I had posted previously about a higher than expected number of stone chips and the general consensus seemed to be that Skoda paint is crap. Whilst cleaning the car yesterday, I noticed this on the bonnet - AFAIK, I have not been hit by stones / other and it looks like the paint is simply 'peeling' off the bonnet.

 

Has anyone else experienced this and if so, was it covered by warranty ? I'm with the dealer next Friday for oil change and will be raising it with them but any experiences / guidance welcome.

 

 

 

Has this been resprayed at some point?  It would certainly explain this and the excessive stone chips you’ve mentioned 

Just now, Neily03 said:

Has this been resprayed at some point?  It would certainly explain this and the excessive stone chips you’ve mentioned 

Not that I'm aware of - I bought it from a Skoda dealer and nothing was mentioned at the time. I did get GardX coating on the paintwork as well.

Looks resprayed / repaired.   When you report it to an authorised repairer and they measure the paint they will likely confirm not factory finish or even finished to factory spec.      How old / many miles when you got the car?       Ask if they have a record of their car preparation and any paint correction and where the cat came to them from.    They should not lie. 

2 hours ago, Ootohere said:

Looks resprayed / repaired.   When you report it to an authorised repairer and they measure the paint they will likely confirm not factory finish or even finished to factory spec.      How old / many miles when you got the car?       Ask if they have a record of their car preparation and any paint correction and where the cat came to them from.    They should not lie. 

 

I bought the car April 2023 from Vindis Skoda (Bury St Edmonds) with 13373 miles on it. Mileage now 29382.

 

Quite annoyingly with the GardX as the 'fine print' excludes "Paint/lacquer separating, peeling, cracking or flaking", hence my question on dealer warranty. I have checked through all the documentation I have and nothing is declared about any re-spray, nor was it mentioned by the dealer.

 

Under Skoda 3 year paint warranty, it states;

"The defect must not be due to external influences such as accident damage, stone chips, climatic, thermal, plant resin, animal pollutants, chemical or industrial pollution, insufficient care or maintenance. This will be determined by the member of the ŠKODA Authorised Network at the time of inspection."

 

I'm no expert but what I'm seeing doesn't align to the list above - it just looks like the paint is peeling rather than as a result of stone chip / other.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I'm with a dealer (Telford, Carlisle) next Friday so want to have as much information gleaned as possible before they shrug their shoulders and say 'tough ****'.

I was a car sprayer / repairers. I did warranty inspections and repairs and corrections.  Just looking close up at the pictures that looks resprayed to me.  The person that applied any treatment to the bonnet will have known if it was.    Any professional body repairer / sprayer will test it and know.  So whoever you report it to needs to have a competent and qualified person do the inspection and report.  Or first they take the pictures, the Warranty Managed can arrange the inspection. 

17 hours ago, Maxi24 said:

Not that I'm aware of - I bought it from a Skoda dealer and nothing was mentioned at the time. I did get GardX coating on the paintwork as we

There don't seem to be any stonechip dents, so maybe a bad respray. Can GardX protect from stone chips? Or is it another profit booster for the dealership?  In Lincolnshire the county council is infamous for the amount of chippings - laughably called surface dressing - it dumps each year, temporarily disguising and hiding the potholes it should actually repair. All my Skodas, and other cars have suffered from road rash and stone chips have required 3 replacement windscreens.  I hope you get a good response from the dealer....but suspect you may have to be determined and persistent. 

4 hours ago, Ootohere said:

I was a car sprayer / repairers. I did warranty inspections and repairs and corrections.  Just looking close up at the pictures that looks resprayed to me.  The person that applied any treatment to the bonnet will have known if it was.    Any professional body repairer / sprayer will test it and know.  So whoever you report it to needs to have a competent and qualified person do the inspection and report.  Or first they take the pictures, the Warranty Managed can arrange the inspection. 

 

Very helpful - thanks. Any other tell tale signs that the bonnet has been resprayed ?

