IrishJoe

I am custom ordering a base Lexus RX 450h this weekend and would appreciate advice on choosing between Eminent White, Nightfall Mica, and Silver Lining Metallic as the exterior color.

I love the Nightfall Mica color depicted in the Lexus brochures, but find it to be much darker in person. I am concerned whether such a dark color will show swirl marks and dirt much more than a lighter color. I'd love to hear from people who have owned it for awhile.

Eminent White seems like a safer color, and is the most sold RX color at our local dealership. Does it hold up well?

Silver LIning Metallic is what we have on my wife's ES. After four years, it looks brand new and clean, and i would gladly buy it again. However, we are getting the Noble Brown interior and our Lexus dealership advices that combination would look terrible. I'm not sure that is correct. Does anyone have this combination and do you regret it? (I don't care for the white threading in the black interior, and am concerned about Parchment and Grey interors holding up, so I don't want to change from the Noble Brown interior.)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

dchar

I think Nightfall Mica is a beautiful color, but be prepared to put in some effort to keep it looking beautiful. Besides the obvious showing more dust, it will need to be polished and waxed more often to prevent swirls. There is a coating that suppose to help prevent swirls called self-healing, but the coating will not last forever. So if you're not willing to put in the effort to maintain this dark color, then I'd go with your other two choices.

Eminent white its is a great looking white since it shimmers in the sun and works great with a noble brown interior. I also think Silver lining would look great with noble brown interior, and will be more unique. Since you already have a Silver lining car in the garage, why not go for something different like Eminent white. It's a low maintenance color like Silver lining and hides dust quite well.

ggebhardt

I like the darker colors and went with the Caviar. I see no swirl marks. Wax applied with PorterCable and removed by hand with a MF towel. No swirls.

No doubt the darker colors show dirt more but when clean and waxed . . . . . beautiful!!! The Caviar is really nice in the sun.

JT4

Good to know because after 5 black cars over the years I have vowed to never buy another black car, I am too OCD to have another. However, when I saw the Caviar in the sun my first thought was I bet that wouldn't show swirls too bad, my second thought was wow it's beautiful..

I have stuck to White and Silver Metallics for my last four vehicles for ease of maintaining the finish. I still use a DA with swirl remover on occasion followed by polish and wax on them. But they are so much easier to care for.

I am considering Caviar or Nightfall Mica if we get another RX.. If we get a GX it will be silver, I am not maintaining a dark colored GX....

OP - I like the nightfall because in the shade it looks dark and then as soon as its in the sun the color really "pops".. But yes, the nightfall will take more work to maintain then the white or silver.

FastFord

If you have a hint of OCD about the finish on your vehicle, I would stay away from Nightfall Mica.

After owning at least 10 black vehicles...no more. Love it when it looks good, but with OCD I see all the stuff that drives me nuts. Far too many hours polishing, caring for, a daily driver.

Now with my somewhat boring grey, it's a good compromise.

Saw the Silver Lining at the dealer, it looked good. White looks good too. Funny, out of 55 cars, I have never owned a white one.

There are some pretty cool things you can do to a black car these days to help maintain the finish. So if you are leaning towards Nightfall, check out your options for paint protection. In the detailing section, there is lots of good info and some pretty smart people on there that can point you in the right direction.

lesz

If you are particular about fits and finishes, the reality is that there are both advantages and disadvantages to either the lighter colors, such as the Eminent White or Silver Linings Metallic, or the darker colors, such as the Nightfall Mica.

While there is no question that the Eminent White or Silver Linings Metallic will not show dust as much and won't show polishing swirls or light surface scratches as much as a darker color, those two lighter colors are more difficult to maintain in other ways. With light metallic colors, and especially with multi-stage pearl colors such as the Eminent White Pearl, Silver Linings Metallic, or Atomic Silver, doing any paint repairs, whether minor or major, can be difficult or next to impossible. For touching up even small stone nicks with those colors, the metallic flakes in the touch up are going to lie with a different orientation from the surrounding paint, and, regardless of how careful and how good your technique is, the touch up is likely to look darker than the surrounding areas from some angles and lighter than the surrounding areas from different angles. And, even worse, if you ever need to have a panel refinished because of a severe scratch, getting a good paint match is especially difficult. Often, blending into adjacent panels is necessary to get a satisfactory match, and, even when the work is done by a skilled paint technician, it may well not look "perfect" to someone who is particular about fits and finishes.

