CX-9 Paint Defect ... Undisclosed damage in transit?

Agree with this...Mazda corp will likely say that their vehicles newly produced are subjected to careful and routine inspection and quality control. If indeed there was damage caused during transit delivery to dealership (highly doubt it) then dealer should've noticed that as they also take delivery of new vehicles and should inspect it prior to paying Mazda corp. if there's damage then they claim it with Mazda corp. They should've caught it honestly when doing the PDI but sometimes they don't out of lazyness or whatever. Dealer's reaction sounds like a cover up instead of owning up to it. If only you had proof of this while still at the dealership then it would've been easier to prove.

I took delivery of brand new '17 Signature early last yr with odometer reading of 4Kms and I carefully inspected vehicle on day of delivery and found a small minor dent below driver's door that really wasn't obvious. Told the sales rep and I took a photo of it and notified the GM as well...Their reaction was "we'll take care of repairing it at no cost and apologies for the oversight". They most likely got it fixed via PDR...bottom line is they did right by me and wanted to really earn my business.

While dealer employees inspect vehicles (I used to), this is an example that can easily be missed. It's dependant on lighting and angles as it is a hazy defect under the clear coat. When doing inspections, one is mostly focused on scratches and dents or some type of damage. This isn't "damage" but rather a defective paint job and inspectors aren't expecting defective paint from the factory.

The car porter at a dealer only has a minute to inspect cars as they roll off the car carrier. Once all the cars are off, the truck driver needs to be on his way. After looking at each car you sign his paperwork. Very easy to miss this unless the light catches it right.
 
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While dealer employees inspect vehicles (I used to), this is an example that can easily be missed. It's dependant on lighting and angles as it is a hazy defect under the clear coat. When doing inspections, one is mostly focused on scratches and dents or some type of damage. This isn't "damage" but rather a defective paint job and inspectors aren't expecting defective paint from the factory.

The car porter at a dealer only has a minute to inspect cars as they roll off the car carrier. Once all the cars are off, the truck driver needs to be on his way. After looking at each car you sign his paperwork. Very easy to miss this unless the light catches it right.

I could be wrong, but I don't believe this car left Hiroshima in this condition. It was either damaged in transit on the ship and "fixed" at the port of entry (probably Long Beach), or the dealer "fixed" it and is not telling the truth. Looking at it more closely, you can see actually see a paint scratch along the edge chrome molding where someone must have taken a screwdriver or tool to pry it up. There is also what appears to be clearcoat overspray on the rubber mirror gasket.
 
The dealer is making a huge mistake if they are lying about this. The risk of getting caught is much worse to them than just coming clean and fixing it properly. If they did have a shop do it, there's records unless they're also working with a shady shop which just seems unlikely.
 
Doing a little bit of internet research revealed a body shop almost right next to the dealer that has multiple negative Yelp reviews for things like substandard work quality. The website for the body shop lists the dealer as one of their "partners." Not to jump to conclusions or anything, but I found a post on a Subaru forum from 2011 where a buyer at the Subaru dealership (owned by same company) alleges that they were sold a car with preexisting undisclosed body damage.
 
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I purchased a new 2018 Mazda CX-9 Signature with Machine Gray paint from a prominent Northern California dealer last Wednesday, 02/28/18. I did a pre-purchase walkaround in normal daylight and everything looked fine with the vehicle. Over the weekend, I had a clear bra installed on the vehicle and was examining the workmanship with a flashlight in the garage without the lights on. The clear bra looked fine, but to my shock, I found a MAJOR paint defect on the driver's side door. It appears that someone tried to spot-paint the finish in about a 12 x 12 inch area on the upper left-hand side of the door, adjacent to and below the mirror. When I purchased the vehicle, the dealer did not disclose any prior body work that had been done to this supposedly new vehicle. I can also make out what appears to be faint sanding marks as well. I have a hard time believing that this could have shipped this way from the factory, and was likely "repaired" by the dealer after being damaged in transit. Upon reading the California statutes, dealers actually don't have to disclose repaired damage unless it's beyond 3% of the MSRP of the vehicle, which, in this case is $1383.00. That's probably why they did a "spot" repair from a preferred shop to try and stay under the mandatory disclosure threshold.

