flektone

iTrader: (1)

I have my eye on a certain IS from a Lexus dealer. Car fax looks good but up until recently it went from one Lexus dealer to another. Then that lexus dealer pushed it off to an auction where another Lexus dealer picked it up. The current Lexus dealer is certifing it for 2 years unlimited miles. Being my dad use to be in the car business back in the 80s and told me about some of the cars they would get at auctions. I do not trust cars that come from there. Plus why wouldnt the 2 previous Lexus dealers try to sell the car on their own? CPO is a big business nowadays. What do you all think?

Skier76

Pretty much all used cars there days pass through the auctions. I'm not 100% sure how all makers handle it... Many times, an arm of the vehicle company will own the leased vehicle. They'll then sell the off lease vehicle at auction to other dealers or used car dealers. It's pretty common and you'll see it on CarFaxes more often than not. I believe auctions have become more popular as leases have increased on popularity; thus increasing the supply of 2-4 year old vehicles with lowish miles.

SeanO

iTrader: (1)

Yeah Skier76 is right, almost all used cars go through an auction at some point in the process, its just an easier and more effective way for the thousands of small used car dealerships to purchase vehicles for their inventory. If a vehicle is up on a 2 yr lease, the dealership can post it to a licensed automobile database that can go nationwide with the ability to sell the vehicle. I know this because my 08 that I had was purchased in this manner (so I was told by the salesman). If they're certifying it for 2 years with unlimited miles then they must have looked it over and have some confidence that they're not going to lose their shirts with the warranty.

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

Probably also hurt by the fact that most dealers could not really sell the cars without the airbag fix, many were reluctant to take them on trade-ins/dropped the trade-in value because of it.

Gville350

iTrader: (10)

I'd personally not worry about it.

Sign up on Lexus.com as a owner and register that car's VIN. You can see all of the previous owner's Lexus maintenance history.

Arrta

End of Dec 2015 I was looking for a new car, The dealership that had an IS250 I was interested in (single owner, low mileage, nav, red(not that I cared), no accidents) sent it to auction a few days before I had a chance to get there and look at it/buy it. The reason? They didn't want it on their books as the year ended. Some dealerships just don't want to hold on to cars during quarter/year end to keep their books looking good. If they can get more than/equal to the trade in value at auction they do that and their books look good.
Unfortunately I lost out on that car at the first dealership. I could have gotten it at the auction as my dad knew some guys and we could have come to an arrangement, but my dad got injured the day before the auction and was not able to meet up with his friends before hand. Then the new dealership that bought it wanted more than the one that sold it, so I moved on. Found the same year, lesser mileage, no NAV, and not red(cheaper insurance), accident free for a better price in Jan 2016. They even sent it to a Lexus dealership before I got it to have all the outstanding recalls taken care of, minus the airbag as the fix was not in yet.
Auction does not always mean bad cars. My second car I ever owned was bought at auction. I ended up with an '84 tbird back in '98 for under $400 that had no issues ran perfect and only had 69k on it. Ended up selling it a few years later for more than I paid for it cause I got it for such a deal. Even salvage yards are good places to pick things up if you verify what you are looking at. I once had an '96 Acura Legend, the only issue was it needed a new ignition lock and door locks, plus reassigned VIN because it was a recovered theft. Drove that car from 2000 to 2004, when I got my first NEW car.

DavidJS

there actually lots of services with history reports for all makes and models and free VIN decoding, I always check there if want vin number lookup: trustvin.com, vindecoderz.com/EN/Lexus