bad paint job

sean69

Hi,

Just a quick question, I bought an 06 Mazda 3 about 2 weeks ago form a main dealer and over that time I have noticed that the driver side door is a different shade to the rest of the car so I surmise that it had a knock and was repaired badly .
Then last night a mate said it to me that I should go back to the dealer about it which I plan to do, so where do I stand with this? Will they tell me “sold as seen” or can I push for a better repair?
Also I like the car but man the cabin can get a bit noisey and the car sounds a bit ruff in the mornings, Its only 45’000km on the clock, could this have been messed with?

Thanks sean.

cantdecide

Mum has a '04 Passat and it's had a lot of new noises related to the fan etc since it was stripped out after an accident it's going back again to get the latest thing refitted properly.

On such a new car, the paint match should be 100%. A relative had 1 yr old bimmer that needed *2* repairs in one year. The guy who did both was a perfectionist with the BEST of gear, paint scheme etc. The bumper was fixed and it was like absolute new again.

The paint match was bad when he got the car back after the second repair to the drivers door but in our ignorance we thought it would tone down. It didn't. The car was up for sale and I thought it had to be revisited. We showed it to the panelbeater who told us over the phone that the match should be 100% perfect and asked to see it. He saw it, apologised profusely and did the job again without quibble and it came back....100% perfect. There is 3 shades in BMWs black- grey, brown or black. He had given the grey black car the black black paint so it stood out blacker than the rest of the car.

Assuming a Mazda would have less variety of shades, I suspect that the panelbeater is using shoddy equipment/ scheme. You should make noise over this and tell them you want to bring it to your panelbeater. Be sure and tell them that the match is deteriorating becasue it was fine when you bought it.

Churchy

Sean - the Main dealer may offer to respray the panel if its really noticeable as a gesture of goodwill. We've done that a few times.

If its only the door it should be unlikely that theres major damage been done to the car.
Has it come from the UK ? - I'll do a hpi check if you like - no charge

Biro

You're entitled to your money back essentially. You don't have to go down this route, but you could change it for another similar model, year and condition car, or get him to respray it, but personally I'd be looking for another car off him of at least similar year and mileage, but hopefully better.
Was it a Mazda dealer?

cantdecide

Biro wrote: »

I'd be looking for another car off him of at least similar year and mileage

I'd give them the chance to fix it up first. I'd say different if it was a brand new car. My dad is buying an '02 Merc from a Merc dealer and in their care, it was pranged on the back door and quarter panel before it was collected. As long as me da's happy with the outcome- there's no harm in it.

Open the phonebook and see how many panel beaters there is in your area- they're all working. Cars get pranged every day and as long as it's just cosmetic and is repaired to your satisfaction, there's no harm.

Biro

cantdecide wrote: »

Biro wrote: »

I'd be looking for another car off him of at least similar year and mileage

I'd give them the chance to fix it up first. I'd say different if it was a brand new car. My dad is buying an '02 Merc from a Merc dealer and in their care, it was pranged on the back door and quarter panel before it was collected. As long as me da's happy with the outcome- there's no harm in it.

Open the phonebook and see how many panel beaters there is in your area- they're all working. Cars get pranged every day and as long as it's just cosmetic and is repaired to your satisfaction, there's no harm.

You have a point, but my point would be that I'd usually sell my cars privately. How many people would be happy paying me the full worth of the used car from me, a private guy, if the door had been previously sprayed? No matter how high the standard.

cantdecide

I know where you're coming from but speaking as someone who buys and sells my cars privately is extremely finicky about paint- if someone told me it had had work done but there was no visible evidence and was repaired to an as new standard- I can say with my hand on my heart that no, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

Take into consideration that by the time the OP is finished with it, it will be a 5 yr. old, old shape 6 saloon with probably around 100k km with some invisible panel work, it doesn't sound inappropriately bad.

This kind of thing happens every day in the real world.

bazz26

OP did the dealer tell you that the door was repainted when you were buying the car? Afaik by law they are supposed to inform you if the vehicle was repaird due to damaged.

Definately go back to them and see what they have to say on the subject.

Churchy

Geez here come the fireside advisors ^^^

A dealer does not have the legal obligation to tell you of any previous damage that has occured during a cars life.
If you specifically ask they must answer truthfully , which could be no - if they havent spotted or were not told about previous paint repairs.
In any event a single door repair could be as simple as a 3" scratch repair.
Single panel is unlikely to indicate major repairs.


Be friendly but firm and they probably will repair free of charge.
Spotting paint repairs can come down to the light available at the time - if you collected in the evening its understandable it wasnt spottted - but in the glare of a petrol stations lights most paint repairs are very obvious.

mickdw

Churchy wrote: »

I'll do a hpi check if you like - no charge

You could be useful to know (free checks). Do ye guys in the trade find that alot of ex english cars being traded in are clocked? Do ye check? If so do you just refuse the car?