I purchased a brand new volvo s60 in edmonton alberta 8 months ago. I have an issue where the paint is peeling on the bottom corner of the drivers side door. Its a pretty good chunk at the moment 4cm x 4cm and looks like it's been getting worst.

The dealership is telling me I need to wait a week to hear back on if they will fix it as they mentioned they needed to email volvo directly and email all these other people in regard to this issue. I can't understand why this issue would take so long for them to decide if they will fix it.

There are no dents from rocks, no scratches, its literally as though a section has been blown or peeled right off.

I am wondering if anyone else has seen or heard of this issue. Is it even possible for a rock to chip a section of my driver side door to then cause the paint to peel? I am worried they are looking for any excuse to deny this repair even though it would likely not cost them a whole lot to fix.

 

Most probably the car has been damaged during transportation and repaired/repaint in a rush

 

There often is no rhyme or reason as to how dealerships initially react when presented with an uncommon issue. If they are unsure they will always contact the manufacturer for instructions on how to proceed, but the dealer service rep should be more skilled at customer relations. He/she simply should have said "we have not encountered this type of issue before and I need to contact the factory to find out how to proceed". That response wouldn't have left you thinking they might not cover it. I cannot imagine them not taking care of this type of issue with an 8 month old car, providing there is no evidence of customer damage. Certainly a rock chip should not cause this type of issue, nor be considered customer damage, but if it did there is obviously a much bigger issue that can absolutely be qualified as a defect. Bide your time until you hear back from the dealer, of course not letting them get beyond the week they indicated it would take to get an answer back from the factory rep. If they come back and say it will not be covered, insist on a meeting to inspect the car with the factory service rep as ultimately it will be up to that individual.

 

In the end they did fix the section of paint that was peeling off. Its unfortunate that it took as long as it did with so many unknown variables. I was definitely left with the feeling that they wouldn't fix it and were passing the buck. But they made the decision to fix it, perhaps to keep me happy..which worked. I love my car and would recommend it to everyone.. just my experiences with dealerships has been a rocky up and down battle.

A friend pointed out that my door was misaligned and that the sand and rocks from the road may have contributed to the peeling of the paint. They also ended up fixing that as well in case that was what caused the issue. Odd that it was just an issue on one side of my car and not the other... Overall happy with how things turned out.

 

So the door was definitely damaged during delivery. It happens quite often and usually it's repaired in a rush by the dealer before the new owner takes possession. I would closely inspect all that side of the car, to make sure if anything else was touched. There is a type of electronic device that measure the thickness of the paint, and indicate if an area was repainted- suggesting that area was repaired.