I am beginning to seriously regret my choice in my new car. First the speak button failed and now I have paint coming off my right front fender! I am honestly beginning to wonder if this car was involved in an accident pre-delivery because I just noticed the driver door does not line up properly either. I am so angry right now I cannot see straight.

I will refrain from saying anything else because I have a feeling that a legal fight with Hyundai is just around the corner. If this is how it's doing at 1,500 miles, it will probably self-destruct into its core components by 10,000.

 

if you want to be sure if it was in an accident, take it to a body shop and have them measure the paint with a meter. Check every single body panel in various spots. The readings should be the same around the whole car. If the side with the peeling paint is higher by a bit, it's been repainted.

 

Sorry this is all happening to you man. We both know Hyundais aren't bad cars you may not have gotten the pick of the litter that's all.

 

How many miles on the odo when you bought it?

 

I took a REAL good look all around the car and have reversed my decision that it was in a collision. There is simply no evidence of it and I know what to look for. I opened the door and took a good look at the inner fender, comparing it to the driver's side. Where the driver's side inner fender bows in at the top and flattens out at the bottom, I can tell the passenger side bends in where it should be flat. How this impact happened I don't know but I believe it happened during manufacture, probably after the paint process. The deformation of the metal stretched the paint and caused it to crack.

Thanks, man. I'll let you know what happens.

Per the window sticker, it was originally delivered to Titus-Will Hyundai of Olympia, Washington. It was dealer traded to Hyundai of Kirkland and then dealer traded to my dealership in Beaverton, Oregon. I went up with the driver to pick the car up and it had 154 miles on it when I got up there.

 

I am sorry to hear that this happened to your new car. It sucks when you spend big dollars on something just to find it is defective. Incidentally, I did consider the 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe as a new car choice given their warranty and all these "accolades" they have been garnering. However, further research on this vehicle, with particular respect to its transmission scared me off. Here is the link:

http://www.hyundai-forums.com/t46179...0-santa-fe.htm

 

I was aware of the transmission problems but you have to think that nobody goes on forums like that to tell everybody how well their car is running. I've noticed little things similar to what those people are complaining about (minus the clank) and honestly, my old Santa Fe did it, too. I've chalked it up to a Hyundai quirk and if all 8,000 of these cars sold every month were defective, there would be a greater uproar.

Back to the paint problem; since I've had the car for just a few weeks and would never have accepted it had I seen this flaw at delivery, is it unrealistic for me to insist on a obtaining a replacement vehicle? Being a detailer, I couldn't handle having half my brand new car re-sprayed to match because no matter how good the job, it will never look quite right. The orange peel texture will be wrong, the paint will be either slightly too dark or too light and I will always notice it when I look at the car.

I'm not going to go marching in there tomorrow demanding a new car but I think that's eventually where I'll end up. I know the people who run my dealership very well so I'm hopeful they will see things eye-to-eye with me on this because frankly, having to have a brand new car resprayed is simply unacceptable.

 

Thats a accident of some sort. The metal is/hsa been bent or flexed and has peeled the paint. Paint looks like that when the metal is bent and the paint cant stretch with it.

 

Keep us updated, Portland.

 

Ouch. Hope you get this resolved and can enjoy the car from now on with no out-of-the-ordinary problems.

 

I agree. The metal has fatigued and distorted. If not in an accident, it could be the fender was not installed properly when manufactured or a fastener is incorrectly installed. It may have also been something was dropped behind the fender, in front of the door, during shipping or PDI and the door either opened or closed, causing it to pinch.





Terry

 

i had a similar issue way back in 2000 when i purchased a brand new Honda Civic with 20 miles on the odo. the lower left rear door panel was repainted prior to delivery but i never noticed it or was told about it until 2 years later when the paint started to fade. of course after that, the warranty had expired and i couldn't do anything about it.

since your car is still under warranty, get if fix. but like you mentioned, the color will never be the same as the original. damn, that sucks big time. good luck!

 

 

i doubt they will give you a new car, at most they will blend the paint. unless ofcourse they are some godsent dealership that are only interested in making their customer happy.

sucks that this is happening to such a new car, keep us posted on what they do for you

 

That sucks, sorry to hear this latest bit.

Off topic: Was I right about that mysterious panel in the rear being for an optional subwoofer?

 

with everyone else, the panel looks damaged where the paint is coming off.

Something happened at the factory, or during delivery.

 

Combined with some of your other issues, is this something you can file under a Lemon Law and return it for either a new one or something else?

 

I went in today and I tried to keep a cool head but they could tell I was steaming mad. I'll admit I got a little vocal at one point but kept the pressure from totally exploding. They told me that a replacement vehicle is out of the question and that I can either have it repaired or live with it. At that point I told them I would be opening a claim with Hyundai Consumer Affairs and attempt to get my replacement vehicle that way. My service advisor (who is also my good friend) told me that Hyundai would prefer to have the vehicle repaired first and if I'm still not satisfied, they will "take it from there". He said demanding replacement at this point would look suspicious to them and that I would be wise to follow the steps to get to that point.

Thankfully, I was able to choose the body shop to do the work and they are the only people I trust to shoot an accurate re-spray. However if it is not absolutely spot on, I will be contacting consumer affairs in regards to a buy back or replacement vehicle. I'm glad Hyundai is paying for the repair but one, it shouldn't have happened in the first place and second, now my brand new car will smell like paint and industrial cleaners instead of leather.

Oregon Lemon Law can be found here: http://www.carlemon.com/lemon/OR_law.html

At the rate it's going, I wouldn't be surprised if this car turns out to be a lemon. It's already been a LOT of trouble so if they don't take it back after this, I'm sure the car will come up with some other way to gain my hatred. The ironic thing about it is, my 2004 Santa Fe had what is widely considered the worst quality paint ever put on a Hyundai and it held up just fine.

