Love this vehicle..but the paint is cheap!

jhu8

Member
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16 CX-5 GT AWD w/ Tech
This is really my main complaint exterior wise for this suv. I swear every week I notice a new little nick on the paint. I always park away from cars as well. The marks are just little chips in the paint with no dent or anything so I know it can't be from something like a door ding. Guessing just small rocks on the road but I still have never noticed anything like this on my other vehicles. Anyone else find the Mazda paint to be a little weak? My color is meteor gray as well. Not sure if the paint color makes a difference or not.
 
This is really my main complaint exterior wise for this suv. I swear every week I notice a new little nick on the paint. I always park away from cars as well. The marks are just little chips in the paint with no dent or anything so I know it can't be from something like a door ding. Guessing just small rocks on the road but I still have never noticed anything like this on my other vehicles. Anyone else find the Mazda paint to be a little weak? My color is meteor gray as well. Not sure if the paint color makes a difference or not.

Agree. Sheet metal is thin too. Best thing to do is try waxing the scratches out, if wax doesn't work try "rubbing compound". Keep a good coat of wax on it.
Color probably has a lot to do with the chips being noticeable. My wife's silver CR-V shows scratches and chips pretty easily, but not dirt.
 
So far only two things I have heard worry me - The windshield cracking easily and the paint.
Ofcourse the mini list of issues are : Center Armrest is awful, shining AC vent borders(who designs this stuff and how do they keep their jobs) and cheapness of fitment in some areas.
 
Agree. Sheet metal is thin too. Best thing to do is try waxing the scratches out, if wax doesn't work try "rubbing compound". Keep a good coat of wax on it.
Color probably has a lot to do with the chips being noticeable. My wife's silver CR-V shows scratches and chips pretty easily, but not dirt.

Yeah I've tried buffing them out but it does no good. Just clear discernible nicks where the paint has been removed. Fortunately, they are very very small and you can only see them when you are within a couple feet. So I just try not to look at my car from that close and just appreciate it from further back lol But I should apply another layer of wax as the summer comes to an end in preparation for winter. I dread road salt and that impact it will have on the paint.
 
What color is yours? I heard the Soul Red and White Pearl (mine) have extra layers that may be less prone to chipping (but also harder to touch up). I hit my mirror hard, was driving around 30mph, a huge diamond-shape construction sign on the side walk sticking its tip out and I couldn't dodge it for the car on the left was cutting in front. Similar to this:

road%2Bwork.bmp


The mirror folded upon impact so nothing was broken. I found a pretty deep scratch with orange paint on it, but couldn't see much after wiping it clean with a rag. Needless to say, Scotchgard film on both mirrors the next week. Other than that, I haven't noticed any scratches or chipping although there're tons of dead bugs on the front.

Last month, I had to back mine across the front yard into the front door to take my father-in-law to the ER, and the tree branches were too low and scratched the roof. I didn't see deep scratches, but given the roof are exposed to the weather the most, I'm thinking about spraying a layer of the glossy clear PlastiDip on it to be on the safe side, nobody notices anyway, and extra protection. I already had PlastiDip all over the car, doesn't interfere with washing, durable enough, and can be removed cleanly.

P.S. It's irony that the above pic of the sign, found randomly from Google Images, also has its sticking-out corner damaged. Wondering how popular this kind of accident is, the construction companies should get sued.
 
This is really my main complaint exterior wise for this suv. I swear every week I notice a new little nick on the paint. I always park away from cars as well. The marks are just little chips in the paint with no dent or anything so I know it can't be from something like a door ding. Guessing just small rocks on the road but I still have never noticed anything like this on my other vehicles. Anyone else find the Mazda paint to be a little weak? My color is meteor gray as well. Not sure if the paint color makes a difference or not.

All Japanese cars I've owned are. Infiniti, Nissan, now Mazda. However, their paint LOOKS GOOD! IT is just weak. IT's what you get when you buy a Japanese car. Same with the windshields, which I broke out of EVERY Japanese car I owned (one would crack because of the heater, even! Did it twice, no vehicles within miles). Just the trade-off you take buying them.
 
What an utterly ridiculous statement. Japanese cars are on a parr with any other quality regionally produced car. In the U.K., summer is when a lot of local roads are "dressed", that means sprayed with hot tar and then coated with basalt chippings. These chippings get flung at all the cars for the first few days and everybody hates them. All nationalities fair the same. There are even guidelines in the Mazda manual about how far to drive from the car in front which is good advice as it's the main cause of paint chips. We have a wide variety of brand nationalities in Europe including US, German, French, Japanese and Korean and they all chip the same. The problem comes partly from the fact they all follow legislation and use water based paint but if you fire a stone chip at any hard painted surface you'll probably chip it. In fact, modern water based paint is amazing. It will happily cope with arctic to desert temperatures and you can flex a bumper without it cracking or flirting off. I'm afraid a collision with a road sign is outside of the working parameters and the reason for that is elsewhere. Glad it wasn't a cyclist.
 
