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

[A Member Who Left]

Calling BS on Kia. Buyback under those conditions seems like the only sensible option but to each his or her own. That really sucks for the many reasons stated ad infinitum throughout this thread. An attorney could negotiate this for y’all on your terms much easier.

 

[Tonkabob]

Could use the extra $5K for painting the bumpers and striping to bare metal instead of just to primer.

 

[Sabz]

Well somebody had to get the letter first and it appears to be me. There is not much more information than we already knew. The letter seems to strongly be encouraging repaint with the $5,000 payment as a good will gesture as the primary option. Swap out and buyback are listed later in the FAQ part of the letter if people are not happy with a repaint. The letter specifically calls out that only metal areas of the car are affected and that is what will be painted.
There is an item of interest about the warranty. Here is the exact wording: "Q10. Will these paint repairs affect the paint warranty on my vehicle? A10. No. There will be no changes to the existing 3 years or 36,000 mile paint warranty (whichever comes first) as outlined in the 2018 Warranty and Consumer Informational Manual that came with the vehicle." There is nothing about a lifetime warranty, we keep the same 3/36 apparently. The only other thing I noticed is that it does say we have until December 1 to choose swapping for a different color or Buyback. This was stated previously in this thread but now I have it in writing. There are no other surprises in the letter which is two pages and then two pages of FAQs. Most of the FAQs are very basic like : "Will I have to pay for the repaint" and " What cars are affected" so like I said no big revelations there. That is everything in the letter that people wanted clarity on I think. Good luck everyone.

So they are going to give us a repaint and 5k on top of that!?

 

[Tonkabob]

So they are going to give us a repaint and 5k on top of that!?

Just for Yellow

 

[Sabz]

Just for Yellow

That’s what I got .... waiting on my letter too

 

[eflyguy]

Hmmmm... wonder if there will be some awesome deals on pre-owned Stingers that would be suitable for wrapping?

 

[FrostedTurbo]

At this rate they should be offering the ceramic coating for free for all stingers. This is ridiculous... I've always hand washed and noticing at least one new chip everytime...also missing paint on my roof....had the dealer take pictures, haven't heard anything for 3 weeks now...

 

[Keith Ruff]

New owner (leaser) of a sunset yellow just 3.5 weeks ago. Love the car! Got the call from Kia on a Friday eve, thought it was a spam sales call so I didn't answer, but they left a voicemail to call them. Had to wait until this past Monday to call them but investigated the paint issue over the weekend. Honestly didn't know what I wanted to do, too many unknowns and what if's. I love the yellow and the fact it is only 1 of 400, but the thought of repaint and if it would be high quality and last has me scared. Started looking closely at the car and found the same as most, strange flaked off paint on the hood of drivers side edge near but not on the spot where the wiper would hit the hood if lifted. Couldn't figure out how that could happen until reading these posts. Funny thing was there was a chip on the passenger fender when I bought it that the dealer pointed out, they ordered me touchup paint free of charge to address that. I guess that was the 1st sign of an issue that I didn't know about at the time. Also just found a circular spot on the hood that just flaked off, so I am impacted as well and voted this evening as such on the poll. I told Kia that as a consideration for this issue I'd like them to upgrade me from the GT to a GT1 in ceramic silver that is at my Kia dealer, they noted it to discuss with me when they call me back after I get my letter. Not sure if ceramic silver has the same issues as the other colors, didn't see it mentioned on the posts. After reading ALL 67 pages on this post (took me hours over 2 days! Lol) I don't think that would be any better as it seems all colors are thin and are flaking or chipping away. I like the option of a repaint then 30 days to accept or go with a trade for another color or buyback, but am leary of not having all parts repainted. Don't think buyback is an option as I had a negative equity trade that was rolled into my payments, don't know what they would do in that case. Also, my front bumper needs to be repainted as there are thin spots around the air inlet vents for the brake cooling on both sides. Thought it was dirt but when cleaning and looking closer, it's the black plastic coming through! The paint is so thin it doesn't even cover the entire surface! They noted that on my case file as well. I think my best option is repaint and use the $5K to have the body shop paint the other remaining body parts that Kia won't paint so I get a true complete "full"repaint and then know I have more coats of paint and clear coat than stock. Waiting for my letter to arrive. Going to be an interesting few months ahead. Thanks to all for participating and providing info and experiences on this post and forum.

