Recently purchased a new 2024 STX SCrew 4x4 - But there’s an issue

[CoolCoyote]

Why is the door having been repainted such an issue for you?

There's a good chance it's better than it was from the factory.

Is your brain not firing on all cylinders, bud?

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[dbol]

@dbol

I ordered my truck from Granger, back in the tail end of supply chain issues, so it took a long time. When it arrived, they said there were some issues with the paint on the passenger side. Nothing major, but just some paint issues that they thought happened during transport. They said that they would take care of them. She even sent me pics, but I couldn't tell anything....I have an Antimatter Blue truck, which in the right light will show you everything, but without the right light keeps all her secrets. When I arrived to pick up the truck, I was like a kid on Christmas morning and didn't even check. But, I still can't really find them today. What's my point? I don't really have one, just sharing....because sharing is caring, right? But unlike your story, it was nice that they told me. My truck looks amazing from a lil distance, but if you look closely there's all kinds of orange peel around.

My truck right before this one was a 17 year old Toyota Tundra with about 218k miles. I'm still in the super careful mode two years later with my current F150...it still hasn't seen a car wash with brushes. And while I love my truck, I think I'm going to love it more when she's a bit more used.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences.

Do you know if they did any paint touch up/respray of the factory paint?

It does seem more likely that my truck was repainted once it got to the dealership. It ruins the new truck excitement because I have to look at it every time I get in.

Hopefully this issue gets somewhat resolved and then I’m done with this dealership. I just don’t understand why they’d be so shady when I’m a repeat, local customer.

I’m also pissed at myself for taking them at their word when they said this truck didn’t have any damage disclosures or prior repairs like the hail truck that we initially worked a deal on.

They seem to really want all 5s on their post-sale Ford corporate survey, so I guess I can hang that over their head for as far as it’ll take me.

If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll just pay out of pocket for the door to be resprayed and chalk it up as a life lesson.

 

[dbol]

I purchased a 2023 XLT super crew 4x4 lease return 20k miles. It came with a car fax report. It was very detailed concerning all maintenance done at dealership. The dealership provided a “29 point inspection “ all looked good. I took it to our local detail shop to have ceramic coat put on it. This is part of the in-laws body shop. The showed me where the passenger side doors and bed had been repainted. They showed me the over spray in the window trim and tap marks on the pullers. The trim on the bottom of the bed was missing as well. I felt like I had been swindled. I have had the truck go about a year now and have 10k miles on it. No one has noticed the paint work and the dealership gave me Ford points to buy the trim that was missing. I believe they didn’t know of the paint work. I am going to be much more conscious of such things in the future. Good luck

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I feel the same way about this truck. It completely ruins all the fun of getting a new truck when I have to look at a resprayed door every time I get in.

This is definitely a life lesson to inspect for signs of a respray on any vehicle, whether new or used.

 

[Larrymoe]

Is your brain not firing on all cylinders, bud?

What, bud?

 

[snowcatxx87]

I feel your pain. When you buy brand new, you don’t want a repaired vehicle and unknown history. You bought brand new to have all history (which is zero) and the truck be…. Brand new!

I worked in automotive for over 10 years. Unfortunately transport damage happens and repairs need to take place, they aren’t going to scrap an entire vehicle just because of some damage.

My rear bumper is getting resprayed due to transport damage and also a new rear window, - a lot kid used a blade to remove the window sticker and scratched the hell out of it

 

[WalterMitty]

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences.

Do you know if they did any paint touch up/respray of the factory paint?

It does seem more likely that my truck was repainted once it got to the dealership. It ruins the new truck excitement because I have to look at it every time I get in.

Hopefully this issue gets somewhat resolved and then I’m done with this dealership. I just don’t understand why they’d be so shady when I’m a repeat, local customer.

I’m also pissed at myself for taking them at their word when they said this truck didn’t have any damage disclosures or prior repairs like the hail truck that we initially worked a deal on.

They seem to really want all 5s on their post-sale Ford corporate survey, so I guess I can hang that over their head for as far as it’ll take me.

If that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll just pay out of pocket for the door to be resprayed and chalk it up as a life lesson.

They definitely did some sort of paint touch up, but I'm not sure what all was done. I forgot to check it when I picked up the truck.

 

[WalterMitty]

@dbol

I went back and actually found the email from two years ago. After Granger did their Pre-Delivery Inspection, she said they noticed "one spot with some light scratches" that would be "repaired before you take delivery".

I have no idea what they did. If they were light, I am sure the probably just buffed out, without the need to spray, but I do not know. Like I said, when I arrived, I was too excited and totally forgot to check the area.

Here's a pic she sent at the time. The marker they used to circle the issue isn't the scratch....

