At risk of being told I am silly (it has been known). Does anyone have a thought on the following picture.

The car has just been purchased by me. I think that the car has been used a bit off-road. It has some protection panel damage on the underside - bad enough to have one of the protection panels replaced. It has slightly squeaky front shocks and the right front wheel seems to have quite a bit of re-balancing 'lead' on it. But its the boot alignment that is bothering me. It might only be a few mm out (yes you can hardly see it from the photos) but something does not line up and as a result there is a slight variance of 5mm from the left to right of the boot with the bumper. It seems pretty flush at the top but not at the bottom. I very much hope its the alignment of either the boot or the bumper due to poor assembly and not a bent frame/chassis. Apart from what I have said I visually have little else to go on. Has anyone else got a misaligned panel/boot? Or it is not very probable that this is a sign of a slightly twisted frame?

It was difficult to photo and I did it at an slight angle - but up close and measuring it there is a bigger gap on the left side than the right.

Have try to adjust the ruber boot stops.

Looks like that one should still be under warranty? Correct? If so, take it into a local dealer.

I agree with you, that doesn't look as it should. Let them take a look and make the necessary adjustments.

You're right it definitely looks out in the pic. I will try to remember to check mine in the morning.

At risk of being told I am silly (it has been known). Does anyone have a thought on the following picture.

The car has just been purchased by me. I think that the car has been used a bit off-road. It has some protection panel damage on the underside - bad enough to have one of the protection panels replaced. It has slightly squeaky front shocks and the right front wheel seems to have quite a bit of re-balancing 'lead' on it. But its the boot alignment that is bothering me. It might only be a few mm out (yes you can hardly see it from the photos) but something does not line up and as a result there is a slight variance of 5mm from the left to right of the boot with the bumper. It seems pretty flush at the top but not at the bottom. I very much hope its the alignment of either the boot or the bumper due to poor assembly and not a bent frame/chassis. Apart from what I have said I visually have little else to go on. Has anyone else got a misaligned panel/boot? Or it is not very probable that this is a sign of a slightly twisted frame?

It was difficult to photo and I did it at an slight angle - but up close and measuring it there is a bigger gap on the left side than the right.

Interesting because my brother and I bought our new vRS at the same time and when following him from the garage I noticed the there seems to be a similar, slightly less pronounced misalignment with his tailgate. Mine also has it but much less marked. It's almost as though the bumper is slightly crooked. The weird thing is though that everything seems to fit fine. There are no panel gaps, no bits rubbing. Everything seems ok except for this slight misalignment along the tailgate/ bumper. He was going to ask the garage about it but I don't know if he bothered.

Sarge.

My boot on my hatch is out of alignment too, though mine is side to side twisted. It doesnt catch on anything and seems to operate fine, it just catches my eye and really annoys me!