Kizashi Club

update - no follow up from Suzuki Aus until I called them up last week requesting for information on the paint inspection. Was advised that they were following up with DuPont, but they don't control them so getting a response is "hard". It's definitely made my mind up - once I can get rid of the Kizashi, I will never buy another Suzuki, as their after market support is so poor. It's difficult to explain the difference between Mazda support and Suzuki support - like chalk and cheese, and I will go back to Mazda. 1 very disappointed Suzuki owner.... at least give me an answer either way..

FYI, 36,000 miles or three years from sale is the length of the bumper to bumper warranty, so if you wait until after this period or mileage you will definitely give yourself a substantial hurdle. Suzuki may eventually honor something a month or two or a couple of thousand miles over 36,000 but you'll probably see an initial objection maybe from the dealer and will need to press.

FWIW - my Kiz is 5 months old - first brought the issue up in Late Aug (3months old).

ga head get ya mazda

This is just my personal experience, I think all cars these day have Paint issue, for example two of my co workers have 2009 Cadilac CTS and another one has 2011 300c
both with paint chip. on the other side I have Kizashi for more than 6 months no Paint CHIP . Thanks God.

I agree with newworld2004, I'll bet a lot of the newer cars have this problem. Toyota has a number of cars where there are hundreds of complaints of paint chipping or the clear coat is very thin. My 05 Tacoma is included in this group. Hundreds of people bitched about the paint (and that doesn't take into account the many folks that don't bother to write about it). Some Toyota fixed others not.
I had that 3M paint film installed on my Honda before I bought the truck and had great luck with it, so I had that installed immediately after purchasing the truck. I haven't had any problems (and I used to live in snow country) other than parking lot dings with that film in place.
Therefor I didn't give it a second thought about installing that stuff when I bought my Kizashi. And reading the comments on this board I am glad that I did.

It is terrible that you spend all that money for a new car and end up having a paint issue, but that appears to be what you might expect from todays new cars (and trucks).

When I first bought our vivid red KZ in June 2010 I was already aware and concerned about the paint chip issues I was reading about on this forum. I spent $1100 for extensive 3m treatment and there is extensive (unacceptable) chipping in many areas where there is no 3M film. I live in Edmonton, Canada - great roads but of course the usual sand and grit coming off the surfaces especiallly during winter.

Kenneth254 wrote:When I first bought our vivid red KZ in June 2010 I was already aware and concerned about the paint chip issues I was reading about on this forum. I spent $1100 for extensive 3m treatment and there is extensive (unacceptable) chipping in many areas where there is no 3M film. I live in Edmonton, Canada - great roads but of course the usual sand and grit coming off the surfaces especiallly during winter.

nice to see another kizzy in my area. the roads here sucks, potholes everywhere. I had southside suzuki repainted my car due to rock chips for free. bring your car in and see what they can do for you. btw, no matter what you do, dont bring your car to their recommanded shop for repaint. the result sucks with huge color difference.

And even better to hear that someone in Edmonton had the issue resolved. Did you have to go through their customer service #? You mentioned southside Suzuki, this is the same as Millwoods Suzuki on 34 and 93 Street? If so, would you mind sharing who you dealt with and how long ago? Did you eventually find a paint shop that did a good job and that you would recommend? Apologies for all these questions!

Yup, it's Millwoods. I brought the car into the shop and the service manager Doug took a few pics. After a few days he phoned me and said Suzuki Canada has approved the repaint under warranty. But yeah, first time I took the car into the shop, they insisted the rock chips is normal. The second time I insisted it is not normal and they should take photos. This was prob half a year ago.

The shop I usually deal with is called Transform Autobody.They did a very good job for my car quite a few time. Just tell Will that Brett send you over. I didn't get my car repainted again though......millwoods suzuki prob wouldn't approve it. So there is quite a big color difference on my car right now, my car is white btw.