New CX5, paint quality

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RichinCincy

Member
:
2016.5 CX5 GT
All,

I picked up a new CX5 in early December, and have since put around 1700 miles on it. I'd say fewer than half of the miles are highway. Today while doing a quick wash, I noticed 5 or 6 chips in the paint on the hood.. I have never seen paint chip so easily, have you guys seen this type of thing?? For the nay sayers, I don't tailgate, and I've only driven one time when there was salt on the road.

I'm going to repair the chips and get a clear bra installed. Both are disapointing, I have a 6 year old VW with MANY more miles w/o a significant paint chip.

Thoughts???
 
Newer paint formulations that are water based and LOW VOC to meet emission regs are not as durable as the solvent based paints..
 
RichinCincy said:
All,

I picked up a new CX5 in early December, and have since put around 1700 miles on it. I'd say fewer than half of the miles are highway. Today while doing a quick wash, I noticed 5 or 6 chips in the paint on the hood.. I have never seen paint chip so easily, have you guys seen this type of thing?? For the nay sayers, I don't tailgate, and I've only driven one time when there was salt on the road.

I'm going to repair the chips and get a clear bra installed. Both are disapointing, I have a 6 year old VW with MANY more miles w/o a significant paint chip.

Thoughts???
Click to expand...

Typical for Japanese paint. Japanese paint is usually a bit more vibrant than American, but it's softer and chips easier. Just my experience from Nissan, Infiniti, Mazda, Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler ownership.
 
I have paint chips on my rear mirror. I also noticed my first windshield chip while cleaning it today. Aww shucks.
Btw notice one thing - while cleaning rear windows there are these two plastic triangles on either side of the top wing - they are not firm at all, a small tug and they vibrate.

Crazy - I guess you have to live with some negativity.
 
I'm not sure how you can avoid stone chips, apart from leaving a longer gap between cars in front and reducing speed on roads that are covered in loose stones

I have around 3 hood chips on my 15 month old car, normal i would say.
 
xtrailman said:
I'm not sure how you can avoid stone chips, apart from leaving a longer gap between cars in front and reducing speed on roads that are covered in loose stones

I have around 3 hood chips on my 15 month old car, normal i would say.
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Agreed. The handbook shows recommendations for avoiding stone chips by basically staying back from the car in front. My CX-5 with Soul Red paint has got some tiny chips but you have to look closely. In summer our roads get "dressed" with a wearing coat of granite clippings and in the winter there are regular doses of rock salt. Just as an aside, wouldn't soft paint resist chipping and hard paint be more vulnerable?
 
Well I've found Hammerite rubbish for under body protection were stones impact, that a hard paint i would say, while underseal a soft coating copes with stones easily.

So you could be right there Anchorman.
 
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I have noticed more chips on my cx5's paint than other cars I have owned. Quite frustrating.
 
My old Mazda 5 had terrible paint, always chipped and scratched just from looking at it. My old Nissan and new Honda don't have that problem.
 
Can't avoid rock hits but you can significantly reduce paint chips.

Nearly 5 year-old CX-5 with 90% hwy miles @60+k.
Paint protection film installed on front bumper, headlight lens, fog lens, grille, 2-feet up the hood, and mirrors. All DIY when new. 3-4 tiny paint chips the size of ball point pen tip each and located on unprotected areas near the windshield. Possibly indirect hits that initially bounced off the protected front end.

Also installed film on rear bumper, lower hatch door, and all 4 door edges. In all this project took about 2 weekends. Well worth the $300 and time investment imho.
 
CX-5um said:
Can't avoid rock hits but you can significantly reduce paint chips.

Nearly 5 year-old CX-5 with 90% hwy miles @60+k.
Paint protection film installed on front bumper, headlight lens, fog lens, grille, 2-feet up the hood, and mirrors. All DIY when new. 3-4 tiny paint chips the size of ball point pen tip each and located on unprotected areas near the windshield. Possibly indirect hits that initially bounced off the protected front end.

Also installed film on rear bumper, lower hatch door, and all 4 door edges. In all this project took about 2 weekends. Well worth the $300 and time investment imho.
Click to expand...

