If a Reddit thread is to be taken as gospel, Alfa isn't helping itself. According to the owner of a one-year-old Alfa Romeo Tonale in Vancouver, Canada, they raised concerns about a patch of rust forming under the paint at the bottom of the tailgate with the dealership, but were told the rust warranty only applies if the rust has rusted through the paint. But it gets worse than being denied a warranty claim based on a technicality.
Dealership Claims Rust Is 100% Normal
The Tonale's owner went on to post a screenshot of a message from the Assistant General Manager of Alfa Romeo Vancouver. The manager claims, "That’s actually 100% normal and not bubbling paint. It is the same for all the Tonales." Now, we haven't seen anything but the photo, but it's clear that something is wrong. Paint should not be flaking like that on a one-year-old car, and it's visually consistent with rust damage.
“I’ve been warned that due to the way the drain is built, that this will just keep reoccurring (sic) and there is not much that can be done,” says the owner of the Alfa Romeo. “The drains are capped by two plastic stoppers, so the water in the trough on the tailgate would have to be a quarter inch or more before it’ll drain out.” However, other Tonale owners have chimed in saying they haven't experienced the issue, suggesting it's a one-off or there is a small quantity of Tonale's out there with the same issue. Indeed, it's possible that moisture was trapped underneath the paint from the factory.
Likely A One-Off Problem
Factory defects like that aren't uncommon, as we're talking about mass production. But, and it's a big but, a dealership should be rectifying the issue with no fuss from that entity or the automaker. Refusing to fix a non-safety-based issue like this is sometimes indicative of a design fault that an automaker doesn't want to acknowledge due to the cost of a recall. The problem with that approach, whether it's a single car issue or something bigger, is the publicity that arises in the social media age.
In this case, fixing the issue appears to be at least a single new paint-matched tailgate. If it's a design or manufacturing problem, that gets expensive and time-consuming, as new tailgates will have to be produced. Chances are that it is a single-car issue. If it were a common issue, we would likely have heard about it from Dodge Hornet owners as well as more Tonale owners, as they both use the platform and are closely related.
