Paint Quality

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

Hey guys,

I bought a Black GT1 RWD in early January, it's my first Kia and is replacing an 02 Nissan Maxima SE. I've got about 1000 miles on the car now and noticed something troubling recently.

I have about 13 paint chips on my car, and they all go down to the metal. They're the same size as, or smaller than, the size of a pencil erasure head. I've never seen a car chip so easily and I'm not sure how to proceed. Is this something I should take to the dealership? Would the warranty cover this? I still have the hatch noise issue because all the dealerships in my area don't have any parts, so I have to take it back anyways, but it's been raining here (Nashville area) so much that I have painters tape on the chips because I don't want it to start rusting. All of the driving has been street/freeway as I commute to and from work. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[Kamauxx]

I've owned a couple of Kias and have never dealt with any paint issues. You should definitely take it to the dealership.

 

[Rufus]

Yikes! Not sure how that would be covered, but it seems that is definitely something you should bring to the dealer's attention...

 

[CoconutRob]

You definitely should take it to dealer to get looked at.

 

[Chris]

Take it to the dealer. I bet they are not chips. My optima had a tiny paint imperfection on the hood, when I took it to the car wash it bubbled off. A tiny drop of oil or other crap on the metal before painting can cause this. Good luck though the dealer wouldn't help me at all..

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

Thanks for the replies, I figured that might be my only real course of action other then fixing all of them immediately. I didn't have the best dealer experience so I'm not expecting much (though I'd like to be pleasantly surprised), it does seem fair to let them know beforehand, or take it to a different dealership.

@Chris That's interesting. What do you mean they bubbled off when you washed it? When I run my finger over them it feels like paint is missing. It's all silver (aluminium?) under the paint.

If they don't help me I already bought a touch up pen, and plan on taking it to a shop to get a clear bra / paint protection. Between this and the hatch noise (and dealer experience) I've been disappointed in what is otherwise an awesome car.

 

[Chris]

That's interesting. What do you mean they bubbled off when you washed it? When I run my finger over them it feels like paint is missing. It's all silver (aluminium?) under the paint.

When I first got my car I noticed a tiny little imperfection that almost looked like a little paint bubble. I took it to the car wash and when it came out where the bubble was, looked like a paint chip. Except it obviously wasn't, a chip has rough edges where you can see the different layers of paint. In my case it was a perfectly round circle right down to the bare metal. I ended up taking it to a buddy that did paint work and he told me he could tell it was not a chip but rather an imperfection during the paint process.

 

[Kia Stinger]

Welcome aboard, @IBurton. Thank you for signing up...

 

[Garret Fields]

@IBurton what ended up happening? did the dealership fix it?

 

[somedudedontknowwhoheis]

@IBurton what ended up happening? did the dealership fix it?

It's a long story that took place over a year, but no, they didn't. You can read more about it here onward: Discussion of Stinger paint quality (Was - Paint Chip Issue)