Advice Please

[lee789]

Hi all. I had my 59 plate RX450H delivered by a Midlands based Lexus dealer on Tuesday this week. The car was distance sold over the phone, and described by the salesman as being "unmarked". When the car arrived, the salesman went to great lengths to show me the interior of the car and all its functions, but when we had finished that, he seemed in a great hurry to leave. Unfortunately (and rather stupidly on my part) I never got a real chance to check around the outside of the car. When he had left, closer inspection revealed a large scuff at the bottom of the front bumper, an indentation and loss of paint on the tailgate where it had obviously been opened against something like a garage door, and numerous badly touched in stone chips to the bonnet, front bumper and doors. I called the dealer and made a complaint, and the salesman actually agreed that the car had been delivered in an unacceptable condition, and that an untrained member of the valet team had attemtped to repair the stone chips! They then arranged for a REVIVE repair specialist to call at my house last Friday. The problem is, the paint on the vehicle is pearlescent, and the repairs the guy from REVIVE did look awful - rather like someone has touched in the chips with Tippex!! To be fair, he had prewarned me that it was nigh on impossible to get a close match with a touch up on a pearlescent paint, and he offered to return and respray the damaged panels properly for £250. I called the Lexus dealer to tell them, and said that I wanted them to authorise a proper repair at one of my local bodyshops, REVIVE, Chips Away, or my local Lexus dealer. The dealer refused to do this, and instead offered to pick the car up and drive it back to their dealership (a round trip of nearly 500 miles), carry out the work, and then return it to me. I told them I did not want 500 miles added to the mileage simply because they had delvered a £40k car in an unacceptable state. I argued that it would be easier and cheaper to get the work done locally, but they refused point blank, telling me that they wanted to ensure the work was done to their satisfaction. They then offered to pay for a low loader car transporter to deliver a courtesy car and take my car back to their dealership, returning it when fixed. Now that might seem a reasonable offer, but I am really struggling to understand why a dealer would pay a fortune to hire a driver with a transporter to do 2 x five hundred mile round trips, when they could get the paintwork sorted out much cheaper im my home town. The dealer said that it wasn't a question of money, and that they just wanted to ensure I was fully satisified with the vehicle. I don't know what you guys think, but in my experience most car dealers will take the cheapest option possible to fix a problem, and if they were that bothered with my customer satisfaction, why did they deliver it in such a poor state in the first place? I'm therefore rather suspicious as to why they are going to all this trouble, and feel there may be an underlying reason. I have complained to Consumer Direct, and I have told the dealer that I may reject the vehicle under my distance selling 7 day rights. The question I would like forum members to answer is - now that the dealer has had the opportunity to fix the problem during the PDI, and another opportunity with the aftersales paint repair, should I stick to my guns and demand a local repair that I can monitor and make sure I'm happy with? My problem with them taking the car back to their dealership is that I have no guarantee I will be satisfied with the result (by which time my right to reject the vehicle will have expired), and I am concerned by why they are going to so much trouble and expense. My other alternative is to refuse the repair altogether and reject the car, which could cause the Lexus dealer problems as they have sold my part exchange and would have to refund the value. All opinions gratefully received. Many thanks!

[Duncan Roberts]

They have a duty to repair - they are offering to do so at no cost to you and you have a right to reject NOW.

Choose but you really are being overly suspicious.

[wendle]

Hi lee, sorry to here about your problem, it is almost impossible to touch up stone chips to what I would call a satisfactory result, in fact most local repair companies wont even take on the job in the first place, knowing that even if they do the best job they can most customers would not be happy with the result, ( especially Lexus customers ).

I am also very surprised that the car was delivered in that condition in the first place and although its not really the salesmans job, he should have had a quick look around the car to make sure the car was in the condition you would expect for a £40k car.

I have had Lexus cars for the past 12 years and knowing Lexus customer care, if I was in your position I would let them take the car away and put the problem right, Lexus have a fantastic repetition for treating there customers well, I understand that you may be feeling a bit suspicious about there intentions and if it was any other car manufacture I would probably feel the same,i personally think that the salesman in as unhappy about the situation as you are and wants to put things right.

I am confident that you will be happy with the overall result, but let us no either way.

Good luck

[lee789]

Hi Duncan. Yes, I tend to agree with you. The RX450 is the only vehicle I am interested in at the moment, and this particular car had the right colour combo + it's the Premier with all the extras. There isn't another one available in the UK that ticks all the boxes. It was a real shame they let the car go out like this, and I wasn't impressed when the sales manager initially said it was only to be expected on a used car. Minor stone chips are normal, but damage caused by the carelessness of the previous owner (the scuff to the bumper was obviously caused by a low speed collision, and the tailgate damage by opening the door in a restricted space) should be rectified by the dealer before a car is sold. I would say this is particularly the case when you are paying nearly £40k for a car, although I expect most people would think it is unacceptable in anything other than a much older & very much cheaper car. Thanks for your comments!

[lee789]

Hi Wendle. Thank you for your comments. As the car was purchased sight unseen, I did ask the salesman to check around the vehicle. He obviously didn't!! The dealership had uploaded videos of the car on You Tube for 2 customers who had expressed an interest in buying it. In both these videos the same salesman described it as "paintwork being in unmarked condition". It has crossed my mind that the reason neither of these potential buyers actually purchased the vehicle was that they found that to be untrue when they physically inspected it themselves. Obviously I still have the Lexus 30 day exchange if I am not happy with the results, and I imagine that 30 day period may be put on hold whilst they have the vehicle back for repairs (something I'll need to check). I will also need to check whether my rights to cancel under distance selling are put on hold until I'm satisfied, although the dealer failed to issue me with the required notification of my rights, so is technically in breach of the law too. Until I receive this written notice from them, the coolong off period of 7 days doesn't even start, and if they fail to issue it at all, I have 3 months to reject the vehicle. I'm sure you are right though, and it will be returned in immaculate condition. Fingers Crossed!! Will let you know.