General Soft Paint?

[jrkitching]

Nothing to do with speed. All depends how close you are to the vehicles in front.

Not strictly true. Whether you get hit by a stone thrown up by the car in front depends on whether the stone falls below your car before you get to it. The faster you're going, the sooner you'll get there & the greater the likelihood of hitting it for a given fixed following distance. Also, and importantly, the faster you're going, the more damage it will do if you do hit it. I'd suggest hitting a stone at 70mph is about twice as likely to damage the paint as hitting the same stone at 50mph.

That said, I'd agree the best way to mitigate the impact of stone damage (pun intended) is to keep a good distance away from the vehicle in front, but driving more slowly will help too.

 

[306maxi]

Not strictly true. Whether you get hit by a stone thrown up by the car in front depends on whether the stone falls below your car before you get to it. The faster you're going, the sooner you'll get there & the greater the likelihood of hitting it for a given fixed following distance. Also, and importantly, the faster you're going, the more damage it will do if you do hit it. I'd suggest hitting a stone at 70mph is about twice as likely to damage the paint as hitting the same stone at 50mph.

That said, I'd agree the best way to mitigate the impact of stone damage (pun intended) is to keep a good distance away from the vehicle in front, but driving more slowly will help too.

yes, but also if you're going along at 50 and cars are going past at 70 then you're going to get hit by stones more often.

 

[jrkitching]

yes, but also if you're going along at 50 and cars are going past at 70 then you're going to get hit by stones more often.

Sadly that's also true.

Thus far I've got 3 tiny chips on the Panda & 2 on the 500 in a total of about 10,000 miles, so I guess I must be doing something right. As you say, it's mostly down to keeping a good distance from the vehicle in front.

 

[loveshandbags]

One of downsides of Eco driving is that you're rarely in front.

 

[pearce_jj]

Might be worth mentioning that I drive generally 60mph on motorways a good 3 seconds from the lorry in front (usually) and that my car has been significantly better in terms of resistance to chips since it has been resprayed.

 

[jrkitching]

... and that my car has been significantly better in terms of resistance to chips since it has been resprayed.

Interesting. Both my stone chips have exposed a white surface underneath, so I'd always thought the problem was caused by poor adhesion between the primer & colourcoat. I wouldn't have expected a respray to solve that problem so perhaps my thinking is in some way flawed

 

[pearce_jj]

I'm not too sure about why, but on its factory coat it had literally *hundreds* of chips on the front, down the sides, on the boot even. But none on either bumper. Since being repainted, and maybe 20k later, there is a more normal general spatter of chips (that could at least be counted).

 

[loveshandbags]

Might be worth mentioning that I drive generally 60mph on motorways a good 3 seconds from the lorry in front (usually) and that my car has been significantly better in terms of resistance to chips since it has been resprayed.

Personally I would never drive behind a lorry and would be happy to spend a little extra on fuel to stay ahead of them. If I couldn't get past them I would pull right back. If you do the maths on a bonnet respray it would easily pay for the fuel. Plus it's a lot safer.

 

[pearce_jj]

The car was resprayed because the paint was not to an acceptable standard; this is why I started this thread in the first place.

 

[loveshandbags]

The car was resprayed because the paint was not to an acceptable standard; this is why I started this thread in the first place.

There are better ways to make complaints. It's common knowledge that the red paint is a little soft compared to the other colours in the range.

 

[pearce_jj]

Sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at.

 

[loveshandbags]

Sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at.

If I had the red paint and had to resort to getting it resprayed and didn't know that the colour was a little soft I would take it up with the dealer and have a claim put through Fiat. That would be one way of getting a result. I had an issue with leather on a 500 that I owned up to recently and had planned to go that route and then decided that it wasn't worth my time and didn't proceed. Despite knowing about the leather issue I might still buy leather again. Would you buy red paint again given your experience ?

 

[pearce_jj]

The number of views suggests that it's been a 'worthy' thread.

 

[cewen1989]

i have a bn white and the paint started to come off 1 and a half month after geting it took it back to the deal and was told it was road rash and there was nothing they could do about it it has no started to come off the inside of my boot and bonnet

 

[306maxi]

i have a bn white and the paint started to come off 1 and a half month after geting it took it back to the deal and was told it was road rash and there was nothing they could do about it it has no started to come off the inside of my boot and bonnet

Pictures?

 

[oldcutter]

If I had the red paint and had to resort to getting it resprayed and didn't know that the colour was a little soft I would take it up with the dealer and have a claim put through Fiat. That would be one way of getting a result. I had an issue with leather on a 500 that I owned up to recently and had planned to go that route and then decided that it wasn't worth my time and didn't proceed. Despite knowing about the leather issue I might still buy leather again. Would you buy red paint again given your experience ?

Hi mine is 'Ragamuffin Red' which I believe is 'pearlescent' finish- no issues whatsoever on paint chips despite now done 13k. I don't know if the Supagard has anything to do with this but I doubt it ?
There are a couple of very tiny chips but not down to the base colour and generally as would be expected

 

[loveshandbags]

Hi mine is 'Ragamuffin Red' which I believe is 'pearlescent' finish- no issues whatsoever on paint chips despite now done 13k. I don't know if the Supagard has anything to do with this but I doubt it ?
There are a couple of very tiny chips but not down to the base colour and generally as would be expected

There have been issues the namely with the black and red on the Alfa. My OH's Alfa red has faired poorly and is peppered in stone chips over the frontal area and on the rear arches. Some on the AF have had their cars re-sprayed under warranty.

Recently came across this 500 (picture attached) of a 2 and half year with 11K miles and I didn't see any chips on the ragamuffin paintwork. After having the Pearlescent paint in the Funk white on a 500 (which only had one or two chips) I came to the conclusion that the £700 premium for the Pearlescent might be worth given that it's harder wearing. That 500c that's up for sale at under €10K had a list price of €20k is good value for money - it's a shame that alloys went not speced and that it hasn't got the white ambiance - it would have sold before now if it had.

 

[hippycinq]

I have to say I'm shocked by the experiences that everyone seems to have with the paintwork on the 500s..
I have never bought a new car before, but am planning to bite the bullet in a couple of weeks and buy myself a 500. I am incredibly fussy when it comes to paintwork and will shop around for weeks looking for a well-looked after car which isnt too chipped. I thought that buying new would mean I would have a car that looked new for a decent amount of time (i.e. I would be responsible for it from new and therefore could keep it looking good..) but it looks as though this might not be the case.
Has anyone actually taken their car back to Fiat and had them do anything to 'fix' the problem, or has everyone been fobbed off or just not complained?

 

[RobinPJ]

I'm not sure it is the issue you think it is. I have been on this forum 2 years and paint chips have come up only a couple of times.

On my 2 year old car (BNW) there are no chips, although to be fair it does not spend much time on motorways. The paint on my car seems fine to me, although I am no expert. (The exception is the paint on the aftermarket parking sensors but that is obviously not relevant to this discussion.)

 

[chas379]

For the odd small paint chip, especially on red, white, or black cars, have used Turtle Wax Colour Magic with Chip Stick. The coloured chip stick is wax based and comes in the form of something like a lipstick. Gently rub over chip to fill with wax and gently buff. After this lightly polish over with the coloured polish. Build up application a couple of times when doing routine clean and should be ok.

Afraid using touch up paint on stone chips has not been very successful for me, I can always see the blemish afterwards. Either still see a crater or a slightly proud surface. Any advice for using touch up?