I purchased a new 99 Honda Prelude in July of 99. I am extremely happy with every aspect of the car except the paint. I can't seem to keep that showroom shine without waxing once a month. When I wax it the buffing towel always has red on it (the car is red.) Pretty strange for a tri-color system which is supposed to consist of a base color coat, a tinted clearcoat second stage, and a final clearcoat. Two paint chips have appeared on the hood (leaving bare metal).

Today I took it to the dealer where I purchased it, nearly an hour away, Bianchi Honda in Erie,Pa. Where I met with the District Service Manager for American Honda, Art Espinoza. After a detailed story of the problems I was having with the paint he took a brief glance at the car, which was covered with road salt from my trip out there and said, 'Gee, I think it looks pretty good'. I flew off the handle, he acted as if he heard nothing I said, and after a brief fit on my part over a $25k junk paint job he did agree to have the hood painted, explaining he doesn't usually do this but in this case he'll make an exception. But on the other hand he would admit nothing was wrong with the paint. After some more discussion with no results I left, mad as hell.

I came home and went directly to the bodyshop where I have had very good results in the past, Ron Madden's Auto Body & Collision. I told Ron the whole story before he proceeded to examine my car. He checked the paint in several places, checked the paint code, and we went back inside to check the paint code requirements.

Again I was re-assured that indeed it was supposed to be a three coat system but in fact was either a 1 or 2 step paint- neither was available on that car, and that it most certainly had no clearcoat at all in any case. He also informed me that he could paint the hood with the proper paint but then informed me that as time when on the hood wouldn't fade but the rest of the car would, meaning eventually it wouldn't match. Not a good thing!!!

At that point I decided I'm not going to rest until this problem is taken care of properly. I also plan on contacting the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau (I was looking for them on the net when I found you.)Please Help me get my money back!!!!!