Weak paint on these cars...
 

I just swapped my 04 Titanium Gray automatic for an 04 Lightning Yellow 6 speed last Monday. The "new" RX-8 that I have now was sitting on their lot for over a year. With my new job I have a 25 mile commute on the highway to work and 25 miles back.

Well this morning I was cleaning up my car a little from all the dirt that has accumulated since it's been pouring down here lately, and I was pretty pissed off to find two thin little marks on the front of my hood near the portion that meets the front bumper. They're obviously from highway debris..but I can't believe this shit has happened in only one week of ownership. Roughly 400 highway miles have been driven so far.

My old Titanium had plenty of highway nicks like these that went through the paint...but you could barely notice them since it's a gray paint. Here on my new yellow, the knicks are easily visible if you're walking up to the car.

If it's been this bad after only a week of highway miles (almost 400 miles from highway commute), I can't imagine how the front bumper will look like after a year. This is pretty disappointing. Should I buy one of those retro car bras (even though the front of the car will look like shit with one)? Or just take the pain?

The nicks aren't that bad right now, but at this rate they'll be horrible in 2 months. I'll post pics of the little bastards when I get home from work...

You can get a clear bra... I'm looking into getting a Clear Armor full kit installed. Costs about 800 bucks all inclusive, but I figure it should be worth it... I tend to keep my cars for a long time.

Just think about it on a black car. My front bumper and hood look like a war zone.

mine looks fine. I've had other cars that are much worse (00 Celica)

Green - me too.

I can't get the clear bra because I already have too many nicks and scratches. I got me a bottle of touch-up paint from the dealership and I figure I will spend a Saturday about every six months finding all the little white marks and filling them in.

ahhhh...yet another benefit of having a Ti :)

I agree my red is nicked up also.... https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-exterior-appearance-body-kits-27/does-rx8-paint-seem-soft-55756/

If you drive it, especially on the highway, it will get nicked and there is nothing you can do about it. I know its hard with a new car but you just have to deal with it. Thats part of what sucks about buying a new car :).

very true

once a week when I clean my car I use the mazda touch up to help

Just get the bra and sport it for the commute. Take it off on the weekend.

Ive read posts on here saying that the Mazda accessory bra can possibly scratch up the paint and that it also traps dirt underneath (which obviously is bad for the paint since its getting rubbed in). But those were just random comments I've heard. Anyone have actual proof of that?

Anyway here are the pics of my two little nicks. Looks like I exaggerated the extent of damage in my first post, and they were on the front bumper not the hood..

This definitely isn't too bad...but even the little that it is still hurts when you have a rare paint (since they don't make the yellow anymore).

EDIT: Judging by the responses that followed after I posted these..I guess they are pretty fuckin bad. :mad:

Wow these are pretty big. I Have a black one and almost 14k on it and mine doesnt look nearly that bad. I have some small nicks but these are huge. I think you should deal with the pain a little and when it gets all over the bumper get it repainted and put one of those clear bras on.

that is worse than i imagined

I went the clear bra route early on. Now, bug guts don't freak me out so bad, or road debris.

Wow, that's ALOT of scratches.

My advice, if you're not already doing this, is to stay way the hell back from other cars, especially any kind of truck, van, or SUV. A truck kicked a rock into my windshield and left a nice little nick there, and I have a few chips on the paint, although nothing as dramatic as yours.

I agree, I've driven about 44,0000 miles, mostly between Sonoma and Ventura County on the 5 and 101 and I have barely any rock/road debris damage.....

Well...what you guys are telling me pisses me off even more in that case.

So the two scrapes are pretty bad eh?

I don't remember anything really striking my car while I was driving but then again one day when I was getting more comfortable w/the power in this car I was going 120ish on the highway so I guess if something hits the car at that speed its going to go right through the paint fairly easily. But who the hell knows.

I think it's pretty shitty that this has happened after only 2 weeks of ownership...like I've said 3 times already.

But what I'm wondering is what the hell type of debris on the highway would smack my front bumper badly enough to go through the paint like that - because the paint in those two marks is completely gone. And whatever object that hit...was obviously very thin.

Or do you guys think someone very lightly brushed my front bumper in a parking lot? The damage doesn't look big enough for that to have happened. It seems like the paint just chipped off or something.