I am planning on taking the vehicle to an independent body shop tomorrow and having them inspect and write a report on the finish, but I have no idea what to do next to get this resolved. Can I file a warranty claim with Mazda? Should I contact an attorney? Obviously this is not up to factory standards on a brand new car. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Photos are here:
https://imgur.com/a/Qah0w

I had paint defects on my 2018 Signature. I'm typing from my phone now but I'll try to post a picture of it by the weekend from the desktop mac.

At first I talked with the dealership service manager and waited a week to hear back. I got no response. On the 8th day, I talked to the head honcho at my dealership, he took care of me big time. They have an in-house paint/body guy that comes in a couple times a week who did a great job on mine.

Upon discovering the paint defects, I was upset for sure. It helped me to remember that this was temporary and in time, it would get resolved. I hope you get it resolved soon Chris.
 
Thanks Fruitwolf. Frustrating to buy a $40k car and have this happen, as I'm sure you know!
 
I took delivery of brand new '17 Signature early last yr with odometer reading of 4Kms and I carefully inspected vehicle on day of delivery and found a small minor dent below driver's door that really wasn't obvious. Told the sales rep and I took a photo of it and notified the GM as well...Their reaction was "we'll take care of repairing it at no cost and apologies for the oversight". They most likely got it fixed via PDR...bottom line is they did right by me and wanted to really earn my business.
I think you lucked out because you have not driven it off the lot yet so they could not possibly shrewd their way out of liability. I am willing to bet you would be on the same boat as the OP if you took the car home because 99% of dealerships are scumbags.

OP I hope corporate would do the right thing help you out. Good luck and keep us posted
 
I still wonder how well body shops will be able to match Machine Grey and Soul Red due to the complex paint process Mazda uses for them.

Less than 2 weeks after we got our Machine Grey CX9, our rear bumper got love tapped by a inattentive driver. This resulted in the shop replacing the whole rear bumper with a new OEM one and fresh paint.

I asked the shop how difficult this paint was, he said it wasn't too bad. Just a 2 stage paint with the addition of a special toner. He said this wasn't out of the ordinary and pointed out that the toyota pearl white paint was more difficult because it's a 3 stage paint process and was much harder to match.

Luckily they didn't have to blend the paint into the rear quarter panels. Just painted the bumper by itself. They did a very good job because the paint matches the rest of the car. So it's back to being brand new.
 
Good news, hopefully

I contacted Mazda by phone today and spoke with Sara in their "Customer Experience" department after emailing them Monday evening and not hearing back. She asked if I had taken it back to the dealer I purchased it from, and I told her no, that it was too far away and inconvenient for me to drive back there. I asked if I could take the vehicle to the Mazda dealer that is 10 minutes from my house to have it inspected, and she said yes. The service manager at my local dealer inspected the paint and concurred that a non-factory paint repair has been made to the area in question and is going to send an email to Mazda corporate. He said that if the regional rep looks at the records and finds that it wasn't damaged at the port, and determines that it to be the selling dealer's responsibility, that it may fall back on them to repair the vehicle, which was a little disconcerting. I told him that's fine, as long as Mazda will make the selling dealer pay to have it repaired locally by my local dealer and their body shop (who I trust and have used before). Not only do I not want the hassle of having to drive 60-90 minutes back to the selling dealer, I do not want the selling dealer sending it back to their substandard body shop that may have caused the problem in the first place. So I'm going to have to stick to my guns. Mazda needs to oversee and mediate this. And if selling dealer gives me any crap, they'll absolutely love my customer survey that hasn't yet been submitted.
 
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Looks like corporate is handling this situation in the right manner! I hope this shady dealership would get fined for pulling this kind of crap on customer.
 
Less than 2 weeks after we got our Machine Grey CX9, our rear bumper got love tapped by a inattentive driver. This resulted in the shop replacing the whole rear bumper with a new OEM one and fresh paint.

I asked the shop how difficult this paint was, he said it wasn't too bad. Just a 2 stage paint with the addition of a special toner. He said this wasn't out of the ordinary and pointed out that the toyota pearl white paint was more difficult because it's a 3 stage paint process and was much harder to match.

Luckily they didn't have to blend the paint into the rear quarter panels. Just painted the bumper by itself. They did a very good job because the paint matches the rest of the car. So it's back to being brand new.


Thing is, Machine Grey is a 3 stage process. I'm afraid these shops aren't duplicating Mazda's process. They really can't. Hopefully it's not really discernable to the eye.
 
Whatever process the shop I used did, they seemed to have done a good job. This is a day after I got the car back from the shop.

