Okay, so there must be a black cloud over me and my 07 WDP TL.
First it was the paint issue, then a nice pic paint chip in the front bumper...now today...I come out of Walmart and I look at the driver side, side skirt thing below the door and there's a shadow. So I prayed that it was only some dust or dirt...NOPE, a dent in the side skirt. I'm not sure when it happened, I haven't noticed it until today. It wasn't done there, not shopping cart damage.
These are plastic right? So I'm wondering how this got dented. Could it be wrinkling of the plastic material, like my vinyl siding on my house did once.

Does anyone know what could cause this? I'll post pics tomorrow, I was too pissed today when I first saw it. The average person would not see it anyway.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

I have a set of white diamond pearl side skirts in my garage that you can have for a small price because they're almost useless to me.

...PM me if you're interested. Located in University Area of Charlotte.

 

Crissy, boxstock has a thread on here with a way (towards the end of it) to fix dents without repainting. Check it out and see if someone near you can do it!

Man, you are not gonna stop until you get in that NBP huh?

 

Don't shop at walmart.

 

Yeah, judging by these threads...TL and Walmart don't mix!

 

there are lots of us that are anal about parking as far away as possible, and/or in such a way that minimizes door dings.


Theres a pretty good reason for this

drop your passengers off and find a nice spot way out in bumblefuck the walk will do you good.

 

Can you please help me find this, I'm on my way out to work? Yeah, I think I'll take the car back and ask for a black one,maybe my luck will turn around. I just hope this is fixable!

 

yeah dude you need to park as far away from everyone else.....if you have no choice....be smart and park next to the nicest cars in the lot....thats what I do.....

 

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...q=glue+pulling - I think this is what Dark was referring to, but boxstock had his dent in metal, not the side skirt which is plastic....I dont even think you can repair plastic is its not ductile (please correct me if im wrong), unless you cut out the dented portion and insert a new piece of plastic and bondo in the gaps (kinda ugly in my opinion)....I would PM ACCURATEin...Side skirt replacement is very simple and takes 1 hour which includes a thorough pre wash and after wash. Best of luck!

 

I was the only one parked in that area, it was very early yesterday morning, and I went through the garden center to the toy department for my son, then right back out. I really don't think it happened there. I will take some pics at lunch today. You really can't see it, but I know it's there. I'm sure the person who inspects it before my lease end will not even see it, unless they really go over the car inch by inch. I'm just really picky and want everything to be perfect. I just need to get over it I suppose!

 

i feel your pain....

 

That menthod only works on metal not the plastic side skirts.

I also have my 06 skirts in the attic in perfect shape you can have if you wanted them for a small fee.

 

You better hope the WDP matches hers! I keed I keed

Take him up on his offer Crissy.

boxstock

 

Yeah, that was my other concern, the ones I have match great, my front bumper matches great, I just have paint issues on rear end! Another rant...why can the front and sides match and not the back, although the repaint was an improvement!

 

its WDP and its free..no complaint now sir

 

 

Well I know one of my panels came off another TL since one of mine was painted a different white. They replaced it with another TL's and it matches the rest of the car perfect. Go figure.

 

Hey Crissy,
I used to think people who park on two parking spaces are selfish and rude but I finally realized it is the only way you can keep your tl dent-free. Especially at wal-mart. Good luck!

 

^^^ yeah i.e. until some jack ass gets pissed off at you for you taking up 2 spaces and vandalizes your ride

 

I think you are going through what I went through. You bought a new car. You expect it to be perfect. You want to keep it perfect. But the car gods are against you. They place "imperfecta-car-ma" upon your car .

Like in my case: the first paint chip occured 2 days after bringing it home. At week 3 the Bumper was side swiped by a hit and run in a parking lot. On the way home from that, the windshield gets cracked by a "boulder" thrown up by another car 2 month after that I got called into work at 4a.m., still half - asleep I hit a curb in the parking lot and had to buy a new tire.

