If buying a used car with cosmetic issues, whats best
 

I found a car that I am considering and it is fine other then it has numerous rock chips on the front end. My auto body friend threw me a price of $1000 to strip and paint hood and both front quarter panels. (Kind of low in my opinion, maybe he was giving me a deal?). The other issues is two of the tires are polished aluminum and need refinished. He as a guy with a portable truck that does this to the tune of $100-200/ wheel. So maybe $1500 off the price of the car. Or should I let the dealer do all this and keep the price the same. I have a feeling they won't do the same quality and just push it through their shop and make me feel like I am overly picky (which I am). What do you think that would cost to do?

I'd touch up the rock chips on the metal panels and repaint the plastic front bumper. Once the chips are colored properly, apply a clear 3M bra.

Disturbing the factory finish is a bad idea. It will never match perfectly (trust me), there's the possibility (likelyhood?) that the factory rust protection would be compromised, and you'll always have to explain that the car was painted due to rock chips and not some horrific accident -- and only a few prospective buyers will believe you.

The wheels are easy. The dealer may get better rates than you, so it may be better to negotiate and have them do it. It's probably the same guy anyway, they don't do it in-house.

Agree with Eric. But get the rest of the car inspected. You may think you know the chips and wheels are the only problems.

I don't mind buying a car with a bad interior. That's relatively inexpensive to fix. Wheels and tires can be changed out in minutes. And a lot of paint touch up can be accomplished without refinishing. But, if it looks like there are over 100 chips, most won't want to do that even though it would be theoretically possible.

Lastly, small mechanical issues should not stop a deal. You just need to know what they are. The show "Wheeler Dealers" shows very well how deep you should go into a car. My Jag would have been a perfect example for that show. Take a 2K car and do 1K worth of work and you have a 4K car.

Love wheeler dealers! The only missing factor in their equations in the thousands of dollars of free labor, but thats another story! There are thousands of rock chips. The guy that owned it owned a construction company so it looks like it was driven on some rocky roads. The car is very straight. The salesman claimed that they wanted to "leave as is" so as not to hide any body damage with repainting which I understand. Although original paint is better, I would rather have a clean car then one with road acne. I have had good luck with the shops I use in color matching.
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If I can grab a CTS V for the mid 30's with warranty left, I just might.

Spot on. If you repaint body panels you'll have to explain it, and because there's a lot of liars out there many buyers won't believe you. A good touch up could be a 90% solution that maintains/enhances the car's value without any stories. Of all things the average buyer is most concerned by past bodywork history, because they believe that bodywork = accident.

I would advocate taking care of these things yourself as you can manage the process. You can determine exactly what is done for touch up, you can shop around for your favorite body shop or wheel repair guy, you can change the wheel color if you like. You'll always be dealing with a 3rd party if the dealership is involved, and you might get better pricing if the dealer marks up these "services" that just get outsourced anyway. I very recently paid $450 to have four wheels totally refinished and one straightened, that included repairing curbing on all four and having the color changed.

89911, stone chips can be addressed by Dr Color Chip or a slew of used car lot jockeys that repaint bumpers and fix small dents, as well as do the chips while the car is still out on the lot. Like Eric has said before, there are guys that fill in leather cracks and re-dye the repair right out on the lot.

You don't need to spend a grand unless you really want to.

If the dealer pays $75 a wheel to have the same guy do the wheel repair, what benefit do you have managing it yourself and paying the same guy $110? Negotiate the repair into the selling price and have the dealer contract it. They get better rates, they're better customers that give that guy business every week, all year long.

Also, those are Alcoa wheels -- very dense -- easy to fix and re-polish. They're polished not chrome or paint. I wouldn't paint them. $50-100 a wheel is probably the range depending on how much damage exist. I doubt they would need any straightening, those are incredibly strong wheels.

I still think getting the chips taken care of via airbrushing then covering them with beautiful smooth shiny plastic is better than refinishing them. Once those chips are "under wraps" they will disappear. When you resfinish that area, the paint will never be as rock-resistant again, ever. That new paint will chip like crazy.

And a pro will spot the repaint in seconds, as good as you think your job will be. I can always tell. Always. If the paint tint matches, the metallic won't, or the texture won't, or the refraction won't, or the seams will have telltales, or the clear where the blend the doors will eventually lift/peel, or there will be overspray or tape lines somewhere..... $1000 won't buy you concours paint. Just a nice front clip respray without blending.

You don't have to trust me. Find out for yourself.

I would just drive the darn thing, take the discount and not worry about rock chips. Life is short.

G

Thanks. I am going to take another look and take if for a test Saturday. My only issue is that I need to get rid of the BMW (don't need 5 cars:eek:) and I doubt they will offer anything competitive for the 5 series. Cosmetically, my 550i is a 9.5 out of 10 and its hard to go to a poorer condition car. That is the first thing my wife and kids will say and I will always be explaining.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1346956034.jpg

IF the dealership passes along that discount to the customer, then I totally agree. But that is a big IF that depends on the dealership. It also assumes that the dealership uses a quality shop for the wheel repair and touch-up, as opposed to the lowest bidder. Again, dealership dependent. I know that I have seen some paint touch up done on expensive vehicles that was worthy of my kindergartener (I had a high school job in a dealer detail shop), so some of my pessimism may be showing.

My comment regarding the wheel repair was simply a data point, the work that I had done was much more substantial than what is needed here but the price was still reasonable.

Wish it was that easy, just my OCD problem with cars.

I need a sedan, but I doubt your 550i meets my $15k price range.:)

For about ten grand more there's a "perfect" 2011 CTS-V sedan auto with Recaros and 7,200 miles just a few miles away from you. It's Thunder Gray with Titanium Leather/Alacantra.

I bet thats what the dealership will offer:(

The BMW dealer offered $21K. The KBB is around $30-33K for private sale, $28-29 trade in. Still has more then a year left on the CPO Warranty.

Interesting. I thought I was done with black cars for a while until this one came up. It only has 7200 miles? 2009?

No, 2011

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Note the NAV location :D







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The car sold. If I really liked it, I would of put something down on it .......but those rock chips:( I think I'm just going to sell my car first and be ready to pull the trigger.

Remember, if you sell your car to a private party then buy another car, you'll be paying 7% sales tax on the full purchase price.

If you trade it in (even if an in/out on paper) you'll only pay on the difference.

Since your car is worth ~$21K+, that's a $1500 impact.

Why get out of that car? It looks awfully nice. Are you ready for something else, or worried about it post-warranty?

If he can legitimately sell it for $30k vs $21k trade-in, I doubt the $1500 is of concern. Dealerships love to use the tax benefit as a selling point, but I'm yet to see the tax savings even equal the bath you take on value when you trade in. I've had that approach tried on me multiple times, the math never adds up. You trade for convenience, not because it makes good financial sense.