GT350 arrived to dealer, but...

[virtja1]

After almost a year, my GT350 arrived to the dealer. First, it was somewhere on the ramp with flat tire so they were waiting for it to be fixed. Now when it got to dealership the guy I am in touch with sent few photos and pointed at the loose screw on the bottom left of the bumper.

He says the bolt that is hanging there goes up into the bumper and screws into an insert. The insert pulled down through the hole and now the hole is bigger than its supposed to be. He also said he is going to have to put a front bumper on the car because it is in one piece.

How can that happen, was the car hit during the transport? Buying new car and it has to be fixed already, not sure what to do except waiting.

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[Crumpler]

Been there too. Total disappointment. Reject the order and find another. Or live with a repair (On the bright side, maybe the color match will be better than the factory. That front bumper doesn't quite match the fender)

 

[cking]

Be patience but before you accept the have them rack it and look for damage underneath from the loaders. Tell the dealer before hand that you will inspect for spoiler install also.

 

[Houston Kid]

Great color combo but I am a bit biased. I say get it repaired if it is the car you want unless you can easily find another one you want.

To answer your question of how does it happen? I am guessing while loading or unloading someone took a bad angle or ran off the ramp causing the corner of the splitter to catch pulling the bracket out of the slot. The splitter should not be mounted until after transport so maybe someone took it for a spin and caught the splitter on something causing it to pull out.

 

[3er]

If it were mine, I'd pass and find / order another. Cars with "stories" aren't very appealing when it comes time to sell, even if the damage was superficial.

 

[Houston Kid]

If dealer repaired would there be a record of the repair for Joe citizen buyer to find out about down the road? I mean it is pretty much a cosmetic albeit new bumper required fix. Just curious because I have no clue.

 

[Shift]

I would make sure nothing else is damaged, and it's just a bumper replacement. The car is brand new, and it's white so the new bumper should match up with the rest of the car. Not worth going through the hassle of looking for another GT350, waiting, going through the entire buying process again, and even then it's not exactly a guarantee you'll get a perfect car(maybe there's paint defects, saggier than usual rear bumper, splitter installed incorrectly, etc).

 

[virtja1]

That dealer is 250 miles away from me, but thinking I should really go there this weekend and check everything out. If I decide to go for another one, would rather search through current inventory instead of going through the buying process again.

 

[3er]

If dealer repaired would there be a record of the repair for Joe citizen buyer to find out about down the road? I mean it is pretty much a cosmetic albeit new bumper required fix. Just curious because I have no clue.

It'd be obvious if a paint depth gauge is used - which is very common when performing a PPI or trading to a dealer. Repainting something will cause a large variance in paint depth compared to the original paint - no way around it.

 

[Spacebird]

Congratulations! You got your first blemish. It'll be fixed and made invisible and now you can enjoy your car.

Don't be too precious with it; you'll never enjoy it that way.

 

[Nicky Pass]

Congratulations! You got your first blemish. It'll be fixed and made invisible and now you can enjoy your car.

Don't be too precious with it; you'll never enjoy it that way.

It's a Mustang (I hate saying that, but...) the quality is just not there. I've been paint correcting, polishing and waxing....I've found a couple of flaws. I'm just going to live with them. No car is perfect....let them fit it. Maybe the insert can be epoxied in or something. I really wouldn't want a new bumper, paint work and stripes. See if there is another way to fix it.

 

[Donkey]

It'd be obvious if a paint depth gauge is used - which is very common when performing a PPI or trading to a dealer. Repainting something will cause a large variance in paint depth compared to the original paint - no way around it.

If they use a new bumper there should be little variance if done correctly. I just traded mine off and they didn't even drive the car.. and never once has any private party used a paint depth gauge on a used car I've sold either.

You would want to check with the dealer on the records showing up. When my raptor came in years ago it had some issues I had corrected, when the guy I sold it to called he asked about the records and I told him what had happen and he could call my dealer and verify. Truck sold for sticker with 8200 miles on it.. so it didn't hurt resale.

 

[swish77]

Just insist on a new bumper. Problem solved. It wouldn't bother me at all to have a new bumper installed on a new car. I'd prefer that much more to a repair, no matter how minor it might be. Good luck either way!

 

[3er]

If they use a new bumper there should be little variance if done correctly. I just traded mine off and they didn't even drive the car.. and never once has any private party used a paint depth gauge on a used car I've sold either.

You would want to check with the dealer on the records showing up. When my raptor came in years ago it had some issues I had corrected, when the guy I sold it to called he asked about the records and I told him what had happen and he could call my dealer and verify. Truck sold for sticker with 8200 miles on it.. so it didn't hurt resale.

The part about little variance is simply not true. The variance is always going to be different enough from the rest of the car to make it obvious that "something" happened to the front bumper.

Now, your comment about those that actually use a paint depth gauge is likely true in many cases. However, any good PPI (which everyone should do if buying a used car) is going to perform this test and will flag that the bumper had been replaced or resprayed at some point. Hence, it will inherently spawn the question as to "was this car in a wreck?" Dealers may not be so wise to measure the paint during a trade-in, but I guess that's their problem .

 

[sublime1996525]

The part about little variance is simply not true. The variance is always going to be different enough from the rest of the car to make it obvious that "something" happened to the front bumper.

Now, your comment about those that actually use a paint depth gauge is likely true in many cases. However, any good PPI (which everyone should do if buying a used car) is going to perform this test and will flag that the bumper had been replaced or resprayed at some point. Hence, it will inherently spawn the question as to "was this car in a wreck?" Dealers may not be so wise to measure the paint during a trade-in, but I guess that's their problem .

1. Not true. If you go to a shitty shop then you will probably have some variance. If a shop that knows what they are doing, you will most likely not even know anything has happened.

2. There is a good possibility the work will show on Carfax. So what. Tell the new buyer what happened, show them pics even, and move on. It wasn't wrecked so it should not hurt resale value.

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