I fixed everything except the sideswipe. I buffed out the scuff marks as much as I could and decided to not replace the bumper to please the car gods and have them lift their curse. Seems to be working. I haven't had an issue for like 8 months .

So I guess the moral of the story is, if the dent/ding isn't that visible leave it alone. Or your just going to drive yourself crazy trying to keep you car "perfect".

 

Anyone. New car.... How the heck do you set the automatic position for the side mirrors? The dealerships set mine initially and I can adjust them manually...but they always return to the dealer position when the engine is turned off/on. Tks.

 

I'm pretty sure it's part of the memory seat function - the Mem1 Mem2 button on the door. Set everything the way you want it then set it in memory.

 

Tks. Tried Mem 1 and Mem 2. Works for the mem settings only...not for the "pre set" automatic adjustment upon entering the vehicle.

 

This helps me to feel better, thanks!! So if you see a blonde in a WDP TL...Dent in the side skirt and an almost perfect matching bumper,that's me! Don't forget to look for the big paint chip on the front bumper!!! This is another reason why I leased, in three years I can get another car and it will be brand new, until a rock flies up and hits it on the way home from the dealership!

 

^^ I assume this is just an innocent mistake. Otherwise: WTF? Start your own thread.


Crissy - the end of lease inspection is quite thorough. I had one in March 07 and in the same location as you.

However, don't worry. The size matters - under a certain size it doesn't count at all. And you have a very fair allowance for "normal" items like this. You should be fine wrt the lease inspection.

 

If it makes you feel any better my 07 TL-S got a nice big chip right below the fog light about when it was a month old whatever hit it would have destroyed the light if it would have hit that instead!

 

Did you have to pay any fees at your lease ending? Did you lease another car at the same location? Exactly what was the process for the inspection as far as time and exactly what they did? I plan to probably lease something else there, unless I'm just so attached to the WDP that I feel an urge to purchase it.

Thanks!

 

Crissy, Acura began to send me lease end "how to" mail ~ 6 months before the lease was up. With about 2 months to go I got a call from the Inspection Service that Acura outsources this to. The dealership had NOTHING to do with the process.

Ours was an '02 TL-S that we leased for 39 months, then extended twice for 12 months each (5 yrs, 3 mo total).

They set up an appointment and came to me. The guy had a Palm type device with a pretty comprehensive check list. The material Acura sent said to have my service records available, but he never asked for them.

He did a comprehensive visual inspection, took pictures of everything and used the "dent and scratch" template to evaluate various dings, etc.

He ran the engine, checked the mileage, checked tire tread, checked all lights, radio, etc. Just making sure everything worked. He did not drive the car.

Our car was well used but in good condition - no torn seats, dirty but untorn carpeting, 1 or 2 small dings/dents, a few paint chips on the front bumper, 1 fairly large scuff on the front bumper and 1 dent in the deck lid about an inch long but down to the metal.

That last dent was the only one that counted as more than "wear and tear" and the estimated repair cost was well under the $1500 allowance.

I got an instant printed report. IIRC, the report said the MOST I would have to pay was $270 for excessive wear and tear. Whole thing took ~45 minutes to an hour.

A couple weeks later I got a formal report from Acura and my amount due for damage was $0.00.

At this point we had not committed to dispostion of the car and Acura had no idea if we would buy it out or turn it in. The dealership was not involved AT ALL.

2 days before the lease expired, we decided to buy the car at the residual value. I went to the dealership, did the paperwork and that was that.

Then, just 2 weeks ago, I went to the same dealer and bought the WDP 07 TL-S. So now I've got 2 of 'em.


BTW - If you get a new lease later, DON'T go to Hendrick. On our original '02 term (39 months) Hendrick would have cost us ~$4,000 more; On our new '07 Hendrick's so called offer would have cost us more than $3,400 extra over the 36 month term. Go to Flow Acura in Winston-Salem - no hassle, no haggle and a good offer on the 1st try.

