Title: Making It Right: Why Your Car Payments are Lasting Longer Than Your Factory Paint Job
Author: Stephen N. Gaiski
Publisher: Zestar Corporation
ISBN: 9780984299416
Pages: 154, Paperback
Genre: Reference/Business/Non-Fiction
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
“We don’t make the paint, we make the paint better,” is the slogan for the large multi-national chemical corporation BASF. Unfortunately, it is the way their product is used, too thin at times and incorrectly applied, resulting in various types of failures of the automobile’s finish. This manifests itself sooner than the specified life span of the vehicles; which in many cases is defined as 10 to 15 years. Certainly sooner than the financing periods of 4 to 5 years!
The supporting data regarding the paint job is correlated and expertly indexed in the resource guide, Making it Right: Why your Car payments are lasting longer than your Factory Paint Job by Stephen N. Gaiski. This book is published in the Basic Guide format, enabling an introduction of this highly technical material to be assimilated by everyone in the industry having a need-to-know regarding the details. These groups are categorized by manufacturers, dealers and consumers. As adherence to the paint’s specifications are not capable of being viewed by the naked eye, especially on a showroom floor, a patented procedure for the technical measurement of the thicknesses of each of the car’s coats of paint, primer, and clear-coat are expertly identified. This patent used for measurement is held as intellectual property of Zestar Corporation, the company Stephen N. Gaiski is technical director. A trend of recent years in auto manufacturing has changed from having the car maker paint the product to having the parts received already painted; thus removing by one step quality control of the finish.
Of course there are many factors affecting the paint of a vehicle including but not limited to climate, having the vehicle regularly parked in a garage or exposed, road conditions and car care schedules of cleaning, polishing and maintenance. However, statistically Gaiski brings masses of data into the picture, allowing for conclusions to be brought forward with a significant level of accuracy. For example, “A 2003 BASF publication stated the average life of vehicles as approximately 12 years. In 2008, the publication edited by a former BASF and current DuPont expert states the life expectancy of new cars as 15 years or longer.” This is longer than the 10 year warranty of the paint job, with some exceptions even the “lifetime warranty” is misleading. Automakers are selling a bill of goods to the public hedging on misrepresentation. In particular, owners or potential buyers of Ford’s Escape or Mazda’s Tribute should pay attention to the high level of reported paint peelings, separating, flaking and body rust. In total, scores of automobile makes and models are identified as high in paint problems, as well as some honorably mentioned as being satisfactory or above satisfactory.
The book has an easy to navigate index listing most models by year and tendency to have paint problems, specifically identifying what to expect. This is a valuable resource for any educated used-car buyer and a nightmare for used-car sellers! A second index is helpful for terms and areas of specific interest for the readers. Making it Right is an invaluable tool for all car dealerships, used-car lots, and most importantly buyers of automobiles. It is not a book to be read from cover-to-cover, although frankly I found each recapitulation of facts of notable interest and was fascinated by the level of research that has gone into the making of this book. It is something all car salesmen should be aware of as well as Caveat Emptor! (Let the buyer beware!)
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