Hey guys,

SweetPete here. Here's my most recent post from yesterday from the Mazdas247 discussion forum (https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...etallic/page40). Don't like to crosspost between different forums, but here it is:

So, today marks week 8 for me. The body shop contacted my dealer's service manager last Thu to tell him my car was done. My service manager went to pick it up, but refused to bring it back - he said they were various problems, including a door panel issue and paint overspray. Later that same day, I went to the body shop to see my car for the first time since handing it over. I immediately noticed lots of swirls on the newly painted hood - some in the clear coat, others that appeared to be in the paint beneath the clear coat, including a paint flaw (smudge? too much paint?). AND there was a chip/indent on the leading edge of the hood! Apparently I have a new hood, so I have no idea how a chip/indent on the hood happened. Feeling along the front edge of the hood, it didn't feel very smooth either.

Needless to say, but I'm very unhappy. This morning I sent a long email to the lady at Mazda (Katherine) expressing my very negative feelings and anger about the entire situation. Now awaiting Mazda's response.

Addendum: No word from Mazda yet. Dealer contacted me late yesterday, said car would be ready for pickup today. I plan on doing an inspection as best I can, including a side-by-side comparison with a new car from the dealer's lot. Supposed to rain heavily here today and tomorrow, so the comparo under outside light may have to wait until Fri or Sat.

 

Oh man, sorry to hear that. On the plus side, it was at least good to hear that your service manager refused to bring it bring it back the first time. Sounds like at least THAT individual had your interests at heart. But that's not much help if the body shop is not doing their job well.

And of course the weather has to not cooperate. I'd agree then with waiting until it's sunny and clear outside so you can get the best look to do the comparison. Even looking at them under the crap lights in the dealership or the work bays won't be as effective as outside in sunlight.

Hope this time it looks better. I'd also take a credit card and lightly drag it over all the windows - feel for any over spray that may be there but not quite visible.

I'd say good luck but you don't need luck, you need competence on the body shop's part, so here's wishing you good competence...

 

After a small wreck, my dealer repainted just the front of my Mazda3 Soul Red and it is a perfect match. Took him 2 tries, but he got it. Painting a car is part art and part science and some painters just don't have the knack (or the work ethic - it's not easy to do it right).

By the way, no chips on the front or roof of my 2014 Mazda 3 or 2018 CX-5 (both Soul Red). But the paint is brittle - I have chipped the paint on the back bumper of both loading my wife's wheelchair.

 

I must say that my dealership's service manager has been great. He's kept me updated on the status of my car through this process. I've already lost count on how many times the body shop has contacted my service manager to say the car would be ready "tomorrow", and the following day the body shop would call again to say it's not ready. I don't remember if I already mentioned it, but besides the 8+ weeks it's taken to get this paint problem resolved, my biggest issue with Mazda's fix is that they did NOT tell the body shop to repaint the entire vehicle. After all this, my car will STILL have defective paint on it, and I was told some body panels that were not fully repainted were blended with those that were. I still need to find out exactly what got painted (besides the hood and A-pillars).

 

 

I'm still in dispute with Mazda UK regarding excessive paint chipping issue. Then I get an email offeringe Apple Car Play/Andriod Auto installation for...... wait for it ! ...... £350 ! Not given as retro freebie in any circumstances. In addition standard caveat applies "Mazda are not responsible for performance/compatibility/upgrades/issue" etc.

I'm not a clever guy but I am clever enough to know that my MX5 (Miata) cost me £28,500, is less than 18 months old and has the lovely Soul Red Metallic paint (chipping like a loon) and £350 for Apple Car Play/Andriod Auto is not happening for me. In addition, this is the last Mazda I will ever own (because of the paint issue and Mazda refusal to rectify). This is following 20 years of unbroken MX5 (Miata) ownership...... 4 cars totalling £100K+ in todays money. Happy Days Mazda !

