[robincsamuel]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Is there any rubbing of the door on the main car frame i.e. the point where the door touches the bottom floor portion.

Verified this again, there's at least a half a centimeter gap between the door and the frame.

Originally Posted by Stratos

If I were you, I would not just have them fix it but also have them clarify on how it happened in the first place. If they damaged it in the showroom and fixed it without letting you know, they should come clean with. It is unacceptable for a showroom to hide such an incident.

Chances of this thing happening in the factory is possible, but very rare. If it did happen, it would be a batch of cars and not just one.

I agree. And yes, I'm trying to find the cause rather than a fix. Also, I'm trying to find a car in the same batch to validate.

Originally Posted by naikameya

The official review photos do not seem to have this issue but can't say for sure from the photos. But I am damn sure our reviewers would have caught this.

Aren't there Sonet owners here on Team-BHP who can check this on their cars? Either way, I suggest you do not accept any fix till you figure out why this exist. This could be a damaged car repainted. These can't be ones missed at the factory level.

Sure, I won't be accepting a fix before finding the root cause.

While the official review photos are very detailed, I absolutely understand if anyone misses this even if it's there. It's really difficult to see this in daylight since it's a curvy ground-facing area/corner with reflections.

Originally Posted by nitkel

The chances of this happening at the showroom and all doors requiring repainting are also very rare. So the best possible outcome for the OP would be to get it repainted and get some years of guarantee/warranty on the paint. The car seems fine otherwise. To the OP: Get the issue sorted and put it behind you. If you dwell on it too much then the car will never be in a satisfactory condition for you to really enjoy owning it.

Yeah, I'm absolutely happy with the car. And as I said in my previous posts, I'm not too much worried about the color as it's not at all visible unless you are specifically looking for this with a torch. I might even skip touching up/repainting the area if it's safe. I still believe it's not repainted or damaged car, and my intention is to find the root cause and make sure this won't cause any issues like rusting in the future.

[sagarpadaki]

I would suggest to only get that area where there is color difference re-painted, assuming the doors are not repainted at the dealership. Because the dealership manual painting cannot replicate the factory finish.

[adityasatish]

Originally Posted by robincsamuel

I'd just leave it as is if that's the case. But are you sure all the manufacturers follow the same process, I mean CED?. Asking since I don't see anything like that in their video,

You can see the coating on the body before the apply the paint in the video. Every single manufacturer does this, unlike painting in which a surface is sprayed with liquid , CED is a process where the entire car is submerged into a electrical conductive bath. The exposed part you see in your car would have been complete rust within days if it wasn't for the CED, so yes, rest assured your car is coated.

[igemini]

Personally, I don't think it's a big problem. Unless you find something wrong with your car. Like structural damage, rattles, uneven fit and finish, colour mismatch etc. As long as there are sufficient paint/clear coat, it will be safe from corrosion. And moreover these are hidden areas. So it will be best not to get those repainted from the dealer unless you feel it's absolutely necessary.

Chances of all 4 doors to be damaged prior delivery is very unlikely. But we never know. The best way to clear the doubt in your mind shall be go the dealer's showroom or service centers. Open a few of the cars present there and find if any of them have such painting defects.

Nonetheless, this is indeed a failure of to their QC unless a deliberate attempt by Kia to cut cost for whatever reasons.

Enjoy the car and don't get stressed

[govigov]

Out of curiosity, is there clear coat on the unpainted surfaces of the car? Just wondering if they did bother to put clear coat straight on primer.

[robincsamuel]

Originally Posted by igemini

Personally, I don't think it's a big problem. Unless you find something wrong with your car. Like structural damage, rattles, uneven fit and finish, colour mismatch etc. As long as there are sufficient paint/clear coat, it will be safe from corrosion. And moreover these are hidden areas.

I agree. I’m trying to find the reason behind and make sure there’s no other damage.

Originally Posted by govigov

Out of curiosity, is there clear coat on the unpainted surfaces of the car? Just wondering if they did bother to put clear coat straight on primer.

I think, yes. I’m not able to feel any difference when I run my hands from a properly painted area to this unpainted area. However, it looks like there isn’t enough clear coat in this area on one door (rear right). It feels rough like a failed clear coat attempt.

[no_fear]

There is a similar door panel paint mismatch problem reported on the US Kia owners forum. There is no exact solution to this mystery but one poster reported the following based on his observation

As per the poster: the doors are painted, and then taken apart for installation of the windows and padding and then re-attached to the car. It is possible during this process, the original doors were not installed on the same car but on a different car. Rarely happens as parts are tagged to the chassis, but it has happened before.

To rectify this mistake, the factory then takes doors from separate assembly line and puts them on the car. But they hurried with the process in terms of repainting, so missed out on areas.

A very long shot, but in your case, all 4 doors have the same issue, so it clearly is a manufacturing issue and not dealer or delivery related.

My thoughts: Kia India did a bad paint job batch. The robots didn't cover the entire door panels - probably a software or human error.

[Fastdriver]

It appears to be a factory issue of poor quality control (if the door seals are intact then the doors are factory fitted, not changed).

[robincsamuel]

Update: I visited Kia service last week and they inspected the car. The service engineers said it's there in many cars (I couldn't find one there though) and confirmed it's a factory issue. They didn't say the word, issue; said, it's like that, as if it's designed to do that.

They offered a fix, but I didn't want to get it touched up or repainted as I'm worried it would get worse (at least it's a hidden area now).

I'm waiting for an official communication confirming what they said and I guess that's it.

Thanks, everyone for chiming in.

Btw, the Team-bhp post did make an impact and I got several calls from Kia after the news was published.