58 replies to this topic

[skrich]

A survey of Dacia paint/bodywork issues is proposed.

 

It is appreciated some members have suffered vexing mechanical/electrical issues: that is important and shouldn't be ignored. However, right now paint/bodywork appears to be a common concern among forum members and is being suffered by a number of people. 

 

The aim of a proposed survey is to see if there is sufficient evidence to suggest paint/bodywork is something we should be concerned about in terms of our investment and the residual value of our vehicles in a few years time. In other words; when we were invited to “do the maths” did someone forget to add something? Hopefully the survey will suggest that Dacias are no worse than any other marque. We shall see. 

 

Hopefully this initial survey will determine whether there is widespread support from members for a more detailed Stage 2 Survey to be prepared and the conclusions maybe submitted to Dacia Customer Sevices.

 

Many members will have noted that UK Dusters, built in India, seem to be the worst affected (judging by the number of Duster posts), but please do contribute to this initial survey whatever vehicle you own. Equally, input from Overseas members will be extremely useful.

[skrich]

A few basic stats to start with before we decide what, if any, the next step should be. 

 

• This poll has been viewed 409 times (I may be responsible for 10 of those!)
• 27 people have voted
• 17 say they have found issues with the paint/bodywork on their Dacias
• 10 have not found anything
• 25 of the 27 are prepared to provide more detailed information about their car if we take this exercise further, eg. to a Stage 2 survey for instance.

The first question appears, to me, to revolve around the fact that as at today there are 2,837 members of this forum. Presumably not all have Dacias (yet) but there must be a few hundred given that 158 people have voted in the "What is the most popular model of Dacia?" poll - 90 of whom have Dusters.

 

Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment the extent of the problem could be that:

 

63% of all cars have or will have a problem (see the results of this poll to date above) or

19% have or will have a problem (ie. 17 out of 90 Dusters) or

11% (17 out of 158) or

4% (17 out of 400 - the number of people who have viewed this post) or

0.6% (17 out of 2,800 forum members)

 

 

Should we proceed to a second stage survey to identify certain details of those cars with issues such as:

Type

Model

Colour

When ordered

When arrived in Country

When delivered

Etc (There are more and we have suggested some in a previous thread)

 

This information might lead us to the conclusion that a particular batch or batches of cars have problems. This may be enough detail without the need to reveal the individual VIN number of a car which people may be justifiably uncomfortable with revealing to a third party - even one on the forum (although I have read that only part of a VIN number may be needed to ascertain when it was assembled and therefore it might be enough to give part but not all of the number for our purposes - but there may well be people on here with a better knowledge of this and can tell us whether that is correct or not).

 

That's all I've got for the moment. We have talked a lot about rust and people are understandably worried. Either it's an isolated issue and the few that have a problem take it up thru their dealer and Dacia CS, or we feel as a group that we should put some pressure on Dacia to do some proper investigation and be proactive if there is a widespread issue.

 

Thoughts/views??

[arob.wk]

skrich.  My 1st thought is to let the survey run a while longer (now that it is pinned).  Secondly, it might be worth inviting voters (existing and any new ones) to simply post their Dacia model here.  While the poll hoped to cover all models, it is lodged in the Duster forum and it would be interesting to see what models are covered presently.  Trusting that others will agree, I'll start the ball rolling:

 

I voted (Duster 4WD)

[Troute]

I think what's needed is a thread purely for those affected to post photos of the problem areas, along with details of where and car specs. One of the mods can keep others comments etc. out of it.

 

Photo/s

Diagram? or written description

Specs

Action taken

Dealer response?

[TruBrit]

Totally agree Troute.

[arob.wk]

I think what's needed is a thread purely for those affected to post photos of the problem areas, along with details of where and car specs. One of the mods can keep others comments etc. out of it.

 

Photo/s

Diagram? or written description

Specs

Action taken

Dealer response?

I'm not about to disagree Troute - a collective "bank" of photographic evidence may well prove useful for collective or individual assessments of any problems   However, Dacia will already have the photographic evidence, from dealers, for vehicles that have been taken back due to bodywork/paint issues. 

