Dodgy Paint On Prius

[ian rooke]

Hi just washed my Gen3 Prius and found the paint has crazed on the bonnet in two places. Took myself off to Lookers of Rayleigh to see the service manager ,upon looking at the damage his words were

"I've seen this 500 times before its bird droppings it will cost £500 to respray" when asked how long it had to be on the car to do this damage his answer "36 hours" he then lectured me on how to clean bird droppings

off the paintwork. When asked if I left my car on the road when on holiday will that mean I would need a respray when I return his answer was "Yes"I have purchased 3 Prius and 1 IQ from the same dealer (value £70000)

when told I expect it to be under a goodwill gesture with no hesitation his answer was NO. So beware

1) Always carry a bucket of warm water and sponge in the car

2) Look at your car every 30 hours and wash as required

3) Do not have a holiday

4)Go to a dealer that can diagnose a fault just by looking at it

5)Don't be a loyal customer

I will be writing to lookers,Toyota Gb and Toyota Japan as it is obvious that the paint is not fit for purpose will keep you posted .

[Phoenix999]

I am sorry to say all paint on new cars is not 'fit for purpose' as it is now acrylic water based. It was a sad day when celulose paint was banned for new cars

I doubt you will have any luck with Lookers as I have found that they will side step as many warranty claims as they possibly can. It also depends on who the service manager is, I wonder if I have met him.... maybe you can PM his name to me and if I do know him I can give you my thoughts on the guy

[Jan&tone]

Hi just washed my Gen3 Prius and found the paint has crazed on the bonnet in two places. Took myself off to Lookers of Rayleigh to see the service manager ,upon looking at the damage his words were

"I've seen this 500 times before its bird droppings it will cost £500 to respray" when asked how long it had to be on the car to do this damage his answer "36 hours" he then lectured me on how to clean bird droppings

off the paintwork. When asked if I left my car on the road when on holiday will that mean I would need a respray when I return his answer was "Yes"I have purchased 3 Prius and 1 IQ from the same dealer (value £70000)

when told I expect it to be under a goodwill gesture with no hesitation his answer was NO. So beware

1) Always carry a bucket of warm water and sponge in the car

2) Look at your car every 30 hours and wash as required

3) Do not have a holiday

4)Go to a dealer that can diagnose a fault just by looking at it

5)Don't be a loyal customer

I will be writing to lookers,Toyota Gb and Toyota Japan as it is obvious that the paint is not fit for purpose will keep you posted .

Sounds a bit rubbish to me, I use the same dealer - had my last avensis and current gen2 prius from them and my wife's new aygo and never had a moments problem. Hope u get good response from your letters. Where I live mine have always been in the garage, but where I work is next to a river and it's not birds, it's ducks and swans! And boy do they poo!!! If opts a Monday when the car gets bombed it will stay there for a week before it gets cleaned and I've got no blemishes anywhere, so good luck

[timberwolf]

It is curious how all sorts of paint defects are according to the dealers are caused by bird lime. I agree the bird lime is corrosive, and you should try to remove it as soon as you see it, but cracking of the paint doesn't sound like the paint has been eaten away. If you do a google search for car paint defects, I'm surprised at just how many different types of paint defect they have managed to categorize, and not many seem to be bird lime related. e.g. http://www.carpaintdepot.com/docs/basf/Paint_Defects.pdf

[Chris Dance]

Crazing of the paint and putting it down to bird droppings does not seem to me to be correct. Surely any paint on modern cars is designed to resist the adverse effect of bird droppings. I think you have a good case to get this sorted out by your Toyota dealer. Hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction. Let us know how you get on.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Crazing of the paint and putting it down to bird droppings does not seem to me to be correct. Surely any paint on modern cars is designed to resist the adverse effect of bird droppings. I think you have a good case to get this sorted out by your Toyota dealer. Hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction. Let us know how you get on.

I think you have more chance of Hell freezing over. All modern cars are subject to damage by bird droppings on paint if it is not cleared up pretty quickly. Leave it to burn on in the sun we've been having the last week or so and you'll have a nasty mark.

It isn't just a Toyota problem and has been with us for a number of years since the EU outlawed the old paint type, though I believe it wasn't good for the environment.

