Well, I will try it again, hopefully someone responds!!...I recently visited a body/paint shop to have an evaluation made of repairing a small rock ding on the body panel below my passenger side door. Suzuka Blue, 2002. The estimator, on checking out the car, mentioned to me that he thinks that the door had been repainted previously. Indeed, the door color seems to be slightly off from the body panels (front fender, rear quarter, and strip below the door) when viewed in bright sunlight. My S2K has a grand total of 1500 miles on it, I picked it up new from the dealer, immediately after they did PDI on it. The body shop guy said that sometimes there is body damage in shipment, and the door panel may have been repainted before I took delivery. The color difference is noticeable if you are looking for it, but to be honest, I never noticed it before he pointed it out. Any suggestions??
Am I being B.S.'d?? Is door color variance normal??
Do I want to address the issue with Honda, and if so, how??
Thanks for the feedback!

 

If the damage is less than $500 I don't think the dealer has to disclose it to you... Totally wack, I know. But I "think" thats the rule. So, a fixed/sprayted door panel, DEALER COST (ha!), is probably less than $500...

A buddy of mind has a new Vette... I pointed out the red overspray under 1 wheel-well.. Turns out the quarterpanel was repainted/blended when be bought it new.

-- Aaron

 

I work for a well-known dealership in the del-val area, specifically running the detail department for sixteen dealerships, you'd be surprised at some of the sleezy things that salespersons and dealerships will do in order to get you into the car. I wouldn't doubt that they repainted the door to cover up damage from the carrier, damage from sitting on a lot, and/or from some careless employee.

For example, quick story. Some months back I was inspecting a 03 Eclipse Spyder at our shop before we delivered it to the dealership. Everything was good so i parked it diagonally on a ramp behind the doors to our shop. A red Elantra was parked about it facing away on the top of the ramp. I go to pull the car in, and simply by instinct press the unlock button on the key fob before getting in the car. Well it turns out the unlock button was actually a remote starter for the car. The Elantra was a 5 spd and was left in reverse. To my surprise just before I reached for the door, the car started up, bucked in reverse and slammed into the door of the Eclipse. Well needless to say I spent the next six hours repainting the door on the Eclipse. The customer never knew a thing about it. It also turnsd out that a remote starter on a manual trans is illegal without a neutral lockout for the starter, so I was not at fault. Just an example of the things you dont see at the dealership and will never know about.