Rust on 1 year old Prius C

Where are you located? Are you in the North? Are you on a coast? We need to know what situations that you are dealing with. I haven't read about anybody else on the forums dealing with this yet. It's interesting.

 

First you need to find out what it is and where it is.
If it is on TOP of the clear coat, then it likely is "rail dust" or something else that just looks like rust.
If that is the case, a good cleaning and polish should make it like new again.
Rust does not "attack" paint, only metal.

 

Do these rust like spots look like the pictures attached at the end of the quote below?

Here's the thread where these pics were posted:

Fatally Disappointed--The Thread I never wanted to write. | PriusChat

 

To the OP...good luck.

I got ZERO support from my dealership or Toyota in resolving my issue either.

Infact, The Dealership left me with my only option being (in their opinion) live with them, or repaint the vehicle. At my expense.

Finding the right people...with the right skills was the key to my resolution.
Took my vehicle to numerous detailers and paint shops...most had no idea what the problem was, or how to resolve the issue.

When I was just about to give up, FINALLY found a shop that knew how to remove the spots. They weren't rust coming up from underneath in my case. SOMETHING did get on the surface.

Exactly what it was? Nobody ever was able to really ascertain.

Something, somehow, sometime got on my vehicle...and it was evil enough to work it's way underneath the Toyota Clear Coat.

Not impressed with Dealership Support or Toyota support in this matter. Also not impressed with the durability of Toyota Clear Coat. Whatever it was that got on my vehicle pretty easily worked it's way into the clear coat.

The regional rep...had no idea what the problem was, and his solution (an acid wash) was totally useless.

And I discovered that once the fabled Toyota Regional Rep makes a ruling about your vehicles condition and coverage? It's written in stone.

If I had listened to the dealership, I would of either just lived with the spots for possibly years, and the diminished value they create, and/or I would of paid thousands of dollars to have the whole vehicle repainted.

Without seeing the spots...my advice would be try detailers and paint shops, until you find one that believes they are removable.

You'll get a lot of resistance because I think a lot of detailers/body shops are really hesitant to touch the paint on a new vehicle.

 

Two days, and the OP has not returned to this thread... Maybe they are alien tracking devices?

TEM, it's a good thing you got yours removed. or you might have suffered the same fate as the OP.

SCH-I535

 

Just sayin' but it doesn't have anything to do with Toyota or the dealer. You got metal dust on the car, and it damaged it.

Someone across the street who was grinding on a piece of metal can cause this. It also isn't a problem with the Toyota paint. When a piece of metal dust settles on the car, it won't do anything while it's inert, but as soon as it starts to oxidize, there's a chemical reaction that will stain the paint. Same thing happens with a metal sliver in your eyeball. Wait a day to go to the doc, and just getting it out isn't enough; they have to grind out the stained rust ring.

See this kind of paint damage all the time. If you live by a rail yard or busy tracks, you're double screwed if the wind isn't in your favor.

 

It has to do with Toyota and The Dealers from the standpoint that I took my vehicle to the dealership and Toyota looking for help in resolving this problem.- I never thought or said THEY were the cause of the problem.

Ultimately, I got no help from them, and in fact their final offering was that I could choose to live with the spots OR repaint the whole vehicle. That was NEVER the correct answer to the problem.

I'm NOT really going to re-live this whole debacle. But I was very disappointed in the lack of support and knowledge that came from Toyota and the dealership.

Just like the OP in this situation, I think if you go to the dealership and Toyota with a problem, regardless of root cause, you should expect more help and knowledgeable support than what I received.

Once I found people that knew what was going on? The actual problem was relatively easily resolved. Had I listened to Toyota? Or gone the recommended direction of the dealership, either I'd still be living with the spots OR I'd have to pay thousands of dollars for a new paint job.

 

Your title is misleading. You don't have rust, you have fall out on your paint. This is no fault of Toyota. They don't have any control of what may be in the air. How often do you wash your car? If not once a week, that could be your problem

 

Again, the OP is AWOL from this thread.

