Body Damage

[kai920]

Hello all,

New to the forum here and to T4R. I've always wanted one and finally found one last week. Traded my old ford ranger in for it. 2004 Limited V8 4WD. Thought I got a great deal on it. I was stoked until yesterday.

Took it off road for the first time on some sandy trails on Monday. Nothing serious, just some hilly sandy trails. I never noticed until Tuesday morning my right rear corner bumper was not attached. No biggie I though I'll just take it to Toyota and have them re-clip in place. Toyota technician notices tow hitch electrical connector is bent, and then sees scuffs. You've been hit, your bumpers out of alignment. Really, there's almost no damage to the bumper. It lookslike it was just forced upward/outward on the corner.

I take it to the body shop, and the guy starts pointing out all kinds of stuff. The rear tailgate has been removed, bolts are missing paint. There are pry marks where it looks like someone has tried to put a block or wedge under the door hinges and shut it force back into position. The rear tailgate has been repainted. The right rear quarter panel has been replaced.

My wife was in the truck because she was cold. She said I looked like a kid whose dog was just stolen when this guy was pointing this out to me.

I took it back to the Lexus dealership where I bought and of course they didnt know anything about it. The bumper must has shook loose off roading, of course I did not tell them that. The carfax was clean and I checked it before I bought. Checked Autocheck when I got home too. Clean.

Sales manager said they will fix, but they are not going to replace the bumper components. They are just going to realign everything. Which worries me I will have this issue further down the road. They are also going to realign and adjust the rear tailgate. And yes, i did get it all in writing. I'm still pissed.

The quarter panel looks fine and you wouldn't know it until you looked at the difference in the door welds and used a paint thickness gauge. The body shop guy wanted me to file a police report and claim and get it fixed. I am not trying to commit insurance fraud. It was obviously done before I bought it. He says there's a chance it was done after I bought it. ????? He wanted the business.

I'm pissed and heartbroken that my new ride has issues. Mechanically everything seems to be good, and haven't noticed any other issues. 91,800 miles. Running great. Will post pic later today.

 

[kai920]

Heres the pics!

 

[kai920]

Sorry, not sure how that pic got upside down.

 

[scottm]

Beautiful truck. I bought mine a year ago, keyed both sides, accident and frame damage many years ago, not on CarFax but listed at the dealer auction. Some panels are not original, but are OEM. I can see cracked paint around the radiator supports where the front end was damaged. It's been repaired, but repaired well. I knew it had a sketchy history, and I got a great price because of that. I'm pretty happy with my truck. I'd be pretty happy with yours too if I got a great deal on it.

And my hitch electrical connector is bent too.

 

[gptoy96]

That's a bummer to go through all the apparant proper steps to avoid surprises but end up getting them anyways.

Hope it all works out well for you.

Like scottm said, it's a beauty still to look at.

 

[kai920]

Sold the limited back to the dealership. After having it really looked at by a body shop, I feel the repairs that were done were half-a** and I was unsatisfied with it. The painted rear door had dirt or dust under te paint. To many panels had been repainted, the tailgate had obviously been beaten back in place. Rear bumper was never repaired at all. Overall I feel the quality of work that was done was not enough. I did get a good deal, however I just felt I would not be happy with it.

Drove another sport edition last night. I like the X-REAS suspension. Having it looked at by a mechanic on Monday.

I sure did miss those seat warmers this morning though. 27 degrees on the way to work.

On another note, borrowed my moms Ford Explorer last night until I find the T4R that I decide to keep. For an SUV in the same class, it doesnt compare. Not even close. And it's fully loaded. Lucky she's travelling, otherwise I'd be hoofin it!

 

[Ridger]

That is a good decision.... if your buying a vehicle, you sure want to be happy with it otherwise the issues will stay in your head and it will spoil it and always keep you second guessing.

.... anyway, searching and test driving a new vehicle is half the fun. :bigok:

 

[THEROK]

Hello all,

New to the forum here and to T4R. I've always wanted one and finally found one last week. Traded my old ford ranger in for it. 2004 Limited V8 4WD. Thought I got a great deal on it. I was stoked until yesterday.

