[icemann3016]

Hey ppl. After trying to ignore the tones of stone chips on the front, rear bumper, the side skirts, front doors and radiator grill, now the "best" thing happened. The paint on the front bumper started falling. It has begun to fall from the edges and i`m scared of washing the car as the white coat underneath the paint might become bigger.. Here i attach what`s the damage so far.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/246/16112009130.th.jpg (http://img97.imageshack.us/i/16112009130.jpg/)

[colorado]

Thats really bad

[chris66]

I'd get that back to the dealer sharpish mate. My 23 year old Cavalier's not as bad as that! :eek:

[kevinfourlegs]

Chris, you beat me to it. I was going to say mine aint as bad on my 17 year old car. Not good is it.

[chris66]

Chris, you beat me to it. I was going to say mine aint as bad on my 17 year old car. Not good is it.

Morning Kev. took your advice. feel 10x better after a kip. ;)
Is this a taste of things to come for the Insignia owners now? Having a hard time of it. the build quality of these makes you wonder

[kevinfourlegs]

Dr Kevs advice clinic is open again. I have heard that the paint is better on the Omega A/Carltons than their replacement the Omega. When you've spent that kind of money you don't expect peeling paint.

[icemann3016]

I`m doing that tomorrow. I believe I won`t get same answer as i got when I lived in my home country (Bulgaria). They told me for the stone chips that "they are normal"... but oh god i used to have a 14years old Astra and then a 3 years old Astra and both didn`t have ANY of these issues.

[chris66]

I`m doing that tomorrow. I believe I won`t get same answer as i got when I lived in my home country (Bulgaria). They told me for the stone chips that "they are normal"... but oh god i used to have a 14years old Astra and then a 3 years old Astra and both didn`t have ANY of these issues.

Makes it worse when the base coat is white and the cars black. Going to stick out like a sore thumb. Good luck for tomorrow mate. i hope they sort it out, and quick, for you

[higgsy]

mine has covered 6000 miles and the stone chips are really bad. not had the paint peel yet and hope it doesnt. i do feel that the car should have had a dark undercoat as mine is black and shows white on every chip. ive read somewhere that the paint is very very thin on the insignia.

[chris66]

mine has covered 6000 miles and the stone chips are really bad. not had the paint peel yet and hope it doesnt. i do feel that the car should have had a dark undercoat as mine is black and shows white on every chip. ive read somewhere that the paint is very very thin on the insignia.

Surely this will be covered by the warrranty though. they will need to sort this out.

[Rockh]

A colleague at work had a real fight with Vx over his astra after his bumper paint did something similar.
Vx only use a couple of coats apparently on the bumper etc, mine has quite a few chips etc but not as bad as that.

[kevinfourlegs]

A couple of coats on a front bumper?! I'm not a sprayer, but that can't be adequate when its in the firing line of stones and salt. Vauxhall have got to get their act together with this. I wonder if any other manufacturers are affected like this?

[cameron66]

As many of you may know this was something that I moaned quite a lot about, mine was very bad, it seemed everytime I went out in it I would pickup loads of paint chips to the front end, even had a couple on drivers side door from vehicles going opposite direction which can easily happen on bends. In every case it would always be down to the white base primer too.

I was touching up the front end every weekend. Regarding the comment on number of paint coats I read somewhere that with these water based paints they only actually put one coat of colour on top of the primer, as apparently the water based paint can go on thinner but only requires one coat as far as colour is concerned. The base colour coat is actually a dull mat finish when dry, it relies on that top clear coat to get its gloss, and of course the protection is all down to how thick and stone chip resistant that top coat is, and I know from experience with over doing the tcutting on one occasion it is not very thick at all.

Fortunately I can honestly say I have not needed to touch up the front of this BMW yet, though I noticed its received a couple of minor chips on the front bumper and a very tiny mark on drivers door but its only chipped the clear coat and only really noticable when I polish the car, so its either down to luck or possibly the paints better... I'm hoping it's the latter..lol

As someone stated I too cannot understand why they would choose a white colour as the base primer, seems silly, but it appears many cars use a light primer colour, must be more suitable for all the various colours or something like that.