[Chris Dance]

I realise that bird droppings if not removed can cause a mark on car paintwork but I did not think it would cause crazing. I may be wrong. I recall a car I previously owned had marks on the paintwork from seagull droppings. They were Blackpool seagulls and as they get so well fed I expect their poo was very potent stuff.!!!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Trying to think of a car I had where the bird poo caused crazing. Think it was either a Rover or a Vectra, but it did burn right in and leave a nasty crazed mark.

[Trafficman]

I have Autoglymed all my cars with super resin polish and the Autoglym gloss protector. It seems to resist the dreaded bird sh.te! And it makes the car easier to clean!

[kithmo]

Paint crazing is caused by incompatible primer or too thick layering of topcoat. It's a Paint fault no question. Bird lime causes a dulling of the finish nothing else.

[phil4]

I'd agree with others, doesn't sound like bird droppings or anything else... crazing sounds like paint moved, not bonded, or metal moved to me. All in all, I'd have been less honest at the dealers. Denied bird droppings and got them to fix it. But then I'm of the opinion that if a manufacturer can't sort out a paint job that can live up to average every day living without going horribly wrong, then it definitely isn't fit for purpose. Just my 2p worth.

[ian rooke]

Hi just a update had a reply from Lookers of Rayleigh telling me that as their service manager had told me (with no proof) the damage to the paintwork of my car

was caused by birdlime there was nothing they were willing to do about it. I have now canceled both service contracts with Lookers (why pay for a rubbish service)

Have found another local Toyota specialist who will try to burnish out the damage or respray the bonnet for £150. Will write to Toyota but do not hold much hope of a good

result there but they may surprise me.

[Phoenix999]

Paint crazing is caused by incompatible primer or too thick layering of topcoat. It's a Paint fault no question. Bird lime causes a dulling of the finish nothing else.

Rubbish.... all paints on all new cars is useless I have seen the crazing effect and it is bird lime, all manufacturers warn against this problem and it is at the peril of the owner if not cleaned off quickly. This is not a warranty claim unless an owner finds a very sympathetic dealer and they are few and far between

I am very sorry to say that I think Ian's task is a very tough one

[ian rooke]

Hi as Kithmo says I think I am on a hiding to nothing but I am willing to give it a go anyone know of a good polish which will give me a chance

of stopping some of the damage.

[Chris Dance]

Sorry to hear about your Toyota dealers attitude Ian. I have just had to touch up some minor stone chips on the bonnet of my car. The colour of my car is metallic Aztec Gold and it is hard to touch up so that the "chips" do not show. I think it will be a respray for your car bonnet, any good body shop could do that job. I have used several car polishes. MER a German polish is very good, available at Halfords, I have also used Turtle Wax original hard Shell shine. Autoglym seems to be a decent product although I have not used it myself yet. I have used a very similar Space Age American product named Auri but it is no longer available in UK only in the states. If you can get this product it is very good. My car was bought second hand with very little mileage it had been given full SURGUARD protection prior to me buying it. Hope this helps you. It is a job to keep the paintwork good what with stone damage (especially as councils do not roller the dreaded chippings into the tar), then there are bird dropping etc.

Regards Chris.

Here is the link for Auri products: http://www.auri.com/

I think the postage from the states is too expensive!!

[ian rooke]

Hi Back again anyone know the address of Toyota UK I've got at least two addresses would not like to waste my time on abusing the wrong people.

[redmires]

I've been lurking on here for a couple of months but thought I would register just to say that I completely agree with the thread. By coincidence, I washed my T4 for the first time today and I came in and said to my wife "the paintwork on the prius is absolutely cr4p". Then I logged on here and saw this thread. The car is 3 months old and to be honest, is not my pride and joy (that happens to have 2 wheels).

Anyway, back to the paintwork. I washed and polished the car but could not remove the blemishes caused by dead flies and other road detritus. This is mainly on the plastic front end and on the bonnet. I've owned dozens of cars (and bikes) and never had a case where a dead fly can leave a blemish in the paintwork. Even T-Cut (for metallics) wouldn't shift them. How rubbish is that ?

