Dealership Screw Up - Clearcoat Issue

[FDNY-L107]

I debated if I should even post this and in the spirit of "vending" for myself, I decided to post.

I took delivery of my new 11 Camaro LS, black, in Feb. I took delivery at night, with somewhat poor lighting at the dealership. I know better than to take delivery of a black car at night. (snow was on the ground)

When I got home into my garage (with commerical T-5 HO lighting), I discovered surface scratches throughout the entire top half of the car. This included the hood, roof and rear decklid/trunk. There were none, however, on either side nor the front/rear side fenders.

I called the dealership the next morning and alerted them of the situation. They were "fairly" fourthcoming and told me to bring it in for a look and ensured me they would take care of it.

This was my first experience with this dealership and selected it based on prior recommendations and also they supported a local car club I was involved with earlier.

After taking it in, the dealership acknowedged this issue and set time up for the car to brought in and the scratches removed.

I dropped the car off later that week for them to have it for the day. Upon my return to pick it up, I noticed the detailers went too deep on the buffers and there were swirl marks throughout the top half of the car. Very bad along the edges, to the point where I feel the clear is "burnt".

I expressed my concerns - long story short and I'm providing the "G" rated version here, I finally met with the dealership owner. This was after several attempts to contact him. He assured me that they could "buff" it out and that they had "expert" detailers. The warning flags were all up by now.


The dealership had the car for over two days. They finally made some progress, but the buff marks are still visiable and again, I think they went to deep into the clearcoat. I requested that they re-spray the car, but that was not accepted. I later found out that the dealership used a "brush" of some sorts to "clear" the snow off the car once I purchased it and they were prepping it. The owner did not dispute this, but indicated that they only use a "soft" brush. Again, I'm summarizing as best as I can and hopefully you get the picture.

At this point, I refuse to take it back to this dealership and thinking about filing a claim through my insurance company. I've had two professional body guys take a look at it and they both agree that the buffer was used incorrectly.

GM is out of the picture, as it is not a warranty issue and this was done by the dealership. I did call this all out in my GM customer survey - for what it is worth.

If anyone has had a similiar issue or could provide suggestions, I would appreciate that.

Thanks,
Mark

[67 Convertible]

Originally Posted by FDNY-L107

GM is out of the picture, as it is not a warranty issue

I disagree that it is not a GM issue. A dealership "representing GM" has possibly ruined your paint.
You bought and paid for a new vehicle.
Obviously, the paint is not what one would expect on a brand new vehicle. The dealer must already agree that there was an issue, or they wouldn't have tried to "fix" it.
If you have exhausted all avenues to get this corrected with the dealer, you should call GM customer service and open a claim.
Ask for the GM regional rep. to get involved.
You should keep following up the food chain with GM if they refuse to help.
If you paid for a new car, you should expect nothing less than a new unmolested paint job.

[DangerZL1]

There's no way I'd even contact your insurance company, at least not yet. I don't know how you'd even file it under comprehensive, since the dealership is reaponsible for it. Hopefully some others with some experience dealing with problems like this will post soon. After hearing about the mishandling of the buffers, I don't think I could trust the dealership to correctly paint your car anyway. Also, there is the issue of devaluation. If you trade the car in with a repaint and they may find out about it, and wreck damage will be suspected.

I wouldn't give up on the dealer. It's their fault, and they are 100% responsible for the damage. I'd politely demand to meet with the dealer's owner in person and discuss the damage while looking over the car. No one should be expected to accept a new car with paint damage. It's your best chance of getting any more action from them. If you go away, they'll win and you'll end up paying for this out of your pockeet. Of course the owner doesn't want to pay for it, because he'll have to cover the entire expense. It may not be GMs problem at this point, but maybe their customer service could offer some help. The dealership is responsible for taking care of customer problems.

If all else fails, you may have to pursue legal action. I'd document your dealings with them and take pictures of the damage.

[FDNY-L107]

Thanks - understood.

[SLEDMASTER]

I love black paint on cars but every one i have bought has had scratches. My last 3 have been black. Even my new car had fine scratches on it or worse is water spots on black.

[Ghost1LE]

I think GM will step in and do something. I had an issue with my rear spoiler, had the dealer I bought the car from do the work (Mind you it's an hour drive each way) and I get a car back that they threw some touch-up paint on the edge of the trunk and made it look worse.

