In July of last year I purchased a used 2006 IS350 w/ 46k miles, Premium, Luxury, Nav, Levinson & spoiler for $24,900 from a used car lot (not certified Lexus, doah!) in El Cajon, CA. At the time I purchased the car, my brother in law who owns a body shop in CO inspected the vehicle and everything looked good on the surface. He checked under the hood, the door seals, etc, but he didn't look under the vehicle and that turns out where the problem lies.
A couple days ago, I tried to trade my IS350 in, and the dealer pulled the AutoCheck history report (similar to Carfax). The Autocheck history reports an accident on 6/27/2007 with no details. It also reports that the auction house that sold it to the dealer I bought it from reported Unibody Damage at the time of sale on 6/19/2009.
The guy at the new dealership I was trading it in at took my car and put it up on a lift and inspected under the car. The manager showed me where parts had been replaced. There are a lot of markings on the bolts (can someone confirm whether or not lexus does this at the factory??). And some of the parts have brand new stickers on them that would have normally worn off quite a bit after 4 years. In addition, the inside of the front tires is worn down to metal in some spots, even though on the outside they appear fine, and have plenty of tread left on them. Here are the photos I was able to take:
http://picasaweb.google.com/djrobsd/Unibody?feat=directlink#
So... I'm just curious. Was the dealer I bought my car from required to disclose the previous unibody damage to me? It's been almost a year since I bought the car, do I have any recourse at this point? Looking at the photos, it seems like the repairs are legit, but the way the tires are wearing doesn't seem normal to me. Aside from buying new tires, what else should I do at this point? I mean, it seems to me like I've got a car which is now worth a lot less because it won't show clean on an Autocheck or Carfax report... And in addition, I have to disclose this to whoever buys it from me, so that will in turn require me to sell the car for less money...
Not sure what to do at this point... Just curious what others thoughts are!