Paintwork problem on a New T6 California Ocean

[ETOCWEN]

Hi Folks, This will be of interest to all purchasing a new California.
We took delivery of our new long awaited California 4 weeks ago. Having only done 460 miles in it so far its got a little dusty plus a few rain marks on it, so this weekend gave it a good wash and a light polish up and as everyone knows this is when you find out if there are any imperfections on the body work. On the front drivers side pillar I found a raised lump a little larger than a pin head, it wouldn't move. On closer inspection it looks like a piece of welding slag that hasn't been dressed off and finished then painted over. I was gutted, my question is; how can this small blemish be put right ? Answer, the lump ground off and the pillar re-sprayed. Great !!!! Do I really want to pay £54k for a Mojave Beige California with a re-sprayed pillar?
I have emailed my local dealer and copied in the dealer who I purchased the van from with pictures attached.
I would have thought VW Quality Control at build stage should have spotted this or even the dealer when cleaning the van up ready for collection. I feel this is a pretty poor show on VW standards. The van is booked in for my local dealer to have a look at it on Monday morning, however any comments advice would be helpful.

 

[ETOCWEN]

Just added the pictures of the paint problem - Thanks

 

[motacyclist]

Sorry to hear about this. I wouldn't be happy but wouldn't like a resprayed panel/pillar, if you have it resprayed you will have all the hassle of taking the van back, windscreen out, smell of paint, overspray and possible mismatch etc.

And let's face it, you would never get a replacement van this side of Christmas, and that may have other worse faults.

The defect is so small that I would get a fine drill and twist it between my fingers to take the raised bit off then pop a spot of touch up paint on it, building it up to match the surrounding paint.

It won't be long before you have other similar small stone chips to touch up anyway.

Before I did this though, I would raise the matter with the dealer to get some recompense; possibly a free service voucher or accessory as well as the necessary touch up kit. Good luck and enjoy your new van.

 

[mccp]

Just get your dealer to sort it out. With modern body shop techniques you will never be able to tell that it was repaired. If VW had found this before they shipped it, they would have fixed it in the same way that a decent body shop will, and you would be none the wiser.

Pretty hopeless that VW didn't pick it up, and surely your dealer should have picked it up during the PDI? After all, they need to check that the paint hasn't been damaged in transit.

 

[motacyclist]

We had a problem with a Mercedes metallic paint and the dealer took it in to rectify. When it came back the panel was a different colour to the rest of the bodywork. It had to go back again not once but three times, was never really satisfactory and we wished we'd never started off about it. Anyway, turned out that the Mercedes dealer didn't have a body shop and they were taking it to somewhere local; and I suspect that few of the modern franchised dealers have body shop facilities of their own.

 

[snowy55]

If vw get their hands on it they will respray the whole side of the vehicle to "blend it in"
I had a door opening "ding" on the Cali sliding door and vw wanted to fill it and respray the whole side of the vehicle, a dents away bloke came to work , unscrewed the panel with the contacts on the side of the door put in a ballended rod and 5 minutes later hey presro ding has gone, cost me £20 not the between £600 and £800 vw wanted.
I'd be tempted to seek the advice of a chips away type dude.

 

[craig j]

Not a great way to start your new ownership experience and you have a few tough choices to make.

I've just gone through months of hassle with VW after I discovered the new Cali I had bought had substandard paint (it was not noticeable in the lighting conditions in which I collected the car).

The dealer didn't want to do anything about it and it took me to get an inspection by another dealer who agreed it was not acceptable and intervention from VWCS to finally get some resolution.

Ultimately, you will need to decide how big an issue it is to you?

There are really only 3 choices:

1) Live with it and avoid having your new car resprayed/repaired.

2) Have it repaired under warranty. Based on the pictures VW should definitely agree that this is unacceptable and offer to repaint/repair. The question is do you want your new car repaired/repainted? There is an argument that it has then been devalued.

3) Attempt to reject the van through VWCS and ask for a replacement. This is the route I went through because I could not live with the poor quality and my Cali would need the whole side repainting which I didn't feel was acceptable for what I had expected was meant to be a new vehicle.

I have to say that VWCS were extremely helpful and fully supported my position of rejecting the vehicle. Despite this it took 3 months to resolve in which time I refused to drive the car in order to avoid giving them any reason to reject my claim.

In your case I'm not sure that I could go through all the stress again just for a small blemish. In fact my replacement was delivered with a scratch across the back, but I just couldn't face going through it all again. In my experience it seems that the paint inspection process is poor and more akin to a van rather than the luxury vehicle which the Cali is.

If you need any further help then feel free to drop me a PM.

 

[treecity]

I would totally resist getting this sprayed. I have yet to ever see any resprayed vehicle panel that is perfect.

I would push for some compensation and think of this as a birth mark and a way to identify your unique T6

 

[ETOCWEN]

Many thanks to all your replies, A quick update on what happened today when I took the Cali into my local dealer. He agreed that it looks like a manufacturers problem, he then suggested that I sort this issue out with the dealer in Crawford where we purchased it from. Rang Crawford several times, left messages and they were going to get back to me, ha ha. This is probably because I had already emailed them pictures of the problem last week. Eventually got to speak to the salesman who we dealt with, he said " I had done the right thing taking it to my local dealer and they should take care of the problem. Surprise surprise!! salesman with sloppy shoulders. okay so I rang my local dealer, he is not keen to deal with this problem, gosh this was starting to get hard work now! Anyway I now have to make an appointment tomorrow to take the Cali into their VW authorised paint shop for them to write a report to be sent to VW stating if it is a manufacturing problem covered by warranty and the possible cause, what type of repair needed and how invasive.
Then I can discuss how this is going to be resolved with VW.
At the moment my thoughts are: if possible live with the problem providing VW will correct it later if the area starts to corrode or when the van is a good few years older, Plus award something towards an extended warranty.
Overall we are very pleased with the Cali and have events going on most weekends throughout the Summer where I need the vehicle.