 

[dbol]

I feel your pain. When you buy brand new, you don’t want a repaired vehicle and unknown history. You bought brand new to have all history (which is zero) and the truck be…. Brand new!

I worked in automotive for over 10 years. Unfortunately transport damage happens and repairs need to take place, they aren’t going to scrap an entire vehicle just because of some damage.

My rear bumper is getting resprayed due to transport damage and also a new rear window, - a lot kid used a blade to remove the window sticker and scratched the hell out of it

Thanks for the insights. I appreciate it.

I realize things happen, I just figured the dealer would be more transparent. They’re denying any involvement and claiming it came from Ford this way.

This makes me concerned for future warranty work involving the paint. If the clear coat starts to separate or bubble within the 3 years/36,000 mile paint warranty, will that prevent this from being covered under warranty since it’s not the factory original paint?

It seems to me like the dealership paid cash to have someone do some quick body work which is why they can say there’s not any disclosures or damage reports.

 

[Larrymoe]

This was the scratch that happened in delivery on mine. My dad happened to see the truck drive by his house on the semi, so he went in and saw them unload it. So, I called the dealership before the tracker even said it was delivered. They told me immediately it was damaged. Idk what would have happened had I not known it was there, but they were upfront about it.

Still took a month to fix the inch long gouge.

 

[dbol]

This was the scratch that happened in delivery on mine. My dad happened to see the truck drive by his house on the semi, so he went in and saw them unload it. So, I called the dealership before the tracker even said it was delivered. They told me immediately it was damaged. Idk what would have happened had I not known it was there, but they were upfront about it.

Still took a month to fix the inch long gouge.

Thanks for sharing this. That scratch doesn’t look bad at all. Any signs of work in that area if you look closely?

I had my service appointment with their detailer yesterday. They buffed and polished the door, but it looks 99% the same. They got rid of most of the deep swirl marks, but there’s still way more on this door than the other panels.

They were still trying to deny that it has ever been repainted until I pulled out my own paint depth meter. Then they agreed to send it into Ford as a warranty claim.

I took some better pictures, specifically where you get see the improper blending. It’s like the center of the panel has metallic flake that is much larger than the factory paint. There’s also a lot more sanding marks that are apparent now that are in the base coat and obviously unable to be polished out.

At this point, I just want to be done with the truck. I’ve bought used vehicles that haven’t even had this poor of body work done. Completely ruins the experience when I have to look at this every time I get in.

 

[oncechance]

Trade it in (or sell) and get another one. Life's too short to be unhappy with it. I don't blame you for being disappointed and frustrated with the dealership.

 

[National Superbike]

Everyone has different tolerance levels for paint defects. I restore vintage bikes and do custom painting so my tolerance is pretty low. I have no problem seeing the really bad blending they did but I look at this stuff every day and yes, it would drive me crazy if it was my truck. That said, my truck has orange peel in the clear that would make an orange look good and I'm OK with it since it looks good from 5 ft. But, I don't think I could live with what they did on that door. My suggestion is to threaten to open a case with the BBB. Both Ford and most dealers hate it when you do that. Tell the dealer you want the Ford rep to come look at it and I bet they agree to fix it properly.

 

[Larrymoe]

Thanks for sharing this. That scratch doesn’t look bad at all. Any signs of work in that area if you look closely?

I don't ever see anything, and I've looked really closely. The dealership indicated they repainted the whole side of the bed. The only thing I've been able to notice from it was there was a bubble in the 4x4 sticker from where they put it on, but that has since worked out.

 

[dbol]

@National Superbike
I was expecting some minor paint blemishes based on what I experienced with my Mustang, but certainly not this.

It pisses me off even more that I wasted a personal day yesterday for a “paint correction” just for the dealer’s detailer to double down on the door never being repainted. They’re 100% up to something shady and I should’ve stayed away after my initial interaction with them over the hail disclosures on the first truck I looked at.

I reached out to a local body shop that isn’t involved with this dealer group to see if they could give an unbiased assessment. I’m going to try to use this as leverage in filing a complaint against this dealer. I’ve already opened a case with Ford corporate and my next step will be negative Google reviews and a report to BBB.

Seems like it’s going to be a pretty expensive life lesson regardless. A full proper respray with blending into adjacent panels will probably run me $2k+ based on what I’ve researched. Selling/trading in this soon will probably result in a loss of $5k+.

Both those scenarios are pretty terrible considering I haven’t even owned my “brand new” truck for a month yet.

 

[Bossharp]

The real lesson here for everyone is to inspect before you accept delivery..If that had been done and this (or any issue) is noted down and resolved before you signed off it would have been a completely different outcome for all concerned. But I feel ya..

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