2017 CX-5 Soul Red Crystal Metallic

Not to be doom and gloom on you, but a free detailing from the dealership sounds like an offer to install a bunch of free swirls in the new paint. Unless an outside professional is going to do the work. Even then I personally have no confidence anymore.

Your issues remind me of my own paint problems with my CX-5. After trying to get the people involved to make it right and watching them fail and then not give a crap, I've decided you can only trust yourself when it comes to handling your car.

I spent an entire day buffing my vehicle and hand waxing with REJEX. I'll never be able to get all of the swirls, scratches and orange dots out no matter what I do, but when I was finished my new car which is now a year old already finally looked more or less new to my eyes for very first time since I bought it.
 
Dougal- sorry but i find that hard to swallow unless you have some sort of protective layer. my 2014 3 was riddled with chips after 16 months. My CX5 was also riddled with chips in less than a year. I dont tailgate either. Mazda paint sux.

Even my Infiniti has a fair number of chips.

Our honda is faring very well, just like my 2001 4 Runner did.
 
I actually have a Question for you: What can Mazda do to make you happy.
A. Nothing - as its been so bad even if they bought back your car at transaction price and paid you your salary $rate for the time you spent, you would still be unhappy and go elsewhere.
B. Warranty your paint for longer?
C. Monetary compensation - say service credit for $500 or $1000 or whatever.
D. Future discounts.
E. "should get a 100k/10-year bumper-to-bumper warranty extension" - it has nothing to do with Paint but I guess this is another option.

As for Kia, Stinger was a Special car because it can open up possibilities for sales of Veloster N and other performance cars with higher margins. Kia on the other hand have had Soul's / Forte's catch fire and have kept quiet about it. I like detailing and love my cars paint but if I have to choose between crappy paint and pulling your kids out of their car seat as the car is on fire - I know which one I would be comfortable with.

Don*t give me that *Kia Stinger was a special car* BS and opens up sales for other performance cars. The CX-5 is Mazda*s #1 seller, by a huge margin at that, and who says it doesn*t open up doors to sell someone a Miata too, a performance car...Bottom line is this is being handled all around like doo doo, no if, ands, or buts about it...

(Smh)
 
Dougal- sorry but i find that hard to swallow unless you have some sort of protective layer. my 2014 3 was riddled with chips after 16 months. My CX5 was also riddled with chips in less than a year. I don*t tailgate either. Mazda paint sux.

Even my Infiniti has a fair number of chips.

Our honda is faring very well, just like my 2001 4 Runner did.

No, really nothing. I have some small nicks and such but mostly from me scraping a cement edge or someone hitting my car. But seriously ZERO chips from the road. This is the old silver (liquid not sonic I think). Our 2017 Mazda 3 is also in good shape. Again, there are dings and my son open his car door into one of those cement barriers at the gas station. That area is actually RUSTING, which is another issue. But nothing in the front as far as rock chips or such.

Our Odyssey is also in good shape as well. Not an issue for me.
 
No, really nothing. I have some small nicks and such but mostly from me scraping a cement edge or someone hitting my car. But seriously ZERO chips from the road. This is the old silver (liquid not sonic I think). Our 2017 Mazda 3 is also in good shape. Again, there are dings and my son open his car door into one of those cement barriers at the gas station. That area is actually RUSTING, which is another issue. But nothing in the front as far as rock chips or such.

Our Odyssey is also in good shape as well. Not an issue for me.

You're not alone. My 2013 Touring has zero chips or scratches on it @47k miles. A lot of it depends on what area you drive the car in and how anal you are about taking care of it.
 
No, really nothing. I have some small nicks and such but mostly from me scraping a cement edge or someone hitting my car. But seriously ZERO chips from the road. This is the old silver (liquid not sonic I think). Our 2017 Mazda 3 is also in good shape. Again, there are dings and my son open his car door into one of those cement barriers at the gas station. That area is actually RUSTING, which is another issue. But nothing in the front as far as rock chips or such.

