Thanks everyone for your advice in this matter 🫡

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update: They took the car back & put me in the higher trim for the same price, nothing out of pocket

if body work will pass inspection (I assume it would since you purchased it) and you otherwise happy with the car, just milk them and improve your TCO.

That’s the nice part of leases - no diminishing values.

Not sure how Lemon Law works in your state, but in CA, replacement is an option if you swapped cars now and that turns out to be a Lemon (for concerns about losing $7500 EV incentive for future car).

I don’t know NJ law, but a lemon case usually applies to manufacturing defects. An issue caused by a collision repair is not a defect, so Toyota is under no obligation to buy it back. Any case is you versus the dealer, which is what is happening now. Now if this is covered by a lemon case, then you can most likely do a collateral swap, where they just switch the VIN on the contract. Everything else remains the same.

If the dealer is letting you out of the car now, that is the route I would go. A lemon case will take months and is no gaurantee. You can also ask them for an alignment and compensation.

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You have all the leverage. ENJOY!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

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If the dealer can make sure everything is now installed correctly, I’d just take the monthly payments but counter their offer (have them add another month or two?)

Since it’s a lease I wouldn’t sweat the body work too much if it’s just cosmetic since they are giving you a deal to compensate. If you purchased that would be a different story.

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You’re making the problem bigger than it needs to be. Focus on this lease — after all you leased a depreciation anchor from Honda built by GM, if you had any illusions of buying it out (or that it would keep you out of Honda service for 2-3 years).

If you are leasing and returning this Prologue, and you have the one that checks all your boxes - have them put you in a loaner and fix it and figure out a comp at the end. It’s goodwill on a non-warranty repair, treat it like a ex Service Loaner and get the lowest TCO.

If this is going to bother you because it will never be right (it won’t but the repair has no impact on that) then ask them to locate a car you can live with and have them swap it. Don’t expect a penny of comp if you do, but get a new one if that’s all that will make you happy (the new one will have its own issues).

Grab a pry bar and good luck.

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I don’t see a big dilemma. Do you want a car with previous damage with a color you love or a car without damage with an ugly color and $1000 on top?

Since it’s a lease, I would take the $$$ and keep the car.

But if you don’t want to do that, you can ask the dealer to DX (dealer exchange) one of their inventory units with another dealer that has a color that you would accept.

But if you can get Toyota to buy back the Honda dealer’s Prologue, I would be really impressed. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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Knowing the above already, the bigger question aside from the color, return, swap it out, TCO, etc: what made you want to lease a Prologue to begin with?

Rolled in some crazy negative (2022 Tesla victim) and still lowered my payment by hundreds! Not to mention better range and features

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