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VIDEO: I Am EXTREMELY Disappointed With Our 2019 Challenger 1320:


Many of you have been following along with our 2019 Dodge Challenger 1320 that we first ordered in late January as a long term test vehicle for Moparinsiders. Four weeks ago, the car finally arrived at our sponsor and selling dealership White Rock Dodge, and we were ecstatic to get behind the wheel finally. So much so in fact that in the past three and a half weeks we have racked up 2500kms on the car, have already taken it to the drag strip and started to accessorize the vehicle.

We have big plans for this car as well, such as taking it to shows and drag racing events all across Canada, the Western Mopar Madness show in Edmonton Alberta on July 27th and our friend Dave Hayes upcoming track rental on September 22nd to name a few.


Clear coat defect on Moparinsiders 2019 Dodge Challenger 1320 (Moparinsiders)

While the 2019 Dodge Challenger recently won the JD Power initial quality award for its class, it seems as ours might have fallen through the cracks. Unfortunately, while giving the car its first detail late last week, I found clear coat bubbling in all the wheel wells of our car. Some are worse than others with the whole top of the drivers front wheel well bubbled with air pockets in it and already chipping in some areas. Of course there are two concerns here, one is this is an area likely to get hit with rock chips, especially with the super soft and sticky Nexen drag radials which are prone to throw rocks, the second is that if the clear coat starts chipping here, the area will spread leading to clear coat failure on the entire panel.

More details are in the video above, so make sure to watch that, we will be booking the car in with the local dealer as soon as possible to have this looked at and will see what FCA wants to do as a repair. Stay tuned to Moparinsiders and our YouTube channel as we will provide more information and updates as we have them.
 
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To me being a mechanic I don't have heartburn with paint. It is what it is.. In 5 years it will need a repaint anyway if it's a daily driver.

Now if the powertrain or the Uconnect wasn't functioning correctly I'd be disappointed.
 
Blown7 said:
To me being a mechanic I don't have heartburn with paint. It is what it is.. In 5 years it will need a repaint anyway if it's a daily driver.

Now if the powertrain or the Uconnect wasn't functioning correctly I'd be disappointed.
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If your daily driver needs to be repainted after five years, you’re obviously doing something wrong.
 
Ryan said:
If your daily driver needs to be repainted after five years, you’re obviously doing something wrong.
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Lots of stone chips on the highway.

Brand new Trackhawk.. on the second windshield already... damn 18 wheelers.

They throw lots of stones.
 
Blown7 said:
Lots of stone chips on the highway.

Brand new Trackhawk.. on the second windshield already... damn 18 wheelers.

They throw lots of stones.
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My next vehicle will immediately get a ceramic coating and maybe an Xpel film on the whole front fascia.

Aside from that though, I'd be mad too if I bought a new Challenger and it had all of the paint issues that @Jared B's has!
 
I don't think Xpel and Ceramic will stop large stones and road debris.
 
That picture isn't even the bad one and I agree if your car needs to be repainted in 5 years you're doing something wrong. My 3-year-old Rams paint looks better than the day it left the lot.



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My heart broke when I watched this video. I know how excited you were for this car, and to have these issues sucks for sure.

Hopefully it's just an issue with the clear coat, and repairs don't need to be too drastic?
 
Ryan said:
If your daily driver needs to be repainted after five years, you’re obviously doing something wrong.
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x2.

Not tailgating the vehicle in front of you will save your paint tremendously.

After 11+ years, my Caliber had some minor stone chips, but was nowhere near needing to be repainted:



There was only one bad stone chip, and that was right above the driver's headlight, and it was because I ended up being right behind a truck on the highway for a moment, and I actually remember seeing the stone come up. It never had PPF installed on it, but did have a ceramic coating on it for the last 2 years that I had it. I never had to replace a windshield either.

Ryan said:
My next vehicle will immediately get a ceramic coating and maybe an Xpel film on the whole front fascia.

Aside from that though, I'd be mad too if I bought a new Challenger and it had all of the paint issues that @Jared B's has!
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I had to wait for a few months hoping that XPEL would release a cut file for the 2019 KL, but then after having a scare with what I thought was a chip on my hood decal, I just went and had a custom XPEL job to wrap the entire front of my Cherokee, as I didn't want to take any more chances. I also wrapped my A-pillars and the initial area of my roof from the top of the windshield to the sunroof as well. 28,000km later and I have zero stone chips.

I had a close call with a stone a little while ago, but it ended up hitting the area between the windshield glass and my A-pillar, so I didn't need to replace my windshield thankfully.

Blown7 said:
I don't think Xpel and Ceramic will stop large stones and road debris.
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I've been quite impressed thus far.

I wish I could get XPEL for my windshield lol.

They also make cleanup an absolute breeze. My most recent trip to Tennessee ended up with my Cherokee being absolutely covered in bugs, so much so that the wipers were at the point of just smearing them, and the entire front end was covered too. It took very little effort to get the ceramic coated surfaces clean (including the unpainted bumper areas), but the windshield took more effort.

This is the only picture I have of the bugs, but it doesn't show them that well:

 
I do follow close.. but most of the incidents I have are actually just behind and in the adjacent lane of the highway.. it seems trailer tires spit rocks and debris at a roughly 45 degree angle backwards.
 
Inform Axalta been informed, there techs should catch this.
 
Nothing about that paint job is ok. Looks like somebody somewhere caused damage and it was resprayed. I’d have a good paint shop look for evidence of a respray, and maybe contact a lawyer. But make sure fca is aware of it. If it’s what I think, one or several people need to be fired
 
Here's part 2, had it looked at by the dealer and the body shop yesterday.


I will also say that FCA saw the original article and reached out to my dealer and said they wanted to get it resolved ASAP so I am hopeful for a good outcome. Also, I am impressed FCA for reaching out as well.
 
Had a local expert on it, said the clear coat was laid a bit heavy and collected at the fender seam and bubbled up when baked. Not a excuse just a explanation.
 
TripleT said:
Had a local expert on it, said the clear coat was laid a bit heavy and collected at the fender seam and bubbled up when baked. Not a excuse just a explanation.
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That's exactly what the body shop said as well. I'm going to ask if wet sanding them out is an option. I really want to avoid having any paint work done.
 
Jared B said:
That's exactly what the body shop said as well. I'm going to ask if wet sanding them out is an option. I really want to avoid having any paint work done.
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That would be the best case here!
 
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