Advice Needed: New car with paint defect
 

Hi there

Looking for some advice for my girlfriend.

Basically, she picked up her new Toyota Aygo a couple of weeks ago. We picked it up in the rain so didn't notice the problem at the time but a couple of days later we noticed that both the front and back bumpers of the car were a different shade of red to the rest of the car. I'd expect a little difference but these are really noticably darker.

She had it back to the garage today and at first the aftersales guy admitted that there was a significant difference, but it seems Toyota have said that "They all come like that" so he's backtracked a little.

My girlfriend is really unhappy about it all. This is her first new car and its taken a lot of the shine off the purchase (if you excuse the pun :)

How would people advise she proceeds?

Cheers,

I'd be looking at every other Aygo at the dealership to see if i could blow the "They all come like that" thing out of the water :)

My cousin had a similar experience with an Audi convertible. He paid for an RAC inspection who produced a report.He ensured this was carried out at the dealership. He took this report into the dealership and a few weeks later got full cost of the car back plus £500. For the 14 months prior to that, he'd been running around in an identical car which he'd rejected on delivery because of different coloured panels............A happy ending there, and I wish you and your gf a similar fate Bob

New cars get bumped as well as old ones: chances are it's had a scrape whilst being backed off the transporter, moved on the forecourt etc.

A good mate worked at a main dealership a few years back: its a very common occurence. Should be easy to check if it's had some paint. Inspectors have paint thickness gauges, would be easy to compare with others.

Not sure how to proceed if this is the case, CAB could be a good place to start.