1.5 registered 30/12/15. I have in excess of 60 chips or similar in my paintwork mainly at the front and on the bonnet… Although I am still perservering Mazda are fobbing me off. If these are stone chips I cannot believe the paint can be adequate. I am a member of the North West Area and noone else has this kind of damage. I do not drive off road or do track days. I live on the outskirts of Blackpool in a suburban area.
Does anybody know of someone with similar problems and any successful outcomes.
Incidentally. the car is going back in for another replacement quarter Glass channel, so check your own for rust.
It has been mentioned in many threads that Mazda paint is exceptionally thin. I’m sure a search will turn some up or someone will come along with more information.
Part of a dealers terms with Mazda (and most other cars and dealers too) is that they, the dealer, accept all warranty obligations when they sell the car. Complaints to Mazda direct will fall on deaf ears I’m afraid, if the dealer refuses to accept you have a warranty claim, then you are stuck with what you’ve got.
No easy answer I’m afraid, unless you try local ‘help’ sites, like citizens advice or trading standards, who may tell you the same. If they agree with you, then they might put pressure on the dealer, but depending on who and where they are, to me it’s seems doubtful.
If you are ‘participating member’ in your local area activities - including convoy drives, then this may be the cause of your stone chip problems, as all areas tend to go for ‘B’ roads, which means you can encounter anything, as well as stones. If not, suburban driving often means driving on newly resurfaced roads, where local councils insist on resurfacing using a mix of goo and stone chips, which may also be something to look out for.
Worse case scenario? - get a repaint yourself, if you can afford an arm and a leg.
Got to be said, stone chips on your bonnet is caused by fast and too close to the car in front driving…my 5 is eleven and a half years old and has only a dozen or so chips, yes i do drive it quickly…but, not close enough to get stone chipped, if you have ever motorway driven and seen the painted chevrons which advise you to keep two apart, well that’s how i drive…and i can stop safely even if the idiot in front can’t.
I do genuinely sympathise with you Dave, and yes, through the decades Mx5 paint has been the subject of many sometimes heated debates.
In short, it’s below par in my view. Mk3s had quite big issues.
Never the less my personal driving style…one of self preservation sometimes perhaps to the extreme in traffic…see me staying well behind the vehicle in front in both our 5s. Before our old 2002 car went in for paint during a big rot eradication effort, there were only a few minor blemishes on it’s snout, and my Mk1 shows pretty much none.
When we had our 2002 Sport repainted 3 years back, the coachwork experts ( Foz in Alloa) used VAG/BMW lacquers as they did not rate whatever Hiroshima splash on.
To date, the front valance is 100% unmarked. Make of that what you will.
Both are and were used on motorways etc. And, as you know, Scotland does not have the kindest roads in winter.
The problem here is you take answers the wrong way as being critical, but they are not.
We all have our own “styles”.
You will get no truck from Mazda UK, that’s for sure. Mazda paint quality sucks more than a barrel of fermenting limes.
Dave at the moment you are not a car paint expert, you are a punter who has an opinion about the paint on your car, end of story.
The Mazda dealer who will claim his paint expert advises the paint is not defective.
No one on here has inspected your paintwork and there are few car painting professional on this forum but a number of other punters that have their own opinions so no use quoting any opinion on here as it is of no value to argue against the dealers paint man.
The only option you have now is to find someone with paint spraying experience who will give you a detailed professional report on your car quoting paint thicknesses etc, etc and reasons for the paint problem with your car.
This will cost a good few hundred pounds and for the avoidance of doubt, just quoting what a paint pro has said to you without a professional report will get you nowhere.
It is possible that if the paint pro you hire, may think, it is you driving too close to the car in front and they will only charge you £100 for a verbal report that it is your fault or not an issue with paint quality.
The problem you have is are you prepared to pay say £300 to get a professional report and at best the dealer may say OK, we will do 50/50 on that.
I would get a quote to get the panels resprayed and decided if the cost of sorting your car is enough to take the risk of paying for a professional examination that the dealer may well not consider is worth the paper it is printed on.
I’m sorry I cannot put you in touch with any paint professionals.
