I was looking at a 2008 IS350 for sale in the area and noticed something odd. The front fenders and hood was misaligned, fenders higer than hood, and the roof panel looked like is had slight buckled sheet metal around the sunroof. I looked at the dealers (used lot- non Lexus) car fax report and it showed no damage or accidents. The fenders also had the original VIN stickers, my nephew in Colorado works at a Lexus dealership and said to look for those.

I called him and told him about the strange roof panel and fenders. His response was the someone had hit something and tweaked the frame. He added that it is very common for second generation IS models to have this concern. He said that it does not take much more than hitting a large pot hole to tweak it.

I have been searching and so far have not found any information on this being a common concern.

Has anyone ever heard of this before.

 

Sounds to me like this IS350 hit something and wasn't reported to DMV or repaired. Possible frame damage, but wouldn't be able to know for certain unless measured on a rack, could just be some panel misalignment, or mm differences in frame position.

 

The roof issue seems to just happen. There is a thread about it around here somewhere.

If both fenders are sitting higher than the hood, you may just need to adjust the hood. I brought my hood up a bit to match my fenders a bit better than it was from the factory.

Hitting a pothole won't bend your frame.

Jeff

 

Roof dent thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-...of-thread.html

Jeff

 

How do you adjust the hood? My fenders sit higher than the hood too.

 

sounds like you should just look for another car bc I see nothing but a bunch of issues from your description. Usually anytime when a car has had any kind of accident is enough to make ppl turn away. You'll prob find more issues in the future if you bought it and spend more money fixing it vs financing one that cost a few grand more thats accident free

 

Sounds like the car you are describing is mine! Lol! I currently have the roof "dent" around the driver's side front corner AND my passenger side fender is now higher than the hood after running over a thick tree branch thrown into the road. There was no damage to the car (besides the slight fender shift), but the tire developed a small internal bubble and had to be replaced.

Take it to some place that will do a pre-purchase examination and throw it up on the rack for you to view.

 

Have a bodyshop look at it to see what was repaired or if there had been any work done. Someone with knowledge can just look at it and know. As far as value, I wouldn't put it in the same price range as a non accident vehicle, I would knock off 4-700 off the price.

 

Often times the carfax is not the complete history of the vehicle. I finance cars for a living. Post the VIN and I will run an autocheck report and let you know what the store is on the car. Often times when carfax shows nothing or no accidents the frame damage will appear when you run an autocheck.

 

Yep, carfax isn't reliable when it comes to accidents. A repair could be done under the table in an accident, therefore it would never show up there as if it never happened.

Have the car inspected by an authorized body shop to inspect the car if you really want to check your car out.

 

Depends on the price your getting it for, I myself bought my IS350 from an auction and was in a small accident no airbags deployed and had a little pull to the right so I got a frame pull done and I watched it getting done, DEF CANT be done with a bat. fenders and hood can be adjusted. Since the pull the car goes straight with no problems what so ever! PM if any questions

 

Carfax should no accidents. They sold it already so I guess I have to look for another mid life crisis car, lol. Or at least thats what my wife called it.

Thanks for all the info.

 

PM me the VIN and i'll look into carfax and autocheck a bit more for you and see what comes around... oh wait, they sold it already? Nevermind. Sometimes people in car business give one too many opinions(im in it, own a dealer). Go with YOUR gut instance and pull the trigger next time if YOU think its a good deal.

I just picked up a 08 IS250 AWD Starfire with 32K Miles from Arizona for $21500 and to me that was a good deal because of how clean and well taken it was in the past(1-owner).

 

Hell Carfax is unreliable even when repairs AREN'T done under the table! My brothers Civic was in an accident that required thousands of $$ in repairs (including airbags). A report was filed, insurance took the car to a body shop and even went to the Honda dealer for the airbags and the Carfax is squeaky clean still 3 years after the fact!!!

Body shop inspection is definitely the way to go