I negotiated the price over the phone and never saw the car. When I picked up the car there was a slight ding in the hood. I actually did not notice it until the salesman pointed it out. I had actually already signed the paperwork (I should have done a much more thorough check of the car). I figured he was being honest. The salesman told me that it was nothing to worry about, their ding guy can fix it without me ever noticing it was there. He repeated this multiple times. I've heard some stories of really good ding repair, and he was honest by pointing it out so I believed him. So now I called him to schedule the appointment for the ding repair (of course they are covering the cost). He tells me now on the phone that I might be able to see some difference in the paint when it's done, but it's better than repainting the whole hood. So now I'm pissed because I might not have taken the car if he told me I would be able to see it. But he also could have let me drive off with the ding and I wouldn't have been able to prove I bought it that way. I know, I probably shouldn't have taken the car, but the timing was really bad and I did not have any more time to spend car shopping. Not really sure what I can do to handle the situation. Any suggestions?
Most "ding" repair guys are paintless. Having to paint it generally means either the ding scratched the paint or they can't get at the ding from the other side to use their magic tools to push it back out. It sounds like you're kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place at this point as you already took delivery. You had a lot more options before that. How about finding your own ding repair guy and see what he says? If he can do it paintless, have the dealer pay him. It sounds like he's just running it through the dealer's own body shop where they use conventional dent repair methods.
THe deal is already done .... the best he can hope for is to get it fixed. WHy not just let them fix it ... you probably won;t notice it anyway. REV
I had 2-3 dings from a shopping cart on my 06' Prius 2 weeks after buying it. I brougth it to a ding repair place in Brooklyn. After some heating and metal manipulation with metal rods with tips on em, they got the dings out and honestly, you'd never even notice they were there. Let em' fix it and enjoy your car forgetting this minor thing.
Allstate waved my 200$ deductable to leave one very small hail dent on my hood, I'm thinking it was becuae the hood is not made of steel and paintless dent repair really only works on steel.
Is the paint chipped or broken? Or is the metal just dented? I would not let them do any painting. It will probably look worse. If its just a dent, a good repair guy can make most of it disappear.
If it's not steel, they are going to have a hard time making it disappear. I have no idea whether it is or not, but I never checked either.
I have watched my dent guy get out some nasty dings from an aluminum FX35 hood for a friend. It is more difficult, and he charges more, but it looked good.
Prius hood is aluminum. I had mine dented last fall when I hit a deer. Fixed it myself and had to apply some body filler, so for sure it is aluminum. Can you check if you can get to that dent from the other side? If it is not possible, I think the only way to fix it is with body filler and have the whole hood repainted. If it's done right it will not look worse.