 

3 hours ago, Redboy said:

Can GardX protect from stone chips? 

 

GardX Ceramic can minimise affects of "common pollutants, road debris, malicious damage, time related wear" but not explicitly prevent.

 

 I will see how I get on with the dealer next week.

Quick update. At dealers today and although they can't officially comment (as not an approved Skoda repair centre), a time-server mechanic did have a look and his (not the dealers) opinion is that the bonnet has been resprayed !!

 

I now have to take it to a Skoda approver repair centre for them to assess & comment but I'm not feeling hopeful. I suspect that the respray was done without the dealership I bought it from knowing that 😐

Regardless of the Dealership even being owned by Peters & Lee along with Stevie Wonder they knew as did the person that prepped the car.

No mater if it came from Auction, Trade in or via the Skoda network. 

Edited 26 July, 20241 yr by Ootohere

6 hours ago, Maxi24 said:

I suspect that the respray was done without the dealership I bought it from knowing that 😐

That's not your fault, they will (or should) have inspected that car thoroughly before putting it on their forecourt as approved used.

I'm sure they'll sort it.

PS

When a dealership buys a vehicle to resell then they have the list / sheet / account of their expenses / costs, because you pay tax on profits.

 

So they have the cost of everything, transportation, their own expensive workshop doing a service, the car valet, or paint refurbish repairs, tyres, mot, what ever even that Extra Warranty or Service package they put on for free (Arnold Clark...)

High costs for the work, done in-house,  small profit to pay tax on.  But the records are there.   If they had Paint work done. 

On 26/07/2024 at 14:26, Maxi24 said:

Quick update. At dealers today and although they can't officially comment (as not an approved Skoda repair centre), a time-server mechanic did have a look and his (not the dealers) opinion is that the bonnet has been resprayed !!

 

I now have to take it to a Skoda approver repair centre for them to assess & comment but I'm not feeling hopeful. I suspect that the respray was done without the dealership I bought it from knowing that 😐

 

You might hopefully find that the Skoda Approved bodyshop is actually linked to one of the local VAG dealerships which means they should be perfect at sourcing the correct colours and working with the correct parts etc....... I know that's the case in Sheffield where it's the Seat/Cupra Sheffield dealership that has a large bodyshop on the site and has all 4 "Approved Seat", "Approved VW", "Approved Audi" & "Approved Skoda" signs as you walk in to the reception. The wife has had to take her CitiGo and Fabia in to them 3 times over the years after incidents being hit/scraped/bumped by other drivers during her commute and they done perfect colour matches and repair jobs each time.

The local repairer (Valla) is Skoda approved BUT if they determine that the bonnet has already be resprayed, flaking / peeling paint will not be covered by the warranty. Unless the dealer can prove that they informed me at the time (they didn't), the risk is that I have to pay for any repairs as not covered by warranty. I don't want to shell out £xxx for a respray regardless of how good the colour match is !

I don't think this comes down to the manufacturer paint warranty. The dealer sold you a 1 year old car which had been repaired to a poor standard.

Whether they knew about that or not is irrelevant, they endorsed the car and need to put it right. I think they will.

3 hours ago, Maxi24 said:

The local repairer (Valla) is Skoda approved BUT if they determine that the bonnet has already be resprayed, flaking / peeling paint will not be covered by the warranty. Unless the dealer can prove that they informed me at the time (they didn't), the risk is that I have to pay for any repairs as not covered by warranty. I don't want to shell out £xxx for a respray regardless of how good the colour match is !

I was merely pointing out that it would be a better job than what had been carried out already. 🙄🙄🙄

Edited 27 July, 20241 yr by WaveyDavey

10 hours ago, WaveyDavey said:

I was merely pointing out that it would be a better job than what had been carried out already. 🙄🙄🙄

Understand the comment 🙂 

 

They might do a better job, I just (a) don't want to have to get it sprayed and (b) don't want to pay. Once I have had the paint assessed, I will be contacting the dealer to see how we progress. 

