SOL?

I bought my 2021 TRD ORP in March of 2023 from Huntington Beach Toyota. I had no problems with it other than a strange issue with the left headlight—instead of a solid wall of light when they are on, there are some gaps of darkness at the top edge just left of center. (I've tried getting photos of it but for some reason the problem doesn't really show up.)

Yesterday I was washing the car when this happened:



The water jet just ripped the paint right off.

I called a body shop and they said this is a clear indication that the car had been in an accident and whoever did the repair wasn't the best at applying primer.

When I bought the car, its record was clean, so I'm guessing the previous owner handled the repair privately and didn't report it.

This also can explain the wonkiness of the left headlight if they replaced it with a non genuine Toyota new one.

My question is that since this was a Certified Pre Owned car, should the dealer have caught this in their inspection and should the light have been replaced by an OEM one?

 

Yeah, you're really SOL. If the original owner hid it from the dealership that he sold it too (and he probably did), then they are not liable at all. The upside is, the area is a small one, so a local body shop could fix it for a decent price. Sure, it'll be more than you want to pay, but it won't be $1k.

When dealerships do inspections they aren't as detailed as you would think they are (or hope). They look at them from a distance, not up close and personal measuring panel gaps and looking for serial number to verify they're OEM. They look at the front end and said "Yup, no damage at all to the body or paint. It has two headlights and they turned on, off and blinkers worked. CHECK!"

 

Like mentioned, if you cannot prove the dealership knew, and in bad faith sold you the vehicle, you're going to be fixing this out of pocket.

Side story: I bought a CPO vehicle that unknown to me had been in a massive accident. The vehicle was fixed enough by the dealership to hide the damage before being sold to me. When I discovered the damage, they claimed ignorance and told me to kick rocks. $8000 in lawyer fees and we proved they knew.

CPO vehicles can certainly be a crap shoot. Always get a vehicle inspected my an independent mechanic. Doesn't hurt to get an auto body shop to do a paint depth gauge to find repairs such as yours.

 

yikes! Wonder what other secrets that thing is hiding

 

Thanks for the feedback, man. Yeah, the place I took it to said about $600. Almost as big a pain is that it has to be left there a couple days.

 

I hope you got the 8 grand back and then some.

 

I hate hearing that good people good faith going in purchasing a car a very expensive proposition for most of us and that headlight issue may be aftermarket headlight. I’ve had issues with those in the past if you are going to have the body shop do the work you may look for an OEM light on OfferUp or craigslist or one of these sites and if not, you may want to consider buying a factory one which I know is going to be expensive or do some research and find a good aftermarket one good luck with everything and I’m sorry you’re having to deal with it.

 

Absolutely, my thought exactly.

 

Dude.

 

sorry

 

There's actually no requirement that says a CPO car has to have all OEM body parts.

The OEM left headlight also has some gaps in the beam pattern, supposedly to reduce glare for oncoming traffic. You should check the plastic mold marks on the back of the headlight body and compare against the passenger side headlight.

Toyota factory paint can peel as well. Though there isn't a systemic peeling issue with the gray color as there is with white, isolated cases can happen with other colors. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ailure-thread-with-toyota-corp-update.689940/

 

Sorry for you luck. But you bought it over 2 years ago. Shit happens.

 

dang I feel for you man. something like this has happened to us all. I read the whole thread, and learned a couple things I’ll try to remember years down the road when I buy again.

one of my favorite quotes:
To live is to suffer

 

How's your white paint holding up? Better than RAV4s and Corollas I hope?

 

Hah! Duude
What’s funny is I’ve done the bare minimum for my paint in every way, never even waxed, and it’s perfectly fine

 

Maybe you haven't worked at a dealership, but I have.

it is a thorough check over the entire car in the used car section before a car is certified. we do use paint meters if we see panels have different orange peel (or missing altogether), most paint jobs by body shops leave a substantial amount of overspray in the clearcoat - little specks - that become visible and distort the originality of a panel.

Now whether the shop will delve deeper into the technicians' notes is another story.. the desler just wants that car back out on the lot as quick as possible.