nice post, yourfather. for the sake of clarity, i'll go through all of the issues you pointed out in detail. i only gave brief descriptions in my initial post so i don't blame you for misunderstanding.

- Creaking boot lid - REALLY LOUD creaking from the boot lid on the way up
- Grease stain on the rear seat - i tried to get it off myself but couldn't. it was a visible mark that shouldn't have been there, especially since i had ordered leather protection
- Driver's door reluctant to close - you had to literally SLAM it to get it to close, otherwise it would pop back out to the typical ~1cm ajar position.
- Brake pedal noise - the hydraulic system noise does not sound lke a piece of plastic snapping - that's the kind of sound it made. moreover, if it was supposed to make that noise, why did it disappear after Hornsby Honda played around with it?
- 1 exhaust finisher fell off - Hornsby Honda did "just tighten it up"... and then it fell off again later. brilliant fix, that.
- rattle from instrument cluster - this one has evolved to more of a "crackling" sound when the car goes around corners or over undulating surfaces. i'm not sure what your complaint with this one is.
- plastic wrap material protruding from sides of doors - picture an inch of clear plastic wrap protruding from each door between the plastic trim and the metal. trying to pull it off resulted in a small but visible amount of plastic wrapping still stuck in the gap. i paid for a car, not a plastic bag dispenser.
- plastic packaging string under front seats - i'll agree i'm being a bit picky on this one. but should it have been there at time of delivery? no.
- boot lid trim recall item - while i've learnt it is a luxury item overseas, the insult lies in the fact that the hinge covers aren't included. the boot lid trim kit comes with both the trim piece and 2 hinge covers; Honda are just trying to cut costs here by only offering the trim piece, and not offering it at all to VTi customers. moreover, hornsby honda attempted to charge me for this item ($180 or thereabouts)
- rust and sound protection - you are right in that i shouldn't care about the rust protection, i did it for the sound protection. put simply, i bought the accessory on the premise that it would be applied to the wheel wells (as advertised at time of sale by Hornsby Honda) however it was not applied there. this is more of a legal matter than a complaint.
- high-pitched whirring noise from engine bay - this sound is best described as the sound one would hear if there was a yodelling woman in the engine bay. also sounds a bit like when a choir is warming up, as if to act as some kind of warning that i've reached 72kph. (it only happens at around this speed)
- wind noise from the front doors - the wind noise sounds like static and is loud enough to drown out the radio on volume 5. i wouldn't call that "pushing it to the extreme." moreover, honda america has found and published a fix to this (in a may/06 tsb, i don't have the exact tsb# though) but honda australia fobbed me off saying it's irrelevant.

i got paint protection too, yes. while the value isn't that great, it's not bad, and i'm happy with it.

please let me know if you would like me to clarify any of the other points.