Yea... this is a bit of an odd topic, but i'm just wondering... does anybody else here with a 453 have (or used to have) what i can only describe as invisible remnants of the suction cups used to hold the rear glass panel while everything was being attached? By that, i mean whenever the rear glass gets wet, and only when it gets wet, you can see two blatantly obvious rings of the same size that appear to be practically waterproof and don't seem to dissipate with any amount of scrubbing.
Recorded a quick video. Sucks that it's dark ouside, so i had to use my phone's flash. Would record another video tomorrow, but think this gets the point across enough.
Not to sound insulting in any way, but are you sure it's on the outside of the glass and not the inside? I mean I've tried to clean off spots before and scrubbed and scrubbed only to say DUH there on the other side of the glass. We're only human you know.
You do realize that the prep guys are usually minimum wage flunkies who are barely one evolutionary step above a chimp, right???
The last time my smart was at a dealer was for an accident repair in 2010, when I went to pick it up, I absolutely came unglued. Looked like they had washed my car with a rag full of gravel. Swirl marks and scratches everywhere. At that time, I faithfully washed my smart 2-3 times a week to keep it clean, and waxed and buffed it 3 times a year. My smart with 60K on it, looked better than the new cars on the lot. I went in and made a HUGE scene in the service managers office right in front of all his MB customers. Told him they would completely polish & detail my car, it would be flawless when I came back or else....
Came back the next day, and it looked better than ever. I kept it that way for a long time. even with 180K on it now, it still looks really good. Even though I'm not near as anal about it now...
I guess the moral of the story is: don't expect too much from the dealer prep. You want your "love circles" gone, you will have to do it yourself...
When we bought our lightly used RX8 it was taken in to be detailed for delivery while we waited. When they brought it out the inside was not very clean. Called the detail guy out to point out areas still in need of cleaning. He was as described in previous post. Didn't have a clue or really care about his job.
that's where the problem lies. haha. If it had been somewhere random like on the fender or door panel.... not only would I have been seriously unlikely to see it all the time (when it's wet out), but probably wouldn't have had the chance to notice it at all. But nope... driving in wet weather, water splashing up behind my car.... "what's those two rings?"
I'll have to try some rubbing alcohol or something when i get the chance. Maybe tomorrow before work if the weather is better than it was today (rainy... ha... and i thought this was Pennsylvania?)
WhiteNBlack: The car i had prior to my new '16 ForTwo was a '13 Dodge Dart Rallye 1.4L Turbo. Bought it from a local dealer, and they would always tell me that they offer a complimentary car wash with every vehicle service. During the winter months i could understand... they didn't want things freezing up. But even during the warmer months... think they only ever washed it once without me asking about it. After taking it one of the several times that it didn't get washed, i got a little fed up. The whole "customer experience survey" crap was sent to my e-mail, and i called them out on it. Wouldn't you know, the next time i had to take it in for service, not only did they wash the outside of the car, but the inside of the car I can honestly say was probably cleaner than it was when i bought the car. Which also kinda pissed me off, since they used armor-all or some kind of crap on the dashboard, which is the dumbest idea ever... but hey, I gave them an A for effort.
The part that pissed me off, though, was the service writer making a smartass comment after he told me they wanted to get the car all washed up and clean for me, saying "So you know, we do read the surveys".
When I first test drove my orphan, on the lot I looked it over from head to toe and to my excited mind everything on the car "looked" perfect to me inside and out. But as the weeks went by and I washed and waxed and used armor all to the high heavens I began to notice little things that I didn't notice in the beginning. I mean like the light scratches on the passenger fender from someone scraping a bush or the wear marks on the driver side armrest etc,...The salesman said the car has 36,000 miles on it and we went ahead and did all the 40,000 mile maintenance things just for good measure, so it's serviced and ready to go. He even had a copy of the maintenance printout from the Smart website that tells you what to do.Well one of the things on that list was replace the air filter. Days later I removed the top from the air box and the filter had never been touched. The inside of the box had a good tablespoon of dust rolling around in the bottom and there was even hunks of walnuts shells in there from a West Virginia squirrel.Oh I'm sure they replaced the charcol filter on the A/C too. People in America used to take pride in their jobs. My dad used to always say a job worth doing is a job worth doing well. But he also said if you want someting done right do it yourself. And unfortunately I took that to heart and now I can't keep up!
My son had a Pacifica that had the front cradle rust out problem. Chrysler extended the warranty to 250,000 miles, but his had 275,000 miles so it wasn't covered. it cost more to repair it than it was wort (Blue Book) so he traded it in on another car.
Back to the cup rings... My 451 had my store name across the back window until I closed the store. When I removed the name, you could still see the outline of the letters for some time even after cleaning with everything I could think of. It eventually disappeared.
Since I have a collection of cars I know the pains of detailing and keeping them up, and sometimes its the little things YOU notice that drive you to hell.. so hereis my take.. you got suction cup marks onthe rear window, most likely a rack or something..
have you tried white vinegar, usually this works.. then there are other products like Meguires glass restore, there are others and all have results. Try the vinegar first (its cheap), small cotton rag with it on hold it on the mark and let it soak in a minute, then rub off..
polish with a clean cloth (microfiber), and fresh newspaper ..yes this works..
let me know if it works, It has for one of my antiques that had a water stain from a dripping garage roof (previous owner) for 40 yrs, took about 4 tries and its gone..
steveg.
Just bought a 2016 Passion 453 Have had it about a week, noticed today when it was raining these exact same rings on the back glass, when you run the rear wiper they would go away...but as soon as the rain would bead up again there was the mysterious circles. Yes, the window has been cleaned inside and out very well also.
Alcohol lubricates rubber. Acetone renews and or removes oxidation from rubber. I would expect acetone would remove the residue from the glass. Bon Ami is feldspar powder sold as a scouring powder that "hasn't scratched yet" pictured as a baby chick on the label. A paste of Bon Ami and acetone should do the trick and won't scratch the glass.
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