Took it off road for the first time on some sandy trails on Monday. Nothing serious, just some hilly sandy trails. I never noticed until Tuesday morning my right rear corner bumper was not attached. No biggie I though I'll just take it to Toyota and have them re-clip in place. Toyota technician notices tow hitch electrical connector is bent, and then sees scuffs. You've been hit, your bumpers out of alignment. Really, there's almost no damage to the bumper. It lookslike it was just forced upward/outward on the corner.

I take it to the body shop, and the guy starts pointing out all kinds of stuff. The rear tailgate has been removed, bolts are missing paint. There are pry marks where it looks like someone has tried to put a block or wedge under the door hinges and shut it force back into position. The rear tailgate has been repainted. The right rear quarter panel has been replaced.

My wife was in the truck because she was cold. She said I looked like a kid whose dog was just stolen when this guy was pointing this out to me.

I took it back to the Lexus dealership where I bought and of course they didnt know anything about it. The bumper must has shook loose off roading, of course I did not tell them that. The carfax was clean and I checked it before I bought. Checked Autocheck when I got home too. Clean.

Sales manager said they will fix, but they are not going to replace the bumper components. They are just going to realign everything. Which worries me I will have this issue further down the road. They are also going to realign and adjust the rear tailgate. And yes, i did get it all in writing. I'm still pissed.

The quarter panel looks fine and you wouldn't know it until you looked at the difference in the door welds and used a paint thickness gauge. The body shop guy wanted me to file a police report and claim and get it fixed. I am not trying to commit insurance fraud. It was obviously done before I bought it. He says there's a chance it was done after I bought it. ????? He wanted the business.

I'm pissed and heartbroken that my new ride has issues. Mechanically everything seems to be good, and haven't noticed any other issues. 91,800 miles. Running great. Will post pic later today.

i'm so sorry to hear bro. your wifey's description is spot on i bet.

it always pays to do a Pre Purchase Inspection. Always, espec when buying used.

here's a recent story of mine from jus tthis past week.

was looking at a pristine 911 turbo. babied. garaged. insane amount of factory options with a window sticker proving it at $162K. that's on the very high end of 911 turbos optioned out. awesome owner. very helpful and a true fan of 911s.

we agree on a price and have him to go an indy shop to get a PPI. $250 my cost.

indy calls me a half hour into the inspection and says:

"the car's been repainted".

"really? yea he told me he resprayed the front bumper and aero lip before putting on the ventureshield"

"no. 90% of the car's been repainted even the sunroof."

as you can guess, i didn't buy it so bummed and esp bummed for the seller because he had NO idea. the paint job was a good one, but who knows what the original owner did with it.

so he's essentially forced to swallow his pride and joy on a car he thought was pristine.

i'm hoping the above story makes you feel a tiny bit better? it's tough man. again, sorry to hear, but you're better for it and hopefully others will learn from this lesson.

happy thxgiving. lots 2 be thankful for.:bluejump:

 

[Zinarac]

I think you made the best decision. You could have run into a number of problems down the road if you had stuck with it. I hope the 4Runner that you are having your mechanic look at checks out for you.

Stories like this scare me because I got a great deal on my 4Runner two years ago. I never checked the Carfax because the dealer said it was clean. So far I haven't had any problems, but at this point I don't even want to know.

 

[glock56534]

Sorry to hear about that, kai920. Someone here on the forum is selling an awesome '05 Sport here.

If I was in the market for a T4R right now, I would seriously consider checking this one out. He is only asking $22K. Under 57K miles for an '05 is VERY low mileage. The upside is that it comes will all the mods and it seems that it is/was taken care of extremely well. I paid just a little bit less at the stealership for a bone stock '05 SR5 V8 with ~72,000 miles than his truck.

You're in New Mexico, so it shouldn't be too far of a drive to pick it up too.

 

[Paul_R_Canada]

If you're anything like me, and it sounds like you are, you would have stopped sleeping and gone grey over th next few weeks worrying about what's next.

Buy another and love it to death! Good Luck...

 

[kai920]

I am too young for the gray I do have and I would gotten worse. I am having a hard time finding another. The one I had check out today had a leaking transfer case. $900 to replace the o-ring between the actuator and the t-caseat the toyota dealership. Owner was not willing to fix or negotiate enough on the price for me so I walked. Still searching.......

 

[Paul_R_Canada]

I lucked out with a low mielage 08 Saturday, hang tight you'll get a new baby soon.

I'm too young for my gray as well, but it hasn't stopped it coming on strong!!