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

[KiaofMuncie]

I want to thank you and KIA of Muncie for being so transparent, pro-active and involved in this thread. I’m sure I speak for most everyone on this thread, that you are more than appreciated. A dealer that’s willing to be open and honest about what’s happening is extremely valuable right now as we all try to figure out what’s happening and next steps. Thank you!

Appreciate the kind words. We are all in this together.

 

[StingMe]

Here's how a good dealer delivers Camaros longer distances. Hood is vinyl-wrapped. Everywhere else there's thin, soft paint. Chip city. $75K

 

[DiabloStinger]

i have to say i would not allow my brand new car to get repainted without significant financial compensation.

 

[StingerGT68]

i have to say i would not allow my brand new car to get repainted without significant financial compensation.

I respectfully disagree...if Kia is paying for the repaint then what's the difference? I would have to believe the new paint job will be a heck of a lot better than the one they gave the car initially. Sure it's a pain in the butt to do it, but I don't think a car manufacturer would ever pay for the repaint *and* give owners money as a "sorry". The repaint is good enough.

 

[Kazz]

I respectfully disagree...if Kia is paying for the repaint then what's the difference? I would have to believe the new paint job will be a heck of a lot better than the one they gave the car initially. Sure it's a pain in the butt to do it, but I don't think a car manufacturer would ever pay for the repaint *and* give owners money as a "sorry". The repaint is good enough.

Is that based on the quality of shops in your neighborhood? Some of us aren't so lucky as to have a go-to bodyshop, just a bunch of mediocre ones.

 

[StingerGT68]

Is that based on the quality of shops in your neighborhood? Some of us aren't so lucky as to have a go-to bodyshop, just a bunch of mediocre ones.

I'm in the tri-state NY area so we do definitely have some great shops around here. But even so, I would hope that any reputable Kia dealer knows of a shop that could do good work on a repaint, regardless of location. And if not, I would 100% demand they pay to have the car shipped/driven somewhere where there ARE good paint shops.

 

[Diggerdale]

If i’m on a lease, I don’t care. If

I respectfully disagree...if Kia is paying for the repaint then what's the difference? I would have to believe the new paint job will be a heck of a lot better than the one they gave the car initially. Sure it's a pain in the butt to do it, but I don't think a car manufacturer would ever pay for the repaint *and* give owners money as a "sorry". The repaint is good enough.

I agree a re-spray should come with financial compensation. If I’m on a lease or if i’m selling to an individual down the road, I probably don’t care about a re-spray. If i’m trading my car in at a dealer on a different car, I care a lot! A professional can always tell when a car has been re-painted and it WILL hurt the value of the car.

 

[Mach_Tuck]

If i’m on a lease, I don’t care. If
I agree a re-spray should come with financial compensation. If I’m on a lease or if i’m selling to an individual down the road, I probably don’t care about a re-spray. If i’m trading my car in at a dealer on a different car, I care a lot! A professional can always tell when a car has been re-painted and it WILL hurt the value of the car.

if purchasing a used car, id rather see a quality re-spray then a shabby original coat...just my opinion. Ive never been asked if car has original paint or not during any transaction. However, as you say, perhaps they can tell and it does not come up.

 

[gilthanis1]

i have to say i would not allow my brand new car to get repainted without significant financial compensation.

If i’m on a lease, I don’t care. If
I agree a re-spray should come with financial compensation. If I’m on a lease or if i’m selling to an individual down the road, I probably don’t care about a re-spray. If i’m trading my car in at a dealer on a different car, I care a lot! A professional can always tell when a car has been re-painted and it WILL hurt the value of the car.

Significant financial compensation for what? Them giving you a $15k teardown and respray? There's all the "compensation" anyone is due for Kia to fix the car, and anything else is just gravy. There's an issue, they fix it, problem solved. That would be like expecting them to give you $500 for a recall/warranty repair that they are already doing for free, which will never happen.

Painting a car will not hurt the value, unless it's a shitty paint job. Before you try and argue, look at the thousands of classic cars that have been repainted over the years and still pull in 6 figure sales prices. Don't try to throw around that just re-painting hurts the value, if anything it will help because it will look better and hold up 100x time better.

