There’s Something Bad Happening To White Cars

For the last year or so, I’ve been taking photos of dozens of relatively new white cars with paint that has just flaked off in huge chunks — from seven different car manufacturers. Now, with recent news of Honda owners filing a class action lawsuit over peeling white paint, and a number of Hyundai owners complaining about the same problem, it’s time we talk about this, because it’s clearly an issue. I reached out to the biggest automotive paint supplier, PPG, as well as another paint engineer to get some answers.

The issue of white paint peeling was brought to my attention by my brother Ben, who bought a brand new 2017 Hyundai Elantra, only to have its white paint just…flake off, leaving what looked like bare e-coated metal (e-coat is an anticorrosive coating). I was a bit shocked when I saw this, as his car was only about five years old. Why the heck was his paint just…gone?

I looked into this a bit, and it turns out, it’s a rampant issue with Hyundais, with numerous people in the below Reddit thread complaining about paint flaking off for no reason.

Hyundai Issues A Warranty Extension For ‘Peeling’ White Cars

The problem was so bad that Hyundai was forced to issue a warranty extension for certain Elantra, Sonata and Santa Fe Sports, which “may exhibit peeling or bubbling of the white paint in various areas of the vehicle, most commonly on or around the hood, fender and roof.”

Indeed, I spotted a number of Hyundais with this issue; this 2016-ish Elantra was by far the worst — the whole dang car was peeling!:

Here’s another:

And here’s a newer, 2017-ish model I saw on the highway.

The thing is, it’s not just Hyundais with this problem. Look at the white paint peeling on the hood of this F-150:

Check out this older F-150:

Here’s another one:

And here’s a Ford Transit Connect:

Here’s an older Toyota Corolla with flaked-off paint:

And here’s a newer Corolla:

GM wasn’t spared, either. In fact, the worst example of the white-paint-flake phenomenon, I have found, is the Chevy Express van:

Old Silverados also had the problem:

Here’s a 1990s Chevy Prizm:

And hey, I even found a Chrysler product with flaking white paint:

Ditto with Nissan:

Owners Of White Hondas File Class-Action Lawsuit For Peeling Paint

Now let’s get to Honda, because that’s the news peg. It turns out, owners have filed a class action lawsuit on 2013+ Hondas with paint that allegedly flakes off; from The Drive:

A class-action suit was filed this month against American Honda Motor Company alleging defective paint was used in 2013 and newer model-year Honda and Acura vehicles. Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the lawsuit alleges that some white paints are so poor that the finishes “inevitably fail, peel, delaminate (that is, the separate paint layers separate due to adhesion issues), bubble, and flake.” Indeed, there are examples all over the internet on places like the Ody Club owner forum and Reddit.

The cars covered are numerous, but all white:

• The Acura MDX in White Diamond Pearl paint (NH-603P);

• The Honda Odyssey in White Diamond Pearl paint (NH-603P) or Taffeta White paint (NH-578);

• The Honda Pilot in Taffeta White paint (Paint Code NH-578);

• The Honda Fit in White Orchid Pearl or Bellanova White paint (Paint Code NH-788P); and

• The Honda HR-V in White Orchid Pearl or Bellanova White paint (Paint Code NH-788P).1

I’ve found on the streets a number of Hondas with peeling paint. Check out the primer showing on thee back of this Honda Pilot:

Here’s an older Honda Odyssey:

And here, at the leading edge of this Honda Accord’s hood, you can see some flaked-off white paint:

Check out The Drive’s comments section, and you’ll see that the issue of peeling white paint isn’t exactly a new phenomenon:

You’ll see similar threads on Reddit:

And you’ll see some potential explanations from commenters:

Talking With Experts About The White Paint Issue

A little over a year ago I reached out to PPG, the world’s largest auto paint supplier, and was surprised when they told me they hadn’t heard about this issue.

“It is not, I would say, related to formulations most times,” Cleveland-based PPG Product Development supervisor Mallory Prylinski told me. “Our coatings are formulated to be very robust and meet or exceed industry specs…it has to last the lifetime of a car…we only use fully-approved pigments, and we have that longstanding knowledge from working with OEMs for any number of years…to enable us to reach robust formulas in all color spaces.” (Yes, this is very PR-speak-ish).

She continued, discussing delamination, as this flaking/peeling is often called. “Going back to that whole delamination piece, that is largely applying film build that is too low — not specific cases to us…but perhaps at the plant the film build was applied out of specification, is something that can happen with a white. If you apply it at the recommended film build, you shouldn’t see delamination.”

She defined film build as “The thickness of how much of each layer you apply…this is more or less an industry standard.” There’s a film for primer, and a film for base coat. The actual thickness depends on what’s called the “hiding power.” What that means, she said, is “‘How well does it cover black and white?'”. She went on, saying: “For each color space you’ll uniquely tailor your UV vis specification just to ensure that from space to space you’re hitting all those marks, so you know the capability of the entire stack.”

So, it seems like, per Prylinksi, the issue is unlikely the paint itself, but rather how it is applied. Pittsburgh-based Color Styling Manager Misty Yeomans agreed, saying: “I was surprised when your question came in. We haven’t had any of those questions pop up here.” Yeomans said she spoke with her European colleagues, as well, and hadn’t heard anything. “And we work with, I think it’s safe to say, every manufacturer.” Indeed, PPG is the biggest paint and e-coat/primer supplier out there. “If this was coating related, we would have heard about it,” she said.

She noted that white is the most common color, so that could be skewing the perception. “Looking at what’s produced every year..white has been the number one produced color…it’s in the 30 percent range of all colors produced globally are white.”