Other niggles are the rattling dashboard, the passenger seat that sounds like a hard drive, the bluetooth that only stores 20 numbers and the infernal bleeping on selection of reverse. If it wasn't for that the fact that it's making me £100 + profit every month from my mileage expenses then I would seriously question why I chose the car. It's not that I dislike it but as it was my first Toyota, perhaps I expected more.

By the way, I also washed and polished my wife's Puegeot 3008 which is 2 months old (and the same colour, dark grey) but didn't notice any such problems with that paintwork.

[Chris Dance]

redmires I think you should complain to your dealer if you have so many niggles with your Prius. Flies go not leave blemishes on the paintwork of my car so there maybe something wrong with your paintwork!! The bleeping sound on reverse can easily be stopped by your dealer. Dealer can sort out the dash rattles etc. Glad you do not dislike the car but you may like it even more after getting things sorted by Mr T.

[redmires]

I will mention the rattling dashboard and seat when it goes in for its first service. The car is just a work tool and is on a 2 year lease so I don't really care about paintwork (even if it is very poor) and the response that Ian got from the dealer just confirms that life's too short to worry about such things. I might have felt different had I paid out £21k for the car though.

Perhaps I sounded a bit harsh yesterday. I do like the car and I love being able to drive an automatic, which is very economical, very easy and relaxing to drive and feels a bit leading edge. It's just that I don't have an emotional attachment to cars and that I probably believed the hype that Toyota's are faultless. I'd also add the my wife's 3008 has a better build quality despite it costing £5k less than the list price of the Prius. Whether it proves to be as reliable as a Toyota, time will tell.

[j2d]

Picked up this thread rather late. For what it is worth I live about 200 yards from the sea, as the seagull flies. For years I have had problems with the gull droppings. In the days when real paint was used you had a couple of days in which to get rid of it before damage was caused. Now that the paintwork on all cars is no more than coloured water there is no time to loose. One of our cars is always on the drive. The gulls seem to use it for target practice and unfortunately for me they seem to have been trained by the RAF and not the USAF so plenty of hits they seem to hit the target rather than involve in "friendly fire". Ok when we are at home but we holiday for up to 2 months at a time. I did some internet searching and a year ago found a product called Collinite Super Double Coat Auto Wax. They claim one coat lasts a year. I have treated 3 cars with it. The car that is garaged has had one coat. The Avensis that I had prior to the Prius was given 3 coats when new and one before a 5 week trip with it in the UK. The Prius had 3 coats in February and will get another in late August prior to a 6 week trip in the UK. All of these cars have been targeted by Gulls and both the Prius and the Avensis were unattended for several weeks but on our return I was able to wash the droppings off leaving no signs of them being there. All the cars need, once coated, is a wash with fresh cold water and they are pristine. The gloss finish that they wax gives is excellent, is easy to put on and polish off. It looks pricey but the 7 coats that I have applied have used less than a quarter of the tin. I have no connection in anyway to the product nor to the company that distributes it.

We also have salt laden air and the wax stands up yo that with no problems.

Mention has been made of squashed flies and the difficulty in removing them. A pal introduced me to something that he found in France. It is a ordinary sponge enclosed in a plastic net bag. I have put a sponge in one of those nets that supermarkets sell onions in. Works very well and with no effort even after several weeks.

[ian rooke]

Hi J2d thanks for the info will try to locate the wax just to keep everyone up to date have written to Toyota a week ago

no reply as yet

[Chris Dance]

Thanks j2d for the info on the Cellinite Wax. I have just ordered a tin on Amazon £14-99 + £4-39 P&P. It seems to have excellent reviews on the internet. My garage shelf is full of different polishes & Waxes but if Cellinite works for tree sap as well as bird crap I will be well pleased.

Ian I hope you get a satisfactory result from Toyota.

regards Chris.

[ian rooke]

Hi Thanks Chris just ordered a large tin of Cellinite Wax myself, good job J2D is not on commission, if it is as good as it says it should stop further damage to

my paintwork, fingers crossed ! legs as well.

[Jan&tone]

Question.....

You guys with the paint problem....

Did you have 'supagard' done before delivery?

[ian rooke]

Hi had seven new Toyotas none with superguard this is the first with any paint damage (some I did not wash for months) cannot say if the treatment would have stopped the damage.

This is the first car I have had with water based paint though.