It's really lousy that you have to go through this. After all, you bought a certified car and this shouldn't have happened. It doesn't surprise me. I'm in my 60s and have dealt with many dealerships. Not all, but I think the majority of dealerships are crooks.

I hope this all works out for you guy. My guess is someone at the dealership did this and the body shop screwed up the repair.

Let us know how this all works out in the end.

Me personally, I would give it a lot more than a few days before I clay barred it or wax it. Get it washed by using one of those self-service car wash where you just spray it with soap and then rinse it off. Nothing touches the car. I'd wait a few months to do the clay and wax. But that's me.

Good luck guy

 

Glad the dealer finally came around on this issue nothing like getting a new car and having an immediate issue that takes away from the new ownership experience.

Good luck.

 

wow, that's crazy. but i bet that dealer never thought people would remove the pinstripes on the car.

some of these dealers are ran by old folks who still think pinstripes are cool. lol maybe on an old domestic. not this day and age. glad to hear your dealer is going to fix the problem.

 

Please do not put so much faith in carfax. All the carfax report shows is what has been reported to them. I had a 2001 Mitsubishi that was involved in a very serious rear-end collision (other driver hit me while I was stopped at a red light, she was going about 40mph). The whole back end of my car was crushed, but since the car had low miles and wasn't that old it wasn't totaled (damage was about $500 short from being totaled). I decided to keep the insurance money and not repair the car and sold it as is. Many years later I checked the VIN and the car had since been resold and had a spotless carfax report.

 

im with lane.

i know for a fact a corolla i bought used for the wife (biggest mistake of my life, i hate corollas) got hit in a parking lot by some woman backing out. over $5.5K in damage. repaired in 3wks, sold the car the day i got it back from the bodyshop to buy another car new.

obviously, the accident had not surfaced on carfax and that was the plan. got an excellent trade-in (not sure why cause i hate toyota's in general) and was a good way to rid the car that i hated, and got the car i wanted.

car even smelled like new paint. dealer didn't care. the repair looked flawless and knew it would sell fast (and it did lol).

dealers will repair minor transportation damage without disclosing it. the car is considered accident free and new. this is why the BUYER needs to take a close look at the car even if it is new.

 

Thanks for all the well wishes and support. It's nice to have advice and people who may have more experience than I, provide much needed confidence on this issue.

I am humbled


Totally agree.

I didn't put all my faith into CarFax . I checked AutoCheck/VinCheck (there were other free VIN checks I ran as well) verified through the Lemon and Crime Databases. I used quite a bit of resources. I think if I do my due-diligence as a consumer - I shouldn't be surprised by issues such as this.

By the way, I am going to wash/wax the car on Sunday prior to taking the car down to get that panel fixed up. I won't have time to clay bar it, nor will I have the materials yet. So looks like I need to just do that, clean the car and live with a solid 2-3 month wax while the paint cures. That way I have some more protection than the thin wax they used on the car when certifying it. The wax I apply on Sunday will be just wearing off come time for a clay bar and full wax/detail when the panel is dry and cured.

 

Garbage in, garbage out. Nothing in, nothing out as with any database. Just me...

 

So taking the car in today. Will find out how long it will be before I get my car back. Not looking forward to a long drive either.

Car cleans up real nice though with a fresh coat of wax

 

GL with the repairs and keep us posted!

 

Spoke to the General Manager yesterday. I told him I spoke to the original owner and don't think the owner traded in the car with body work damage. He admitted his dealership probably fixed it based on someone damaging the panel in transit or something. He made mention that if the repair is small, he will still sell the car. If there are bigger issues, he will auction them off.

He was a lot more friendly than the other manager's I worked with. He called me today to update and tell me they are sanding the panel completely to make sure the paint is blended right. I should get another call tomorrow on the status. He said the latest it would be is Thursday. I'm hoping for tomorrow. We'll see just how well the paint looks when I see it.

 

Good for you! Sounds promising. Glad things are working out... hopefully...

 

So the panel is now fixed. There's a small bit of overspray under the panel, but nothing horrid. The panel is flush and blends nicely with the rest of the car.

There was small overspray on my plastic grill under the windshield, next to the panel, but I called the body shop and brought it to them. They told me, "We'll fix that" and did so. They also admitted to me that, "They didn't expect anyone to peel the pinstriping off."

Well, buddy. If you did it right, we wouldn't be here. Now you had to use even more paint and time to do it right the second time in.

So I'm happy it's done and it looks good. I'll have pictures later.

 

Glad it all worked out. But this is pretty shady practice of them. Non-disclosure issue for sure specially being Certified.

 

Well the paint is pretty quality so I am not worried the panel would be painted shoddy. I am confident it won't chip away on me..it looks like it came out of the factory. I am just not going to rub any compound on it until I let it sit for some time in the sun over the next few weeks for curing. Good thing I washed/waxed and detailed the car before taking it in.

However, I agree. It's pretty crappy that they were that lazy to begin with.

 

Glad it worked out. It is even worse when a person admits that they knowingly did not do a job correct the first time. Seems no one takes pride in what they do now a days.

Good luck.

 

Glad they fixed it to your satisfaction

It is very lazy of them to not take the pinstriping off before they painted the panel. Do it right, do it once, hopefully they learned a lesson.

 

From now on. If you're buying a pinstriped car, you know what to look for. Congrats OP

 

sounds great everything turned out well.

 

So glad this was taken care of

 

They fixed it but that dealer still sucks...