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That's bad but mine's way worse. Didn't get pics yesterday, I was out of town. Possibly Sunday.
Someone posted something like "you should go with diamond pearl" or something leading me to clarify that I am not painting the entire car.
Anyone know if your insurance goes up when you make a comprehensive claim like this? That's the one reason I figured it might be worth it to just swing it by the dealer first.
Front of car looks like it's been sandblasted with gravel. The entire front fascia and mirror caps are covered in rock chips that were not there when we bought the car a year ago. I get that rock chips are a normal wear and tear kind of thing, but the physical amount of paint missing from the front of the car is incredible. It's as though every single bug and stone that ever touched the car removed a dot of paint and it's just playing connect-the-dots. There has to be some sort of paint adhesion problem, because I've never seen rock chipping this extreme on any car, ever, regardless of mileage. Certainly not a Mercedes. I am not exaggerating when I say there are SO MANY missing paint chips that if the loss of paint continues at this rate, there will be virtually no paint left on the front fascia by this time next year. Cannot trace this to any one event, either, because I've been agonizing over it getting worse and worse and worse when I wash it every week.
I've always been suspicious that the dealer I bought it from repainted the fascia and mirrors for the sale, and I'm pretty sure they did a crap job of it. Thing that sucks is that dealer closed earlier this year, and I'd have to foist the problem off on my local dealer.
Or, is this maybe something that can be covered under my other-than-collision insurance?
Thanks,
Darel
Dealer you bought the CPO car from, MB dealer or used lot? Did you pull a car history report? A good body/paint shop might be able to tell if the car has been repainted. As for why this might be happening... do you follow vehicles closely? Following too closely can cause increased rash from road debris. As for ins covering, that's a tough one, as the chips wouldn't be considered "damage" I don't think, more wear and tear... but you could certainly ask your agent and see what they say. Pics would be helpful for posters to assess, but would recommend taking to a reputable paint shop to have them assess in person. Good luck.
OK, guys, sorry it took so long to get these pics up, but it's my wife's, and she leaves for work before light and gets back after dark, and it's been raining for at least 40 days and 40 nights, and it was covered in bugs so I wanted to wash it before posting.
I have a peeling problem on my car too I just noticed it is getting worse now. I'm going to take it in and see what they say.
My car is a 2014 with about 40K miles, CPO from Mercedes. That big black spot (about the size of a dime) used to be much smaller. You can see that it is still peeling away if you look closely in the second pic. In the first pic, you can also see a smaller spot starting to peel away as well.
Won't really be an update. I'm not going to pursue the warranty claim, even though it was a crap job done by a MB dealer. I'm leaving for a desert deployment in three weeks or so. When I get back in the fall maybe I'll pursue the insurance claim.
@darel - yeah... late to reply but based on your pics, looks to be severe road rash, and it would be tough to prove it's due to paint defect, so smart move on not stressing over a warranty claim, as it would be a wasted effort imo. Best to you and your family on your deployment.
@jjsaustin - not to hijack the thread, but that "peeling" does looks like a defect - in the paint or in paint process somehow, as it looks like the paint didn't stick in that spot (i do notice a small spot or stain of a slightly different color at the bottom of the defect in the close up pic) - i'd say you have a much better case for a warranty claim if still under warranty. Have your dealer assess asap and see what they say.
The dealer looked at the paint and determine that the front bumper cover was reprayed. I'm disappointed given that I bought this car from another Mercedes dealer as CPO and that was not noted. The service manager is looking into what Mercedes customer service can do to maybe help repainting the bumper.
The dealer looked at the paint and determine that the front bumper cover was reprayed. I'm disappointed given that I bought this car from another Mercedes dealer as CPO and that was not noted. The service manager is looking into what Mercedes customer service can do to maybe help repainting the bumper.
not sure why you would be disappointed at mb or a dealer just because its cpo. If the previous owner had work done on the vehicle, nobody is going to find out until defects start showing up. Impossible for mb or a dealer to note everything done to a vehicle during its lease period. If the dealer will fork out some goodwill, that'd be awesome, but otherwise there's nothing you could really hold against them.