Keith in NJ

 

[AV8R]

New owner (leaser) of a sunset yellow just 3.5 weeks ago. Love the car! Got the call from Kia on a Friday eve, thought it was a spam sales call so I didn't answer, but they left a voicemail to call them. Had to wait until this past Monday to call them but investigated the paint issue over the weekend. Honestly didn't know what I wanted to do, too many unknowns and what if's. I love the yellow and the fact it is only 1 of 400, but the thought of repaint and if it would be high quality and last has me scared. Started looking closely at the car and found the same as most, strange flaked off paint on the hood of drivers side edge near but not on the spot where the wiper would hit the hood if lifted. Couldn't figure out how that could happen until reading these posts. Funny thing was there was a chip on the passenger fender when I bought it that the dealer pointed out, they ordered me touchup paint free of charge to address that. I guess that was the 1st sign of an issue that I didn't know about at the time. Also just found a circular spot on the hood that just flaked off, so I am impacted as well and voted this evening as such on the poll. I told Kia that as a consideration for this issue I'd like them to upgrade me from the GT to a GT1 in ceramic silver that is at my Kia dealer, they noted it to discuss with me when they call me back after I get my letter. Not sure if ceramic silver has the same issues as the other colors, didn't see it mentioned on the posts. After reading ALL 67 pages on this post (took me hours over 2 days! Lol) I don't think that would be any better as it seems all colors are thin and are flaking or chipping away. I like the option of a repaint then 30 days to accept or go with a trade for another color or buyback, but am leary of not having all parts repainted. Don't think buyback is an option as I had a negative equity trade that was rolled into my payments, don't know what they would do in that case. Also, my front bumper needs to be repainted as there are thin spots around the air inlet vents for the brake cooling on both sides. Thought it was dirt but when cleaning and looking closer, it's the black plastic coming through! The paint is so thin it doesn't even cover the entire surface! They noted that on my case file as well. I think my best option is repaint and use the $5K to have the body shop paint the other remaining body parts that Kia won't paint so I get a true complete "full"repaint and then know I have more coats of paint and clear coat than stock. Waiting for my letter to arrive. Going to be an interesting few months ahead. Thanks to all for participating and providing info and experiences on this post and forum.

Keith in NJ

Wow thats a long story that needs a few paragraphs to break it up! Anyway welcome and sorry to hear about your paint issues. Dont repaint! I would go for the silky silver as it has had the least amount of issues and looks good too. I hope it works out for you in the end. Also can you put your location in your profile please.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Wow thats a long story that needs a few paragraphs to break it up! Anyway welcome and sorry to hear about your paint issues. Dont repaint! I would go for the silky silver as it has had the least amount of issues and looks good too. I hope it works out for you in the end. Also can you put your location in your profile please.

Not true, according to the current poll results: Deep Chroma Blue is the least affected now. But Silky Silver didn't even have a single vote till this week. I wonder how much of this poll is reactionary: meaning, any flaw is seen as a "paint failure" by some people, after learning that there is a problem with a few Stingers' paint.

A "few" is 177 poll responses, nearly half of which are "no problem", in almost two months of polling: and the poll is instantly available to anyone anywhere in the world who can Google. I've said this several times by now: but the evidence is that most Stingers (now well over 12K worldwide) are not suffering flaking/chipping paint issues. If this were a widespread problem, the poll would be inundated with responses.

I'm trying to put myself in the place of someone who has discovered that his/her brand new Stinger has failing paint. The $5K compensation would swing the deal for me: repaint and use the money to assure a really good paint job.

To those (fewer still) who have failing paint on other colors than Yellow: carry this on the back of the failing Yellow and get your case expedited, i.e. treated the very same way as the Yellow, on a case by case basis. Kia will listen, I am confident in saying: but your battle will probably be longer.

 

[KiaofMuncie]

https://jalopnik.com/the-only-phoenix-yellow-2018-honda-civic-type-r-looks-s-1827936287

 

[A Member Who Left]

It’s unfortunate that Kia won’t be paying this type of attention to detail, right down to the door jambs, the frame and under the hood, etc. by completely disassembling the cars. I’ve seen a few say just use the extra $5000 to get it done correctly. Why can’t Kia do that in the first place?

 

[Keith Ruff]

As an engineer I have to say the poll is flawed in that in order to truly get the stats on effected cars, you must get a response from ALL owners, not just the 177 on this board that have responded. To calculate the % effected, use your total number of responses and calculate the % that are effected of that 177. That % can then be broken down by color of car. This is just a small sample size of the true population of owners. Remember not all owners are internet savy and searching for owners groups and forums so the only people that will know the true impact and effected Stingers is Kia themselves.

