my first thought was PDR....

 

No way in hell there isn't a VIN on the deck lid. Every panel will have one. What the dealer has offered to do would probably work but it's very unscrupulous of them to swap serialized parts like that and I'm sure Acura corporate would come down on them hard if they found out they actually did it. In my experience a good PDR guy can be both a miracle worker and an artist. Take the extra money on your trade, you pick a PDR guy and they pay for it.

 

UPDATE: I got a call from the dealership, and as it turns out, they are not able to do the trunk swap due to the VIN #'s not matching afterwards. They fixed the dent (have not seen it yet), but I told them that I either want a new car or cancel the deal. They are now checking on when they can get another car. My concern about accepting the repair is that it is possible to have paint issues where the dent was repaired. Not something I want to worry about down the line.

 

Good for you - when you're paying that kind of money you don't need to justify your decision. You're paying for a new car - it should be pretty much perfect unless they're willing to come down a few grand off your negotiated price

Makes me wonder now how often a dealer dings a car then does the PDR thing and people who buy the car never know about it.

 

Thanks for your support!

 

Your car is only as good as the dealer who backs it. They most likely knew of the dent and did not disclose what happened.

Walk, No... RUN Away!

 

BookemDanole, do NOT accept the repair. If that is all they can do, walk away from the deal. Surely, you can find another TLX from another dealership.... or they can find you another identical vehicle. Sorry!

 

I've been with the same Acura dealer for last 15 years, the same GM dealer for 30 years before that, know my dealer management team personally and with that in mind, I would question why dent was not brought to attention of someone in authority (maybe yes, maybe no) then brought to your attention immediately for resolution, instead of you having to find it yourself. Odd place for your car to be dented and of course someone knew the dent was there.

My last Acura, (not the TLX) was dented on a door worse than your dent, two days after I took delivery even though I parked well away from everyone, some jerk found me. But my dealer repaired it at no charge within two hours and no tell tale signs, (lucky paint layer was not broken). Trust me, I'm picky on things like this.

You have to decide in your own mind if a repaired dent will bother you for as long as you own the car and I totally understand if it does. I seriously doubt back in the body shop if they will swap trunks, but instead opt to pop out the dent. BTW, a percentage of cars are delivered to dealers with minor dents and scratches mysteriously acquired during transit but are repaired during PDI and customer never knows. I've seen some real dent doozies repaired without a trace.

Personally, if I had this experience with a dealer, I would no longer trust them. But again, your decision.

Yes, Acura Corporate attempts many times to phone every new customer for new vehicle and dealer satisfaction follow up. Although these calls are made by call center customer service operators, your feedback is registered by corporate AND relayed back to dealer management. Also Corporate dictates that someone at the dealership is to follow up with you by phone after delivery and corporate customer service rep is supposed to ask you if dealership followed up with you. You will also receive a lengthy questionnaire from J D Powell about the car and dealership.

Make your own decisions but be totally honest about your dealer experience with corporate when they follow up with you. Wishing you the best!

3,000 miles and counting...TLX V6 Tech

 

I'm kind of late to this but I'll add my 2 cents. I've had PDR on my TSX and my wife's Civic. I think he removed 6 or 7 dents in total. One was a 2 part creased dent in the hood of my wife's Civic where someone backed into the car. The guy was good, worked on the dents for a few hours. He was almost obsessive, even after I could no longer see the dent he was not satisfied. I was very happy with the results. The key with PDR is to get a guy with a few years of experience. I was talking to the guy (we were there for a few hours) and he was telling me that it took him 6 months just to get a feel for where the tip of his tools were. I'd rather do PDR than have a body shop hammer the dent out, sand, fill, re-paint.

I think the dealership should have immediately owned up to the dent, told you what they would do to fix it (a good PDR guy would be my choice, but that location doesn't give any good leverage) and offer you some compensation. If they gave you free oil changes for life, or some accessory etc would that make you happy? All things considered it looks minor and repairable with no lasting effects. It will get dented again and you won't get anything for that but high blood pressure.

Back in 2000 I bought a brand new E46 coupe. Waited 3 months. It was a beautiful car. I took it in after 2 weeks for the dealer to program the keys. They washed the car, its first wash, and completely spiderweb-ed the hell out of the car. I was livid! But they fixed it with a polish and a sealant and I never had a problem with the car. I worried for a bit but got over it. I polished it up before I sold it and it looked like new.

I'm as obsessed with a new car as anyone, but it will age and get paint chips, scratches, grocery cart dents... it is unavoidable unfortunately.

 

If it was my car, i would agree to a PDR repair and some form of compensation - whether accessories or service and also to deal dirwectly with the GM to let him/her know hw this was mishandled. Like Rocket_man, I , too, am very anal about my cars and all the PDR work I have had done turned out just like new and 100% satisfied.

 

Same here. The dent isn't in a huge panel and when fixed, should not be noticeable. I'd make them give me all kinds of stuff for the hassle. It's always good to have the upper hand!

