Does this hood look misaligned?

Good move to reject this car.

A vehicle is "new" until it is titled. It's common to fix scratches and other minor (and not so minor) damage before sale of the "new" car. Cars used by the big shots at the dealership are also sold as new if they're not titled. They may be sold as "executive" cars with the mileage clearly displayed, but they have the new car warranty in force...less the miles somebody else put on the car. The warranty is 60,000 miles, or whatever, from zero, not from the day you bought & titled the car.

The video in post #44 shows what I've seen when cars are loaded in a Japanese port. The person walking was wearing clothing & hard hat that looked Japanese. The drivers drive like frustrated Formula 1 wanna-be's.

 

That's why I still hold to my theory that the damage may have occurred when the car was unloaded from the ship. Not to say that it couldn't have happened at some point afterwards, but pinning it down I think is impossible based only on people signing off on the car along the way. The major inspection occurs at the plant as soon as the car comes off the assembly line. After it leaves the factory I would really think all everyone is mainly looking for is dings and scratches etc., i.e .the likely things that occur during transit, and people are not paying much attention if any to fit and finish or panel alignment. Maybe they should and maybe some do, if in fact this type of damage is fairly common during transit. But if this type of occurrence is rare I can imagine something like this slipping through several in-transit inspections. Going with your theory, the dealer turned out to be the one that discovered it because probably they were the first to pop the hood after it left the factory.

 

If I understand correctly you think the problem may simply be an incorrectly adjusted bump stop which somehow didn't get caught during post-assembly inspection at the factory, and that the dealer mistakenly jumped to the conclusion that the misaligned hood was the result of an incident during transit.

Your theory is possible, but personally I wouldn't take the chance.

 

Ever heard of a dealer jumping to a conclusion that was not accurate, only to find out it was a simple problem? There is a reason they are glowingly referred to as “stealerships”.

Take brake inspections as an example. Plenty of people on here take their Prius in for brake inspections as they hear a noise when the brakes are applied then are charged for a $200 brake job. Usually the only problem is rust on the rotors, but the dealer doesn’t flinch.

As someone who has fitted a bra to te front of their Prius, I had to adjust the bump stops as the hood wouldn’t close (it was also in the install instructions).

Is it unheard of that the fit of the hood is snug (potentially moreso than others at the time of assembly) and someone along the way pops the hood (looks at the battery, fluid level, etc) and can’t get it to close completely?

I’m a keep it simple type of guy and non-conspiracy theorist. If I can’t see damage to the front of the car, and I investigated the bump stops and the hood closes once they are adjusted down, why wouldn’t it be the bump stops?

Before I’d wait longer, I would have asked to spend some time with the car (as I would have waited a fair bit of time to only say “no thanks” without doing so and then go back on a wait list) and looked at the bump stops and lower them a bit and seen what happened. Also raising the hood affords the opportunity to see what else is going on, if anything (which I suspect not given there is no visual picture showing any warping or bowing of the hood).

If the dealer can’t explain the reason for the hood being slightly ajar and the OP wasn’t willing to look into it, the Prime will go to someone .

Just my thinking through the situation .

 

Interesting, so I guess this means they think they can fix it within the non-disclosure limit, which apparently for Illinois is 6%. Using $33,300 as MSRP that would be right at $2,000. And I read somewhere that apparently the repair amount is based on dealer cost, not what they would charge a customer or insurance for repair. If that's true, then as long as they can prove that their cost for parts and labor to replace the damaged undercarriage parts is less than $2,000 then they can put it right back out on the lot without saying a peep.

 

Missed OR covered their arse by not saying anything.

We can continue to follow the VIN (JTDKARFPXJ3075545) for fun.

Interesting that they still have not removed the protective cover.

 

Hopefully car manufacturers will wake up to this issue and soon: cars CAN become too complicated, the automotive equivalent of a VCR with a clock blinking "00:00"...