The water is going to drip out regardless. They are not identical, there will always be subtle differences is sealers, paint, seal quality and more. Just the nature of mass production. If you were to strip them into all the pieces you might find 20 parts out of the thousands that are actually the same, and then you would need for them to be assembled exactly the same. Never going to happen because everything has tolerances in fit and finish materials and more. That is why the door seals are rubber, why every hole in every panel is slightly larger than the bolts that go through them. All needed to make them all fit and be as cheap as possible to maximize profit at sale.
Then you have location. Her car may have been parked at a slightly different angle, the tires may have had higher pressure due to sunlight or heat. The wind might have pushed the rain at a different angle, if they were parked near each other the air currents around them will influence the rain. What you are seeing is 100% normal. Want an example - Go into any clothing store, pick out 10 items of a garment, compare them, Those are at most 20 pieces assembled to a pattern, find any 2 that are actually the same. Not going to happen. Same thing with cars. There are tens of thousands of variables in them and how they respond to the environment is one of them. The more rain you have, the more water has to get out. There will also be some water that gets trapped because of the vehicles position. The drains are designed to work when the car is perfectly level. Now say the inner panel is crimped just a tiny bit different where it attaches to the outer skin, now the drain might not be in the exact spot to drain out all the water, then the car is moved or the sun shines on it and the materials shift around and now that water can get out. No different than everything else, her radio might be louder, the engine in yours might be smoother, the tires might wear better. All due to those tiny differences. She's your grandmother which means you share her DNA, do you look act and think exactly the way she does? I'm going to bet you don't. No different with cars and car parts.
Tuesday, July 15th, 2025 AT 11:37 AM