I found a used IS 250 from a non-Lexus dealer offering it for $3-4k below what I could have expected. I haven't seen it in person but they say it's in excellent condition with 11,000 miles. The Carfax checks out clean but it says it sold at auction twice within a one month period this summer. Any ideas why that may be and should I be concerned? That coupled with the fact that it's a lower price has me wondering, but maybe it's fine and just a great deal.

 

It's kinda hard to say ... anything would just be speculation.

 

Too many variables there. On one Carfax I noticed it went to auction three times after the first dealer couldn't sell it after a year. This may be due to either he over priced the car or he bought to high. It then went to another dealer via auction and sat there for another five months was sold then traded back within the month to the same dealer. The odd part is it went to auction and returned back to the original dealership that couldn't sell it for a year. All this leads me to believe sometimes a franchise dealership had used car lot under the same owner but different name. Much like in merchandise. Perhaps it's better to take a tax write off than to sell it to you at a great price. It's an RX at an very, very good price but the way the Carfax checks out people are staying away from this low mileage RX.

 

I had a car that suffered over $11,000.00 in damage and required having a whole new rear fender welded on and fender well rebuilt and it never showed up on the carfax. I don't trust carfax at all.

 

There's no such thing as a free meal, a deal that sounds too good to be true probably is. There probably is something wrong with the car. It sounds like a really expensive gamble.

 

Thanks for the replies. Are there precautions I can take then? The car is 2 hours away so I am able to test drive and inspect the car before buying, but I don't know any mechanics in that area who could inspect it first.

 

Well if its worth the time you take the trip...

If the car had any repairs, you should be able to easily notice...

Then from there you make the decision..

Joe Z

 

yep. pay one of the head mechanics at another dealership, e.g., bmw, to inspect it. sure he or she might find problems to steer you away and into the bmw dealership but if he doesn't find anything major (a la frame damage or something of the like) then you can take and examine the report, making your decision from there.

as an aside, you should be able to spot painted panels pretty easily and always look for uneven gaps between panels.

 

Good tip on the paint. It's Atomic Silver so maybe especially harder to match.

 

If one is near, schedule to take it in to a Lexus dealership and let them check it out. If the selling price is low as you say it is, the +/- $200 for a thorough inspection may benefit you in the end. If it checks out, you have a steal. If it doesn't, you aren't stuck with a car you should not have purchased and no one else will want. If the place where the car is located doesn't allow you to take it to be inspected independently, walk away.

 

i'd get a new one. I'd gladly pay the $3-4,000 more for the peace of mind

 

Great advice. As part of my test drive I took it to the local Lexus dealership and paid them $120 to do essentially the same check of the car as they do for CPOs. They found a small amount of paint overspray on the bottom skid plate, so it obviously had paint work done to it. They said it was likely very minor as they saw no other damage but there is no way to know for sure, so I walked away. Best $120 I've spent in a long time.

 

oh, i didn't realise that it wasn't being sold at a lexus dealership, i.e., that it hadn't been sold to another lexus dealership at auction. so, retroactively ignore my advice to take it to a competing marque's dealership. oops.

glad you spent the 120$, though!

 

Also, as a note to anyone else who may be in a similar situation, cars that are bought back through the lemon process (be it through filing a lemon law claim or getting the manufacturer to handle it on their own) usually go to auction, and may or may not have a lemon title (especially in the latter situation I mentioned).

BMW was also selling those cars as CPO with laundered titles, so you can never be too careful.

Glad you did your due diligence and avoided a possible headache.