Dent on new car purchase when picking up at dealer, what to do?
 

I went to dealer yesterday to put down payment for the new RDX 2021 purchase, then after all paper and insurance stuffs the sale showed me the car and I found there is a ugly deep dent right on the line on rear panel .
He said they will have PDR to remove it. but what if they cant get it 100% perfect ? from my experience deep dent on the line like that not likely to get 100% perfect from PDR .
Car is still at the dealer waiting for installing accessories and PDR.
Anyone with similar experience? feel free to share any suggestion what to do next ?

video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raA1...ature=youtu.be

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/acurazi...f8abc113b5.jpg

That might be difficult as it is right near a body line/crease.

Refuse to pick up. Demand a different car.

well, wait for the PDR.

PDR can do amazing things...if after the PDR treatment you still arent happy....then refuse to pick up.

More than enough grounds to refuse the car and demand your money back. That would be enough for me to keep shopping. :2cents:

I would be very disappointed to say the least. Some one knew about that ding and didnt care to do the right thing. I would ask for a new car. Lesson learned there...always inspect the car in proper lighting before signing any paperwork. Good luck

Always inspect a car during delivery is a good idea, but he has not taken car home yet, so he can refuse to take delivery.
if I was in this situation, I would be demanding either replacement or monetary compensation after they do PDR.

Yep, this. Fwiw it looks like there might be a chip in the paint on the crease too, which would be a deal-breaker for me.

Whatever you do, don’t drive that car home until you’re 100% satisfied! Another dealer would be happy to swoop in and give you the same deal/car, or maybe even slightly better since you’ve proven that you’re ready to buy today.

yea , they actually wanted me to take the car home last night and then come back next day or so for installing accessories , then i saw the ding :what:

He said he will have PDR to remove it and install all accessories for car ready to pick up Thursday.

I just sent an email to the sales this morning and i dont want any rush for a bad repair job, if the ding is still noticeable after PDR, i will ask for a perfect repair at least . a body shop repair ?

what i just wrote to him in email
"Just want to give you heads up no need to rush for Thursday, please take your time to have your team work on the car and make sure the ding is repair 100% perfectly, we will come to inspect it Saturday morning. Thank you "

I think it's fine to let them try PDR on it, but make sure you examine the area very closely afterwards and take your time. Look at it from all angles and with good lighting, making sure there are no waves or deformations. It looks like not only is the dent on a body crease, but it's a pretty defined dent. Like I think a shallow, broad dent is actually easier to get out, but this thing looks like someone hit it with a screwdriver. If they can't get it out with PDR, I'd just ask for another car, like everyone else said. Don't bother with the body shop repair at that point. You have to put your foot down, which can be difficult sometimes. You'll be happier with the new car.

Yea, I have used PDR several times and 50% of the time can still see the shadow after repairing . if that is the case, i would ask for another car then, i dont mind waiting and redo all the paperwork.

The important thing is not to let the guy rush you. If he puts you in front of the car and then acts impatient, don't budge. Bring multiple people with you and have everyone take a look. Remember, if you take the car, you can't return it. You might even tell the guy to leave while you examine it, so there's no pressure. My point is, don't let him make you feel like you have to take the car. That's what he wants.

Agreed, don’t let a body shop touch this. The paint never matches perfectly and you will have blown a half-inch imperfection to a whole-panel imperfection.

Fwiw, when I requested a cosmetically defective part to be replaced on my new car I jokingly apologized for being a pain in the ass. The salesperson totally understood and said that they’ve seen everything when it comes to eagle-eyed buyers, so don’t worry about being a thorn in their side. You should get what you’re paying for.

First and foremost you need to read through the "all paper and insurance stuffs" to see what you signed and what you are and aren't obligated to at this point. As others have said, you can refuse to pick up the vehicle but if you signed paperwork that says something to the effect of "you have x days to pickup the vehicle after you are notified of it being ready or you will forfeit you deposit" you may have limited options. I'm making some of this up but you get the idea - you need to understand your obligations under what you signed.

That aside, I would agree and let them do the PDR and see what you think. Are you OCD and this is going to nag at you regardless of the outcome? Is there some monetary compensation either before or after the PDR that would satisfy you? Do they have another of the same vehicle on site where it just comes down to redoing the paperwork?

We ordered an Odyssey back in 02 and when it came in someone at the Dealer parked it out back right against a fence post. It was against the post hard enough to deform the fiberglass bumper, but not crack any of the paint. They said they would order a new bumper and have it painted in the body shop, yada, yada, but I didn't want to deal with mismatched paint, etc... So I asked them what it was going to cost them to do this and they came back and said about $400. I told them I would take it as is if they knocked $600 off the deal, which they agreed to and we drove home that day. A few days later the bumper returned to original shape on it's own. I know what you are dealing with is metal, so not exactly the same but just wanted to share a somewhat similar experience.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Exactly.

For probably 95+% of the population, buying a brand new car (especially a car that is $40-50k+ like a new RDX) is the second most expensive thing they will ever purchase in their life.

I sure as hell would not feel bad about being a complete 'asshole' if I see something wrong with the product that you are spending a huge amount of money on.

Thumbs down for me
 

I've spent all my life parking way in the back of parking lots to avoid dents like this. There goes your original paint job. But then I live for my cars, it might not bother you if they fix it nice.

