Tesla Service - Paint chip repair

[Nick77]

So I've just had my first service visit for a couple of things at Nottingham, including a small paint chip on the passenger door, right down near the bottom of the door smack on where the natural crease/bend is.

They've basically just done a 30 min job (I spoke to the guy who told me that) and he's coloured it with some touch up paint and put a bit of lacquer on it.

You now can't see it unless you look close, but it's not exactly brilliant. He said the only alternative is to repaint the entire door which would cost them about £400.

Would you be happy with this? I've had to zoom right in and it's a bit lighter than in reality as I had to brighten it a bit.

 

[Durzel]

Is that the best they can do? Looks like they touched it up with the silver instead of blue!

To be perfectly blunt - how much it costs them is neither here nor there. Unless you paid for paint chips on your invoice then I'm pretty sure it's an unwanted extra. I also very much doubt it would cost them £400 if they've got a pre-existing relationship with a local bodyshop which I'm sure they must do.

I had two paint chips on my door on delivery. Tesla Bristol did a decent enough job touching them up, but they were miniscule. I still wanted them done though, on principal.

 

[s88ats]

That doesn't look like a good job IMO. I'm no expert but I can tell it doesn't look right. It might be a small repair but should still be done properly. I suppose now that you know it's there and not done correctly it's going to bug you more, opposed to if they had touched it up and you didn't know (it would certainly annoy me).

I personally wouldn't care if they had to repaint the whole door or car for that matter to get it right and the cost amount is irrelevant - it's not your problem (unless of course, you caused the damage ).

 

[D1939]

Looks very poor to me too, i had a paint defect on delivery which has just been fixed at Dartford SC. They had the car for 4 days. Did an excellent job.

 

[MrBadger]

They've basically just done a 30 min job (I spoke to the guy who told me that) and he's coloured it with some touch up paint and put a bit of lacquer on it.

You now can't see it unless you look close, but it's not exactly brilliant. He said the only alternative is to repaint the entire door which would cost them about £400.

Would you be happy with this?

Smart repairs can be very good, but that is not one of them. I would say thats a problem with the application rather than with the method. At a guess, now they have cocked it up, its going to be much more difficult to repair than had they done it competently in the first place.

 

[Nick77]

It looks silver-ish because of the light reflecting. Definitely dark blue.

After seeing that proper smart repair I think I'm gonna take it back.

Now I've driven it away, have I "accepted" it?

 

[Durzel]

Smart repairs can be very good, but that is not one of them. I would say thats a problem with the application rather than with the method. At a guess, now they have cocked it up, its going to be much more difficult to repair than had they done it competently in the first place.

Smart repairs come off pretty easily with Chipex blending solution, as I discovered after I tried to remove a touch up that happened without my knowledge while my car was in for something else. it takes it right off, leaving the original paint untouched underneath.

 

[s88ats]

Smart repairs come off pretty easily with Chipex blending solution, as I discovered after I tried to remove a touch up that happened without my knowledge while my car was in for something else. it takes it right off, leaving the original paint untouched underneath.

Very cheeky, was it done incorrectly for you to take it off?

 

[Durzel]

Very cheeky, was it done incorrectly for you to take it off?

It was obvious when I washed the car, because the water beaded off it differently (the car has been ceramic coated). Annoyingly I didn't notice until about 2 weeks after I'd picked the car up, because I don't do many miles and hadn't needed to wash it until then.

Basically, I had something else unrelated done on the car, and it came back to me with an undisclosed smart repair for damage that had occured whilst it was in their custody. Couldn't prove it, but unless Mrs Miggins dinged it at the supermarket and happened to have my shade of paint in her handbag, it's pretty obvious where it happened.

Water under the bridge now, but it annoyed me at the time.

 

[Nick77]

So, can I now take it back and ask for a proper smart repair or will they refuse now I've already accepted their touch-up?

 

[MrBadger]

So, can I now take it back and ask for a proper smart repair or will they refuse now I've already accepted their touch-up?

I can't honestly see how they can argue that what you got is an acceptable repair. If they turned you down they are basically admitting that their repairs are poor quality.

 

[HenryT]

Just to relate my own experience, had a really good job done by a local (Manchester) smart repairer (here). Was able to match the red paint perfectly to my eyes at least, and took care of two chips/scratches on my car and also a scratch on my wife's ID.3 all for £300.

(Originally I only had one chip to repair, but that was before I decided to add a bit more double sided tape to the front number plate. Two fatal errors ensued. 'Shall I reverse the car so I've a bit more room to work - nah, I'll be alright'. Couldn't find the decent scissors so decided the wallpaper scissors in the garage would do to cut the tape. Doh! managed to stab the front of my car in the process - how I laughed).

Before and after pics below.

 

[impee]

Just to relate my own experience, had a really good job done by a local (Manchester) smart repairer (here). Was able to match the red paint perfectly to my eyes at least, and took care of two chips/scratches on my car and also a scratch on my wife's ID.3 all for £300.

Very nice repairs! I think in about 6 months time I would have accumulated enough chips to warrant for some touch ups like this.

I wanted to ask, did you need to hand the car in to the garage, or do they carry out mobile repairs? Also, how long did it take...just that I live in London but visit Manchester every few months, so if possible, would try to get the repairs done while up there. Thanks.

 

[HenryT]

Very nice repairs! I think in about 6 months time I would have accumulated enough chips to warrant for some touch ups like this.

I wanted to ask, did you need to hand the car in to the garage, or do they carry out mobile repairs? Also, how long did it take...just that I live in London but visit Manchester every few months, so if possible, would try to get the repairs done while up there. Thanks.

All done in the driveway, though they did make two visits because of wind and rain. In total about 4 hours on site but that was three repairs on 2 cars.