I got my wife's CX5 GT soul red crystal back this weekend with the bumper cover painted. It looks very good. I would recommend this process to anyone with the patience to do so and good dealer relations.

 

This is a bummer to read about the Soul red. I opted for the special "white" (forget the name) on my 2016 GT and I have been amazed at how well it is performing. All 40k miles are on mostly crummy rural roads and highway's and there maybe 5 small shallow chips on the whole front end and only one is noticeable to me. Were these cars with issues not made in Japan like mine was? Different paint shop's can make a huge difference. Just ask a Corvette C7 owner like me.

 

All CX-5s are made in Hiroshima.

 

You guys have scared me. We currently own a 2016 CX-5 GT in Blue Reflex Mica that for the last few days I've been in negotiations to trade for a 2017 CX-5 GT with Premium Package in SOUL RED CRYSTAL METALLIC. It only has 7,260 miles on the clock. I have an appointment to see the car for the first time tomorrow morning. The dealer has had the car since December and they're telling me they can't discount it any further. Right. Reading about all the issues is giving me (1) major second thoughts about this car and (2) an excellent new bargaining "chip" (pardon the pun). I feel badly about all the issues you good people have experienced, and greatly appreciate you allowing me to discover it through this forum. If the deal is good enough I'll probably go with the wrap and cross my fingers, because we really like Mazda in general (this would be our fourth) and the CX-5 in particular. Wish me luck!

 

We have the silver CX-5 that my wife got a year ago and its paint has really chipped off. Before that she had a 2012 fusion. We still have the fusion b/c my niece (daughter) drives it. The hood on that does not have as many paint chips. Total garbage. I have complained to the dealer. They said its normal wear and tear. At this point I'm not sure I would buy another mazda

 

I don't understand why everyone here is complaining. Paint chips folks. Best way around it is to get the xpel front bumper, hood, fenders, and side view mirrors wrapped. Cost a lot of money, but will resolve all of these issues. I just got a CX-5 and in my book not worth it to get xpel.

 

As an company car "owner" of Soul Red and Crystal Soul Red (CX5 and Mazda 6), let me give you my thoughts.

Stone chips: don't be satisfied with the response from many that they are inevitable on any car and it's the way you drive. I've never had a car chip as easily as both of mine. Most of my chips are to the side, not the front and are from vehicles in the inside or outside lanes - it is not because I drive too close to the car in front (such a lazy answer).

The paint itself: good luck finding someone competent to repair and respray and provide a colour match. Any resprays will require much larger area to be covered in order to blend and, in most cases, you will see a difference except if you really do find someone exceptionally gifted in the art. My car has been repaired via "Mazda Trained Technicians" and it is definitely not a match.

Rust: what harm are stone chips, other than cosmetic, if it doesn't damage the fabric of the car? Despite repairing stone chips as quickly as I notice them, I have spider rust appearing on the roof. In a two year old car.

I'd avoid despite how much I love the colour. This is also the view of an experienced smart repairer who believes the lack of primer makes this the worst paint for stone chips and scratches he's come across.

And by the way: if you decide for Machine Grey instead, bear in mind that it is extremely expensive paint to respray. It is similar to a Bentley colour.

Take a look for yourself at used, recent Mazdas with normal milage. Stone chips everywhere.

It's a shame, because I love Mazda cars in every other detail. I'd stick to non-metallic white as it's easy and cheap to respray. Looks ok too.

There - a response from someone who knows and drives on real roads and 20k miles/year.

 

I'd also search yourself online for Mazda celebrating their unique paint technology, which doesn't use a primer, and question whether this is such good news for the owner.

Using a paint thickness gauge, the paint on my car is about 80um thick. That might not mean anything, except on a new VW I measured it to be 170um.

http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/env/other/paint_tech/

 

I just took my 2018 Mazda 6 which has soul red to the dealer yesterday. They said they're going to take it to the body shop and get an estimate for a complete respray as my hood, side fenders have multiple chips. I'm concerned they won't match it 100%, also how can they prevent this from happening again. Once they take pics and send the estimate to my dealer, they will reach out to Mazda and see what they say. Not really sure if I want a complete respray or not. But there really is no way to fix this. Other than have the respray done by Mazda themselves and put ceramic coating on the vehicle.

 

I bought the car discussed in my O/P (quoted above) on Feb. 27. Drove it exactly 102 miles home from the dealer in San Diego and gave it a good inspection as soon as I got it in the garage. I found one tiny chip toward the front of the hood. That weekend we took it about 200 miles north to Los Olivos to do some wine tasting. Inspected it again when we got back and didn't see any additional damage. Washed, clayed and waxed it after that and the paint looks beautiful. Of course that's not a lot of miles but others here have had nightmarish paint problems with not many more miles driven. My original plan to wrap the entire front end is on hold since it looks like I've been lucky so far. The prices I was quoted were also a contributing factor. The "assembly date" on my car is 10-17-17. Pretty late for a 2017 model I believe. Could that have anything to do with possible process improvements as far as applying the paint goes?