Acceptable for a £32K Approved Used Purchase? I think not.

SH20 · August 7, 2023

So after 3 weeks I'm just getting round to repairing the damage I discovered on the day I collected the car. This was damage I was told would need to be accepted as it was a used car after all. You couldn't make this up. If the same type of damage was visible on a roof, door, wing or bonnet would it have to be acceptable. Just because it's good old fashioned kerb scuffing and out of sight I was expected to just accept it and pay £32K for the privilege.

After a suitable figure was deducted from the sale price I'm ready to repair it. The bumper on an ES is held in place by 22 fixings and 3 wiring connectors and one screen wash pipe. About 20 mins to get it off.

Nothing too serious and the plastic filler primers, normal primer and top coat and lacquer I'm using at home will improve things considerably as it's low down, mainly on the bottom lip and out of eye line.

cdmaskell · August 7, 2023

Sorry Steve, but there is now way I would have paid 32k and then go to repair it to an acceptable standard.

cdmaskell · August 7, 2023

Read it wrong,. What reduction did you get? And was it worth the ag?

e-yes · August 7, 2023

Just curious, will it need recalibration of the front parking sensors ?

There is a way to recalibrate by turning the steering lock to lock but will that be sufficient after taking the bumper off ?

--E

Cs150 · August 7, 2023

It is not acceptable to sell recent build cars with such defects on the approved scheme unless there is a very low bar for quality. Selling with the defect simply allowed the dealer a greater margin. I personally would have bought a brand new factory build Premium Edition for essentially the same money.

SH20 · August 7, 2023

I drove 170 miles to collect this car. This Premium Pack ES was the only one in the entire Lexus Network in Mesa Red and tan leather interior when I saw it. Like hen's teeth in this spec. It arrived at the dealer who said this colour combo/spec won't hang around long. Sales talk maybe but there was some truth to it as I just couldn't pin one down. What I am getting to is this car was coming home with me unless there was some significant reason why I wouldn't want it. I've had a Premium Edition ES but the spec is well below a Premium Pack and my very first ES in 2019 was a premium pack so I knew my third ES had to be a premium pack

The scuffed bumper is something I don't even think they knew anything about even when they did the second year service before I went down. My life was spent in body shops so the actual damage was an easy fix for me but I take the point that a Lexus approved car shouldn't be sold with this sort of paint defect.

I agreed £150 reduction on the price as it was agreed the damage came under the heading of a Smart Repair or localised paint repair. I intend to take the bumper off again in a years time and have the bumper fully painted to bring it back to new condition but this localised repair will do till then. I'm at the stage now where I need to use some stopper paste or body putty as some people call it. It's very fine grade of filler and is good for very fine micro scratches prior to priming.

Not sure the parking sensors will need to be re calibrated. I removed both bumpers on a Lexus LS460 for repainting once and the sensors worked fine when reconnected.

Redefined · August 7, 2023

Well done Steve and thanks for sharing. Though I've never bought off the approved used scheme and the closest I got to buying from a main dealer was a lovely Subaru Legacy Spec B. It was a trade sale and the price reflected that (and I knew of all the marks to the body etc etc before going down).

I agree though, that selling a 32k car surely they should have had the decency/Lex respect (if there's still such a thing) to sort the repair for you. Thanks for sharing your lovely work though and it appears you'll be doing a much more thorough job than they'd probably have done!

Illogan · August 7, 2023

That's a fair amount of work that the dealer accepted that you should undertake for an £150 reduction in price....... Particularly when the dealership will have been completely aware of the damage prior to selling it......

(I bet I'm not the only member that has arrived at that conclusion)

But, as there is more than one dealership in Yorkshire, in your experience, which one may I be prudent to be cautious of (with no reference to this particular problem of course).

Redefined · August 8, 2023

Need a smack in the gob is what they (the dealership) need @Illogan Very sorry to hear such a story with only a £150 reduction. Thats hardly petrol money for a decent round trip.

Barry14UK · August 8, 2023

Bit of a surprise that somebody who has worked in bodyshops is using newspaper to mask.

Great that you got what you wanted and can easily sort.

VFR · August 8, 2023

3 hours ago, Barry14UK said:

Bit of a surprise that somebody who has worked in bodyshops is using newspaper to mask.

Great that you got what you wanted and can easily sort.

Let’s face it it is all they are fit for apart from the toilet. 😙

SH20 · August 8, 2023

The thing with smart repairs is that they were developed by Insurance Companies who backed them in order to reduce repair costs. There isn't a great deal of time in this bumper rework, so far I have spent 1.5 hours on it including taking it off. Yes you can get brown paper on a 3 foot roll and with masking tape already fitted down one side of the paper but that's what you see in body shops. It even sits on a frame so you just roll a length off and a sharp edge cuts whatever length off you need. This is a home repair so newspaper works. A local smart repair company called Bumps and Scrapes in Scarborough, a Franchised Operation gave me a quote for doing it on my drive at £160 but couldn't do it for 2 weeks such is the demand for his work. I had no problem with the £150 reduction off the car price because I knew it reflected the going rate. There was no possibility of the dealer getting it sorted themselves on the day as it was a one stop round trip. Had I lived close to them I would have expected them to do it but I am 170 miles from them.