 

With respect, I believe the survey was aimed at serving a wider purpose (the following is an entirely personal perspective):  are bodywork/paint issues endemic across the Dacia fleet (i.e. is that where the maths equation doesn't add up?);  if it's not endemic, are there model or colour specific problems?;  if there are model or colour specific problems, are these time related (particular production run/s maybe);  if any of the former is indicated, can we somehow join forces to ensure the best possible resolution that will restore confidence amongst those who are already suffering and those who are sucking teeth about buying one of these (actually) very nice cars?

 

So far, I'm of a mind that 28 votes is not enough to indicate very much.  I hope many more members owning ANY Dacia model will take the time to vote in the poll.  We only have a 2-yr paint warranty (as opposed to a 6-yr - as I recall - inside-out perforation/corrosion warranty) and early buyers will be just about half-way through their paintwork warranty now.  I reckon, time to test the hype versus experience! 

 

[And for anyone who hasn't read any/many of my past posts - I love my Duster.  I just didn't expect to find rust 3 months into ownership.  If you have been luckier, please vote anyway - it will help, one way or another! ]

[skrich]

I agree with your comments arob and yes I voted on behalf of my Duster 2wd (since he is too young to vote.)

[TruBrit]

Duster 2WD Silver Laureate.

[Troute]

I don't disagree Rob, I do seem to remember though that the initial spur for this thread was to find out just how widespread the problem is and as part of the same discussion to collect data to send to DCS if needed. The rusty Duster thread is too long and too difficult to navigate for someone trying to gather pictures and often there's info missing from posts.

 

As an example I have had a wee spot of rust show through but have not taken any action except to fix it myself so DCS won't have a scooby about it.

[Bang]

You not worried what next then Troute and when you've no warranty?

Posted Via The DaciaForum.co.uk App

[arob.wk]

I don't disagree Rob, I do seem to remember though that the initial spur for this thread was to find out just how widespread the problem is and as part of the same discussion to collect data to send to DCS if needed. The rusty Duster thread is too long and too difficult to navigate for someone trying to gather pictures and often there's info missing from posts.

 

As an example I have had a wee spot of rust show through but have not taken any action except to fix it myself so DCS won't have a scooby about it.

Heh Troute,  Re your 1st point (collect data to send to DCS), I totally agree.  Re your 2nd point (Rusty Duster thread), I totally agree.  Re your last point (DIY option), - guess what - I totally agree (they missed some spots on mine and, having taken photos of offending missed rustiness for submission to DCS, I will be doing some DIY myself (so that it don't get worse - 1st service inspection being a few months away).  

 

BTW, have you voted?

[Troute]

Yep.

[Troute]

You not worried what next then Troute and when you've no warranty?

Posted Via The DaciaForum.co.uk App

 

If I find rust serious enough to take to the dealer I'll do that. The spot I did find may come back or it may not (I did a pretty good job of grinding it out) if it returns I'll deal with it. After the warranty I'll do the same up to the point where I move on to some other vehicle.

[Shuflie]

A few basic stats to start with before we decide what, if any, the next step should be. 

 

• This poll has been viewed 409 times (I may be responsible for 10 of those!)
• 27 people have voted
• 17 say they have found issues with the paint/bodywork on their Dacias
• 10 have not found anything
• 25 of the 27 are prepared to provide more detailed information about their car if we take this exercise further, eg. to a Stage 2 survey for instance.

The first question appears, to me, to revolve around the fact that as at today there are 2,837 members of this forum. Presumably not all have Dacias (yet) but there must be a few hundred given that 158 people have voted in the "What is the most popular model of Dacia?" poll - 90 of whom have Dusters.

 

Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment the extent of the problem could be that:

 

63% of all cars have or will have a problem (see the results of this poll to date above) or

19% have or will have a problem (ie. 17 out of 90 Dusters) or

11% (17 out of 158) or

4% (17 out of 400 - the number of people who have viewed this post) or

0.6% (17 out of 2,800 forum members)

 

 

Should we proceed to a second stage survey to identify certain details of those cars with issues such as:

Type

Model

Colour

When ordered

When arrived in Country

When delivered

Etc (There are more and we have suggested some in a previous thread)

 

This information might lead us to the conclusion that a particular batch or batches of cars have problems. This may be enough detail without the need to reveal the individual VIN number of a car which people may be justifiably uncomfortable with revealing to a third party - even one on the forum (although I have read that only part of a VIN number may be needed to ascertain when it was assembled and therefore it might be enough to give part but not all of the number for our purposes - but there may well be people on here with a better knowledge of this and can tell us whether that is correct or not).

