I am looking at a 2006 Lexus LS430 that is in the local BMW lot. It was purchased from a rental company in California. Is there any way to check to see if there has been any damage done to the car, re-paints, etc.? I have done a CarFax search and it came back negative on all counts, but I just want to know that a car purchased from California and now in Texas is on the up and up.

Thanks for any help.

cnail

 

You can have a dealer do a national pull of the car history, that will tell you service history and maybe something else. Just depends who was updating the records.

Good luck

 

cnail,

Short of tracking the previous owner ( which can be done by the dealership!!!) down and asking him/her the reason for tradeand history on the car .......... you best bet is a CarFax. Not that it will be 100% complete, because as you know if something happened to the vehicle that wasn't reported it won't show up on CarFax. Quiz your salesperson to get you the needed information before you move on it.
.........[sm=signs003.gif]

 

another simple way to check for body repairs is to simply look under the hood, on both front fenders, all doors and the trunk, there is always a vehicle identification tag stuck to these components that should match the cars VIN. this is also not 100% accurate being if they did not replace those components the VIN stickers will have stayed. also you can look at securing bolts on fenders and such and see if they have obviously been altered. if a fender or such has not been replaced, yet you find out later it was in a bodyshop. most likely it was only a minor accident and just needed minor repairs with a "fresh" coating of paint.
good luck with your purchase

 

cnail,

How goes the purchase process on the use LS 430????? Did you get her or something else. Drop us a Line and let us know...........