2017~2024 Chewed up plastic after only 30000 m?

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2017 CX-5 GT AWD
I noticed this on my car today. This is the plastic piece directly in front of the drive side tire. This car has seen no gravel roads in two years of driving. The passenger side is somewhat the same but not as bad. No, I do not park too close to curbs, which was my initial thought, and there is another piece of plastic further out that would be damaged before this, and there is not a mark on that piece. I'm guessing it is simply from road debris being thrown at it constantly. Does anyone else see this on their car?
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Hmmm, this doesn't look like "debris". Are you sure you aren't scraping something during your daily driving?
 
You sure you didn't run up on one of those cement barricades that they sometimes put in parking lots to separate the spots in front of you? Like maybe pulling into a spot and scraping it. I've had a couple occasions in previous vehicles to go too far in and scrap the cement block.
 
I know I have never done that. Believe me, I would remember. There is also another plastic piece out in front of this this one that hangs lower than this piece and would be scratched up or broken off if I were regularly hitting the curb. So that is most certainly not the case. The other side is like this as well, just not as bad and there is no damage to other plastic piece on that side either.
 
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That's a scrape.

For that to be a result of debris you'd have no paint left on your front bumper. :) If that was debris show us pictures of the lower black plastic trim of your front bumper.
 
Looks just like every plastic piece that I've ever run over curbs... and that would be plenty. Dunno.
 
I've been trying to mentally picture how this could happen, and could only come up with something more solid and stationary than road debris acting on the plastic there. The type of damage definitely suggests abrasion, unless as Unobtanium suggests it is rodents (pretty basic rat, if so!). It is definitely odd if there are other parts at roughly the same elevation on that side that aren't similarly damaged. Maybe try to think about where you might be in a situation where the other object causing the scraping is projecting further out, so that the angle could mean only contact with that part of the car as you move past/around it. In previous vehicles, I've backed out of end parking spots where there is a sidewalk or planting area with a curved or angled curb and I scraped just part of my underside as I angled the car out of the spot. This type of abrasion damage could have potentially occurred with a single event, so it is possible that it happened without even your awareness, so no reason to remember such a situation. Does anyone else drive the car beside you? Do you get washed at a car wash where someone else moves your vehicle? Parked by valets at all? Stuff like this drives me crazy trying to figure out, but sometimes there's a really simple explanation but no way to absolutely determine what happened.

If it drives you too crazy (it would me), you could consider replacing that part. While it is unfortunately almost the full wheelhouse trim piece that needs to be replaced (the corresponding back piece is a smaller trim), the part isn't terribly expensive (<$75) nor does it appear difficult to replace. Just a quick Google shows that the part # may be KB7W-51-W20E, but please double check that before ordering (verify correct year, and correct for the front driver's side).
 
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Road debris would be kicked up by tires and fly towards the back of the car, it would not be flung towards the front of the wheel well - hence mudflaps behind wheels and not in front.

From the damage I see, my guess is that the car was parked over a concrete curb stop or sidewalk, and upon reverse, the damage occurred.
 
Thanks for all the responses so far. Sorry Uno, no rats in the area. The only time the car has been out of my possession was Thursday when it spent the day at the dealership. Coincidence that I just notice this damage on Saturday??? I'm going to do some further investigation on the car later today once I have it out of the garage and I'll post more pics if warranted.
 
Hmmm, this doesn't look like "debris". Are you sure you aren't scraping something during your daily driving?

I agree with this question. I have a '12 CX-9 with 86K miles, and similar plastic cladding, without any wear at all.
I know I have never done that. Believe me, I would remember. There is also another plastic piece out in front of this this one that hangs lower than this piece and would be scratched up or broken off if I were regularly hitting the curb. So that is most certainly not the case. The other side is like this as well, just not as bad and there is no damage to other plastic piece on that side either.
If it's both sides, then I'd get into the dealer and make a warranty claim before you hit 36K miles--that's way beyond normal wear.
 
The only time the car has been out of my possession was Thursday when it spent the day at the dealership. Coincidence that I just notice this damage on Saturday???

Coincidence? Hah. Good luck with the dealer. I can't see how this could be considered a warranty issue. And I can't imagine they'd admit to damaging your car like that.
 
Sorry, gotta go with a scrape. I don't have that kind of damage to mine after 6 years and 81k miles. I just don't see how normal driving and debris would cause that sort of damage.
 
No heat source. It's definitely a scrape of some kind. The weird part is that there are no other 'scrapes' on any other of the underside plastic pieces so I'm stumped. And I can't blame this on the dealer either, at least not from Thursday's service. I watched the footage from my dash cam and there were no incidents of anyone running up against a curb. So this will just have to remain a mystery for now but I'll definitely keep an eye out for anything that may have caused this. Thanks to all for their input.
 
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