True story...My wife and I had to order our '12 TE because there are none around in our area. When it finally arrived at the dealer, but before it had been prepped for delivery, my wife and I went to look it over. We did this in a casual manner, not with a magnifying glass as it was still covered with that white protective wrapping which is applied to protect the vehicle while it is in transit. Upon looking the vehicle over in its non-prepped state we noticed that the tailgate appeared to be dirtier than the front of the vehicle, but we didn't think anything of it at the time. We just attributed this to the fact that the tailgate was not covered with the white protective film, like the front of the vehicle was.
On the day we took delivery it was unusually nice outside and our silver TE just shined in the abundant sunshine. In the glare of the sunshine we didn't notice anything amiss. When we got our new TE home and into the garage I performed another quick walk-around to look it over, this time out of the direct sunlight. Without the sun reflecting off the silver paint, this time, much to my dismay, I noticed several small chips in the paint on the TAILGATE (I'm submitting this by iPhone so I'm relying on caps to draw attention to key words) How did the TAILGATE become chipped on my short, ten mile drive home from the dealership? After thinking things through and recalling how dirty the tailgate of the vehicle appeared relative to the front of the vehicle when we first saw it in its unprepped state, it occurred to me that some non-thinking (or not carrying) truck driver must have transported my TE from its port of entry to my dealer by backing my vehicle onto his transport rig thereby exposing the non-protected tailgate (remember, there was no protective film applied to the tailgate) to any and all road debris while being transported to the dealership. To say I was HOT, doesn't begin to describe my demeanor upon noticing chips in the tailgate of my brand new TE.
Anyway...because it would not make sense to have the entire tailgate repainted on account of several chips, I just ordered matching touch up paint and touched it up myself. NOTE: rather than use the "pen" feature of the touch up paint or the brush that comes with the paint, I stopped by a arts & crafts supply shop and purchased an extremely fine-tipped brush. This works considerably better than using the much larger brush that is supplied with the paint. I applied three coats to each chip and then put a good coat of wax over the area. Only I would notice the chips, but it still infuriates me to know that I didn't even have my $38,000 TE in the garage for one full minute before I discovered that it was chipped.
