I got mine (EX 6MT) brand new less than a month ago at Honda of Seattle. It wasn't very clean like they did absolutely no detailing, lots of dust/smears inside and out, but I can deal with that. What's absolutely killing me is that it's scratched EVERYWHERE. It looks like they wiped the inside down in a huge hurry with some shitty rag that scratched the left side of the radio pretty bad (you can't miss it any time there's sun on it). On the body, I've counted at least 5 1-inch scratches that go clean through the black paint revealing the white/metal color underneath. There are a couple big scratches on the door behind the driver's outside door handle like a lady at the lot was wearing a gigantic ring and carelessly reached for the handle a few times. And the pain job is utterly wrecked with swirls from front to back, like it was washed carelessly with the world's scratchiest shittiest dollar store rag.

This is my first new car ever, so I don't know what to expect. But I expected a flawless gem, so I'm incredibly disappointed. Is this normal? I've been hesitant to complain because it's heavily financed and I'm fortunate to even have it, but do I have any recourse? What about complaining to the dealer? Can I do that? If I do complain to the dealer and they refuse to fix every single scratch and return it to flawless condition, do they have that right? What then?

 

not normal, hopefully u didn't just notice this, and spoke to your dealer asap.

 

Well that's sort of the point of my post. I'm curious, what can I do now? What are my rights if the dealer isn't willing to make it flawless like I imagined a new car should look? Should a buyer even expect or have any right to a flawless paint job and interior?

I did complain about 2 days after I bought it and they said bring it in and they'd look at it and "buff it out", but that was a few weeks ago. They laughed and said don't bring it in a month or more later, and it's getting real close to that time now. But I don't think you can buff the radio or the scratches behind the door handle. Is that what they're supposed to do? Just scratch it all to hell and then polish it minimally to get me to go away?

The guy on the phone said black cars look like that brand new. He said, "you can see every imperfection and minor scratches". But this isn't a factory imperfection in my opinion, it's caused by someone washing it with a rag that should never be used on cars. Nor is it minor. Nor are the scratches just swirls from washing, as there are 1-inch deep scratches and a few long ones behind the door handle as mentioned. Will Honda Corporation do anything if I complain? I've never been in this situation before so I'm faced with a lot of questions.

 

there is a Honda customer service guy here on the forum somewhere. he doesn't post as much anymore that the GKs have been out for a while now. His name is HondaCustSvc.

 

In the condition that it was in you should have refused to accept delivery of the car at the dealership. That's when you have the most clout. Once you accept delivery there's no incentive for them to do anything about a "cosmetic" issue unless they're really strong on customer service (ha! ha!).

Now you're facing an uphill battle because you're going to chase the dealership on this issue and since bad prep work isn't something Honda itself is responsible for or going to cover, the dealership is going to have to eat any cost which gives them a lot of incentive to put you off and hope you fade away. "They laughed and said don't bring it in a month or more later ..." is just part of their stall tactics. You need to be more persistent, push the issue, and stop letting them off the hook.

 

What I meant is, they said bring it in to get it buffed, but don't bring it in after a month or more because then they might as well just assume I caused the scratches. Ya, it was a poor decision of me to accept the vehicle, but it was also dark at the end of the day (it's always fucking dark here, I hate washington) and I only noticed one scratch in the dealership and expected them to fix it when I complained a different day when they'd have more time and not be stressing that I'm keeping them there late.

Probably the same story as a billion other people, I didn't want to stress the dealership because it was late and I felt fortunate to even be getting the vehicle with the financing I received. Thought they'd do something about it (maybe they will, but not what I'm wanting, I haven't heard anyone say it's normal for them to bring the interior and exterior to flawless condition if it was imperfect upon deliver). Now I'm kicking myself.

Thank you government, for "protecting" me from buying direct from the manufacturer. Not.

 

Now-a-days you really have to be a total asshole and verbally harangue a company to get any kind of results. The longer you wait the harder its gonna be to get them to do anything. If you show up in person and speak loudly while other customers are in ear shot you'll get what you want. It's ridiculous but companys are shit.

I also have a black 2015 as well and like you 'accepted' the car at the end of the day after 5-6 hours at the dealership. It was dusk and I looked over the exterior of the car as best I could, but that weekend I went to wash the car. I started to notice long white scratches all over the body. Maybe 7 or 8 of them. I used Meguiar's ScratchX 2.0 and got most of them. I know its going to cost you but if you can't strip the wax and do a polish and re wax yourself you might go get it detailed. I wouldn't trust the dealership's 15 year old nephew or who ever messed up your car w/ it again.

Even now I find these white scratch marks since getting it back in Nov. I also have those marks behind the door handles where it looked like tape was applied and it left a little line of adhesive. But after a bit of TLC on my part the black really looks amazing. As for the interior of your car, I'm sorry...idk can't you return the car w/ in a month? Go in there and cause a total shit fit to get the radio replaced? Not sure what you can do there.

 

Agreed you should have taken it back immediately. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to get help from them.