WWYD...Mounting issues with my 2011 California Special

ALJ07V6

New Member
Jan 20, 2007
4
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Central Texas
I think that I am a proud owner of a new 2011 Cali Special. Absolutely a beautiful car that is a dream to drive. Right now that is all I can say that is good.

When we purchased the car, the dealer did not have one on the lot. The car is actually my wife's car so we need an automatic trans. The dealership had to pull it off of one of their lots in Houston. So we bought the car, signed all the papers and waited for delivery. We took delivery two days later about 8:30 pm so it was getting dark. We looked it over as best we could and drove off as excited as two kids in a candy shop. The next morning when my wife backed out of the garage we were standing and staring in awe of the pony. Upon closer inspection I started noticing very light colored spots all over the hood, roof and trunk lid. I pulled out a bottle of quick detail spray and a new microfiber towel and tried to clean a few of the spots. Nothing doing. We immediately drove to the dealership to show the saleman. He sayhe doesn't see them. We get the sales manager, inventory manager, make ready manager, and paint/body shop manager all together to take a look. No none can give us an answer. To make the story shorter, they have acid washed twice, clay barred twice, and buffed and teflon waxed and the spots are still there.

Now today the brake master cylinder went out and has to be replaced and the starter has stuck spinning and not started the car on five different occasions. They can't get the starter to duplicate so as of now they have determined that this issue is non existant.

They have advised us not to re-paint the car as it will decrease the value. We absolutely refuse to live with it as is because a defective factory paint job will decrease the value just the same. I am going to meet with them tomorrow and request that a Ford factory representative meet us along with the dealership management to get a resolution.

So here is my question. What would you do?
1. Let them paint the whole car? Decrease the value.
2.Live with the defective paint and hope it doesn't cause problems later. Decrease the value.
3. Request that they replace the car since the paint is a factory defect.
 
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I can tell you that they will not replace the car.

A good body shop should be able to get the cloudy spots taken care of.

And as a last resort, get the car re-painted.

My question is, why would a re-paint reduce the value of the car? You would be the only one who would know it was re-painted.
 
I think that I am a proud owner of a new 2011 Cali Special. Absolutely a beautiful car that is a dream to drive. Right now that is all I can say that is good.

When we purchased the car, the dealer did not have one on the lot. The car is actually my wife's car so we need an automatic trans. The dealership had to pull it off of one of their lots in Houston. So we bought the car, signed all the papers and waited for delivery. We took delivery two days later about 8:30 pm so it was getting dark. We looked it over as best we could and drove off as excited as two kids in a candy shop. The next morning when my wife backed out of the garage we were standing and staring in awe of the pony. Upon closer inspection I started noticing very light colored spots all over the hood, roof and trunk lid. I pulled out a bottle of quick detail spray and a new microfiber towel and tried to clean a few of the spots. Nothing doing. We immediately drove to the dealership to show the saleman. He sayhe doesn't see them. We get the sales manager, inventory manager, make ready manager, and paint/body shop manager all together to take a look. No none can give us an answer. To make the story shorter, they have acid washed twice, clay barred twice, and buffed and teflon waxed and the spots are still there.

Now today the brake master cylinder went out and has to be replaced and the starter has stuck spinning and not started the car on five different occasions. They can't get the starter to duplicate so as of now they have determined that this issue is non existant.

They have advised us not to re-paint the car as it will decrease the value. We absolutely refuse to live with it as is because a defective factory paint job will decrease the value just the same. I am going to meet with them tomorrow and request that a Ford factory representative meet us along with the dealership management to get a resolution.

So here is my question. What would you do?
1. Let them paint the whole car? Decrease the value.
2.Live with the defective paint and hope it doesn't cause problems later. Decrease the value.
3. Request that they replace the car since the paint is a factory defect.

black, im guessing? my cougar had this same problem back in 01. never could fix it. i saw a dealer take an F150 down to metal to fix it after trying every known chemical under the sun to fix it.

raise hell.
 
That's why I won't buy a black car ever again. They look awesome when they are clean, there's no doubt about that. The problem is every flaw seems to get magnified.

I have an '11 GT Kona Blue on the way, and I'm hoping it's light enough that it won't be hard to keep clean.

Any chance you could post some pictures of the paint blemishes you are detecting?
 
Sounds like how my black 08 was from the factory. It was as if the clearcoat was thin in spots. I fixed it by buffing it out with swirl remover to a glossy polish. Wax and clay bars will do nothing. ...it takes a fine abrasive. Maybe you can get them to spray a clearcoat and buff it out. There's no reason to respray the base color.
 
