Sydney man wins paint job battle with car giant Kia
A WESTERN Sydney man unhappy with a dodgy paint job on his new car took on a multinational car manufacturer — and won, securing a lifetime warranty on paint works.
NSW
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A WESTERN Sydney man unhappy with a dodgy paint job on his new car took on a multinational car manufacturer — and won.
Brendan Knowles, of Eagle Vale in southwest Sydney, has also helped secure a lifetime warranty on paint works for all sunset yellow Kia Stingers bought in Australia — a perk not offered to overseas customers.
Mr Knowles said he noticed “an alarming number of paint chips” on his new $65,000 car, one of the first sold in Australia, soon after he brought it home last October.
He said the company initially refused to do a comprehensive respray of the car. Kia claimed they were just doing their due diligence and needed time to gain approval from their headquarters in Korea.
“I had some very tense and honest discussions between myself, the dealer and Kia Australia,” Mr Knowles said.
“I told them I would not be accepting any other resolution other than a respray and if they wouldn’t do that, I would park the paint-chipped vehicle out the front of Kia dealers over the weekends with a big sign advising of the problems I had.”
Frustrated with the delay in getting a respray, Mr Knowles went online and found other customers were having similar problems.
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He became a touchpoint for victims and was soon ratcheting up the pressure on the Korean-based car manufacturer.
The company eventually decided to give his car a full respray, at a cost of about $20,000.
The company said 72 sunset yellow Kia Stinger owners in Australia have been contacted about the paint problems, with 74 per cent of them taking up the offer of a full respray. That colour of vehicle has been taken out of showrooms.
Kia spokesman Kevin Hepworth said Australian customers who purchased that particular vehicle are also eligible for a lifetime warranty on the paint job, as opposed to the seven years previously on offer.
“At no stage did we try and avoid our corporate responsibilities — it was simply a matter of doing our due diligence,” he said.
“Every car manufacturer has issues. We do not like our customers to be inconvenienced.
“Once the issue was identified every measure has been taken to address it.”