There's bird lime and there's bird lime, seems to depend on time of year and what the little darlings have been eating.

Did you leave the muck on for a length of time in the hot sun, i advised someone about not leaving them to bake on a 3 series roof and bonnet, advice ignored and the paint was burnt far too deep to do anything with other than respray, car was eventually sold with those marks still there several years later, bird lime no longer left to bake..

SFAIK the water base paints, foisted on us by the tree-huggers, are in all respects inferior to the oil based paints they replaced.

>>>>I'm not sure the VW paint on theGolf VII is any different to that on other VW cars or indeed other manufacturers

I asked this question a couple of years ago to a professional detailing company (and supplier) and they said VW paint/top coat was harder than most so it would require a more abrasive polish and a coa***r polishing pad on my orbital polisher to remove swirl marks.

I've noticed that using some 'colour magic' style of polish (i.e one is roughly the same colour as your paint) has been really helpful in shifting bird, er, deposits.

They seem to wash off with minimum effort so I guess some form of polish provides a slippery layer to stop things baking on

When I had some damage to a silver Corolla, the bodyshop resprayed the entire side of the car as they also said silver finishes were difficult to match on a partial panel spray. When I changed the car for a new Hyundai, I was happy to have a plain red one.I'm not fussy about colour so a special finish not worth more money to me.

Can I ask for, at the very least, a refund of the £500 extra I paid for the paint? Thanks for any advice

Seems like a very unfortunate situation, I inspected my Golf very carefully before accepting it and my experience is that VW are no worse than any other manufacturer in this respect and are better than some others I could name. In fact I subsequently found a line under the lacquer on the rear bumper hidden by the tailgate shut, however it is not visible in normal circumstances and the rest of the car was perfect upon delivery.

You might still have the option to reject the car? However - if it is a small defect which would be missed by most people then I'd live with it and ask VW what good-will they'll offer. The chances are that the bumper will eventually be 'blemished' by the actions of others anyway.... I agree with your comments on resprays, certainly something I'd avoid if I could although I am sure that modern bodyshops can get a finish approaching factory standards.

I should think the same applies to a lot of cars. Thinner paint is an economy that manufacturers can make without the customer noticing, provided that it looks nice and shiny in the showroom.

Charging a few hundred pounds extra for metallic paint on cars costing tens of thousands is a nonsense, too. Some of them even charge for some solid colours.

If bird poo sets dry then a good way to get it off without scratching is to put a very wet sponge on it. Leave it for a few minutes then pour more water over the sponge, leave it it a while and most times it will just wash off easily.

A bad way, on the other hand, would be to use a brillo pad. This was done by a customer of a garage i worked at in Wigan in the mid 90's. Beautiful metallic red BMW 7 series about 2 years old.............!

An old thread but since June 2013 we have bought 4 VAG cars in the household (1 x Seat and 3 x Skoda) 2 in solid colour (white) and 2 in metallic (grey) and have had zero paint issues.

We have had plenty of guano deposits on them, when a car is parked in the courtyard any raptor sat on the neighbours house is perfectly positioned to take aim and fire. Like I said 8 years ago i just put wet kitchen roll on the said offending item, wait 10 minutes and wipe away.

Can it be a colour issue? My 2001 Octavia (silver) and 2014 Superb (also silver) have been fine re bird dirt and paint. I also had a 2003 Superb(dark metallic green) -

Cannot see why the colour on a metallic would make any difference, the clear coat will be exactly the same product whatever the colour and its that which the guano sits on.

Suppose it could make a difference on solid colours, some have a clear coat, red is a prime example, but white doesn't and our 2 white VAG cars have so far been fine as was the white Nissan Note.

Going back to the 80's and 90's we had 2 VW's that were white and 2 that were grey metallic. No issues at all with the white cars but whilst we had no guano problems with the metallics they were very prone to stone chips, far more than cars we have owned since.

Bird poo can scratch, I soak a sponge in warm water and leave it for 15 mins or so, give it another soaking and it falls off.

Seaside bird poo can be seriously abrasive because of a significant sand content.

And colour may just be a contributory factor as dark shades will get hotter when the car is left in direct sun. And weren't solid reds liable to dull on several makers' cars ?