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2018 Niro Hybrid LX Red paint bubble up

3K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  pcguy 
#1 ·
I leased the vehicle but purchased it at the end of the lease in August, 2021. Almost immediately after paying off the lease few weeks ago I discovered a paint chip size of a fingernail on the upper part of the back passenger door. It showed the lighter salmon colored under paint. I showed it to them during my service call. After getting home I noticed there were 3 additional places of paint crazing and popping up on the hood of the car. I took pictures and immediately sent to the service manager.

It took numerous phone calls and at least 2 weeks just to have them asking me to make another trip there for physically examination the hood. They were trying to tell me this was not caused by defective paint. Yesterday as I was washing the car by hand I noticed several more of similar spots on top of the car on the roof.

This car is garage kept for the past 3 years and only has 15000+ miles on it. It has never been driven anywhere but on city roads and rarely highways.

Did anyone else have this issue? I don't believe this can be touched up for it to look nice. Will Kia repaint the proper way? I also wonder where else it might show up. Has anyone any success in dealing with this kind of problem?
 
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#2 ·
I don't know if Kia will pony up to fix it or not but Toyota did a few years ago for me. I had a 2012 Prius and when it was around 5 years old I saw some paint bubbles and chips on the roof just where the top of the windshield joins it. Fortunatly the Toyota dealer had a body shop. At first they tried to tell me it was caused by stones that chipped the paint. I said well you can see the paint bubbling next to one chip and the paints not chipped yet so it's clearly cause by corosion. He sheepishly agreed and they repainted the whole roof and gave me a loaner. A good dealer. One reason I got my Niro from Deland Kia, it's the same owner as Daytona Toyota.
 
#3 ·
KIA’s corrosion warranty is 5 years or 100,000 miles.

My Niro has been parked outside since I drove it home on December 26, 2018. Granted, it needs to be washed right now, but the last time I washed it the paint was fine. Maybe in northern states that use a brine on the road would be a lot harsher on the paint? I dunno.
 
#5 ·
KIA’s corrosion warranty is 5 years or 100,000 miles.

My Niro has been parked outside since I drove it home on December 26, 2018. Granted, it needs to be washed right now, but the last time I washed it the paint was fine. Maybe in northern states that use a brine on the road would be a lot harsher on the paint? I dunno.
wow! I did not know there is a corrosion warranty separate from paint warranty. They were trying to tell me I had exceeded the paint warranty of 3years 36000 miles. I did report it right before expiration but more and more bubbles and crazing are popping up now. How do I establish it's corrosion? Isn't corrosion rust? I am near D.C., not any salt issues here. The biggest problem is on the roof top.
 
#6 ·
Well on page 15 of your warranty booklet it says The Anti-Peforartion Warranty (corrosion) is 5 yr/100k mi. You have to prove to them that the chipped paint is caused by corrosion not rocks ect. The best way is to try to find some paint bubbles where the paint has not lifted off yet. Hopefully you can find this like I did with my Prius. It also says to bring your car and this warranty booklet to your Kia dealer to file a claim.
 
#7 ·
I see, thanks so much. I would never have known this if not for you!!! How do I prove it's corrosion? Are you saying if the paint bubbles up it's corrosion? I always thought corrosion means rust or salt. What do I say to them if they dispute this is not corrosion? The language in the warranty says something like corrosion from inside out, not outside in. I don't really understand that either.
 
#8 ·
Yes coorrsion is rust. And the phrase from inside out means from the metal out. If the paint is already chipped even if rust/corosion is present it's like which came first, the chicken or the egg. Did the rust occur because of a stone that chipped the paint or did the coorsion cause the paint to come lose and chip off the paint? So if you can find a place where the paint is bubbled up without being chipped off yet, that pretty much proves there is corosion under the paint, which the warranty covers. That's how I got my Prius roof covered and painted.
 
#9 ·
Thanks Gene. Wow, you are so good at explaining this!!! So even if there is no visible rust, I can say that it is due to corrosion under the paint and it caused the paint to bubble up and then crack off? I have multiple places where the paint has bubbled and crazed and cracked and some that are surfacing in a low raised spot. The exposed areas now are a salmon color like an under coat paint. No visible sing of rust that I saw. What do I say to them if they say we don't have rust issues here in Virginia?
 
#10 ·
You can have rust/corrosion issues anywhere. The metal could have been contaminated, not prepped properly and a host of other things during the manufacturing process. It's certainly not very common but can happen.
 
#12 ·
Unless you have visible red crusty rust UNDER the paint, it will not be covered on a corrosion warranty. Rust will not cause paint to bubble, that is on the prep work under the paint. Its no accident that the "paint" warranty is only 3 years, because it generally would take just about 3 years for that kind of bad prep work to start showing through paint. Big car companies do a risk evaluation and decide on a time limit. Its not mandated.

My guess is that you got a bad paint job and are stuck with it. It happens.
 
#14 ·
They will not honor the paint warrantee saying this does not look like a warrantee paint issue even if it showed up a year ago. Something about if were a paint issue, it would have happened within the first 6 months of purchase. That the pictures did not show rounded edges of the problem bubble areas. The paint has to look like it is melted around the edges for it to be a factory problem. I really don't even understand that. They also said it's not a corrosion issue since the base coat looks flat. There are at least 15 spots plus others that are just beginning to bubble up and those are much smaller. I have parked other cars at the same location inside my garage and never ever had a paint issue like this. They even suggested there maybe a leak inside the garage that dripped onto the car. (Acid rain or bird poop!) This garage has a bedroom above it.

Kia inspected the vehicle a few weeks prior for trade in value and it was completely fine then in July! It was after that I decided to keep the leased car. I never noticed any issues until after I bought out the car

To me, this is totally a manufacturing issue but the dealership does not want to take responsibility in the least. Tell me what you think from the photos please. The crazing and bubbling and chipping popped off from the based coat. I don't see how this could have happened from the exterior since the car was hardly outdoors at all.

I would highly recommend everyone to stay away from purchasing a Kia.

If you are thinking about buying a Kia, you should know details of how they will not standby customer service and they use warranty interpretation manipulations that would favor them and not you. Their sales pitch could easily mislead a consumer to think they have everything covered, but then come to find out they will not take responsibility. I never would have thought paint warranty had conditions attached to it. If the paint melted around the edges then you are good. If the paint popped and cracked off, then you are stuck. To me this is just very poor customer service and irresponsible on their part taking advantage of the small guy. The service manager told me he has seen similar issues but turned everyone of them away. He saved many dollars for Kia, but put the burden on the consumer. If more people are aware of this, I do think there should be a class action suit against the company.
 
#15 ·
Sorry to say I think they might be right. You can see the different shade of red is the primer which is still intact. It doesn't at all look like the problem I had with my Prius. It looks like something dropped on the car.
 
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