So I come out of my apartment this morning, and first thing I notice is two scratches on the hood of my barely two-week-old 8! My heart drops immediately, I am angry, and yet there's nothing I can do. So I get into the car, and I notice immediately that my driver's side mirror is popped outward, and the back cover is missing! Someone really liked my car, it looks like. It is extremely frustrating, painful, and annoying. Not only was I keeping an eye on the car all last night, the cars behind and in front of me didn't move, so someone did this on purpose.

Enough venting. Now my question is, does anyone know how much a replacement driver's side power mirror costs? Also, has anyone had experience buffing out or touching up paint? The scratches are not super deep, but they are extremely noticeable. Please help.


I think I may be able to replace the back cover of the mirror and fix it, but I doubt anyone sells just the back cover.

-arattle (in need of a new place to park)

 

sorry to here that ,if i were you i would take it to a detailing place and have them buff it out.i did it to one of y old cars and looked really good ..

 

A buddy of mine used to have a '90 RX-7, and he came out of his apartment one morning to find the same thing. Reason #132 that I refuse to ever live in an apartment .

Anyhow, side view mirrors are traditionally pretty reasonably priced. The RX-7 mirrors are like $60 each or so, and they're pre-painted - you just bolt 'em on and you're good to go. I imagine it will be similar for the '8. Side view mirrors typically take a lot of abuse, and that's a pretty common replacement part.

Good luck!
Dale

 

Pretty gentle by vandal standards, check out this poor sap on the U.K. forum -

Vandals, UK.....

jealousy knows no boundaries.

S

 

That stinks!!
no idea about the mirror. about three weeks after I picked up my 8 I got a bottle of touch up paint in the mail from Mazda/dealer. If the scratch isn't too deep you maybe able to buff it out. A detail shop should make it llike new.
You may want to get a shock sensor for the alarm. It would offer some protection .
some people have no respect for others ... idiots

 

Ouch man, sorry to hear, I feel you pain!

 

Thanks for the responses. My plan is to call the dealer who sold me the car in MD and tell them my sad story. I'll buy the new mirror, but hopefully I can convince them to install it at no charge. I can also try to do it myself, thanks to the 2500 page bible of a maintenance manual someone posted a short while ago. The scratches don't look so bad on second assessment. I'll live, I just hope it doesn't happen again. Also it's possible these were two unrelated accidents, since these are pretty weird things for vandals to do - but what are the chances of that??? My '02 Altima sat on the same street for a year, and nobody ever touched it. Of course, this is a much more visible car. Again, thanks for the support.

-arattle