Am I too picky? ….so many flaws on new $70k cars!

[BrianJ77]

I’ve picked up two cars at the bmw factory in Greer,SC, one was a 2011 X5 diesel (great car I regret selling) and a 2013 X6 50 with the Sport pkg. The X5 was almost flawless but the X6 paint was a mess.. It was silver but the paint on the hood and front fenders was so blotchy that it looked like a kid had repainted it with a rattle can. They said I didn’t have to take the car and they would build me another but I had already turned in my lease car so I took it. This one was a lease also so I asked for a letter from the factory stating that the paint as presented came from the factory along with photos so when I turned it in at he end of the lease they couldn’t charge me for the paint not being original paint as it came from the factory. Worked out fine and I lived with it for two years. It turned out to be the worst BMW out of the 6 I’ve owned, it left me stranded on the side of the road twice and I haven’t owned a BMW since. On the other hand my new 2024 Vapor Blus GT manual convertible’s paint is excellent, no flaws, but the car did show up with 26 miles on it which was disturbing.. Face it, if you look hard enough at any new car you can find some kind of flaw or issue with them. I just wish I knew this many, many cars ago when I was much younger!

You're going to make @24s650gt cry himself to sleep. A BMW with a flaw? Never!

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[INSANEMUSTANG9]

Your not being to picky, I spent 65 on my gt premium, performance pack and the bumper paint match is pretty bad, and the radio is pretty glitchy.

 

[RocketGuy3]

Assuming you're going to actually drive the car, nicks, scratches, and small dents will be inevitable, no matter how careful you are. Why sweat it? Just use it as leverage for a better deal if possible.

At some point in the future, if you still have the car and enough papercuts add up to noticeable ugliness, take it to a body shop you trust and fix it.

 

[Stonehauler]

Maybe I am being too picky and I should just quit. I have looked at four dark horses with a 200 mile radius.

The first one was black at a local dealer where I know everyone. It had scratches on it that need to be repaired and there was some ceramic coating high spots that needed to be fixed. There was a scratcher too, but livable. They wouldn’t fix it before I bought it, so I walked.

Then there was a vapor blue one kind of local, but it had a scratch on the bumper that they were going to fix. Anyways, they did a good job. I went to go look at it. My dumbass didn’t give a deposit. The next day it’s sold.

I drove 300 miles round-trip to look at a white one that I was told was absolutely perfect no flaws whatsoever. When I get there, there is a ding on the deck lid at the edge pretty decent size. There was a dent on the roof that looked like somebody dropped a softball on it. And the windshield was delaminating in the corner between the two layers of the glass.

Am I expecting too much out of a $70,000 car? I feel that this is ford’s flagship Mustang, and it should be treated as such.

It depends.

Scratches are iffy. ideally, it should not have a scratch at all, but it depends on the type of scratch. it is the type that has gone through all the layers of paint down to bare metal, or one that someone rubbed a microfiber cloth the wrong way on the paint and now you can see very VERY minor imperfections in the clearcoat that exist only in your mind as "flaws", or most likely, somewhere in between.
For me, a scratch is something you can feel and get your nail to click over. If you can't feel it, and you can't get your nail into it, it's not a scratch, but a paint imperfection. Those are fine. If YOU don't like it, take it to someone who does paint correction so you can let it sit in your garage while you and your buddies admire it, never drive it, but still talk about how it's the best car you ever owned.

Dents are another matter. If there is a visible dent, ding, or other issue with the sheet metal, that's a bigger issue. For me, it's the rust angle. I've lived in the rust belt for most of my life, and one of the biggest places you get rust is behind where the ding was, because you repaired the outside, but the inner protection is gone.

I drive my vehicles. No car I own is going to be a garage queen. It will go out in the sun, the rain, and even in the snow and salt. It will have the proper tires for it, but I don't baby my cars. They will get scratched, it will get paint chips from rocks and other stuff, and those will get buffed, and an application of the proper touchup paint will be made.

If you want a show car, then most likely you will need to get it made ready to be show car quality. Otherwise, that 70k car will be getting the exact same paint job as a the base Mustang will

It is NOT Ford's Flagship. That would be something like the Explorer, Expedition, or F150, but must likely, it will be a Lincoln TBH. It's a mass produced car that is made to the lost cost/quality that people will accept for their target volume, and that's all.

 

[Stonehauler]

BMW also encloses their cars when being transported. They are never transported in open trucks from the factory to the destination dealer. Many other manufacturers do not take that precaution and it shows from the dings they get from road debris.

