Does anyone know what the little square caps are on the pillars on each side of the windscreen are? I've taken a pic below.

Also, there seems to be a flaw in the plastic of my Patriot. :mad: Its like a little hole in between the two colours of plastic on the drivers side door. I know pic isn't much good, but it doesn't look like its been damaged, it looks more like a flaw.

AND, there is another pic of my back bumper with the black plastic along the bumper. At certain points, there are blue bits!! You can see one in the pic, but they seem to be evenly spaced, like its where its joined on or something. It looks a bit poxy being blue on black. Anyone else with this??

Mossy

The squares cover the screws that hold the pillars on.

If you scan thru the Interior section of the forum here you will see that there are some having similar discoloration issues with the dash and doors so you are not alone.

Haven't seen any holes yet.

I have an 08' and I noticed that same thing in the door. Personally I'm not worried about it. It looks like they cut it weird. I figure if it starts coming apart then I will be in the shop at the dealers. I know both front are like that but not sure about the back.

I thought the plastic square caps on the A pillars were part of the side curtain airbags... I could be wrong..

I thought the plastic square caps on the A pillars were part of the side curtain airbags... I could be wrong..

Nope, side curtain airbags are on the B pillars.

My guess about the "blue" mark is that it's a stress in the raw plastic of the bumper. There's a real small spot like that on my door where it looks like the plastic was stretched a little too far and it shows.

agree with Gaze, the "blue" mark is probably from stress. The normal white stressed plastic look sometimes looks blue when it happens to a black plastic piece. From the placement and size of the mark I would say it is a connection tab underneath that is a culprit. the factory installer may have not placed the piece correctly when installing the part. Here is a pic of the underside of the part in question so you can see the location and size of the tabs. hope this helps

Mossy -

Yes, those little squares cover bolts. These are quite common on many pilers ... had them on a Saturn once too, though I think they were round.

YES - I also have the exact same damage on the doors!! It took me several weeks after I bought it to even notice it - I wonder if it's perhaps a case of rough assembly, like a robot grabbed it too tightly when assembling it?? Sad, but at least not real noticeable.

I have the Limited so I don't have those color bumpers.

The closer I examine my Patriot, the more I notice little assembly mistakes. Nothing super bad, though...........

G

stop looking at it and you'll soon forget about it. any new car has little imperfections

stop looking at it and you'll soon forget about it. any new car has little imperfections

huh??

Sorry, I just can't have that attitude towards something NEW that I just paid 24 grand for.


Not sure what kind of new cars you are referring to, can you site some examples? Personally, I have never experienced, purchased, or have seen a new car with this amount of 'little imperfections' as you call it.
Seems like I spot more of these spots everyday.

I call it crap construction.
To be honest, I expected more from the Jeep name, but there seems to be a lot of people willing to overlook shoddy construction of the interior of this vehicle BECAUSE of the Jeep name.

huh??

Sorry, I just can't have that attitude towards something NEW that I just paid 24 grand for.


Not sure what kind of new cars you are referring to, can you site some examples? Personally, I have never experienced, purchased, or have seen a new car with this amount of 'little imperfections' as you call it.
Seems like I spot more of these spots everyday.

I call it crap construction.
To be honest, I expected more from the Jeep name, but there seems to be a lot of people willing to overlook shoddy construction of the interior of this vehicle BECAUSE of the Jeep name.


Sure it sucks but the shoddy construction is found everywhere. Friend at work just picked up a new 2008 Honda Odyssey and trim all around the vehicle was coming apart (straight from the dealership). The ceiling carpet edges were just haning out with uncut edges. I have a 05 Mazda tribute and new it already had marks in the leather seats from the factory. New 2005 Honda CRV tons of marks/poor construction issues in the passenger and cargo area. 2006 BMW 325 floor carpet coming up on edges, radio knobs discolored, scratches on driver side window.

Even the new patriot has a large gouge in the bumper. If we didnt' notice the bumper at the dealership it would have been SOL. However we did and they are going to paint that.

The problem is that if you didn't notice the issues at the dealership, you wont get them to replace it. With the minor severity of some of the problems, most dealers would just laugh at them anyway. So you need to live with it. Some of the problems are so small that it's rediculious to complain about. It's a vehicle, put together by other people/machines. The vehicles are not show cars although we'd like to think diferently.