[Pierre]

It's gotten below freezing here (frost on the MDX) for most nights during the past week. Now, the clear-coat material on top of the rear bumper, surrounding the step tread, is flaking!

That IS strange. We get some pretty extreme temps here (-40 to +90), and I've had the Zoomer for 9 months now. No issue with clear coat or anything else flaking. Take lmeans' advice: sounds like dealer time!