2017 CX-5 Soul Red Crystal Metallic

I'm still waiting for Dec 1 to arrive. The body shop wants the paint to "cure" for 30 days (picked up the car on Nov 1) before attempting another repaint.
 
Judging by the comment by SweetPete after the paint job by the body shop, do you really think the paint would last for many years? Your 2-year-old body shop paint looks good right now, and it may still look good next year when you plan to replace it with another vehicle. But whoever got your CX-5 eventually will see the paint problem after some years. This*s my personal experience too as my 1985 VW Jett*s GLI had the full-body repaint after a hail damage. The paint looked very nice at beginning, but after 6 years some paint started to fade. That*s why I now only do the PDR job after any hail damage on my vehicle, trying to keep the factory paint as long as possible.

There*s no body shop who can have similar facility and equipment like factory. Factory uses robot with multiple paint spray guns controlled by computer, body shop uses single spray gun by a human. Factory has dust-free painting room and dip the whole body for a primer bath, and a body shop have neither.

I understand Mazda has problems on Soul Red Crystal, but I simply don*t believe a body shop can do a better job than the factory paint from Mazda.

Totally disagree. A week after I got my soul red CX5 the front bumper was hit and replaced. Body shop did a fantastic paint match. Here it is over a year later and the hood has more chips than the bumper. The body shop paint is holding up way better than the factory paint.
 
Totally disagree. A week after I got my soul red CX5 the front bumper was hit and replaced. Body shop did a fantastic paint match. Here it is over a year later and the hood has more chips than the bumper. The body shop paint is holding up way better than the factory paint.

I can see where yrwei52 might be going with this. Regarding paint uniformity and colour, the factory paint will always match better than "body shop paint" because all panels were sprayed at the same time, with the same consistency and "technique", and left to cure for the same amount of time. The issue is the quality of paint (or possibly a fault in the finishing/curing process) at the factory. Some body shops are very good when it comes to finishing/prep work, so the repaired panel appears to be more durable due to a difference in materials used.
 
I can see where yrwei52 might be going with this. Regarding paint uniformity and colour, the factory paint will always match better than "body shop paint" because all panels were sprayed at the same time, with the same consistency and "technique", and left to cure for the same amount of time. The issue is the quality of paint (or possibly a fault in the finishing/curing process) at the factory. Some body shops are very good when it comes to finishing/prep work, so the repaired panel appears to be more durable due to a difference in materials used.

I agree with this...while we have a Machine Gray CX-5, we had to have a new front bumper installed due to shrapnel from an accident that occurred in the lane next to my wife. The first time the body shop painted the bumper, the color didn't match...
20180507-161250.jpg


The body shop called PPG and they sent some of their "experts" over to show the body shop the proper technique to blend the Mazda multi stage paint. The second painting attempt came out absolutely perfect (don't have a similar close up pic to show)...
20180916-150406-HDR.jpg
 
I agree with this...while we have a Machine Gray CX-5, we had to have a new front bumper installed due to shrapnel from an accident that occurred in the lane next to my wife. The first time the body shop painted the bumper, the color didn't match...
20180507-161250.jpg


The body shop called PPG and they sent some of their "experts" over to show the body shop the proper technique to blend the Mazda multi stage paint. The second painting attempt came out absolutely perfect (don't have a similar close up pic to show)...
20180916-150406-HDR.jpg

Rubber painted parts are not likely to match in certain lighting conditions because they require a flex agent added to the paint. This is apparent in even paint from the factory although I can see your point, yours does seem a bit extreme. Again, outcome depends on the quality of the body shop. I had a blue Hyundai that required a new bumper and the body shop did such a lousy job in paint match (too much flex agent) that it actually looked light green when the sun would hit it a certain way.
 
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I took my vehicle back to the dealer on Monday, as the 30 day waiting period for the paint to "cure" had passed.* Service manager said he's having a heck of a time getting reimbursed by Mazda - I had assumed Mazda was paying the body/paint shop directly, but apparently that's not how it works (at least in my case).* Anyway, manager asked if I'd be willing to wait until Spring to do the repaint/fix, and also mentioned that their own body/paint shop is now qualified to do the repaint instead of the Toyota dealer down the street.* I'm trying to decide what to do: repaint, trade up to a 2019 GT Reserve, or trade up to another brand.
 
I took my vehicle back to the dealer on Monday, as the 30 day waiting period for the paint to "cure" had passed.* Service manager said he's having a heck of a time getting reimbursed by Mazda - I had assumed Mazda was paying the body/paint shop directly, but apparently that's not how it works (at least in my case).* Anyway, manager asked if I'd be willing to wait until Spring to do the repaint/fix, and also mentioned that their own body/paint shop is now qualified to do the repaint instead of the Toyota dealer down the street.* I'm trying to decide what to do: repaint, trade up to a 2019 GT Reserve, or trade up to another brand.

If you feel like staying with a Mazda, I'd trade up to the GT Reserve. If not, I'd definitely get rid of it and go elsewhere. Personally, if it was me, I think you guys having these issues have been treated terribly, went out of your way a lot more than you should, and I'd be done with Mazda as a whole...

Sorry you've had to endure this so far. I hope you find the closure you're looking for in the end, and very soon to boot...
 
I took my vehicle back to the dealer on Monday, as the 30 day waiting period for the paint to "cure" had passed.* Service manager said he's having a heck of a time getting reimbursed by Mazda - I had assumed Mazda was paying the body/paint shop directly, but apparently that's not how it works (at least in my case).* Anyway, manager asked if I'd be willing to wait until Spring to do the repaint/fix, and also mentioned that their own body/paint shop is now qualified to do the repaint instead of the Toyota dealer down the street.* I'm trying to decide what to do: repaint, trade up to a 2019 GT Reserve, or trade up to another brand.

