I finally took our 2002 XLT to the dealer to have the tailgate panel
fixed.

The body manager said since it was "cosmetic", it wasn't covered by my
extended warrantee. He said he would do some checking and get back to
me.

He called and asked me if I would be willing to pay 10% which would be
$30 plus tax. That sounded reasonable, so that's what we did.

It looks great!

He gave another reason for the cracking - some fluid used back there,
I assumed in the rear window washer, leaked down in back of the panel
and caused the back side to shrink and thus cracked the panel. Anyone
else heard that before?

WLW