Intuition would be that the metallic/pearlescent paints that are £00’s more expensive might be thicker/tougher but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
My Blue Reflex car has done 12,000 miles and has a good number of small chips on the front- they show white, although they are small enough not to be visible other than close up.
Great care will be needed to touch them in without making things worse. Cost aside, I’d be loath to repaint as it can’t be easy to match. The body shop I would use is actually Mazda approved and they say the Soul Red is one of the most difficult paints to match, even though they do test panels.
I don’t tailgate - I always follow from a comfortable distance, but getting close to other traffic is unavoidable when overtaking or being overtaken, and opposing traffic also chucks up grit. And then then are those twits who overtake on hatchings, showering everybody with gravel.
I don’t think we will get any change out of Mazda.
I’m in the NW also (St Asaph) and my Soul Red ND is exactly the same, to add insult to injury with less than a week of ownership under my belt I got splattered by a quarry truck, I’d go as far as to say my front end has more stone chips than yours and the car has only just clicked over 10k. It’s pretty damn pathetic, especially when you walk down the road and see 5 & 10 year old cars without a mark on them.
Blue reflex - Blackpool area - under 2 years old - 25,000+ miles, no more than a handful of chips (though front bumper has been “melted” and resprayed following someone reversing into me).
Soul Red ND here, just over three years old, 14k on the clock. One small chip that had been touched in when I bought it six months ago. Otherwise nothing. Had three previous MX-5s and this is the first one I’ve had that can be washed and microfibred and looks half decent. Even just a hose down will clear most road dirt. I’ve also found that bird droppings rinse off without leaving any marks on the lacquer even if they have been there a couple of days although I still try to clear then ASAP.
I’m not a fanatical detailer and find with this one I don’t have to be and it still looks great.
For the record, having driven cars and ridden motor bikes over a 50 year period I do keep my distance from the car in front.
I am still going through the Mazda dealer although they have tried to get me to go directly to Mazda.
I have not had Gareth’s misfortune nor been showered in gravel by another vehicle.I have only noticed the windscreen being hit on a handful of occasions
I am not a paint expert but feel that my pockmarked car begs the question as to whether the quality of the paintwork on my car is fit for purpose for everyday normal usage.What is that expression of "merchantisable quality mean? Would a reasonable person expect their car to be covered in pockmarks after 28k? I certainly was not forewarned when I bought the car that it could be expected.
Roadie you are a lucky man, but then so are a lot of others,your cars are normal and mine is not. Still my gearbox is still working.
Please continue to respond to my post if you have not already
I am sure your problems must be very frustrating. My 1.5 in Soul Red is 6 months old, and so far (touch wood) has no stone chips. I hope you get a suitable resolution.
Slightly off models, I considered having my sills repainted whilst I had them off the car they are absolutely peppered with chips, so are the lower parts of the doors.
I look around it when I wash it and always find a new chip mainly up front, it’s a Mk3 11 years old and remains garaged most of it’s life save for the 3-4k miles I do each year.
My SEAT daily driver has just 2 stone chips on the front in 4 years and one of those I heard it hit and expected to see far worse than your average size chip. That car’s been over some rougher roads than I dare take the Mazda.
The whole front nose moulding of my well looked after 2012 NC has quite a shot-blasted appearance, particularly noticeable when the sun catches it - in addition to all the chips there are some quite deep stone dings on there too. Only 32,000 miles covered but the majority on motorways & fast A-roads. I always maintain a very safe distance from the vehicle in front; I’ve quite a few small chips on the doors & sides of the front wings too. Only a few on the bonnet.
Plus the windscreen - spent a couple of hours last week on what seems to be an annual exercise of tidying up the worst of the windscreen chips with a “Rain-X” repair kit - looks 90% better now. However when the light catches the windscreen that looks quite peppered too due to all the tiny bits of damage.
I heard somewhere that many motorists are experiencing increased paint / windscreen damage since the onset of “austerity” which led local Councils & the Govt Highways Service to cut back on the frequency of regular road sweeping?
As others have said though, Mazda’s paint is very thin.