Vauxhall Mokka - January 2026

Vauxhall is a much-loved car brand in the UK, with millions of us driving their vehicles on our roads and motorways. The company launched the Vauxhall Mokka in 2012, quickly becoming a huge hit with families due to the large storage space it provides. The car can be provided in a range of colours, including a bright blue called ‘Boracay Blue’. However, dozens of people who own the blue Mokka have got in touch with Watchdog after noticing large patches of paint peeling from their cars.

Ellen (in Rugby) and Graham (in Leicester) are both proud owners of a Boracay Blue Vauxhall Mokka- Graham even chose the car due to his love of this vibrant colour. But they have both faced problems with the paint job. Ellen thought that someone had thrown acid over her car as the damage to the paint was so bad, whilst Graham became aware of specks of paint flying off the bonnet whilst driving down a motorway. The peeling paint isn’t limited to just one location, on the car- both Ellen and Graham have found missing patches across the entire vehicle. This appears to be a reoccurring issue- online forums with dozens of members are filled with pictures of damaged paintwork on Boracay Blue Mokkas.

We also hear from Debbie, who had to get her Mokka paintwork retouched three times. After spending £200 towards an independent paint assessment, she contacted the MD of Vauxhall directly, who agreed that they would pay for the paintwork to be properly sorted. We took a car to Roy Curme, a vehicle re-finishing tutor, who notes that he has never seen a paint defect so bad- in fact, he believes it is a manufacturing defect. Roy is clear that paintwork on a car should last a lifetime, and only need to be redone due to accidental damage or vandalism.

When we wrote to Vauxhall, it said it takes customer feedback very seriously, and reviews every case with the same care and attention. It told us that, whilst it’s satisfied that it has responded to the specific out-of-warranty Mokka customer complaints correctly, if a customer has had paint repair work conducted on a 1st generation Vauxhall Mokka (2012-2016) in Boracay Blue within the last 12 months, it will review a goodwill contribution up to a maximum of £1,000. It added that to be eligible for goodwill, customers will need to provide dated and detailed invoices from a professional repairer or body shop (registered with Companies House), along with proof of payment. Furthermore, any paint repair related to accidental damage or improper repair will, of course, not be eligible for a goodwill contribution. Affected customers are asked to contact the Vauxhall Customer Care team on 0800 026 0034.

When we asked how long customers should reasonably expect the paint to last on a Vauxhall car, we were told that all Vauxhall vehicles are provided with a paint warranty for a period of one year from the date of first registration against any manufacturing or material defects with the paintwork. We were told that the stated preconditions of this warranty are that the defect must be reported to a Vauxhall Authorised Repairer as soon as the defect is discovered, and within the stated warranty period, and that the defect must not be due to external influences such as accidental damage, climatic, thermal, chemical or industrial pollution, insufficient care or improper maintenance. We were also told that, whilst it is reasonable for paintwork to last the life of the vehicle, external factors, such as the ones referenced, will have a larger impact on the longevity of a vehicle’s paintwork.

We asked Vauxhall whether the case studies we featured had experienced a manufacturing fault, and if so, questioned whether Vauxhall will commit to repairing any vehicles impacted by peeling paint from this batch. In response, Vauxhall told us it’s not aware of this as a manufacturing defect. We were told that that, if it was a manufacturing defect, Vauxhall would anticipate that any such defect would have manifested itself much earlier in the life of the vehicle. It added that 332,000 1st generation Vauxhall Mokka models were sold in the UK between 2012 and 2019, which means that the cases identified by BBC Watchdog constitute less than 0.02% of UK models produced.

We asked Vauxhall why it agreed to fix Debbie’s car, but refused to help others, despite all of them reporting the same issue, with the same model and colour of car, and all manufactured within a similar time period. In response, Vauxhall said that when a vehicle is outside of warranty, goodwill contributions towards repairs are considered based on a number of individual factors, such as ownership history, vehicle maintenance, prior repair history, as well as input from its Dealer Network.

Finally, we questioned whether Vauxhall has run any tests on this specific batch of cars to determine why the paint is peeling off. In its response, Vauxhall reiterated that it is not aware of, neither has it identified, a specific production batch issue, just a number of individual cases spread across several years of production. It added that, in several cases, the vehicles are over 10 years old, and all significantly outside the period it would anticipate any defect to manifest itself.

You can watch the full piece here, for 28 days, on iPlayer - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002pvhm/the-one-show-14012026