TipsyTonio

I get your point on the tax credit, but try and see if you can stall until Friday when the house will vote on the updated tax credits. It already passed the senate, and the House votes on Friday. If it passes, I believe the credit might even be better. The thing is that who knows when it will actually be implemented.

oldtripper

So either there was a dent on the lift gate or not and if there was, they probably did paintless dent repair on it? I guess I'll just have to examine it and press them on it. The additional pictures I posted doesn't look like there was a crease and the salesman denies there was one. However, I wasn't thinking and just realized that the invoice mentioned the license plate area.

They are taking $500 off for my inconvenience. It isn't much the more you think about it though.

oldtripper

The discussions and articles I read say the tax credit actually goes away all together once the President signs because the car isn't made in North America and the part about final assembly kicks in once the bill is signed. Even if it isn't the next allocated car probably won't arrive until after 9/30.

TipsyTonio

If you're convinced on taking the car, do the drive. The worst that can happen is that you find something not repaired properly and you drive back. Just know that you have to be thorough with inspecting that rear area and testing all functionality such as the blind spot, rear parking sensors, foot activated lift gate (if you have one), power life gate, and the overall fit and finish of everything. If it meets your criteria I would press for them to bump it to $1000 or $500 plus your choice of OEM accessories. They will likely go the accessory route since it costs them less than what it would cost you.

oldtripper

How much risk is there that there could be something wrong with the liftgate and alignment later on that I don't see now after doing those tests?

oldtripper

How much risk is there that there could be something wrong with the liftgate and alignment later on that I don't see now after doing those tests?

Also, with the crease being what we think it could be, surely the paintless dent repair couldn't have fixed that perfectly and I could tell, right?

Those safety and mechanical features would still be under warranty I imagine. I hope they are fully forthcoming when I'm in person and any "confusion" between service and sales gets cleared up. They seemed to be honest when they were telling me, we need to replace the bumper because it's a new car and it wouldn't be right to just repair it.

TipsyTonio

Truthfully, the only thing that could become an issue over time is the paint. But I will say this. I’m an architect and we regularly spec PPG paints because they are high quality. I’m sure their automotive grade is high quality as well. As far as the other issues, you will notice them right off the bat. They are not anything that will develop over time. I’ve seen my PDR guy work wonders so I wouldn’t be surprised if they got it out.

oldtripper

Also if I miss something with the safety features or anything I can inspect, it'd still be under warranty.

TipsyTonio

Make sure you get a printed version of that invoice and store it well. I highly doubt that Lexus will deny warranty claims for this issue, but it doesn’t hurt to have the documentation to back up that this was a delivery issue.

TipsyTonio

It won’t. But then again do you want to be dealing with these things on a 60K brand new car? Just make sure to do due diligence before signing anything.

oldtripper

Why wouldn't it be under warranty? I'll do my best to scrutinize and grill them, but I'm far from perfect. Just like how I now noticed the invoice mentioning the license plate area damage because either I glossed over it or I kept thinking license plate goes on the bumper like my sedan.

TipsyTonio

sorry i meant to say it won’t affect your warranty. My bad.

oldtripper

Whew. But you are right about preventing headaches later on. Wish me luck tomorrow and thanks for your and everyone else's help!

TipsyTonio

Good luck! Please do keep us posted

oldtripper

For sure I will. Hopefully you'll be around online in case I have anything pressing that I could use some help on. I need to mention while talking to the service director about the damage that they're giving $500 off. I have to imagine he would be straight up with me as they would actually not want me to buy it as they could sell to the next person on the list without having to inform them of the repairs and not offer the discount.