That's right , after all the suggestions i read, i dont want body work anymore, if it is not perfectly 100% fixed i will just tell the dealer that i will just wait for another car with no damage. no point to take damaged car when i am paying for a new car price :(

Good call! You might want to decide ahead of time about the minimum compensation you'd settle for in case the dealer really tries to pressure you out of replacing the car. For example, some owners park their cars on streets and will have dings after a year anyway, so if the dealer offered to throw in a free extended warranty or maintenance plan, that might be compelling. If you meticulously care for your car, then that kind of compensation might not be good enough.

Sucks to have this hiccup on your new car experience, but hopefully they'll make it right!

I am sure they may want to just give me some more discount or compensate me other ways, but i will insist to get a perfect no dent / damage car .

Keep in mind, it also depends on your own viewpoint on the issue. What I mean is that some people are very matter-of-fact about cars. My mom, for example, thinks that "a car is a car." So let's say they do the PDR and you can barely see a defect and you don't care. Then, as some people said, you could pretend to be all offended and see if you can get some cash rewards, as well. That could potentially be win-win for you. On the other hand, if you really do care about having a perfect new car, then don't take anything less.

EDIT: Yeah, basically what jmhumr said while I was writing.

I mean...I can see that if you're getting a base trim Corolla/Civic....for $14k....sure knock a few hundred off for a little dent or let the PDR try to fix...

But for a car that is at least $40,000 (accounting for taxes and whatnot...)...that to me is a LOT of money...people see it as just payments and we are numb to the total cost of a car...but if you were to spend $40,000+ on anything else...would you accept a clearly obvious and not insignificant issue/imperfection?

People get mad over stuff they buy and return from costco/walmart/best buy/etc....all the time...and its tens to few hundreds to few thousand dollars....I expect nothing less than as close to perfection as reasonable if I'm spending multiple tens of thousands of dollars on an item. It's approaching what the average US household makes in a YEAR....and to expect something that bad...no way for me

I agree with you. I just said that some people don't mind a small imperfection that much. Like when I got my car, there were some imperfections I missed. The biggest was that the barrels of my wheels (the inside round part) were scratched up, which I don't even know how that happens. It's not really the end of the world, even to me. And if I complained to most people about it, they would probably look at me weird. That's all I'm saying, it depends on your level of concern. I didn't say he should just accept it.

The only way to repair it perfectly so you could not tell by looking close is to repaint entire panel. This is unacceptable and should require replacement car or monetary compensation including repair.
He paid for new car, this is not acceptable. Period.

yea, i kind of know figured PDR cant get it perfectly fixed , i will just politely tell the sales i will wait for them to get me a replacement and redo paperworks . i dont mind waiting even it take a month + or so

Either replacement car or ask them to repair it AND give you discount which you think is appropriate to you.
If it was a lease, it would not matter, but for car thats been repainted you will take a hit when you try to sell it.

I will ask for replacement when i check out the car and still see that dent / damage, dealer can always lease out this one to customer who lease car and careless about dents
btw , repainting car leave bad record for resale value ? even though it's from dealer and not from me ?

i will refuse to pick it up and ask for replacement or price reduction by 1k-2k. dents and scratches are to avoid when you use it for long.

when panel is repainted, even if they do no report repair to carfax, there are devices that check paint thickness variation. When you sell car, part of checking, many dealers will scan body panels looking for any variation in paint. If they find it, they will have an excuse to low ball.

I've hear of TONS of stories where dealers don't report to carfax...despite knowingly causing body damage to a car in their possession.

A colleague said his car got dented up bad when it was in for some oil change service...and they offered to basically fix it up for free to like-new and he got a nice loaner while his car was being fixed...the only thing was the dealer didn't want to report it to carfax....

they probably wont report it, but it does not matter, when he sells it to different dealer, they will do paint thickness check. If they see variations, its a way
to low ball.

This will not be a problem for the dealer. Because the RDX comes pre-optioned it will be easy for them to get the same colour, same options from another dealer. Then fix that one and sell it to another costomer who will not notice the repair.

thats probably what they will do, or lease it, people that lease typically less anal about all the minor details. Dont you love dealers, when they need to sell, they hide the damage, when they buy they will be all over checking paint thickness trying to find prior damage to lower their bid.

Guess 1 will find out soon how this dealership looks after its customers!! I get mad just looking at that dent and its not my car,lol

I can already tell you a PDR cannot fix that and there's a paint scratch. Autobody can only fix that. Fix rear quarter panel and blend rear door. About $1400 for the repair bill.

I would not accept that car.

Yea, i figured that out . i will politely ask to wait for a replacement , they said they sent the car for dent repair yesterday. If that is repainted to fix, which is no longer original paint for a new car, i will just politely tell him i am waiting for a replacement car.

How to tell if the panel has been repainted without a paint thickness device ? just want to be prepared if they denied it has been repainted to fix

If its a good paint job, you will not be able to tell with your eyes. The concern if you want to sell this car later - the buying dealer will know.
I tell you this, I was trading in my 11 yr old RDX, and they still were testing paint....

If you ever hear people complaining about car accidents and how it diminishes car value even with perfect repair. Thats what you are looking at with paint job. When its time to trade in, they will not know the extent of damage your car had, they will
assume the worst and offer you corresponding trade in value. Depending how new your car at trade in, the diminished value could be in thousands of dollars (more when car is new).

Say if the car would look perfect on the body and paint after the dent repair, I will still ask them to use the paint thickness device to show me it's original paint when picking up the car then . if not , i will ask and wait for a replacement car

good luck with that, you need some independent place for that. You know that it will be downplayed and brushed off with “you have nothing to worry about”