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Middle plastic around the latch has 2 body clips (facing the front of the trunk) that need to be removed, then pull up HARD on the center trim. Then the black plastic above the taillights must be removed. Then pull the weather stripping back and pull the rug back to expose the nuts/bolts that hold the top of the bumper on. I just loosened them, didn't remove them, and it gave me enough space to pull the bumper out a bit. I shoved a thin piece of plastic trim that I had laying around my tool box in between the bumper and body and simply tightened the bolt back up. Literally took 5 minutes per side if that. That's why it's crazy for me to think that body shops/dealerships are actually struggling with this.
My dealer in Massachusetts had a problem too. My taillights were okay, but the small joints between the rear quarter and the bumper assembly (left and right of the trunk opening) were misaligned. The left joint was much worse than the right, so the difference caught the eye. Even people who knew nothing of cars knew enough that the two sides should be the same. (I refer to a nine-year-old piano student of my wife!)
The dealer fixed the misalignments about 90% and said that was the best they could do. The top panel still protrudes over the lower panel, but only very slightly. I would have to work hard to get a photo that would show it. Even my "before" photo above doesn't show how bad it looked to the naked eye. More important, it now looks the same on both sides.
A couple months ago, my 2015 C300 Luxury was badly damaged by hail - dozens of dimples on all up-facing surfaces. The hood had to be replaced. All other body panels had to be removed, de-dented, any liners replaced, and then re-installed. The good news is that the mismatched rear panels and taillights are now perfect. The gas flap that was sticking is also fixed.
The insurance company adjuster spotted another factory defect that I had not noticed. He took one look at my hood and said, "That's wrong!" He did not mean the hail damage; he meant that there was a gap between the front of the hood and top of the grill assembly that was almost 1/2". I had just thought this was normal. When I took my car in to be repaired, I asked the customer representative to annotate my repair request to specify OEM clearances when they re-installed my hood. I don't know if she did it, but the clearance at the front of the hood is now equal to the clearances at the sides. It really looks much better.
The odd thing is that the shop to which I took my car has the same ownership as my dealer. This local dealer empire has over 20 dealers. So it has a body shop that serves all of the makes and models that the dealer empire sells. So all my dealer had to do before botching the warrantee repair of my mismatched body panels was to call up their dealer empire's body shop for their expertise. The body shop could even have sent over an experienced repairman. The body shop is only a few miles from my dealer.
I'm sorry I didn't read this thread before I picked up my car a few weeks ago or I would have looked for this during the inspection and raised the issue with the dealer. I just checked it and I have the classic step mis-alignment, although it's not super noticeable on my black vehicle. Build date was May 19. Can't believe Alabama still hasn't gotten it right after all this time.
I am worried though, that trying to fix this alignment problem could lead to other issues caused by pulling off the bumper cover, shimming, etc. Last thing we need is a sagging bumper cover a few years down the road. Nobody likes a saggy ***.
I'm sorry I didn't read this thread before I picked up my car a few weeks ago or I would have looked for this during the inspection and raised the issue with the dealer. I just checked it and I have the classic step mis-alignment, although it's not super noticeable on my black vehicle. Build date was May 19. Can't believe Alabama still hasn't gotten it right after all this time.
I am worried though, that trying to fix this alignment problem could lead to other issues caused by pulling off the bumper cover, shimming, etc. Last thing we need is a sagging bumper cover a few years down the road. Nobody likes a saggy ***.
I have an early C400 (September 2014). I immediately had the rear bumper realigned. The alignment is perfect and there haven't been any problems since. It's a very easy fix. I was the first re-alignment for my dealer. I'm sure any dealer is very experienced now.
Middle plastic around the latch has 2 body clips (facing the front of the trunk) that need to be removed, then pull up HARD on the center trim. Then the black plastic above the taillights must be removed. Then pull the weather stripping back and pull the rug back to expose the nuts/bolts that hold the top of the bumper on. I just loosened them, didn't remove them, and it gave me enough space to pull the bumper out a bit. I shoved a thin piece of plastic trim that I had laying around my tool box in between the bumper and body and simply tightened the bolt back up. Literally took 5 minutes per side if that. That's why it's crazy for me to think that body shops/dealerships are actually struggling with this.
Why does the middle plastic trim near the latch need removed?
It's disappointing and concerning, as someone who's held out buying for quite a while in hopes that Alabama would have everything sorted by now that this stuff is still happening. Yeah, it's not an exploding engine, but for these prices, from this brand, each plant should be able to build a perfect car about 99% of the time. Misalignment, creaks after a few thousand miles, weird steering vibrations...the problems are fewer than in early 2015, but they're still too numerous.
09-08-2015, 03:53 PM
Repair it at the dealer under warranty