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Thing is, Machine Grey is a 3 stage process. I'm afraid these shops aren't duplicating Mazda's process. They really can't. Hopefully it's not really discernable to the eye.

Tricoat/pearl paints are pretty common these days... main thing is finding good paint shop that has experience and knows what they're doing.
 
Tricoat/pearl paints are pretty common these days... main thing is finding good paint shop that has experience and knows what they're doing.

Yes, good body shops do the tri-color jobs. It's just that Mazda has a very specific and unique process with Machine Grey and Crystal Soul Red that are particularly hard to do. Mazda is the only mainstream brand doing such paint jobs at their price points.

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An interesting article describing the new colors.

http://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2017/06/09/the-science-and-creativity-behind-mazdas-new-mass-market-premium-paint-colors/
 
Here's the paint defect on my CX-9:

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/album.php?albumid=2260&attachmentid=218743

You're seeing the reflection of the garage door above the roof.

The "patterned" defect ran from close to the moonroof, back to the top of the lift gate where there were splashes/drops of the same substance.
In the middle of it all, there was also a small, odd shaped circular scratch that looked like something metal (hose nozzle perhaps) hit the paint finish.

Fortunately, this was all in the clear coat only and the indie paint guy at the dealership did a great job buffing it out.
He wet sanded using 2500 grit; it took him several hours to do it. Now, you can't tell anyone has been there.

Nelson Mazda did an incredible job in handling this for me ...
Apology given, immediate attention to the problem,
loaner car on the spot, fixed that day. Patrick, the dealership manager followed up saying, "find any more spots,
bring it in directly to me." Awesome service my friends.

Early on, after the Machine Gray color was introduced, Mazda had to fly a guy in from Japan to Nelson in order to train
guys on how to work with the special finish. Evidently, it's tricky to deal with.
 
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Fruitwolf, thanks for sending pics of your CX-9 paint defects. Pretty clear that quality control is not perfect. I am glad the dealer took care of the issue for you!

Today I spoke with Sara at Mazda, who I've been working with on this issue. I have to say, I am a bit irritated with the way Mazda is handling this case. I am 10 minutes from my local Mazda dealer (Tracy Mazda) and took it there and had their service manager confirm that there is a paint defect (which appears to be non-factory paint). Additinally, Mazda confirmed that the vehicle was not repaired at the port, so at this point they are basically tossing it back to the selling dealer, Putnam Mazda, which is very inconvenient for me and 1 to 1.5 hours away. As a result, I have to take time out of my busy schedule and make arrangements with my job to take this vehicle back to Burlingame, so the General Manager can inspect the vehicle and decide how to proceed. I asked Sara at Mazda, "If the dealer I purchased the vehicle from refuses to take responsibility for the paint issue, is Mazda going to stand behind this issue so that I get taken care of?" She replied, "Well we need to go through these steps first," but would not confirm that Mazda would cover the issue under warranty. I told her that I would prefer that this issue could be handled by my local dealer and their body shop, but she basically said that "All Mazda dealers are independent franchises, and it depends on whether they have a working relationship with each other, blah blah blah." So, my wife and I are making the 60 mile trek back to Putnam Monday morning to talk to Al Vasquez, the dealer GM. Very disappointed that Mazda isn't just fixing this straight away and forcing me to jump through dealer hoops. Mazda should be responsible for EVERY aspect of a vehicle under the warranty, and then THEY can sort things out with the local dealers as to who is the "responsible party." This should have started and ended for me with the inspection by the Tracy Mazda service manager. If Mazda wants to get a premium reputation in the U.S., they'd better start acting like a premium company.
 
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I think you have to start demanding results and ask to speak to Sara's manager. You as a customer should not be tossed back and forth by the dealership and corporate. They should sort this out themselves and not trouble you at all. Paint on the car was not to standard. Either paint defect by manufacturer and warrantied or paint was screwed with and dealership should fix it. Very simple. Ask for the manager because you are tired of this blame game
 
Fruitwolf, thanks for sending pics of your CX-9 paint defects. Pretty clear that quality control is not perfect. I am glad the dealer took care of the issue for you!

