[robby-d]

What colour did you get? How's the paint holding up? Any rock chips? Scratches? Swirl marks? How about the black door pillars or other trim pieces? How many km/mi on your car?

Did you protect it with PPF? Apply ceramic or wax often? Or just go unprotected?

Lots of posts on here about costs and options around professional PPF and ceramic, but I haven't seen any indication of how necessary it is. Hoping especially to hear from northern Europeans who've had the car longer and may deal with more grit on the road.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Willooow]

The black pillars of my car were swirled up by the dealer when they washed it. Seems to be very soft plastic. Taking it to dealer next week to have them polish it.

 

[Logicpro8]

Got pearl white here in the UK, very harsh conditions since January, salt, grit, snow, rain.

No swirls on the white paint at all which is expected, my past white Audi from 2019 never had a swirl on it, it was taken though all sorts of car washes lol white paint is really good like that, damage wise....one chip just above the Kia logo on the front so far, but mostly annoying, damage to the inside of the car due to the kids and hard toys being allowed in the car, scratch/chip on the passenger side door trim and rear side centre console section black plastic. As I understand from a local interior trimmers, they heat the plastic up to fix this and stamp it with the pattern they create from another section of the trim, £45 to fix it they say, and won't ever seen it .

For the paint chip I just bought a touchup pen, not the brush kit from Kia to fix it, same company I used for Audi touch ups in the past, get really good flow from the metal tip and fill the chip fully, polish by hand after a few days.

Black piano trim on the outside.... its only a matter of time before it starts swirling, try Poorboys black hole for polishing this! be careful Kia paint and plastic is really soft, not as hard as Audi German paints/plastic weirdly. I use a duel action polisher, just a cheap basic one, does the job, but only so much you can polish these black trims, they are very thin!!! be careful, I took my Audi A4 trim down to the bare plastic in no time by mistake, had to be replaced.

PPF is expensive and in my past experience isn't worth it really, maybe on the front areas, it ends up peeling and looking terrible. GardX ceramic... had it before with Audi, seems good value at £399 for a full coating, dirt and bird poop just run off it with the slightest water cleaning, no need to even try. Also had GardX inside, didn't do anything to stop scratches on black Piano trim or stop staining with sweets in the back (kids!!!) had too have it steam cleaned in the end to remove some staining.

 

[JK-KIAEV6]

For the paint chip I just bought a touchup pen, not the brush kit from Kia to fix it, same company I used for Audi touch ups in the past, get really good flow from the metal tip and fill the chip fully, polish by hand after a few days.

Who do you use?

 

[Logicpro8]

I have always used Xtreme Autos, Audi back in the day but £20-30 for a brush touchup kit... just looks horrible, £14 from Kia direct via dealer, brush kit again. Halfords don't do the white I was after for the EV6, Pearl White, their kids are good, non brush kits.

Check them out: For Kia E-Soul Snow White SWP Touch Up Paint Pen Chip,Scratch,Repair | eBay

My paint code is in the manual sticker shows SWP although, Kia sell the car in the UK as Pearl White SWP, should really only go on paint code for touch up. US market is Snow White Pearl SWP.

 

[Logicpro8]

Forgot to mention. I did opt for PPF on my red Audi A4 Saloon from 2017 and never worried about paint fixing of chips..... BUT it didn't hold up well to sun, turned a kind of yellow, weird colour, bugs that etched the coating on the bumper, store chip rips and dents, last 18 months before it looked terrible with stone chips and weird marks, took it off wast self healing, now I opt for chip repair and do polishing myself with the dual action polisher, gotta be careful with Kia paint though.... very soft compared to German brands. PPF money kind of wasted... Can get the whole bonnet resprayed for £80, including bumpers and wings £150...
PPF is around £500! and is just a total rip off. I see some folks here have gone for PPF.... hope its self healing stuff and non yellowing. Anyway, each to their own.

Just fixed a chip on the EV6 today, can't even see it, fill with paint, dry for a few hours, wet sand with 3000+ grit, polish, if it needs polished at all, that paint from above on eBay is great at self levelling, trick is to get it smooth from the get go. The old razor blade trick works well after its dried as well, trip off the top and polish, no sanding.