 

[AV8R]

As an engineer I have to say the poll is flawed in that in order to truly get the stats on effected cars, you must get a response from ALL owners, not just the 177 on this board that have responded. To calculate the % effected, use your total number of responses and calculate the % that are effected of that 177. That % can then be broken down by color of car. This is just a small sample size of the true population of owners. Remember not all owners are internet savy and searching for owners groups and forums so the only people that will know the true impact and effected Stingers is Kia themselves.

I won’t argue with your engineering expertise but if you just look at the graph you can see the colours that are trending as being affected the most. So I guess if you treat it as snap shot from forum members only it indicates the results of the poll visually. Unfortunately we can only derive this from our members. The good thing is that Kia have recognised the issue and are doing something about it.

 

[MartinUK]

This is interesting because the "rumor mill" is that KMA (Kia Motors America) won't do bumpers, under the hood, door jambs, etc for the Sunset Yellows....... If they are seriously going to shit all over the repaint options for these, while giving other owners with the same issue a good, thorough repaint, I am going to absolutely loose my shit. I am holding on to final judgement until I get the full, official letter in the mail with details and call them back with a laundry list of questions before I make my decision on which option to choose. I want all of the info in front of me before any decision is made.

Part of me thinks that these CS reps making the calls are getting mis-informed or 'interpreting' the info to us in their own way. Some people get 1 description while others get a different description.

Hopefully we will have the official letters soon so we know exactly what we are working with and what will happen.

If they screw this up and do not give us an option for a paint job worthy of a $50k car, unfortunately, I will ditch it and go elsewhere even though I love the Stinger. Fool me once and all that BS.

I thought a proper paint job required blending the paint into the other panels to match, so wouldn't they have to do the bumpers anyway?

 

[StingerGT68]

https://jalopnik.com/the-only-phoenix-yellow-2018-honda-civic-type-r-looks-s-1827936287

Yeah, but it still looks like a Civic Type R

 

[Ivansito]

Has anyone inquired regarding if compensation money and wheather or not we'll haveto pay taxes on the 5000

 

[Kato_the_kia_stinger]

Well somebody had to get the letter first and it appears to be me. There is not much more information than we already knew. The letter seems to strongly be encouraging repaint with the $5,000 payment as a good will gesture as the primary option. Swap out and buyback are listed later in the FAQ part of the letter if people are not happy with a repaint. The letter specifically calls out that only metal areas of the car are affected and that is what will be painted.
There is an item of interest about the warranty. Here is the exact wording: "Q10. Will these paint repairs affect the paint warranty on my vehicle? A10. No. There will be no changes to the existing 3 years or 36,000 mile paint warranty (whichever comes first) as outlined in the 2018 Warranty and Consumer Informational Manual that came with the vehicle." There is nothing about a lifetime warranty, we keep the same 3/36 apparently. The only other thing I noticed is that it does say we have until December 1 to choose swapping for a different color or Buyback. This was stated previously in this thread but now I have it in writing. There are no other surprises in the letter which is two pages and then two pages of FAQs. Most of the FAQs are very basic like : "Will I have to pay for the repaint" and " What cars are affected" so like I said no big revelations there. That is everything in the letter that people wanted clarity on I think. Good luck everyone.

How did they refer to the payment? Did they say “payment”or “rebate” or something else?

 

[Joseph Cahn]

Here is the exact wording about the payment:
For customer satisfaction purposes, Kia will also provide you with a financial goodwill gesture of five thousand dollars ($5,000) when the repaint has been completed. See the attached Questions and Answers
(Q&A) document for additional details and options available to you.

 

[mightbestung]

Calling BS on Kia. Buyback under those conditions seems like the only sensible option but to each his or her own. That really sucks for the many reasons stated ad infinitum throughout this thread. An attorney could negotiate this for y’all on your terms much easier.

Agree with this guy. Looks like a class action would be the way to go. Especially since Kia is only confirming problems with yellow when several colors have been impacted. And not repainting the bumpers when cars are sitting on lots with paint flaking off on them???

I appreciate the Goodwill that Kia is trying to do here but it looks like to me they have half **sed this thing. Other colors are clearly affected so make this fix available to all affected and paint the bumpers too!! How hard is that?