Was By Car Smoked In?

[CPO MD]

Hi everybody i just got a CPO rx300 at a lexus dealer in my area. It's a 2002 in great condition (as i thought).(38,520 miles), black on tan, 4WD.

The main things i was looking for when purchasing a used car was:

-ORIGIONAL paint in great condition w/ minimal scratches + rock chips

-NO accident history

-low mileage

-and finally, a non smokers vehicle!!

(and i e-mailed the dealer this to make sure it was exactly what i wanted). They called me and said i was a non smoker too!!)

When i first went into the car yesterday it smelled weird, but not like smoke, so i thought the driver was a non-smoker. All good, right??

But as i got it home, i looked between the seams of the seat and i see tiny particles that look like white and gray sand. I rubbed my finger along the seam and rubbed my 2 fingers together and it made my hands dark!!! Is this ash??? I also saw what looked to be brown spots IN the seam of the leather. Burns?

but why doesn't the car smell like smoke?? It smells "heavy" and sort of like a new car but not like smoke. Then i looked at the leather on the drivers side door panel and i see ting black specks. I tried to rub them out but they didn't. Burns??

Are there any other ways i can tell if this car was smoked in? I know it's not a big deal, i just wanna know if i got a car wit smoke in it? Why would the dealer tell me this was a NON-SMOKERS car when it's probably not?? i'm mad...

[LexKid630]

From the evidence you described, it does look as if that car WAS smoked in before you bought it LOL. Somehow the dealer has a machine that can delete the odor of smoke. I guess they didn't physically clean as well.

It's too bad you have to sit in that now; i feel the same way!!

[SKperformance]

Easy way to tell

look at the cig lighter for ash

look in the cig plug for black ash

look at the ashtray

look for burns

[CPO MD]

They never gave me a plug; said it was the rules..

The inside cig lighter looks clean though; a few scrapes, but no black.

[SKperformance]

What rules?

That is a load of crap.

Got get one it was with the car when it was sold, you didn;t buy a cavalier

[Archibalds]

Here is the real deal on smoke smell. There is no way to get the smell out. If it smells weird it could be two things. One it is smoke and jut now what you expect, secondly, some RX's get a strange odor that is hard to explain it is not smoke but it is not normal.

The dealer might use an Ozone machine on a smoke smell car, but the smell of ozone will be present and not last long. Some cars made of cheap materials will be rid of smoke up to 90 percent. A Lexus however will never be rid of smoke smell. The sound insulation is way too dense.

Now the burns tell you it is a smoked in vehicle. Now if it does not smell too bad for you then you simply need to get the burns fixed. I know this sounds scary to fix burns but today you can get the leather completely sanded down of color and refinished better then factory. Yes better then factory! You will have to be a nice person to get the dealer to let you use there interior guy to fix your car. Every dealer of high end cars has a vendor that does all the interior work so you can ask around and get it done.

and as far as the plug missing, your salesperson that told you they dont have them was an idiot. You should get all pieces that came with the Lexus including all 4 keys rear cargo shade and manual.

good luck

[denslexusgx470]

yea, with the RX300, it's suppose to come with a cig lighter plug. these dealers wouldn't tell you everything (unfortunately and depressing). take my previous rx300 for example. my salesperson knew it had been in an accident (not my fault, got rear ended, but minor damage) and they bought it for the price of a car that hasn't been in an accident and sold it as , idk, "accident free" vehicle. I bet u they didn't tell the new owner of my RX that it had an accident history. all they did was slap on a 100k warranty on it and sold it, "clean", and "certified".

as for the other stuffs that were suppose to come with the car, 2 remote keys, 1 key w/o remote, and that one credit card valet key thingy + manual, lemon law booklet, and service booklet. now was the tonneau cover standard?? u should have that also.

[CPO MD]

This is what i got when icame to pick it up.

They gave me rug floor mats + rug for rear (new), and that cover for the back also new. 1 brand new remote key, and obviously the old remote key that had scratches all over it, and who knows what growing on that gold L. 1 of those wallet keys, and some gray key i will never use.

They cleaned the car before i picked it up, and pretty much shlopped some touchup paint on a few of the rock chips on the hood (black) that pretty much peal off when i touch it!!!. U should see how bad of a match the gray touch up paint they used on the bumpers!! it looks like pencil lead!!!

(as if you were looking at it from the front) Since the car is 3 years old, the left side headlamp has a few marks on it from sand etc., this i'm not mad about. But the right headlamp looks brand new. It has a blue "X" on the bottom left, idk y.

That black plastic ON TOP of the rear bumper is coming loose from the bumper a little.

Everything works, so i'm not complaining. They fed-x'd the cig lighter plug to me this morning. Brand new. Who knows if this was the one from it before.

[denslexusgx470]

so they replaced the right headlamp cover, but not the left one????

[CPO MD]

so they replaced the right headlamp cover, but not the left one????

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Yupp the right one looks brand new and the left; well used. This doesn't really matter to me, as long as the lights work. And the auto-leveling thing works to.

I just can't believe im pretty much sitting in a tar covered ashtray...