Discussion of Stinger paint quality (Was - Paint Chip Issue)

[Revvdmedia]

Interesting you feel that way.

I too have an update, not entirely related to the Stinger and Kia NA.

So, I bought my wife a Palisade and we noticed that there was a slight paint issue on the driver's front fender. I took it to the dealer and they immediately were apologetic, took the car in, gave me a loaner and have been excellent through the whole process.

This is a distant cry from the lack of information and hassle I got from Kia. My real point is that Kia chose the hard way, Hyundai chose the easy, "customer friendly" (with customer retention in mind) way. From initial call to paint was less than a week. They are even throwing in some map updates and such.

Thought I would share, for what its worth.

I would not call this what to expect in all cases. I would say that my Kia dealer I used was rather incompetent, but my wife's Hyundai service department (she has a Santa Fe) was MUCH worse.

 

[jondyer]

I would not call this what to expect in all cases. I would say that my Kia dealer I used was rather incompetent, but my wife's Hyundai service department (she has a Santa Fe) was MUCH worse.

I would agree that I was making generalizations. I will correct that by saying that most of the Kia dealers down here, and the Kia NA rep here trend towards incompetent or uncaring. That is certainly not true of *all* as I have found at least one service advisor that seems to know their "stuff" and is uncharacteristically (for the dealership/area) is geared towards practicing good customer service.

Generally, as long as you stay away from the giant Hyundai dealers that belong to chains (4 down here), the staff are reasonably well mannered and decent. Being a former (and future) Genesis owner, I tend to call "my" Genesis SA anyway, because they are in the Hyundai shop and tend to be the better of the advisors there.

So, yes, I admit I am biased, but then, aren't we all in some way?

 

[SafetyPilotCal]

Bumping a thread that's been slow recently. Just noticed after getting back from a long drive across the state that there are two sizable chips out of the hood, presumably from a rock. It's down to the metal and you can see how thin the paint on these cars actually is. I'm dumbfounded that my Corvette, which has 61,000 miles on it (the vast majority of which have been interstate), has exactly 1 rock chip on the driver's side headlamp cover. My 2001 Regal, with 155,000 miles, has some pockmarks in the plastic bumper but no chips on the hood. The Stinger has 3700 miles on it..

 

[Chapindad]

Bumping a thread that's been slow recently. Just noticed after getting back from a long drive across the state that there are two sizable chips out of the hood, presumably from a rock. It's down to the metal and you can see how thin the paint on these cars actually is. I'm dumbfounded that my Corvette, which has 61,000 miles on it (the vast majority of which have been interstate), has exactly 1 rock chip on the driver's side headlamp cover. My 2001 Regal, with 155,000 miles, has some pockmarks in the plastic bumper but no chips on the hood. The Stinger has 3700 miles on it..

I resemble all those remarks. I have had several Toyotas driving the exact same roads with no issues. I am still finding delamination issues, but I past the 36k. I had the paint and body shop put in a warranty issue for me at 31k and nothing. I have already turned my son-in-law away from Kia and for a Nissan. My mom wanted the new Telluride but I convinced her not to do it and stick with her current older SUV. My wife is suppose to get a new car this year and guess what it won’t be. I love driving my Stinger so the paint issue that Kia will not own up too, just hurts me deeply. I had an Audi A3 before this one and I like that car a lot but I didn’t love it. I now wish I had stuck with it, at least it was what it was and not less than what it was sold to me.

 

[SafetyPilotCal]

Yeah, I'm just super annoyed man. I really don't want to be looking at the paint on this car getting worse and worse as I'm paying it off over the next four and a half years. I love how the car drives, I love how it looks. I just don't love all the little "gotchas" like cheap paint, rattling hatches, and broken telematics. I don't know how the paint is on other $50,000 sedans out there, but I'd HOPE it's better than this.

 

[davebo]

I have already turned my son-in-law away from Kia and for a Nissan.

As far as I know this is just an issue with the Stinger though. A new model they spent a lot producing that was already intended to be low volume, so they clearly cut some corners where they thought they could get away with it (but shouldn't have!) That's not to say Kia doesn't understand how paint works, assuming your son-in-law was buying some other model since Nissan doesn't really have a Stinger equivalent. My 2012 Optima with Corsa Blue paint still looks amazing and the only real imperfections are where my wife has managed to run into stuff in the past two years. Warranty is up in two more years and we'll probably replace with a Niro EV or see what else is on the market then.

 

[MerlintheMad]

It's not the paint thickness or quality. Some vehicles are flawed, but most Stingers are fine.
Paint is just ugh

 

[SafetyPilotCal]

The paint thickness absolutely varies wildly all over the car, such as in this example (timestamp 16:32)

In addition, there is also a small, i'd say ~4mm diameter spot on the driver's rear fender of my car where it looks like something got between the paint and clearcoat. It hasn't changed since I got the car, so hopefully it won't progress to being something worse. Regardless, it's unacceptable. Kia do not get a pass on "most Stingers being fine". It isn't a Rio, it's a $53,000 car and it sits at the very top of their model line, minus the K900 that nobody wants to buy.

