I picked up my new '05 on Friday, and now not only is this recall BS got me upset there is a 3 inch long gash in my front bumper. I understand you can't drive a car and keep it perfect forever, but this is #&@^ing BS. I drove the car for less than 50 miles and this **** happens. The worst part is I don't even know where it came from. I looked over the car pretty well at delivery. I think I would have seen this. I'm like 99% sure it's not from a rock or anything from driving since its like a long really narrow and deep gash. The car has only been parked at my work once and I parked it a good 50 yards back further than any other cars. The only other place it has been except for my drive way was in the Taco Bell parking lot twice. I had it parked head in towards a wall both times. There were some little hoodlums there tonight, but I don't know its not in a place where you think someone would do it on purpose. It's not even like a "keyed" mark. It's very narrow and deep. Like a good half to full mm deep. More like a cut from a pocket knife or something. Is this even fixable sine the bumper is plastic? How much do new front bumpers run? do they come factory painted?

Looks like silver ain't the only unlucky color. Sorry for the rant I really needed to vent though.

 

Sorry to hear that. If it is not from driving or parking then it probably was there before you took delivery. You might have looked at the car carefully, but sometimes depending on the ambient light/shade one might miss it in all that new car shine...

 

I think that is what happened.

 

Don't worry about the recall. If your car is new, it won't affect you anyway. They will do the test, in which it will pass, update the computer and you will be on your way.
New front bumpers do not come prepainted. I don't know how much they cost, but the rear bumper on my car needs to be replaced and it costs $300. Prep and paint will add to the price. Mazdaspeed front comes prepainted, but costs $1100 to $1500. Depending on the vendor. You could try to get a used bumper from Mazmart (http://www.mazmart.com/), a forum sponsor. They may even have one in your color.

 

So you don't know where it came.
Gee let me see when I took my car in to get serviced I can recall multiple instances that damage was inflected on my car. Ceramic Coffee cup scratch marks on the hood and roof of my car. Driver door ding. Oil stains on the driver side roof/plastic that you replace with pods. Front bumper has scratch on it like they hit a other car.
Can I stop now?

 

::sigh:: Must have drove through some construction site or something. Just looked at it again in the sun today and noticed another huge gouge in the headlight. ::sigh:: I'm probably the only person wishing for the headlight scum so I can get them replaced. LOL

 

Look into an insurance claim. I had damage on my A pillar from a rock or some goddamn thing. I told my insurance company about it and described it (chipped paint and a little dent). My insurance company just sent me a check for $200 (it was some random number $224 or something, I have no idea how they arrived at that figure) which covered much of the cost of fixing it.

The point is I did not have to pay for this random damage myself. So perhaps if you tell your insurance company you found it like that they might be able to assist.

 

pics please-
sure its not the sticky residue that sometimes gets left over from the white plastic coverings they put on new cars? when i got mine, i thought i had a scratch, but careful examination of the dark scratch was that it was just sticky residue left over from the protective white stuff.

sure it wasn't the 2 trips to taco bell that did it? those Crunch wraps can do serious damage.