On the other hand, a dark color, like the Nightfall Mica or Obsidian, will show polishing swirls and light scratches more readily, but those swirls and light scratches can easily be removed with lightly abrasive polishes, and they can often be avoided with a bit of care and proper washing techniques. But the advantage to the darker colors is that paint repairs, whether they be touch ups of small stone nicks or repainting a bumper or other panel can be achieved much more easily to a level of near perfection with those darker colors.

I am one who is especially particular about fits and finishes, and, for me, I prefer to go the route of the darker colors. While I know that those darker colors will require more care, I also know that, with them, fixing damage, minor or major, can be done to a level of perfection. At the same time, I know that, with the light multi-stage pearls, the results from even minor touch ups aren't going be at what I consider to be an acceptable level. For some, a nice compromise is a color like the Nebula Gray Pearl or other medium to slightly darker color. They don't show the dust or minor scratches as much as much darker colors, but they are also easier to match with either touch ups or more extensive paint work.

FastFord

Good post Lesz!

Before I bought my 3rx I stopped at the Dealers paint shop. They said basically the same as Lesz. They said the worst color for them to match somewhat perfectly was the White Pearl. That was not what I wanted to hear as it would have been my first white car.

If you love Nightfall Mica, then that's the color you should get. There are tons of products out there to help you keep the car looking it's best.

Good luck with your choice.

lesz

And, if you asked the guys in the body shop the same question now, not only would they likely say that pearl whites are very difficult to work with, but they would likely add that some of the newer colors, including Silver Linings Metallic and Atomic Silver are even worse. The Eminent White Pearl is a 3-stage paint, which makes it difficult to match, but some of the newer colors, like the SLM and AS are even worse because they are 4 or 5 stage paints.

Another way to say what I said in my earlier post is that, while dark colors require more care, any damage, whether minor, such as paint swirls, stone nicks, or minor scratches, or major, such as deep scratches or collision damage, can be repaired to a like-new condition. With the lighter metallics and especially the multi-stage pearls, when such minor or major damage is repaired, there is a significant chance that it won't be able to repaired back to like-new condition. If you search the various CL boards, you will find a number of posts from people who had nightmare-like results when needing paint work with some of these harder to work with colors.

FastFord

I didn't know that about SLM and AS. Good to know. Thanks!

ericsan13

My understanding is that wax hides scratches. I wonder what it will look like in a few years if you don't keep it waxed all the time!

lesz

A good wax job should actually reduce the amount of polishing swirls and minor surface scratches because any substance that might otherwise cause swirls or scratches has to penetrate the coat of wax before it can even get to the clear coat to put a scratch into it. That assumes that you are using a non-abrasive wax and that you are buffing the wax with a good quality microfiber cloth. Otherwise, an abrasive wax or a low quality polishing cloth can introduce swirls and surface scratches.

Also note that, instead of hiding scratches, wax is more likely to make them visible because it will build up in those scratches, which makes them show up more readily.

Arty101

Here I was thinking Atomic Silver would be my next paint choice. Now, maybe I'll stick with my current Nebula Gray color scheme.

mcfancy

def the em white def go with em white

ericsan13

I thought wax hides scratches/swirls on the clear coat by filling them in, so you can't see them easily. At least it always appeared this way to me - adding wax always made the swirls and scratches diminish.

http://www.prestaproducts.com/presta...x?ArticleID=15

lesz

I know that there are numerous wax products that claim to hide scratches, including some of the color wax products, but, over decades of being obsessive about auto finishes, I've tried many of those products, and I'm yet to find one that truly makes scratches any less visible. On the other hand, I have seen build up of waxes in the scratches that made the scratches look more visible.

It may well be the case that some of these products can (somewhat) conceal superficial scratches and polishing swirls where the scratch has not completely penetrated through the clear coat, but there is no need to "hide" those superficial scratches because they can be completely and permanently removed with a mildly abrasive polish, such as 3M Hand Glaze. On the other hand, if there are deep scratches that have completely penetrated through the clear coat, you are not going to hide them with any wax product, and the only real solution to making them invisible is to refinish the panel. And those deep scratches are the ones for which wax build up in the scratch will actually make the scratch look worse.