Ding Repair Issues On Cpo Ls430

Trumpeter · September 11, 2008

I have a newly purchased 2005 LS430 - Balck. I noticed over the past few weeks, a few blemishes or dents that look to more than surface issues or wear and tear. The Lexus Dealer said that those few dents are not covered by the CPO. I went to 2 Lexus dealers and asked if they would have fixed these dents before selling it as CPO...they said yes. Here are my two problems:

1. How do I get the dealer I purchased the car from to honor this? Is there a middle-man or someone at Lexus that I can contact?

2. I also have an issue with the repair they did on the bumper. I had peeling of the paint on the front bumper and the dealer repaired the bumper by having their outside company repaint the front bumper (Picasso). This had to be done twice due to the peeling again. The second time they repainted the half of the bumper. They did such a horrible job that the bumper looks like stucco. There is so much embedded dirt in the paint that it even looks bad. There are puddles of paint. The car was still dirty from when I brought it to the dealer. The bumper still had dirt on it. They did not even clean the car or the bumper. The dealer said that this is normal...I think it is horrible, especially being a black car.

What recourse do I have if the dealer will not do anything for me. They are an "Elite of Lexus" Dealer.

Thanks for the help.

Peter

SW03ES · September 14, 2008

Nothing you can do about the dents and dings. Its a CPO car...but it is still a used car, it isn't new. Some dealers recondition them very carefully, remove all the dings with Paintless Dent Removal, touch-up all the nicks, replace worn interior peices, repaint the bumpers, replace the tires. BUT, some don't and they don't have to for the vehicle to be certified.

Take the car to a detailer and have them polish the paint well and have their PDR guy work out the dings. I'd say $200 for the exterior detail, $200 for the dings.

As for the bumper, it sounds like they did a crappy spot repair job. In order to do it right the bumper cover needs to be removed, refinished, and re-installed. Unlikely the dealer will do this, this is another thing I would do myself. Expect to pay $500 or so for that.

As for the recourse with the dealer...I can't see that you have any since the car is pre-owned...

zd9 · September 20, 2008

That is pretty ridiculous. They should've reconditioned the whole car before selling it to you. I guess some dealers work different then others when it comes to CPO. But yeah, it's technically not covered after you purchased it. You can try calling Lexus Customer Service (1800-25-Lexus in the Western area, I'm not too sure if it work on your side... It's an 800 number, I'm sure it'll work) and tell them your story and see what they can do for you.

1990LS400 · September 20, 2008

That is pretty ridiculous. They should've reconditioned the whole car before selling it to you. I guess some dealers work different then others when it comes to CPO. But yeah, it's technically not covered after you purchased it. You can try calling Lexus Customer Service (1800-25-Lexus in the Western area, I'm not too sure if it work on your side... It's an 800 number, I'm sure it'll work) and tell them your story and see what they can do for you.

Now let's be reasonable. As Steve pointed out, this is a used car. It is not part of the CPO program to remove every single blemish so that a car looks absolutely like new. The 2005 models went on sale in fall 2004 -- we are talking about what could be a four year old used car.

I've seen CPO cars with all sorts of minor cosmetic blemishes - both exterior and interior. The non-CPO 2000 LS400 I bought from a non-Lexus dealer in 2003 when it was 39 months old had several paint flaws and a few interior blemishes but so did the several 2000 LS400 CPO cars I was looking at.