Today I spoke with Sara at Mazda, who I've been working with on this issue. I have to say, I am a bit irritated with the way Mazda is handling this case. I am 10 minutes from my local Mazda dealer (Tracy Mazda) and took it there and had their service manager confirm that there is a paint defect (which appears to be non-factory paint). Additinally, Mazda confirmed that the vehicle was not repaired at the port, so at this point they are basically tossing it back to the selling dealer, Putnam Mazda, which is very inconvenient for me and 1 to 1.5 hours away. As a result, I have to take time out of my busy schedule and make arrangements with my job to take this vehicle back to Burlingame, so the General Manager can inspect the vehicle and decide how to proceed. I asked Sara at Mazda, "If the dealer I purchased the vehicle from refuses to take responsibility for the paint issue, is Mazda going to stand behind this issue so that I get taken care of?" She replied, "Well we need to go through these steps first," but would not confirm that Mazda would cover the issue under warranty. I told her that I would prefer that this issue could be handled by my local dealer and their body shop, but she basically said that "All Mazda dealers are independent franchises, and it depends on whether they have a working relationship with each other, blah blah blah." So, my wife and I are making the 60 mile trek back to Putnam Monday morning to talk to Al Vasquez, the dealer GM. Very disappointed that Mazda isn't just fixing this straight away and forcing me to jump through dealer hoops. Mazda should be responsible for EVERY aspect of a vehicle under the warranty, and then THEY can sort things out with the local dealers as to who is the "responsible party." This should have started and ended for me with the inspection by the Tracy Mazda service manager. If Mazda wants to get a premium reputation in the U.S., they'd better start acting like a premium company.

Businesses often fail to understand that it's ultimately cheaper to just do right by the customer the first time around.
 
... their service manager confirm that there is a paint defect...

This is a great lesson in why you never buy a car from a distant dealer but instead get your local guy to go get it and match the price (did this with my CX-5). I'm sorry it's too late now for you.

You're being way too nice with Mazda IMHO. You do not need to go through any steps as Sara seems be stating as they just benefit Mazda. Read your warranty and demand satisfaction with a minimum of effort on your part.

Dealers act as manufacturer's agents in determining the validity of warranty claims as it's part of their responsibility as franchisees.

This discussion really should stop at the point above where the local dealer determines it's a paint defect since a valid warranty claim has now been established. The Service Manager is not a paint expert so his opinion about non-oem paint is irrelevant unless he was denying a warranty claim due to a failed repair. Even then, dealers fix poor warranty repairs made by other dealers all the time and simply bill Mazda again for the work.

Whether or not it was fixed at the port is also none of your concern. You have a bumper to bumper warranty on this vehicle with Mazda USA. So long as YOU didn't cause the defect or botch the repair, it is Mazda USA's (and by extension their dealer network's) problem. Even if Mazda can show direct repair/negligence by the other dealer, it's not your problem as Mazda's agent made the repair and sale. You are due warranty service at the dealer of your choice.

I would not be driving 100's of miles back and forth to take care of this. Let Mazda duke it out with the other dealer to recoup the cost if they so desire.

Time to get a lawyer friend to write a nasty letter.
 
Thaumaturge... the reason I bought from the distant dealer is because none of the other regional dealers were willing to price match their offer: $38,688 for a Signature, which was too good of a deal to pass up. Closest I could get from other dealers was $39,736. Obviously, if I had thought that accepting a low price would have meant that I was compromising on the condition of the vehicle, I would not have done it.

It looks like this is going to move forward with Mazda. I took the vehicle to Putnam Mazda yesterday, which actually worked out because I had to drop my wife off at SFO. General Manager and Service Manager inspected the vehicle and stuck to their line of "we didn't do anything to it." I told them, "I don't care who is responsible, you or Mazda, I just want it fixed. So, if you didn't do anything to it, then it's clearly a factory defect." Response, "Yep, factory defect." (rolleyes) Who knows, maybe somehow it bizarrely was, even though my BS detector says otherwise. In any event, they submitted a work order to Mazda noting that the paint is "faded" and I called and notified Mazda corporate that Putnam had inspected the vehicle and found the paint to be defective.

Mazda is sending out a factory rep to inspect the car when I get back from vacation to figure out how to proceed with the repair. I asked Tracy Mazda if it's "standard procedure" for Mazda to send out a factory rep to look at the vehicle when there's paint issues, and their Service Manger said, "Pretty much, yes." I have a good vibe from Tracy Mazda and feel like they're advocating for me... they seem genuinely concerned even though I didn't buy the vehicle from them. I'll definitely be taking it there for all service issues.

I'll provide an update after I get back from vacation and meet with the factory rep.
 
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