Will keeps the updates coming - Thanks

 

[Yogi]

Sorry to hear about the 'raised pimple'. Two clear choices if it were mine but I certainly wouldn't be getting it resprayed.

(1) Live with it, enjoy it and no doubt the'll be a few stone chips on months to come.

(2) Begin email correspondence with VWCS with a view of sourcing a new replacement. I can tell you know if this 'raised pimple' was on a mid range BMW, Porsche or Mercedes and someone had spent £50,000 on the car many would be seeking a replacement. Why should it be any different just because you have a high end, van derived camper?

VW can always get it repaired or just sell it on again through their network as a factory second. I hope the dealership where you bought it get on board as I expect they were tripping over themselves and treating you like royalty during the selection/purchase. Now is the time you'll really see how an organisation's customer springs into action (or not)

Best wishes whatever you decide

 

[ETOCWEN]

Sorry to hear about the 'raised pimple'. Two clear choices if it were mine but I certainly wouldn't be getting it resprayed.

(1) Live with it, enjoy it and no doubt the'll be a few stone chips on months to come.

(2) Begin email correspondence with VWCS with a view of sourcing a new replacement. I can tell you know if this 'raised pimple' was on a mid range BMW, Porsche or Mercedes and someone had spent £50,000 on the car many would be seeking a replacement. Why should it be any different just because you have a high end, van derived camper?

VW can always get it repaired or just sell it on again through their network as a factory second. I hope the dealership where you bought it get on board as I expect they were tripping over themselves and treating you like royalty during the selection/purchase. Now is the time you'll really see how an organisation's customer springs into action (or not)

Best wishes whatever you decide

As far as the dealership who I purchased it from is concerned, they are not interested at all because I live to far away (this is Crawley by the way) and Bridgwater my local dealer didn't even want to replace a £6 plastic cover until I get this paintwork problem sorted out with Crawley. VW are not being great over this at all. Hypothetically if my van has a mechanical problem does this mean, Bridgwater vans wont put it right until I sort this paintwork sorted out out.

I did go to a VW paintwork shop to get a report for VW sorted. The guy doing the report reckoned; the pip is a splatter of weld from when VW Converts a stock van into a camper by doing the roof conversion. The splatter of weld lands on the pillar, then they respray the roof conversion and the front pillars. So the front pillars have already been replayed. The VW after sales service so far is crap. Us guys love VW's because we just love them. VW just needs to give us support.

 

[WelshGas]

As far as the dealership who I purchased it from is concerned, they are not interested at all because I live to far away (this is Crawley by the way) and Bridgwater my local dealer didn't even want to replace a £6 plastic cover until I get this paintwork problem sorted out with Crawley. VW are not being great over this at all. Hypothetically if my van has a mechanical problem does this mean, Bridgwater vans wont put it right until I sort this paintwork sorted out out.

I did go to a VW paintwork shop to get a report for VW sorted. The guy doing the report reckoned; the pip is a splatter of weld from when VW Converts a stock van into a camper by doing the roof conversion. The splatter of weld lands on the pillar, then they respray the roof conversion and the front pillars. So the front pillars have already been replayed. The VW after sales service so far is crap. Us guys love VW's because we just love them. VW just needs to give us support.

Shows you what that VW guy knows about the California. It is Not a standard van with the roof cut out. It is built with a special roof in one stage that then has the hydraulic pump, rams front alloy spoiler and elevating roof + canvas fitted. These are already colour coded for that individual vehicle.

 

[GrannyJen]

Where was the bloke responsible for putting in the corrosion?

 

[Hotel California]

Shows you what that VW guy knows about the California. It is Not a standard van with the roof cut out. It is built with a special roof in one stage that then has the hydraulic pump, rams front alloy spoiler and elevating roof + canvas fitted. These are already colour coded for that individual vehicle.

I want one of those robots to take out the wardrobe unit ( 1min 25 in the vid.) so i can transform my SE in a beach to get more loding space when i'm off to Ikea next time ( oh boy ....)

....and we also can see at 1min 55 how VW does a roofclosure without the canvas beeing trapped in the mechanism

i can now also understand why moldingfaults are not noticed in the factory , it is to dark , the go over the checklist in the darkroom needing a tortch....

 

[Geezso]

This could be smart repaired, meaning the full pillar stays as is, apart from a few inches square.
Still not ideal but a good repair will look flawless.

 

[iDandelions]

When collecting mine, I noticed a tiny chip on the top of the drivers door. I was going to just get the dealer to give me a touch up kit as I'm sure I'll have plenty of stone chips to sort out in the future, but they have their own paint shop onsite and wanted to fix it. From what I understand they did a localised repair similar to @Geezso mentions above. They did it next day so didn't involve much trim removal. I've checked in all lights and I can't tell it's been done.