[Omkar]

Thanks to Anto Pandian for sending in the details. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing it with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP share page!

I am facing a severe rusting issue on my 2017 Maruti Ciaz Petrol. All 4 door panels of my car have rusted within 6 years from the date of purchase. As of now, I've done some silicon and paint touchups to slow down the corrosion from spreading. Also attaching the response given by the company after multiple email follow-ups.

Response from the dealership -

Based on your feedback & request, the vehicle was thoroughly inspected by our Technical team of M/S Aadhi cars on 22-04-2023 in your presence at your residence. Technical team observation was the rusting is due to an external source/climate source and not due to any manufacturing defect. Hence the complaint will be rectified on a paid basis.

Requesting your valuable approval.

[mints21]

This is not new. My own Maruti Ciaz which was purchased in May 2016 is having similar problem in Delhi NCR.

Spoke to many advisors at Nexa and they say it's a common problem with many cars from Maruti stable and the only way out is change of doors which costs approximately Rs.15000/- per door.

I have decided to sell the car and move on from Maruti once and for all.

The so called NEXA is only premium when it comes to selling a car.

Once you are at a service station of so called NEXA you see nothing which is premium.

Case in point is Rohan Motors, Sector-1, Noida. According to Maruti this is the so called platinum dealership.

May be there awarding criteria is only and only sales and no service.

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by Omkar

Based on your feedback & request, the vehicle was thoroughly inspected by our Technical team of M/S Aadhi cars on 22-04-2023 in your presence at your residence. Technical team observation was the rusting is due to an external source/climate source and not due to any manufacturing defect. Hence the complaint will be rectified on a paid basis.

Requesting your valuable approval.

Hats off to those intelligent inspectors from M/s Aadhi Cars for such a very significant finding. We never really knew that rusting is due to only "some unknown and anonymous external source/ climate source (or ET source?)" and not at all due to any manufacturing defect.

Hence, Marutis now get added to the rust bucket list. The list includes manufacturers like Mahindra too. And a coastal town would be the best testing ground for the metal succumbing to vagaries of nature faster than drier towns.

We had thought that the "rust era" epitaph was written long ago, post the disappearance of Padminis and Ambassadors with their siblings. But no, we are wrong. The rust era survives and is rocking.

The car metal needs to be treated well to last for at least a decade without any issues. But the OE's are more concerned about production, despatches, profits and company balance sheets.

[Kosfactor]

To my eyes this is a classic case of improper washing & care for the vehicle. I think we`ll see some more rust in areas like the corner the doors, the edge of the wheel well, possibly the weld seam on the roof, bottom of the windshield and many more places if we go looking.

[himanshu_trikha]

Originally Posted by mints21

This is not new. My own Maruti Ciaz which was purchased in May 2016 is having similar problem in Delhi NCR.

Spoke to many advisors at Nexa and they say it's a common problem with many cars from Maruti stable and the only way out is change of doors which costs approximately Rs.15000/- per door..

Let’s take a scenario where in the sheet metal used for this Car was of subpar quality ,then this would have been a problem for a good number of cars given the volumes maruti rolls out.I still own a Ciaz Diesel bought in June 2016 (same timeline) and there has not been a single rust spot till date ,same was the case of my other maruti owned cars.

I faced this problem once with a Santro we owned and zeroed that ground water with high TDS at accumulation points/dead zones was the culprit.This can also happen if the car is under layer of dust which can be hygroscopic in nature.This is the typical significant mechanism of corrosion.

IMHO,It will be very difficult for you to prove company responsible since it’s a multiple cause scenario.

[steadfast]

This is bad for a 6th year for any car.
If this was a Volkswagen it would not have rusted and even if it rusted irrespective of any source or reason Volkswagen would have replaced it free of cost as there is 6 year anti-corrosion warranty by default from factory for lower segment cars and 12 year anti corrosion warranty on cars like Tiguan and TROC.

[Ravi Parwan]

This is definitely due to the poor workmanship of Maruti, compounded by the high TDS of ground water used for daily wash.

I have seen similar problem in 3 balenos in my street of 18 houses. Sharing some pics of the door before the repairs. All other cars had similar issues.

This is just an evidence of the cost cutting happening in all stages of car manufacturing. Our 1987 model M800 old body never had any such issues. The only rusting we witnessed in that car was due to damp carpets which was addressed at home with removing the carpets, the woolen stuffing underneath, allowing the car to dry out, cleaning and applying a layer of rubber seal. that held up for the next 10 years till we sold that car in 2003.

unfortunately, does not suffice anymore. I replaced one door and repainted another on my baleno of 2016 vintage, before selling it off earlier this year as the rust was reappearing in new places on the doors.

[ak10]

I own a 2017 ciaz alpha petrol in the same shade. Not seen any rust issue yet. In fact i have been parking the car outside exposed to the elements for the last 9 months. Could the issues reported above be due to bad paint job right from factory?