Our Odyssey is also in good shape as well. Not an issue for me.

Bizarre. My 2014 3 was black mica. 2016 cx5 sonic silver.

I will say despite the fact they looked like a pizza faced teenager with incredible acne, there were zero rust spots on either!
 
You're not alone. My 2013 Touring has zero chips or scratches on it @47k miles. A lot of it depends on what area you drive the car in and how anal you are about taking care of it.

The one thing is that I did get the car detailed for ~$200 after I got it. I thought the car got keyed and took it to a detailer to see if they could buff it out. Turned out that car just had some thin cover layer (?) that the guy said the dealer should have removed but clearly did not as that was what I was seeing. He dealt with that and waxed and sealed the car with something. That was in January of 2014. I wash it maybe two or three times a year and get the wax thing at the car wash. I have never hand washed it or any of that stuff.

Where I do have scratches is inside my door handle. Those look terrible.
 
I had that residue from the protective film on my cx5. Thought it was a scratch at first as well. Little bit of bug be gone took care of it in a jiffy.

I hand wash all year long as long as the hose isn't frozen up. Thus I shut off the outside faucets during winter.

I found that when using the most expensive wash at the car wash (that includes the wax) during winter months, left nasty weird gunk spots on the rear bumper. Now Im back to the basic wash. As long as it contains the undercarriage blast.
 
Bizarre. My 2014 3 was black mica. 2016 cx5 sonic silver.

I will say despite the fact they looked like a pizza faced teenager with incredible acne, there were zero rust spots on either!
Black Mica here too. And same description for my hood lol.

But concur...no rust.
 
⋯ One glaring issue was the bottom of the new hood. Neither I nor the service manager knows how a hood ordered as a replacement comes from Mazda (bare metal? only primer? primer and base coat?), but it looked like it had gotten the thinnest coat of paint I've ever seen on a car. I compared it to the new CX-5, and it clearly needs to be re-sprayed - they clearly did not look the same.
New OEM body panels including hood come with dark primer applied. Any local body shops can't do the job in quality of painting like the factory does as those body shops simply don't have those fancy robotic and computer-controlled painting facility. From my personally experience those body shop paint will fade out much earlier than factory paint, and I wouldn't keep this CX-5 long with body shop paint if I were you.
 
Guys, I've got a bit of a mystery with my vehicle. As I mentioned in my earlier post when I picked up my vehicle on Thursday, the inside was dirty, primarily from what looked like white dust or some type of residue that seemed to be on everything. Earlier today, I went to begin cleaning the inside from this residue when I discovered something in my glove box that wasn't there before - it was sealed plastic bag containing an air bag warning label on a string and a smaller label as well. The Mazda part number on the bag is KB7W-57-K93A, and it has a print date of 09/16/18. I purchased my vehicle in June 2017.

It is possible one (or more?) of the airbags deployed while the dealer or paint/body shop had my vehicle?

I also just now noticed on the paperwork the dealer gave me on Thursday that among the parts that were replaced - the hood, clips, weather stripping, etc. for the repaint - that the left (rear) quarter panel window had been replaced. Is it possible that an airbag deployment could have blown out that window? Or perhaps it was damaged by something else?

I'll be contacting the dealer on Monday, but just want to get some other opinions from you knowledgeable folks here.

P.S. Here's a link about air bag chemicals: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/airbag-residues
 
Guys, I've got a bit of a mystery with my vehicle. As I mentioned in my earlier post when I picked up my vehicle on Thursday, the inside was dirty, primarily from what looked like white dust or some type of residue that seemed to be on everything. Earlier today, I went to begin cleaning the inside from this residue when I discovered something in my glove box that wasn't there before - it was sealed plastic bag containing an air bag warning label on a string and a smaller label as well. The Mazda part number on the bag is KB7W-57-K93A, and it has a print date of 09/16/18. I purchased my vehicle in June 2017.

