Took my brand new G in for the first time to local dealership(not same Infiniti dealership I purchased from) to have a couple things checked including the paint on quarter panel. Guess what they tell me it looks like the quarter panel has been re-painted!! Can you believe that S!@#t??? Need advice as to what I should do. Few options I have thought of.
1) Honestly would rather have new same packaged vehicle minus Re-Paint!!!!
2) Replace quarter panel with another factory piece from another coupe
3) Give back the vehicle(Not really sure if this is an option, but I am kind of pissed right now!!)

 

My advice would be consult an attorney. If you were sold a car as new that had been damaged and repaired, I think you probably have a case.

2004.5 TB/Willow 6MT Coupe
Aluminum Pedals
BEL RX75 Pro Plus
K&N Hi-Flow

 

Call the Infiniti of North America Headquarters. They are remarkably helpful.

 

You need to find out if your car was damaged in transit. If so, ICA will have record of it... and Nissan or Infiniti service can pull up a complete history of the car. On that sheet, it will list anything that happened in transit.

If it happened at the dealer (more likely), it will not be on this sheet and ICA wont be responsible. In that case, sick the lawyer on the dealer.

 

Alright I've always wondered about my new 2004 IPcoupe that I got 2 weeks ago.

I noticed that the back bumper does not really connect very flushly with the metal part of the car..like the lines of the back side area aren't matched up perfectly. And sometimes the paint seems a bit off. Does anyone else notice this on their car?

My car had 35 miles when I got it. Not too much but definitely not little either. Probably taken out for a crazy *** spin a few times. (WHAT ABOUT MY BREAK IN??? Sh*t)
Maybe someone accidently bumped it in the lot. I think it happens every now and then.

How did you even suspect a repaint? How do you approach a dealer to have them check things out? I'm sure it will be in their interest to lie.

 

I would suggest taking the vehicle to a reputable body shop to check out the paint/fit,finish. Or maybe even another infiniti dealership besides one you purchased from might be helpful. Also I have heard that it is common in transit for them to re-paint the bumpers, due to basically stupidity of drivers taking vehicles on and off trucks etc. Might actually be a good thing because with all the complaints about easy chipping the aftermarket paint job will withstand better than supposed original paint that many G owners have complained about. Hopefully in your case it is not to noticeable with the IP color. I would imagine though that the dealership should be able to adjust the bumper if it truly needs adjusted. Just my 2 cents.

 

I've been told that is it is customary (and more important to this situation) perfectly legal for new car dealers to sell new cars with a certain amount of repaired body damage... as long as the amount of damage is less than a certain percentage of the MSRP. I have a neighbor that worked for Mercedes for about 5 years. He was their equivalent of “Dent Wizard” and also did small touch up jobs, window tint, etc…There is a huge grey area here, as the dealership's body shop can waive all reasonable and customary fees regarding the price of their repairs and this directly affects the percentage of MSRP mentioned above. A perfectly good example is the rear bumper and rear side panel. The dealership can spend 100 hours fixing these items (instead of buying new parts and painting them like they should), but not charge for the 100 hours of labor. They might choose to just charge for the paint and patch job. The labor would easily cost $5000, but they can show this repair on the books as a $500 fix by not purchasing the new bumper or side panel. This allows the dealership to fix a pretty messed up car and still LEGALLY sell it as new. Kind of shady huh?

Your only caveat is that LEGALLY the dealership MUST repair the car to AS GOOD AS NEW CONDITION and MUST honor the factory paint warranty as well as the bumper to bumper warranty. It might be difficult to get the dealership to agree that the paint job is not as good as new, but I would not get an attorney involved at this point. You might also want to hold a magnet up to the paint to see if the dealership who repainted your car used bondo or another, non-metallic fix. If you have an area where a strong magnet will not stick to your car, besides your hood (aluminum), then you can prove that your car was “fixed” and take this up with the dealership.

Simply talking to your dealership might get you a lot further along than you think.

Good Luck.

300bhp??? We'll see... 5-22-2004

 

BMW had to pay a multi million fine recently due to selling "new" cars that were touched up after transit damage.


04 G35C DG AT
Prem Aero Perf RSG CC

Long Island

2004 Pathfinder for the family

 

I have also heard that dealer sanctioned repairs are normal for every car dealer.

There is actually a guy here in Orlando who is a "touch-up" master and his services are utilized by many different brand dealers.

