Rexus300

iTrader: (1)

I have to tell you, the SC430 Paint quality sucks!!

I love the car, but I have too many paint chips on the front of my red SC430, probably about 15 chips and about 4 on each side near the rear wheel. The paint is very un durable and cheap.... There are other cars in my household, such as Infiniti, Nissan, and Acura, and they have nothing like this.. My new RX330 has no paint chips yet. I drive alot on the highway with the SC430 and other cars, but this SC has such thin paint. God, i don't know what to do, i might as well put a damn nosemask on it. I wish LEXUS will stop reducing the thickness of their paint !!!!!

Anyone want to give thier opinions on this or has any problem like this??

Tej

lexusk8

I don't think it has much to do with the SC specifically. In general, Lexus paint chips pretty easily and much more so than other luxury brands

Skulinex

On a sc4, I have i would say less than 4 chips on the hood and front of the car and I drive everywhere with it, and couple of times here and there at speed usually at the meets.. keep in mind that im talking about a 95 and have driven it since 97.. I do keep the car waxed properly with zymol and do touch ups with Meguiar's spray products.. Also I drove the GS300 <02> once out of the garage quite fast while I was in a hurry and clipped the frame of the garage door with it .. Even though I hit it right where the sidemarker was, the sm actually took off a chunk off the frame and the paint got a long vertical scratch but it went bye bye with a good waxing and it's been totally fine since then.. both cars are silver, platinum however you wanna call their colors. I do know though that red in general is a bit weaker in just every other automaker, specially the bright type.. kinda interesting to hear this because every new lexus it supposed to come with anti-chip paint.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

it's not lexus. they have pretty much the same process as other companies like bimmer and mb. the problem is that due to environmental issues, laws, etc... companies are now forced to use ONLY water based paint, which is not as strong as oil base paint at all. that's why it chips easier

if you talk about bad, acura is way worse. they have that 2 coats painting technology, yes it's shiny but yes, it chips super easy compared to the two lexus i have

and the old cars most of them have oil base paint, that's why they are much stronger

bengreen

You're right, it does 'suck'. I had a white '98 SC300 that never chipped. My white 02' SC430 paint had several chips on the front of the hood.....My Lexus Paint and Body dealer (a friend) did patch them up..no charge....I had tried the 'official' touch-up paint..but, that white is not the same shade as that of the car. My dealer friend said that touch up paint will normally not work, since, to make a match, the touch-up paint and the car paint have to come from the same 'batch'..which is hardly likely....He had his paint 'expert' make up a batch for me.....a perfect match. I've been told that the aerodynamics of the hood of the 430 encourages chips (as compared to the shape of the SC300/400)...I'm not sure I buy into that. If we have the technology to put two vehicles on Mars, we ought to be able to solve the paint chip problem!!!!!!

JCtx

You're correct, but that law only applies in the U.S.; our cars are made in Japan. Since it's cheaper to paint a car with water-based paint, Toyota just cheaped out on us. Their justification might be many competitors are building their cars in the US, so let's save the money ourselves too.
Ever since I bought my first Lexus ('96 SC400), I've had this problem, and I don't think the EPA restrictions were in effect back then. I used to drive the Lex once a week to my office, and after a few months, with less than 1K miles on the SC, it was way worse than my daily driver, which traveled the same identical roads many more times a week and had 10 times the mileage. That's my one gripe with these cars, and I've had 4 (SC4, LS, GS4, SC430), with the same results. I don't think that will change gentlemen, so don't hold your breath.

I'd say my Acura MDX and SC are equally bad in the paint department. Both thinner than they should be and fairly easily chipped, but that's inexcusable in the much more expensive SC.

nthach

Volkswagen and Mercedes began using water based paint way before Toyota did. And the Americans had it worse, PPG messed it up big time in the late 80's on OEM GM and Chrysler paint.

Skulinex

I'd write to lexus and ask them if it's something to do with american market models or what. After looking through the whole site I didnt find anything mentioning it, yet in both the european and asian sites found the same ANTI-CHIP technology they talk about anti-chip paint?

mmarshall

Problem is, guys, you're all blaming auto companies, EPA, paint mixers, etc..... for what really is a problem of just TOO MUCH s--- and debris lying on the roads to start with, mostly due to just plain laziness. Utility companies, paving firms, construction companies, etc...that won't clean up their mess when they're done working, uncovered dump trucks, clean-up crews that leave auto debris on the road after an accident, sand and salt trucks that dump tons of it down and no one cleans up after the storm,.......I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The real answer is to keep the roads clean and truck loads secure, and that will take strict government fines and enforcement of offenders.

lexusk8

Well said mmarshall. Unfortunately in this modern and sometimes complex world, it is hard to find any long stretch of clean car-friendly road or street

Deanski

Boy does this touch the same sore spot with me as well!! I have escalated thiss to Lexus with no results.

First days of ownership, very little driving on any highyway and mine got several chips.

My resolution: ARMORGLOVE! Have it on front bumper, headlights, hood (wrapped), fenders, rocker panels, side mirrors and door cups.

BEST INVESTMENT!!!

Look into this at: Armorglove

Regards,

Deanski