Last week I used the link provided in this thread to contact Mazda and register my dissatisfaction with the durability of the extra cost Soul Crystal Red paint. They contacted me the next day advising me to make an appointment with my dealer to inspect the car. The dealer called and I made an appointment. Today I took my CX-5 to the dealer. Service Manager had been given a heads up from Mazda on this issue, and told me they would need to keep the car for the day to take pictures of the problem areas, and they would be in touch with the single contact at Mazda dealing with these issues.
Just as I was thinking I would be marooned at the dealer all day the service manager said he already had a no charge loaner car reserved for me (a CX-5 Grand Touring with just a few hundred miles on it), and that it would take a least a day to evaluate the needed repairs, and if needed, at least a few days to send it out to Mazda's body shop to make the repairs. He told me Mazda had a single point of contact for him regarding this issue that will review the pictures they take, and expedite the decision process. if the entire car was going to need to be repainted they would have it at least a week.
Experience tells me that when you are told a body shop job might take a week, that may in fact mean three weeks. Having the loaner gives me the peace of mind of knowing if it takes a little longer that is because it just needs to, because they have some skin in the game with the loaner as I do being without our car.
I showed the service manager a variety of paint chips, on the front valance and hood, including four on the passenger door, a few on areas higher up on sides of the body and on the roof. I also showed him the paint was flaking off the edges of the doors. He was super professional in looking it over and found spots I had not seen. I had not really realized how many there were until a few months ago I bought some touch-up paint and really looked it over closely as I painted them. It was then I realized each chip was only the color coat and that the primer was still intact. None of the chips were impacts big enough to dent the sheet metal. He was surprised by that as I was. That was a few months ago and I told him it had become clear that more were appearing and I was not going to be able to keep up.
Service Manager introduced me to the Service Advisor who will be in touch with me as they get direction from Mazda. Within half an hour of my arrival my belongings were transferred to the loaner, the customer service person and I checked the loaner, noted a few small scratches, and I was on my way.
I expect to hear from them tomorrow, and have to say at this point I am super impressed. I worked as Service Advisor and a Service Manager many years ago for a dealership that sold Fiat and BMW. Two step paint was just being introduced on BMW's and I dealt with many paint problems as the clear coat expanded under heat at a different rate from the color coat, resulting in the paint "crazing". It was almost normal for the plane surfaces (hood, roof, deck lid) that took direct sunlight to need repainting. Being near the ocean we had a fair share of rusting Fiats as well. Having dealt with getting factory approvals on paint repairs was not one of my fondest memories of being in the car business. My brother is a retired quality engineer at Nissan and he's seen a few model/color specific paint issues as well.
We bought our CX-5 from a high volume dealer a one hour drive from home, and I never expected to need or get this kind of service. Nor did I expect the factory to already have procedures in place to review and address the problem in a timely manner. Based on 21 pages of comments on this thread, I have to assume this is a fairly recent development. In any case, it appears the factory understands the problem, and is prepared to make it right. I should know more soon...
