Clean up or colour/cover up spilt paint in carpet

[TheBinarySheep]

Last month I bought a used Ioniq 5 N from a dealer. Today I came to give the interior a proper clean, and when I lifted the passenger-side front floor mat, the carpet underneath looks like the previous owner spilt paint and then had it cleaned up. The mats cover it almost completely, so you'd never notice unless you removed them, not a major concern, but I'd like to improve it if I can.

I'm assuming no amount of cleaning will get it any better at this point, so I'm wondering: is there some sort of carpet stain or dye I could work into the area to tidy up the appearance?

The closer I look at this car, the more it seems the previous owner treated it like a van. It had roof bars fitted, and when the dealership removed them it was obvious they'd been over-tightened and damaged the pillars (the dealer repaired that). They clearly did tip runs in it too, because I'm finding scratches all over the rear interior. While cleaning one of the door cards up close, I noticed something has punched a hole clean through it, which has been filled and painted over with some kind of soft filler.

The car was around 18 months old with 13k miles when I bought it, and cost £43k, so it's not like I picked it up cheap. That said, I know it's a used car, so I'll suck it up and remember to lift the mats and pay more attention in future.

I can keep an eye out for a replacement door card, but replacing the carpet is probably too costly. So if there's anything I can do to improve the paint-stained area, I'll give it a go.

Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 8th June 13:13

[Robertb]

I'd raise it with the dealer. Shoddy preparation, needs sorting.

Did you view the car before buying?

[R4EVS]

You could try giving it a good scrub with a stiff brush and some carpet foam. With a bit of luck the paint will be hardened to the point that it effectively scrapes off.

An alternative is to buy a replacement front carpet from a crash-damaged scrapper. The carpet will cover the entire floor in front of the seats but you can cut it along the middle and hide the join under the centre console. I did exactly that with a BMW E90 that someone had spilled something into the driver's footwell that just wouldn't clean off.

[TheBinarySheep]

I've just tried to clean it up with some brush cleaner and a carpet extractor and it's pretty much sorted it out. Didn't think for a second it would be that easy.

[Sheepshanks]

Is the dealer nearby? They'll have someone on tap who can invisibly mend the door panel - replacement stuff like this always seems stunning expensive. There was a nasty cut in the textured light grey dash of a Merc I bought - salesman dismissed it as no problem to deal with and sure enough you'd never know it had been there.

They might also be able to sort the carpet - fabric paint is available, but I don't know how effective it is.

If you're within 30 days suggesting you might reject the car (if covered by Hyundai's return scheme) might spur them into action.

If going back to the dealer isn't practicable then a local SMART repairer should be able to sort it.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Monday 8th June 13:55

[TheBinarySheep]

Robertb said:

I'd raise it with the dealer. Shoddy preparation, needs sorting.

Did you view the car before buying?

Yeh, kind of.

The car was 80 mile away. When the dealer informed up that there was damage from roofbars we were away down the country, so as we were passing on the way home the following day we agreed to pop in and check the damage from the roof bars. The car was stored in a dimly lit garage out of the back of the dealership, so whilst I did look around the car looking for obvious issues, I didn't check it in great depth and some things probably weren't obvious because of the poor lightling.

[Dog Biscuit]

If the areas aren't clogged with the paint and its merely staining then you could try

https://autosmart.co.uk/products/cmid114c-midnight

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/365879231442?shprz=EBAY...

[WPA]

Robertb said:

I'd raise it with the dealer. Shoddy preparation, needs sorting.

+1 with spending £43k they should be putting that right if not reject the car if within time limits

[Philvrs]

TheBinarySheep said:

The car was around 18 months old with 13k miles when I bought it, and cost £43k, so it's not like I picked it up cheap.

Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 8th June 13:13

That would irrationally annoy me, because they would have chipped the previous owner for the damage, rightly so, but then retailed it as if that was the price no discount passed on.
Make them put it right, they’re sat on that margin with fingers crossed you don’t come back.