 

The sad part is I guarantee you this dealership will turn right around and sell the car to someone else and NOT disclose that it had a dent and was repaired at a shop. Especially if they were going to try and sell it to you with the dent and not disclose it. Pretty damn sad if you ask me. I agree with the others, run away from this dealership. Best of luck to you!

 

Trunks do have a VIN #. I found that out when my 3G TL was in an accident and they had to put some weird sticker instead of the one with the VIN #. I would not accept it without at least 1k off. If you have the purchase order with all the numbers, take that to the other dealership show them, and they will match it or beat it.

 

I am a finance manager for GMC/Chevrolet and noticed a car was delivering in 20 minutes and had a small dent in the trunk hatch. they brought it into the shop and had it repaired. Nothing was told to the customer. unfortunately its how dealerships work. while i disagree with it, nothing can be done

to see if it was repaired properly you need proper lighting. similar to the ones body shops use to check for hail damage

 

Actually, something can be done. Sorry to say but you are part of the problem, especially since you are a finance manager... Its called honesty. You didn't buy the car with your own money, so why not disclose it if you did everything by the book and offer an incentive to move the car.. If you were buying a car wouldn't you want to know shop work was done on the car before you shelled over 30,000 plus on the car? Even more so, I doubt the car came that way from the factory, so it either happened during delivery or on the lot which makes it even more so the dealerships responsibility to get it corrected and fully disclose it.

 

Again, while i disagree with it. I cant do anything about it.

In ontario's laws, anything under 3000 damage does NOT have to be disclosed. So if management doesnt want it disclosed, then it isnt disclosed. I prepare financing. The most i could do in my position is help the car get delivered in pristine condition without a dent which I try to do.

It's unfortunate but it's the reality of what dealerships do

 

It definitely happened during the installation of the splash guards or final wash and wax. My wife and I inspected the car real good before we signed the deal and we certainly would have caught that.

 

Wow, $3,000? A lot of damage can be fixed for $3,000. That's a little, I mean A LOT, disconcerting. Thanks for your insight.

 

I'd wager new cars get dented frequently, especially in international shipping, and then get repaired and sold as new. I remember reading about a Mercedes facility dedicated to bringing damaged new cars up to showroom condition, but I ran a web search and couldn't find anything about it, so who knows? Anyway, as long as it was fixed to perfection, it wouldn't bother me too much, but I'd want the dealer to toss in a little something nice for the hassle. I think it would have bugged me more years ago, but after living in downtown Philly for so long I've learned to live with a little "topography" on the body panels!

 

Sorry to hear about your issue.

Things you never want, especially upon delivery of a new car....
dealer installed swirls
dealer installed scratches
dealer installed dents
dealer installed dings

 

Omg - after all of the waiting.... I feel awful for you.... Tough call, I would tend to want a totally new untouched car with no traded out parts.... Damnnnnnnnnn

 

Even with the $500 accessories credit?

 

The original dealer that I was supposed to get the BWP from is getting it tomorrow, possibly the next day. I thought it was coming straight from the factory, but they told me tonight that it is a dealer trade. Can't wait to find out if they are trading it from the dealer that dented the car in the first place! But, they did tell me last week that it was coming this week, so probably not, but you never know. The dealer that dented my car might have said that they weren't getting it until this week, in order to give them a chance to try and sell me the car instead. Who knows.

 

I would go with PDR and insist that they give you some form of discount on the car for the trouble (money or likely accessories). A good PDR guy will fix that like it never happened. I'm still amazed how well my guy did on a hood issue I had with our Honda Pilot. He popped the dent out that I was living with for years prior in less than 1 hour. I had some PDR on my TL prior and this same guy did wonders fixing a dent my Wife caused by dropping a ladder on my car- that experience sold me on PDR.

 

I'm sure this happens frequently too. The vast majority of customers won't know or even notice it. In fact I bet cars get damaged at the factory. The process of moving them, loading them onto trucks, off again, even other shoppers putting scratches on them. No guarantee the car you are trading for hasn't had some minor touch up somewhere.

FYI... my wife's Mini has been at the BMW/Mini VDC since 2 Aug and will be there until 1 Oct when they get approval from the EPA to sell them. I've researched the facility where it is stored. There is a port in Brunswick GA that is used by several manufacturers shipping cars from overseas. One of several such ports in the US. Here is a google maps link. It is massive. Thousands of very expensive cars come through there each week. Certainly they get damaged and the VDC repairs them. I'm sure many BMW owners are happily driving cars that were repaired and are none the wiser.

BMW VDC

No one wants their car damaged before they sign the papers, but it happens and normally without any consequences.

 

^^ Wow, that is quite a facility. At first, I thought almost all of the cars were white, but then I realized that it is the protective white plastic on the tops of each car. lol

 

Have you ever seen that massive car lot located off of the Hardy Toll Road in north Houston? It's where they unload vehicles from the rail cars. Acres and acres of cars

 

It's Toyota's Gulf States Distribution center. Probably more than just Toyota.


Gulf States Toyota Vehicle Processing Center