I have been looking at buying another SC, however I notice on the Carfax the car was involved in an accident. However the airbags didn't deploy, the report says:

"Accident reported Involving right front impact with another motor vehicle Damage to front Functional damage reported Vehicle towed Airbags did not deploy"

Also it was 8 years ago, take a chance or keep looking. I haven't gone by to look at it yet, just gathering information on whether I should pursue it. Any thoughts?

 

How many miles on it? Was body work done and was it done well? If it was fixed properly and the frame wasn't damaged then maybe you could use the fact that it was in an accident to negotiate

 

^^ This.

And I would get the front chassis, front suspension and at least up to the midsection inspected independently. Depending on how involved you want to get with any SC you may look at you want to get an idea of whether the accident caused any deep damage or warping to the frame. If the car got bang a small bit and nothing structural was affected but some fender repair and basic things like a tie rod or control arm were replaced... it's probably fine.

If anything of the impact affected the frame in such a way that the repairs did not or could not address it then that would be different.

There is no way to really know for certain and with specificity without first getting it independently inspected.

I will say though that any accident damage that didn't cause the air bags to deploy is probably a good start. But again... it has to be inspected to see if any evidence of what happened remains in the frame of the car.

Also, inspecting the last current alignment settings to see how close to factory spec they are would be good to look into as well.

 

What Khan said! Unless you know what to look for. It could have been a small fender bender too and nothing nasty

 

Do the PPI with a reputable mechanic. Once the car is on the lift nothing can really hide; you'll see any welds and major body work right away as nobody usually repaints the undercarriage. Pull the maintenance history from Lexus; they might have done the bodywork at a dealer maybe they have a record of what was fixed.

I knew a friend who bought a Passat with a rattle. Once on the lift he found that the car was in an accident that sheared off the motor and tranny mounts; the whole powertrain was shaking.

It's possible it was just a fender bender. Bear in mind the Lexus CPO cars can have up to 2 panels repaired and still be certified.