You pay lot of money for CPO to have car checked for something like that.
From what I heard repainted car can't pass CPO, so that might be legal issue.
Comes to mind old story when guy bought new BMW years ago and after few weeks a mechanic pointed some masking tape under the hood.
Long story short- the dealer repainted damaged hood on new car with original paint, but legally he was not allowed to sell the car as new at this point.
The car buyer won $4,000,000 class action suit.
The service manager said that if the previous owner may have had it repainted it can be hard to tell initially, so the dealer may not have known.
BS.
Take a look at this listing on 18 years old MB. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...s-benz-e320-3/
The "shade tree" dealer did measure whole car around to have 3 mils of paint, what confirms factory paint.
That beside that even I am not expert in automotive paint, I was always able to spot repaint.
I believe a couple years back i read an MB manual with CPO process outlined, and repairing dings/dents/scratches was a normal routine when certifying vehicles, as long as the vehicle did not have an accident on the record. Vehicle off the lot will sometimes be repaired and repainted due to road debris and scratches during transportation and will still be sold as a new vehicle.
The picture above in my opinion either looks like too much body filler applied which caused paint to crack, primer was not applied properly so the paint did not stick well, or maybe just sheer bad luck. But either way good luck with the repair, you can always consider a clear protection film on your bumper in the future,
It looks like poor prep work to me. A repaint is rarely going to be as good as the original. A few years back I replaced my corvette C6 front facia and fenders with Z06 parts and the repaint would chip just looking at it the wrong way. Garbage in garbage out.
I believe a couple years back i read an MB manual with CPO process outlined, and repairing dings/dents/scratches was a normal routine when certifying vehicles, as long as the vehicle did not have an accident on the record. Vehicle off the lot will sometimes be repaired and repainted due to road debris and scratches during transportation and will still be sold as a new vehicle.
The picture above in my opinion either looks like too much body filler applied which caused paint to crack, primer was not applied properly so the paint did not stick well, or maybe just sheer bad luck. But either way good luck with the repair, you can always consider a clear protection film on your bumper in the future,
So is the black spot the fiberglass bumper or is that the primer? It's pretty smooth. The service manager (very honest guy and clearly knew what he was talking about) was able to also see that what I thought were small rock "dents", were actually rock chips that were painted over and not properly filled, so that's why there were little "depressions" that I thought were "dents".
So I'm guessing they sanded down some parts to whatever the black spot is (primer or fiber glass) and other spots they never properly filled and then painted over the whole thing??
I'm trying to figure out what really happened
Last edited by jjsaustin; Jun 11, 2018 at 08:43 AM.
My guess is the car went through an insurance claim, probably for some damage on the bumper away from where your current damage is. I'm guessing this because insurance companies are only allowed to pay to repair and paint the area of damage on the claim. They are not allowed to pay to repaint and entire panel. So if a claim stated damage was to the right corner, only the right corner gets bondo and primer. Any area with damage close by would get some paint sprayed over and the rest of the bumper gets clearcoated over which usually results with a little indentation on old damage.
If previous customer went out of pocket to get bumper repaired, I can guarantee most body shops would charge to properly repair the whole bumper.
If there are no indications of old damage being filled in, then it's probably just bad prep work.
again all just speculation here. We'll never know and you'll never find out. You're better off just getting it fixed than wasting your time finding answers. A bumper repair in most cases should be a 1-2 day job.
Cheap *** paint job. Get it repainted by a proper professional and good clear coat. Then install an Xpel clear PPF over it and never worry about this again.
Update: Mercedes ended up picking up the entire tab. They removed the bumper, stripped it down completely, and repainted it properly. I just got my car back today and it looks great!
Hats off to the Service Manager for stepping up and working with Mercedes to take care of the problem. He went out of his way to make sure everything was handled properly. Great guy!
Now I just have to wait for it to cure before I put on a clear bra.
Last edited by jjsaustin; Jun 22, 2018 at 10:54 PM.
Good for you. Definitely spend the money on a clear bra and you can then enjoy a beautiful bumper for a long time. I recommend Xpel Ultimate with a 10 year warranty.
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