I bought a Lexus certified pre-owned car and found this when checking the OBD port. I am afraid of buying a flood damaged car. But it is L-certified for sure. I am confused. It is 2018 model with 52000 miles.
Was the certification backed by Lexus? How long ago did you buy it? Flood damage is the first thing I thought of when I saw the photo. If it’s factory certified, I’d take it back to the dealer and confront them with the evidence. It seems to me that they should take it back and replace it with a different car or refund your money, including all expenses associated with the sale. If you run into trouble, contact Lexus corporate directly and complain. If you take a different car from them, have an independent mechanic inspect the car before you accept it. Despite it being a CPO, used cars should always have a prepurchase inspection.
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+1 to all of this. I also thought of flood damage when I saw the picture. It looks like someone at the dealership wasn’t too thorough with the CPO inspection
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To me it looks completely normal except for one thing… There should be a trim panel that covers all that stuff so you can’t see the rust.
Everything you see is 4 year old, bare, unpainted, steel. There isn’t much rust considering that fact. I would expect Lexus to cover that up to reduce noise and make it look pretty so there would no no need to protect any of that steel.
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OP doesn’t say location, rust on bare steel could be just from high humidity.
Rug looks original and un-flooded.
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That’s normal.
The rust occurs from wet shoes/boots.
Tester
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Look under the seats
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Air contains moisture. When air meets unpainted steel, rust forms. More wet feet, more moisture in the air. Drive on be happy.
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Thank you so much for your answer. It is definitely certification backed by Lexus with all L-certified warranties. I just bought it for three days. There is also some rust under the seat. What else I can do to trace for the evidence of flooded car?
Looking for stains, like inside the door panel, the next question would be where the car came from, to guess if it was salt water or not.
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Only had it for 3days ? Then if where ever you are located check if you have a certain time to return the vehicle . I think you will never be at ease with ownership of this thing .
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That sounds like a short-term rental, rather than a purchase.
Did you mean that you bought it just three days ago?
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Yes, I bought it three days ago 
If you do keep it I would ask the dealer to put in the trim panel that mustangman mentioned, if it is missing
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Just like a bathtub, flood waters leave a ring. Yeah inside door panels, under the dash, underneath, inside fender panels. I have a hard time thing a dealer would pick up a flood damaged car though that the insurance company would have totaled out. Maybe so, I don’t know but if you don’t trust the people you bought it from . . . Why? People that expect perfection though usually buy brand new instead of used.
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There is always the possibility of a washed (no pun intended) title and which is not that rare.
Some states are said to have as many as 1 in 40 or 50 titles washed. Several decades ago (OH I think) a major insurance company was fined a ton for participating in it.
I have to wonder why a certified Lexus has a missing knee panel unless the OP removed it while doing this checking.
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Pull back the carpet in the foot wells and see if there is rust or mud. You can probably do that without tools. You can also take the sill plates off and pull the carpet back more fully. I think you’ll need a screwdriver for that. If it was flooded, there might be rust or debris inside any compartments in the back of your SUV. This would be in the floor and side walls.
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