“We don’t make the paint, we make the paint better,” is the
slogan for the large multi-national chemical corporation BASF. Unfortunately, it is the way their product is
used, too thin at times and incorrectly applied, resulting in various types of
failures of the automobile’s finish. This manifests itself sooner than the specified life span of the
vehicles; which in many cases is defined as 10 to 15 years. Certainly sooner than the financing periods
of 4 to 5 years!
The supporting data regarding the paint job is correlated
and expertly indexed in the resource guide, Making
it Right: Why your Car payments are lasting longer than your Factory Paint Job
by Stephen N. Gaiski. This book is
published in the Basic Guide format,
enabling an introduction of this highly technical material to be assimilated by
everyone in the industry having a need-to-know regarding the details. These groups are categorized by
manufacturers, dealers and consumers. As
adherence to the paint’s specifications are not capable of being viewed by the
naked eye, especially on a showroom floor, a patented procedure for the
technical measurement of the thicknesses of each of the car’s coats of paint,
primer, and clear-coat are expertly identified. This patent used for measurement is held as intellectual property of Zestar
Corporation, the company Stephen N. Gaiski is technical director. A trend of recent years in auto manufacturing
has changed from having the car maker paint the product to having the parts
received already painted; thus removing by one step quality control of the
finish.
Of course there are many factors affecting the paint of a
vehicle including but not limited to climate, having the vehicle regularly
parked in a garage or exposed, road conditions and car care schedules of
cleaning, polishing and maintenance. However, statistically Gaiski brings masses of data into the picture,
allowing for conclusions to be brought forward with a significant level of
accuracy. For example, “A 2003 BASF
publication stated the average life of vehicles as approximately 12 years. In 2008, the publication edited by a former
BASF and current DuPont expert states the life expectancy of new cars as 15
years or longer.” This is longer than
the 10 year warranty of the paint job, with some exceptions even the “lifetime
warranty” is misleading. Automakers are
selling a bill of goods to the public hedging on misrepresentation. In particular, owners or potential buyers of
Ford’s Escape or Mazda’s Tribute should pay attention to the high
level of reported paint peelings, separating, flaking and body rust. In total, scores of automobile makes and
models are identified as high in paint problems, as well as some honorably mentioned
as being satisfactory or above satisfactory.
The book has an easy to navigate index listing most models
by year and tendency to have paint problems, specifically identifying what to
expect. This is a valuable resource for
any educated used-car buyer and a nightmare for used-car sellers! A second index is helpful for terms and areas
of specific interest for the readers. Making it Right is an invaluable tool
for all car dealerships, used-car lots, and most importantly buyers of
automobiles. It is not a book to be read
from cover-to-cover, although frankly I found each recapitulation of facts of
notable interest and was fascinated by the level of research that has gone into
the making of this book. It is something
all car salesmen should be aware of as well as Caveat Emptor! (Let the buyer beware!)