[Gummybear]

I own a 2015 Ciaz and not a single spot of rust anywhere till date. I had no PPFs or ceramics done. My car is parked on road side exposed to all elements from day 1, also I don't know what water is used by my car cleaner but he says he uses supply water. It is cleaned almost daily but never by running water, but my car cleaner uses half a bucket of water to do a wet wipe followed by a dry wipe.

But my brother in law had Ertiga (2015) which started rusting on door panels after 6 years.

So, my view is that Maruti may be giving good quality sheet metal and paint work during initial days of the product, to avoid any negative publicity and once the product is well in demand, quality or quality control is reduced to improve profitability. I bought Ciaz within 2-3 months of launch and it was not even sold through Nexa then. Ciaz was not selling well during initial few months, probably people were not trusting Maruti with cars in this segment while Ertiga was hot selling cake then. Later Ciaz demand got boosted and started selling in good numbers.

[Maverick Avi]

Seen lot of Hondas in my neighborhood with similar issues but cannot say the same for Maruti. Maybe the sheer number of volumes they sell is amounting to more number of such cases being observed for them. This can happen to any car in Delhi where most cars are being daily cleaned by car washing guys who sometimes can do a very tardy job and leave water spots lurking in every nook and corner leading to corrosion. The parts shown in the pictures are typical spots where water seeps in and if not properly wiped will lead to corrosion. Moreover this happening daily will further aggravate the issue. Don't think any car dealer will take responsibility of it after 6 years.

Should take the car to a good paint shop and get it thoroughly examined and painted. Lot of good FNGs in NCR have been posted in the FNG section of this forum who could do a good job without breaking your bank.

[aniketi]

Sad to see Maruti car threads becomes bashing threads. I have Maruti Swift Dzire in family for 14 years now and it still don't have any rusting issues. Also we have few more Maruti cars in the extended family and no one faced such issues. It all depends on how the car is maintained. Lot many people wash cars on daily basis with contaminated water (read bore water) which can have some minerals, chemicals in it. Over the years it will definitely cause the rusting, this can happen to any car. Also point to note here is all major rusting is seen near the spaces where water can remain there for some time after the wash.

[Sanidhya mukund]

Sad to see a 6 year old car rusting like this.

In areas where high TDS water is used to wash the car frequently, or when the car is driven through muddy roads, rusting can occur quite badly.

I have seen several Honda, Mahindra and Maruti cars rusting like this. Seems like besides VW and Škoda, most other mass market players don’t bother with rust proofing of a very high degree.

I have a 2016 Maruti Omni that I use for my NGO. That car visits areas with really muddy roads. I must have spent close to 50k on rust repairs alone.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Hats off to those intelligent inspectors from M/s Aadhi Cars for such a very significant finding. We never really knew that rusting is due to only "some unknown and anonymous external source/ climate source (or ET source?)" and not at all due to any manufacturing defect.

Not related to rusting in my car, touchwood, but here is a funny analysis MSIL folks did on my car. I had an issue with RH Taillight where the inner part has developed cracks way inside the assembly. Its NOT on the surface. Its visible only from some angles and under diffused lighting conditions like sunset.

Funnily enough, the TSM had developed an opinion even before inspecting the car in person that it is due to some random chemical application.

After my questioning them that how on earth did he conclude without even inspecting the car, two folks come to check out the car in person but they had developed the same opinion that it happened due to some random chemical application!

I still failed to understand how a crack can appear way inside the assembly and not on the surface of lens first. Given that they were ready to act like fools, and that I had already planned to upgrade to smoke lens Taillight from facelifted model, I decided not to pursue it.

And, I do have access to their checklist which clearly says that if such cracks appear inside and nothing can be seen on surface, it has to be replaced under warranty! Still they act like fools and give random excuses.

Truly it's not the same customer centric and quality focused MARUTI we once knew.

[AntPaul]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

Not related to rusting in my car, touchwood, but here is a funny analysis MSIL folks did on my car. I had an issue with RH Taillight where the inner part has developed cracks way inside the assembly. Its NOT on the surface. Its visible only from some angles and under diffused lighting conditions like sunset.

[center]Attachment 2535172

Are the cracks present in the red outter lens? From the pictures it looks like the damage is not on the surface of the lens, but spread through the cross section of the lens(hence the 3D effect). Reflector looks undamaged. I have seen a lot of cars with such damage on taillamp, but mostly on older cars.

Agree that the analysis by MSIL is just washing their hands of with 'chemical cleaning agents'.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by mints21

This is not new. My own Maruti Ciaz which was purchased in May 2016 is having similar problem in Delhi NCR.

A friend shares pics of his 3 year old Baleno. The car is primarily used in NCR.

Originally Posted by AntPaul

Are the cracks present in the red outter lens? From the pictures it looks like the damage is not on the surface of the lens, but spread through the cross section of the lens(hence the 3D effect). Reflector looks undamaged. I have seen a lot of cars with such damage on taillamp, but mostly on older cars.

Agree that the analysis by MSIL is just washing their hands of with 'chemical cleaning agents'.

In person, it looks like it's on the inner side of lens. Its surely not on surface. Didn't wish to hijack this thread, but my point was how shameless MSIL engineers can get.