Mazda or the dealer would have to give me $5000 off the price of GT-R after any rebates and excellent trade in for the SRC GT. Otherwise, I would not give my business to them. Maybe your terms are not so aggressive but unless you come and post in the selling price thread and the mike drops - yeah shop for competition.
 
Mazda or the dealer would have to give me $5000 off the price of GT-R after any rebates and excellent trade in for the SRC GT. Otherwise, I would not give my business to them. Maybe your terms are not so aggressive but unless you come and post in the selling price thread and the mike drops - yeah shop for competition.

Yea, I guess I should*ve added that they*d be giving me a hell of a deal (15-20% off) on a GT-R and maximum trade-in value close to private party retail as well if I were to stick it out and drive a Mazda. I really don*t think they give two poops about retaining business, though, unfortunately...
 
Mazda or the dealer would have to give me $5000 off the price of GT-R after any rebates and excellent trade in for the SRC GT. Otherwise, I would not give my business to them. Maybe your terms are not so aggressive but unless you come and post in the selling price thread and the mike drops - yeah shop for competition.

Yeah, what he said. I would require at minimum $5000 off and written guarantee that the next Mazda car would not have any paint issues.
 
I've got the white and it doesn't seem to be as bad as I've heard for the red but still some smallish chips, mainly in the area between the headlights and fogs, and one or two I noticed on the front passenger side door when I washed it yesterday (not sure how those got there). Hood and everywhere else is pristine. Too bad Mazda didn't pull a Rolls-Royce and do 20+ layers of paint. Minus the $$$ charge.

So the white doesnt have the same issue as red?
 
So the white doesn*t have the same issue as red?

Definitely not as widespread, if anything. There was one user on here who was experiencing issues with the white paint, but they haven't posted in a while.
 
Definitely not as widespread, if anything. There was one user on here who was experiencing issues with the white paint, but they haven't posted in a while.

Gotcha. I was really leaning towards red until I read this thread, but I think I could live with the white exterior.
 
Where on the hood do you guys get chips? Are they caused by pebbles kicked up on the highway? Maybe I should put some protective plastic guard on mine.
 
Maybe they didn't put enough clear coat on the red paint. I would think a thick clear coat would prevent a glancing pebble to reach the color layer.
 
Each coat of paint is measured in microns of thickness. The problem is the bond between the clear and tinted clear coats, and the primer fails. So you will get chips anywhere on the car. Ours had five on the side of the passenger door for no apparent reason. This issue has probably long since been resolved in the production process, the problem is the paint process is so specialized it is very difficult to duplicate in a body shop environment. Our dealer had our car two months and it came back to us with multiple flaws in the paint. Overall the car looks good, but it is easy to see how different it is to paint bare metal with robots, and repaint a four step process in a body shop. And the new paint is so thick that impacts by hard objects now cause "smudges" in the paint because there is so much of it.

To me, the repaint challenges would be the primary reason not to buy your Mazda painted Soul Red Crystal Metallic. The likelihood a part of your car will need to be repainted at some point during the car's life is very likely, and it will take some very specialized knowledge by your painter to get good results. And it will take some extra patience to be without your car for an extended period while that process takes place. Ours took two months and it was not close to an OEM quality result. I can only imagine how much more trouble it would be with panel damage, and the blending of color on a car a few years old was added to the challenge.
 
Each coat of paint is measured in microns of thickness. The problem is the bond between the clear and tinted clear coats, and the primer fails. So you will get chips anywhere on the car. Ours had five on the side of the passenger door for no apparent reason. This issue has probably long since been resolved in the production process, the problem is the paint process is so specialized it is very difficult to duplicate in a body shop environment. Our dealer had our car two months and it came back to us with multiple flaws in the paint. Overall the car looks good, but it is easy to see how different it is to paint bare metal with robots, and repaint a four step process in a body shop. And the new paint is so thick that impacts by hard objects now cause "smudges" in the paint because there is so much of it.

To me, the repaint challenges would be the primary reason not to buy your Mazda painted Soul Red Crystal Metallic. The likelihood a part of your car will need to be repainted at some point during the car's life is very likely, and it will take some very specialized knowledge by your painter to get good results. And it will take some extra patience to be without your car for an extended period while that process takes place. Ours took two months and it was not close to an OEM quality result. I can only imagine how much more trouble it would be with panel damage, and the blending of color on a car a few years old was added to the challenge.

The second paragraph summarises the reason why I changed from SRC to silver.
 
Matching the "special" paints from Mazda like SRC and MGM can be difficult, but it is possible. I recently had a few scratches in my MGM paint repaired by a local bodyshop, and they did an excellent job. It might be worth your time to visit a few bodyshops to ask questions about the successes they've had in respraying whatever colour you decide to go with.

Check out these links from PPGrefinish. There's a lot that goes into these repairs, but the results are excellent.

https://us.ppgrefinish.com/Training...Repair-Process-for-Mazda-46V-Soul-Red-Crystal
https://us.ppgrefinish.com/Training/Tech-Tips/Articles-Tips-Videos/Repairing-Mazda-46G-Machine-Gray
 
I have a 2017 Mazda 6 in Machine Grey. I just noticed a bunch of these chips on my hood today. Of course, the Mazda dealership where I work isn't going to be Mazda anymore come Monday and there is no way to get a warranty claim started by then
 
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