It is possible one (or more?) of the airbags deployed while the dealer or paint/body shop had my vehicle?

I also just now noticed on the paperwork the dealer gave me on Thursday that among the parts that were replaced - the hood, clips, weather stripping, etc. for the repaint - that the left (rear) quarter panel window had been replaced. Is it possible that an airbag deployment could have blown out that window? Or perhaps it was damaged by something else?

I'll be contacting the dealer on Monday, but just want to get some other opinions from you knowledgeable folks here.

P.S. Here's a link about air bag chemicals: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/airbag-residues

Wow! Certainly possible, sounding likely....
 
New OEM body panels including hood come with dark primer applied. Any local body shops can't do the job in quality of painting like the factory does as those body shops simply don't have those fancy robotic and computer-controlled painting facility. From my personally experience those body shop paint will fade out much earlier than factory paint, and I wouldn't keep this CX-5 long with body shop paint if I were you.

What a ridiculous comment. I've had "body shop paint" all over the rear of my 2013 from a $10k accident/repair two years ago that is a perfect match (Sky Blue Mica) and is holding up extremely well. All you need to do is find a competent shop to do the work.
 
What a ridiculous comment. I've had "body shop paint" all over the rear of my 2013 from a $10k accident/repair two years ago that is a perfect match (Sky Blue Mica) and is holding up extremely well. All you need to do is find a competent shop to do the work.


Yes, people are complaining that the soul red paint is too thin so it is hard to believe that the body shop paint job would be even thinner.
 
Isnt soul red a 3 layer paint versus their typical 2 layer application?

I also think theres a new updated red color coming out....
 
What a ridiculous comment. I've had "body shop paint" all over the rear of my 2013 from a $10k accident/repair two years ago that is a perfect match (Sky Blue Mica) and is holding up extremely well. All you need to do is find a competent shop to do the work.
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. Thiss my personal experience too as my 1985 VW Jetts 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. Thats 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.

Theres 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 dont believe a body shop can do a better job than the factory paint from Mazda.
 
I didn*t say resprays are the equivalent of a factory paint job. However, if the repair is properlay prepped, the paint carefully applied and blended and the finished product properly cared for over time, there*s no reason expect the respray will deteriorate faster than the original.
 
Quick update: 8 days since I got my car back with existing/new paint issues, dealer is "working out" next steps. Started researching State Lemon Law details yesterday.
 
Wasn*t sure if I should resurrect this thread, but decided I will so here goes*

My experience with this issue seems to have gone quite a bit better than some others on this thread. I have a 2017 GT w/ Premium purchased at the end of April 2017. I checked my paint last winter, and I didn*t think I could find any chips. However, by this summer, I was seeing them show up on my hood. In September I took a picture of my hood with post-it arrow stickers pointing to all the chips. There were about 20 or 25. Finally a couple of weeks ago I contacted Mazda and they told me to set up an appointment with my dealer. I sent Mazda the pictures I took, and set up the appointment for Wednesday the 14th in the morning. The dealer called me that afternoon and said Mazda had approved the work and if I would bring it back in that evening or Thursday morning they could have it back to me before Thanksgiving. I got it back the day before Thanksgiving. I haven*t seen it on a bright sunny day yet because of the weather but it looks like they did a good job. I did find one small area under the lip of the hood that looks like it was sanded but not repainted. I*m going to put touchup paint on it.

The body shop that did the work is located right behind the Mazda dealer. I myself and several people I know have had work done at that shop before based on recommendations from friends and was pleased with the previous work.

Neither the service manager nor the sales manager at my dealer had heard of this issue before.

Even though I only saw chips on my hood and one on the drivers door, Mazda had them re-paint the hood, front facia, front fenders, parts of both front doors, the A-pillars, and the front of the roof.

The service manager told me not to wash the car for 90 days. I am going to call back this week to see if I can at least use the low pressure washer at the coin-op car wash to spray off salt this winter.
 
Back