Hood (bonnet) quality questions
 

Noticed the wife has a nice dent in the middle of her hood - upon closer inspection, there are three - all centered. You would swear it was hail damage, but it is not. She does park under a tree at work, but so do a lot of other cars.

Then as I was waxing it the other day, I noticed the hood is incredibly easy to push down - almost like you need light pressure when waxing or it will pop down (and then immediately pop back up).

To me, this seems like "chit" quality - is the hood really that weak? Other cars that park where she does are fine - and, well, I just can't believe that part of the car is so weak?

I'm trying to get a hold of my PDR guy who will hopefully take care of these... for now.

One of the first things I noticed about my car was how easily the bonnet metal distorted. I was waxing and it was like a trampoline. Fortunately, so far, it has always popped back to original shape.
I've had an aluminum bodied car before. It was scary but held itself together nicely for as long as I had it.

Is this a trend in automobile manufacturing or a specific engineer's idea of a bad joke? Sure makes me hark back rapping my knuckles on a car's fender ('52 Hudson) and coming back with a very sore knuckle.

It may be due to the new pedestrian safety mandates.

"In recent years, vehicle design has focused on making subtle changes to the front end of the vehicle that aren't obvious to consumers. One example is changing the way that the fenders, hood and windshield wipers are attached, so their performance strength is maintained but they can easily collapse when impacted by a pedestrian."

https://www.edmunds.com/car-safety/p...le-design.html

^^ the safety aspect is likely a portion of it, the other is simply weight. With all the other 'systems' being tacked into cars these days, weight is a serious enemy of every car design, as it effects the 'biggest' factor...gas/fuel mileage. Door panels are particularly 'soft' as well, if you didn't notice that while waxing too! I was very shocked first time I hit my one door panel with some tar/bug remover and put a little pressure on the cloth, the panel almost felt like it was going to pop inward. It didn't, but certainly caught me off-guard.

If you think about how auto makers are using thinner 'high strength' steel in their body panels, you start to look at crease lines in body panels and notice that they are not there just for the aesthetics, but for strength as well. Our Mini's are very 'soft' in their shape, so they will tend to have body panels that move a bit easier than other manufacturers that have a more 'chiseled' look to their body panels.

Hood Dent
 

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This was done via vandalism or a mechanic pushing down on hood. In manual, is states to drop hood from 16" to close. First paintless dent repair person charged me $400 to "fix" and after noticing a 2nd dent on other side; an additional $100 to come back a week later. A few days later, in direct sunlight I realized all he did was create an area of multiple smaller dents. After getting my insurance company involved, I was never able to get in touch with him again (after calls, texts and emails). I was recommended to a reputable shop, where it was fixed properly (almost perfection) for $450. I ended up only getting $250 from my insurance company because their adjuster claimed it wold have only cost $600 to have had hood and trim removed, dents removed "traditionally", painted and reinstated. After much argument to the point the insurance company 's adjuster would no longer talk to me because I intimidated him. I ended paying $750 out of pocket. Yes I should have sued original repair person.
Now...I have a door dent ding in my rear quarter near gas cap cover. It is estimated to cost me $250-350 depending on how easy they can reach dent from inside. They may have to remove wheel, wheel well, and drill through inner double wall to get to dent. Always tell mechanics not to push on hood to close but rather follow manual instructions and just drop from 16" and check if closed. As much as I love car it is made out of tin foil.

Wow, that guy must have thought he was closing the hood on a '77 F-150!?! My wife's former Patriot was similar as was my former aluminum hooded Legacy, no-go for pushing it shut, only the drop method for the win. Unfortunately our cars are not the only ones that suffer this same 'issue'.

My 2019 came with a ding in the hood. I thought I'd put it there trying to close the hood after getting it home, but when we took a close look at a picture we'd taken of the car before we took ownership, we could see the dent in the hood. The dealership had it fixed on their dime.