As the proportion of hot-dip galvanized steel sheets in automotive applications continues to increase, and various defects in the coating adversely affect their subsequent coating performance, controlling the surface quality of the coating on hot-dip galvanized steel sheets has become an important means of enhancing the coating system. This paper compares and summarizes the types of defects found in three types of automotive steel sheets: cold-rolled steel sheets (CRS), hot-dip galvanized steel sheets (GI), and alloyed hot-dip galvanized steel sheets (GA). It clarifies the transfer characteristics of different types of defects after phosphating treatment and establishes the relationship between the transferability of non-quality defects on different substrate surfaces and their phosphate grain sizes. This provides a theoretical basis for improving the surface quality of automotive steel sheets after coating.