Concerned over the quality of paint finish on my mazda 6!!

bikingbarney

Hi all,
Im after some advice on a problem i have with my new(to me ) car.

I recently bought a 2010 "60plate" mazda 6 sport estate in stormy blue metallic on the recommendation of a friend and a very good test drive.

All is good with the car apart from one problem........ The paint work.

It seems the paint on the particualr colour is really soft and not up to standard.

the front end of the car, so bonnet , bumper and front wings are literally sandblasted with stonechips and marks. The rest of the car is covered in paint chips and marks. it seems the paint is really soft and just not good enough.


to put it into perspective the car I traded in for this car was an 06 vectra ( so 4 years older)with double the mileage and it was in much better condtion bodywork wise.



my friends mazda 6 is the same age but a "10 plate" but in white, put them side by side and you would swear my car is 7 or 8 years older.

I have tried to polish the car as best as i can but you simply have to brush lightly past it and the paint marks.

It seems to be a problem with this specific colour to on most mazda models as I have found links on different forums about people complaining about it.

When I bought the car I pointed the chips out to the salesman and asked for them to be sorted as part of the purchase to which he agreed.

When i collected the car it looked as though they had been done but because it was raining i couldnt tell properly.

The car went back to the dealers for something else and i pointed out they hadnt been done to the sales manager and he basically said tough and unfortunately the original salesman has been sacked.

The paint is meant to last a cars life time but this will need a front end respray in a year or so??

In the pictures below all the white marks are stone chips, it looks much worse in real life too.


pics..............
















do you think I have any complaint towards mazda as im now looking at a fairly substantial bill to have the front of the car repainted.

cheers

steve

Sgt_Pepper_2

You know the old saying 'never buy a car in the rain'.

bikingbarney

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

You know the old saying 'never buy a car in the rain'.

I know what you are saying but I never bought it in the rain.

the chips were pointed out to the salesman at the time a deal was struck along with a few other things.

when i picked it up the car must of been polished or something as ive normally got a keen eye for this but couldnt see them through the rain.

the thing is, the car seems to be getting more chips already !!

it seems like the paint is really thin.

vikingaero

Depends how the car has been driven. Plenty of people still drive feet away from the rear of HGV's which throws up loads of stones and debris.

Sgt_Pepper_2

bikingbarney wrote: »

I know what you are saying but I never bought it in the rain.

the chips were pointed out to the salesman at the time a deal was struck along with a few other things.

when i picked it up the car must of been polished or something as ive normally got a keen eye for this but couldnt see them through the rain.

the thing is, the car seems to be getting more chips already !!

it seems like the paint is really thin.

Ok when you signed for its condition and paid it was raining.

If you knew there was work to be done you should have checked it then.

They are clearly stone chips so I don't see how its Mazdas problem.

bikingbarney

Sgt_Pepper wrote: »

Ok when you signed for its condition and paid it was raining.

If you knew there was work to be done you should have checked it then.

They are clearly stone chips so I don't see how its Mazdas problem.

i know they are stone chips.

as part of the sales deal i asked for them and a few other jobs to be sorted out on the car which was agreed to by the salesman. unfortunately he has left the company and failed to inform his manager about it.

when i said about them to the manager he refused to sort it out.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

send these photos to mazda hq.

have a body shop look over the paint and write a report in his opinion what has failed with the paint work. if you can pluck a chunk of paint out with your nail on a part of the car that has no chips the paint is really soft (laquer) and id bet the wrong mix of activator and hardner was used if the car has had no bumps and not had a lick of paint before you owned it then its a failure on mazda's part and should honour the paint warranty.

or you could argue the paint is not fit for purpose after youve sought a mazda body shop (another dealer in your area) for a report (whats best a other body shop report or a mazda's own body specialists report!), and that you want your money back with your part ex you could if its on finance ask the finance company to help you resolve the issue.

manager or not he was rep and is you had an agreement for the issues to be sorted out.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Salesman tells customer what he wants to hear, how unusual, he's probably been headhunted by a major political party and will be a future prime minister once fully trained in the con.

To be fair the chips probably weren't there when you collected the car, the valeters no doubt polished the front end with some blue carp, which looked OK for a few weeks till it washed off, been done a thousand times.

I doubt you'll get any joy from Mazda, they still haven't taken responsibility for all the failed and yet to fail Diesel engines that fill up with unburnt fuel when DPF regens don't go right.

Best of luck pursuing them though, it does look a bit ropey for such a modern car, Vauxhall's green was similarly soft as putty some years back.

londonTiger

I had a lot of spots like that on my car when I boughts it. I assumed it was chips but a few washes later it all came off, I realise now that it was just tar/roaddust.

Couple of washes and claybar might help.

londonTiger

Also I'm aware that different car makes use differt types of clear coats, some hard, some soft. Dunno about mazda, but german cars use hard clear coat. My 10 year old vw has very good paintwork.

It's hard to think that in 2 years the coat has degraded so badly, but it;s entirely possible, if a car was used along country roads where the tarmac isnn't maintained often and theere's a lot of road dust lying around it could easily chip.

I can't tell what the condition is like from pics, but it may be just clear coat damage which can be polished out with a machine buffer. Not good in the long term as it thins the coat but cheaper than a respray for sure, which often means dismantling the parts and respraying using specialist equipment.

bikingbarney

londonTiger wrote: »

Also I'm aware that different car makes use differt types of clear coats, some hard, some soft. Dunno about mazda, but german cars use hard clear coat. My 10 year old vw has very good paintwork.

It's hard to think that in 2 years the coat has degraded so badly, but it;s entirely possible, if a car was used along country roads where the tarmac isnn't maintained often and theere's a lot of road dust lying around it could easily chip.

I can't tell what the condition is like from pics, but it may be just clear coat damage which can be polished out with a machine buffer. Not good in the long term as it thins the coat but cheaper than a respray for sure, which often means dismantling the parts and respraying using specialist equipment.

most of the chips are down the the primer, which is the white you can see, I guess if mazda had used a darker primer it wouldnt look so bad.

I have tried machine polishing the bonnet but still looks just as bad.

The paint is really thin and the clearcoat is soft which is why it keeps marking/chipping so easily.

In my opinion this specific colour is not up the the standard of car paint required in the uk.

My friends white mazda 6 which is a year older than mine and has done more miles has no stone chips what so ever on the front.??