You guys would be surprised how many cars are damaged while being shipped. It happens quite commonly. The new cars leave the factory in perfect condition, but arrive at the dealership with some kind of damage, whether it was from when they were on the truck or train, or being moved in/out of them.

Well a dealer isn't going to send a car back to the manufacturer. They have their preferential shops they deal with to have these generally minor cosmetic items corrected. I'm guessing a handful of you have had your cars repainted, whether it be a hood, fender, trunk lid, roof, you name it. The good news is that you'd still have full warranty coverage on your car if anything were to happen to the paint. The problem is when these shops are busy (which they pretty much always are), they become a 'quantity over quality' type of business. They want to do as many cars as possible and not necessarily as best as possible.

I guarantee you that if you took a paint thickness gauge to your car, the paint would be fairly uniform (within some tolerable level of fluctuation), but for like the OP has, probably much thicker paint on the trunk lid, because a human can never match what a machine can do. Even if the clear coat and color is perfectly matched, the thickness will always be different.

I had a 1999 Civic SiR which I had my detail buddy look over before I bought it. He too is on "master" level, regularly dealing with high end exotics, etc, and really, the only guy I trust to touch my paint. He noticed the front fender did not match the rest if the body. Color was perfect. No runs. But clear coat was just ever so *slightly* different under fluorescent lighting. Looking closer, the fender had the original honda VIN tag on it, so it wasn't replaced. He checked for bondo by using a magnet over the panel, checked this, checked that, everything was fine. Checked the paint thickness and it was off. His conclusion: the car was probably damaged during delivery before being sold. I bought it anyway, since the car had a clean title and the original owner had zero indication of any re painting ever.

It happens more often than you'd think. But a dealer won't put on a new door, hood, pillar, etc. because it's not cost effective. They're in the business if making money and they know that 99.8% of people will never know the difference.

 

You said it very well. Adding the OptiCoat did make the pain of paying for the correction a bit more palatable. Frankly if I didn't have these couple of paint issues, it is unlikely I would have pursued any detailing, but am now pleased to have the paint on the entire car corrected and the additional protection of OptiCoat added.

I do plan on approaching the dealer with something like "Hey Dealer, you recall those couple of paint issues I showed you and you were trying to figure out the best way to resolve? Well I took care of them on my own, at my own expense. I would appreciate some consideration from you for the time and money I spent achieving resolution to your issue".

Do I expect anything? Not really. My guess is they'll say that since I resolved outside of their process they can't do anything for me. But I'll try and will share their response.

 

I completely understand your feelings. I found 4 paint issues, one a fingerprint on the hood by the grille, wet sanded and taken care of, paint drip by seam of fender and door, wet sanded and taken care of, couple of issues that were in the middle of the hood, taken care of. A few days ago below the drivers and passengers door, above the speckle paint, there is about a 7 inch paint failure that will be taken care of on the 15 of December at Rallye Collision Shop.
As far as Dent Dr, they have an unbelievable process. Metal definitely has memory and wants to go back to its original position. Try it! The thought of having the car painted is not going to be like the original job. Put the spoiler on. This is my first Acura without the spoiler. I don't like the current style. The older spoilers were small and just laid on the trunk and looked nice. IN my opinion.

 

You'd be surprised.

I bought a used RDX for my wife a few years ago, and in order to get me to agree, I wanted the tires swapped with another RDX they had on the lot that I wasn't interested in. In my rush on delivery day, I verified that they mounted the new tires, but didn't realize that all 4 tires were mounted inside out. Not a difference driving straight, but could make a difference in turns.

I had my local tire guy swap all 4, called my sales guys who bumped it to his sales manager, and they cut me a check for my costs after I sent them my bill, and receipt.

 

Update:

Even though I spoke to the Service Manager and the Regional Acura Rep, I decided to open a case with Acura Client Services to track the matter.

I took several new pictures at their behest and sent them to ACS for review and reiterated my concern about the A-pillar repaint and the necessity to blend down the length of the car vs. the Paintless Dent Repair option. As it turns out the trunk was sent through the painting process a second time at the factory, because it failed QA the first time. Acura has a record of this in the vehicles history while at the factory. Clearly round #2 wasn't so great either.

We eventually settled on:

• Me having PDR done and being willing to sign something that I was satisfied with the outcome. They're reimbursing me for this.
• The Trunk will be repainted to meet Acura's standard. Body Shop they use has a lifetime warranty for the paint as long as I own the vehicle.
• Acura will add a decklid spoiler as an apology for the issues.

