Potential paintwork problem

Hi,

The weather today has been nice and sunny up here in Scotland and gave me a perfect oppertunity to give the Superb a decent wash down. Since the sun was quite strong it highlighted the odd stonechip and swirl which are easily dealt with, but one issue which may be more of a problem is the condition of the paintwork immediately behind the rear mudflaps. The paintwork is suffering badly from the sand blasting due to the roads being not just spread with salt this winter but also due to the fact that pure sand and grit was laid down when the councils ran out of salt. Now the roads are clear the grit is still present whilst salt usually dissolves away. I have only done 2.5k miles in the 3 months since taking delivery, never on rough roads and mudflaps were fitted from new.

Has any other member had a close look at this panel (part of the rear bumper)?. Those of you that did not have mudflaps fitted must be looking at a serious mess by now, especially if you do serious mileages. Also those of you in countries other than the UK where grit is applied to the roads instead of salt. How are your cars standing up? I hate to think how they will look after 3 or 4 winters!!