I purchased a 2018 Platinum a couple months ago and shortly after getting home noticed a bubble (dealer called it a fisheye) in the clear coat of the rear drivers door and a run in the paint at the base of the drivers front door. The dealer had me bring it in and they brought to their body shop to resolve the issues. It has been back 5 time since then and still has issues. They have polished the doors so much that in the light the doors are covered in scratches and polish marks. There is one area that they have actually polished through the color in the pant so I'm guessing it will need to be repainted. In addition there is a dimple in the door where the fisheye was that they say will need a dent-less guy to correct. It needs to go back for a 6th time but I told them enough is enough...I wanted to start the process of a buyback/swap. The director of service told me the dealer cannot initiate that, I would need to call Ford...so I did. I'm awaiting the call from the regional manager.

Is the dealer correct in saying that they can't initiate this process? Has anyone else had issues with paint on their truck and issues getting them correctly resolved? I don't think I'm expecting too much with a stick of $65+ to have a perfect paint job from the get go without repainting multiple panels.

 

I dont know about the buyback but me thinks you need a different dealer, both my 15 and 18 had come with paint issues. My 15 only had one large run in the paint of the lower rear door but my 18 had soo many I had to mark them all with painters tape(20+) some just in the clear and some really deep scratches. Thankfully my dealer dont have a body shop and the work was farmed out to a reputable body shop while I drove around in a free rental. I only noticed the paint issues after at least 2 weeks on both trucks but they made it right even tho they could a have tried to blame some of them on me and the manual even says to inspect right away. I know the scratches in the front fender needed to be painted and they were. My trucks magnetic and you can't tell it had any work done what so ever.

 

 

Buy back for small paint areas wont happen. Expecting a 20K paint job on a production truck wont happen. Best thing you can do for factory paint is Paint correction. Now that will run you about 2k out of pocket, but that is the best your factory truck will ever look.

 

Honestly your just being unreasonable expecting a perfect paint job. Every car has some kind of paint flaw from the factory. It could be a run, trash, paint match, fisheye or any other paint flaw you can think of. These vehicles are not perfect from the factory and your next one won't be either. With that said the dealer failed at trying to fix it so you should for sure be upset about that, but I can't see you getting a buyback for a fisheye and a run. My biggest question is if your able to pick out a small fisheye and run in your paint why aren't you complaining about the body panels that are so wavy they can pass as huge dents?

 

Painted for Ford warranty for 6 years. Never had a comeback.

Buy back for a cosmetic issue? Never heard of a success story in that regard. Buy backs for mechanical and safety issues, yes.

Expecting perfect paint on a production vehicle? Never. I've been painting for 20 years. Seen vehicles $100k+ with runs, dry spray, missing paint, dirt chunks, solvent pop, fish eyes, etc.

Not all shops are created equal. Bring it to a reputable shop. Make the offending shop pay for it

 

Buy back is not reasonable but everything else the OP is mad at is reasonable imo. He brought it to the dealer several times to fix it and seemingly made it worse. Who would be happy with that?

 

 

BS. My 16 had a paint issue were the paint was peeling off the back of the box below the tail lamp. It wasn't really that bad and was about to just put some touch-up paint on it. After all, it is a truck. Well I decided to take it in to my dealership to see what they would do. The body shop manager came out, took some pictures with his phone and said he would have to send them to Ford. About a week later, he phoned and asked if I could bring it in again as Ford wanted more pictures. I did, and this time the body shop manager used an actual electronic camera to take pictures. Two weeks later a service advisor called to say that Ford had approved painting the entire side of the box.

I dropped my truck off a week or so later, Ford paid for a loaner vehicle (a Budget Rent-A-Car Flex), the dealership painted the truck and replaced the FX4 decal. When I got the truck back I could not tell it had been repainted.

Satisfaction with your vehicle has a lot to do with the dealership experience.