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including repainting the hood to original factory specs. So the saga continues. I'll let you know what happens, but so far the dealer experience has been good.
No one can repaint the hood to original factory specs. That is a bold claim and empty promises. Factory uses precision robots and spray gun that gives you an exact thickness and consistency and of the same paint mixture over the entire body.
Repainting will make the hood surface smoother but it won’t match perfectly because a human will be spraying the paint. I would take a few minor scuffs in the clearcoat over letting a human attempt to repaint a factory job.
I am not sure why you want a Lexus if you only keep for 3 years. There are minimal ownership advantages compared to other brands which drives more exciting.
I also see a fatal flaw in your logic. It's only after 3 years that you stop worrying about scratches because you've had your first one within those years, so no need to baby it and you really get to enjoy it and take it anywhere.
I will tell you why. Because up here where I live, the weather is brutal in the winter and we drive on roads that have a lot of salt and brine on them. This salt and brine starts eating up everything on cars and rust will eventually develop on cars after so many years no matter how much you baby and wash and take care of a car up here. I used to own a nice car for 11 1/2 years that I kept garaged and in pristine condition. However, the car started to develop rust after 8 years and it wouldn’t go away no matter if I got the rust repaired. Body work cost me $4,500 and the rust was still there. And this doesn’t include any paint wear and tear and damage that can occur from dings, paint chips and scratches that can occur from driving or from parking lots. All cars, no matter how well that they’re taken care of get paint chips, dings and scratches over time. I don’t want to deal with these things anymore. Its very expensive to fix these things. It’s better to drive and to enjoy the car for 3 or 4 years at the most and then sell it and buy another one to avoid dealing with body panel and paint wear and tear and with rust issues.
The second reason why I only keep my car for 3 years is because I don’t want to be responsible for spending money on the car after the 3 year, 36,000 mile regular factory warranty expires or when the bumper to bumper warranty expires. I don’t want to spend $4,000 or $5,000 to buy an extended warranty. It’s not worth it for me. Especially when I will have to start sinking money into the car for wear and tear items (for non warranty items) after the 50,000 mile mark. I would rather use that wear and tear repair money and the warranty money that I would’ve spent had I kept the car towards another brand new vehicle of the same exact model. The last car that I owned for 11 1/2 years had a lifetime warranty on it with unlimited mileage. An extended warranty back then cost less than $3,000. Not 4,500 or $5,000 like it does today. That particular car had to have over $14,000 worth of warranty work done to it during those 11 1/2 years of ownership under the 52,000 mile mark. I also paid thousands of dollars keeping up that car with wear and tear repairs and with the required regular maintenance schedule. The car only had 52,000 miles on it when I got rid of it when it was hit and totaled by an illegal alien. I took excellent care of the car. If that car only had a 5 year/100,000 mile long warranty on it, I would’ve had to pay out of my pocket for all the repairs that were done beyond the 5 year mark. I don’t like forking out thousands of dollars for repairs after the regular warranty or after the extended warranty expires. That’s why it’s better for me to sell the car after the end of 3 years. I don’t have to deal with repairs when the car is out of warranty. Lexus may be a very dependable car, but you never know when something will break on it that will cost a few thousand dollars to replace and repair.
The last reason why I buy a new car every 3 years is because the ES350 retains 50% of it value at the end of 3 years which makes it a cash down payment towards another brand new ES350. I like to pay off my car at the end of 3 years and use that $25,000 to $28,000 equity that I have in it as a cash down payment towards a newer model. I also take advantage of being able to deduct the car on my LLC on my business so I can lessen my tax burden and save on income taxes. If I didn’t have the deductions, I would be paying more money to the liberals and to the woke agendas that have been implemented by them and by the socialist communists running this country today.
So this is why we only keep our cars for 3 years. We have been leasing all of our cars since 2010 and everything has been working to our advantage. We will be purchasing the ES350 this time around and we will continue to lease our other 2nd vehicle. If we didn’t do things this way, it would cost us more to own a car long term like it used to when we used to own for 9 to 10 years in the past. It costs less to own short term and to use the equity in one vehicle towards a new car purchase every 3 years while also leasing the 2nd vehicle every 3 years. We avoid expensive repairs and wear and tear repairs and also get some decent tax deductions by doing things this way.
No one can repaint the hood to original factory specs. That is a bold claim and empty promises. Factory uses precision robots and spray gun that gives you an exact thickness and consistency and of the same paint mixture over the entire body.
Not sure I agree with that. The robots are programmed to mimic the techniques and motions of a human painter. Even if a re-spray is not perfect, it can be wet polished and buffed out to look good as new. I'd rather take my chances than live with these scratches. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Not sure I agree with that. The robots are programmed to mimic the techniques and motions of a human painter. Even if a re-spray is not perfect, it can be wet polished and buffed out to look good as new. I'd rather take my chances than live with these scratches. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Please keep us informed on this. I’m hoping not to have to deal with something like this but am very interested as to how this all turns out.
Not sure I agree with that. The robots are programmed to mimic the techniques and motions of a human painter. Even if a re-spray is not perfect, it can be wet polished and buffed out to look good as new. I'd rather take my chances than live with these scratches. I'll let you know how it turns out.
What you can’t get with a repaint is the completely dust free booth of a Lexus paint booth. it is common to see dust specks under the paint.
