Hi all,

As you may know, I got my nice new S on Friday. The valeting was SO crap, and I think that in order to wash the car they put it through a flippin' car wash as the lacquer has the tell tale swirly scratches in it... Can I get rid of those somehow?

 

Mark - this is a total pain, and I would be very tempted to take the car back and get them to sort out the problem (using a professional body shop). (personally, being damned with an eye for imperfection, I would seriously consider rejecting the car)

You can, using the correct materials and a lot of elbow grease (or a random orbital polisher) get rid of these, but it is a long hard job, and, if you are unsure of what you are doing, you can easily make matters worse.

 

I bought a product called Scratch X from the Meguiars range of polishes to try to sort out the swirls I've picked up on my bootlid and, to a lesser extent, on the bonnet.

I've not had a chance to try it myself yet but it came very highly recommended by people on here who had tried it, and my Dad also said it had done a good job when he tried it on his scratched-to-buggery company Mondeo.

 

I'll put it in my letter to the dealership and to Honda. Honda UK are now involved in this whole fiasco... Let's see what gets done.

 

Mark,

Getting things in writing at an early stage is very wise - If the dealership haven't seen the problem yet, I would also recommend getting the car back to them asap to minimise the chances of 'it was fine when it left us, you must have done this' accusations.

Very best of luck

(About 12 months ago I saw a brand new MCB in Newton Honda, Croydon, and I could not believe the state of the paintwork - scratched to buggery

 

Zymol HD Cleanse has removed some of the marks on my S and there is a specific swirl remover but not sure who makes it Poss Zaino or is it M3 swirl remover.

 

Yep, 3M do a number of scratch & swirl removers (Light & dark finishes) but you are into the realms of Professional products here - mechanical application etc. Get it wrong and you are in a world of pain Best left to the experts (with insurance )

On a new car you really ought not to have the need for this fairly drastic action

Tif

 

Have you tried Zaino Z5? I havn't used it personally but have heard that its pretty good in removal swirl marks. It claims to fill in the swirls.

One interesting point, I was at Alan Day Honda last weekend to check out out their new stock when I noticed one thing; all their new cars had nasty swirl marks all over them. Not noticeable under normal conditions, but when indoor against the flourescent lighting, the swirling was very obvious.

My guess is that they probably get their "valeting" team to polish all their new cars after they remove the protective plastic. By the results, it seems as though they were using the wrong side of a kitchen sponge.

My advice would be to go back to the dealer, if your's was swirled, probably all the new cars in his lot will be. Tell him the problem that he has with his polishing team/regime and ask for a hefty compensation. Failing that, move to reject the car under XXX Act for the car being in unsatisfactory condition. I think you must do this within a set number of days.

I got my new s2000 last year and there were a few niggling problems; problems not serious enough to put you off the car but just enough to irritate you. Just establish to the dealer that when you pay for a new car, you expect a new and PERFECT one.

It took me the better part of 2-3 months to sort everything out to get the car at PERFECT. (It's been in that condition since) No swirls, no scratches. Don't give up, hang in there and be persistent.

Good luck.

 

Not within a set number of days, but within a "reasonable" period. What's reasonable is akin to how long is a piece of string. I'd say any longer than a couple of weeks and you're pushing it......

 

Why buy new if the car is anything less than perfect - take it back to the dealer and with a nicely nicely approach request them to illiminate the swirl marks professionally and permanently - if they suggest you should use something like 3M's handglaze then move into the want to reject car mode.

Once upon a time I accepted a cabriolet that had no swirl marks obvious until the first time I hand washed it, then they appeared; the outcome was the dealer had used the noted stuff and gave me a free bottle expecting me to use it after almost every wash - this is a ton of hard work don't do it.