Inspecting the paint surface not so closely, I notice that it is fairly uneven, and generally crappy. I asked the dealer not to touch the paint so that they would not introduce gratuitous swirls. I was wondering if the dealers generally correct the surface before delivery (claybar, polish, etc.), or if they just wash and deliver.

 

As a veteran of dozens of new car deliveries, I've never seen any dealer do any kind of paint correction. It's wash and deliver.

However, I'm not sure how you'd inspect the surface, since you've been driving it and never allowed it to be washed even by the dealer prior to delivery.

 

Nope, they just have the guy in the back (their "detail" department) wash and wax it in 20 minutes as part of the prep.

 

And very often they do a crappy job...

 

Don't fool yourself...there is no wax part,just a real crappy wash.
Whenever I take a car in for service,I state up front "no detail or wash"...

 

top of hood not so dirty that you can't clearly see the ripply clear coat surface. The paint surface on my wife's MINI was far superior. I'm not complaining, since clay bar and paint correction is a precursor to the film and coating process anyway. I'm just surprised that Jag would let it out of their paint shop looking that way.

 

It sounds to me you didn't ask the right question, which would be does JLR do any paint correction as part of the QC process before releasing a car for shipment? I would like to think they do correct obvious defects and blemishes, but I don't know the answer.

 

I just figured no one would really know what Jag does, but might know what the dealers typically do. If dealers don't do more than a wash/rinse/dry, I'm surprised there haven't been a lot of complaints about paint quality. I don't believe my paint is an outlier.

 

Nope, complaints about paint quality have been largely absent here. Mine is white and non-metallic, and looks pretty close to perfect to me.

 

I am taking delivery Monday and have asked my dealer to do no prep at all. No wash, leave all of the protective shipping wrap and cushions on. Car is getting driven directly to my detailer for a professional correction and wrapped in xpel.

 

I do remember some folks complaining about the paint quality...but not sure how bad or how big an overall problem it is. I have polaris white and the paint seems pretty good to me. I do notice a couple of spots in the door jams/panels that could be better (seems like the paint flaked off).

 

What I'm seeing is no big deal if you are planning on claybaring anyway.

 

That was my plan as well, but Foosh correctly brought to my attention that the paint may not have had enough time to cure yet.

 

My detailer said that paint quality on my car (IRR) was very good (except for the light swirls that was a result of washes from the first owner).

 

In the UK for certain. Generally the cars leave the factory in a sorry state, i.e panels fit, poor paint, poorly fitted trim etc.

Once at the retailers, it is down to them and their 'bodyshops' to get the car up to a reasonable standard for the customer.
This is from the horses mouth, and I believe common to many manufacturers.

JLR are expanding and producing so much more volume now that something has to suffer...and that is quality unfortunately.

 

My 2015 Salsa Red F-type arrived with pretty bad orange peel over most of the body. When you looked at reflections in the paint nothing was sharp, very blurry. I went back to the dealer and complained to the service manager. Spent a lot of time walking around the dealers lot comparing reflections in the paint on other cars. Mine was pretty bad. He took pictures and talked to Jaguar USA and they decided to send the car to a high end body shop to color sand the paint and polish under warranty. Finished results made a big difference on my car, no complaints. They get pretty upset if you tell them that your Porsche has better paint finish than the F-type.

 

My paint is fine, guy who did the XPEL said it was "excellent."

But the day I took delivery in February it was 18F degrees out. After a 133 day wait, I went out to inspect my totally clean car. After 5 minutes my wife came out of the showroom, opened the passenger door and said "I want to see the new car too!"

Then her door wouldn't latch -- the dealer said that the "over zealous power washing" had put water into the latch, which froze. The sales staff was freaking out -- my wife couldn't go for a ride, the passenger door latch was frozen.

Wife left, they took the car around back and blew hot air into the door until everything thawed out. I don't 100% blame the dealer, I think the car had something to do with it too, on the way home I told the car that she needed to get along better with the wife if we were to have a happy family and such behavior was unacceptable.

Two weeks later the wife bashed in a garbage can driving the F-Type (no damage, thankfully). I had a talk with her about the need to get along better with the car if we were to have a happy family and such behavior was unacceptable.

 

My sediments exactly...I've looked this car over very closely in all kinds of lighting and I've yet to find a flaw with it.

 

My sentiment is that I'm not letting you sit in my car.

 

Mine was delivered with allot of swirls and some fine scratches. I negotiated the dealer to throw in a full professional detail inside and out as a term of the sale. Whomever prepped my car left all fluid filler caps sitting loose and untightened and the fuel filler cap off and only being held in place by closed filler door. I looked under the hood the next day and saw the stupidity. They also didn't fasten down the engine cover. Moron tech... I am using a different dealer for warranty service. I had Xpel installed the day after the professional detail.