2006 Forester--paint flaking off

People HAVE complained soobs have 'bad paint' but what I've read is normally a mention of chips/scratches in the frontal areas. Dunno if 'some' of the issue may be that soobs in general are more likley to be out in bad weather or on dirt/gravel roads.

Carl

Don't know about the wheel well, but paint flaking off of the end of the muffler where it is painted to match the flat black of the bumper, is an issue.

there is a service bulletin on it, will be repaired under warranty.

For answers to your question, best to go to the moderated forum specific to Foresters. Wealth of knowledge.

Thanks, but this car is garaged and I just drive it to work every day in Chicago. Sure, we have hard winters here but I can't believe a Subaru's paint job can't hold up to two winters. I drove my Honda Civic under the same conditions for 13 years and the paint never flaked off.

-yngver

Thanks. The dealer said they will look at it and see what is going on, but they assured me Subaru warrants the paint and finish. The black paint on the muffler flaked off within a few months, but I don't really care what the muffler looks like. I do care what the fender looks like though. I saved the piece that fell off when I touched it to show the dealer.

I think this is terrible workmanship. My husband and I both have Subarus, and if Subaru gives us a hard time about this we sure won't be buying another one. Due to a minor incident (flying debris) the fender on the other side was repainted by a body shop and that isn't flaking--if it were, I'd just take it back to them and have them fix it. So it tells me something that just the part of the car with the original paint job is flaking.

-yngver

Subaru is known for POOR paint quality. it seems it's not getting any better either. Check the car for flakes,chips along the leading edge of the hood and along the sides of the car. While other cars seem to tolerate contact with other car door edges (see inconsiderate drivers), Subarus will chip and dent with ease. Does Subaru know about this.......Yes Does Subaru care.....Nope, they couldn't care less. Has Subaru done anything about it...Nope, still the same crap paint.

Why are you getting yourself so worked up about this issue?

You have said "The dealer said they will look at it and see what is going on, but they assured me Subaru warrants the paint and finish."

You're probably no expert on automotive paint processes and finishes so any conclusions you have made will almost be certainly wrong.

Well, I'm getting worked up about it because my past experience with new cars and dealers has been that it's normally a battle to get anything covered under the warranty. This Forester has had a rough idle since day one and as many times as I've had it to the dealer, and with a variety of mechanics, they acknowledge the symptom but tell me it's either from "bad gasoline" or that I should pay $100 to get the fuel injectors cleaned.

I'm not even going to explain all the other struggles my husband and I have had trying to get problems with this car addressed. Unfortunately I know more about automative paint processes and finishes than I ever wished to learn, because of a previous skirmish over a bad paint job.

That I know--I made the mistake of choosing the dark blue color and pretty much all it takes to get a scratch is to brush the side of the car with your coat. Ironically when I asked the dealer if Subaru's paint is known to be poor, they said on the contrary, Subaru has outstanding paint and finish quality and they have never had a customer complain about the paint flaking off before me.

-yngver

That's why I sold my Subie. Truly _awful_ warranty backup!

At a tad over 5k, I started getting clutch slippage. On several occasions, with the service manager in the passenger seat, I showed him the RPM's jumping up while the speed didn't increase. Right to my face, he said "I don't see a problem". Subaru was no help at all. About a year after I sold the car, I started hearing about similar problems on '01 Subies on "Click and Clack" and in newspaper articles. The only reason the problem didn't get more press is that so few OBW were sold with stick shifts, especially since the uptrim and H6 models were auto-only.

I've had great experiences with my Toyota and Jeep dealers and warranties. My Tacoma had an early production major defect. My Wrangler was at the dealership on such a regular basis, for BIG stuff, that I got to know everyone in the service dept.'s name. All warranty work was done with a smile.

Good luck! Dealerships are independent businesses, so here's to yours being better than mine. I really liked my Subaru, it's too bad nobody would stand behind it.

**I hear ya!!!! I *had* a dark blue 05 Impreza. It looked like it had 85,000 miles on it and it only had 12,000! It was horribly scratched and the damn thing spent most of its time sitting by itself. **Wait, what?! Bwaaaaaahaaaaahaaaaaaa!! You should've told him to lay off the wacky tabacky. As of yesterday, I'm the proud new leasee (?) of a 2008 Impreza (base model). Talking about my car, I told my salesman about the bad paint and he acknowledged the crappy paint and said that the 08's were better. Right. I guess we'll find out, won't we? I wanted a white Impreza but they didn't have one so I got the Newport Blue Pearl. Hopefully, it won't show the carnage :) I'll make sure to keep it polished and immediately take care of the scratches as they occur.

kaboomie

No, my conclusion--that the dealer was somehow going to say this was my fault and Subaru wasn't going to fix it, turned out to be correct.

-yngver

Next time, if I do get another Subaru, I will do what you did and choose a lighter color. Unfortunately I've learned that with Subaru, with the dark colors if a leaf falls on the hood you get a white scratch, and unless you *never* got through a car wash you will get paint swirl.

As I pretty much expected, the dealer decided something must have struck the wheel well and caused the paint to crack, so I'm out of luck there. He did say I should get it repainted because it's just going to keep cracking and flaking off.

-yngver

You know, it's funny you mention that clutch slippage problem. My husband sat with two different Subaru mechanics and showed them the same thing, that the RPM would sometimes jump when there was no change in speed, and one said he didn't see the problem; the other said something about how the clutch on Subarus is touchy. You make a good point about manual transmissions; mine has had a rough idle since day one, which I would have thought was normal if the Subaru dealer hadn't given me an automatic Forester, same year, as a loaner and I saw how nice and quiet the idle was. They didn't have another stick-shift on the lot to compare with to see if they are all rough. I have given up on both problems since at least they don't seem to be getting any worse. I imagine once the warranty expires they will figure out what's wrong, but at least it's in their records that we've complained several times about these issues.

I figured the dealer would say the paint flaking was not Subaru's problem, and yes, he decided something must have stuck inside the wheel well and caused the paint to start to crack. That seems unlikely to me--something hit it just hard enough to crack the paint and make it start flaking, but didn't leave a dent? But the dealer seemed to think my insurance company would buy that, so we'll see.

-yngver

Just remember how poorly they treat you now. Wait for later, the double-talk and denials will really piss you off. Subaru of America is a "shit-stain" of a company.Thier service underwriters have been trained to bend you over and do you everytime they can.....

So it wasn't bad quality paint work at all? Just your poor luck?

**Compared to every car I've ever owned (including one that was the identical blue and under identical circumstances), the paint aged badly and it had the least mileage/usage of the whole lot. If it was a good quality paint job, it wouldn't have been as horribly scratched at 12K miles. Luck has jack shit to do with it. It's a cheap-ass paint job but, happily, I like the car it's wrapped around.

I have to say I agree with this. My last car, a Honda Civic, had 130K miles on it when I traded it in and had fewer chips and scratches than my 2006 Subaru Forester does now, with 22K miles. Both garaged, same driving conditions. I was not really kidding when I said all it takes is to brush by the car with your coat and it scratches.

-yngver