My last car was a rally-blue wrx that I also bought brand new.
Within the first 6 months it had so many rock chips on the front hood and fenders that it looked like I ran into a can of white paint.

The truth is: painting a car well costs alot of time and money. Toyota is not the only company cutting corners on paint, these days.

 

Insurance co. just sent me an $800 check to cover painting the front doors due to a scratch on one from "some kind of animal" (that's what the appraiser said), and a scratch on another from my fingernail while washing the car (my nails are SHORT - I swear!).

The insurance co.'s gonna go berserk when I show them this... some kids "lobbed" a raw egg into on-coming traffic the other night - landed on my hood (see pic). Took the paint off down to bare metal! No dent, no paint.

Car is 1.5 months old w/2500 miles. For lack of a better explanation, the paint seems extremely "soft."

I wonder how much it would cost to have the entire car re-painted?

 

Unfortunately, quite a bit. If you're looking to have a professional paintjob with paint that nears factory quality (or, in our cases better than factory quality) then you'll probably be looking in the ballpark of $3-5k. I've also run into a lot of reluctance from paint shops in the area to want to paint the entire car- most simply do insurance or repair work and prefer not to paint the entire car. Also, once a car has been repainted chances are it won't look as good as the factory job. I'd recommend you do what I've opted for in having the front end of the car repainted and blended back into the fenders- then consider getting a 3M ClearBra.

 

** UPDATE **

My arbitration hearing will be 2 weeks from today, Wednesday, March 16th.

Wish me luck!

 

Good luck.

 

good luck.....

 

Good luck...
Keep us posted.

 

So far I don't appear to have an unusual chipping problem with my PW xB, but due to some vandalism I have an ugly dent in its hood. What's odd about that is the paint around the dent came off the metal in one broken piece as if it had nearly zero bond with the metal...

Perhaps the paint problem(s) are multifold: Clearcoat too thin/fragile, overall paint too brittle (shatters or cracks rather than flexing), and poor bonding with substrate.

Not being a paint expert I can't really say for sure - it's just that I've never seen paint on any of the other 27 cars I've owned separate from the metal so easily...

 

i have had my xb for about 2-3 weeks now, after reading nearly every post here, i read of peoples pealing paint and bubbling, but smash's paint is clearly chipped, that happens on all cars if you dive under certian conditions, would like to see some of the bubbling or peeling paint (comming off in sheets), this would be a defect...but note older chevy trucks had this problem and gm never did anything about it......... another thing, swirling come from one of two things.......bad rubout job on a clearcoat, or poor washing habbits....

just my 2 cents though and good luck wit toyota

05 tcm xb

 

Yours MAY be an actual defect if it really that bad... depending on how the paint defects were caused. I have never seen a car that did not get paint chips from rocks and such. As far as the swirls... try having it professionally detailed to see if that helps. Many times the swirls are caused by the initial detailing of the vehicle. If the person did not buff the car correctly, swirls can be created. See if a good detail shop can buff them out. My tC is at 9500 miles and has no rock chips, and I live in Minneapolis, home of terrible roads :-) Try hard to work with the dealer (or a different dealer if yours will not at least try to work with you) to get it detailed or corrected.

 

I'd just like to add... the car dusters do the same thing. I remeber seeing one lady come into my detail shop after she used one religiously for a year. The car looked like it was covered in spider webs.

Putting a good wax on the car regularly can also help prevent it a bit too.

 

I have 762 miles on my xb with black sand pearl....Ive got swirl marks all over the doors and rear hatch....

I washed it three times at a hand car wash.... rediculous...

Ive owned it for two weeks....

 

i don't have any chips yet, however i did notice a decent amount of swirls on my hood from the first time i washed it by hand, granted it was my fault, but i washed it carefully, i never had to worry about scratches with my old corolla, scions have weak paint

 

personally I don't have an issue with swirl marks.. i believe that's involved with what you use to wash your car. the '01 Jetta I had had gorgeous rich black german paint on it and got swirl marks all over it from one wash-- really just goes to show some brushes/pads/squigies/car washes/etc. can be rough on any paint!

 

Oh yeah... mine is just terrible. No paint issues, no sunroof noise, AC will freeze you to death, and heat will melt you (and it gets well below 0 where I live). Its not all of them, they had a bad run of cars. So no it's not "Normal". We all know you hate the tC. So just get rid of it and don't drive one.

 

i've tried to touch up the first one...

 

did you use a toothpick for the touchup??? that's what i'm going to try...

 

yup, i just did the first coat like 45 mins ago, i have to put on a few more cuz its pretty deep

 

haha... and the dealer tried to get me to buy the "special paint protection" thingie for $800 when I got mine.

if they can't get the paint right, how're they going to get the protective coat right?

 

so how did arbitration go?