The dealerships in Yorkshire are all first class and are near me are in Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, I've used them all in the past. Carlisle in the North West are simply outstanding in my experience. I bought this car in Cambridge because that's where the spec I wanted was. Like I said I don't believe the dealer even knew about the scuffing till I pointed it out to them but the car was coming back to Yorkshire with me with what I considered to be a minor rework. My actual job was an Insurance Assessor inspecting damaged cars for a big Insurance Company and in and out of body shops every day. My apprenticeship was in body and paint repairs so not surprising then a bumper scuff remedied at home suited me.

As a side issue insurance premiums are rocketing and it's due to profitering by repairers. My wife hit a low barrier at 5 mph in a car park inflicting damage to a rear bumper corner, rear wing and inner wheel arch and 2 doors. No parts needed, just repairing and painting. The figure on the estimate just for paint materials alone was £755 !! and £1200 labour, £75 for a Government subsidy for energy costs (for every repair they do) a £10 Covid allowance, EPA charge at £5. When I challenged the paint material costs the estimator just smiled and said the Insurers will pay it. Supplier chains are blamed, Covid, the war in Ukraine. It's profitering that's what it is. What's that saying "We're all going to Hell in a hand cart"

LenT · August 8, 2023

13 hours ago, Cs150 said:

I personally would have bought a brand new factory build Premium Edition for essentially the same money.

Unless I’ve misunderstood the pricing structure, the current ES 300H Premium Edition starts from £40K and the Premium Pack version from £48K.

So I can quite understand that presuming the car is otherwise sound in every other aspect, fits the OP’s spec and is generally hard to find, merely rectifying hard to see scuff marks by someone who had a career doing it professionally, would make it something of a bargain!

Cs150 · August 8, 2023

19 minutes ago, LenT said:

Unless I’ve misunderstood the pricing structure, the current ES 300H Premium Edition starts from £40K and the Premium Pack version from £48K.

A brand new Premium Edition model can be had for £32 - 33k depending on how good and determined you are at haggling and time it when a dealer has figures to hit. I collected a brand new Premium Edition in November 2022 for £31.5k having pushed the dealer to the limit.

LenT · August 8, 2023

2 hours ago, Cs150 said:

A brand new Premium Edition model can be had for £32 - 33k depending on how good and determined you are at haggling and time it when a dealer has figures to hit. I collected a brand new Premium Edition in November 2022 for £31.5k having pushed the dealer to the limit.

I think this paragraph by Steve, the OP, may explain his thinking.

16 hours ago, SH20 said:

I drove 170 miles to collect this car. This Premium Pack ES was the only one in the entire Lexus Network in Mesa Red and tan leather interior when I saw it. Like hen's teeth in this spec. It arrived at the dealer who said this colour combo/spec won't hang around long. Sales talk maybe but there was some truth to it as I just couldn't pin one down. What I am getting to is this car was coming home with me unless there was some significant reason why I wouldn't want it. I've had a Premium Edition ES but the spec is well below a Premium Pack and my very first ES in 2019 was a premium pack so I knew my third ES had to be a premium pack

The Lexus supply problem of new cars over the last few years would suggest that you either accept what a DeaIer has for a reasonably quick delivery, or wait many months for the one you specify. Either way this will affect the Dealer’s willingness to discount.

I suspect that requirements for Steve’s third ES were so specific that having found what he believed to be the only example immediately available in the entire Lexus Network, this was preferable to waiting for an identically specified new model - even if it was possible to negotiate a better price.

As Steve says, he was going to travel 170 miles to see it and was already determined that he would be returning with it! Negotiations may well have got him a new Lexus for the same price - but not immediately and possibly not the Lexus he knew he wanted.

I agree with anyone who thinks this may not be the best approach to buying a new car, but sometimes if you know exactly what you want - and you see it - you have to be decisive.

I can empathise to some extent with this view. When my Accord was written off I set about getting a new one, only to discover they were no longer marketed in the UK. So instead I set out on a tour of the local Dealers. By chance my first stop was Lexus - a make I didn’t know and had never even been in, let alone driven.

Without hesitation the Sales chap pointed out one car in the Parking lot and I knew immediately that it was exactly what I wanted.. A drive confirmed this. It was the last of its kind to be imported into the UK and they were not prepared to negotiate on price.

There was no new car option and I wasn’t prepared to haggle it away. So I bought it!

Now every few months I get invited to take up a Special Offer’ on a new Lexus. But there isn’t a new Lexus that suits me better than the one I have. So it’s a decision I’ve never had cause to regret..

And I doubt that Steve will either!

SH20 · August 8, 2023

To be honest Len I never was in the market for a new ES with Premium Pack because at £48K it is a ridiculous price despite it's great specification. Having had a Premium Pack, number 1 car brand new, it's hard to accept the spec of a Premium Edition, number 2 car brand new, so a used 16 month old car, number 3 car was always my target vehicle. Can you believe 2019 a ES300h in velvet black with P/Pack was £38,500. Now it's £48K only 4 years later.

Premium Edition in Mesa Red with the Tan Taraha synthetic leather was bought in order to stay below £40K avoiding the £500 tax band on Excise duty. Now look at me in a used car and paying £500 road tax anyway. Should of bought car number 2 with the P/Pack as it's what I've just bought, only used. Ideally in 2 years I will be looking a Takumi in Mesa Red or Sunlight Green with Tan leather another combination that will be hard to find I'm sure.

Anyway bumper finished and back on car. All the scuffing now rectified. Four hours incl remove and refit the bumper.

1. High Build Yellow Filler Primer 2. Red Primer 3. Colour Coat 4. Lacquered and Complete