Paint Soft paint - warranty?

[tbl]

Do we have any claims regarding the softness of the paint, particularly on Nighthawk Black?

I think it's atrocious that my 6 month old Type S GT has more scratches than my 3 year old black Megane.

I know there are all sorts of guides and recommendations for washing, but it seems the only way to be sure of a scratch free Civic is to use a pure silk scarf to wash it!!

I will never buy another black Honda after this. The car looks great, and nobody but me can probably see most of the marks, but it's so bloomin' disheartening.

[Topcat]

I could have written a book on this forum about my soft paint with the amount of posts I did - my car was silver I had a long on going battle with HUK and got no where had the car re-srayed in the end, then the paint was fine.

[tbl]

Did HUK re-spray it, or did you have to shell out for it?

[Jack The Lad.]

I battled with Honda U.K. for 4 months +, with my 99 Prelude 2.2 vti.
They sent me £700 as a goodwill gesture only, not that I was happy with that.
9 years ago, - I wouldn't get it nowdays.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by tbl

Did HUK re-spray it, or did you have to shell out for it?

It is a really long story I paid out for it, I had about 6 or 7 scratched panels, I paid £1000 to a Honda bodyshop to repair it, the repairs went wrong so they re-sprayed it which also went wrong so another Honda bodyshop re-sprayed it at the cost of the previous bodyshop !!!

Result perfect paintwork but a year of hassle. HUK did do a paint inspection on my car, withheld the report for three months, ignoring my recorded delivery letters and my solicitor's letter. Finally they sent the report and it had bits missing and parts were blanked out, the paint depths were too thin in places (especially the lacquer) but they told me they refuse to enter into any further correspndence with me.

[tbl]

With customer service like that, it's enought to put me off Honda altogether - although they are all the same!

My dealer has been ok so far, but I might take it in anyway, tens of thousand of pounds spent on a car that has to be wrapped in cotton whool.

[civicfan]

Originally Posted by tbl

Do we have any claims regarding the softness of the paint, particularly on Nighthawk Black?

I think it's atrocious that my 6 month old Type S GT has more scratches than my 3 year old black Megane.

I know there are all sorts of guides and recommendations for washing, but it seems the only way to be sure of a scratch free Civic is to use a pure silk scarf to wash it!!

I will never buy another black Honda after this. The car looks great, and nobody but me can probably see most of the marks, but it's so bloomin' disheartening.

That's a price to pay for modern water-based "ecological" paint (I'm not sure it's ecological if you need to wax twice a year though). I can't complain a lot about mine (champagne silver) but with black it can really be troublesome. I'm seriously considering buying the next car in white - it's easy to maintain and on some cars it looks really nice

[Robbieee]

are there certain colours where this is particulary a problem?

[robbo51]

They all appear to be afflicted equally.
I dont know of a manufacturer that hasnt this problem.
Strangly, my Renault Megane 2 I once had the misfortune to own didnt have one stone chip in 2.5 years of ownership. My civic is 7 months old and is covered with them. So if Renault can do it???

[civicfan]

Originally Posted by Robbieee

are there certain colours where this is particulary a problem?

Generally the darker the colour the bigger the problem (the scratches are basically the same, only that on bright paint you don't see them)

[tbl]

Originally Posted by robbo51

Strangly, my Renault Megane 2 I once had the misfortune to own didnt have one stone chip in 2.5 years of ownership. My civic is 7 months old and is covered with them. So if Renault can do it???

Yip, I had a 54 plate Megane, and the paint was actually superb on it, couldn't fault it. Within a fortnight with the Civic, the bonnet had loads of visible stone chips.
Now the Megane had a lot of electrical problems due to it's gadgetry, but at least when I sold it on it looked pristine!

[Unknownsoldier]

Mine wouldn't have had a mark on it, but the dealer thought they'd wash it for me before I collected it, by putting it through an auto car-wash!!!!! Only admitted this after I complained about swirls, saying mine was handwashed by me, and no one (well virtually no one) takes longer and more care than I do with my car.

Tom

[Unknownsoldier]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Finally they sent the report and it had bits missing and parts were blanked out, the paint depths were too thin in places (especially the lacquer) but they told me they refuse to enter into any further correspndence with me.

BTW, I don't see they can legally withhold anything from you about your vehicle???? Surely that comes under the FIA thingy?????

Tom

[robbo51]

Originally Posted by civicfan

Generally the darker the colour the bigger the problem (the scratches are basically the same, only that on bright paint you don't see them)

Not so.
My Renault was silver...Not one!!
My Skoda was black...Lots!!
My Civic is red..Plastered!!

[kenP]

My galaxy grey Civic is 2 years old now and the only stone chip I've noticed is one on the edge of the bonnet, but this has also left a small dent. So probably more of a rock chip than a stone chip.

[gr021857]

Originally Posted by kenP

My galaxy grey Civic is 2 years old now and the only stone chip I've noticed is one on the edge of the bonnet, but this has also left a small dent. So probably more of a rock chip than a stone chip.

Yeh i've just bought one that's two years, Galaxy Grey also and it's only got 1 Stone Chip on the bonnet and a slight scratch next to the fuel filler cap which looks like the previous owner has slipped with the filler and it's slightly scratched the paint, should buff out though so not really major.

Other than that mine seems to be quite sturdy for the old paint. Haven't noticed any problems washing it with just soapy water and a sponge.... it's too bleemin cold to stay outside and wax at the moment!! bring on summer

[civicfan]

Originally Posted by robbo51

Not so.
My Renault was silver...Not one!!
My Skoda was black...Lots!!
My Civic is red..Plastered!!

Then you really have a paint issue - while the first two cars you mention rather fit my thesis - there is no such thing as a scratch-free (used) car.
It's funny but one of my best "behaving" cars in this aspect was a red Daewoo Lanos.

[carlwi]

I'm currently fighting the same battle with HUK about my Milano R-GT. The paint on the bonnet is utter cr*p . I have hundreds of stonechips on it and now I've found out that I have rust on the edge of the drivers door as some of the paint has lifted and water seems to have got underneath it. I pointed the state of the bonnet out to the dealer within 4 days of picking up the car from new by which time it must have had at least a dozen stone chips on the bonnet.

I recently had someone reverse into the back of my parked car in a hotel carpark so the car went into my local authorised Honda bodyshop (who were excellent) to get repaired and the guy there pointed out just how bad my paint job was and said that the car should be sorted by HUK (said it looked like it had not been degreased properly before spraying) and he also pointed out what looks like several areas of contamination under the paint on the doors.

I've written several letters to HUK, been promised callbacks on several occasions that have never happend so I'm just about ready to take things to the next (legal) level. This has been going on since week one of owning the car and I'm sick of it....

[Topcat]

Im not talking about swirls im talking proper scratches.

[FWH]

Originally Posted by robbo51

Not so.
My Renault was silver...Not one!!
My Skoda was black...Lots!!
My Civic is red..Plastered!!

What model year was the Renault?
Pre-enviromentaly friendly paint?