Anyone else experience this?

I was getting my daughter's play pen out of my trunk, and when I went to close it, it didn't. Apparently we haven't used our trunk since the beginning of winter, and there is a lot of ice build up in the area around the trunk, and it was blocking the trunk from closing properly. I ended up using an ice scraper to break off all the ice, and the trunk closed without a problem, but now the passenger side of the trunk lid appears to be bent at the front corner. It sits about 1/3-1/2" above the rear quarter panel at the front corner and normal along the rest of the rear end, while the other side is normal. I'm supremely choked, and apparently what's been happening is that every time we've run the rear defroster and there was any snow/ice on the rear window, it melted and pooled around the trunk. While I know that closing it was my fault as I didn't check to see if there was ice build up there that could potentially bend the trunk lid, I'm upset that Mitsubishi's design was so poor as to not take that into account, and provide either some sort of drainage/barrier or anything, but the rear window simply drains perfectly into the trunk surround.

Next time I take it in I'll bring it up with the service dept. but I'm curious to know what other people think about this. Do you think this is something where I should just suck it up and examine the trunk surround before I close my trunk every time in winter, or should I be complaining to Mitsubishi to fix this or at the very least apply something to prevent it from reoccurring? Been a bad few weeks for me with this car, first a hit and run, and now a bent trunk lid.

 

It's hard for me to explain, since I don't know what the actual parts/areas I'm trying to describe are. Luckily, after chipping away about 1/3 of the ice build up, I stopped and realized taking pictures might not be a bad idea. Although they were only taken on my phone, and I was too upset to think about taking a picture with the trunk closed completely to show what the damage actually looks like. Anyway, here are the pictures:

This is the front passenger side, after chipping away 1/3 of the ice already. This is the side that was damaged.


Here is the passenger side, as far is it would close without pushing on it. I took a picture of the drivers side at the same level for comparison next..


Here is the drivers side. I didn't close the trunk anymore than it already was in the previous picture. This is so that I could compare the 2 sides of the trunk up close.


Here is another picture of the ice build up on the passenger side. I got the trunk assembly in there, as I'm still not sure if it was the trunk assembly that just got misaligned/damaged or if the trunk lid itself was bent.


One more of the ice build up on the passenger side. Just for a better view of the build up/trunk/assembly.


When my wife gets home, I'll maybe try to take some of the trunk now that I've cleared out all the ice in there, and have it closed. The passenger side corner, where it meets the rear quarter panel and rear window side a good 1/2" or so above the rear quarter panel. The driver's side sits normally. I don't know if I should be hoping for the trunk assembly to be damaged or the trunk lid itself, cause I don't know what's more costly. If only I could convince my insurance that this damage was a result of the hit & run accident lol ... Not likely though. Let me know what you guys think. No denying part of it was my stupidity for not checking to see if there was ice build up in there or not, but I feel it shouldn't be able to build up like that in the first place if they have designed it properly.

*edit: Flickr didn't do so well linking them, so I just changed it to ImageShack instead.

 

Also, just for the record, I have the same problem with the trunk hitting my bumper and chipping the paint off... My dealer says that he thinks it's just ice doing it, and that they don't actually hit when there's no ice... I can't say for sure one way or the other, but based on the number of people who've reported the same problem while living in an area that doesn't get snow, I'd assume it's most likely a combination of both. I think if I want them to do something about my trunk alignment issues I have my work cut out for me though.

 

It's ok .. I lucked out this winter. Someone decided to hit & run my car in a parking lot, and then a few weeks later rear end my wife while she was driving it, so trunk should be getting replaced, as long with my rear bumper, and possibly both the rear quarter panels as well

Now I'm just debating if I should take it to the dealership for repairs, or take it somewhere else and just have them paint the rest of the car while their at it to rid myself of the terrible stock paint.... Any ideas how much painting a car would normally cost?