TimJones

Had the car since before Christmas, and I love it.

Yesterday though, I undid the seat belt, and it came out of my hand and smacked into the aluminum trim leaving a lovely little pin sized dent in it. So careful with those belts !!!!

Happy New Year
Tim
Silver/silver alcan and tip

Ben Broder

My dealer did me the favor of putting the first blemishes on the car.

First, a scratch on the deck lid, probably from the magnetized license plate during PDI. Second, a bunch of swirl marks in the black paint, courtesy of the pre-delivery wash. (The salesman claims they don't use a power buffer)

Don't want to sound like Johnny, but the Audi paint does seem more prone to scratching and swirls than most. Guess when the weather gets a bit warmer, I'll be out there with a bottle of Meguiers #9.

FrankS

Are you asking them to repaint it, or are you just going to live with it? I'm leary of having them repaint it because of the difference in quality between factory and body shop paint jobs.

Brian M.

If you request it ahead of time, your dealer will not wash/buff the car.

Ben Broder

No, I certainly wouldn't want them to repaint. The scratch doesn't seem to be down to the primer -- it looks black after the car is washed, but gets a whitish look as the car gets dirty. The dealer offered to try to compound it out, but I declined, worried that they would make it worse. I figure that the paint is probably still a bit soft, after it has cured another month or so I will try to get it out with Meguires fine cut cleaner.

Dale W

I wouldn't have it repainted until I had tried all other options up to and including color sanding. Some high end dealers use mobile services that do an excellent job refinishing scratches. With a complete repaint you are flipping a coin. By the way, I would be surprised if Audi paid for a new paint job because of a scratch. 1993 I bought a new black BMW. In a few months the paint on all horizontal surfaces began to pit from under the paint. Dealer, local zone office and manufacturer all denied responsibility saying it was acid rain problem and my fault for not maintaining the paint. (Kept Zymol on paint from day one) Had the paint stripped to bare metal and repainted... $1800....

Sander

With my current car (95 Eclipse GSX, S4 on order) there were plenty of problems with the paint being too soft and easily damaged. That was because the new environmentally friendly water based paints take longer to cure and certainly don't cure as hard as old fashioned hydro carbon based ones.

Such is the price of 'progress'. I'd think that it would have been cheaper in the long run to keep using good paints and deal with fumes at the factory. It's not like wax is so environmentally friendly (mostly hydro-carbon solvent based too).

Once I get my S4 I'll make sure the dealer doesn't wash it. Then use only non-abrasive waxes for as long as I can. Those spray on-wipe off products may be good too. No polish compounds in those.


Later,

Sander