Any paint experts out there?

[monkeyhanger]

I hope you get it sorted. I had one experience with Woking and wouldn’t pee on them if they were on fire

I still have the threat of a sh!tty Cupra review.

You can definitely tell its a sellers market right now, with the consumer being treated as if they're being done a massive favour in being sold a car for full RRP. The dealerships have never had it so good.

It'll be short detour from work tomorrow, to pop to the excellent BMW Vertu  bodyshop  and ask them how to proceed (they fixed the sill issue free of charge). If it needs more than a simple wipe with a certain solvent/solution, or that solution is costly, I'll be pushing for Woking to pay for it.

It's the most I've ever spent on a car, and also the sh!ttiest experience in collecting one. They had a rare car available and in stock, that's the only reason I went with them.

[MaggotsRus]

So when I had my paint imperfection done it required the vehicle being examined and paint measured by the VW approved body shop. Photographs and depths measurements taken and submitted, VW agreed their fault and work done which I have to say was exceptional and as it should be. This particular VW body shop deals with all high end cars, Lamborghini, Bentley etc.. It did cheese me off because it’s meant to be brand new! But in the scheme of things it was minor, my dealer I had bought the car off gripped the situation and dealt with the issue with the work done correctly. This has got to be the correct way of dealing with it, you have to go back to your legal rights as a buyer in the UK. The items bought are fit and proper for the purpose they were bought for. The dealer will review your complaint, get the car examined, supply a courtesy car, results sent to Seat UK and then issue dealt with. The moment you start attempting to rectify that paintwork will be the time the warranty will be voided. Your clearly unhappy with it monkeyhanger and you’ll probably go and inspect it a thousand times as we all put our views on this post. Just my thoughts bearing the monies you paid for it.

[monkeyhanger]

OK, after much to-ing and fro-ing, the local dealership group, Pulman, have confirmed that the bodywork issue is copiuous amounts of fallout that should have been dealt with by the PDI process and clearly haven't been. They had a quick go with a 3M polishing compound that wouldn't touch the fallout, but some progress was made with a claybar - their prognosis is that a detailer should be paid to claybar the whole car.

The guy I dealt with at Pulman kindly emailed the head of sales at the supplying dealership stating as much.

I am hoping that this prompts the head of sales to backtrack from his initial stance of "if you won't bring it all the way back to Woking, I won't do anything for you" (with no guarantees that they would do anything even if I did).

I've been trying to call them for ages but no one is picking up the phone. I have a few things to consider mentioning, but going off some of heir trust pilot reviews, I don't think they'll give a sh!te.

1. I'm pretty sure I could return the car under the distance selling laws and get my money back (leaving them with a second hand car to sell) - all selling documentation was signed remotely, the car was paid for in full, remotely and I simply picked the car up and drove it off, 8 days ago. According to the car sales ombudsman website, this constitutes a distance sale. I have looked through all of the contractual stuff and there's nothing there that obliges me to waive my distance selling rights. Seems a bit extreme, but there are still a few other e-boosts available.

2. Given the timing of the first Born's collection (a week prior to this one) and subsequent contact by Cupra UK for the customer satisfaction survey (last Friday), the customer satisfaction survey for this Born is imminent - i'll be sure to give them a sh!tty rating if they refuse to have the issue resolved remotely at their cost.

Update: Finally got to speak to the sales manager after being repeatedly hung up on during auto transfer when calling the sales team directly, then calling the service team and asking to be transferred.

He's a waffler, suggesting that a detailer is a no go as they are "fanatics" with standards way beyond expectations for anyone not buying a Ferrari. I kind of agree with that to an extent - I wouldn't pay £600 for paint correction and a ceramic coat like some would do here. However, he reckons that £70 for a clay bar all over is what they pay to their external contracted body shops to do it for them when required, no way in the world would anyone just charge that for what is probably 2-3 hours labour plus the cost of a clay bar and some lubricant

Presumably a machine polish is required afterwards to get rid of any clay marring/holograms, so there's another 30-60 mins labour. I can't see that running to less than £150 all in. He gave the impression that the born arrives fully covered, but the local dealership showed me the coverings - basically the whole tailgate, the tiny bonnet, but not the surrounding area (that looks part of the bonnet, but isn't) and a bit on the front bumper are all that is covered.

He's presumably escalated it and says he will call me tomorrow, i'm doubtful.

[JoeGTI]

Surely this is a problem that you’d resolve yourself very quickly with a £15 quid bottle of tar and fallout remover? This is a very common issue with new cars and really it’s simple to resolve and not worth getting so worked up about.

For what it’s worth, I really wouldn’t let a dealership go at it with a clay bar. There’s a good chance they’ll make the problem worse. Iron fallout remover is what you need, which is a simple spray on, let it dwell for a few minutes and gently wipe or even hose off. A clay bar can be quite aggressive and probably over the top on new paintwork. Used incorrectly, it’ll mark / marr the paint.

[SRGTD]

Surely this is a problem that you’d resolve yourself very quickly with a £15 quid bottle of tar and fallout remover? This is a very common issue with new cars and really it’s simple to resolve and not worth getting so worked up about.

For what it’s worth, I really wouldn’t let a dealership go at it with a clay bar. There’s a good chance they’ll make the problem worse. Iron fallout remover is what you need, which is a simple spray on, let it dwell for a few minutes and gently wipe or even hose off. A clay bar can be quite aggressive and probably over the top on new paintwork. Used incorrectly, it’ll mark / marr the paint.

