I looked around and couldn't find a more appropriate section for this to fall under, but I just wanted to vent a bit, and maybe see if anyone else had the same experience that I did. I am a detailer so maybe my eye for this thing is a bit more specific.
I was absolutely upset about the treatment of my car when it was prepped for delivery. When you buy a brand new car off the lot, you expect it to be in the best condition that it will ever be in. I expect the condition of the paint to be included in that. I know from working at a dealership that so many cars come in and out of the service bays and its a pretty busy environment. I also know the dealerships little tricks to make a car look really nice so you are happy when you take it off the lot, but that is short lived as then the issues appear after you wash it a couple times, or it rains.
Usually the dealerships will put a very light coat of a cheap wax on the vehicles to cover the scratches that they caused while unwrapping the car or from transit. This fills the scratches and hides them until that wax goes away. In my situation, it took about 1500 miles for that wax to go away and I was absolutely blown away at how bad the paint was. I know that no one had physically touched the car in a way to cause that kind of damage in my ownership so it had to have happened at the dealer. Here are some pics of what I consider damage to my cars paint.
1500 miles and already have to break out the buffer.
Drivers Fender
Drivers Rear Door
It took me about 30 seconds on each panel of the vehicle to fix these issues, maybe a total of 15 minutes to do the entire car with no specific specialty tools or products. It upsets me that they could not take the time to really make sure the brand new vehicle they are selling was at its best.
There was also a nasty brown grease that was on every single window on the inside. You could still see the marks from when the machine suction cupped in the windshield and rear glass. I have cleaned my windows 3 times now and this grease is still not 100% gone. It is absolutely terrible under direct sunlight. This upsets me almost more than the condition of my paint.
After Pics
THIS is how I expect a brand new car with 0 miles on it to look when you pick it up from the lot.
Sorry if it got long winded or I am asking too much of the dealership, but I really needed to vent I guess.
Let me know if any of you have had these kinds of issues! I am curious to know what peoples opinions on this are!
Hey man its perfectly fine to be upset ESPECIALLY when you buy a brand new car. My car was spotless on the outside but the windshield, oh god. There is this white film residue that I cannot remove even with windex. I just gave up trying to clean it lol
I found the perfect solution as I had the same issue with my windshield and the film on the inside of it.
Drive on the lovely highways of CT through a construction zone. They no longer sweep the roads after they mill the surface for repaving, so it's a massive field of asphalt debris for a good week after being milled. They'll do a real good job of smashing up your windshield ensuring that you get a clean replacement.
That was mostly sarcastic (yet true). I still have the suction cup marks on the rear window, and just this morning noticed them on the sunroof when it fogged over slightly.
My paint was in horrible condition. Same car, same model, colour, and trim.
2014 Blue Sport, from the Cambridge Ontario plant.
Horrible swirl marks everywhere. Can't remove them with any amount of buffing, or any products. Tried everything. Former Suds Express Detailing Supervisor.
go buy an Audi and you'll get a car detailed to your spec. you're buying a $20k car. I dobut they'll spend a few hours per car on detailing it when someone else will take it as is and not care.
Yeah I know. Its mostly just me venting and gripeing about it. I did work at a Lexus Dealer and the treatment was exactly the same for their base spec $32k CT200h's and their top of the line $80k+ LS460s. They all got the quick unpacking and your basic wash before a spray wax was used and they were shipped off to the lot.
For the glass, I use a product called "Invisible Glass". That stuff is truly magic and leaves no streaks whatsoever. I definitely recommend you guys give it a shot because it got rid of those pesky suction cup rings in just one cleaning.
As for the detailing, I'm with you guys on the cheap wax, although the car was in brand new condition when I got it. But no car should need a new coat of wax 2 weeks after purchase, but that's exactly what I did. I didn't clay bar though since the paint still felt smooth, gotta do a full detail before winter sets in though.
I'm going to detail my car on Monday. Dealers always, ALWAYS, half-ass it. I got clay and wax so I'm ready, and I'm trying Meguiar's for the interior since Armor All is just too greasy feeling.
I'll put it to you this way ... I Q-Tip crevices and gaps when I detail my car ... a little obsessive yeah, but she looks better than she did on the lot when I am done with her.