[icemann3016]

Hi cam. I wasn`t here for a while. Seems like you drive a Beemer now? :) What happened with your Insignia, any other problem that forced you changing? Cheers

[cameron66]

Hi cam. I wasn`t here for a while. Seems like you drive a Beemer now? :) What happened with your Insignia, any other problem that forced you changing? Cheers

Hi Matey, hope you are keeping well. Yes, the problems finally exhausted my patience, Just seemed to have one problem after another, the final straw was when the clutch and gearbox decided to give problems. I think the wife had enough of my moaning too...lol

It was sold back to VX at a loss of 2K, and I then bought a 318i, SE Auto. which I had for a few months, I was so impressed by its drive, I recently decided to treat myself to a later model 09 320i Auto with Satnav, etc. Not new but only a few months old with less than 5k on clock, So smooth and quiet, I have to listen to tell if engines's running while ticking over. This one has keyless entry, and as long as the keyfob is in your pocket you just press the starter button.
Absolutely love it, and no issues whatsoever, and you would not believe the difference when it comes to customer care from the BMW dealers.

Although I've driven automatics occasionally in the past, these are the first automatics I've actually bought myself. They really do make driving so easy, and you can switch the box into sports mode or into manual mode so you can change gears yourself via the paddles on the wheel, honestly these later 6/7 speed auto's have come a long way since the earlier auto's.
Car is quite economic too returning around 39mpg, in fact this 320 is just as economic as the previous 318i, both are 2ltr but the power goes up from 143bhp to 170bhp so its quite nippy. Steering is superb probably helped by the rear wheel drive I suppose.

Only thing I probably dont like about the BM's is the run-flat tyres, on rough roads they tend to make you feel the ruts and bumps a bit, some owners ditch them for standard tyres. Otherwise a fantastic car. I just wish I had bought one years ago.

Anyway, enough of me rambling on about my car, this is a VX forum, I still pop in here to see whats going on, and its a shame to see that a few Insignia oweners are still getting the odd problem. However I dont think the models coming through now have as many issues as they used to, and TBH I think this paint problem is quite common on most makes these days, though perhaps VX need to put a little thicker more protective top laquer coat on maybe.
Take care Matey, nice to hear from you again.

[icemann3016]

Grats for your new car mate.

I just came back from the dealer. They said that this is not like paint damage by itself but outside damage, probably a biker or something. What they told me is to buy a pen and to apply on there and after it is dry to go and wash the car and if the paint continues falling down, they will make photos and direct them to GM. i`m gonna rip off a bigger piece asap :)

P.S. on what millage the gearbox and clutch started to make you problems? I`ve already covered 33 000 km which is pretty much for owning the car since 8th June and excluding the paint and the crackling noises from the central console (both problems still unsolved) I only had small park pilot issue and infotainment issue, both fixed with updating the software.

[cameron66]

Grats for your new car mate.

I just came back from the dealer. They said that this is not like paint damage by itself but outside damage, probably a biker or something. What they told me is to buy a pen and to apply on there and after it is dry to go and wash the car and if the paint continues falling down, they will make photos and direct them to GM. i`m gonna rip off a bigger piece asap :)

P.S. on what millage the gearbox and clutch started to make you problems? I`ve already covered 33 000 km which is pretty much for owning the car since 8th June and excluding the paint and the crackling noises from the central console (both problems still unsolved) I only had small park pilot issue and infotainment issue, both fixed with updating the software.

That paint almost looks as though its peeling off, like it's not bonded to the undercoat when it was sprayed. :( I had loads of chips which of course looked white until touched up, it just seemed to damage so easily. In fact I've never had a car that chipped so easily.
I eventually had my front and rear bumpers resprayed by the dealer with VX footing the bill but that was because of my moaning about the colour difference, and because of the chips on the car when delivered new.

RE. The clutch/gearbox. That really was the last straw. About 2/3 weeks before the car went back, I startet noticing the odd cltch burning smell when pulling away say from traffic lights when on a hill or incline, only occasionally, but definately occured a few time which gave me a little concern, but no noticable clutch slip. I mentioned it to the dealer who said oh its probably just bedding in...lol.

Then a few days later I noticed I started having a little difficulty selecting gears, sometimes it did'nt want to go into 1st, so it went back in for them to look at that. Dealer said it probably need slight adjustment to gear shift cables, so they kept it overnight. It turns out the 2 cables dont have any adjustment provision on them, and said it was probably stretched, and had fitted one which they had taken from another Insignia. BTW those gear select cable are extremely thick, never in the world would they stretch, so IMO all a load of bullxxxx.

Ony difference I could see was that there was a load of white spray grease round the area of the gear cables. Had the car back, and TBH it was still not right, then a few days later I'm sat at traffic lights in neutral and I push it into first gear to pull away, and when I start to release the clutch the car start to go in reverse..lol, and no I had not lifted the reverse lockout catch...lol. I eventually managed to pull away in second gear, as I could not get first gear at all, and the clutch seemed to be making a right old racket.