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What an utterly ridiculous statement. Japanese cars are on a parr with any other quality regionally produced car. In the U.K., summer is when a lot of local roads are "dressed", that means sprayed with hot tar and then coated with basalt chippings. These chippings get flung at all the cars for the first few days and everybody hates them. All nationalities fair the same. There are even guidelines in the Mazda manual about how far to drive from the car in front which is good advice as it's the main cause of paint chips. We have a wide variety of brand nationalities in Europe including US, German, French, Japanese and Korean and they all chip the same. The problem comes partly from the fact they all follow legislation and use water based paint but if you fire a stone chip at any hard painted surface you'll probably chip it. In fact, modern water based paint is amazing. It will happily cope with arctic to desert temperatures and you can flex a bumper without it cracking or flirting off. I'm afraid a collision with a road sign is outside of the working parameters and the reason for that is elsewhere. Glad it wasn't a cyclist.

My experience shows that it's not the same. Not all paint is the same thickness, nor is the clearcoat the same hardness. Nor are vehicles painted the same way. GM actually goes to extra lengths on the Corvettes to make sure the paint is tough and the clearcoat thick. Take a look at some Corvettes from time to time, if you can, and see what you think of their paint durability vs. year/miles. I can't speak specifically to others as the corvette is the only car I've watched being painted and assembled at the factory. I do know my Japanese cars scratched VERY EASILY compared to my American cars.

Also, keep in mind this varies by year. Ford and GM had some terrible peeling issues in the mid/late 90's. So on and so forth.
 
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I think it has to do with the 'eco-friendly' influence on the car industry. Paints are not what they used to be, nor do they seem to be as durable. Both of my cars have 'soft' paint.
 
I think it has to do with the 'eco-friendly' influence on the car industry. Paints are not what they used to be, nor do they seem to be as durable. Both of my cars have 'soft' paint.

My Corvette and Grand Jeep Cherokee had very good paint. At 90K miles, my Jeep didn't have but 1 or 2 rock chips on the metal parts that went to the metal. At 28K, my Mazda had multiple.

That said, the eco-influence of water-based paints was TERRIBLE when it came about, but since then, everyone is doing better by far. Also, we have much more vibrant colors than we used to, dozens of years ago.
 
I always get Opti-Coat (Pro, Pro+, and Glass) for every new car. The hydrophobic properties are amazing for keeping it clean, and it adds a little toughness to the paint/clearcoat. It won't prevent rock dings completely, but I've found that I have far less than without it.

The downside is the cost. It's pretty expensive, and only a few detail shops in each state are licensed for install. Watching the water just fall off the car is worth it though, especially since it just has a brilliant shine the majority of the time.

http://opticoat.com/
 
I always get Opti-Coat (Pro, Pro+, and Glass) for every new car. The hydrophobic properties are amazing for keeping it clean, and it adds a little toughness to the paint/clearcoat. It won't prevent rock dings completely, but I've found that I have far less than without it.

The downside is the cost. It's pretty expensive, and only a few detail shops in each state are licensed for install. Watching the water just fall off the car is worth it though, especially since it just has a brilliant shine the majority of the time.

http://opticoat.com/

Fine, but now I want a McLaren, lol! Cool product, I'm trying to learn more about it currently.
 
I think it has to do with the 'eco-friendly' influence on the car industry. Paints are not what they used to be, nor do they seem to be as durable. Both of my cars have 'soft' paint.

(bow)

The new water based paints just cannot match the 70's-80's single stage paints used in Europe...

77510_fa2ae02b83_low_res.jpg
 
I also agree with the cheap paint. Was cleaning the car up the other day, and notice the hood is speckled with tiny chips. No dents, just little specs of paint missing. Looks ok from 5 ft away, but close inspection it looks like crap. Good thing I have the 3M on most of the front end. The bad part, this is just after a couple years of driving, 40,000km. It's only going to get worse.
My CX5 has way more little paint chips already than the last car we owned that sold with 200,000kms on the clock.
 
Haven't washed our CX-5 for a while so I don't know if there're any chips at front. But when we're purchasing our Sonic Silver 2016 CX-5, the very knowledgeable salesman told me that the reason why Mazda replaced old Liquid Silver with new Sonic Silver is because Mazda is having issues with Liquid Silver paint.
 
I think it has to do with the 'eco-friendly' influence on the car industry. Paints are not what they used to be, nor do they seem to be as durable. Both of my cars have 'soft' paint.

I tend to think this is the reason behind the paint chipping easier. Here is a good article that explains Mazda's paint technology http://www.mazda.com/en/innovation/technology/env/other/paint_tech/. It obviously is suppose to include anti-chipping technology but I bet it comes at a cost for the environmental features.
 
Haven't washed our CX-5 for a while so I don't know if there're any chips at front. But when we're purchasing our Sonic Silver 2016 CX-5, the very knowledgeable salesman told me that the reason why Mazda replaced old Liquid Silver with new Sonic Silver is because Mazda is having issues with Liquid Silver paint.

I have absolutely no complaints with my Liquid Silver. I do have full 3M on front but only a single really small chip on lower part of door. I touched it up and can't see it now.

CX-5 gets well exposed in winter to mountain pass with lots of sand placed on road. I hear the paint complaints on every make these days.
 
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