So yes, it is the quality of the paint, and it's inferior to work that f*cking GENERAL MOTORS of all people did 20 years ago.

I will give Kia credit for doing the right thing when it comes to Sunset Yellow owners, but at the same time I can be disappointed that I'm having paint issues I didn't have on far cheaper, more downmarket vehicles. This comes back to what I have said about this car from the very beginning: The Stinger itself is an exquisite automobile for the money in terms of driving dynamics, styling, and features. Nothing else comes remotely close. Kia themselves (the dealer network, the workshops, the customer service) suck.

 

[jondyer]

^^^ What they said ^^^

 

[Ozstung]

26 months in and any stone hits have all gone down to the metal. Looks to be thin compared to my previous and current vehicles.

 

[MerlintheMad]

It's too bad that Kia can't up their game faster. Currently, somewhere around two-thirds of Kia owners are satisfied with their experience dealing with Kia's customer service. That's big room for improvement. Kia compares "favorably" to many manufacturers that have had a better rep.

 

[Fred Pahlke]

Had my yellow repainted and even though I did not have an issue with the paint before the repaint I have had none since either. I kept my yellow and have no issues.

 

[G-667703]

Had my yellow repainted and even though I did not have an issue with the paint before the repaint I have had none since either. I kept my yellow and have no issues.

Then be happy because you got lucky. I know a Kia paint shop manager and he is telling me that they are doing a lot of repaints for Stingers versus other models. The Stinger is a great car with some unnecessary flaws which is too bad. I traded it for a RAV4 Hybrid which was a major downgrade but the build quality is far better.

 

[Fred Pahlke]

Then be happy because you got lucky. I know a Kia paint shop manager and he is telling me that they are doing a lot of repaints for Stingers versus other models. The Stinger is a great car with some unnecessary flaws which is too bad. I traded it for a RAV4 Hybrid which was a major downgrade but the build quality is far better.

 

[Fred Pahlke]

Paint and build quality are the same? I have had no issues with my Yellow. As I did not even have any paint problems but I could not turn down the repaint as of the 5 grand KIA game me. I am sorry you got a Stinger with flaws as every make can have issues per car.

 

[Vladec]

i drive on the highway 60 miles round trip and the front end of my car up close looks like a class of kindergartners threw rocks at it for a full day. When I got it ceramic coated I talked to a few different shops and they all said Kia put nice paint on our stingers but it's a very soft paint and common among Korean car manufacturers. On another note they all did say BMW and Audi have some best best paint.

 

[MerlintheMad]

i drive on the highway 60 miles round trip and the front end of my car up close looks like a class of kindergartners threw rocks at it for a full day. When I got it ceramic coated I talked to a few different shops and they all said Kia put nice paint on our stingers but it's a very soft paint and common among Korean car manufacturers. On another note they all did say BMW and Audi have some best best paint.

I noticed the front of mine at c. three months (the equivalent of maybe a couple of hours in your analogy); touched everything up that I could see and wasted not a moment longer before getting full frontal PPF. The rest of my paint has been holding up really well.

 

[G-345927]

Two thin body molding strips on roof replaced today..... BUT in a matte finish.... so when in direct sunlight they look gray not shiny black like my exterior paint job. So I asked if my car was white would the molding strips be the same gray color and he said YES ! They are ordering new body moldings and will paint them hopefully shiny black. Only needs to last a few months until my new electric Mustang arrives.

 

[Irving Carbajal]

I have a Black 2.0 premium model. I have had it exactly two weeks and I am noticing a lot of paint chips on it. It started as one on the hood over the weekend and the dealer got a paint pen to touch it up. When I stopped by to get the paint pen, I started cleaning off the massive amounts of pollen and I notice a heck of a lot more. The dealer claims this is normal and I am noticing it more because of the black paint. Is anyone else having an issue? I am worried this is a bigger problem.

I’m having issues with that too , but on the strips on top of the doors , and my door knob, the plastic piece for the key , broke I don’t know how .

 

[MerlintheMad]

Welcome, Irving.

Are you saying that you have dark chrome "strips" that have chips in them? That would be a first.

The discoloring trim above the doors have nothing to do with paint defects, as described by many posts in this thread. There are actual solutions involving cleaning that removes the oxidation of the dark chrome "strips".

As for the broken physical key cover, it must have got bumped, hard; or is defective from the factory. It will be a warranty fix (unless you have jerks for service; Kia dealerships have way too many of those, but I believe it's getting better over time).