In Florida, vehicle usage determines old or new... technically even a dealer demo with a few tousand miles (and appropraite wear and tear) can still be sold as new (for loan purposes).

My guess is that you have a complaint if the repair was not done correctly (I don't think you mentioned why you found this out). If the repair was done adequately, you have little legal recourse.

I lemon-lawed a Ford Mustang in '99 and part of that was due to the paint... and subsequant repairs that were made poorly.

On the flip side, Infiniti might not want the bad press eyc, start with filing a formal complaint and requestin a meeting with a district rep.


2004 G35 Coupe 6MT
Volk GT-7's/ TEIN Basics
Falken 245/35/ZR19 & 285/35ZR19
Kinetix Racing Camber Rods/ K&N Typhoon CAI

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Alright I've always wondered about my new 2004 IPcoupe that I got 2 weeks ago.

I noticed that the back bumper does not really connect very flushly with the metal part of the car..like the lines of the back side area aren't matched up perfectly. And sometimes the paint seems a bit off. Does anyone else notice this on their car?

<hr></blockquote>

Don't know about the panel fit, but painted plastic bumpers almost never perfectly match the color of the adjoining metal panels. Take a walk around an Infiniti lot and look at undelivered new cars to see for yourself. Depending on how the light hits them the difference can be anywhere from unnoticeable to obvious, especially on metallic finishes.

 

yeah thats what I thought and am thinking the more i look at it. the nature of the paint is pearly and reflective and it really depends on how the light hits it. i'm just having the new car over protection/jitter syndrome. but the side back area of the car where the metal connects with the bumper next to the gas door, the L shape...the metal kinda sticks out ever so slightly at the pointiest part. sometimes i notice this with the front bumper where there is the more pointy part of the metal/fender next to the headlights..it seems to stick out.

I think it may be a fitment problem. I notice that the gap of back lights looking down from the top of the trunk is different from left light to right light.

If you look closely at the interior, you'll see alot of gaps between the plastic parts that are very rough and harsh. Like you will know where you can rip the part off. Don't flame me but just pointing this out, i still love my car and still waiting for my breakin period to pass even though i floored it once already at 700miles, couldn't hold it in.

Love the engine but it really does suck gas. $43 per fill up is really draining my pockets.

 

Why I wanted to have this checked out initally is because I knew that these supposed "fish eyes" that protrude from the paint were not normal. Un- noticeable initally until I waxed vehicle, suggest anyone purchasing to take time to vividly check all paint before purchasing, should not have to do this with a new car but might save you the hassle I am going through. I have never seen anything like it on any of my former vehicles and they were all used vehicles!

I found out from the Infiniti service rep that he says looks like a repair and repaint. To me this is totally unaccepatable. I had a bad experience purchasing a used vehicle that had some body work done and decided to purchase a "Brand New" vehicle in part because of this experience. Needless to say I was very upset to hear this from a service rep of a high end Infiniti Dealership. This IMO is totally unacceptable and I can not beleive that a Quality dealership would do anything like this, especially without mentioning anything about body work that may have been done through transit or whatever. If they would have told me this initally I would not have accepted the car, even if they gave a discount etc. To me it is a very bad experience to say the least for my very first "Brand New" car purchase. Thanks for everyones advice and I am still open for anyone elses thoughts on this subject.

 

Do you have any soruces concerning the BMW incident, im definately curious?

Took G to a body shop today. Yep its offical the quarter panel has been repainted. He actually did not use any gauge he showed me the very fine straigt lines where you could tell it had been sanded in that area. He also showed where it was blended into the bumper by the fine lines on the bumper and repaint as well. Time for a visit to the dealrship tomorrow. about a 150mi drive. Still could use any other advice before I see what the delarship has to say tomorrow morning! Thanks for any and all advice!!!

 

The general manager of the auto dealership told me over the phone that they actually do not legally have to tell me of this damage unless it costs more than $ 500 to fix, and this varies from state to state. Does this sound right? They are finished with repairing my vehicle and I will inspect it today.

 

Call Infiniti of North America and get on some people's cases. Or you can ask around to see if it's the truth. Seems that they might have lied to get their way because that sounds really messed up and wrong to me.

Inside my shell, I wait and bleed

2003.5 Black/Black 5AT Fully Loaded w/ Navi
Clear Corners / Injen CAI