Agree 100% with this.

I know a brand new car should never be handed over to a customer with paintwork in the state that it was on @monkeyhanger’s car, but I’d never entrust rectifying contaminated paintwork to the dealer. Easy to rectify yourself without costing a fortune - and much less hassle by not involving the dealer too.

[monkeyhanger]

Surely this is a problem that you’d resolve yourself very quickly with a £15 quid bottle of tar and fallout remover? This is a very common issue with new cars and really it’s simple to resolve and not worth getting so worked up about.

For what it’s worth, I really wouldn’t let a dealership go at it with a clay bar. There’s a good chance they’ll make the problem worse. Iron fallout remover is what you need, which is a simple spray on, let it dwell for a few minutes and gently wipe or even hose off. A clay bar can be quite aggressive and probably over the top on new paintwork. Used incorrectly, it’ll mark / marr the paint.

If its that common, I'll have to consider myself lucky in my previous 15 VAG cars bought new. I'm really not some ultra fussy serial complainer, but to receive a car who's bodywork feels like frosted glass all over is not a common occurrence in my experience. I've already had Iron X on the car on Saturday (when I discovered the issue) and it brought very little up. Easier to see the purple reaction on my white Born, and that had next to no iron embedded in it either.

The clay bar application looked a hell of a lot easier than I thought it was going to be - sometimes its difficult to tell when detailers are bigging up how hard it is to get a decent finish on a car without paying a detailer to do it. I had a quick go myself while at Pulmans and looked on a few YouTube videos from US based detailing places and the golden rule seems to be lubricate and dont drop the clay.

I was a bit apprehensive about a clay bar on new paint, which is why I was pushing hard for Pulman's opinion to get the supplying dealership to take some responsibility.

[madstaff]

I personally wouldn't let anybody near my car with a Claybar to remove fallout, let alone a brand new car.

The trouble is the claybar will become embedded with fallout and it will effectively become a scouring pad in no time inflicting some serious marring, which will then need to be rectified by polishing

You need a proper fallout remover and let that remove it, rather than trying to physically remove it with claybars and polishing compounds.

[JoeGTI]

Surely this is a problem that you’d resolve yourself very quickly with a £15 quid bottle of tar and fallout remover? This is a very common issue with new cars and really it’s simple to resolve and not worth getting so worked up about.

For what it’s worth, I really wouldn’t let a dealership go at it with a clay bar. There’s a good chance they’ll make the problem worse. Iron fallout remover is what you need, which is a simple spray on, let it dwell for a few minutes and gently wipe or even hose off. A clay bar can be quite aggressive and probably over the top on new paintwork. Used incorrectly, it’ll mark / marr the paint.

If its that common, I'll have to consider myself lucky in my previous 15 VAG cars bought new. I'm really not some ultra fussy serial complainer, but to receive a car who's bodywork feels like frosted glass all over is not a common occurrence in my experience. I've already had Iron X on the car on Saturday (when I discovered the issue) and it brought very little up. Easier to see the purple reaction on my white Born, and that had next to no iron embedded in it either.

The clay bar application looked a hell of a lot easier than I thought it was going to be - sometimes its difficult to tell when detailers are bigging up how hard it is to get a decent finish on a car without paying a detailer to do it. I had a quick go myself while at Pulmans and looked on a few YouTube videos from US based detailing places and the golden rule seems to be lubricate and dont drop the clay.

I was a bit apprehensive about a clay bar on new paint, which is why I was pushing hard for Pulman's opinion to get the supplying dealership to take some responsibility.

I wouldn’t expect a main dealer to clay bar a new car. They’re simply not going to spend that kind of time turning around a new hatchback when 99.9% of customers will be very happy with “it looks clean from 10 feet away”. I’d be surprised if the average person outside of fan forums such as this or detailing nerds would know what a claybar is. “Detailing” is still a very niche thing and the average car salesman most likely hasn’t a clue what you’re talking about.
So to be honest I think you’re causing yourself unnecessary grief for something you could sort yourself (or locally) for very little effort. I suppose try not to sweat the small stuff, this feels like a simple DIY fix versus arguing with a dealers and causing future awkwardness with them if warranty stuff that really needs their attention comes up.

[monkeyhanger]

I personally wouldn't let anybody near my car with a Claybar to remove fallout, let alone a brand new car.

The trouble is the claybar will become embedded with fallout and it will effectively become a scouring pad in no time inflicting some serious marring, which will then need to be rectified by polishing

You need a proper fallout remover and let that remove it, rather than trying to physically remove it with claybars and polishing compounds.

Already gone down the fallout route - used Iron X (actually G-Techniq W6) and it pulled next to nothing off. - so there was very little iron based fallout Whatever the contaminant is, it seems to be adhered to the paint rather than embedded in it, and the local VAG approved bodyshop that Pulman uses thinks it is likely airborne tree sap. a small application of the Pulman dealership's own tar remover didn't shift it either.

[phope]

It sounds like something like Autosmart Tardis could be the solution, if it's not iron contamination

I'd try and avoid clay barring as a first step, as it does create minor swirling/marring, unless you are using a very mild clay.

https://autosmart.co.uk/shop/tardis-1l