Paint chips?

[Melancholy1980]

Anyone else have an issue with paint chips appearing all over? I drive on the highway a lot to work but honestly my previous car never had this issue, especially not 6 months into ownership. I paid extra for tri coat and I’m not sure that it even matters? Does Ford touch these up under warranty at all?

 

[2021-MMEx-RT1]

Yes, and No.

After it seems like the whole car is attracted to chips, I had the front facing parts, hood, front fenders, headlights, bumper, 'grill', A pillars, mirrors all PPF'd

The Windshield is also getting pitted, so I'm going to look into something that covers glass as well.

Sigh...

 

[Stang68]

I had a number of them show up on my previous Mach E, so when I got my GT, I basically immediately added paint protection film to the front. Of course I didn't add any to the A pillars and I had to touch up a small chip anyways!

Some people will argue PPF is not worth it but for someone like me who sees every mark, loves to wash the car themselves, and frequently drives on rough NJ roads, it was a no-brainer.

 

[HOLOTYPE]

Yes unfortunately. I got mine used and noticed a few on the hood, but first wash it looked to me like the whole front end has some significant chips. Kind of a bummer, but I don't think it would have kept me from getting the car anyway. That being said, I'm thinking about getting the GT grille vinyl to hide the chips that are already there and hopefully help protect it from getting worse. For some of the other chips, I've been able to use touchup paint and its less noticeable - I'm the only one that notices it anyway.

 

[shoopla]

They do seem to be more chip prone than some previous cars I've owned, I think a combination of the shape of the car, aerodynamics, and the "eco friendlier" paint that all manufacturers have been forced to use that is thinner and doesn't adhere as well to the base material. No, Ford won't fix these as warranty, but they did fix a chip on a wheel as part of the tri-warranty package I purchased separately.
I got PPF on front 1/3 of the car, about a month after I got it. The installer touched up all the existing chips and then added the PPF. I think it does help, so instead of chips in the paint there are chips in the PPF. Not sure which is better in the long run. I purchased a Ford factory touch up paint kit from Amazon for under $20 that is pretty easy to use yourself. Just don't put the pen directly on the car, use a hobby Q-tip instead to apply the paint or you'll have way more paint than you want in the chip. And make sure to let it set as recommended on the pen before and after applying the clear coat. I see you're in NY, so you have same quality roads as us down here in PA, with stones flying everywhere.

 

[BigMach-E]

Yeah, it’s a curse of the weak paint on these cars. Mines a daily driver, and I couldn’t afford adding PPF at time of purchase. I intend to keep the car well past it’s extended warranty. Coming up on 2 years, and it’s annoying. I have gotten decent with touch up paint, need to do another session soon. I’m going to eventually get it repainted.

 

[Melancholy1980]

If asked, will the dealer be able to match the paint and touch these up for a fee? Is it worth it? I can look into the touch up kits but I’m a novice at best with this sort of thing.

 

[RonOinAZ]

Have you considered what your long-term plan is with the car? The paint will continue to be chipped unless you have a paint protection film applied. Touching-up chips without applying PPF would likely become a routine, like washing the car. I counted 7 chips in less than 1,000 miles after buying my 2022 MME. I bought a touch-up kit online from Dr Color Chip and while the repairs aren't perfect, with several coats they're fairly well concealed and the only training I had was the video instruction provided by the seller. It didn't take me long, though, to decide to spend the $2k to have Xpel PPF installed on whole front end, hood, front fenders, mirror caps, and A & B pillars. I haven't had the need to do any more touching-up since, not that it can't happen along the sides of the car, but so far it hasn't.

 

[Melancholy1980]

Have you considered what your long-term plan is with the car? The paint will continue to be chipped unless you have a paint protection film applied. Touching-up chips without applying PPF would likely become a routine, like washing the car. I counted 7 chips in less than 1,000 miles after buying my 2022 MME. I bought a touch-up kit online from Dr Color Chip and while the repairs aren't perfect, with several coats they're fairly well concealed and the only training I had was the video instruction provided by the seller. It didn't take me long, though, to decide to spend the $2k to have Xpel PPF installed on whole front end, hood, front fenders, mirror caps, and A & B pillars. I haven't had the need to do any more touching-up since, not that it can't happen along the sides of the car, but so far it hasn't.

I own most cars for 5 or 6 years. I bought this car under the Ford Options plan, though. I guess keeping it past the 48 month term would depend on how much the technology has advanced by then to warrant an upgrade. I’m all for long term investments into maintaining the quality of a car, but the rate at which the paint chips on this car is still disappointing especially when considering the higher price tag paid for tri-coat which boasted “improved durability”. I drove a car that cost almost half the price of this car prior to this and in 5 years of ownership never experienced this kind of issue. Ford should not be expecting its Mach-E owners to all invest in PPF just to keep the paint from getting damaged so easily. If that’s the answer, Ford should consider doing better In this area. In the meantime, I suppose there’s not much that I can do about it other than look into the options mentioned.

 

[Creegz]

Paint chips are definitely my biggest problem at the moment. I just got this car second-hand (a close friend was the previous/only owner who got a Lightning), and the car got about 40000km in a year on it. The paint chips show that story. Good thing it's not gonna rust off, but I don't know the best way to repair all of the dings.

The roof even cracked a little from a stone hitting it on the highway. Gonna be a bit rough to replace that. Hopefully, insurance covers it.

 

[SnBGC]

I have hundreds of paint chips on my car. Some on the doors where PPF would normally not be applied.
I plan to repaint the front clip (,hood, fenders and bumper) at 80k miles which will be in 6 months. Total cost is $2200.

I will just touch up the chips on the doors since that will be fairly easy since I didn't buy a tri-coat paint color. I love how the tri-coat paint looks but totally impractical for a car that gets driven every day IMO...

 

[A-A-Ron]

Far too many chips to count in the 10 months I’ve owned it

 

[OON7]

It's inevitable on the highway. The amount of unsecured gravel loads I see daily in Ohio on the highway are so disheartening. I just took a big rock off the front fender and it deformed the PPF and the bumper under it. I'm just going to hit it with some touch up paint to make it less noticeable.

The chips are unavoidable regardless of the car I think. My first MME had plenty of chips with no PPF, didn't seem to hurt my trade-in price at all. I did PPF on the front third and bottom of the doors for my new GTPE. I know it's better with it than without, but I've still taken plenty of knicks with it.

 

[ThatGuyLando]

I don't think I've ever owned a car this prone to chips. I got some touch up pens but I'm waiting for my garage to get a bit warmer to fix like 6 chips in my hood/grill.

 

[kindofblue]

It cost me $900 to have full frontal ppf installed along with ceramic pro.

Sponsored