Nissan Paint Quality?
 

I've read a lot about poor Nissan Paint quality on the Z, and owners getting tons of paint chips in a very short time.

I've never owned a Nissan before, but how does its paint stack up against Saab and Toyota? The Saab 9-3 I have has taken a beating (lived on a college campus sans garage or cover) and there are not that many chips or imperfections in the car. Same goes for my Toyota. Usually a quick wax makes imperfections invisible.

Is the Nissan paint quality worse than these two makes?

I currently own an 07 S2000 for tracking purposes and an 03 Maxima for the daily. I will admit that the paint quality on the maxima is inferior compared to that of the s. However, with regular preventative measures, the paint can be kept in great condition for many years. In other words, it's upto the user. My 03 max has the normal rock chips on the front bumper (which is inevitable unless you get a clearbra or something) but the overall paint quality is still in excellent condition. I wash every other week and do a full detail every quarter or two. Very small investment of time and effort but the result pays off very nicely.

Yeah... It's my first time owning a white car, i got tons of rock chips on my front bumper.
I haven't count them all yet, but i think it will be around 15~20 chips.
Touch up paint is only way to fix it.

Get a clear bra...it is a neccesity on the Z. Had one on my 350 and just today got one on my 370! It is worth every penny and you can drive with confidence!

Good luck.

^^ im thinking about the clearbra but if your at a certain angle, cant you see that the paint color is different because of the clearbra? I HATE HATE seeing that on cars, it makes them look ugly and I want to protect my car when i get it but I dont want to see that clearbra at an angle.

A good quality film will not affect the color at all. In fact I have half of my vehicle wrapped and people can not even tell there is anything on there even thoguh I tell them where it is at. You have seen some cheap film obviousely... go with ClearMask AR or VentureShield Ultra and you will not even know its on there.

Anyway,anyone knows the 370z paint is water based or solvent[thinner] based.?

Water based.

The 350z had really poor paint, I assume 370 isn't better? I can tell you my Subaru, Chevy and Mazda all had better paint

I was not aware the paint in Nissan's was so poor. My last two Nissan's were an '84 PU and an '86 200sx. The truck was black and the paint was fantastic but the 200sx was red and it did not have clearcoat and sucked. :(

I don't know about longevity, but the finish on my car is very poor. I can't imagine what they must have done to get such a uniform orange peel texture over the entire car.

When people mention it, I just tell them it's an aerodynamic paint coating -- the dimples disturb the boundary layer of air, resulting in less drag.

IMO the paint quality doesn't seem significantly different than the other late model cars I've owned. The one observation that I and others have made is that the clearcoat seems to be prone to staining. I've noticed stains on my Monetery Blue, I can't imagine what white would be like.

correct me if i'm wrong but i believe they changed to water based because of the stricter environmental standards.

I've noticed some staining from spots on the rear bumper as well, where all the crud seems to accumulate. Very small spots left behind that you can't get out.

I have noticed orange peel on my car, but you have to look close to see it. I was looking at my friends brand new black Audi A5, and it has way more orange peel and its quite noticeable. I wonder if most car companies are either going cheap or if some govt regulations are forcing them to use different paint. We had our house painted 5 years ago and when we went to get the paint matched for some touch up work the guy at the paint place said it would be hard to match because govt regulations have changed how they make the paint. The guy started ripping the govt and when I told him i hate obama he got happy and said he would work with the paint until he got it matched perfectly. took him about 30 minutes.

I know NOTHING about paint so I am just passing this story along, not verifying it.