Rear lift gate trim panel developed a corner crack that I noticed on Feb 23rd. Took the van to the dealer on Feb 24th and was told by their Warranty Assistant Manager to take the car to their body shop for assessment. Body shop could not find any evidence of impact damage(no scratches or dents). The crack itself actually changes, I am guessing due to temperature, 1 day I couldn't even see it(just hairline crack). Body shop took pictures and made an estimate and emailed it to the dealer and I was also copied me on the email. A week later emailed dealer for status update and was replied the exact same words: "unfortunately this is considered damage and not a defect" Another term they used - "due to outside influence". I asked for proof of impact damage and so far no response. It seems to me that the dealer is refusing warranty claim without any valid reason. I know 100% I didn't damage or impact it. Is FCA/dealer justified to refuse the warranty repair? Is this type of cracking on the tailgate plastic trim common?

 

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While it may not be common, that doesn't make it impossible. This brings to mind all those older Ford Explorers cracking right at the rear wiper section.
Hopefully this will work out in your favor.
My advice would be to take a light and look at it from all angles before you decide to fight, if you have to take it up a notch with the dealer. Someone took the rear wiper blade off my vehicle and reinstalled it upside down on my van while it was in public. So, in the off chance someone punched your van in a fit of rage, etc, take a light and see if you can see any minute warping, or denting.

 

I already inspected it many times, there is no denting/scratched/ or anything, just a clean crack, I doubt anyone punched it as I always park carefully and there is no reason for anyone to punch it. What I did find out is that the crack runs through the middle of the fastener(you can actually see it during the daytime). See the picture below. There are 4 bolts, 1 on each corner and it appears the crack runs straight though one. My guess is it was over torqued and this is the 1st winter for the van so the temperature variations/ice/snow freezing etc.. may have caused the crack to develop.

 

Were you advise to contact customer care service?

 

just bad decision making by the service manager/warranty administrator. This gives fca dealers a bad name. This guy will never buy a fca product again and I don't blame him. For what...fca price to fix this is cheap.
if they would have sucked it up and fixed it the guy would probably buy another dodge product.

 

Yes, I was actually ready to buy Ram Rebel to replace my old Commander, but not anymore, not after this experience, will be looking at something else. No more FCA products for me.

 

try another dealer. My service manager would have warrantied this.

 

duplicate post - deleted

 

I had a case opened with FCA Canada and spoke to Daniel who basically said what he has on his file - "due to outside influence". He would not give me any more info on how they came to that conclusion. He said that this is all internal documentation and he cannot release it and he told me to get it from the dealer. So up until that point dealer did not reply to my email requesting the same info. Daniel called the dealer with me on the line and I asked them to send me the info on how they came up with the 'outside influence' conclusion. They refused sending me anything citing privacy concerns due to their regional manager's contact info on the file, and they said that it is FCA Canada who did not approve the repair. My guess is whatever information the dealer put on the file is causing FCA Canada not to approve the repair, but I don't know for sure since both are refusing to send it to me. This is becoming an infinite loop with dealer sedning me to FCA and FCA sending me back to the dealer.
I also had an OMVIC case opened and they were pretty useless saying that they cannot force dealer or FCA Canada to honor their warranty(not sure what OMVIC actually does if they have no power to do anything). Now I have a BBB and CAMVAP cases opened against both dealer and FCA Canada, so hopefully this will produce better results.

 

Lawyer up. Make them pay, then let them pay the legal fees.