SCH-I535

 

I'm not trying to be insensitive, but what difference would it have made if they did know what the problem was? Your end results still would have been deal with it or get the car repainted, if your car is at a certain point in the oxidation process.

 

body shoppe.

 

Listen, the problem got resolved...with some help from people here...advice...
And I finally found the right people to solve the problem.

But you expect Toyota...to be the experts on their own product. You take your vehicle to the dealership, you deal with "Customer Care" hoping and believing they will at least guide you to the right answer.

Instead, my experience was that they moved to quickly divorce themselves from any responsibility in even trying to find proper resolution, left the problem solely in my lap, with only the recommendation to do the entirely wrong and costly thing.

I love my Prius. I respect Toyota as an Automaker.

But I was NOT impressed with this particular dealership, nor was I impressed with "Toyota Care".

The "Service Adviser" that initially evaluated my problem, actually looked at the dots that are on ALL the windows of Prius Hatchbacks, and started to tell me the dots on the window proved that it wasn't a paint flaw. Until I TOLD him, those dots are for factory placement of the window....and on ALL PRIUS.....and were NOT the same as the spots appearing on my paint.

But anyway...the thread still exists. You can read my opinion as the events unfolded if you want to spend several hours reading. It's NOT Game Of Thrones, I will warn you.

I found resolution, with help, primarily from my Auto Insurance company. Thanks Amica.

And with no help from either this specific dealership...nor Toyota.

Feel free to think my opinion was wrong, is wrong or is unreasonable.

I'm happy I found resolution and I'm also more than happy to move on.

I've changed my dealership...I will not be taking my Prius back to the offending one.

So far the new Toyota dealership has been fine with my Oil Changes and maintenance. I have every hope things are better.

 

Unfortunately, I found the answer wasn't as easy as that.

In an attempt to find out what could be done, should be done, and reach resolution, I took my spotted Prius to several..many Body Shops, Paint Shops, and Detailers.

Most had no idea what had happened, and most really had no interest in attempting resolution.

I think in retrospect what was working against me, was that the vehicle was so "new" and still under warranty, that nobody really wanted to even attempt doing anything for fear of messing up.

Nobody really wants to paint a vehicle with new paint on it...spots or otherwise. Nobody really wants to be too aggressive with a paint job that is otherwise in good condition.

Nobody really wants to be the guy that voids your Toyota warranty in an attempt to reach resolution.

I finally found a body shop with paint experts good enough to know it wasn't rust coming up from underneath, and either a flaw with the paint nor the metal. Also a body shop with technicians good enough ( and brave enough) to polish out the spots.

But if you count against all the places I took my Prius too looking for the answer, including the Dealership itself, this was unfortunately a 1 in about 20+ places situation.

Body Shoppe CAN be the right answer...but it finding the right body shop, and people, at least for me, proved much more difficult than I would of expected.

 

There is a distinct lack of real experience and knowledge at a LOT of dealers these days.

My daughter's last car was a Matrix. Someone leaned against a front fender and "pushed" a dent into it.
The dealer quoted her something like $1400 for a new fender; only option.

A local body shop showed me that they could do a new fender for about half that........but then proceeded to take a few bolts loose and "pop" the dent back out. Good as new for $50 bucks. And I got a cup of coffee and a donut while waiting too.

Oh, and yes, the body shop guy was an "old fart" like me......who had taken pride in his work for a LOT of years. When good people retire, a lot of knowledge is lost.......especially when the new young bucks taking their place think they know it all and don't listen.

 

Its called paintless dent removal, they did not need to take any bolts off the fender....people get screwed everyday, who's fault is that? Everyone needs to do research and with all the info on line good and bad we are all much more educated consumers.

 

While that's a reasonable assumption, it is not true in this case.

They loosened the inner fender liner, took a small rubber hammer and "tapped" it a few times from the inside and it popped right back out.

 

Inner fender liner does not use bolts, they are held in with screws or plastic pop in screws. So bolts would be at the top portion of fender along the hood line.

 

Pardon me for not being precise enough to suite your sensibilities.
Would the generic term "fasteners" make you feel better ??

 

Well there is a big difference between plastic fasteners and bolts and where these are used on vehicles.