$8000 accident claim: is car still reliable?
 

Hey guys,

So I'm contemplating the purchase of a used 2006 lexus is250. However, the car has an $8000 accident claim, where the rear end of the car was severely damaged and had to be replaced. I've talked to a couple people and they've all discouraged me from buying the car, citing $8000 as too significantly damaging to be considered reliable. What are your guys' opinions on this subject?

Cheers, thanks in advance!

see if you can find out what exactly were the damages (i.e. whether there were frame damages, suspension damages...etc, these are stuffs I would stay away from)


nowadays, newer cars repair are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive, even if the repairs seem minor and are purely cosmetic
i.e. you could be looking at $2000+ for a pair of OEM taillights set, $1000+ for the rear bumper, $1000+ if the fenders are damaged, another $1000 to replace the rear window...etc

*My parents caravan was hit on the side recently....low speed fender bender kind of collision (15km?) the damage looked very minor (scraped passenger side slinging door)....totally repair bills came out to $6000+ (which i think was bullshit since the car brand new was $16K, and it was worth maybe $10-12k used.)

8000 can be nothing! depends on what was damaged and how well it was repaired.

$8,000 isn't that much I guess. Its not a deal breaker if you can find out what was damaged and where it was repaired and if you can get them to lower the price.

I got rear ended earlier this year, really minor damage but they had to replace my bumper and one tail light and the total for everything including labour and materials was already $1,700.

how much is the car selling for

$8k is a lot of damage for a pretty common car...but i guess lexus parts can be pricey

ask for collision details...from my instincts i probably wouldnt go for it

Here's a comparison...

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7227143_n.jpg

No frame damage. The only things that needed to be fixed were the rim, fender, bumper, and headlight. All OEM parts and new paint. The final cost was over $5000.

Rear damage around $8000 probably doesn't involve anything involving the frame, but I wouldn't count on it.

rear body.. for 8k ima guess.... quarter panels, end panel,trunk lid,taillights.

if the damage was replaced with oem parts then 8k isnt a big claim.

for safety measures get a copy of the repair document if you can and see what was replaced.

I myself recently helped my uncle purchase a used RX400H with a $6000 - $8000 claim, i don't remember exactly. This was only to replace a rear bumper and the rear hatch, plus paint and labour. No frame damage to the car. All work was done by the Lexus dealer that was selling the car.

So I guess it can be a very high claim when you're talking about Lexuses.

The most important thing to do is to ask what type of damage it was. Then look around in the trunk, especially in the spare tire well and see if there are any water leaks. (From poor repair jobs)

yup, when i had to repair a small bent suspension arm, it cost 8k on my bmw too, over half of it was the cost of labour. it also didnt help that they did 3 wheel alignments along the way to figure out which part was slightly bent

It really depends on what is damaged on the car and what had to be fixed. I would try to find out exactly what was repaired and replaced. Even if the frame or critical components were not damaged in the accident, it is still common for rear-ender repairs to go into the 8K+ range on import cars.
My honda was rear-ended 3 years ago and the (ICBC) repair bill was $8700. I am still driving it with no problems. The frame was untouched. Only rear quarter panels, trunk lid, rear bumper, tail lights and some other small parts were replaced and painted. Most of the cost goes into labour. Also keep in mind that the price is probably higher if the repair was done as an ICBC claim as opposed to privately negotiated body work.

Reliability usually has nothing to do with accident repairs especially if it is visual / passive safety items like bumpers etc.

i doubt very much if the frame was touched on an $8000 claim.

Should be fine. I had vandalism on my car - passenger window, front window, hood and front quarter panel and that was already $5000.

my car has had a front end accident from previous owner... it was $9k. headlights alone costed $2k for the pair, no frame damage. car drives fine still after 4 years

its a lexus, so parts will be alot more then an avg honda/toyota type cars..

as long as no frame damage, its fine..


take it for a test drive on the HWY, you can tell if it drives straight at hwy speeds..

Just to note... 1(ONE) OEM rear LCA on a Lexus IS250 costs $800+tax.. LOL.
$8000 isn't that much.

Like everyone said. Look at the repair report and see what was fixed/replaced. Cost of parts is a lot more on newer cars plus this is a Lexus (higher cost for parts). Ive seen vandalism cost more than 10k and that means that nothing is wrng with the car itself

If it went through ICBC they will have pictures of the damage the car suffered....see if you can get those.

When my TL got keyed on the passenger side, just a respray of two doors racked up $1,200 (of course... thankfully I only had to pay my deductible)

x2

I had a < 30 kmph fender bender which cost $12K to fix. Modern cars are designed to "crumple" so even small accidents cause a lot of damage, which while expensive is relatively easy to repair.

Yeah $8000 can really be nothing. I was rear ended last year, all that happened was a guy rolled into me when I was stopped, he was going 10 km/h MAX.

My bumper was very slightly cracked and misaligned, trunk wouldnt close properly (I think that was it)

Total damage was $2400 according to the shop

My car suffered a rear ender which only damaged the tail lights, bumper and trunk. Still ended up being around $6-7k. Find out exactly what was damaged through an invoice and use it to your advantage in negotiations.

lol $8k is nothing for an accident. if the car is a good deal, i wouldnt pass on it...
on a side note, i had a "small" fender bender in my old mercedes... lady ran a red light and clipped the front end of my car. damage didnt look so bad... until the car got to mercedes... $56k estimate... airbags went off so that raised the repair cost by about $20k... needless to say the car was written off lol... picture for reference...

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5599/58229109.jpg

^

56k?!?!? holy crap.