2017 CX-5 Soul Red Crystal Metallic

Stopped by the dealer today and the collision center manager took photos. He confirmed Mazda had been in touch with him about my case and would get back in contact with me. He said his shop has already done 3 resprays on Soul Red Crystal CX-5's, although he didn't say whether Mazda covered the cost...so I continue to wait on that. I could tell he was trying not to discuss liability or badmouth Mazda too much, but he did say he strongly believes there's a fault in the clearcoat on this color -- that it's too brittle leading to the chips. He also said that while it's possibly the best color on the road, it's just an absolute nightmare to work with and that his painters hate seeing these cars come in. As everyone knows, it's a tricoat and the clear is tinted. It's impossible to blend, so they have to do the entire hood, pillars, panels, etc.

Well, it may be difficult to blend, but they have to blend it somewhere. Or paint the entire car!
 
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...
 
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...

Thanks a ton for sharing your experience so far...please keep us updated! My experience was exactly the same as yours except that my dealer didn't keep my car -- he simply took a bunch of pictures on the spot. I'm now wishing he would've given it a more thorough inspection as you got, but perhaps they'll do that if and when Mazda clears them to do the work. Either way, I totally agree that this has been extremely easy so far -- and my guess is it's because Mazda has now dealt with this issue numerous times and is perhaps ready to admit that there's a major problem with this color. I didn't get any indication about when I'd hear from Mazda, but it's interesting that your dealer thought it might be as soon as the next day! Let's keep updating for the good of the forum.
 
I will be interested to see if they're willing to do the same with my machine gray [emoji53]
 
I will be interested to see if they're willing to do the same with my machine gray [emoji53]

They should but all depends on if there has been a similar amount of complaints lodged for this colour paint.
 
I just got my first chip in the paint courtesy of a rock thrown from a dump truck. It struck the windshield right near the top edge above the camera and hit the leading edge of the roof. So, a chip repair and touch up paint are in order.

Life happens.
 
Think you jinxed yourself!


I blame it on the continuous construction going on here for the past 20-25 years. I usually get hit by rocks around twice a year. Most of those dont cause damage or its so slight I dont worry.

I owned a Mitsubishi that had a very sloped windshield like the CX5. It had several repair jobs and two windshields replaced during our 16 years of ownership. I think this CX5 will have a similar history.

The leading edge of the roof does irk me. I hope they have the touch up paint on hand.
 
so after 3 months of phone call with mazda usa they finally decided that they will repaint my car. well dealership is 100miles away; just 30miles out of town some f***er ran a stop sign about 65mph while i was going 92mph i f***king totaled the car now no more repaint needed......... but one thing i gotta say about this car is very safe at that speed i was not injured at all.
*pic*
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142892569@N07/42844027194/in/dateposted-public/


Now if i get another cx5 would it have the same problem? and should i wait for the 2019 cx5 if so what will be the difference
 
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so after 3 months of phone call with mazda usa they finally decided that they will repaint my car. well dealership is 100miles away; just 30miles out of town some f***er ran a stop sign about 65mph while i was going 92mph i f***king totaled the car now no more repaint needed......... but one thing i gotta say about this car is very safe at that speed i was not injured at all.
*pic*
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142892569@N07/42844027194/in/dateposted-public/


Now if i get another cx5 would it have the same problem? and should i wait for the 2019 cx5 if so what will be the difference

Oh my goodness!

Glad you are OK

I would get a different colour - maybe try mica blue or sonic silver
 
so after 3 months of phone call with mazda usa they finally decided that they will repaint my car. well dealership is 100miles away; just 30miles out of town some f***er ran a stop sign about 65mph while i was going 92mph i f***king totaled the car now no more repaint needed......... but one thing i gotta say about this car is very safe at that speed i was not injured at all.
*pic*
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142892569@N07/42844027194/in/dateposted-public/


Now if i get another cx5 would it have the same problem? and should i wait for the 2019 cx5 if so what will be the difference

The silver is so far very durable. Not sure how it will fare if you conduct your life at 92 mph.
 
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