so i think my cpo'd car was in an accident. here's my dilema:

passenger side rear bumper right behind the rear right wheel has about 2"x2" patch where the clear coat is literally peeling. i took my car to a body shop to confirm and they said its for sure clear coat that's peeling.

i called pflueger acura service and they said they can't cover it under factory warranty since their painted bumpers from the factory has enough flex so that the paint won't even crack. peeling is most likely due to an accident and shoddy paint job. carfax btw showed it was a clean car.

they said to try call the sales manager and deal with them. i left a message with the sales manager (TJ) but have yet to receive a call back.

what should i ask for as a remedy?

 

I have that on my rear bumper too. I noticed when the high-pressure sprayer was making more peel off. Its just the finish though and not the paint. I'm not too worried about it.

 

no clear coat = no protection.

you may be ok with it but i'm not. there is NO excuse for it to peel. since my car is CPO'd, and part of their 150 point inspection is paint, the dealer owes me something. i've left 2 calls so far for the sales manager Todd Jones of pflueger acura. still no call.

 

3 calls to Todd Jones of Pflueger Acura and STILL NO CALL BACK. my patience is growing thin

 

It could have had some damage, possibly from a small accident or something else, and the owner had the bumper repainted or replaced without going through insurance. I did this once. Since no police or insurance were involved, it wouldn't show up on a Carfax report. If that is the case, the dealer would not know about it. However, they should at least investigate the matter for you by taking a look at area in question.

 

I had this same incident as well on my TSX back in 2005 I think; front bumper, driver's side. After taking it to Acura they said that sometimes the cars do get involved in minor accidents while in transport or in storage yards, so Acura fixes them, but it should be on record with the car. Now either they are trying to hide it or they honestly don't have any record of it in which case you need to get approval from their Regional Service Manager to have any work done. They didn't find it with mine, so I'm not sure if it was a paint defect or what, but mine was covered under warranty.

 

thanks for the replies.

well, still no call. i fully understand that a CPO vehicle is not "new". i also know that minor cosmetic damage causing accidents aren't reported on carfax. but as a dealership, if you are going to CPO the car, that's a guarantee of quality. paint "inspection" IS part of their 150 point inspection list. we are having our version of winter with lots of rain. the peeling is pretty noticable. you can't miss it.

i've been screwed by the sales guys before (did i mention they hid the acura theft coverage into the sales price? it was $500! guess how much they would not budge on? yep. $500). you can read of my adventures here: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...566&highlight=

i'm going to call one more time. if i get no reponse, next call will be to corporate.

 

If the dealership is not too far try walking in and speaking to someone/showing them the problem. Phone calls are easy to not return but face-to-face is different.

 

Update: looks like the fourth time was the charm. somehow someway my call was directly answered by TJ this afternoon. I went down to the dealer within an hour of talking to him. overall, he was a nice guy and he works fast. one look at the bumper and it was obvious something is very wrong with the paint. he also noticed the orange peel on the bumper.

while i waited for about 10 minutes, he came back with an appointment for me to come back next week. he's gonna' give me a loaner and have a sub-contractor body shop paint the entire rear bumper. this is a non-warranty job and looks like the dealership is gonna' bite the bullet on this one. TJ said there was no paperwork of any kind on file to show if the dealership or previous owner did any work to the car. so now, there will a paper trail proving there was work down on the paint and they'll deal with any future problems should they arise. i'll give an update on how the car looks after i get it back.

btw, for all you people looking at CPO'd vehicles, the paint inspection has a range or tolerance. if it looks ok visually, they will just pass it. that's it.

 

Update: got my car back and i must admit i'm satisfied with the results. the paint is clean, no swirls, no scratches, no rough spots, and orange peel is nearly non-existent. they gave me a 09' TL w/tech package and i just say, it was a huge disappointment... but that's for a different thread.

bottom line, be courteous but firm, sincere but not gullible, and be persistent but not irritating. things have a way of working themselves out.

now, if they'll only fix the damn leather in the driver's seat, i'd be SO happy...

 

I actually have a small spot 2x2 inches on my front bumper which is clearly the clearcoat peeling away. havok, what did you say to convince them that this should be covered under warranty? My car is a CPO '06 that I bought in 08.

 

^ When did the car initially go into service and how many miles are on it? It might still be under the original bumper to bumper warranty. If not, you have another year of CPO warranty as well, so you should be able to get this fixed no charge either way (unless you exceeded the mileage on the warranty).

 

original warranty began 11/06, but I do have my CPO warranty until 11/2011. However, I can just envision my dealership claiming it's rock damage and not covered. It's clear that the clearcoat is peeling on two distinct spots. Can I take this to acuracare if they don't honor a repaint? Also, does it need to be completely repainted? Or can they just paint a new clear coat on the bumper?

 

To do it the right way, it's a full repaint. You can't paint sections without some kind of transition, and you certainly can't paint just the clear without a very noticeable transition. The clear coat is actually part of your car's paint job. It's not the same color without it.

 

would this have something to do with the car being in Hawaii? I spent 2 weeks on the Big Island this summer and noticed so many newer Honda/Mazda/Nissan's with fading paint & headlights as well as the clear coat flaking off.. I just thought it was kind of odd. Maybe due to the UV rays or something? Just curious.

 

still haven't had my small patch of front bumper clear coat flaking taken care of by the dealership. Has anyone else had experiences with this?

 

My 08 tl-s is doing the same thing on the rear bumber and right on the lip by the bottom of the trunk. It was originally a Baton Rouge car. However it has only 30K miles on it. Will this be covered under Acura's B2B warranty?