What are my options at this point really? If I get it repainted it's never going to look like a factory paint job. Could it be that the paint wasn't properly maintained for the 16 months or however long that it sat on the dealer's lot? Dealership probably wouldn't do shit about it if I complained to them since I can't prove anything.

Damn...horrible way to start my ownership of the stick RX-8..

I have exactly the same kind of scrape on the front of my car...and you know where I got it??? Another car. I was parked on the street in my downtown area, another car or truck with a ball hitch....I just washed and waxed my car that evening. I knew it wasn't there when I parked. At least its the plastic, and it wont rust.

Right now, I am trying to convince my dealer to replace my front bumper. Hi have a SunSil and it looks like it's growing a beard. I am leasing my 8, and I keep emphasizing that the card will be worth more to them when they get it back if they replace it. I offered to have the clear bra installed at the dealership after they install the new bumper to protect the new one....I think they are going to do it..

I was quoted $420 for the clear bra on the front end. I have seen some variance in the pricing in other posts....too much?

the clear bra is a good choice but I cant stand seeing the line on the car when you get close

To me, those look like they were made by the license plate frame. Even though you say your car is new, if it was sitting on the lot with dealer plates, a light tap to the nose could have caused that.

A year of owning my lightning yellow has yet to see anything that deep or long, just a few little chips. No better or worse than any other car I've owned. (knock on wood)

Have to agree those do not look like road debris marks. Very symetrical on center and almost look squarish. If not the license plate looks like something else was ran into it.

more than likely sombody backed into it, lucky for you the airbag didn't go off

Oh well. I guess I should be lucky it wasn't worse

Ever since owning a black car for a couple years I've adapted to driving at a rather defensive distance from cars infront of me at highway speeds. After the first winter with the road rock salts my hood and bumper had a good two dozen chips, most was even showing rust.

My yellow does the same thing. I've got 3 good scratches already... the paint is paper thin.. actually thinnner. One of the scuffs on the bottom of the front ait damn on mine was a soda can i know I hit I saw it. it peeled the paint away. IMHO the pint on the front nose is way too thin and not bonded well at all to the plastic. same with the ass of the car. it's too thin and it doesn't stick well. anythihng stiff touching it will make it pop right off. What's worse is that they used a black nose/ass so it shows right through.

here's some of my damage

please don;t hate me I haven't washed her in 2 days. Driving 200 miles a day and she gets trashed. Florida sucks.

http://208.219.69.31/scratch1.jpg
http://208.219.69.31/scratch2.jpg

yea the paint sucks...I've had my nordic green for a few weeks only and I can see chips in the front already. I've had a 3 series bmw for 3 years and I didn't even have a single chip in the front and no scratches at all(except this one spot where some guy hit me while I was parked!). With this car I feel like I'm driving around in an egg shell....

I second the advice about staying back from traffic. If you try and follow the 4-second rule you will not only be safer but will encounter a lot less debris kicked up by the wheels of the car in front. Most of the nicks and chips are just from tiny pebbles kicked up by car tires. Give 'em a chance to settle so they don't hit your bumper. Some are inevitable but you can avoid a lot.

my RX-7 is pretty bad, and its only got 50k on it... i hope my 8 holds up better

I use the Mazda black snap-on bra and rather like its appearance on my TiG. My high-speed mileage is on the weekends (900 miles on I-10), so I try to wash the car and remove the bra afterwards. Yeah, stuff does collect under it, and you need to remove it to dry thoroughly after a wash or a rain. But the net result is positive, and it's worth the hassle.

Driving 120-ish within the first couple weeks? You're pretty gutsy. I trust that you already had a 1000 or so on the clock before winding her out.

If your FD is a '93 RX-7, the paint was true issue on the first model year cars. Mazda had just switched to a new paint process for the RX-7, but there was a flaw in the paint process that caused the paint not to bond properly. I remember it well, I had bought my car new and the RX-7 mailing list (pre-internet website days) had owners complaining left and right. Some of them had their cars 100% totally repainted at Mazda's cost.

Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, don't worry the so called weak paint on the RX-8 is nothing like the paint flaw with the old RX-7. The '93 RX-7s had a real actual defect in the paint.

Watch out for those SUV's

Those trucks are pretty large now too.

there should be a law for mud flaps.