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So I was at my dealership today and they had a new Volt in the showroom. I was very surprised to see that the fit between the front fenders and front doors, on both sides of the car, was a case of "that is seriously messed up." Basically, from the lower beltline up, the door sheet metal curved inward at a steeper angle than the front fender did, so imagine looking dead on up the side of the car from the rear and there is a gap from the front fender sticking out below the mirror. The 2 panels do not lie flush with one another like they're supposed to. It was worse on the driver's side, where you may have even been able to see inside the front fender well looking forward, if you had a light through the seam! Looking at that car, I couldn't even see how it could have aligned right given the 2 differing panels, like the door skin and front fender came from some early pre-production build.
So it's not my car and why do I care, right? Well, this was bad enough that it reminded me of some GM cars from the 70's and 80's, where like on the old Firebirds and Camaros you'd frequently see similar misalignments between the front fender and door. I'm sure like a lot of you, I'd prefer to feel proud of the total quality of the Volt and believe GM is making one great Volt after another, building a top-notch reputation, and I really thought GM had gotten their body panel act together. If this showroom car had been one I'd ordered, I would have seriously hesitated to take delivery of it, and I'm almost stunned that it was allowed to leave the factory looking like that. Now I'm wondering, was a supplier or later production change made that screwed up the door alignment? Any of you out there (especially with recently built cars) see the same thing on your Volts? I'm really not trying to stir the pot here, and you know I'm a Volt fan and love my car. But this concerns me.