Bottom line, Kia doesn't 'owe' us anything except a fix for the issue and that's it. If they are willing to own up to it and fix it, then be happy. It's way more than 99% of the other manufacturers on the planet would do and I'm dam happy they are working on it to make us happy.

 

[DiabloStinger]

Significant financial compensation for what? Them giving you a $15k teardown and respray? There's all the "compensation" anyone is due for Kia to fix the car, and anything else is just gravy. There's an issue, they fix it, problem solved. That would be like expecting them to give you $500 for a recall/warranty repair that they are already doing for free, which will never happen.

Painting a car will not hurt the value, unless it's a shitty paint job. Before you try and argue, look at the thousands of classic cars that have been repainted over the years and still pull in 6 figure sales prices. Don't try to throw around that just re-painting hurts the value, if anything it will help because it will look better and hold up 100x time better.

Bottom line, Kia doesn't 'owe' us anything except a fix for the issue and that's it. If they are willing to own up to it and fix it, then be happy. It's way more than 99% of the other manufacturers on the planet would do and I'm dam happy they are working on it to make us happy.

Kia DOES owe owners for this. Companies shell out millions of dollars every year to compensate for things much less trivial than paint. I’m telling you my opinion. I would not accept them repainting a brand new car. I’d ask for a different car. As a consumer they need to make us whole. Luckily I haven’t had any issues but I inspect the car daily!

 

[Helo58]

Kia DOES owe owners for this. Companies shell out millions of dollars every year to compensate for things much less trivial than paint. I’m telling you my opinion. I would not accept them repainting a brand new car. I’d ask for a different car. As a consumer they need to make us whole. Luckily I haven’t had any issues but I inspect the car daily!

By law, KIA will only be required to fix the problem as it exists. Should you try for a settlement above and beyond that, the "burden of proof" will be upon you at that point to demonstrate why you should be compensated in excess of your car being fixed. Should KIA decide to do anything further than the law requires, it would be a business decision, plain and simple. I am not sure what "make us whole" means when you refer to a depreciating asset. They are making your car whole by repainting it. I think what you are asking for is something akin to a guarantee that your car won't depreciate. No such guarantee exists... ask anyone driving a Fiat 500L.

 

[StungnTn]

I have a yellow sunset stinger and I have huge paint chips, most of them look like they happened with very minimal impact. At about 4k miles here is what I am experiencing:

- 3 on my hood that are the size of an eraser
- 6 or so on my front bumper that are the about 1-2 mm
- 4 on my doors around 1-2 mm
- 3 on my fenders that are about 2-3 mm
- 1 on my roof that's about 3mm, I was really surprised to see this one

I took it into the dealer about 2 months ago, most of these occurred within the first 1500 miles. They took pictures, no response yet.

Anyways, one other thing that I noticed is that the paint on the gas cover is terrible, the edges are not completely covered in paint, and the underside is even worse.

 

[Tonkabob]

I have a yellow sunset stinger and I have huge paint chips, most of them look like they happened with very minimal impact. At about 4k miles here is what I am experiencing:

- 3 on my hood that are the size of an eraser
- 6 or so on my front bumper that are the about 1-2 mm
- 4 on my doors around 1-2 mm
- 3 on my fenders that are about 2-3 mm
- 1 on my roof that's about 3mm, I was really surprised to see this one

I took it into the dealer about 2 months ago, most of these occurred within the first 1500 miles. They took pictures, no response yet.

Anyways, one other thing that I noticed is that the paint on the gas cover is terrible, the edges are not completely covered in paint, and the underside is even worse.

2 months is discouraging. Did you also open a case with Kia directly? I have very similar sounding chips on my blue car and have been waiting 2.5 weeks.

 

[MerlintheMad]

@StungnTn:, ah, you are the new "Yellow" vote this morning. I keep fairly close track of this poll, for intellectual reasons only: it is my contention that this poll only draws yes votes by virtue of a web search for failed paint jobs on Stingers. Others are not looking and only come across this issue accidentally; thus the minority of no votes. You'll notice that there is very little participation on the poll despite it having been up since early this month (it barely topped 100 in the last couple of days). This is an indicator that there is not a large scale, worldwide problem with failing paint on Stingers. You are one of the unlucky few.

