Brun

I apologise for typos as this is being performed on a phone

The Wife has had a 13 plate Kia Sportage from new. After approx 9 months the diamond cut alloys began to go milky (very common problem in Sportages) in various places as the lacquer had lifted. I reported it to Kia who then processed a claim. The wheels were replaced with a refurbed set in November of last year. At the start of May I noticed that the new set were quickly going in the same direction as the previous set so I promptly took the car to Kia to start another claim.
I got home today to an answering machine message from Kia who said that "Pristine" (the company who refurbed the wheels) are refusing to honour their 12 month warranty on the wheels as they believe the damage has been caused by stone chips.
It's quite feasible that the damage is indeed the result of stone chips but that says to me that the quality of the work isn't good enough.
Would I be correct in saying that my warranty claim is not with Pristine but is in fact with Kia and to have a set of knackered alloys which have done circa 7k miles in 6 months is totally unacceptable.
Basically I want to go the dealership tomorrow armed with all the buzz words and legal jargon such as "fit for purpose".
Any help much appreciated

Brun

This is part of the warranty jargon:

The last line I suppose is the "get out" but 6 months old??????

john banks

Diamond cut alloys always go milky it seems.

Brun

I had some diamond cut Rotas on my Scoob which went that way at 3 months old and Rare Rims swapped them no quibble for some anthracite items. Such a shame as diamond cut do make for good looking wheels!

Brun

So went to the dealership and I've been told that I have to raise the claim with Kia direct. While I was there they told me that as well as the stone chip "damage", Pristine are also saying that damage to the edges of the wheels are also to blame. The wheels have never been kurbed and they base all of this on mobile phone pictures they have been sent for my dealer!
Anyway, I rang customer services who were thoroughly helpful and are going to get back to me inside of 2 working days to see how we are going to proceed.
Watch this space!

Brun

You can see from the pictures that there is a case for the damage being caused by stone chips but at 6 months old surely they are not fit for purpose?

WRXrowdy

iTrader: (2)

They look ****.
Why did the dealer replace them with refurbished wheels?
Were you happy for them to replace them with these or was there no other option?
The wheels could well be five years old, that looks like alloy corrosion, if they were old wheels and not refurbed correctly, it would only take a tiny area of corrosion trapped under the laquer for it to spread like that.

My missus mk1 golf has alloys that were corroded when we got it. I stripped the paint off the faces and polished them to a mirror finish. I did not laquer them, just give them a once over with auto sol every now and then and they look fine, eight years later.

Ste333

iTrader: (3)

From working for BMW and Mercedes - I can say that they too have a huge problem with polished or diamond cut wheels corroding and going milky. It's just the nature of that type of finish unfortunately. But both BMW and Mercedes would replace any corroded wheels with BRAND NEW items, not refurbished! Surely your warranty is with Kia on the car as a whole (including the wheels)...not with some alloy wheel refurbishment company. Especially if its still inside its manufacturers warranty period.

nik52wrx

Yep.


My C class wheels went milky just under a year of ownership and were replaced under warranty no questions asked.


Nik.