Does this hood look misaligned?

I'm with Bisco, I'd pass on this vehicle.

Yes they can correct it, but even myself I would pass and I spent most of my life working in a GM/Toyota dealership. Let this be someone else's problem (if one arises), but why make it yours.

 

Looks like a transporter driver drove it off the truck too fast and bottomed out. The roll on roll off ship drivers could have done the same thing, but the port inspectors would have found and corrected it at port. Reject it entirely. The port inspectors include a "no damage" statement in their report if there was none.

 

I'll apologize to any Prime owner for what I'm about to say, but I had a chance to look at a Prime "up close and personal" recently, and the main thing which stuck me (…apart from the way all those sharp bits reminded me of our old Mum's meat-grinder ) was the weird "dent" in the rear windscreen. It looked as if it had been the victim of an unfortunate accident with a utility pole or caber. Can you imagine the replacement cost of such a complex piece of glass?

 

You can't "reject" the delivery, but you obviously report it. If the damage is significant, the manufacturer (this case Toyota) would retrieve the vehicle. On some occasions, depending on the damage, these vehicles are donated to training facilities. But that's pretty rare.

Your comment on attempting repairs and selling it as new - there is no other option for the dealer. A vehicle will always be "new" until it is sold. You can't take a Certificate of Origin and convert that to a junk/salvage title. If something that drastic occurs, these are the vehicles the manufacturer retrieves.

As for disclosing it was damaged / repaired in transit to a prospective customer. Any repairs such as this is attached to the VIN# in Toyota's system. It may be recorded, but not sure if it has to be disclosed. Indiana requires a specific $ amount in damages before that is disclosed. Not sure what other states require.

 

The dealer in Merrillville Indiana had a couple of Prime in stock the other day but not the pretty red.

 

When you go talk to your sales guy, ask for the following:

• Put the vehicle on a lift so the undercarriage can be inspected
• Open the hood to see what the hinges look like or the underside of the hood
• Was it that the bump stops for the hood were elevated causing the hood to hit early and then slightly higher?

I’d think of this issue in the following way:

• If this car was sitting on the lot and the dealer fixed it, would you know?
• Did you see any bulges or non standard bends in the hood?
• Do you check a car fax report on a car that has less than triple digit miles on it?
• If the car bottomed out, wouldn’t the front bumper cover need to be realigned?

An undercarriage inspection will either confirm or deny damage in shipment. Maybe the hood was installed on a Monday or a Friday.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

Although If someone did want to make a vacation of it, you could think of it as subsidized vacation if you are getting a car thousands of dollars cheaper than you can locally. So it's not a completely wild idea. However if someone is just going to go pick up the car and ferry it back themselves, the only practical "fly and drive" is probably midwest to east coast, which several people on here from the midwest did last year when the 2017 rebates on the east coast first hit $3,000 and there was also the possibility of the $4,500 tax credit being repealed for 2018. As it turned out the tax credit wasn't repealed and the east coast credit rose to its current level of $5,000 (for the 2017's). Meanwhile the 2018 credit started at $500 and is now at $1,500. I won't be surprised if by fall the 2018 credit hits $3,000.

Going down a ramp especially at high speed the car has quite a bit of downward momentum. When the front wheels hit the pavement (or whatever surface) and bottom out, the rest of the car is still trying to move downward and I can see how bad things can happen. You can actually think of it as a type of collision, in this case a collision with the ground.

However I can envision this more on a ship where they could reach pretty good speeds coming down a ramp. But coming down the ramp of a car carrier truck I wouldn't think they could go fast enough to do that type of damage. I mean I know it's not the General Lee but I would be surprised that it's that vulnerable to damage from bottoming out at low speeds. So I'm leaning towards the damage occurring coming off the ship and it was just missed at the port since they are probably mainly looking for dings and scratches, and the dealer was the first to notice the misalignment on the hood. Just my theory.