I agree with the comments above praising Kia for being willing to own this and handle the corrective measures fairly. There will be a few cases where dealers drop the ball. But Kia isn't going to let their brand new "flagship" car become a "family pariah". That would ruin them. I believe that they will even take financial loss temporarily early in the marketing game in order to guarantee their reputation as the world's leader in warranty reliance and quality service. The Stinger is a well developed machine and of good quality throughout. A paint issue on a relatively few cars should not even make it onto most people's radar.

 

[StingerGT68]

@StungnTn:, ah, you are the new "Yellow" vote this morning. I keep fairly close track of this poll, for intellectual reasons only: it is my contention that this poll only draws yes votes by virtue of a web search for failed paint jobs on Stingers. Others are not looking and only come across this issue accidentally; thus the minority of no votes. You'll notice that there is very little participation on the poll despite it having been up since early this month. This is an indicator that there is not a large scale, worldwide problem with failing paint on Stingers. You are one of the unlucky few.

I'm sorry but I think your logic is flawed. I could easily say people see this thread, are curious and then come here and vote, even if they don't have problems. Even if I wasn't googling for paint chip issues, I could come across this thread thanks to the handy "New Posts" button at the top of this forum. People click it, see this thread and say 'oh I wonder what the problem is'.

You have to look at the votes we DO have and see that a shocking number have voted yes. At the same time, it's not scientific at all...even people on this thread who have said they have chips say they haven't voted yet.

Plus, take a look at the Stinger Owner's Group on Facebook...many people there are talking about this issue as well.

I'm not saying this is the world's biggest problem (because we all know forums magnify even the smallest issues) but it's definitely something and trying to downplay it only hurts the people who DO have the problem, considering we know Kia is watching this thread.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I'm sorry but I think your logic is flawed. I could easily say people see this thread, are curious and then come here and vote, even if they don't have problems. Even if I wasn't googling for paint chip issues, I could come across this thread thanks to the handy "New Posts" button at the top of this forum. People click it, see this thread and say 'oh I wonder what the problem is'.

You have to look at the votes we DO have and see that a shocking number have voted yes. At the same time, it's not scientific at all...even people on this thread who have said they have chips say they haven't voted yet.

Plus, take a look at the Stinger Owner's Group on Facebook...many people there are talking about this issue as well.

I'm not saying this is the world's biggest problem (because we all know forums magnify even the smallest issues) but it's definitely something and trying to downplay it only hurts the people who DO have the problem, considering we know Kia is watching this thread.

I addressed the accidental or happenstance nature of people who do not have paint failures encountering this poll. That's how I found out about it last week. I'm not even sure now how I discovered it, but it wasn't by using some "handy new posts" feature here: I've never even seen that before.

The number of yes votes reflects the proportional interest: non failures are not going to be interested up front as a group. Paint failures are going to be attracted to the topic and find it easily, anywhere in the world that Stingers are sold. To only have just over a hundred total votes so far is significant. But I do keep daily tabs on this one, because it could suddenly sky rocket. If that is what happens, it just means that the poll was a sleeper, and the paint failures are more significantly numerous than I want to believe at the present time.

 

[StingerGT68]

I addressed the accidental or happenstance nature of people who do not have paint failures encountering this poll. That's how I found out about it last week. I'm not even sure now how I discovered it, but it wasn't by using some "handy new posts" feature here: I've never even seen that before.

The New Posts button is at the top of literally every page of this forum, I highly suggest it! Good way to discover new, interesting threads.

 

[MerlintheMad]

The New Posts button is at the top of literally every page of this forum, I highly suggest it! Good way to discover new, interesting threads.

Thanks. I get focused and don't explore enough. Once I have a method of getting around down, I stop looking for more facile ways to "get around".

 

[DiabloStinger]

Not sure why some are defending Kia for their own mistakes. Make them compensate you guys. Don’t be so passive... this is your money and your time. They have insurance for stuff like this for a reason.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Not sure why some are defending Kia for their own mistakes. Make them compensate you guys. Don’t be so passive... this is your money and your time. They have insurance for stuff like this for a reason.

I don't think anyone is "defending" Kia. What I am doing is being positive about a company that by all indicators stands behind their products and growing reputation. That is an observation, a positive rather than negative one. Those who bash Kia are attacking. Those who are saying that they have had a good experience with Kia and expect more of the same are only defending their personal experience, not the company.