What you're describing could very well be the mounting bosses, and could also even be plastic, although it's hard to believe that Jaguar would do that.

Do you have any idea if it is plastic or not? I priced the part at around $180. It is that piece that goes between both taillights on vertical part of the trunk lid behind the license plate.

I just looked at that part on my car, and it's not magnetic, so it's not steel. For 180.00 it's probably not aluminum either.

It's plastic and so is the fuel door

Hmmm... how come nobody else has slight bumps on their finishing panel? My bumps are about 4" above where the XJ8/VDP badge goes.

Well, I went to the Jag dealership today, and I noticed several other X350s on the lot had the SAME dimples on the rear finish panel as the ones on my XJ. This indicates to me that this is a build quality issue, and that almost all of them do it!