 

Different vehicle, different forum, but I'm afraid this happens more than we'd probably want to believe.
I discussed with a Honda Fit owner that alleged they had bought a "brand new" Honda Fit, then later discovered that the drivers door had been repaired and re-painted. They discovered this after the fact, and only when the door started to prematurely have separate paint problems.

I don't know what the laws or regulations are in this regard. But it does seem dealerships can indeed affect "as new" repairs to vehicles damaged in delivery. And it does appear they often get sold without warning or disclosure to buyers.

I guess the only thing we can do as consumers is NOT trust that "new" is absolutely "new" and do as thorough a personal pre-inspection as possible.
And then be willing to pass, if we find anything that looks "wrong".

Actually, I can side somewhat with dealers. I think X amount of vehicles are going to get scratched, dinged, and damaged in transport. It's just going to happen.
But I think when it happens, there should be full disclosure of this reality, and a pro-rated discount in cost.
If you are buying it at a discount, with full disclosure, that's different than the damage being hidden, and or even revealed, fixed but still sold as being pristine and brand new.

 

I can understand how the Prius would bottom out when going down a ramp. And obviously his speed was excessive to cause that level of damage.

These cars are a bit lower than previous Prius generations? It took me awhile to get accustomed to it. I've lived in the same city and area for over 60 years. My Prius scrapes on certain driveways that prior cars had no problem with. There have been comments in other forums about scraping the underside of the front fascia. Seems to be minor. I have not bottomed out on a speed bump, but I take them at a crawl. (And I have to be very careful when pulling into a parking space that has a "parking block" or curb.)

 

I wouldn't think it was caused by the engine coming into contact with the hood. To bend the hinges, etc would take a fair amount of force and I would expect to see some damage to the hood itself, which I don't.

Could the frame itself have been bent causing the gap? Not sure about that either since the other panels seem to be aligned.

Still, this could never have passed manufacturer/port inspection so something happened either in transport to or at the dealership.

 

Dealers are not required to disclose damage as long as the repair is less than about 3-6% of MSRP (the percentage varies by state). So depending on the state a $30,000 car could have up to $1,800 in damage without you being told about it.

 

Never is a big word.

What is on the inspection?

Is that all parts and pieces are there?

The alignment of the hood is not off by much, so my bet is that once they pop the hood and investigate the bump stops, turn them down a bit, job done.

But we’ll hopefully hear the cause soon.

 

alright, sure, "highly unlikely" is probably better than never. Still, I can't see how it passed all the QC between the plant and the dealership. It's a pretty obvious defect.

still, I bet you're right.

 

Maybe someone who has worked at a port could vouch for the thoroughness of the inspections, which I don't doubt, but I'm not sure that I would go so far as to say that it could never happen that they miss something like this.

EDIT - just saw your post right before mine. Interesting point you raise. I wonder how many different inspections occur during transit from the plant to the dealer.

 

We had the same issue with a "new" Accord in the mid-eighties: it had apparently sideswiped something in it's travels, and was haphazardly repaired and repainted "at the port".

I notice because I was attempting to put wheel well moulding on, and used some masking tape to mark where it should go. When I pulled off the tape the paint was coming off with it. Turned out one side of the car was all sanded and bondo'd , repainted.

In BC at the time the new car bill of sale documents have a clause stating that a new car can have repairs costing up to 20% of the retail value without the need for the dealership to disclose to buyer. Note though: this is just a piece of paper until both parties sign it. And either party is free to cross out and amend the document, as long both parties initial the change, sign it. You could for example revise 20% to $500.

I'm not sure if the 20% clause is still in effect; it might be. Our paper is out in the car, I think?

 

When we got the RX450h a year ago, I walked around the car and saw that on the passenger side rims there was curb rash with 9 miles on the odometer .

Pointed this out to the dealer and they fixed it.

My advice is to perform your own inspection and point out what you see.

 

I'll bet we've got a bunch of members who will take a very close look at the next "new car" they intend to to buy! This is something that I first heard about years ago. Damages do occur during shipment and the dealer will make repairs. Some repairs are better than others. In this case, the decision is yours.