Hi guys,

Not sure if there was a sub forum I can post this on, I will try to keep it brief. Last month I bought a CPO 2020 RDX, cars great so far. I noticed the small interior access panel on the interior lift gate was ever so slightly not flush and a slight crease after the detailing spray they used dried. I tried to push/snap into place but didn't take, after pulling the panel off I noticed the hole that the panel clips into was slightly cracked preventing the panel from snapping into place.

When I brought it to the dealership, they stated it was not on the inspection, but offered to swap the panel from a used vehicle going to auction, but I would have to pay for labor. Now, they are telling me that they cant just replace the interior panel and that I would have to replace the entire lift gate and order it to ensure the paint matches, which I would have to pay for.

I will likely end up trying to fix it myself, but I just wanted to confirm get a 2nd opinion on the following since this sounds a bit extreme for me.

1. Who should be responsible for repairing/replacing it?
2. Can a cracked panel prevent a car being labelled as CPO? and/or should the panel have been replaced before labelling it a CPO?
3. Is it common practice to replace parts on a CPO vehicle with parts from another vehicle? Or even offer as a solution?
4. Does the entire lift gate (interior and exterior) really need to be replaced, if replacing just the interior plastic panel?

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks
Chris

 

IMHO, the only real part about CPO is the warranty. The rest can be anything, as long as everything is fixed (or covered up) properly. To the sellers, the important thing is profit. CPO carries higher price, so as long as the ends meet, they can take a car with issues, fix it and label it as CPO.

Now to answer your questions, interior panel is wear and tear item, and most likely not covered by CPO. The response from the dealership is well crafted - they don't say no directly, but discourage you to pursue that route unless you are determined. The labor is probably 3~4 hours max, so you need to decide if that misaligned panel is worth that much.

The RDX tailgate is resin, and I believe it is not repairable. So if alignment of the gate looks all right, I think you don't need to worry too much about why the panel cracked and can focus on the interior panel only. For DIY, you can fill the crack with proper material and paint it. Or you can completely cut out the clipping tab and secure the small panel with anything that makes sense.

 

Edited my post because I realized I was wrong - that interior panel you mentioned is indeed glued together with the whole tailgate and not removable.

 

@sonyfever thanks for your response, I appreciate the insight. They already said they weren't covering it, I even reached out to corp to see what their take on the dealership is. As for the panel being glued, wow! It's not that serious that I'm going to waste the money on replacing the entire thing.