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

[Ivansito]

I don't know. But what I do know is I'm taking the repaint option. Then hopping into my Sunset Yellow Stinger with my 5000 and head South to Disney World while the sun sets behind me. Don't worry Sun, I got it from here.

 

[Stevo]

My micro blue hits the paint shop on Thursday, just in time for my vacation. Hood, entire front end. I am happy with Kia Renton. Will have a loaner too. Carbon Fiber hood vents showed up just in time. They are installing those too.

 

[MerlintheMad]

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.

Yes, the poll is "flawed". But it isn't useless. It only attracted 178 (as of this morning) total votes so far in almost two months, out of 4K+ members of the Stinger Forum. What percentage of members are waiting to buy a Stinger? Seems to be around 10% or less. Sal could say, if he wanted to research this. It doesn't matter. The point is that if there were a yooge problem with Stinger paint failure there would be a lot more respondents to this poll. Let's not make this problem bigger than it is.

It is a big deal to anyONE whose car is looking like crap because of something originating with Kia. Kia should take care of every single proven case of paint failure and treat every single case equally. And yes, if they are smart, they will pay for a full repaint to assure that the new paint job is not going to fail. The details of how to do this we leave to them. But they are doing it.

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

Well I had another call with Kia Friday evening, and I don't have that great of news for those of us with non-Yellow Stingers.

Basically, Kia is still pushing the problem only exists with Yellow (and their metal surfaces), I did push that mine and many others are exhibiting the same problem (sometimes worse) and that it almost seems to be build-date related rather than color related. Because Kia is only doing a campaign for Yellow Stingers, the options only apply to them unilaterally. Meaning, if I wanted to pursue a swap or buyback, my car would essentially have to be re-investigated by the people who oversee that stuff for Kia in my state/region (not the KMA people we've been talking to this entire time), and it would be a lengthy process, assuming it even goes anywhere. It would be subject to the lemon laws and other things in my state, etc. This is different than what has been offered to owners of Yellow cars, since the option seems to already be OK'd for them, and Kia will go through with it without further investigation (the car itself, no idea on the financial part of it) or consulting local lemon laws.

They're really trying to push me back into a repaint, as I had told them I wanted my case to have the same options as those with Yellow cars, and was leaning towards buyback (or swap, if I had some control over choosing the replacement). I have another call with them Monday where they may have more information for me on a repaint (still no word on reimbursement for my paint protection), or I can push for the swap/buyback anyways and have my case be transferred to someone else for my state/region, in which case, I have very little information as to the process those people will put my case through (cause again, it'll be different from state to state or region to region for non-Yellow).

I've been pretty frustrated by this entire situation, though I don't necessarily blame those I've spoken to at KMA, it's not like they caused the problems on the car in the first place, or have much say in what cars "officially" have paint problems. I just knew this is what was gonna happen if non-Yellow cars were treated on a "case by case" basis and not given the same options, despite the same problem.

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

With regards to the poll, yes, it isn't the best, but it does give you an idea of whats going on. I will point out that now that Kia has gone public with Yellow Stingers having issues, more Yellow owners have been contacted (as we've seen in the last several pages of this thread) and therefore more will be seeing this thread after research, and voting on it. Further pushing Yellow up. I'm sure the same would happen (maybe more so) if Kia said something about Blue/Black/Red/etc and their corresponding votes going up, since it brings more "visibility" to that respective color. I'm sure there's plenty more that have issues and don't even know about it, thats why we "only" have the vote count we do.

 

[StingerGT68]

Well I had another call with Kia Friday evening, and I don't have that great of news for those of us with non-Yellow Stingers.

Basically, Kia is still pushing the problem only exists with Yellow (and their metal surfaces), I did push that mine and many others are exhibiting the same problem (sometimes worse) and that it almost seems to be build-date related rather than color related. Because Kia is only doing a campaign for Yellow Stingers, the options only apply to them unilaterally. Meaning, if I wanted to pursue a swap or buyback, my car would essentially have to be re-investigated by the people who oversee that stuff for Kia in my state/region (not the KMA (Kia Motors America) people we've been talking to this entire time), and it would be a lengthy process, assuming it even goes anywhere. It would be subject to the lemon laws and other things in my state, etc. This is different than what has been offered to owners of Yellow cars, since the option seems to already be OK'd for them, and Kia will go through with it without further investigation (the car itself, no idea on the financial part of it) or consulting local lemon laws.

They're really trying to push me back into a repaint, as I had told them I wanted my case to have the same options as those with Yellow cars, and was leaning towards buyback (or swap, if I had some control over choosing the replacement). I have another call with them Monday where they may have more information for me on a repaint (still no word on reimbursement for my paint protection), or I can push for the swap/buyback anyways and have my case be transferred to someone else for my state/region, in which case, I have very little information as to the process those people will put my case through (cause again, it'll be different from state to state or region to region for non-Yellow).

I've been pretty frustrated by this entire situation, though I don't necessarily blame those I've spoken to at KMA (Kia Motors America), it's not like they caused the problems on the car in the first place, or have much say in what cars "officially" have paint problems. I just knew this is what was gonna happen if non-Yellow cars were treated on a "case by case" basis and not given the same options, despite the same problem.

