Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting does ford honor its paint warranty?

my car is less than 2 years old with 17k on the odometer. a 1"x2" portion of clear coat near the driver's side front fenderwell is cracked, with some of it having come off already. there is no dent in the metal, no scratches, and no specific directional "pattern"; in my estimation, it is a case of a faulty clear coat.

however, while some of you have been able to have your cars repainted under the paint warranty, i have not been so lucky with my dealership, as they declined the job. on the same day, a '00 model year Focus owner with paint peeling off of the roof, was also declined.

so i am curious to know who here has gotten their car repainted under warranty, and for what kind of paint damage did Ford actually warranty?

with the service department, it is an uphill battle . .

I've had no problems whatsoever having the local Ford dealer repaint my '98 E0 SVT under the standard 3yr/36K warranty.

I just got it back last week from having been repainted for the 5th or 6th time.

When I bought the car new with 17miles on the clock, the hood and trunk had minor white bubbling under the paint.

Then they messed up the whole car while applying the Teflon coating requiring a complete respray.

Then hood, roof and trunk started showing signs of fading after approx 1.5 years.

As of 1 month ago, hood and trunk lid started fading again. Went into the dealer, they repainted both pieces but botched the job, imperfections in the paint.

Then they repainted after stripping, and burned the clearcoat.

Finally, they call me and admitted their mistake and due to the many repaints the car needed a complete stripdown and repaint.

They paid for a loaner Focus in the interim BTW.

Just got the car back last Friday and it looks awesome.

BTW, it's a T-red SVT.

Wow, I am really impressed! 5 or 6 times! Were you just really firm and insistent with the dealership, or did they take they basically take the initiative to go ahead and warranty your paint? Was there a body shop at the dealership as well?

They were actually pretty good about it. The dealer (Mossy Ford, San Diego) does not have a body but they outsource all their body work to Guy Hill Cadillac 1/4 mile down the street from them.

HOWEVER, when I bought the car new it was already 1.5 years old having been assembled in April '97. I bought it on October 5 '98.

For $18K out the door I got the car 1 day shy of going to a dealer-only auction including a 6 year/100K warranty.

But I did pay $500 extra for the Finish protection (basically Teflon) but it has payed off handsomely so far. Maybe this helped getting the car redone so often w/o questioning, including replacement of a peeling steering wheel and a passenger door panel which started to bubble, and last week they also replaced the rear parcel shelf due to sun fading.

same story here but i brought my car in with 35996 on the od!

Took mine in to get the hood repainted (black 99) with about 35K on the OD.
went smooth as can be.
Only disappointment was if i wanted to get a Curtisy car from Ford I had to go to the dealer i bought it from, Which was about 100 miles away. So just took it to my Local dealer, had it back in 3 days.

If you look closely at the warranty information, Ford honors the body paint for 12/12K for items such as chemical corrosion, or fallout. But the 3/36 warranty covers Mfg. defects.

My guess is that the dealer who denied the warranty fix is either misunderstanding the warranty, or just being #@$holes and using the fallout clause as their reason for denial.

Try another dealership.

Good luck,
David

Don't get me started.

my 98 was two years old with 39k and no repaint. I couldn't even get the district manager to look at it. Paint on the
tours is a big problem (search the old forums) I will never buy another ford EVER!!!!

I actually thing it has something to do with the NY/NJ area dealer network.

jeff

I have two tiny spots on my roof with some sort of cracking... one is about 7mm by 5mm and the the other is even smaller. Still, my Cougar is only 13 months old and this is unacceptable to me. I'm going to be taking a trip to my dealer tomorrow to have it looked at it. I'll let you guys know how everything goes...