Might grab some ceramic and try that on the EV6, worked well on my previous ICE 2019 Audi which was white, easy on, last 2 years or so, dirt just slide off! no chip protection though, it's not that good to stop stones at 70mph on the bypass I am sure it does something at slower speeds else they wouldn't use it.

 

[jjswan33]

I’ve got Steel Matte Gray. No protection. Had it a couple weeks and I have driven it up on Mt Hood with plenty of grit on the road.

1 small chip and what I guess is a scratch in the matte coating. Both on the hood and likely due to road debris kicked up.

 

[JK-KIAEV6]

I guess the Matt Grey is going to be hard to hide marks.

 

[Reacher]

After 1000 miles I have 2 small chips on my hood. Thinking it might be partially due to the design. There is not your traditional grill to catch some of these. I'm fearing this is going to be an uphill battle to fight.

 

[KiaevCan]

Yacht Blue. Only swirls on the black plastic so far. The dealer is replacing the B-pillar trim because they noticed the scratches before delivery.

One thing I noticed is that the rear lip spoiler/rear tailight plastic scratches REALLY easily. As in, I ran my finger over it and it left scratch marks. How is this possible?!? Needless to say, that plastic trim is scratched up so I'm not going to even bother.

I had a Toyota with a shiny piano black plastic rear spoiler for 10 years and it looked better than the piano black exterior trim pieces on my 3-week old EV6.

 

[Willk64]

What colour did you get? How's the paint holding up? Any rock chips? Scratches? Swirl marks? How about the black door pillars or other trim pieces? How many km/mi on your car?

Did you protect it with PPF? Apply ceramic or wax often? Or just go unprotected?

Lots of posts on here about costs and options around professional PPF and ceramic, but I haven't seen any indication of how necessary it is. Hoping especially to hear from northern Europeans who've had the car longer and may deal with more grit on the road.

Thanks in advance!

Yacht Blue. I have a few dots of red and a few dots of white probably from overspray mostly on passenger side front door. Hardly noticeable unless you look real close.

 

[tonester]

Mine's been sitting in a body shop for two weeks as of tomorrow due to paint blemish issues from PDI and/or carelessness. Was told by the dealership manager that I will be compensated at least one car payment for my inconvenience; however, still no decision on how they plan to rectify the damage--they are clearly trying to avoid having to repaint the entire vehicle, but based on my untrained observation I don't see how they can rectify the issue without having to repaint; mine is the Steel Matte Gray, so not a walk in the park as far as seeing if they can just simply polish out the blemish.

 

[robby-d]

So, an update from me (Yacht Blue). (TL;DR: my paint is soft, and the piano black is very easily marred.)

I decided to put PPF on the front bumper cover, hood, and all the piano black up high in the A/B/C pillar area. I did the upper areas because the lot guys washed my car before delivery and it was already swirled. I didn't bother with the low black at the base of the doors because I figured it would get dirty instantly anyways.

2 days before my PPF I was moving a hose in my garage and it caught up and the metal screw end spun around, hitting my front bumper and leaving a rather large and deep scratch (fairly heavy initial impact, but sounded like it bounced off and then rubbed gently across, but definitely left a considerable mark despite low contact pressure). D'oh! It mostly polished out, the PPF did a good job of hiding where it didn't. I also had a good look at the paint under the shop lights, and it was already lightly swirled, especially one area where they "corrected" some shipping damage but caused some deeper swirls. The detailer got that out for me.

The PPF guy told me that Kias and Hyundais (and some others) are known for having very very soft paint. Not Tesla soft, but not great either. "Expect paint damage" he said.

On the plus side, the PPF was ceramic coated and it's amazing how much better it is at keeping the car clean than the fresh coat of Maguiar's Ultimate I put on the rest of the vehicle. The PPF did a great job of hiding existing swirls in the piano black, and is inexpensive on trim pieces (it's mostly material costs for this stuff, it's expensive)

 

[KiaevCan]

So, an update from me (Yacht Blue). (TL;DR: my paint is soft, and the piano black is very easily marred.)