 

[Interstellar]

My vapor blue premium came with this nice scratch right through the paint and bumper.
upset? Ya. Am I gonna do anything about it? Nah. Certainly not reject the car after waiting half a year
It’s BS but whatever, it’s a car and worse is to come

 

[Zig]

My vapor blue premium came with this nice scratch right through the paint and bumper.
upset? Ya. Am I gonna do anything about it? Nah. Certainly not reject the car after waiting half a year
It’s BS but whatever, it’s a car and worse is to come

Cash off.

 

[Hack]

It depends.

Scratches are iffy. ideally, it should not have a scratch at all, but it depends on the type of scratch. it is the type that has gone through all the layers of paint down to bare metal, or one that someone rubbed a microfiber cloth the wrong way on the paint and now you can see very VERY minor imperfections in the clearcoat that exist only in your mind as "flaws", or most likely, somewhere in between.
For me, a scratch is something you can feel and get your nail to click over. If you can't feel it, and you can't get your nail into it, it's not a scratch, but a paint imperfection. Those are fine. If YOU don't like it, take it to someone who does paint correction so you can let it sit in your garage while you and your buddies admire it, never drive it, but still talk about how it's the best car you ever owned.

Dents are another matter. If there is a visible dent, ding, or other issue with the sheet metal, that's a bigger issue. For me, it's the rust angle. I've lived in the rust belt for most of my life, and one of the biggest places you get rust is behind where the ding was, because you repaired the outside, but the inner protection is gone.

I drive my vehicles. No car I own is going to be a garage queen. It will go out in the sun, the rain, and even in the snow and salt. It will have the proper tires for it, but I don't baby my cars. They will get scratched, it will get paint chips from rocks and other stuff, and those will get buffed, and an application of the proper touchup paint will be made.

If you want a show car, then most likely you will need to get it made ready to be show car quality. Otherwise, that 70k car will be getting the exact same paint job as a the base Mustang will

It is NOT Ford's Flagship. That would be something like the Explorer, Expedition, or F150, but must likely, it will be a Lincoln TBH. It's a mass produced car that is made to the lost cost/quality that people will accept for their target volume, and that's all.

I like to drive my cars too, but there's definitely nothing wrong with those that want to preserve them more.

I do agree no new cars are show car quality, but the dealer should encourage the buyer to try to find flaws and volunteer to fix them without being asked during a new car purchase. That is exactly what happened when I bought my GT350. They even told me up front there was a flaw they found and they would fix it (they replaced a wheel). I didn't see the flaw until they pointed it out.

Actually, even the 2017 GT PP1 I currently own and I bought used the dealer replaced the front bumper for me because it was damaged.

So, I guess I don't really think the OP is necessarily asking for too much. I do agree with you that faint swirls in the paint, orange peel or other smaller flaws are to be expected.

 

[Burnin' Rubber]

The first car I bought new had a pencil-line horizontal groove about two inches in length along the lower rear bumper cover on the passenger side. I did not notice it until one or two days after I brought it home. I obtained it from a trade between dealers. Somewhere along the line, someone carefully covered it up with touch-up paint that truthfully was not an exact match.

I just dismissed it knowing it would be difficult to point the blame at anyone. Since it was just on the plastic, I was not worried that it would rust. I also felt there would be more damage to come. Sure enough, that bumper was repainted two times and that car is now in a scrap yard.

The second car I bought new had a paint imperfection on the passenger front fender. My family pointed it out to me after I brought it home, actually. There were three small 1-mm paint dots within a 1.5-inch circle. They were similar to the body color but the shade was slightly lighter. The dots could be felt if you ran your finger over them. I would guess they were from splashes in the paint booth, or the factory tried to touch-up some chips they found in the paint.

The dealer took pictures and, to their credit, they offered to repaint the fender without charge. I considered it but eventually declined because I did not want the fender repainted on a new car. Fast forward five years and that fender was replaced entirely.

I try not to obsess over it, but I do believe that automakers should take more care to ensure their vehicles are not damaged in transit. Customers are having to pay a lot of money as it is already and should not give the shipping companies a free pass to get away with careless damage. As prices increase, so should quality expectations by the customers also increase.

Like others have said, I prefer to have knowledge of the damage if it happens after I take delivery so it can be dealt with. If damage happens before delivery, then it will be an unpleasant surprise when problems will show up in the future from poor repair work on a vehicle costing a lot of money to buy new.

 

[JPGC_S650]

Here is my take. It is definitely your hard earned money and if it doesn’t meet your standard, then pass. That being said, you may be on a long, long journey to find a mass produced car that meets your standard. A softball size dent is certainly not acceptable. A new windshield is no big deal and small scratches can be buffed out.

And here is my main point, we drive these things at 80mph on public highways filled with debris. Any “perfect” car will not be prefect in just a few short weeks or months. So why drive yourself crazy for the first few weeks it is “perfect”??

Exactly

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