Every once and while you get a good client who buys a car that is is just so bad and hacked with a myriad of issues it will make you sad, that being said this was a CPO car a local Lexus dealership sold my client then after he was made aware of the issues(Entire vehicle re-painted) and the pics to tell the story..................the dealership went on to tell the customer I CAUSED the sand scratches!!. Happy end to the story........................dealership bought the car back(As the next step was legal action), this write up was to show the incredible challenge I had on my hands and with help from Ken Black in Sacto(Who comes down when he can) and Daniel of Car Connissuer and Jimmy Lucci of Lucci Elite who both came up from So.Cal to help with this car and others. After a thorough decon(The car had a ton of fillers and silicons) that put a "Hide in the ride" lol, Ken and I both knew this car was "Bleeped". Here we go................... first of many pics showing grand canyon deep scratches. Abralon sanding disc needed to level this one area of the trunk. Over the shoulder action shot of Ken utilizing the Griot's 3" buffer. From Grey to Black again. Reverse angle. Wooley Mammoth with M101 cutting through the crust. Ken checking the correction. Good to go............... Drivers side "C-Pillar" not looking so lovely. Some of the sand scratches the "Dealership said I put in.................. hard to when I had not touched this area yet(Stealership tactics). If there is one make of car that has zero factory defects when new it is Lexus(Rolls and Audi do a great job in this regard as well) so I KNOW it did not leave Japan with this. More deep defects to level. Corrected(Compounding step). Hammered "B-Pillars". Making progress. More pics of this "Certified pre-owned Lexus"............just brutal. Deep holograms and RIDS.
Daniel doing his part, great work ethic and skill set. Almost completed. Sun pics to show the incredible effort and time that went into this correction. All done.........................thank goodness!!.
Holy grand canyon of defects like you said. You should do the Hammer dance Bob! lol "Hammering Tightness"
What a nightmare! It looks like the dealership came out on top by loaning the car to your client and getting it back in new condition... they win again!
Great work guys! So Bob, who ended up eating the bill for the detail if the took the car back??? The dealer I hope.....
It's my understanding a vehicle cannot be "CPO" unless it has three or less panels that have been repainted. That dealership should be ashamed of themselves CPOing this vehicle. Who ended up paying for this detail? The owner or the dealership?
At first they told him to pound sand........................they did not know he was a trauma surgeon and thus was "Not a dummie". He did everything by the book with the documentation, my invoice, also describing to them in the proper "Autospeak" language that whoever was working on the car knew their stuff. A Lexus CPO car is not supposed to have ANY re-sprayed panels...................... the dealership claimed the car had no paint work done, funny a couple of spots had 650 micron readings and higher for the "Bondo city" paint work. This client did not scream he just told them "Look I will NEVER let this go" I then advised him to put zero's on the CSI............this will get the regional Lexus management involved and they will be pissed this was allowed to go outside the dealership. The dealership ended paying for the detail and the new tires(When he came in for the estimate I pointed out the tires had less than 1/32 tread and they were scrubbed bad and on the wear bars(TWI) so he had new tires on the car as well...................too add insult to injury three of the four chrome wheels(Aftermarket hackness) were peeling and the one good wheel was brand new................had it been a painted wheel they would have used the local "Spray n hack" wheel onsite repair clown that all dealers use I am sure. He is looking at a Audi RS4 or BMW 550, but he knows to have me do a PPI on any car, which I already have done when he brought by a colleagues BMW that had three panels re-sprayed and I told him to pass......................so I saved him more continued problems.
Audi CPO for the win!! I wouldn't sign the certification unless the sales manager approves the work that was needed. but re-paint and carfax history is the sales departments end. They sometimes ask me to check the paint readings R8s...but thats about it. but anyways great work for the team
Bob, dealership was right, you did cause those scratches! Afterall, you washed off all the glaze they filled those scratches with. Dealership rip people off with their "detailing work", it makes me think they do this on a purpose so they can have a job "fixing" it (I mean re-glazing) later on...and charging people $500 for glaze-n-seal. Absolutely stunning work, I'm spechless!
Bob, so impressed with your professionalism that puts a good name to paint correction specialists. To add more unbelievable dealership menace experience, I just wrapped up a 3 day correction on a 2012 Santorini Black Range Rover Sport with 105 miles on the clock..I told the owner to make the dealer eat my invoice as well. It's just sad that a brand new car requires 40 hours of polishing to make it look "new" write up to come shortly!
Thanks again for having me down Bob. I'm glad that the dealership did pay for the detail, it's the least they could do.
Yes the final outcome was good, I have ANOTHER 90 hour NSX job right now.............................don't you want to do another one of those with me??, this one is Red and is a 99 model year........worse than the Blue one in some ways(Not doing the wheel wells though I promise). BTW the Lexus job was "Mingless in all ways" therefore "Mingfree".