What product did you use?
 
csteele2144 said:
What product did you use?
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Yeah for the CX-5 back in 2012 I used custom pre-cut kit from here: http://www.clearmask.com/online_store.php

Let me preface this was in 2012 and when I purchased the Front End bumper kit they threw in stuff like fog lights and mirror kits for free. They also provided install stuff for free. Not sure of their current promos. At the time they only had 2 product levels and I bought the cheaper option. Now they have 3 options. I then ordered bulk 3M film from ebay for the easy sections that didn't require intricately shaped cuts unlike the front bumper which is tricky. Why? well bulk film is cheaper than pre-cut film obviously. To sum up I bought bulk 3M film on Ebay. I also bought pre-cut 3M film from said website whose product is 3M film with proprietary film and adhesion added.


Fast forward to my 2016 Mazda6, Paint protection film technology progressed. I got the 3M's latest self healing film. I opted to have a local shop install the front bumper for me. I want to say they charged $200-250? for it. I then order said 3M self healing film in bulk and installed DIY on half of the hood from front edge on up and door edges. Haven't installed on fenders because I got lazy. Installed Xpel on headlights.
 
Fairly sure Mazda will be using the same paint and processes as these other quoted manufacturers. Mine must be a special according to these criticisms.
 
CX-5um said:
Can't avoid rock hits but you can significantly reduce paint chips.

Nearly 5 year-old CX-5 with 90% hwy miles @60+k.
Paint protection film installed on front bumper, headlight lens, fog lens, grille, 2-feet up the hood, and mirrors. All DIY when new. 3-4 tiny paint chips the size of ball point pen tip each and located on unprotected areas near the windshield. Possibly indirect hits that initially bounced off the protected front end.

Also installed film on rear bumper, lower hatch door, and all 4 door edges. In all this project took about 2 weekends. Well worth the $300 and time investment imho.
Click to expand...

If you DIY PPF then you are NOT the average person. This is NOT a typical DIY project any more than tinting your own windows is. It's like window-tinting in 3D.
 
Anchorman said:
Fairly sure Mazda will be using the same paint and processes as these other quoted manufacturers. Mine must be a special according to these criticisms.
Click to expand...

They are all different. Look at a Corvette. Now go look at your CX5. Totally different thicknesses of clearcoat, application, orange peal allowance on various panels, etc. This is a very extreme example of paint philosophies, and more subtle ones exist.
 
I've found Nissan and Mazda about the same, but the audi had more coats of paint and the top lacquer coat was really thick, but that was back in 2000, things may now be different.
 
my '09 mazda 3 was unbelievably susceptible to minor dings & chips, but then again i teach at an inner city school with street parking so god only knows how people throw their doors open around here, learned my lesson though & now i park the cx-5 a block away just to be safe, we shall see

the blurb on mazda's website mentions some new paint process they'll be using on the '17 - it'll be interesting to see if it there are any differences other than the dark grey becoming metallic & a $300 upcharge
 
LarryB78 said:
my '09 mazda 3 was unbelievably susceptible to minor dings & chips, but then again i teach at an inner city school with street parking so god only knows how people throw their doors open around here, learned my lesson though & now i park the cx-5 a block away just to be safe, we shall see

the blurb on mazda's website mentions some new paint process they'll be using on the '17 - it'll be interesting to see if it there are any differences other than the dark grey becoming metallic & a $300 upcharge
Click to expand...


Infiniti used self-healing paint. I never heard about it doing much.
 
I painted cars up until about a year ago. Mazda paint is far from the the worst paint. Most manufacturers are now using bells to paint there cars colors. They have an insane transfer efficiency compared to any conventional type gun. Mazda paint is towards the bottom, Toyota and lexus probably have some of the best. Mercedes has some of the worst orange peel out of any manufacturer. I don't know how people take delivery of some of the cars we repaired. If every customer made the dealer give them a $500- $1k credit towards the aweful paint jobs new cars have then maybe they would do something about the poor performance and appearance of current automotive paint.
 
sternsi said:
I painted cars up until about a year ago. Mazda paint is far from the the worst paint. Most manufacturers are now using bells to paint there cars colors. They have an insane transfer efficiency compared to any conventional type gun. Mazda paint is towards the bottom, Toyota and lexus probably have some of the best. Mercedes has some of the worst orange peel out of any manufacturer. I don't know how people take delivery of some of the cars we repaired. If every customer made the dealer give them a $500- $1k credit towards the aweful paint jobs new cars have then maybe they would do something about the poor performance and appearance of current automotive paint.
Click to expand...
MB may have bad orange peal, but the paint is tough, no?
 
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