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I am one of those people who is very OCD of how my car looks. Scratches, chips, and swirls drive me crazy, but it might not bother others as much. I would probably leave it in the garage more too so it wouldn't get so dusty, which kinda defeats the purpose of owning a car.
If you are OCD (even in a figurative sense) about how your car looks, it really is a matter of picking your poison. While the swirls will show up more on a black car, any even tiny paint chips are going to stick out like sore thumbs with most other colors, and even careful touching them up is likely to make them even more obvious.
Also, if you get a light metallic or, even worse, a 3-stage pearl and if you are "OCD" about the finishes of your vehicles, you better hope that you never need to have any body panels refinished. While those who are not particular about fits and finishes won't notice, those, like me, who are especially particular can walk by a light metallic or pearl car that has had paint work, and with just a glance, recognize that it has had paint work. And, if it is my vehicle, that paint work is going to catch my eye every time I am near the vehicle, and it will be like fingernails scraping against a chalk board.
As the owner of a black GX and a nebula gray pearl ES and as someone who is especially particular about the finishes on my vehicles, I get more nervous about the nebula gray ES than I do about the black GX. I know that, with the GX, minor scratches will show more, but I also know that they can easily be removed, and I know that small paint chips can be touched up easily in a way that they essentially become invisible. I also know that, if I need to have a fender or a bumper repainted, a great job can easily be done with just a panel-to-panel match. With the nebula gray ES, however, I know that even very carefully done touch ups of paint chips will not result in anything close to an "invisible" repair, and I also know that, should paint work be needed, it will be much more difficult to get it done in a manner that is satisfactory to my very particular concern about fits and finishes.
So, it really is a matter of picking your poison, and I'm not sure that we are doing the OP any favors by making it seem like his brand new obsidean ES is going to look like hell in a few months unless he never uses it. For me, I know that there can be issues with the finishes on all colors of vehicles, but the ones that I have on the black GX are ones that I can easily deal with myself. The ones on the nebula gray pearl ES are ones that are harder to deal with.
My obsidian ES350 is lightly swirled up from the dealer itself. I bought it like 5 months ago, and I'm gonna have it paint corrected. To avoid swirls from there on you really do have to make sure to wash it and dry it using the proper methods to keep it swirl free.
However, if you're truly that fastidious about it, you'll know in your head that regardless the color, the same thing is taking place, rather the visibility of such swirls/'love marks' is the only difference. Sooo, that's why I really love the pick your poison way of looking at it as @lesz; stated
question. whats the difference if the detailer can scratch your car to when he drys it
Originally Posted by SW15LS
Hahahahaha, no. The car wash will really destroy it. I'm not anti car wash, I use one all the time...which is why my car is silver lol.
If you really want it to look good over time and you're not interested in learning how to safely wash it yourself, I would hire a professional detailer to hand wash it regularly, and polish and wax it twice a year.
After a few trips through a brushless wash it will look like this:
A decent detailer? I doubt it, unless they used a single bucket for everything and washed from the wheels upwards. A good one would probably use a leaf blower to get most of the water off. I'd also look closely at how they handle their microfiber towels.
That brushless wash pic looks horrific though. I go about a week to two weeks between hand washes but if I don't have the time, I'd rather leave the car looking dirt-camo rather than risk it getting scratched up at a car wash. With a good sealant or coating on the paint, it takes only half an hour for a two-bucket wash and a spritz of quick detailer to get the car looking new again.
Before I retired I had quite a few black company cars and I was able to keep them clean and shiny with company financed care (car washes)...but now that I am retired I chose a silver ES350 which stays (looking) clean far longer than black via regular (typically once or twice a week) washes courtesy of my Lexus dealer. Black is my favorite color but not when I have to spend so much time and possibly money keeping it looking good.
I chose a silver ES350 which stays (looking) clean far longer than black via regular (typically once or twice a week) washes courtesy of my Lexus dealer.
Your CL name has Eola in it, so I assume you take it to Naperville? I forgot to remind them NOT to wash my ES on my last service visit. I now have a nice scratch on my hood. I definitely won't make that mistake again!
Do yourself a favor and make a sign and leave it on the dashboard. The porters are just on autopilot and even when you say no wash, a lot of times they do it anyways...
I have a '14 Obsidian 300h. I also have a 1/3 hood clear bra on it, with the clear bra material covering the front of the door mirrors and the area around the grill. I went through the phase of obsessing over the paint job and hand washing etc.
Three months after I got the car, I got boxed in behind a dump truck at 60mph, and his back door got loose, showering my beloved 300h with gravel. After the end of the trip I did a careful inspection and saw the clear bra had nicked and ripped in a couple of spots, and a few (perhaps ~6) bad nicks on the hood. A couple of bad nicks on the roof behind the windshield. I cannot afford to replace the clear bra.
I got the touch up paint from Lexus and decided to try it on the roof first because the nicks were the worst there. Although the color matched, the surface is not smooth and I can see the irregularity. With those results, I did not dare try it on the hood. Non of the hood nicks have gone to metal, so for now I have elected to wax it and watch it. I do not want to take it to a shop because they will never be able to get the original Lexus finish (you need to see the video of the KY Lexus plant to appreciate how meticulous the painting process is), and the CARFAX will show that the hood was repainted. If/when I decide to sell the car, the buyer will always wonder what I am hiding.
One good that came out of that trauma is that the car is no longer 'perfect', therefore I take the Obsidian paint with a grain of salt. Now the car is a couple of years old and I think still looks stunning after a wash and wax. It has its blemishes but they make it special and 'mine'. I know that each nick has a story and a curse behind it. That is how memories are made and one becomes fond of one's wheels!
To paraphrase an old Buddhist saying, perfection is realizing how imperfect everything is. Like car paint
I used to worry about every single scratch until I got dinged doors, had a moped dropped on the front bumper and had someone gently reverse into my front license plate. I still detail the car because I want it to look good but I've stopped sweating about it looking spotless.
I had a black vehicle and I would never go back. I would wash the car one day and by the next day there is a small layer of dust. Not to mention the swirl marks and how easy it is to get them. If you are any bit of OCD then black is not the color for you. But, I will say that a clean and polished black car is probably the best looking on the streets.
04-05-15, 05:37 AM
I definitely won't make that mistake again!
