Thank you for posting pics. Change of heart here as well. I agree, each individual chip looks much worse than I was expecting.
Oh, that's nothing. Just wait until I post pics of the Front Fascia. It is worse.
While you have the same amount of chips in the same general areas I do, yours look much bigger and more substantial.
Wait until you see the actual bumper. Those were shot taken of the Hood and Left/Right Front Quarter Panels. There was only one pic at the end that was from the left side of the front bumper. That pic shows the Carbon Fiber sample in the frame. You can see the black plastic from the bumper substrate very easily. These vehicles are supposed to have layers of Clear Coat, layers of Paint and at least one or two layers of Primer, before the plastic bumper substrate. With penetration this deep, you should see those layers - yet you don't! It looks like Mazda, tried to reduce materials cost by skimping on the amount of material used in the layering process. Or, they rushed the layering process and did not allow sufficient drying time between layers. Or, the drying time was sufficient but the environmental controls inside the facility were not properly controlled for temperature, humidity, etc., and thus, the material never cured properly. I have no idea what took place. I just know that my White Pearl is Flaky, Too Soft and it Amalgamates upon impact. That's not normal.
Chipping is not Flaking and Amalgamation is a clear sign of being too soft. You want and need the paint to flex when the vehicle moves. But, you don't want it so much flex that it amalgamates on impact. Its almost like it undergoes some kind of 'state change' when it get hit by small particles. That's just bizarre. Its like exploding paint! Trick paint, even. Hit the paint with a small particle and it sublimates. Mazda, should not apply paint to its vehicles that sublimates with particle impacts from normal driving.
I wouldn't go as far as painting the entirety of Mazda with a brush colored by your experience with Jesse, though. Maybe if you had dealt with another Mazda rep, the outcome may have been different.
There is no way for any customer to know in advance who to talk to at Mazda USA. Maurice, did not solve the problem. In fact, he inflamed the problem by leading me to believe that Mazda was going to take care of the problem without looking for me to further finance their solution. When I asked to escalate the case with someone at Mazda USA, Maurice, handed me over to his Supervisor, Jesse. They set the table and then they cut the legs out from under me intentionally. They know the issues. They set the appointment with a dealer within their own network to identify and verify my claim. They took their own pictures as evidence of the claim. They knew full well what they were planning before they waited nearly a month to cal me back with lies.
So, based on this string of events that Mazda could have corrected at any time along the way, I have a hard time seeing this is not being systemic behavior from Mazda. A real corporate culture of lying and deceit. Don't get me wrong - Mazda puts on a really good looking Public Face. A very innocent and trustworthy Public Image is what the cast to the world via a fine Marketing Campaign and plenty of good Public Relations staged events. But, let something serious go wrong with your brand new Mazda and suddenly, their true colors are shown in private. No honest company that truly cares about its reputation would behave like this.
In addition, the next CX-9 may not have the same soft paint you have on yours (though I can understand wanting a different car after this experience). I hope the XC90 works out for you - I had briefly considered the XC90 in Momentum trim, but was talked out of it by a few of my mechanic friends who say that they've seen a lot of Volvos (old and new) come through the shop.
You are right. They are all mechanical devices at the end of the day and subject to fail. I'm ok with that and in fact, I expect it. What I'm not ok with is a manufacturer that lies to me over the period of nearly a fully month and one that refuses to accept full responsibility for not delivering that which they claimed was ready for street use. Paint that does this 3-days after taking delivery and extends that same poor performance for 8 full months, is not paint that should have ever been put into production.
And, that's my point. Mazda, should have done what was necessary to put paint into production that actually meets the implied contract it has with its customers - to be fit for the purpose for which it is intended. This paint is not fit for that purpose, because it fails routinely under normal operating conditions. All I asked Mazda to do was accept that failure as its own and fix the problem by repainting the bumper. It lied to me, told me that it was going to take care of the problem and then at the last minute, informed me that I would need to pay 50% the cost of solving a problem that Mazda created.
So, at the end of the day, I can handle problems that come up in a vehicle because at some point they will all have them. What I cannot tolerate is corporate culture that lies to customers and that lies about the physical evidence that they admit is indeed a problem and then not standing behind their product long enough to fix the physical problem to an acceptable standard of repair. I just want a Company that will do the right thing. That's what I'm hunting for right now. A good company.
In this day and age, are there any Auto Manufacturers out there with Integrity. That really seems to be the elephant in the room. The mechanical issues aside - where are the Manufacturers that won't lie to you, manipulate evidence, pretend evidence of their failure does not exist and that will stand behind their product when something goes wrong.