With that said, she noted, this is something that could be an issue with manufacturing. “Automotive coatings are super complex, and there’s a lot of layers to it…and there’s a ‘cross linking’ technology that happens….Coatings, primers, clear coats — You would really need to go back to the manufacturer to address any of the issues that you see.”

“There is consistent weatherability testing…we and our competitors all do consistent tenting; you’re actually putting a panel out in Florida… with the clear coat…[for] 5 years. Then we do an adhesion test after that, so that after being out for five years, there’s not a failure after five years.”

Prylinski jumped in: “Before any color is launched, you’ll run a gambit of testing to ensure that the coating stack itself is meeting the requirements of exposure to extreme temperature, general…adhesion testing… it will account for a lot of different things. We’re really going into it kind of very sure that the coating stack itself wouldn’t be responsible for any major snafu like that.”

“Each customer will issue the specific amount of time that they want their panels put on test for,” Prylinksi told me, saying PPG’s in-house test is even more rigorous. There’s also chip-resistance, and more. “It’s a mature industry because it’s been pretty well honed,” Yeomans noted. She also posed the question: “Has [the vehicle] been repaired?” It’s a fair question. “We haven’t received anything about this type of question, that’s what makes me think that maybe there are individual things that are happening.”

I respect PPG’s engineering expertise, of course. But without question, the flaking isn’t solely a result of a damaged vehicle being repainted. Like I said, my brothers’ Hyundai Elantra was brand new when he bought it, and he was never in a crash, certainly not one involving his roof, which delaminated. The Hyundai I spotted above had the delamination issue all over; surely a car that new wasn’t repainted from bumper to bumper.

I also agree that white cars are the most popular, but I’m just not seeing this type of delamination rate with cars of other colors. My eye-test isn’t scientific, of course, but we’ve seen a warranty extension on white cars from Hyundai, we’ve seen a class action lawsuit now from owners of white Hondas, and I just did a little search and found this from Toyota:

Toyota Offered To Repaint Over 1.7 Million White Cars

That’s a Customer Support Program, and it covers a staggering 1,738,940 vehicles. Yes, over 1.7 million cars! Toyota breaks down why it’s offering to repaint white cars for free, writing in that document on NHTSA:

Background

Toyota has received reports of paint peeling on certain vehicles with the original factory-applied Blizzard Pearl or Super White paint colors. These reports indicate that vehicles with these specific paint colors, applied during the vehicle manufacturing process, may experience paint peeling on exterior metal body panels. Although the original factory paint is covered by Toyota’s New Vehicle Limited Warranty for 3 years or 36,000 miles (whichever comes first), we at Toyota care about the customers’ ownership experience. Toyota is providing coverage for repairs related to the condition described above. The following information is provided to inform you and your staff of the program notification schedule and your degree of involvement.

This Customer Support Program provides coverage for involved vehicles with the original factory Blizzard
Pearl or Super White paint. The covered condition may occur when sunlight over time degrades the
adhesion between the factory-applied paint primer coat layer and the base metal electrodeposition layer
causing the paint to peel from the metal body panel. If the condition is verified, the specific panel affected
will be repainted.

• The Primary Coverage will be offered until December 11, 2022, regardless of mileage.
• After the Primary Coverage, the Secondary Coverage is applicable for 10 years from the date of
first use, regardless of mileage.

Toyota is repainting the cars with the same color, so you’d think that the newly applied paint will stick better than the old stuff, as Toyota doesn’t want to have to repeatedly fix the same car. Whether the paint has been newly formulated or if Toyota is just adjusting its application methodology, I’m unsure. Toyota does note that this Customer Support Program only applies to metal parts:

Is the paint on plastic body panels covered by this Customer Support Program?
Factory-applied paint on plastic body panels (for example: a plastic bumper cover) is not covered. Only factory-applied Blizzard Pearl (Toyota paint code 070) and Super White (Toyota paint code 040) paint on the vehicle’s exterior metal body panels are covered by this program. Plastic body panels are not covered by this program because plastic body panels do not have a base metal electrodeposition layer and are; therefore, not affected.

I chatted with an engineer with years of paint experience for a major OEM, and we chatted about what might be causing all this. The engineer told me he’s unsure, but he had some ideas. He told me that, with a shiny, nice paint coat, most light is reflecting back. Some visible light and UV can get through, though you want to avoid that. Clear coat has special additives to do just this because UV is high-energy and tends to tear stuff apart — visible light can also cause issues. If this radiation gets through the paint, it’s the stuff under the paint (at the bottom of the “stack”) that could be a problem.

He mentioned GM’s issue in the 1980s and 90s. “If you’ve ever seen a minivan from the late ‘80s/early 90s with the paint sheeted off and replaced by rust (or just exposing gray coating) then you’ve seen the first attempt to [make a UV-resistant e-coat layer that allows one to forego primer]: PPG Uniprime. It was supposed to combine the e-coat and primer, but the design of the material neglected to include UV resistance.”

The issue, there, is that UV went all the way down to the e-coat, which isn’t UV-durable. There weren’t enough layers to keep UV out, so maybe this could be the issue with white painted Toyotas, Hondas, and Hyundais? Could it be exacertbated by not putting enough paint on? Could it be something in the formulation that isn’t doing everything it can to keep radiation out? Who knows. Maybe there’s a primer or E-Coat issue.

It’s not 100 percent clear at the moment, beyond that something appears to, for reasons I don’t quite know, be breaking down the adhesive properties of the paint stack above the e-coated body. What is clear is that there’s a paint issue that white cars are facing that non-white cars are not. And it’s been happening for years.