So back to the dealer again, gets a phone call to say DMF has failed, then a few days later I get another phone call to say that the gearbox itself will probably need replacing. Well after that lot I'd had enough, I phoned VX customer services again and after finally getting to the guy who had been handling my previous complaints, They finally agreed to buy the car back, They refused to pay the full price though, despite my threats to take them to court etc. The best I could get out of them was the full price less 2K, which TBH I was reasonably satisfied with just to get rid of it.

Though saddened at how my initial excitement had turned into utter frustration over time, you cannot believe how relieved I felt when that car went in for the last time, and it was out of my life. TBH.. it was more my wife than I who had finally had enough as she could see how all the worry was starting to affect my health, I'd already had heart attacks previously, so I could well do without all this worry. That car was certainly a bad lemon, and can only hope no-one else has as much hassle.

I know from other forums that several other early owners have also had their share of problems too, eventually having their cars replaced by VX after long drawn out legal threats etc. One guy Mark ended up with really good deal, he eventually managed to get a top of range 4x4 out of them, though no idea how he managed it...lol His thread about it is on that
http://insignia-enthusiast.org/ website.

So that was the end of the Insignia matey... Tell you what still xxxxes me off was the treatment from the dealer, as though I'd just spent a mere £5 with them and not over 15 grand. I know other owners have had better experiences with their dealer, but I honestly cannot recommend the dealer I used.

In contrast, I've found the BMW dealers to be exceptional, nothing is too much trouble for them, they phone frequently 3 or 4 times over the months after receiving your car to ask if you have any issues with your new car.
Even after a normal service, they will phone a few days later and ask if your happy with whats been done, and ask if you have any issues.
We all know the customer ends up paying for it all in the end, but it's little touches like this that makes a difference, and the fact that regardless of what staff really think about a customer they dont let it show.
Above all... their cars just seem to work so well, though I'd be silly to suggest they dont get their share of problem cars too.

I for one have not stopped smiling since I made the switch, I actually said to my wife during a run to Wales last Sunday, have you ever heard me criticise this car or the last BM since the Insignia went, and she answered No I have'nt, to which I replied... so it was not just me then being a moaning old git...lol

Just a short post today...lol You take care matey.

[v33tra]

seems my predicition was spot on over a year ago when the insignia launch photos were published on here

if someone can find the thread i wrote that the design of the front end on the insignia is going to be hell to live with for stonechips and painting being required regular :eek: think i quoted the insignia will be the bodyshops new big earner :( seems i was on the ball with this prediction

so glad i never bought one now with all the problems it seems to be having :(

[Melbury]

Paint is definately not right, especially on front, I have had to touch in many chips over
this past 6 months. I have never seen the like on any of the many cars i have owned .
It looks likely that the front bumper area will need a proper respray of several coats in the end wether or not Vauxhall will pay for it. Its very bad news for sales, not fair on anyone including the dealers/salespeople

[cameron66]

Forgot to mention 'icemann3016' you asked the milage. Well it was quite low, although I picked up the Insignia new from the dealers on May29th it had just 3960 miles on it when it went back to VX. So it had covered very few miles really, mainly due to the fact that the dealer probably had it more than I did...lol and of course AYK it had 72 miles already on it when I picked it up.

BTW you may not know, but this last one was infact my second Insignia, I placed a order for a Insignia as early as last November (almost 2 mths before release) for a Exlusiv 160 with the optional SatNav which I received on March 1st, so I had one of the first one's in my area, same Tech Grey colour. That one however came from Bicknells Ltd in Worcester before they went bust earlier this year.

That particular Insignia had no issues at all, and had just 3 miles on the speedo, no creaks that I noticed from the dash/centre console either. I only had it for a short time and covered less than 2K miles in it, when we decided to pass it on to one of our top employee's in the family business. It was actually a bit of a sweetner with a rise in salary to keep him working for us, or rather the sons, as they run the business now. The guy in question is pretty important to the business, so that was why we let him have the car.
(Hope he never reads these forums..lol)

Anyway, that car has been pretty reliable, until about 6-weeks ago when the DMF started to rattle and needed a replacement at approx 24k miles. Only problem was it took the dealer at least a month to get a replacement, so the car was off the road for about 5 weeks, and VX will only pay for a courtesy car for 3 weeks... not good at all.
I've not seen the car for a few months, so I dont know how that one has fared regarding paint chips etc. From what I can gather however from the son, is if it gives trouble again they will be dropping it. They have 2 or 3 Astra estates in the fleet, but that's the only Insignia, I think 4 of the engineers use Mondeo estates.

