[Phoenix]

Hi everyone. So the Soul Red paint has been giving people problems for the past several years with paint chipping. Anyone notice if Mazda’s fixed this for 2020? Wondering if I need a clear bra for a Soul Red CX-30? (My other worry is that if the paint is flaky, when it’s time to remove the paint protection film, it’d probably pull the paint off with it.)

Thanks for the insights!

 

[conwelpic]

how does the Snowflake White Pearl compare to the Soul Red Crystal Metallic in durability? Two of the colours that I like.

 

[MikeH]

After 1 month and 2,000 kilometers of mixed city and highway driving, there are no paint chips on the front of my Soul Red CX-30. I hope this is a good sign, but it's still early days.

 

[dctokyo]

I really wanted to buy the Soul Red Crystal Metallic but the only one the dealer had already had several chips on the drivers door edge and on the front of the hood. So I got my phone out and search for "Mazda Soul Red Crystal Metallic paint problems" and found a lot of post about that color having chip problems so I went with the Deep Crystal Blue Mica. Did a full inspection on the two cars the dealer had and found no problems with that color.
I hope that down the road you do not run into a problem with chips.

 

[Derek57]

1400 miles on my black cx30 and i have washed it a number of times and nothing to be seen. As people are saying, it's early days yet

 

[asdowntown]

3500mi on my soul red cx30... about 1000 miles on the freeway. Not one stone chip in the paint to speak off.

 

[steve67]

no chips on my soul red,( v46).
my son has the mazda 3, and has 2 chips, very small, but the bonnet (hood) is more sloped..
i have touched them up with a paint pen and you can not tell, he also had a scratch that i repaired at the same time.

the old soul red (v41), on my old mazda2 was poor, but fingers crossed so far it ok on the cx30/
the cx3 i sold for the cx30 was ok, but had a few chips, not too prone to chips..
its being lucky or unlucky.
get the colour you like and deal with chips as and when,
who's to say you go for another brand of car and get a stone chip,

you could always try PPF.. for protection if you keep your cars for awhile its cost effective, i swap every 18-24 months

 

[sneek]

New here but this is a topic I figured I would bump. The paint on the CX30 is THIN!
I have been detailing cars for over 15 years and I am pretty picky. The paint quality is quite high and I didn't find any weird dealer repairs or anything on my Deep Crystal Blue, but when I measured the total paint depth it was an average of 4.18 mils. Make sure you keep your paint protected from things like UV and rock chips if applicable.

Usually when you teach people how thick a clear coat is for polishing purposes, you tell them the CLEAR alone is about 3 mils and that is roughly the same thickness as a sheet of paper. The soul red is a tinted clear coat which justifies the extra cost, but I imagine repairing this in the future could be a pain/ it might be a pain to fix rock chips.

 

[TZ93]

I suspect that location and driving style more has to do with it than anything else.

An acquaintance here in central Texas who bought a brand new E300 complained about the sheet amount of impacts and chips when he moved here. My detailer who takes care of all my rock chips, says all types of cars suffer from paint chips in Texas. I personally think it's all the construction, so there is rock trucks and rocks on the pavement everywhere.

Avoiding the freeway and taking extra care to follow at an extended distance seems to help a lot.

 

[steve67]

since manufactures have gone to water based paints, i think the thickness and finish has gone down hill...

 

[rick6718]

My 2021 CX-30 dark Crystal blue sucks!!!!! I have 9000 miles mostly highway, if anything touches it, it leaves a light scratch. I have about 10-15 on the hood, and several on the sides. Clearcoat appears to scratch way to easily. NOT HAPPY!

 

[SDH]

A high-end ceramic coat is almost mandatory on new cars these days if you want the factory paint & clear coat to be as durable/protected/unblemished as possible. A top-end protective film on top of that for frontal impact sections is also recommended by most, if you do any sort of regular highway driving. But, it's not cheap, so prepare to spend a few thousand or so for that level of protection.