So a friend of the familys Lexus suv was totaled in the recent hail storm, she's looking into a FEH
A local dealer has a 10 FEHL with I guess all the options, msrp is $36 something. But they went to look at it today and said it had some damage, I'm not sure exactly how much, assume all the glass survived, but w/o damage are these still selling at sticker, or is there finaly some negoating? What would be a fair offer to start the process?

 

Impossible to answer without knowing the extent of the damage.

 

Unless you own your own body shop, you get a discount now, less at trade time, auto insurance might insist on an exclusion for hail until it's fixed and you have to look at a less-than-perfect new car.

 

Do a test drive - to a good quality body shop. Get an estimate and offer them invoice minus the cost to repair the damage. Negotiate from there, but you should definitely pay less than invoice (to pay for your time and trouble), and WAY less than MSRP - unless they fix the body damage, in which case it is a normal sale.

The dealership should have insurance to pay for this sort of thing.

 

I wouldn't pay MSRP for a new vehicle that's had paint damage.

Have you ever seen paint peel or flake years after the body work? How about paint that doesn't quite match?

 

Perhaps I should have said "an EXCELLENT" body shop. There are some places that are VERY good, and would make it look like new. Such a shop warrants the paint job and fixes. There is only one such place within 20 miles of me that I would trust for this sort of work.

As to matches, the paint is new. But the body shop to which I am referring custom matches whatever the paint looks like and mixes the color to match exactly.

 

I had a hood repainted with white, but the spray gun was used for something red prior. Since it wasn't cleaned properly, my new hood had a red cast.

I've also had paint with an orange peel appearance, but again, these fall under not-quite-excellent body shops.

The best paint job is one where the primer is still intact. I still stand by my opinion that if it's been repainted, there better be a discount or other advantage (like not waiting 6 months for a new one).

 

Oh, I would concur with the last point. There should be some discount to account for the risk involved - especially if the dealer repaired the damage. Or perhaps get an extra paint warranty or some such.

But in any case MSRP is never a good choice.

 

Thanks, I passed along the info, will let you know what the outcome is.

I konw when i bought my 08 (May 07) It was MSRP or see you later attitudes. Gas was starting that high trend that went to near $4 in my area, $5 in other places. I guess now you can do some negoationg on the price.