user 710812323

The used vehicle inspection performed by the dealer I bought my car from had the "Tires and Wheels" inspection box checked as "Legal". Are bends in wheels considered a legal pass in the state of Wisconsin?

To add to this, I took my car back for them to re-perform an alignment within a couple weeks of picking it up (scheduled appointment). I also mentioned that the car vibrated/shook down the freeway. They claimed they couldn't reproduce. I took my car to another shop to get the wheels re-balanced figuring that would take care of it. They shop said all 4 wheels were over an ounce off and that one of the wheels had a slight bend. I finally got a chance to get the vehicle off the ground to see how bad the bend is. It's definitely bad enough to cause a vibration. The tires that are on my car have zero signs of any damage and I know for a fact I didn't hit anything hard enough since I picked the vehicle up (12/31/19).

Thoughts?

comotiger

Sorry to hear about your experience! Some dealer inspections are better than others. I bought a CPO 2012 LS from Lexus of Madison in 2015, and they sold it as a "perfect" car even though they knew that the front end had been repaired poorly and also that there was some undercarriage damage from the previous owner running over debris on the highway (CarFax was clean, but I wasn't aware of AutoCheck then, which indicated the "accident"). My St. Louis Lexus dealer noticed the shoddy repairs rightaway when I went in for a routine service and mentioned a missing small part underneath the front end. The repairs cost over 3K which Lexus of Madison paid for, but I lost faith in dealers to do a comprehensive job on these inspections, whether PPI or CPO.

DavidinCT

No idea on the legal side of it. I would bring the car back with documentation from a 3rd party saying it's bent and see if they will do anything about it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained but, after this time, over a month, they might try to blame it on you.

If they wont fix it/replace it, the LS comes with a full size spare. I might swap the rim with the one in the trunk (swap tire so they are even), As the odds are you wont use the spare too often, and you can deal with the vibration for a short time if you get a flat tire.

Just an idea...

user 710812323

Did you have to fight for the dealer to pick up the bill on the repair?

Even if the dealer should have found it, I wonder if I'm past the point on getting any sort of good will since I've had the car for over a month. I didn't know or assume the wheel was bent up until about a week ago when I had the wheels re-balanced. I didn't see the bend (and how it alters the contact patch shape) until about 30 minutes ago.

user 710812323

I'm going to contact the dealer and hopefully they'll take a little ownership since I went back to them within a couple weeks noting that the car shook on the freeway. Unfortunately I didn't notice during my initial test drive. It was snowing pretty badly and I had assumed the tires were a little flat-spotted from the cold and sitting. Seems like most of the vehicles I've test driven recently have a little bit of shake initially, until the tires warm up.

Yeah. I looked at the spare wheel already. Looks good, but obviously there's a cost in swapping. I'm getting a quote to see how much it would cost to fix the bend too (versus buying a used wheel or swapping out my spare).

It's pretty ironic that the dealership mentioned how expensive wheels are when they tried to sell me a warranty on the car...

comotiger

I had to make a couple of phone calls to the Sales Manager, then the General Manager, who came through. The damage and repairs were discovered 2-3 months after I bought the car, but the WI dealer didn't try to argue that things happened after the sale. It's likely they knew about the issues. I discussed the matter with the GM matter-of-factly and did not take on an accusatory tone. That might have helped too.

DavidinCT

Good luck. Worst case using the spare, going to any tire shop should be about $15-20 to mount and balance a tire. Maybe $5 more to remove the tire ?

SO I would say around $45-55 tops, at least it's not crazy expensive if you HAVE to go that option.

With you already telling them that there is an issue, you should have a good shot.

Again, good luck, let us know how it turns out !

SW17LS

No state inspection is going to uncover a bent wheel. They get driven around the block, if they get driven at all.

Just replace the bent wheel with the wheel the spare is on, and job done. Cost? Maybe $30 mount/dismount/balance both wheels? So $60?

user 710812323

All true.

I called the dealer anyway. Worst thing they can say is "No". I'm waiting to hear back today (no managers available yesterday apparently). So, it's not a "No" yet. We'll see.

The spare is a little more rough than the rest of the wheels on the car. The swap would cost $50.

Found a shop that'll straighten the better wheel for $125. I'm leaning towards this option and just keeping the uglier spare as a spare.

SW17LS

I'd do the same.

tx170754

Best thing is to buy a used one from e-bay...

swfla

iTrader: (1)

I guessing that would cost way more than fixing the rim. Surprise me.

tx170754

Don’t wait for me to surprise you....our budget may not be the same, but this is what I have done when one of our Q70 got damaged....

user 710812323

I did look into buying an extra. Seems price shipped would be minimum $100. Then $25 to mount and balance. A wash price wise. I'd have an extra bent rim I would have to deal with then.

user 710812323

Surprisingly, after a couple nice conversations with the dealer they agreed to cover $100 of the cost. I'm honestly pretty blown away by it.