They barely pay the guys who detail new cars, it's an afterthought at best. They come in from the factory already scratched as well. So it's a combination of cost cutting, a trickle down problem really. Consumers want to pay less, manufactures want to cut costs so they find ways to decrease compensation, dealers are like the middle b*tch getting it from both ends. Everyone wants to use truecar.com and get the car under invoice, and then expects the world for it.
Dan I don't think its unreasonable for people to want a pristine car when they buy it brand new. I understand it doesn't happen but its not out of line to expect it at any price. The dealer getting squeezed is a part of their business. They very viciously guard that position also, just look at what they are doing to keep Tesla from selling direct.
Griots makes a glass polish have any of you tried it?
Unreasonable? No. Unrealistic? Sort of. Yes them getting squeezed is their problem, but at some point it has to come from somewhere. Remember those stories about cities turning off the streetlights to make budget? :laugh:
Mine was in pretty good shape when delivered. But when I test drove it, it was an incredible mess. It was covered in dirt and spider webs. I mean LOTS of spider webs, and sticky ones. After about four washes now, I seem to have finally gotten rid of the spiders. I've heard of spiders actually doing damage to cars though.
I even had an appointment to test drive this particular car and drove 70 miles to the dealer and they knew I was serious about buying it, I'm amazed they allowed it to be auditioned looking like a ten year old used car that hadn't been driven in six months.
Welcome to TN by the way Was it a strange optioned car or something? Or are you in the deep south where bugs are much quicker to move in? By the way the only way to get rid of spiders is to either keep birds in the car or fire! :lol:
Nope, dealer was in metro Harrisburg, PA. About as un-rural as can be. Salesperson says they have had terrible spider problem for a long time. She said as fast as they clean the cars, they're covered in webs again. I'd be getting an exterminator in there real fast. Makes a terrible impression.
Otherwise, place was clean and tidy. They're a large, high volume dealer, so not like they're going broke.
The car was an LE Eco, and wasn't swapped from another dealer.
Really strange thing is I do live in a rural area, and bugs have been almost non-existant - in fact there have been news stories about it. I guess they're all at that dealership.:laugh:
Wow! Super happy to see some people actually talking in my little thread here! I swear by Invisible glass and use it on nearly everything! However, it still has not removed all of...whatever is on the windshield and rear glass. Its moderate, but it may take 2 more times to really remove it.
A queen bee apparently made it's way into my '08 Matrix, and others were making it into a hive. I went out to lunch, saw a couple bees on my fender and thought nothing of it, got in my car, shut the door, and about 100+ bees sitting on the windshield looked at me, and about 20 more flew from under the car. I panicked like a school girl, backed out of my spot in a hurry and hit the picnic table, got on the freeway and took it to 115 mph and got rid of most of them. The next day (when I was a little more calm and took the pictures), I took the top picture and it had that many bees. On my way to work, any red light and I'd see two bees fly over and climb inside the cowl. Second picture was on my lunch break 4 hours later ... so I knew that these terrorists had to be stopped.
(FYI, walking into a 7-11 in Vista, CA, dressed like how I was in the bottom picture, at 11:30 p.m., is frowned upon).
I feel your pain. I have the exact same vehicle, colour and all. It was 2 days after I took delivery that I had to clay bar the car and put on a coat of wax. It was pathetic that the paint wasn't smooth nor did they even bother to wax it. I know the vehicle I got was on display just outside of the dealership (not sure how long). I also had some paint scratches and swirl marks but I also think I put a bit more of that onto the paint myself with the new clay bar that I used. there was just so much contaminants on the car that even doing a very small area of the car at a time caused the contaminants to scratch the paint. *sigh*.
Yesterday after work...a shit storm hit...and I was on I-95. I didn't even use my wiper blades! The rain just flew off my windshield. I drove through a storm...without using my wiper blades...that Stoner Invisible with sealant stuff is fucking awesome!
If you click on the image, you should get a video of how well the product that I use works! I had to make a video when I realized that it worked this well!!
They were only there for a little over 24 hours but there was a ton of them, so they had a foundation going, more or less.
Yeah, I pulled off the windshield wiper arms, pulled off the cowl, then I had to remove all the crud the bees got in there, clean the wiper motor, etc. The only other place they could have gone from there would have been to my cabin air filter.
Hey moderators, can I start a sticky thread on cleaning and detailing our cars? It would be nice to all share what products work best on our cars in a single thread.