They wanted to fix it and well that didn't work for me, I contacted GM And told them about the issue and I told them I wanted the local dealer to repaint my trunk like the other dealer charged GM for under warranty and did not do so.

Long story short, the other dealer called and agreed to pay my local dealer for the work.

It's definitely a different situation, but I would work on finding a solution to the issue and at least getting it resprayed but trying to get a refund and giving the car back is going to be a lot hard IMHO. Good luck and don't settle for less than what you deserve

[DJBullitz]

Could be considered a lemon... if you have lemon laws in your state... Tell them you want a new car.

[FDNY-L107]

Thanks. I do not wish to return the car nor file as a lemon. All I want is the paint repaired to factory specs - no more, no less. I'll contact GM and see what where that route takes me.

[hollandtwin27SS]

I had the same issue with them over buffing my VR SS. They said they didnt buff it and I took it to a body shop which confirmed the paint was badly swirled and obviously you could see so in the sunlight. I called GM and complained of the paint and clear being to thin and the dealerships lack of workmanship. About a month later it was in the paint shop getting custom stripes and a triple clear coat to fix the issue. GM paid for the whole car to be recleared but I paid for the stripes while it was in the shop anyway. Call and create a case number with GM and they will contact the dealer and come to a solution. I had to stay on their case for the course of the month with several calls to the dealer and GM. But call GM first and beat the dealer to the punch. Create the case and they will have to respond to GM who will handle them and get the problem fixed. Hope this helps.

[FDNY-L107]

Wow - thanks!

[FDNY-L107]

Case opened with GM. Let's see how this now plays out.....

04/19 Update: GM contacted me and indicated that I will need to take the car to the dealership (again, 3rd time), for them to determine the issue. I requested to the GM rep this case be escalated when she could not address my quesiton as to how many times does the dealer need to look at this car. My case is now escalated to a GM "specialist".
I contacted the dealership and we setup a time for tomorrow, 04/20, for them to take a look at it again. Of course, now I'm going into a "hostile" environment, one that I do not trust.

[FDNY-L107]

04/21 Update: Took the car over to the dealership yesterday for another evaluation. The sales and service manager did try, in all honesty, to address the issue. We agreed upon a body shop and the dealership made some calls for me to take it over to a high end detail shop which is directly contracted out by the (agreed upon) body shop. The opinion here (not mine), is that the clear is good, the buff and swirl marks need/can be taken out. I proceeded over to the detail shop. Those guys over there were extremely nice, professional and it was a decent size shop - loaded with cars.....always a good sign. They immediately saw the issue and ensured me that they could get the buff and swirl marks out and that the clear was fine. We setup an appointment for this Monday, 04/25 - for them to have the car the entire day. The dealership is picking up the tab - which the estimate is $350. Now, if in fact they are successful, it will again amaze me of why all the hassels, open case with GM and multiple trips back and forth to the dealer - all for $350?
Interesting perspective from the detail shop owner - which he stated to me - "they see the problem, they just don't want to spend the money to have it fixed correctly". Yep, made sense to me. This shop does the majority of their work from body shops and dealerships. They see this often.
I should also note that the dealership I purchase my Camaro from does not have a body shop - fairly small. I'm guessing as long as the customer does not make a big stink about it, they will not address this issue as it should be addressed. I would also point out, that opening a case through GM seemed to really wake up this dealership as to my issue and to address this at once. I am hopeful of the outcome on Monday.

Lesson learned - use the tools and avenues that GM provides.

-Mark

[FDNY-L107]

04/26 Update: My issue was addressed by the dealership and my paint issue was resolved through a professional detailing shop on 04/25. The detail shop told the dealership how "their" detailers screwed up. They had the car for the entire day and did a complete 3 step process to remove all the prior buff and swirl marks. The detailers went through the entire car with me and show me areas that needed additional attention.

In the end though, I believe opening the case and allowing the process that GM implemented, to work - actually did just that. The car looks amazing. Ahhh....kinda like it should be from the factory.

Whew.....stress is gone. Thanks to everyone that responded on this thread. Once again, the guidence suggested was spot on.

Regards,
Mark