Looked at another today was awful ,will annoy me as her 10year old Audi has very few chips on it ,and cost of painting a car these days is ridiculous, I think she will have to put up with our old thickly painted eunos
Fully agree with whatās been written my 2022 soul red is an absolute eye sore covered in stone chips several down to the metal around the bonnet edge and multiple showing white underneath. the leading edge of both fronts wings and as far as half way up the bonnet. There are over 100 including the front bumper
Car has done 20 thousand miles
My previous boxster I took from 40 to 135 thousand miles doing all the same things and it had a hand full of stone chips when I sold it
Mazda tell me there is nothing wrong with the paint
Has totally ruined the new car experience for me as the car looks a mess
Iāve read a lot about that Soul Red (Crystal) over the internet, not just on the MX-5, with many a story like yours.
I have a Soul Red ND bought new in 22. Have done 12k miles. Had it ceramic coated at purchase. One or two chips only on front of bonnet. Used Mazda repair kit quite successfully on small chips. Not so good on scratch on side front wing (suspect a shopping trolley)
It was probably part of Mazdaās lighter car policy for using thinner paint for the ND. I have a few chips that I am slowly filling, wet flatting and polishing out. Mostly the previous owners history , but a few I have added. Its worse than my Elise was and that was as low , but the paint was thicker from factory and I guess it depends on the flexibility of the type of paint they also used. Its why some get PPFād on the front to try and lessen the impact (excuse the pun). I have a blemish on the door for a deep scratch and is beyond a touch up that I will get resolved in other ways. But as a whole , every car has its foibles and guess paint and gearbox is mine. Also with being white, the front bumper is black underneath which stands out worse. Hey ho, I will just keep touching it in and gently ease second gear and enjoy driving it .
More a case of rules involving solvents
= not a tail gaiter 
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I absolutely panic whenever a tipper truck pulls out in front of me from a construction site or quarry. They have the habit of pebble dashing any vehicle anywhere close behind!
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Yes, youāre right. My ceramic hasnāt too many, and the Mazda touch up is great. I donāt tail gate though, and even though I must have 50 coats of wax on it by now, I doubt thatās got a anything to do with it. Itās probably a combination of not tailgating, and above all, luck.
When I bought my car I had āDiamond Briteā put on my car & a 4 year warrant on my paint work, after the warranty ran out I just use a good wax & get the same results at a lesser cost. I have had the company out to touch up the paint a couple of time & was left with a sample bottle for little chips I could do myself. I think as long as you keep on top of waxing & cleaning your car it will always look good.
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MIne has done 9000 miles and has only a few stone chips, no worse than any other car Iāve had.
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Yes ive noticed that aswell ive got 21 plate sports adventure blue mica paint and noticed chip marks im trying to get a pen colour to match but avin trouble finding the match if any one can help much appreciated.
Have a look here 9ml Genuine Mazda Touch Up Paint, All MX5 Models (mx5parts.co.uk) as you would expect, aways a perfect match.
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Also an owner of a 2022 soul red, and Iām on 25k now. First new car Iāve had, so itās done less miles and is newer even now than any other car Iāve previously owned, but has more chips than all of them combined.
Probably have a similar number of chips as yours having done a similar number of miles. I havenāt counted them though!
Mine have looked worse since putting Soft 99 Fusso Coat on it a couple of months ago - the wax gets caught in the chips then hardens and now even my shallow chips that werenāt down to the primer look white.
I was told in May that I donāt have enough equity for an early upgrade on my PCP (not that I was looking to, but they called me in for an āaccount reviewā* and did me a valuation) because āthey would need to repaint the bonnet and wings to resell itā.
Wish I hadnāt gone in as I wasnāt looking to swap yet, and all it served was to make me feel worse about the condition of my car.
Iām really careful about how I wash it, to try and eliminate swirling it up, but I may be wasting my time taking the care.
I will be attacking the chips soon with the Mazda touch up kit but itāll take some doing, and obviously new ones will still appear.
Iām also not a tailgater, but I drive 200 miles a week, mostly on a busy motorway, I wonder how far a small stone can travel at MX-5 bonnet height at 70 mph?
We have a Skoda Citigo from new. Now 10k miles more than the MX5 at 30 k miles. Only a couple of stone chips. Same age as the 5 . Much harder wearing paint . Also our Formentor 310 is 2 years old and same mileage as the 5 . I touched up 2 chips recently and gained another last week. From looking at the paint depth to touch in ( took about 5 or 6 goes to level up) is much thicker as well compared to the 5. The real way is to paint depth check, but I donāt have one , but you can see the thickness of paint is different.
VOC emmisions have been long going before the dawn of the ND and I am sure all manufacturers have guidelines in whatever country they manufacture to be able to sell worldwide, so donāt believe this is the reason.
A friend had a Mazda 6 in soul red and he did 60 k in that over a couple of years and showed a few chips , but nothing drastic, but isnt long slung to the road and was motorway bashing most days.
Or more likely still, a cost-cutting measure
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My car is Ceramic ā¦and equally as badā¦with the added issues that a) the Mazda touch up paint is not a great match and b) the paintā¦even the factory applied paintā¦is a noticeably different shade on the plastic bumpers!
My previous BR Green NA Monza was equally as bad.
I have recently had the front bumper resprayed at a local paint specialist and it now looks better, colour-wise, than ever. The guy there did say that a soul red car would have cost almost double to respray as the paint is terrible to work with! However, even the new paint is showing a couple of (very small) chipsā¦
Glad I went with Ceramic in the end!
Iāve had other low and small sports cars and in every single case the paint has been betterā¦some vastly betterā¦BMW Z3, for exampleā¦hardly a chip in sight after 150K miles whereas my ND has 25K miles and has plenty!
Well, one of us is doing something the other isnāt, or itās all down to luck
My ceramic is on 16K miles and I canāt grumble at all about the stone chips. A few, but nothing in the slightest to write home about and when occurring, Iāve personally found the Mazda 47A touch up pen brilliant.
Also, bumpers are plastic and the rest of the car isnāt. Youāre never going to get a perfect match as the paint is applied to different base surfaces.
Try Farecla SuperGloss paste wax. You wonāt get the white wax inside them
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