One week ago, I picked up a Certified Pre-owned 2013 Silver Fit Base.

Today, I went to go get it tinted. While there, I asked the tint guy to use his heat gun on my pin striping. He said, "No problem!" and started getting it removed. As he removed one side, he noticed an issue. Where the pin striping was, there was now a very noticeable "cut" in the clear coat. Most likely someone repaired damage on this panel, didn't remove it and used the pin striping as a painter's tape line.

This is the only panel (Edit: the driver side is the same, at least from what it looks like under pinstripe), that has this issue. I did not take off the driver side striping so I can show the dealer that I didn't do it.

Here's a few pics. This is one the passenger side. The driver side is just fine.

Passenger Side Pic 1


Pic 2, you can see it goes to the headlight


Pic 3, driver side no signs of a "line"


Pic 4, easily see the difference in paint on this wheel panel


Pic 5, a little of a weird angle but still see it


I called the dealership, but I think the manager went home for the day so I will try again tomorrow. What would you guys do? The drive to the dealership is about 1 hr. There is another Honda dealer nearby, but I didn't buy it from them.

I was thinking on the following:

Go in, ask them to fix it. Ask them to detail the car and *WAX* it this time. Maybe have them compensate for gas. Last time they "detailed", they didn't wax it. Anything else?

 

yikes. take it back.

 

Take it back as in, return the vehicle altogether?

 

I do see a line in pic 3. If I were in your shoes I would ask if they installed the stripe. If yes then return the whole thing all together, if no, then work with the dealer to figure out a feasible solution.

 

I would speak to someone senior at the dealership, they are supposed to inspect for things like this as part of the Certified program

If you don't get anywhere with them complain to Honda customer service and they should be able to get the dealer to do something about it

 

Hm, you see a line under the black stripe on pic 3? I love this car already... it would pain me to let it go. But if I can get something of value to compensate... I really don't want to have a crap paint job.

I wonder if this violates the certified used car agreement? I signed a paper that says they went over the car with a fine tooth comb and found nothing wrong. So I would assume by "hiding" this, this would invalidate that.

 

Yeah, as a CPO car i'd take that up with the dealership. You may have to escalate to Honda Corporate, so be prepared to do that.

I had a CPO Element that had a small paint issue and the dealership wouldn't budge. It didn't bother me enough to complain to Corporate but then again it wasn't as noticeable as your problem.

I came in here expecting a small paint mismatch due to sun, but not an actual layer of paint

 

Does this even qualify the car for Certification? I signed paperwork saying the car was in tip top shape, not to have a pin stripe hide a repaint or possible accident. I mean the paint job is high quality, no overspray or moved panels. Which to me indicates it was done by the Dealership and the damage was most likely minor. I kept all paperwork so I will do some reading.

Though at this point, what do I know.

My plan is as follows:

Read my paperwork, more specifically the paperwork that said, "We certify this car to be free of defects, etc." (Edit: It says "Unibody Inspection" with a checkmark next to "Carefully inspect unibody for signs of damage or prior repairs" and has a checkmark under Meets Honda Standards. Ineligible for certification is not checkmarked. So looks like I am good. Appearance inspection states similar for all body pieces etc are good).

Call Honda. Verify the car is certified (last time I called, the day after I bought the car, they said they had no record but referred me to the Dealership for any paperwork). Dealership provided me paperwork, so I need to re-verify this with Honda to make sure their computers are up to date.

Call the Tint Shop. Ask if he is willing to state that he uncovered the issue and provides proof that the paint was re-done and a pin stripe was added to cover it. He seemed really cool, so I don't think this will be a problem.

Call dealer. See what offer they make to fix my issues.

I am attached to the car, but I will make double sure that everything is provided in writing and compensated for...especially my time and energy on this. This whole thing stresses me a little (not much, but I'd be lying if it didn't).

 

Is it just me or does the paint look two tone? Maybe it is the lighting in the picture from the side it even looks like the clear vinyl protection people install. I would take it back even though you inspected the car this was a hidden item that would not be picked up .

 

Here's a picture of the Driver side same location, opposite side of vehicle. The White Balance is a little wonky, but you should be able to see the shade is different on the driver side (aka no two-tone). But, if I remove that pinstripe, will there be the same thing? I am not sure. I'm keeping one side with the stripe on to show the dealer the difference.

 

Looks to me like you are correct. That lower portion is a slightly different color than the top portion. Looks like that whole lower section was re-painted for some reason and divided with the pin stripe. If you look closely at the photo number three of the pinstripe I can see the line under the pin stripe.

 

It looks to me like the dealership was trying to purposely hide a defect with the pin-striping. When you picked up the car you couldn't see the defect because they purposely hid it.

I think they should take it back and give you a new car but that will never happen. If it were me, I'd be really pissed off. It doesn't surprise me many dealerships are nothing less than crooks.

Either give you a whole new paint job or put the pin-striping back. They suck purposely hiding a big flaw.

 

So I took a picture of the Driver side panel and it is the same issue.

I really, really do not want the pin-striping back. I am going to call Honda this morning to verify CPO status then call the dealership again. I'll keep the thread updated with progress. I took a pic today in the sun, of the driver side, and there is a line under that stripe too. I forgot my transfer cable to upload the pic, but it is really visible in direct light.

 

I'm guessing the the guy who put the stripes on damaged it. I can't imagine how else that could occur. For ownership of one week of a "certified pre-owned" vehicle, with "hidden damage" they should take it back, refund your money. Ask to speak to the dealer manager. The used car manager is probably an ex-con.

edit: loudbang and the rest are right. This is a crazy respray to cover who knows what kind of damage to the lower body. This is piss-poor paint work to cover up who knows what crappy body work. Get your money back. Certified programs should not be selling damaged/repaired cars.

 

Do you have a CarFax on the vehicle? Just to see if there was any accident history.

 

Yes I have the CarFax and all associated paperwork saying no accident history.

Edit: Honda says they have the car as Certified in their system.

 

Called the dealership. Spoke to what I think is a senior manager. Got his name. He said, "I ran a VIN Check and Carfax, and there is no damage. Honda wouldn't allow us to sell a car with damage."

I said, "Alright...." as in, that's no real good answer. He suggested I bring it by, I am driving an hour to this place.

Those pinstripes are added by the dealerships. And they look like Dealer pinstripes to me. So I am going to point that out to him.

 

It's definitely a respray to everything below the belt-line. Why they would have needed to do this is a mystery. Could have been as simple as someone keying the car.

Dealers will do extensive repairs that are not reported on any insurance or police reports, so carfax has no record.

Even if they were repairing scratches in the paint, it's less desirable than a factory finish for the reasons we can see plus the durability of the new paint.

They should be knocking thousands off the price of the car and doing a proper repaint, or just give you your money back.

 

I would think if the dealer did the repair they would of replaced the entire front fender or repaired back to original shape, since most dealers have on site body shops or subcontract with a local body shop. I would think more that the previous owner took the cheap way out. Funny it is just the front fender and does not continue down the length of the car.

 

Didnt even notice the different in paint quality below that line. Ditch that car if you know what's good my friend.