 

Update on my paint job. My car has been at the Paint Shop for 8 days. They called back for me to pick it up. The car look amazing. They did a real good job. Mazda didn't give me any fuss and they paid for the whole car to be painted, a $5000 job. I am now a happy customer. The dealership told me that it will probably be a recall. Let's see and wait.

 

Guessing Arkainzeye changed his mind about his post and deleted it, after saying every car he's had has chipped. Funny, I've had the opposite experience. My trade of my Mazda for my Jeep last month makes that my 18th new car in the last 23 years. And not ONCE did any of my cars have chips in them. I've had divots in windshields, but hoods and such have been unblemished. Granted, I usually got bored and changed cars anywhere from 1 to 2 years, but the Mazda had them instantly, and no other vehicle I've ever owned has. So I don't see his apologetic "every car does this don't blame Mazda" post as a valid justification of their paint... Dodge, Mitsubishi, Jeeps, Mazdas, Honda, Chevrolet, Scion, Toyota, Saturn, Smart Car, Kia, Nissan... Never saw chips to the metal on any of them...

Labouch, 8 days - that's pretty amazing considering what it took for mine, and SweetPete's was / is even longer. Glad it looks good. Mine did too except around the doors and hood and liftgate. Make sure to check all the plastic panels behind the body pieces (wheel wells, etc) since that's where they really screwed mine up and didn't get things put together correctly. Glad to hear that it sounds like yours went pretty flawlessly!

 

The reason I removed my comment was I saw Mazda was taking care of it for some people so I thought there was really no point. Another thing to consider it's completely ridiculous to compare brand A vs brand B, .unless you are talking about completely 100% identical situations like driving conditions even the speed if you drive 35 miles an hour everywhere you go and I have the exact same car and I drive 75 miles an hour where I go what do you think hits the front of the car hardest?

Another thing to consider my girlfriend when she drives her Toyota she gets so close to people it makes me nervous you get a big rig truck you get anything kick me up any little debris at all and your front end is Litterally a punching bag for everything on the road... and then yet another person with her exact same car could stay back 300 feet or whatever from a big rig truck and never get a chip in their front end .. Meanwhile my girlfriend would be the one complaining about how her paint is falling off the car but nobody knows she tail Gates people so close you can practically read the etching on the back of their windshield .. lol .

No I follow traffic at a safe distance but it doesn't matter if you're doing 75 miles an hour or whatever speed in the Little Rock gets kicked up it doesn't have to be a big rock and you don't have to hear it. And until this day considering I have painted motorcycles in the past I have yet to see any manufacturer brag about making chip resistant paint or Rock resistant paint and considering the thickness of what paint actually is it's not going to make it night and day difference..

I'm not referring to cars that have paint fall off of them because the prep work was bad I'm talking about the paint itself I've yet to see paint be advertised as being resistant to impact.

 

For pretty much everyone I know, they ARE driving the same roads, same speeds. Conditions can never be identical but they're so similar that the randomness factor doesn't change the percentage that much. Unless someone is a person who changes jobs all the time.

I drove the same road for 8 years from my city to another since I school choiced my son out there. Then to work. Then back to the other city after school to get him, and home. Didn't matter what car I drove, it went exactly where all the ones before it have gone.

And yes, much depends on how close people get to things. I, too, don't like to sit right behind trucks that throw up things.

But as I said, identical driving for each car, I've had every car have divots taken out of the windshield from rocks, so I know I've been hit with them. And I've never had a chip down to the metal in my life...

So yes, paint isn't some amazing armor coating that resists anything. But Mazda clearly screwed the pooch with this one... Hundreds of spots on my hood in less than a year, when no other car even had ONE that was visible...

And they're "taking care" of people, but it's still not good. Any paint job aftermarket isn't going to be as reliable as a factory job *should* be (obviously in this instance the redo is hopefully better since the original was so poor). And now the owners have to deal with multiple places for paint warranty work, depending on what and where a problem is.

I would've liked to see some compensation to those who are keeping it after the work. I dumped mine off so I wouldn't have to deal with the issues with things not assembled correctly and all the other noises now that it's been basically rebuilt in so many parts...