Update - just been to the Skoda approved repair centre to have the paint assessed. As suspected by many here, it is not original and has been resprayed. This was confirmed using a paint depth 'gun'. The bonnet measured 140 microns whilst the rest of the car was around 80 microns. He was surprised that the wings hadn't been done at the same time as that is quite common in order to get a good paint match. He also said that it wasn't a particularly good job as the paint has not bonded properly. 😒

 

The assessor then looked at the bonnet mechanism and said that the bonnet has been removed (either to be resprayed or replaced) as the paint 'seal' on the nuts that fix the bonnet on is scratched. 

 

Whilst it doesn't need a respray now, it is going to continue to peel and will need done at some point (approx £600+VAT). To 'fix' it will mean stripping back to bare metal and going from there.

 

Next conversation will be with the dealer to see if they admit to knowing and what will happen about warranty.

Update - spoke to the dealer (Vindis, Bury St Edmonds) and initial response was "we didn't do anything to the paintwork, not our problem". I asked whether or not it should have been picked in at the car prep and the answer was no. I mentioned consumer rights act and in particular the "as described" clause but that didn't seem to bother him too much.

 

However, he "understands" my frustration and will discuss with the branch manager when he's back from leave next week - he asked for photos which I have now sent.

 

There may be some cover / comeback as it was bought on HP so is therefore covered by section 75 of Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

Not feeling overly hopeful.

@Maxi24  What was this persons job, sales, servicing or workshop? 

Was it the Warranty Manager for that branch?

 

Was the car with you?  TERMS OF WARRANTY,

or just the way to deal with stuff. THEY TAKE THE PHOTOGRAPHS. 

 

Who had the car before they got it?

 

Skoda Approved used car.

Rigours checks.

Oil & Inspection Services and Extended Scope includes bodywork checks.  But if the paint was good enough when polished and waxed then someone that could not care less can miss a repainted panel.

 

 

Edited 1 August, 20241 yr by Ootohere

7 minutes ago, Ootohere said:

@Maxi24  What was this persons job, sales, servicing or workshop? 

Was it the Warranty Manager for that branch?

 

Was the car with you?  TERMS OF WARRANTY,

or just the way to deal with stuff. THEY TAKE THE PHOTOGRAPHS. 

 

Who had the car before they got it?

 

 

He was the head of used car sales (or something to that effect). Car wasn't with me as 300 mile drive but sent what I think are photos that clearly show the peeling / debonding.

 

They didn't say who had the car before me and TBH, I don't think they would have to declare that. I don't have the multi-point checklist, just these.

 

Zooming in on the check list - Exterior 43 "Check body for damage and signs of apparent repairs".

 

Would it be reasonable for them to recognise a bonnet respray under that check ?

Reasonable, but then you never spotted it until the paint was coming off.

The Salespeople can pick up faults when making offers to take a car as a trade in but then as far as selling, blind.

 

As it is this tread has who they are, and maybe the 'Branch Manager' will decide that all publicity is not good publicity.

As it is it is his or her boss you maybe want to be talking to. 

 

You might be wasting your time though.  Because you never spotted issues and i assume you washed and polished the car.

56 minutes ago, Ootohere said:

You might be wasting your time though.  Because you never spotted issues and i assume you washed and polished the car.

That's my worry - despite paying extra for ceramic paint protection, they could just shake their head & walk away. I'll wait and see what the branch manager says next week but suspect 'buyer beware' as I didn't notice a respray when I bought it and they can maintain that they didn't know it had been done.

Today's update - dealer contacted me and advised that the place that they sourced the car from has done similar things before so they were none the wiser. However, recognising that they sold the car to me 'not as described' have offered to pay for a respray either at their repair shop or one of my choice. As I live 300 miles from dealer, will be my choice !

 

Just need written confirmation as they have asked for me to pay for it then they would reimburse me afterwards.