I'm quite satisfied with their customer service through the process, they've called multiple times to update me on the status of things. Currently driving an 2015 ILX as a loaner until completed (and missing my TLX).

 

^Thanks for the update! I am glad to hear things worked out. It should not have happened to begin with but it seems like your patience and willingness to work with them paid off!

Well done!

 

MedX172...I am delighted that things worked out and a lesson of how being persistent, but cooperative and non confrontational will yield a positive outcome.

 

Thanks folks, they've been very easy to work with.


I agree, Weather, that if you retain a business professional attitude towards people, things tend to move in a positive, more productive direction. Ending a phone conversation by thanking someone for their time and effort in resolving an issue goes a long way towards maintaining momentum and getting a problem resolved. I should have the TLX back tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

I'm really glad this worked out well for you..

 

I bought a TLX Advance last Thursday and took the opportunity to wash it yesterday. While using a quick detailer spray on the car, I noticed what looked like dust or sand embedded in the paint. Also there where bright spots which I thought indicated some missed spots when they put a coating on the paint. I tried some cleaner wax, but it didn't do anything for them.

I took it back to the dealership today and my salesman brought out the service manager to take a look. We couldn't see anything under normal daylight, but the service manager could feel the imperfections. We took it in to the service area where we could look at it under florescent light. The service manager then saw all the issues with the paint and gave me some options as to how they could fix it, but told me that he didn't think it would be right for a brand new car. Instead he talked to the general manager and convinced him to give me a new vehicle. I drove out a couple of hours later in a new car. Different color, but everything else was the same.

I was pretty well amazed that I didn't have to broach the subject of a replacement vehicle. It was just done. Five bonus points for the dealer and Acura.

 

^^ WOW!! Now that is what I call AMAZING CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! I hope you will give them 10 out of 10 when you get your survey!!

 

I plan on giving the dealership high marks, however.....

I washed the new vehicle today and found a fingerprint in the base coat near the Acura badge. It's not that visible so I'll live with it. Gives the car some character. I hope J.D. Powers sends me a survey so I can help Acura sink lower in their rankings.

 

2 for 2! Shit....go buy lottery tickets man!

 

Geesh. Smearing, smudging, running, dripping. Between the base and clear, these people can't get this right.


The local body shop did a great job on my trunk. It looks infinitely better than it did before, but clearly Acura needs to sort some things out in Marysville. I'm going to sleep easy at night and not look for things. My uber-detailer said the rest of the paint on the car "was the (rhymes with pits)", so I'm putting it to bed and just going to enjoy the ride.

 

That's the best philosophy. As time goes on the nicks and chips start to accrue, but as long as you keep it shiny, the reflections will keep anyone from noticing.

 

Yeah, I agree. I did take a couple of additional protective steps by having a 3M clear bra installed. Front bumper, lights, a good portion of the hood, entire rear bumper, side mirrors, partial fenders, door cups, door edges...lol.


Anything else that happens...it's destiny!

 

I also found clear paint runs under the left side passenger door, that was wet sanded and all is fine. The dealer and their body shop couldn't have been what else can I do for you? Rallye Acura and Rallye Collision. Stuff happens.

 

Nice to see how you handled it and how Acura took care of you.

 

It's unfortunate that these defects should really not occur! Someone is sleeping at QC. On brand new vehicles these occurrences should be avoided. It costs them more in the end to repair, wet sand then polish. Not really acceptable!

 

I agree, that Acura needs tighter QC on the process. Perhaps these are associated with the growing pains of manufacturing the vehicle in Marysville.


The more people that bring paint defects to their attention and invoke warranty resolution for the issues, the tighter the vice is going to close around manufacturing. You can be certain that having to spend $$ for a body shop, a loaner for your customer and anything else to make the situation acceptable is going to be expensive and likely not tolerated in manufacturing. It will likely come off of someone's bottom line budget.

 

It looks like Acura still has a problem with paint on their cars. I thought only my generation of 3G TL has paint chip problem.

 

Took 3 weeks and many calls, but I got my TLX tech SH-AWD replaced with a new car. The clear coat had many defects around the whole car. I didn't notice when I left the dealership, since it was cloudy and misting outside. The dealership fought me on it for a week and then I got Acura Client Relations involved and that's when the ball started rolling.