Bonnet Mis-Aligned? Buying A Ct200H

[kwai168]

Hi All,

I am new to the forum, but have a few questions if you can help.

i found something that i like from Lexus cambridge, i have put a deposit down on the car in faith that the car will be put right before i collect it and depart with my cash, however theres one thing that has been bugging me, the Bonnet seems to sit higher on the drivers side near the wing, unfortunately i was silly enough to not take any pictures of it...

now just spoke to the sales person over the phone, they tell me it has been through the workshop and they have not found anything wrong with the bonnet, but the sales person agrees with me that there is some sort of mis alignment.

now i checked the wing when i had a look at the wing looks fine, so i think its the bonnet, the other used CT's that they had for sale didnt have this problem... maybe i should have been more patient and find the perfect car!

I may seem pretty anal over this >_<

but has anyone had problems with mis aligned panels?

do you think the dealer should put it right?

I have re-iterated to the salesperson that i will pull out if it isnt fixed.

thanks in advanced

[ColinBarber]

if it is the front of the bonnet then there are simple adjusters to raise it. If it is near the hinge then it could be more difficult, and possible it is the wing rather than bonnet out of alignment.

[is200 Newbie]

Toffee pie has posted a link in the IS250 section (titled Erm..) that is interesting but seems to only affect cars in the States and it only seems to be IS250/350 models - it will be an interesting read before you consider to buy though

[200h]

there are normally bump stops under the bonnet that you can screw in or out this will help with the alignment of the bonnet,i am sure its nothing serious or

Lexus cambridge wouldn't be selling it,the sales person will lose their commission if you pull out of the purchase so again they should do everything

to help you.just remember its your money you're spending so make sure you get what your paying for ,and dont sign for it until your happy.

i had somethink similar, after kath had been driving for a year i bought her a toyota aygo 09 plate and wasn't happy with the tyres on the rear as they had

been on the front and where badly worn on the outside edges the garage said they would change them ,but on collection they hadn't as the garage owners said he

would have them on his car ,so i told him he can have them on his car i dont want the aygo anymore ,his attitude changed and we had 2 new rears the next day.

[kwai168]

Thanks for the replies! hmm interesting read that about the IS250.

I noticed the bonnet or wing was out of place, its on the driver side, if you can look at the car, you will see that on the driver side, the gap between the bonnet and wing is alot smaller than on the passenger side, and the bonnet seems to sit taller, plus the driver side front tyre looks new compared to the passenger, and it was of a different make.

[200h]

just had a look at the ct's at lexus cambridge and there's 2 cars that i dont know about.

1st car fv12 hde in silver bonnet gap looks wide when compared to the other ct's ,it maybe just the photo

and the other car is

2nd car ae13 wrv in grey the front edge above the drivers headlight up to the wing doesn't look right to me dont know why though.

is the car your looking at either of these ???

[kwai168]

Hi Mark, unfortunately they never had pics of the car on the website, and the advert has been taken off, now I just found out that the misses took a pic of the car from the front, albeit not a very good one :p

But from it you can see that the gap between the bumper and the bonnet is slightly bigger on the drivers side compared to the passenger (this is the part in between the headlamp and front grille)

[ColinBarber]

If it is the front vertical alignment then that is just a case of turning the rubber bumpers on whichever side needs raising/lowering. 30 second job.

[kwai168]

hi Colin,

I definately noticed it nearer the hinge on the driver side rather than from the front of the car. only upon inspection of the photos i can see it.

thanks for the replys guys,

[kwai168]

also another question, does the CT come with a front upper strut brace as standard? the car is a 2012 SE-L with navigation

edit, pic remove

[200h]

no they dont ,the f sport has lateral dampers fitted front and rear

[Wass]

One thing is for sure: Lexus do not allow cars with mis- aligned bonnets to leave the factory. So whatever the misalignment implies some form of interference since it left the factory. An honest sales person would have/should have told you this

[kwai168]

Thanks for the helpful posts guys, will let you know how I get on.

[kwai168]

i ended up becoming a onwer of the mentioned CT :) however not without a few niggles that lexus cambridge said they will sort out, the steering needs alignment as when i took it home (it was late on friday evening) i noticed this.
owners manual was missing, and theres a smell from the heaters/aircon - probably mold i assume. this may have gone away now, i blasted the heat on it for a few mins when i went for a drive on Sat, but cant be certain as i have had a air freshner to cover the smell...

[adnewton]

Be extra careful with Lexus Cambridge; their level of workmanship is pretty poor. I know, I bought mine from them and had 2 months of repair hassle!!

[Wass]

Misaligned bonnet and steering too? There's a conclusion I would draw. I agree with Adam, I live near to Lexus Cambridge and yet I drive all the way to Hatfield to have our CT serviced.When the salesman at Cambridge tried to sell me a CT we decided that we would be better off going elsewhere. As it happened, Hatfield hadn't got the CT we wanted and so we went to Tonbridge Wells instead.

[200h]

when you are dealing with a company like LEXUS you expect to get a quality service from them as standard

when i bought mine this is what the bodywork was like above the front passenger door, you would of thought, they would of noticed it and put it right before collection

i was also told that the car didn't need a service as it had recently been serviced,only to find out the service had been done 3months before with 3300 miles covered since the service so out of a 12 month / 10000 mile interval a third of the time scale had elapsed.

i know this is petty but they didn't change the number plates to show their dealership

i bought mine from lexus liverpool.

i first went to LEXUS chester and waited 4 days for them not to get back in touch with me regarding a part exchange valuation so i bought from liverpool instead.

i don't feel there is a good LEXUS main agent out there.

[is200 Newbie]

With Chester being the closest dealer to myself and having only used it twice - both occasions they were very unhelpful I would not use them again.

There must be a good one somewhere .....?

[steve2006]

Have the results of the Lexus dealer survey been published yet? Be interesting to see the results.

A dealer sold CT200h with misaligned panels and steering hmmmm worrying, concidered an AA inspection?

[kwai168]

Hi all, thanks the the replies, I probably won't be visiting the Cambridge branch anytime soon, and have been dealing with Lexus Sidcup, now waiting for Cambridge to reimburse the costs of the things to sort out.

My car was serviced before I collected it as I pointed this out when I viewed the car, but I do wonder the attention to detail that Lexus put into their cars.. In the future, should I be servicing the car with Lexus? Cost of servicing isn't too much of an issue, there's a Toyota really close me to of the same jamca group as the Sidcup Lexus/toyota. Or go independant? I have never had a car serviced by a garage or a dealer before as both of my previous cars I did my own servicing.