11th May 2010, 16:08

Yeah, I agree. I always keep a bottle of touch-up paint in the glove box after I buy a brand new $40,000 car.

12th May 2010, 05:59

I have bought new GM models every 2-3 years and currently have 3 of them. No paint issues. Is there a possibility there's more to this story? How about a shopping center cart hitting the car or some damage. My dealer is fair, but if I scuffed my nose of my vette on a parking bumper, the dealer would be a fool to fix my mistake. I suspect damage not a defect on this story.

12th May 2010, 10:08

I know of nightmare Subaru Outbacks and would never buy one.

I had a GM Trailblazer SS however that I recently sold, and it was absolutely great. A lot of fun to drive, especially if you have kids.

Mine was black, and if there is any color that would have the least flaw, it is black. My paint was perfect.

It would be interesting to know of all the specifics on the paint issue. What was the car washed with? And how was it washed and waxed. What chemicals and was something spilled on it (if they would admit), and it does really happen.

My friend had a overhead deck on his home, which he always parked his car underneath, and had deck wash or something spilled right through the gaps on his new SUV.

I had brake fluid in the past, which the mechanic dripped right on my fender once, and it damaged the finish.

I had the clear coat damaged on another by carelessness by others. These were late model cars at the time.

I clean my cars with safe car wash out of direct sun, dry with microfiber cloth (s) I like Maguiars products and use quick detailer carefully, not after a drive. I keep my car clean, garaged and am careful. You can tear the finish very fast with careless applications and wrong products. Embed a tiny piece of grit in your cleaning rag and you sand the car finish. Or those they burn paint with a high speed buffer. I am careful with any brushes still in any car wash and they can be an issue.

I think the dealer may have seen some underlying damage, which was not a manufacturer defect. They prep the cars and are inspected when leaving the lot. There's a chance something was spilled by even a customer onto a car parked on the lot (like on a Sunday?) by accident someone sat a caustic drink on a car. There is likely more to this story.

12th May 2010, 12:53

Again, the whole world outside of GM is not Honda or Toyota. That being said, I have had much more luck with any Honda or Toyota over the years then any GM product I have owned. You'll find stories of failed trannys and engine problems on ANY forum for ANY make of car. The only transmission problems I have ever experienced were on Chevy trucks, and unfortunately they still use basically the same defective transmissions in them now. Talk about bad design flaws! Never have I been left on the side of the road by any of my imports, not once... even when I didn't change the oil for 7,000 miles.

12th May 2010, 13:00

"I suspect damage not a defect on this story."

Normally I would agree with you, but this defect has occurred on both sides of their car. Since these cars are painted by machines, this one might have not been prepped properly or something was overlooked on the production line during this specific run of cars. GM was in an awfully big hurry to race these cars out into the market, and there were quite a few defects in them. This paint issue would not be beyond believability to me given that fact.

For GM to expect a customer to front $2,300 for a paintjob on a car with such low mileage, is ridiculous unless there was obvious signs of neglect or abuse. Would an owner, in their right mind, come onto a forum to complain about this ridiculous charge if they had done something to cause the damage on their vehicle? What would their purpose be? Sorry, but my experience with car companies leads me to believe GM is in the wrong on this one.... okay, onto the next issue as this one has been beaten to death.

12th May 2010, 21:09

Never had any issues with any of my imports. Got well over 250,000 miles out of all my Honda's. I've never had a major failure with any of my Honda's and never replaced anything major or out of the ordinary. Got almost 200,000 miles on my current car (a Toyota Corolla) and I have never had any issues with it either. The only vehicle I've ever owned that left me on the side of the road was a GM. It was the first and last one I owned.

13th May 2010, 05:38

Is it possible the owner exceeded 3400 RPM with his buffing application and damaged both sides of the car? I doubt he or she buffed only 1 side after they cleaned it up for a show etc. Unless you can physically see anything, writing about is not a visual.

I had a new Accord once that my son sat right on its hood and dented it badly. Since it was only a week old, I could have said I am upset that Honda did not cover it. These kind of things a dealer has to see and make a call on it. I turned mine in on my comprehensive and had the car fixed; did not blame Honda.

Both of my paint issues I had on new cars mentioned previously were ones that were caused by carelessness after the fact. One was a new GM and the other a black Chrysler Cirrus; also new at the time.

I live in the Northeast and the biggest paint concern I have is acid rain. I also have pine trees lining my drive with sap, and bird droppings overhead before I even reach my garage behind my home. Leave that on paint and see it etch into the paint.

The other factor is where does the car go to during the day. I go to power plants that have wash down drive throughs for the newer cars leaving, to get the ash off the paint.

13th May 2010, 09:14

If you read their explanation, they claim this has happened from 1,500 miles to 2,000 miles and doesn't sound like they buffed the car while they drove for 500 miles.

Why are we so quick to defend GM on this people? Have they NEVER done anything wrong? Please!! The new Camaro is well known to be plagued with production errors and defects, so why is this such a huge surprise to everyone? This is why they have gotten away with sub par quality products for decades. Everyone blames the owner of the car like they did something wrong to cause the problem. Give me a break. Are we really this numb to corporate scams?

13th May 2010, 14:13

I am in a vette car club, and there are many of us that only drive 1000 miles or less annually to shows cruise nights or charity events, and I know a lot of cars extreme low mileage out there. 2005s up just driven lightly. And late model Camaros. We clean after every show. Mine is not driven in bad weather or at all in winter. But I polish for hours, not once a year for the daily beaters. You can do a lot of damage in 10 minutes. I always have my shirt untucked. No belt buckles keys out to damage paint finishes. It is a lot of work cleaning cars the right way. I would love to see the dealers reply on here. Which is one side. My dealer has treated me well. I wonder if I needed a new clutch the day after possession; the response as an example. It's best to have the painted measured and checked out if there is no way it was ever cleaned