Do you not drive it?

 

Wow. I also had a black Acura RL. I did as you did, but my paint stayed much more pristine. Those cars had hand-rubbed paint that made our ES's look lowbrow by comparison -- absolutely zero orange peel. It made me feel morally obligated not to ruin it.

I'd be interested to hear the prevailing opinion on whether our Lexuses have paint that's considered hard or soft. Mine is red, and I've heard that tends to be soft paint. So far, I couldn't say.

 

Lucky you! My beloved 2003 Acura CL had a major paint flaw, or rather, clear coat flaw. It faded and peeled away over time. It broke my heart because I absolutely cherished that car. Planned on keeping it forever, until I was hit a few months ago and it was totaled. RIP

 

 

[QUOTE=LexFinally;11428451]Wow. I also had a black Acura RL. I did as you did, but my paint stayed much more pristine. Those cars had hand-rubbed paint that made our ES's look lowbrow by comparison -- absolutely zero orange peel. It made me feel morally obligated not to ruin it./QUOTE]
Interesting. My RL was a 1998 and the paint wasn’t awful by any stretch but got dull and showed swirl very easily on my black. Not nearly as deep of clear coat as my blue XJ8 or gray 528i or white LS430 had either.

im surprised you don’t like the ES paint much? My 2023 with white pearl looks really smooth and deep to me in person. Will see how it holds up I guess.

 

[QUOTE=BBQapple;11428491]I wouldn't say I don't like the ES paint, because I do. It's deep, lustrous and well applied. It's just not possible to make any mass production car 100% free of even the slightest orange peel, which is what hand rubbing at the factory does. And since it's rare to apply that kind of attention to any car under $100,000, the RL was really special in that regard. (The CL, like the TL, was made less expensively as well, which it had to be because it cost much less.)

 

I'd say hard paint. Mine is four years old, freeway driven every day and not a single stone chip anywhere.

 

Well said. Hey, it's the nicest car I have.

 

Also, I just went thru the car wash again. I might be addicted. Gotta cancel my monthly subscription.

 

I did mine almost every day the first couple weeks I had it. The guys at the entrance thought it was hilarious.

 

With my last car, the guy at the counter asked me why I was wasting money washing my car over and over when it wasn't dirty. Aaaah, but he didn't have an eye for dust on black cars.

 

My rule is automatic car washes for white cars and very bright silver cars only because you can’t really see the micro Marring on those colors. Any other shade will show the scratches especially if it’s a dark color like black blue red. on the silver and white the sun light refracts so much off of the color that you can’t really see the clearcoat unless you’re really looking hard at specific angles.

 

I've been working as a manager at a car wash for 5 years and wouldn't recommend a tunnel wash on luxury cars. There's always a chance the brushes can catch itself in a crevice and rip parts off your vehicle.

 

Walter White?🤣🤣🤣

 

No kidding yeah LOL, always a chance, those columns and pads and all those moving parts in these tunnels must be working perfectly everytime, to not damage the car. I doubt.

When I feel bored, I search "car wash" on my facebook to find all local carwash, and either read some horrified reviews or read few long stories of someone who had their car f***ed (those posts are normally public and they tag the carwash page on it, so everyone can read). Blame me evil but I feel very entertained