I decided to put PPF on the front bumper cover, hood, and all the piano black up high in the A/B/C pillar area. I did the upper areas because the lot guys washed my car before delivery and it was already swirled. I didn't bother with the low black at the base of the doors because I figured it would get dirty instantly anyways.

2 days before my PPF I was moving a hose in my garage and it caught up and the metal screw end spun around, hitting my front bumper and leaving a rather large and deep scratch (fairly heavy initial impact, but sounded like it bounced off and then rubbed gently across, but definitely left a considerable mark despite low contact pressure). D'oh! It mostly polished out, the PPF did a good job of hiding where it didn't. I also had a good look at the paint under the shop lights, and it was already lightly swirled, especially one area where they "corrected" some shipping damage but caused some deeper swirls. The detailer got that out for me.

The PPF guy told me that Kias and Hyundais (and some others) are known for having very very soft paint. Not Tesla soft, but not great either. "Expect paint damage" he said.

On the plus side, the PPF was ceramic coated and it's amazing how much better it is at keeping the car clean than the fresh coat of Maguiar's Ultimate I put on the rest of the vehicle. The PPF did a great job of hiding existing swirls in the piano black, and is inexpensive on trim pieces (it's mostly material costs for this stuff, it's expensive)

Ahh darn. Guess I should get mine done sooner than later.

 

[robby-d]

Ahh darn. Guess I should get mine done sooner than later.

The installer said that the PPF hides swirls and some minor defects and micro scratches, and it really seems to. So as long as you're not a clumsy idiot like me I'm sure you'll be fine

 

[KiaevCan]

The installer said that the PPF hides swirls and some minor defects and micro scratches, and it really seems to. So as long as you're not a clumsy idiot like me I'm sure you'll be fine

That’s perfect. I’m legitimately concerned about the piano black exterior pieces. They don’t seem as durable as Toyota’s (which is the only other brand I’ve had with a vehicle with a large area of piano black on the exterior). The dealer is already replacing the b-pillar trim (no idea which one. They both have noticeable scratches).

So far, the mirror and lower door trim pieces are holding up. I have a weird smudge mark on the rear spoiler that didn’t go away with washing. I may try again with a claybar. The car needs a wax. The hood doesn’t even bead water!

 

[robby-d]

That’s perfect. I’m legitimately concerned about the piano black exterior pieces. They don’t seem as durable as Toyota’s (which is the only other brand I’ve had with a vehicle with a large area of piano black on the exterior). The dealer is already replacing the b-pillar trim (no idea which one. They both have noticeable scratches).

So far, the mirror and lower door trim pieces are holding up. I have a weird smudge mark on the rear spoiler that didn’t go away with washing. I may try again with a claybar. The car needs a wax. The hood doesn’t even bead water!

I had weird smudges around my car, they were either shipping damage or clearcoat overspray. I'm awaiting a replacement black trim piece now, actually (they corrected the others that were in the paint). I suggest referring it to your dealership first.

Kia makes amazing cars but they skimp on the paint, that's for sure. At this price, there has to be SOME compromise.

 

[tonester]

Still waiting (been 2 weeks now) to hear back from the dealer and/or body shop as to how they ultimately intend to address/fix the blemishes/marks on my matte finish FE.

Hood:

Driver's side doors:

 

[robby-d]

Still waiting (been 2 weeks now) to hear back from the dealer and/or body shop as to how they ultimately intend to address/fix the blemishes/marks on my matte finish FE.

Hood:
View attachment 4870

Driver's side doors:
View attachment 4871

I bet they're trying everything to avoid re-painting because a) expense and b) it's probably harder to match repainted panels when it's not just colour but also texture that you're trying to match.

Kia had better learn awful quick that if they want to sell premium cars at premium prices they better damn well provide a premium experience and premium post-sales service to their customers.

 

[Kent EV6]

The black pillars of my car were swirled up by the dealer when they washed it. Seems to be very soft plastic. Taking it to dealer next week to have them polish it.

I have a similar experience. I have been keeping our car very well and there was literally no swirls at all. Then one wash by the dealer and now there are swirls everywhere - not only on the black pillars. Very irritating. My dealer has agreed on paying some of the cost for a polish, but there’s a general opinion that you have to accept some level of swirls so I really can’t argue for a free polish.