The very poor supply of readily available spares for the Insignia in the UK is what made matters worse, and really got customers pxxxed off having to wait for parts. Something that VX really screwed up bigtime IMO, and I'm not sure whether the spares situation has improved much.

[Melbury]

Looks like a complete front end respray of at least 3 coats will be the only answer in the long-run, otherwise, it may have to go!

[cameron66]

Paint is definately not right, especially on front, I have had to touch in many chips over
this past 6 months. I have never seen the like on any of the many cars i have owned .
It looks likely that the front bumper area will need a proper respray of several coats in the end wether or not Vauxhall will pay for it. Its very bad news for sales, not fair on anyone including the dealers/salespeople

I would agree with those comments matey, there were times when I almost felt sorry for the dealer.

VX will pay for the respray, but sadly you really do have to turn into Mr Nasty for them to do anything. :( Almost like getting blood out of a stone, and be prepared to dump the car back at the dealers and refuse to drive it until somethings done. I found it very difficult, as its just not in my character to do this, but if you dont... they won't do anything.
I ended up changing my username on Vectra-c because the dealer had been monitoring all my comments about the car on-line when I first had it, which did'nt help to much...lol

[icemann3016]

Really bad matey. Really sad for your experience. I hope my only problems remain with the paint really.

[cameron66]

Really bad matey. Really sad for your experience. I hope my only problems remain with the paint really.

Yes, at least you seem to have not suffered too many mechanical issue.

That problem I had with the Hydraulic cam adjusters on that 1.8vvt engine of mine which used to cause a almighty rattling noise on startup never got fixed neither did the re-alignment of bumpers get fixed either.

The parts to fix them came into stock the week the car went back, thats over 3 months waiting. Stupid pillocks even phoned a couple of times weeks after to say bring the car in 'as they now had the parts in stock'
It gave me much pleasure in telling them that they now had the car permanently, and in fact it had been back with them for at least a couple of weeks...lol

Like I stated in my post to Melbury, they will do something about that paintwork, but you do really have to be quite nasty and firm with them, otherwise you wont get anywhere.
On seeing yours pics matey, I personally would not be happy until they did something about it, it obviously needs respraying, so dont let them off the hook. What does seem to work... is if you actually leave the car at the dealers and refuse to take it away until its been fixed, though many owners need their car for daily use... so I know its not a easy choice to make. Like I said your really do have to be firm, and be prepared to go to court if necessary.
Best of luck getting it sorted.

[PRO-INSIGNIA]

Cam,

I think the main problem with the Vauxhall and Insignia at the moment are the following.

1) Dealers Franchises are just are not good enough
2) Dealer Techs/Mechanics have not been trained quick enough on the new Technology.
3) Vauxhall has not stocked the UK Part warehouse with parts because of the GM problems. This should change now.

Hope your experience with the BMW continues but if you troll through some of the BMW forums you find alot of unhappy customers.

You just need to look at BMWs handling of the recent Watch Dog 19inch wheels that crack. They dealt with this terribly. Hope you have not got 19's. You can also find people complaining of the same paint problems.

You should now probably move on from your Insignia and not keep winding yourself up by slating it again and again on here. This just brings you back bad memories and cant be good for your health. Which is why you sold it in the 1st place.

Glad you like the BMW!

[cameron66]

Pro-Insignia, I think you are probably right, and take on board what you are trying to say to me in the nicest way possible. (-

However, I dont think I've been grossly unfair in my comments about the car itself, many users have had good experiences with their car. Indeed I would like to think I have been helpful to many Insignia users on here especially with many of my past contributions to the site. Also despite selling the car I have tried to be subjective, and have always tried to be factual.

AIS I understand what you are saying, and will do as you suggest, it was never my intention to appear to 'slate the car' and I apologise to owners on here if it appeared that I was doing so.

Best wishes to everyone... Cam

[cameron66]

I have since been giving 'Pro-Insignia' comments above much thought, and he is absolutely correct on all counts, I have, since I sold my Insignia been unjustifiably been using this forum as a way of airing what is obviously a underlying bitterness I had through my own bad experiences with my particular Insignia. I now realise I have been using other owners posts about their bad experience, and using their posts as an opportunity to slate the car through repeatedly citing my own experiences over and over again, and that was totally wrong of me to keep doing it. In hindsight I admit I should have simply moved on and put the experience behind me when I sold the car.

