Hi all. I am looking at a possible purchase of an LC that is remote from me, so I can't just go in to the dealer to take a look. Was told by the sales-person that the under-side of the bumper and particularly the left and right side have scratches. I assume the previous owner either wasn't careful enough or just had a steep driveway. Either way, I am curious to know if that underside section is an integral part of the bumper or if it's easily replaceable.

While I will have a chance to see the car before I pull the trigger, I am trying to get a better idea of what could and could not be easily taken care of before I buy my airfare.

Thanks

 

My 2 thoughts. 1. Have them send you a pic of the scratches and post on here or show a local dealer and get opinions. 2. It isn’t going to be seen but use it to negotiate.

 

there's only 2 kinds of LC's.

1) those that have scratches underneath the front
2) those that are going to have scratches underneath the front.

 

The front bumper cover is a single piece of formed plastic. Any repair to scratches/scrapes on the underside of this bumper will in effect require extensive repair or replacement of the entire unit at a considerable cost depending on how deep the damage . It would probably be more cost effective just to cover it up with something like a scrape guard if damage is restricted to underside of bumper.

 

@bitkahuna Very true. I blame the poor parking sensors. They do not reliably detect higher curbs. I relied on them to warn me - they don't. In 3 months of LC 500 ownership I got two major scratches. In 6 years of Audi A7 ownership I never hit the curb with the bumper....

 

It's all part of the bumper cover and painted the color of the car. Which is frustrating, because other carmakers actually do this right and put a removable / sacrificial black plastic piece there.

Drove mine home from the dealership and immediately put this on: https://www.scrapearmor.com/products/lexus-lc500-2017

My 20+ year old NSX had a sacrificial piece of black plastic at the bottom of the bumper, about ~$170 with shipping. You could also buy a car cover from the dealership for it. For as much as I love my LC, it's like Toyota has never built a proper high-end sportscar before.

 

My bumper has scratches and its par for the course no biggie.

 

I have a steep driveway and being careful, it luckily clears. 9 degrees by my measurement is about as steep as it can clear.
Mine got scratches there one time during my dealer's transport. And it was quickly repaired to my satisfaction.

 

Thanks all. After posting here I was able to get some pictures which made it more clear that the scratches were on the painted (albeit the underside) of the bumper. So while it wasn't ideal, it seemed like an issue that I could live with since it wasn't visible unless looking under the car.

But having said that, I did get a response from the dealer essentially telling me to go pound sand when I gave them an initial offer. With that, it's time to go find another one.

 

I have local dealer drive tested, it can barely go up from community road up to the steep driveway (around 9-10 degrees), but it has to drive facing the the driveway uphill direction. Then reverse downhill direction.

You can NOT drive facing downhill direction, the community road to surely scratch the front bump.

i.e. always point the front of your car towards uphill. Never point downhill direction.

 

Before I bought my car I had a guarantee to return it if it didn't go up my driveway. About 9 degrees.
Just before I bought it, a semi unloaded some cars at the dealership next to mine. The driver let us drive my car up the loading ramps without scraping, which measured out at 9 degrees.

 

Excellent tip! Much appreciated.

 

My experience has been that pointing downhill is not an issue as long as you are not making a perpendicular approach. Approaching at an angle while wheels are turning allows front end to negotiate decline one wheel at a time.

 

JB, when they install the scrapearmor, do they need to drill holes to screw it onto the LC? Their site says they use “‘all your car’s original hardware” so I took that to mean they use existing holes in the bumper. Did you install it yourself? My PPF guy said they’ve installed them before, and sometimes they need to drill new holes. But he didn’t know about the LC. They speak highly of Slip-lo and they stagger them. I know there’s a whole thread on this but just wondered about the scrapearmor install.

 

I had sliplo on my lc coupe and it is an excellent product. I have not installed it my convertible. I'm just more careful now, back into spaces when possible, always go slow and angle on steep grades and get out of car and visibility check before pulling in all the way. Little more hassle but I'm determined not to scrape front end. Sure could use front camera with surround. Oh well nothings perfect.