Yeah, my repaint was essentially approved by a district rep in person.

 

[eflyguy]

I thought the issue was originally stated to be from a problem with the primer, or the process by which it was applied. That would jibe with the problems being associated with a particular timeframe, vs. specific colors.

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

I thought the issue was originally stated to be from a problem with the primer, or the process by which it was applied. That would jibe with the problems being associated with a particular timeframe, vs. specific colors.

Exactly. From the information we have here that would certainly seem to be the case, but Kia is still holding out that it's just Yellow. One of the things I'm going to ask on Monday is what happens if it's expanded to other colors later.

 

[eflyguy]

I wonder how many people - like myself - who've waited to get the options and color combination they want are now thinking "hell no, I want to know there's no problem with the paint"...

I had no problem buying even though many suggest avoiding first model years because of issues, but this is certainly a perfect example of that!

 

[StingerGT68]

I thought the issue was originally stated to be from a problem with the primer, or the process by which it was applied. That would jibe with the problems being associated with a particular timeframe, vs. specific colors.

That was from the Australian guy who had a yellow car. So other colors may have something else wrong with the paint.

 

[MerlintheMad]

They're really trying to push me back into a repaint, as I had told them I wanted my case to have the same options as those with Yellow cars, and was leaning towards buyback (or swap, if I had some control over choosing the replacement).

Of course Kia isn't going to admit that ALL colors have the "same problem" as the Yellow! I wouldn't either, if I were in charge of fixing paint issues. But on a case by case it would work out over the long haul. If your case produced a final result allowing trade or buyback, fine. If not, and you only were offered a repaint, that is fine too. As long as Kia treats each case with its particular circumstances with sufficient reaching out then they are doing the right thing.

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

Of course Kia isn't going to admit that ALL colors have the "same problem" as the Yellow! I wouldn't either, if I were in charge of fixing paint issues. But on a case by case it would work out over the long haul. If your case produced a final result allowing trade or buyback, fine. If not, and you only were offered a repaint, that is fine too. As long as Kia treats each case with its particular circumstances with sufficient reaching out then they are doing the right thing.

I'm not sure I follow that logic.

If, on a case by case basis, cars are determined to be exhibiting the same problems as those that have the problem "officially" then those cases should be given the same options as those with it "officially". Otherwise you'll get everyone that wasn't blessed by the official statement being treated differently, in different regions, by different people with different motives, giving different options (if options is even plural). That's bound to upset a lot of people, and cause pause in those looking to buy.

I want a clean solution with options, I've had the problem since January. I don't want to continue the process or deal with issues specific to someone that happens to oversee the area I live.

 

[A Member Who Left]

I'm not sure I follow that logic.

If, on a case by case basis, cars are determined to be exhibiting the same problems as those that have the problem "officially" then those cases should be given the same options as those with it "officially". Otherwise you'll get everyone that wasn't blessed by the official statement being treated differently, in different regions, by different people with different motives, giving different options (if options is even plural). That's bound to upset a lot of people, and cause pause in those looking to buy.

I want a clean solution with options, I've had the problem since January. I don't want to continue the process or deal with issues specific to someone that happens to oversee the area I live.

By Kia trying to coverup....no pun....that this problem exists across the board or on multiple colors, they are going to push people over the edge where they have no choice but to take this public and through the courts. I don’t want this path anymore than anyone else, since it will affect how people view the entire Stinger product, regardless of color, and yes that ultimately does affect resale value. The time comes when a company taking $30-50k from people should be held accountable for not standing behind ALL of their products. No disrespect to anyone here, but a car sitting on a new car lot with 2 miles on it, missing large flakes of paint near the headlights, is not just from a rubbing issue. That paint is NOT adhered properly.

 

[Kato_the_kia_stinger]

My letter came in the mail today. I am pleased with the handling thus far. I do wonder, however, how far reaching the problem is with the other colors. I wish we had sales numbers by color so that we can glean a bit more information about the supposed “paint issue” that others are experiencing.

 

[Tbatten]

A copy of the letter for you all to read. Not my letter, off of a Facebook group I'm in. Orientation is off, but you can still read it.

 

[Tbatten]

What I noticed it said voluntary multiple times. I have made the call and my letter is on the way. Don't know if they will try and be slick and let people who don't realize what's going on get burned. They have a hard date of Dec 1st. If you come in after that your outta luck.

 

[Dmchristie1]

I just got off the phone with KIA. The Yellow Stinger letters were mailed on 7-23. The amount of the repaint compensation is in fact $5,000. The letters are generic in nature so the buyout section will not give you an exact amount for your specific vehicle. We should have our letters very soon now.

Received the letter today. Repaint, 5k payout, and loaner.

 

[StungnTn]

I haven’t received my letter yet, and as a someone that leased, will I receive the $5k as well?

 

[Sabz]

I haven’t received my letter yet, and as a someone that leased, will I receive the $5k as well?

You should ... I’m waiting on my letter too

 

[Stevo]

I got a rock