I can only unreservedly say sorry to everyone here for being so small minded and immature, may I also sincerley thank you 'Pro-Insignia' for making me aware of what I had now become, you also have my appreciation for your thoughtful consideration in the wording of your post... thank you matey, I owe you bigtime.

So I will now be moving on, and I promise not to make any further posts in the forum.
Just like to wish Mitch1965 and everyone all the best for the future, and hope you all have a good xmas.

[icemann3016]

Cam, keep in mind that it was me that asked what happened with your Insignia, you didn`t just start out of nowhere.

On the other topics... it`s much difficult here. People`s native language is dutch... sometimes it`s hard to understand with them in english as it happens some don`t speak it very good or even at all... Court... i have no idea what the law here is, if it was in Bulgaria it`s ok but.... here i don`t know. I`ll try to take the car 2-3 times more and insist on that and if nothing happens when i go back on vacation to Bulgaria i`ll draw all parts of the car with a key and go to declare damage to my insurance... the car has full casco without own risk so they will pay the complete respray. Moreover .. my insurance company works with one of the services that i always used to respray my cars and they really know their job. They will just make it how it should look like and will use thicker final coat and everything request. The bad thing is that this would happen spring or even summer 2010 :(

[kevinfourlegs]

Stay with us matey. No need for you to leave. There's more to this site. Have a rethink?

[icemann3016]

I`ve ripped off another piece of the bumper and now they made photos and i`ll have a reply if they will repair it in a week or 2.


CAM if needed i`ll make a petition for u to stay! copy that? we need u here mate!

[PRO-INSIGNIA]

Cam,

Absolutely you must not leave this site. You are always so helpfull with all your posts. I would be the first person to sign a petition for you to stay!!!!

It did not in any way mean move on from this site, just to move on from your bad Insignia experience. I have followed your experience through from when I first joined this site and you have every reason to feel bitter. I just hope you can put it behind you.

Looking forward to reading more informative posts from you and did not and hope I did not cause any offence. This is not what I intended at all.

[Melbury]

I`ve ripped off another piece of the bumper and now they made photos and i`ll have a reply if they will repair it in a week or 2.


CAM if needed i`ll make a petition for u to stay! copy that? we need u here mate!

I'm not actually on here about the paint to-day, its just that I'm using your post to try to get into the forum. I had this trouble with it before and had to get a new password and now once again it is refused although I had taken particular care to note it. Any idea whats up? They are saying that there are no posts on this forum to-day and requiring me to login! Aaaaaaaggghh !

[Melbury]

I would agree with those comments matey, there were times when I almost felt sorry for the dealer.

VX will pay for the respray, but sadly you really do have to turn into Mr Nasty for them to do anything. :( Almost like getting blood out of a stone, and be prepared to dump the car back at the dealers and refuse to drive it until somethings done. I found it very difficult, as its just not in my character to do this, but if you dont... they won't do anything.
I ended up changing my username on Vectra-c because the dealer had been monitoring all my comments about the car on-line when I first had it, which did'nt help to much...lol

Hey ! your spot on there! I thought that too, I recon the salespeople dont just sit twiddling their thumbs. They will be in here to size things up. afterall
some members actually work for Vauxhall or the dealers ( I think I've seen that mentioned at times )

[Melbury]

I have since been giving 'Pro-Insignia' comments above much thought, and he is absolutely correct on all counts, I have, since I sold my Insignia been unjustifiably been using this forum as a way of airing what is obviously a underlying bitterness I had through my own bad experiences with my particular Insignia. I now realise I have been using other owners posts about their bad experience, and using their posts as an opportunity to slate the car through repeatedly citing my own experiences over and over again, and that was totally wrong of me to keep doing it. In hindsight I admit I should have simply moved on and put the experience behind me when I sold the car.

I can only unreservedly say sorry to everyone here for being so small minded and immature, may I also sincerley thank you 'Pro-Insignia' for making me aware of what I had now become, you also have my appreciation for your thoughtful consideration in the wording of your post... thank you matey, I owe you bigtime.

So I will now be moving on, and I promise not to make any further posts in the forum.
Just like to wish Mitch1965 and everyone all the best for the future, and hope you all have a good xmas.
Imagine if the Insignia was perfect ! would we soon become bored with it?
No doubt some have had more than their fair share of bother and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. I think they are bound to get it all right eventually after our experiences as the guinea-pigs.