My brand new smartie - paintwork issue

[tygermoth]

A little background

Bought my first ever brand new smartie – paid extra to have as a matte grey finish as it looked lovely.

On the day of collection during the walk round/introduction it was pointed out to the Merc dealership that there was some impact damage to the paintwork. A thorough review with the body shop manager was undertaken - there were three significant gouges, two minor scrapes and one light scuff on a wheel arch. The manager came out and personally apologised.

They got the car in over this weekend to have the paint work fixed. Was called late in the afternoon to advise they can’t repair a matte paintwork – not even the light scuff! The dealership has now sent off a back order to have the wheel arch/boot flap/back body panel/door panel sent in and then the car will have to go in to have the works done. They are covering the cost of the replacement panels.

The main issue

The dealership have just called me up to refunded me the ‘scuff and dent insurance’ as its ‘not appropriate’ as its benefit relates only to a repair – which can’t be done. On checking with other companies now this is a ‘known issue’ no one else will now cover me (understandably!)

Yesterday in a superstore I parked a full mile and a half away from the entrance in a lonely little corner of the car park, which is great for the cardio. Came back to find some dude with a people carrier and 29 kids had parked right next to next to me. 3000 prefectly empty spaces – and parked door to door right beside me. All the kids were whizzing about on mini scooters and messing about with shopping trollies. My heart froze - panicked that one of the little ones had opened a door and dented my paint (they hadn’t because they were lovely kids – he was a nice man) this is not how I would normally think, I am not precious about this type of thing normally – this is not my style at all. but now I realise that any damage to the paintwork can’t be repaired it’s taken the shine off my matte car…… and apparently made me totally irrational. Don’t get me started on multi storey car parks – they are giving me a nervous breakdown lol

I was having an offhand chat with one of the sales guys regarding having my deposit returned, as they had forgotten to do so, when the subject of the matte paint came up - He casually advised me that I ‘should have realised that the matte couldn’t be repaired – you paid extra for it so it was down to you to have done the research ’

I will be entirely honest here – his condescending tone and defensiveness really got my back up. I pointed out they had sold me a repair policy so even THEY didn’t know it couldn’t be repaired. He then dismissed that as just an ‘administrative oversight’ He’s made me so mad I now want to push for something to be done.

But I am really sure what can be done – can I reasonably request a panel change to another non matte or request comp (only so I can have the car wrapped) I like the car – it drives like a dream but I don’t want to be stressing about the paintwork as it seems to be so soft a finish that if you look at it hard it scuffs!

Thoughts anyone?

[tolsen]

A few up here have gone for matte cars and most of them regret it. Less suited for the elements and more work to keep clean.

[Thrumbleux]

Doubt that there's much you can do but avoid parking where it could get damaged - difficult as that is.
I'm guessing that scuff repairs are normally buffed out but that isn't appropriate for matte finishes. Which would leave repainting (or wrap) as the repair method - as would be the case if the paint were broken. So you are no more vulnerable than with conventional paint other than for scuffs.
Should you have known matte was more scuff prone? Hard to say but anyone who has ever used matte paint kinda knows it doesn't have the hardness of gloss. Information that the dealer obviously didn't volunteer, but then you didn't ask! If you had asked if there were any downsides.....
A little bit of wriggle room in that when offered the scuff insurance you could have taken that as an assurance scuffs were easily fixable - saving you asking the 'downside' question. Given they did slightly mislead there, you could point out that had you known you wouldn't have ordered it (but then if the insurance was offered after you ordered) and ask for some goodwill gesture such as the first service for free.