I agree it is very unlikely they will replace the car. The only hope you have in that area is the lemon law, but IIRC you need at least 6 different issues with the car to get it replaced under that law.

As far as the paint goes, a repaint does decrease the wholesale value going by black book numbers, but as you observed, a faulty paint job decreases value as well, so I wouldn't buy that arguement from the dealer. A proper, good quality paint job will always be worth more than flawed factory paint. He's just trying to limit his expense on a warranty issue, because a complete paint job of a suitable quality to match a factory finish is not cheap especially when you figure the reason for the repaint may require stripping all of the original paint off to keep the same issue from showing up in the new paint.

There are one or two options short of a complete repaint. You can have the paint wet sanded, then buffed out. A quality paint shop is capable of wet sanding without removing so much as to go through the clear coat. In fact, a show quality paint job on restored cars isn't complete until it's wet sanded and buffed. That removes most imperfections like orange peel and any fish eyes. If that doesn't fix it, (or if the factory clear coat is too thin for a good wet sanding), a respray of the clear coat after wet sanding is an option.

Without actually seeing the spots you're refering to I can only guess at what the issue is, however an experienced painter should be able to look at it and tell what the issue is and if anything short of a repaint will correct it. If the issue is contamination in the primer or color coat then obviously no amount chemical treatment will fix it. You may want to get an opinion from an independent paint shop. I would try a custom painter before a collision center, but anyone who does top quality paint work should have enough experience to know what they are looking at when they see your car. And if they can pin point the issue right off, you may want to petition Ford to have them do the paint repair instead of the dealer.
 
Yes it is Black and I understand the issues that come with Black vehicles. I can honestly say that I have never had this issue on any of my other seven Black vehicles(all Fords), five of them purchased from this dealership. No one seems or wants to give me a direct answer to what they think the problem is. I did ask them to replace the car and that I would accept nothing less. They were definitely taken back when I made that statement. They didn't tell me no but they didn't say yes either. I have requested a meeting with a Ford factory rep and they have agreed to set up the meeting. We will see what happens. I truly don't expect a replacement.

I think it will end with them repainting the car and I will have to be happy. All in all I plan on keeping it for a long time so who cares what the next potential owner might think.

The issue with the brakes turned out to be the brake booster just squeaking
when the brake was applied. A new one has been installed and all is good right now.

The starter issue did not duplicate while they had it. So no resolution here. We will nervously wait and hope that it does not start happening again.
 
I purchased a Kona Blue 5.0 Auto, 3 weeks ago and I had the long start issue a few times in the first week, have not had any issues since then. Hopefully yours is the same and it goes away.
Paint work is OK, there is one spot on the trunk where a couple of specks of primer show if you look really close, I debated about getting it fixed but concluded that the fix may be worse with color matching, overspray etc, so I decided to live with it - nobody will find it unless I point it out.
Getting 22.8 mpg with reasonable driving with a few hard sprints on the freeway, just love it !
 
We finally have have come to a resolution with all of our issues. We pick up a new car tomorrow. After many discussions, coupled with our long term relationship with the dealer they have agrreed to give us a new car. The salesman and manager have really taken great care to satisfy a longtime repeat customer. They have done the right thing and have truly earned our business going forward.
 
We finally have have come to a resolution with all of our issues. We pick up a new car tomorrow. After many discussions, coupled with our long term relationship with the dealer they have agrreed to give us a new car. The salesman and manager have really taken great care to satisfy a longtime repeat customer. They have done the right thing and have truly earned our business going forward.

That is GREAT to hear!
 
We finally have have come to a resolution with all of our issues. We pick up a new car tomorrow. After many discussions, coupled with our long term relationship with the dealer they have agrreed to give us a new car. The salesman and manager have really taken great care to satisfy a longtime repeat customer. They have done the right thing and have truly earned our business going forward.
That is awesome. It's nice to see a company step up for the customer.
 
***Update***
Unfreakingbelievable. Driving home last Friday evening in the new car, 799 miles on the clock, the check engine and wrench light both come on in the dash panel. We immediately pull over and shut the car down. Start it back up and the warning lights come back on. We drive a little ways and the car seems to be running a little funny. We pull over and call Ford service and they suggest having it towed in.

After a full day of running diagnostics they still can't seem to isolate the problem. First I was told it was transmission related and now they are thinking PCM or maybe both. I am not familiar enough with all the new electronics on these cars to really know what to think. We are beginning to get a little nervous since we have had four major issues involving two cars in three months.