OMG, :chix I am completly sick to my stomach. I have a black 04' 330ci with 3,800 miles on that I have had since May... I have taken maticulious care of it and have no less than $300 in car car products for the paint.

I had not one swirl mark on the car (actually I had 2 and I knew where they were)... I take the car in to get the batterydrain recall done and a speaker hum looked at. I told them not to wash my car.

This morning... I almost puked when I opened up my garage and I saw it in the daylight. It looks as if they used a newpaper to wash my car. Thousands of swirlmarks all over my car....!!

All my cars are black and I take the time to wash them properly or I dont wash them. I cannot beleive the BMW dealer doesnt used Microfiber products... but I cant own this ghetto washed car.

Somethings are just beautiful as stock and left immaculate.... now the experiance of owning this car is ruined for me. The paint looks so stupid that it will not look right untill there are thousand more swirl marks to fill-in the area that were missed from the dealer.

This is not an over reaction, this car sat for weeks dirty, until I had the 6-8 hours it took to wash and wax her. I dirty car is better than a f*cked up one... !!

We have an automated car wash at my dealer, and it does a bang up job at striping all the wax from a car. The lot "techs" also have a selection of 15 y.o. chamois to choose from. I used to have a big sign saying "Do not wash" that I used to keep on the dash when the car went for service, but now all the guys there know me and my cars and don't touch them.

Get a Porter Cable orbital buffer and some 3M SMR and get to work, or you could always complain to the dealer and rake your chances with a comp'ed "detail".

Island,

Thanks for the post, I knew I've should've mad a sign or sumthing.. But I did tell them and thats why I am angry.

I have a Porter Cable, I have over $100 in micro fiber products and another $140 in just Pinnicle products. I also invested over 20 hours a month into my exterior... ruined.

SMR will not do anything to et the car looking like it did before.... it wil help, but now I have a new car.... that feel like I bought used.

You should go back and complain and since they couldnt do it right tell them u dont want them to do it again so tell them to reimburse u for a professional wax or detail job.

Oh, I will complain.... I can't do anything till Monday. But I doubt a "professional" would spend 20 hours on my car like I would. The point being is that there is no reimbursment from a perfect paintjob gone bad.

It's winter now here in Mich, and she will sit till a nice day or spring... When I do it and if I am not happy with it I will have them order me a new car... seeing that mine has les than 4,000 miles on it, they can have it and I will buy new one... period. BBB and BMWNA is what I will hold over their heads.

I dont want to beat this issue to death... just that BMW are so simple... I like the simple things... less is more. Thanks for listening to me "vent".

ROFL I don't think they are going to give you a new car.

Your paint can be easily repaired by somebody that knows what they are doing. If you know how to properly use your PC and the right products, you should have no problem removing the swirl and toweling marks.

give me an update of how is your complain with the dealer...

very curious of what thier reaction.....

sometimes they never understand what car lover think....

Just use some 3M FI-II.

Hello,
I took my car in to them to SHOW them, he admitted the car was washed wrongly and that the swirl marks stood out considerably (even on a somewhat dirty car.. drive is 80 miles to dealer) against the rest of the car. I explained the care I took with MY car and why I was more than upset.

I was as frantic as I was when I started this thread... but I told him that ordering a new car wasnt out of options for me. We came to a rather nice agreement and I will be taking care of the marks myself.

He totoally understood that my car was a hobbie and that I was an enthusiest and didnt make me feel ecentric or asking to much. I think they took some classes on how to deal with types like me.. really.


Swirl Marks: I really cant begine to explain to many of the professions and enthusiest here of what each thinks of a paint job, I've seen cars that people stand by so proudly and I look and walk. I am not saying amny of you do not know what they are doing or have no idea what I am talking about.... but...

... This cars paint WAS prestine, never been touched by anything other than Microfiber. If you lay a sweat-shirt across the hood of a car, and the wind blows it off... it will leave "tiny" little scraps on the paint... very small but there... this car didnt even have those. Let alone a swirl mark. Albiet it's an insane task to keep a car from such a normal environment...

I drive it 6 months out of the year and only on weekends.. I had my vette for 3 years, had 14,000 miles on it and sold it for $4k less than I paid for it.... the owner called me a week later and told me "This car is cleaner than it was when it was built... I cant beleive you waxed all the paint in the engine bay" I laughed... I chided with him saying "I did that so the car wont rust"

So what type of agreement did you guys come agree to?
By the way, do you have any pics of your car before the dealer messed it up?

Yeah so where is this pristine machine with all of the swirl marks?

What did you dealer do for you?

Boy, you must be really smooth with the ladies if you can sweet talk a dealer like that.

hey...any update? what kinds of agreement u guys come up with? i suppose he must give u a very good deal on something b.c as i know u taken your car far more better than ur wife so i think u have to receive some sort of agreement that satisfy you....

Can we know what is it....cheers !

how about letting all us amateurs know your tips & tricks on keeping the car's paint condition swirl/scratch free. I think we all do our best to keep our paint jobs in mint condition but somehow when I look my paint job at a certain angle, I can still see a few scratches/swirl marks.......thx

:D

Jyep, you can find some really good guides on cleaning and caring for your paint with David's How-to's

Just do a username search for "David" in the detailing section.

you have serious phsycological problems that should be dealt with before your car ;) Just pay some guy to detail the goddamn thing and stop bitching

ok, hd crashed running on a backup system... forgot about thsi thread.

No, I just believe that things can be kept pristine if properly taken care of.

I guess many of you didnt read the entire thread... I wouldnt let them pay to have my car done... nor would I even let them Pay me to send it to get it done. Only I touch my car.

I am not a professional... I dont make money doing it... I do it for enjoyment and satisfaction. When I wash my car it usually turns into a 7-8 hour ordeal. It stems from only owning black cars all my life and the compulsive hatred for ANY defect.

Once there is a swirl mark there will always be a swirl marks.... all a "professional" will do is reduce the sight of the swirl mark to make it less noticable. Albeit, so reduced that 95% of people cannot see it.

Like I said earlier... it all over with.. it's no longer my "baby" but just a car... and I guess thats just as well.

yeah, I know what you mean, that sucks. Just like getting your first ding..........

Garrett,

I know how you feel. I'm as compulsive as you are. The neighbors think I'm totally off my rocker!!

I'm sorry to hear about your car. And yes, black is a pain to keep clean. If the slightest particle of dust is rubbed into the paint it will create a noticable swirl. But I think you'd be surprised at how well your PC + FI2 will remove the swirls. Finesse It 2 will actually abrade a minimal amount of clear reducing or eliminating the mark.

And to the poster who puts a sign on their dash to not wash his car. I do the same thing. My dealer also thinks I'm off my rocker!! Good to see I'm not alone.

wow, don't kill yourself over it though, it's just a car :biglaughb

oh man, it sounds like your car is worse than a black limo! have you ever seen the way they detail those things? it looks like youre staring into a spiderweb when any light hits the high gloss swirled out paint.

but i know exactly what you mean. the other day i spent 4 hours cleaning my dad's m3...just so he can drive it to work and soil it again.