And your paint mixture will never be a 100% match. Which means blending to adjacent panels. I can always tell a repaint vs original.
In addition, there will be paint lines under the hood where the masking is between old and new paint.
The thickness of the paint of the hood will be different to the rest of the car.
When I buy a used car, I always check for repaint using a car paint thickness gauge and will not take risk with any body panels that have been repainted.
Love the car... never thought I would buy an ES. I’ve put on about 250 miles and have averaged 52mpg with mixed driving. Track pad does take some getting used to at first, but I am starting to get the hang of it.
As others have mentioned, only gripe is the front biased sound from the ML audio, lack of power folding mirrors and no USB port under the arm rest.
also just an aesthetic issue, but I wish the rear tail light LED bars were more pronounced like the previous gen. On the way home yesterday, I followed behind an 19fsport and realized they aren’t very distinctive.
“ Lexus USA ended the 2019 calendar year with 298,114 vehicles sold, a meager 0.1% drop versus 2018's 298,310 units.”
With these number of Lexus sold sold How come we all don’t write to FTC and the local state Attorney General asking to investigate and get a recall or fix done to make the sound system work as it should instead of hearing lame excuse’s and run around by the dealership . Let’s do a write up campaign to make these issue a top priority for Toyota and Lexus.
Love the car... never thought I would buy an ES. I’ve put on about 250 miles and have averaged 52mpg with mixed driving. Track pad does take some getting used to at first, but I am starting to get the hang of it.
As others have mentioned, only gripe is the front biased sound from the ML audio, lack of power folding mirrors and no USB port under the arm rest.
also just an aesthetic issue, but I wish the rear tail light LED bars were more pronounced like the previous gen. On the way home yesterday, I followed behind an 19fsport and realized they aren’t very distinctive.
“ Lexus USA ended the 2019 calendar year with 298,114 vehicles sold, a meager 0.1% drop versus 2018's 298,310 units.”
With these number of Lexus sold sold How come we all don’t write to FTC and the local state Attorney General asking to investigate and get a recall or fix done to make the sound system work as it should instead of hearing lame excuse’s and run around by the dealership . Let’s do a write up campaign to make these issue a top priority for Toyota and Lexus.
What year is your ES300h? Did you buy it new or used?
Mine is 2020 Es 300H. I bought it as certified. It was a dealer service vehicle. Not really impressed. The color is Nightfall Mica with Flaxen w/Linear Expresso interior. I am getting currently 37 MPG mostly highway.
was getting 42 in the beginning when new. So far I put 11K miles on it.
Last edited by 2020300h; 02-28-22 at 09:44 AM.
Reason: Add More Details.
It is a big deal to me. After the dealer wet-sanded/buffed the paint scratches on my hood, I noticed some unacceptable residual scratches (see attached picture) that appear deeper than the clear clearcoat. When I picked the car up, it was parked outside on a typical Seattle gray overcast day, and the lighting was so diffused that I didn't notice the residual scratches until I got it home. Also these paint scratches are hard to detect because of the white color, and the scratches extend beyond the picture. They're just hard to photograph. I contacted the dealer again, and they assured me they "will get this to our paint experts and understand what needs to be done," including repainting the hood to original factory specs. So the saga continues. I'll let you know what happens, but so far the dealer experience has been good.
My comment as to not being a big deal was assuming the repair had been done properly or that it will be done properly. Obviously damage is a big deal. Properly repaired damage is not. Seems like you accepted the car in less than acceptable condition with respect to the repair. So get it fixed and report back.
Also the thing with pearl / metallic specifically is you can't just repaint one panel. they'll have to blend the two fenders or feather out and blend one--depends how they approach the repairs.
Speaking of paint issues, I took delivery of a 21 300h Lux back in May and a few months later discovered this beauty on the hood as I was washing it at home. An extra drop of paint under the clear coat! Luckily Lexus accepted it as a paint defect and paid for repainting the panel but still stunned that they delivered a car with a defect like this!
After all the discussion about paint, I'm curious about the "clear bra" paint protection. I was offered this at the dealer for my new car for $1500. Seems high, so I passed. Aside from cost, do people like this? Does it hold up?
After all the discussion about paint, I'm curious about the "clear bra" paint protection. I was offered this at the dealer for my new car for $1500. Seems high, so I passed. Aside from cost, do people like this? Does it hold up?
IMHO it absolutely not worth it. I am about to take delivery of a Porsche and even for that I'm going to pass on PPF. Had a friend who did PPF + ceramic coating on his whole SUV and spent $6k on it. After a few weeks, had a minor accident that ended up replacing the hood and fender so the ppf was worthless and had to be redone. Another data point, cost of painting my hood at a very highend body shop in my area was $1100 and chances of a paint damage or chip that needs repainting is not that high to make ppf worth it. Just my 2 cents!
Speaking of paint issues, I took delivery of a 21 300h Lux back in May and a few months later discovered this beauty on the hood as I was washing it at home. An extra drop of paint under the clear coat! Luckily Lexus accepted it as a paint defect and paid for repainting the panel but still stunned that they delivered a car with a defect like this!
That doesn't look like an extra drop of paint under the clear coat. It looks more like an indentation in the paint like the paint flaked off when the hood was being painted by the robots at the factory and the indentation not filled with enough paint to fill it in.
02-25-22, 06:15 PM
