Hi Chaps,
We bought a brand new Peugeot Expert van in black about a year ago, since then we've discovered it scratches bonkers easily.
We've now got two big line scratches all the way along the passenger side, where we brushed up against a bush.
There's lots of other smaller scratches on the van too.
Is this normal for a black vehicle? And - have we got any recourse to ask for them to sort the paintwork out?
Comparing the paint to my BMW, it looks like it has no laquer or sealant on it, just powder coated with one very thin layer.
Grrrrr!
Cheers
Ricks
Is this normal for a black vehicle?
In my experience yes.
Also commercial vehicles generally don't come we as nice paint as cars.
Is there anything we can do to protect the paint?
I had thought of:
- buying a ceramic coating, or something similar
- getting a vinyl wrap
.....
Flat black paint - Most definitely marks just looking at it. Same with most flat/non metallic paint finishes on vehicles, but black is by far the worst.
Metallic black - No worse than any cars but you are driving a van, it has big flat sides which show up every mark.
Ceramic coatings etc aren't worth the money in my experience. By the time you have washed it a few times over next 12mths, the benefits are difficult to see over a vehicle without the protection
The scratches will more than likely be removed by a decent machine polish. Make sure it’s done by someone who knows what they are doing though. Commercials generally don’t have much paint thickness to work with.
If you do get someone to do it, If they don’t have a paint thickness gauge, don’t let them near it.
Don't drive through bushes ?
The paint on my campers the same . Bushes are unavoidable as it's massively long wide and tall.
I'd be pissed if I'd bought it new but it's 15 years old so we just adopted the swamp look
I touch it up with hammerite as their red is a good colour match for post office red.
Peugeot Expert van in black
Comparing the paint to my BMW
They really are not comparable. Van will have done at the lowest end of budget as they can get away with, and only expected to last a few years.
Don’t drive through bushes ?
Generally unavoidable for us in the Borders at times, this time was a closed main road - so all traffic ended up down a single-track road with people unable to understand how wide their own vehicles are!
Try car polish first. Should take out minor marks. T-cut would also work but be careful/not too aggressive. You could also use colour magic polish - it's not bad at hiding marks.
Are these deep scratches, or just marks - any polish should take it out.
This is exactly the reason I order my vans in metallic silver, I find it hides scratches and dirt the best.
The ceramic coatings work wonders for keeping scratches at bay. If you already have scratches, you will need it cleaned, clayed, machine polished and then you can apply the ceramic coating. All that work is not going to be cheap, unless you do it yourself, but that may take a full day.
It's just life with a black van. I also have a year old expert.
Machine polish isn't the answer as it's a white undercoat, so the scratches show up all the better.
It's the main reason I went for a white car.
Paint correction and ceramic coating on a van is likely to cost north of £500 and last anywhere between 6 - 36 months, depending on the product and quality of workmanship.
For the last two years my job involved picking up ex-lease and Motability cars, often from home addresses, and quite often in and around Cornwall where there are lots of narrow lanes with hedges and banks right down to the tarmac. Scratches on the mirrors and all along the side of cars is common, regardless of make and model.
Black is the worst for showing blemishes because it becomes a mirror.