oldtripper

As I was beginning a 5 hr drive to pick up my NX450H, I got a call from the dealer saying they saw a dent while prepping that happened during transport. They are replacing the rear bumper cover and say it'll be ready tomorrow.

First, how can they get a new bumper in a day? Second, they don't have a shop on site so don't they need time to paint (I'm assuming they don't come prepainted). Something seems off. I'm going to ask for the repair invoice so hopefully that will tell me more. I have to trust they aren't using aftermarket parts.

Is there anything else I can do or ask to make sure they aren't trying to pull one over me. They said it won't show up on history reports and I know many cars are fixed before sold, but I don't want to regret this later.

LeX2K

If damaged like they say I would reject that vehicle outright, new is supposed to be factory new not repaired at a body shop. You are right the timing doesn't make sense that is super fast (impossible) turn-around.

Tell them you want to have the car inspected at an independent shop see what they say.

midcow3

Your car has lost value, When you got to sell it your bumper repaint will lower your car's value.

YMMV,
MidCow3

nitrolada

This is pretty common and no it's still a new car. They don't even have to tell you unless it's over $2000 (varies depending on state/province), they only told OP because they discovered it too late.

Cars get damaged all the time during transport and is fixed before delivery to customer...about a quarter of cars have some damage from delivery according to people working in dealerships... just majority of customers don't know about it

No it won't ..it's not an insurance claim and it's not some exotic. Even factory paint... if you measure it, the paint thickness is not uniform

oldtripper

They said they're replacing the bumper with a new one. I wonder though how they got a new one so quickly and if Lexus bumper covers come factory painted or if they have to be colormatched.

oldtripper

Ignorance is bliss in that I wouldn't have known if they hadn't told me. I just wonder how honest they are being. I need to press them to tell me where they got the part from and how they got it so quickly. Is the new bumper factory painted or colormatched. Also, they don't have a body shop on site so it's the service dept that's fixing it. So far the only thing the salesman is telling me is that it's a new bumper and the car will look new. I'm getting it for MSRP and I doubt I'll get another one or a RAV4 Prime before the tax credit gets cut.

703

new bumpers are never painted. body shop will have to paint them.

SenorValas

I agree that sourcing a new bumper and painting it in a day is a little optimistic given the global parts shortages and the fact that you can't rush paint jobs. Is it possible that there is some other reason that the car wasn't ready for you when you started out on your long journey to collect it and that the supposed damaged bumper was just a ruse to stall you for a day? Maybe the car hadn't yet arrived at the dealership or they hadn't managed to do the pre-delivery checks in time. If I was you I would ask the dealership to send you a photo of the damage just to call their bluff (hopefully that won't force them to put a dent in it just to cover their you-know-what ).

CRC99

You've only lost value if the work comes up on Carfax. Run the VIN.

CRC99

WRong thread....deleted

FastFord

They probably took it off another new NX. Bumper covers just snap on and off with minimal bolts

lesz

As others have pointed out, damage to vehicles during transport happens more often than most would think. If you have been buying cars for 20 or 30 or more years, the odds are that you have bought at least one car that has had paint work done to repair transport damage and that you never even knew that that was the case.

In the OPs situation, whether or not I was okay with having the bumper replaced might depend on the color of the vehicle. With some colors, getting a satisfactory color match on the new bumper should not be a problem. However, with some colors, getting a satisfactory color match would be very difficult and, perhaps, unlikely. Colors like the pearl whites are multi-stage paint finishes, and matching new paint to get a satisfactory color match often requires blending the new paint into adjacent panels, which, in this case, the dealer is unlikely to want to do. There are other colors, like the atomic silver, are even 4 or 5 stage pearl colors, and getting a satisfactory color match can be close to impossible. Even if paint is blended into adjacent panels, doing so won't make the color match any better, but it will just spread out the mismatch over a larger area and make it less noticeable.

So, if I was buying the car, whether or not I was okay with the replaced bumper might depend on what the color of the vehicle is and whether it was a difficult or easy color to match.

redhot47fl

Exactly right, even during these days of short supply. The odds are that they did OP a favor and simply swapped out the damaged cover for an identical cover.
Rather than getting all worked up, I'd just proceed to the dealership, take a close look at the car, and make my decision at that point, based on what my eyes tell me, which very likely would be "all is well."

lesz

While the process of swapping a bumper cover may be simple, with many colors, getting a satisfactory color match would be difficult, perhaps impossible. If the swapped bumper was painted at the factory at a different time or with a different paint lot than was the original bumper, getting a satisfactory color match would be unlikely.
If I was willing to go to the dealer and inspect the car, I would want to make sure that I did that inspection very thoroughly, with examining the car in a variety of light conditions and from various angles. Under some situations, the color match might look okay, but with different light or from a different angle, there is the potential that a color mismatch would be quite obvious.

The NX450h is not an inexpensive vehicle, and I certainly would not want to spend that much money on a vehicle and, every time I walked up to the vehicle, be struck by the fact that the color of the bumper is not a perfect match with that of the rest of the vehicle.

FastFord

It is definitely a different paint lot, they all are. Bumper paint is not the same as the paint they paint the car with. If you look closely at just about any plastic bumper they are very close to very obvious. Funny how white is tough to match. Op will have to check close and make the call. Like the idea of different light, different angles, and how good your color vision is. Hope it works out, fingers crossed for you.