I hear a lot of complaints about paint fading and no one mentions paint maintenance. Paint needs to be maintained just like the rest of your car.

You change your oil, but when was the last time you waxed the finish?

Toyota's Whites (Super White, Super White II) are excellent paints. But they have to be maintained. I had a Celica GT-S wearing this color and while it was 17 years old with original paint, it still shined like new. See pic.

You can't abandon the paint for 5 years and complain when the paint system starts to fail. That's like never changing your oil and crying when the engine siezes.

Some finishes are higher maintenance than others, this is true. Reds need special attention as they start to turn pink if you're not on it. (I'm tired of seeing pink Corollas and Matrixes on the road) Blacks need particular car washing techniques to keep the swirls from showing.

As for the paint differences, both Toyota and Lexus are good paints. The main difference I have seen is between Japanese and US-built models. Japan paints their cars better.

My MINI (built my BMW) has one of the poorest paint jobs I've seen in a while. It's soft, chips easy, is full of orange peel, and it gets swirl marks just by looking at it. Bird bombs etch into it permanently if the sun hits it. :thumbdn:

They don't even completely paint the panels. If you open the door and peer into the jambs on the hinge side, you can see green primer. :thumbdn:

Although it is a fact that the LS460 is wet sanded by hand, it is only done on vertical surfaces, twice, and on horizontal surfaces only when needed. All the work is done, believe it or not, by Japanese master craftsmen called "Takumi"? (sic). They are the highest skilled people that Lexus employs. Takumi are the best of the best in the automotive world and their experience is nothing short of 20 years in their expertise. Lexus employs very few of them.

Lol if you guys are complaining about Lexus or Toyota paint, you should try Scion's paint hahaha If I looked at my tCs for too long the paint would chip!

:p

The 2005 and up Acura RLs are also handsanded at the factory. You can definitely tell when looking at the paint finish because on the RL it is beautiful and virtually orange peel free and looks as smooth as glass. The new TSX had some noticeable orange peel and the TL had a little less then the TSX. The RLs I looked at, orange peel was pretty much non existent.

My GS430 has pretty bad orange peel on the rear lower areas past the rear wheel and on the sides of the trunk and actually has a noticeable drip mark in the paint at the rear end, quality control must have missed that. Higher end Mercedes and Audi have very smooth paint and have hard ceramic clear coats that are good at resisting chips and swirlmarks/light scratches but are very difficult to polish scratches/swirls out when the occur. Menzerna products are used to polish at Mercedes and other factories and I believe some Merc/Audi are also hand sanded at the factory.

One of the most disappointing paint jobs on a high end car I saw was a Bentley Continental GT coupe I saw in a parking lot after going to a auto show. The owner did not take good care of it as there were all kinds of scratches, scrapes, and touch up marks but when I was looking at it, the Bentley had horrible orange peel all over it, worse then pretty much any car I had ever seen. I love the Continental GT but for a car costing so much and with such a prestigious name it should have a much nicer paint job and finish.

Toyota and Lexus use the same paint-I have painted both. Beyond that, I do not have definite proof if Lexus does anything different as they all have a lot of orange peel. Did not check the LS though. The SC has a pretty good finish, better than most out there.
While at BMW a while back I was amazed at how much orange peel was on the M3 and 5 series. It was considerable. The RL as stated above has a very good smooth finish.

Cannot comment on the durability as every car I have owned from German to US to Asian scratched fairly easily.

Paint chemistry from one manufacturer to another is pretty similar, whether it Dupont, Sherwin-Williams or whoever. What is more important is "application", the condition of equipment used to apply it, and the vigilance and quality control of the team overseeing the whole process. So you can have a bad Lexus, MB, BMW, Jag or Audi paint job. There are so many tests before the paint hits the metal, that consistency would be the norm at that level, unless a gremlin in the line causes weird solvent to paint mix ratios, hence orange peel. I'm sure if you could ask their production line source, they would tell you they get it from reliable sources, as long as it conforms to Toyota/Lexus's specifications.

One thing though, Lexus applies two clear coats vs one for Toyota, unless someone can prove otherwise...

And... the LS is wet sanded between coats...

Not true at all

The germans use the BASF paint. best in the bussiness. I love my lexus but there is a reason that they germans can keep charging thousands more for their cars

the hood of my infiniti looked like a freakn stary night when I got rid of it after 5 years

how come the japanese can't use basf paint too?

If using BASF paint results in the massive orange peel I saw on a M6 (yes, an effing M6!!) in my local BMW dealer then I am glad that Lexus isn't using the BASF paint...

Would have to agree, while at a BMW dealer a few months back I looked at a few cars such as the 550, M3 , and M6. The orange peel was the first thing I noticed from 10' away. It was pretty rough and about the worse orange peel I have seen on a production car in years.

Take a look at the following thread on the M3 forum. Pics speak for themselves.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97930

the orange peel results from not sanding in between layers, no?

orange peel has more to do with the process than paint quality. I can spray on Dupont paint and make it look horrible, yet I can spray on generic paint and make it look better. The general rule for most things are: 20% product, 80% application.