Vibe Paint Is Just F.....G Bad!

[retiredfields]

So I walk out today and find a fairly large paint chip on the front door pilar, driver's side. I know nothing hit it cause to make that big a chip, it would have been very loud, and no dent, no rock debris. On closer inspection, it looks like the section of paint just lifted away from the white primer. My hood has countless small white spots where it looks like a grain of sand may have landed and knocked some paint off. This car is 3 months old and less than 5,000 miles. So when I read this in another post:"PAINT CHIPPING GM is currently looking into the Vibe Paint Issues and trying to find any links to how the vehicle is prepared in the paint shop. I mentioned how the Matrix owners have virtually no paint problems while the Vibe owners seemed to be far more prone to this issue. Obviously these vehicles are made in different plants, in different countries, with different environmental operating procedures. They are currently testing parts of the Vibe that have been replaced for this issue to determine the exact cause."I'm not impressed. Come look at my car if you need a sample. Two things are obvious to me. 1) The base color coat does not adhere at all well to the white primer underneath. 2) The cheap clearcoat is soft and easily pops off, taking the base color coat (which didn't adhere to the primer) with it, leaving a nice white spot on a black car.My previous car was a black Suzuki, three years old and 55,000 miles, and didn't have 1/100th the paint damage that this Vibe has in three months. Look at the forum poll. 62% of owners report excessive to very bad paint problems.Hey GM, how about acknowledging the problem and trying to make good on it. We don't need a two year, microscopic study....Just a new paint job.

[red]

with no primer left behind the paint chips, WE won't have 2 years in order to wait, there would be nothing but holes rusted in by then!!!!!

[Pix Doc]

I posted my paint complaint before. Here it is again...I have a 10 year old Camry wagon, and have owned 4 other toyota vehichles all with good paint. I swore I would never buy from an american car dealership. I thought saving a couple of thousand dollars was worth my decision. It WASN'T. I should have got a Matrix.After many run arounds with Pontiac I will tell you I won't get suckered into dealing with this next time. I love the car overall I just hate the way I am treated at the dealership. They are used to dealing with Crummy american cars. They "Can't Duplicate" an obvious dash rattle. They only now how to fix stuff that falls off.Enough venting (SORRY)Anyway as I was saying was my 10 year old Camry has fewer paint chips than my 7 month old ChipZillaTHANKS I feel a little better now. Pix

[scherry2]

I've got paint chipe on my ROOF!! what could chip the paint up there?told the dealer, same old story, they are working on it. if it chips this easy on the road what is NUMMI shipping out the door? the paint quality must be very poor at that plant. SAD Paint quality

[tots]

So - knowing what you know now, do you still like the car enough that you'd buy it again? When I became interested in the Vibe I found this web site. The numerous threads and posts dealing with paint problems scared the heck out of me and the fact that this issue keeps coming up does not bode well. I've got a Vibe on order and can walk away with no obligation. I tend to buy and keep cars for years (1st car 10 years, 2nd is now 7 years), paint has never been an issue. Here we are in the 21st century and it seems paint quality has gone down hill instead of improving.I know cars cannot be kept perfect, but stories like these make it hard for potential customers like myself to make such a large investment. If corners have been cut on the paint process, what other processes have been short cut to squeeze more margin?quote:So I walk out today and find a fairly large paint chip on the front door pilar, driver's side. I know nothing hit it cause to make that big a chip, it would have been very loud, and no dent, no rock debris. On closer inspection, it looks like the section of paint just lifted away from the white primer. My hood has countless small white spots where it looks like a grain of sand may have landed and knocked some paint off. This car is 3 months old and less than 5,000 miles.

[Vibe Rater]

quote:I've got a Vibe on order and can walk away with no obligation.Hmmm. That's a tough call. What else is out there that you could purchase instead of the VIBE for the same value? Truthfully, besides the paint issue, its a steady car. We need a straight answer from NUMMI to confirm if they have acknowlegded and resolved the obvious inferior paint issue. Step up to the plate NUMMI. Your reputation as a world class assembly plant is at stake.

[ragingfish]

I have to say, yes, everyone knows our paint sucks. But creating 100 threads all b*tching about the problem won't make the paint suck less, and won't make GM pay any more attention to the problem.The right people know it's an issue - mainly, Jeff Strausser, and it is being looked into. It isn't doing anything but cluttering the boards to continue to create new threads on an issue that has been beat to death 10 times over.I'll step down off my soapbox now.

[retiredfields]

Maybe Jeff Strausser is a "good" guy, and really tries to do the "right" thing. But my guess is, Jeff doesn't call any shots, just passes the info on.Maybe if GM gets the word that current owners are pissed and impacting potential new owners.....If the posts go away, so will their concern.I have read alot of posts on this forum that are about useless BS, so I don't see a major, legitimate, widespread issue as "cluttering the boards"

[joatmon]

If I had seen all of the posts about paint quality issues before I bought my vibe, I would have bought a matrix instead. I do prefer the styling of the Vibe, but tend to keep cars till they die, and want the thing to hold up well. I am sure that Pontiac/GM understand that there will be lost sales as a result of this issue and from the public expressions of owner dissatisfaction. Some of you folks here have ties back to people at GM. Find out if GM already knew about the paint issues from other sources of customer feedback, or if they primarily became aware of the severity of the issue from sites like genvibe. Knowing the relevance of sites like this in getting issues addressed would be useful in deciding whether it is better to have multiple threads for visibility or consolidated threads for better info organization.

[Savoy]

"I'll step down off my soapbox now."Thanks-Savoy-

[ragingfish]

I'm not saying don't complain, or don't speak your mind.Just revive an old thread, that's all. Don't create new ones.

[microELVIS]

I as well just noticed a chip on my roof beside the rack mount, and slight rust. So now i have to somehow scrape the rust out and put chip paint in. I agree to the bad paint, its a cryn shame.

[Vibe Rater]

We need to know, right now, if anything HAS been done about the garbage paint issue. If yes, what was done and what caused the defective paint in the first place. If no, why the heck not and WHEN will the paint coming out of NUMMI's paint shop be up to basic standards. Clearly, up till now, it's not.

[tots]

quote:The right people know it's an issue - mainly, Jeff Strausser, and it is being looked into. So do you know when Jeff will have anything new to report?

[ragingfish]

I have IMed NSimkins, Jeff Strausser's main contact with GenVibe, and asked him to discuss this issue with Jeff in his next followup, and make sure he (Jeff) is aware how concerned members are, and that they need to see some sort of resolution.I do not have the answers. I just want everyone to know your concerns ARE NOT falling on deaf ears! As we all know, though, resolutions DO take time, so I ask everyone to be patient, have faith, Jeff Strausser has never let us down...We all know GM's track record when it comes to paint quality is less than superb...not that this justifies lousy paint durability...but just know the Vibe isn't the first GM car (joint-venture or not) to have this issue...Anyway, let's see what Jeff says when Nick talks to him next week...

[NSimkins]

quote:I have IMed NSimkins, Jeff Strausser's main contact with GenVibe, and asked him to discuss this issue with Jeff in his next followup, and make sure he (Jeff) is aware how concerned members are, and that they need to see some sort of resolution.Yep, got it. Once Jeff returns back this coming week from being out of the country, I will be addressing more concerns with him including this one.quote:As we all know, though, resolutions DO take time, so I ask everyone to be patient, have faith, Jeff Strausser has never let us down...Yeah, don't forget that - couldn't have said it better myself.