Yea I noticed this. My TL and RL have no Orange Peel, and its paint job is as good as my Audi was. I had a huge DOOR ding on my TL (3 inches long) and had to take it to a dent guy and he got it out, but surprisingly it didn't break the paint! Then my G35 had some bad orange peel and so did our Camrys.

 

I have inspected my friend's 05 TL (the gold color) up close and there's definitely a noticeable amount of orange peel there - no question. I put it side by side with my boss' Acura RL of roughly the same color (it is the last year of the older body style though) and would say the quality was about identical to my friend's TL.
My 06 Audi (optional silver metallic) I'd say is roughly equal in terms of OP but as we have been discussing thickness - my back passenger side car door smacked into my garage door siding pretty hard one day when I forgot the door was open and pulled into the garage. The paint was scuffed badly but you still couldn't see through to the metal. I was impressed and also glad since it's not enough damage to be charged for on the lease turn-in.

My parent's 05 Camry XLE (gold also... lol) had quite a bit of OP in it... side by side my dad's 02 F-150 (red) has quite a bit less OP than their camry does. But my 99 GS400 had less OP than his F-150 did.

With all that said, the new LS460 has the least OP I've seen in any factory job to date. It also has a very strange 'feel' to it... I don't know how to describe it but I ran my finger lightly over one at the dealership and it most definitely had a different tactile feel to it than the GS450H that was right next to it.

There's a great detailer here in my area who has shown some before and after wetsanding pics and does a great job of getting rid of OP.

 

Cool. Nice rims.

 

Well I have WDP White Diamond Pearl, and it might be done with a different process but definitely no orange peel.

 

In general I prefer working on harder paints. When I say "harder" I mean in the 6/7/8 range, not ceramiclear or vette paint which are so hard that they are different animals all together. Why do I like working on harder paints? It's easier to finish down clean on them. I use a rotary for 75% of the work that I do, so correcting marring is relatively easy with the right combination of pad and compound; however soft paints tend to haze so easily that it often takes as much or more time correcting the hazing and finishing down smooth than it does to correct deep defects on hard paint. Does that make sense?

To give you an example, take an Infiniti G35 and an Audi A4, both '03 both moderate condition. Now straight away we know the G35 will be easier to correct and the A4 will likely have hard paint (in the 7/8 range on my make believe scale), so obviously we're going to take different approaches, on the A4 I would use a heavy compound + a yellow pad @1500 rpm, on the G I would use an orange pad, medium compound and less speed; now you'll have to trust me when I say I've done enough cars that they've become predictable, so I know the A4 would require one more step, 106FF or another finishing polish on a grey pad @1300, and it would be perfectly clean, no haze. The G, on the other hand *normally* requires two more steps, one to clean up the haze and then one to finish down without any micromarring. So the G, while easier to correct, will take more time, and is incidentally a lot more frustrating. To add to this, it's almost always the case that cars with harder paint are in better shape because they are easier to maintain. I see so many *mangled* Infiniti's/Acuras it's really sick. Most of the German cars I see are in good to moderate condition, since they resist scratching a bit better.

For someone with a PC, midrange paint (Toyota/Lexus/some Acuras/some BMWs) is probably the easiest to deal with.

I hope this makes sense.

FWIW, as I mentioned in 10 years I have only seen one factory finish with *no* orange peel, a Rolls Royce Phantom.

At least they are staggered!

 

Makes total sense, thanks for the insight.

FWIW, I use a PC, I don't have much experience with a rotary.

 

I agree. I prefer harder paint because they resist swirls better than softer paint (in general), but they are harder to fix than softer paint. One has it's advantage over the other. Luckily for me, rotary will tackle most surface jobs i've done.