 

maybe it was a monday or friday car?

You def need to go thru the motions before you do anything.

 

That sucks man. A new car should never do that to you but reality is that new cars are often dinged up in the process between here and there and "fixed". If the damage is under a certain amount of $, the dealer doesn't have to disclose anything.

 

that paint crack is definitely not from factory, it happened from something hitting it and bending it that way. you cant blame hyundai for this paint crack. if anything, you should be grateful if they're paying for it.

it could have happened during the delivery or since you have owned the car.

 

Actually, it is. I took a closer look with the dealer today and we discovered that the lip of the fender that extends on the inside of the panel was wrinkled inward. This caused the paint to stretch and crack. The driver's side is not this way and the paint is fine so I'm chalking it up to a slight ding in the post-paint manufacturing process. Likely it was noticed but the crack started out so small, they thought they got away with it.

 

So many people misinterpret the Lemon Law.

 

Portland, sorry this happened to you man.

I would talk to the body shop and explain to them that they need to try to keep the same paint reading as the rest of the car. I know you can't get spot on (depth in microns), but they should get close (i.e. taking the factory primer and paint off, and respraying.

Good luck.

 

Update!! Hyundai has agreed with me as well as the dealer on this and will be paying for the repairs under the 7 year, unlimited mileage anti-perforation warranty.

They even let me choose the body shop so I picked one that does some of the best paint work around. My only concern is that the orange peel won't match but I'll be talking to them to see if there is any way they can get the texture as close to OEM as possible. I'm not concerned about color match because they did my old Santa Fe and as many of you know, silver is the hardest color to match and you couldn't even tell it had been painted.

 

I thought repainting wasn't an acceptable solution to you?

 

Awesome! congrats brother! glad it's all working out for you.

 

Well I was told by my service advisor (also my friend) that going straight to Hyundai demanding a replacement car without first giving them the chance to repair it won't look very good. In fact it might come off as suspicious so I'm going to give them this chance first. The fact that I got to pick the body shop also helped to alleviate my fears. They're more expensive but (A) I'm not paying for it and (B) I want it done right. They've done work for me in the past and it's always been top-notch.

 

But... But...

Are you ignoring the fact that folks here think the car has been in an accident? And if that's the case, you're OK with going the repaint route instead of verifying first that the car hasn't seen any accidents? I'd be validating this was a freak incident before agreeing to anything.

 

I know cars very well and know exactly what to look for in collision repair. There is simply nothing to indicate this was anything more than an assembly line oops.

 

Glad to hear that this worked out (so far). Keep us posted.

 

as long as you're happy

 

Okay, sort of late to the party, but that's because I've been checking into it.

I've talked to the Quality division and the Paint department. This is not a known manufacturing issue; most definitely not a widespread one. It happened in one of three areas; Body shop (alignment), General Assembly (Door line) or during transit/delivery.

I've even asked about our warranty claims trend to see if this is a known issue. The answer was "this problem wasn't even on our radar." At this point, I'm leaning toward non-manufacturing-related cause. But, if it was, it's an isolated case. The way these vehicles go down the line through the assembly and built-in quality processes, it's hard not to catch such an interference defect.

But once it's off the line, it could have been inspected/worked on in PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection). It is very possible that the door hinge was loosely installed or loosened after assembly, thus causing the misalignment, whether at the plant or at the dealership for whatever reason. Over (a short period of) time, it worked itself loose to the point of the two panels coming in contact.

At this point, there is no way to tell with 100% certainty what happened.

Regardless, I'm sorry to hear that this problem has occurred. I'm glad to hear that the dealership will repair the car under warranty (as they should).

Good luck and let me know if you need any help/info.

 

I'm confused....this is an issue that occured prior to your acceptance of the vehicle but you didn't catch it till now? Did you not do a thorough inspection prior to taking delivery?

I know I probably spend a good 30 minutes looking over every aspect of my car before I drove it off the lot.

 

^ My guess is that the paint peeling was cause before delivery, but only started growing and becoming more noticeable after delivery.

Nonetheless, I suggest going over it with a paint meter just to be 100% sure it wasn't repainted in some way. You can probably have your paint shop do it before they start work, and have them call you with the results.

If, by small chance, it has been repainted, this will of course point to more damage on the car that might give you more ammo against Hyundai to use to get a new car.

What would be done about the wrinkle in the fender?

GL with the repairs, and good to hear that Hyundai's at least trying to take care of you.

 

My hypothesis is that it was dinged somehow during the assembly process while the doors were off. I've toured the assembly plant that built my car and like most, they remove the doors to make it easier to fit the interior. My guess is that while the doors were off, something impacted the inner edge of the fender and caused the wrinkle. Now either a robot did it (highly unlikely) or a person did. My guess is they looked it over, thought they were in the clear and the car moved on down the line.

It was not like that at delivery or the first two times I washed it so my guess is the damage started as a microscopic stress fracture in the paint from the impact. As the car got moved around, the elements began to undermine the fracture and weakened the adhesion of the paint on the metal. I think the heavy rain we had here and my obsessive washing didn't help it either and eventually, the elements got in enough to raise the edge. After that, it was a house of cards.

 

its good that they have agreed to pay for your repaint hopefully that solves all the issues u have had thus far with the car

 

Just got a call from the body shop and apparently they haven't even started yet. Why did they ask for it last Thursday if they were just going to sit and play with their balls for three full days?!?!

 

Just to annoy you.














Seriously though, give it a little time. Body shops are always running behind.



Terry

 

It's working.