 

Thanks so much for the wealth of info Bearcat94, I now understand the process much better. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of deal did Flow give you on the 07?

 

I'll PM you.

 

NO! I wanna know too! LOL! Just kidding! Good looking out for Crissy tho! She gonna get that whole lease thing down one of these days! Hopefully before you get your next one Crissy! LOL! Just kidding sugar...NOT!

 

Okay, the first pic is my left sideskirt, no problem with this one, however this side has a larger gap between where the two sections meet

[IMG]IMG]http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u252/CDR1978/SideskirtLt.jpg[/IMG][/IMG]


Now here is the right side, the sections are pushed all the way together and this is what has created the dent looking place. You can't see the place in the picture.

[IMG][/IMG]


Should I mention this when I go in for my first oil change...I just wonder, Why the hell aren't they the same one each side? I wish I could have gotten a better pic of the right side so that you guys could see the place I'm talking about.

 

 

to the op- definately not putting you on blast for being picky about your car because I am too. However, if panel gaps bother you so much, why didn't you bring it up before taking delivery of the car? I'm pretty sure the gaps didn't expand after purchase---did they?

 

If you read her opening remarks, it said she doesn't know when it happened, but that she noticed it for the first time that day. So yeah, maybe it could have happened at the dealership (prior to delivery), but it also could have happened afterwards. I will say this though, a lot of Crissy's questions and problems are after the fact, and things she should have questioned or found out about PRIOR to leaving the dealership that fateful day. So I guess Crissy will more or less chalk up these experiences to the lessons learned category.

BTW, Crissy, when you go for that NBP...take your AZ list with you this time! Arm yourself so that it will be YOU giving someone on here pointers about their lease! Ya live and ya learn!

As for the gaps, whatever, just don't look down, if it's a dent...count it as $1500 problem #1 (unless you fix it of course).

 

"If you read her opening remarks, it said she doesn't know when it happened, but that she noticed it for the first time that day. So yeah, maybe it could have happened at the dealership (prior to delivery), but it also could have happened afterwards."

wait, now i'm confused. crissy originally was talking about a dent in one of her side skirts right?

later, she brought up the fact that there were differences in the panel gaps.

did i misunderstand something or are they two totally different things here?

if we're talking about two different things, the panel gaps should have been detected at the dealership prior to taking delivery.

 

No, she just brought up pictures kinda showing what she sees, and why she sees it. She thinks that may be the cause of it. My guess is that she is coming to this conclusion (grasping at straws) because she has no idea how the dent-looking thing happened. Because she is looking at the area now, she is wondering about the gap because it doesn't look the same on the other side. So however it got pushed together, is how she thinks she got the dent look. Get it now? I don't. But yeah, that is what she is doing. Hey, it gives our Crissy a hobby right?

But another note to Crissy: Stare at that car long enough, and you will see plenty of stuff you don't like. So wash it, drive it, and turn it back in when it's time for another one! I doubt very seriously that they are going to care about that shadow/dent/gap!

 

Yes, I should have inspected the car better. It's still amazing to me the lack of quality control that went in to a car in this price range.


Knowing the experience I have had with this dealer, they will probably offer to make it right. They have a wonderful rep as far as customer service goes.

Okay, I'll just drop the subject now!

 

ok, im not sure if this is possible or not, but could it be that somone tried to jack the side skirts? There are about 3 screws (and a whole bunch of clips) that hold the skirt to the car. The screws are located on either wheel well in the vicinity of the skirt. I would see if those screws are still there and if so, try to take them out to see if they come out straight and not cocked. Just a suggestion..... Yes, the QC should be much better (they dont allow this kind of thing in Japan, but evidently they let QC drop of few notches in the States..>goes for both toyota and honda; however, still far more superior than domestic QC)

Heres a link to the installation guid for the A Spec side skirt so you could understand better of what I was talking about ....


https://hondacuraworld.hostasaurus.c...derspoiler.pdf

 

The words of wisdom have been spoken - drive it, wash it and enjoy it.