now?

 

PPF is only worth having on the front end of the car because it’s the most vulnerable for paint chips. Not worth the $600 they would charge you to cover the rear bumper.

 

Looks awesome. Glad they got it right.

 

Front already had a partial PPF. That is being redone in a few weeks to a full (they have about a 6 week waiting list).

I thought about doing the back bumper after it was redone but my thought was that most of the things that would happen to it weren't likely to gain any protection from the PPF. It was either going to be someone bumping it while parking and leaving their screw imprints, or a scuff that would likely go deeper than the PPF, etc... I guess technically it might protect against a shopping cart attack but in the 12 years I've been in Oregon I've never seen people leave carts out - they always put them back in the corrals so it's unlikely. It does have the Lexus protector on the area of the bumper by the trunk lid (they replaced this when they repainted) which to me is where I would likely accidentally damage the paint getting things in or out of the trunk..