 

That's all I've got for the moment. We have talked a lot about rust and people are understandably worried. Either it's an isolated issue and the few that have a problem take it up thru their dealer and Dacia CS, or we feel as a group that we should put some pressure on Dacia to do some proper investigation and be proactive if there is a widespread issue.

 

Thoughts/views??

You left out a statistic, number of duster owners. I'll be very conservative with the numbers here and assume we are only talking UK dusters as this is a UK website (not meaning to offend anyone here, just show what you can do with statistics).

From this link http://www.autoexpre...hes-10000-sales we can again assume about 11500 dusters in the UK by now (probably being conservative again). That makes the percentage of dusters with faulty paint/bodywork 17 out of 11500 or very roughly 0.15%.

[TruBrit]

That's assuming that all UK Dusters outside of this forum have no paint/bodywork issues!

[arob.wk]

You left out a statistic, number of duster owners. I'll be very conservative with the numbers here and assume we are only talking UK dusters as this is a UK website (not meaning to offend anyone here, just show what you can do with statistics).

From this link http://www.autoexpre...hes-10000-sales we can again assume about 11500 dusters in the UK by now (probably being conservative again). That makes the percentage of dusters with faulty paint/bodywork 17 out of 11500 or very roughly 0.15%.

Shuflie,  Not in least offended. 

 

Let's just say you are right and that all 'I have a problem' votes (now 18 votes) are by Duster owners.  Then let's say (just for example) that the survey ultimately shows that all of those 18 problem vehicles were delivered to their owners within in a particular window of time and that no one else has a problem.  That would be a result for the (now) 0.16% of owners:  they might well wish to enquire (collectively or individually) whether the Dacia production-line manager was off sick or on holiday while their vehicles were being put together/QA checked before dispatch. 

 

In passing, have you voted?

[Troute]

That's assuming that all UK Dusters outside of this forum have no paint/bodywork issues!

 

The first rusty Duster I saw was on the dealers showroom floor!

[Shuflie]

Shuflie,  Not in least offended. 

 

Let's just say you are right and that all 'I have a problem' votes (now 18 votes) are by Duster owners.  Then let's say (just for example) that the survey ultimately shows that all of those 18 problem vehicles were delivered to their owners within in a particular window of time and that no one else has a problem.  That would be a result for the (now) 0.16% of owners:  they might well wish to enquire (collectively or individually) whether the Dacia production-line manager was off sick or on holiday while their vehicles were being put together/QA checked before dispatch. 

 

In passing, have you voted?

Not yet, but I picked up my duster secondhand and only have it for a few days. I've not had time to go over it properly, but have noticed the nuts on the bonnet hinges have a little rust on the corners, looks like they were tightened after painting and not reprotected.

[luxluther40]

I reported paintwork issues to my dealer back at the end of January. Photos were taken by the dealer and submitted for a claim under warranty. It is now the beginning of April and I've heard nothing. Doesn't seem like they are in any particular rush to resolve the issue.

 

My issues are mainly with substandard patches of coverage with the white paint where the priming coat is visible through the top coat.

 

No real (visible) rust issues yet but judging by this poll could there be a subliminal message in the word 'Duster' in the form of an anagram of 'Rusted'?

[arob.wk]

I reported paintwork issues to my dealer back at the end of January. Photos were taken by the dealer and submitted for a claim under warranty. It is now the beginning of April and I've heard nothing. Doesn't seem like they are in any particular rush to resolve the issue.

 

My issues are mainly with substandard patches of coverage with the white paint where the priming coat is visible through the top coat.

 

No real (visible) rust issues yet but judging by this poll could there be a subliminal message in the word 'Duster' in the form of an anagram of 'Rusted'?

Are those patches on body seams by any chance lux'?  Do keep an eye on if that is the case:  The "primer" coat is just as adverse to sharp edges as the top coat is.  Chances are both will be thin, but hopefully not on yours!

If you haven't already, make sure to vote:  thin paint counts - you don't have to have rust.