Red '05 G35 Paint Job Problem...

[clawthat]

I wanted to post this and get some feedback on my latest adventure with Infiniti Customer Care.

I have the Laser Red '05 G35 and the 32k miles fails in comparison to the number of paint chips I have on the front, sides and top of this car. I took it to the dealer and they said "Sorry...environmental issue" meaning, "hey dumba$$, you are following salt truck or other vehicles that are peppering your car with small rocks and you need to quit". Now, anyone that has a car this nice normally pays attention to the big rigs in front of them and tries to stay clear. I am either 15 car lengths back or drop 2 gears and get around anyone chipping my car. To quote In Living Color..."Homie don't play that".

The fact of the matter is, I have 32k miles on the car, almost that many paint chips on the hood, back side of wheel well (edge of paint from the tires), on both sides and hood and roof. The chips are ONLY on the metal and none on the plastic. I am 40 years old and have NEVER seen a car chip like this. My mirrors are faded badly too.

So I call Infiniti customer care and explain my situation and how I feel the paint chips goes much further than environmental issues. It seems the paint is too hard or brittle and the littlest disturbance turns into a substantial chip. They spoke to the dealer and informed me that based on their decision, there was nothing they could do. Bummer.

So, as the manual tells me to do, I contacted Auto-Line with the BBB and filed the complaint and am currently waiting to hear if anything comes from this.

I stopped by a local collision repair shop the other day and he told me it looked to be as if there was too much hardner in the paint for it to be chipping this bad and aggreed that the number of chips in relation to the way I take care of it seem outrageous. He told me also that he did not want to repaint the car because he would have to strip the old paint off prior to repainting as the bad paint would make the new paint flake as well.

Now I am not a paint expert, but if you sanded the car down, applied a good couple of coats of paint and a few coats of clear, shouldn't that protect what is under the paint (metal and old paint) and keep it from chipping as the new top coat is better applied??? I cannot find anyone in the Pittsburgh area that seems to want to tackle a strip and paint project on my car for me and I didn't know if it is absolutely necessary for the stripping process to be done.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this...anyone gone through this yet...any paint experts...anyone with insight to the whole Auto-Line dispute process???

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Below are links to pictures of my poor paint job. Thanks for the help!

http://s8.photobucket.com/albu...0G35/

[suby01]

your photobucket album is private. just letting you know.

[clawthat]

Try this...

[zsamboki]

To me that looks normal, the metal chipping while the plastic doesn't. The plastic has more of a cushion from chipping. Same as if you paint a fiberglass front bumper, it will chip a lot too compared to a urethane. Now as for the stripping part, new paint doesn't protect the old paint underneath it. So if it were chipping too much, you would have to strip the area completely.

[clawthat]

So by what you can see in these pictures, you think the amount of chipping is normal?

If this is normal chipping, I am sad because I am very particular about the way I take care of my baby and I would never have thought the paint would go this fast. This looks like I am an escort for a salt-truck.

[zozoka1212]

Wow. Man that looks bad. Sorry to say that. Let us know if you have anything new with the infiniti sevice. Lets hope everything's going to turn out good.

Zozoka

[clawthat]

Thanks buddy. It's a sad day when you spend this kind of money for a vehicle, which isn't a good investment in the first place, and instead of the manufacturer saying, "you know...all we need to do is have one of our dealers paint this car for him and we will have a happy customer"...they decide that the amount of money they received for this car is enough for them to ignore the possibility that I may never buy anything from them again or worse yet...tell people to do the same.

It's not like I am asking for a new car...I just want the one I bought to LOOK like the one I bought.

I guess I don't think like corporate america.

[zozoka1212]

don't give up yet, not without a fight.What can you lose lets wait till bbb comes back to you.

Zozoka

[zsamboki]

Yeah unfortunately it all pends on the kind of roads you drive on and condition. If you drive on Highways/freeways you will have a bigger chance of chipping your paint. Hey I feel for you though. But by the looks, it would run you around the $1200 mark at a bodyshop. Usually $400 a panel strip/paint.

[clawthat]

Thanks for the cost insight. As I said, I can't get anyone interested in doing the job down here so I have no idea what this is going to end up costing me. I will NOT take it to Earl Scheib for his $99.99 special. I'll tell you that! lol

[G_whizz]

OUCH!!

Sorry ...actually REALLY sorry to see what's happening with your ride.

Although have no doubt there is definitley a problem with your paint. It would be very hard to prove to a dealer.

I seem to recall a thread of some information somewhere on here regarding a problem with Infiniti's paint. I even THINK Infiniti acknowledged this problem...do some research to see if you can find this.

Best of luck and let us know how it pans out!

[joe603]

I also remember an issue with the color red...Not sure if anything was done, dealer-wise to fix. You could try and make a warranty claim with another dealer. Sorry to see this happen to a G.

[smockers83]

There was a post on this before but it didn't really go anywhere. I have a red 06 coupe with only 5300 miles with a few chips here and there with only one that I knew would be there after it happened...nothing like yours although you have 6 times as many miles. Let us know what you find out because 2 posts about the color red and a few about a lot of chip marks early on makes me a little concerned. Also, I'm not sure about this either, but it seems to me it scratches really easy, too. I have scratches that I have no idea where they came from, and I take very good care of my car.

[fosterelli]

I have a 2006 which I bought with 2400 miles...now it has 3700 miles...

I also have chipping...not as extensive as yours but abnormal still...especially concerned because there is chipping in odd spots...not just the hood/fender area. I have a few chips on almost every body panel. My color is the Serengeti Sand...kind of a silver/beige color.

I don't know what to do, there is no way Infiniti will think there is a problem at this point; but if I wait until there is more miles on the vehicle there will be a built in excuse for them with so called "environment", driving habits, etc.

I had a 2006 Nissan Titan before this and had similar issues. It was white. My best friend's 2006 Titan is black and his problem is ten times what mine was, and he had 1/4 of the miles but drove the same highways.

If you google the Titan's problems, or go to http://www.titantalk.org, it has threads regarding Nissan's paint issues...but obviously nothing about Infinity on that board.

I'm not sure what recourse any of us have unless there are thousands of complaints; which doesn't seem to be the case as of yet.

And by the way...I would say there is no way in hell your chipping is normal. You would have to live on a gravel road and follow a sand truck out of your driveway every day for six years to get that kind of damage.

Hire a lawyer and get a jury trial...there's no way a jury would think that's normal because I've been around cars my whole life and have NEVER seen that extensive damage on a low mileage car. That, or drive it through the showroom where you bought it and when you throw them the keys, tell them it's their problem now!!!

What about claiming it on insurance? I had a friend with warranty issues on his car...the factory declined his claim so he had to claim on insurance...something to look into at least.