NC244GLT

We have a GX460 in black and the front bumper and hood have several chips in them @ less than 5k miles. We have the hood film from the dealer, but it doesn't come to the edge of the hood. The bumper has a ton of chips all over it, while the hood has several that go all the way to the bare metal and have begun to rust. My 04 LS with 105k none of this and our 200k mile pilot was devoid of this issue as well.
Anyone else notice this issue with their paint?

akfd

I admit the paint seems to be quite soft; when I opened the door once the edge touch a brick wall, and a little bit of paint came off. But your case is a bit extreme, hopefully it's under warranty.

Craig B

No, I don't have any chips on my bumper or hood after one year of use. I also use mine in all weather. We really had a bad winter this winter. I have the paint protection film from the port. It doesn't cover my front bumper, but does cover the hood. I do have one small chip on the roof, drivers side from a rock or something from this winter. It's very minor. I would let your dealer look at your vehicle and see what they have to say. To me, it doesn't sound normal. I know the water based paints aren't as good as the older paint jobs used to be.

Koz

I knew from seeing this happen to other vehicles with painted bumpers that a clear bra would be needed to prevent this (paint chips). I had a custom one piece (front end) Ventureshield clear bra installed the first week after delivery. I had the whole front end done including fog/headlights, from the middle of the front fender wheel wells up about 20” across the hood, side mirrors, door handle wells, around gas tank door, running boards and rear bumper. It’s worth every penny!

Koz

Luke27617

iTrader: (2)

The paint is soft on all cars now. I had chips issues on my 09 BMW 335i, 08 GS350. On my 2010 GX I had clear bra isntalled but didn't come all the way to the edge and I had one nasty chip there. After getting 2011 GX, I have installed clear bra again and made sure it comes all the way to the edge. I have the bumper protection as well which I am sure helps.

On another hand I have problem with windshield which already has two big chips. Since those dip type (missing glass), you cannot fix them as start type are only fixable. Will see how long it will be before a new windshield be needed.

NC244GLT

This is the smallest of our issues with the vehicle....it's at the dealer for the 5th time for the awful alignment issues (ate both front tire in 5k) in addition to the paint issues. I am done with the whole process...$60k for a truck that has these issues? We could have bought a used LX470 and been better off...

Luke27617

iTrader: (2)

Actually you may not have an alignment issue. On my 2010 GX my tires were down to 5/32 at 5k. Tires are soft and if you don't drive on higher PSI, they do wear quickly. When I have swapped them to LTX MS2 there were no problems. As soon I moved to 2011 GX I have changed tires to LTX too and I have no problems with wear. STILL have random vibs in steering wheel at highway speed like I had in the 2010.

ken386

paint is touchyy.. but not that touchhy.. i havent heard of anybody else haveing that problem with the GX.. you dont park under a berry tree or anything like that? that stuff will eat up sum paint

akfd

I wonder what causes that? I have done 15000km (9320 miles) on mine and I don't have the vibration problem at almost any speed, ranging from 5mph to 100+mph (I haven't tried maxing out the engine yet, and I'm not going to). Actually I feel the car is driving even smoother than when it was completely new, so things are getting better for me!

Koz

Paint chipping is a problem on ALL cars! It just depends on how much highway driving you do. Also being that many States have gotten record snow fall this year, the streets are loaded with dirt and debris.

Koz

NC244GLT

Not true....we traded a car with 200k and it looked nowhere near as bad as the new car with 5k. I have an '04 LS that also has none of these issues and it has 105k. 4 other new cars since '97 that all had 100k plus and no issues like this. The BUMPER looks like someone shot it with rocksalt, and the hood has several chunks missing...despite the "protective coating". It's just a crap vehicle all around. My LS is 10x the car...and it's 7 years old.

Koz

Your right, the GX460 is a POS, you better get rid of it! I'm going to dump mine tomorrow!

Koz

wannaGX

I noticed the same thing on mine and it's in the garage 99% of the time so no berries eating paint here. My black 2001 4runner with over 100K miles looks better. Uggg.

TripleL

I'm not sure what's occurring with your particular vehicles but unfortunately I haven't been to a car forum yet that I couldn't type in paint chip or whatever and get lots of hits. Pick a brand, MB, BMW, Chevy it doesn't really matter and its been very prevalent the last 5 or so years and even more so the last couple of years. Some of the replies above certainly confirm this.

Some of it I'm sure is cost cutting, as less paint should equal greater profits. But I choose to believe much of it is the new EPA regulations for paint.

I know this isn't going to make any of us feel better, but hopefully it does shed some like on why this is occurring.

Craig B

I'm not having the problem with mine and this has been a terrible winter. I was out in all the weather in mine. I've owned mine for a year now and only have one minor rock chip on my drivers side roof. You really have to look to find it. I have the paint protection film on my hood, fenders and mirrors, but not on my front bumper...