I've had my black/black IS350 for over a month now. Together...my dad and I put about 2k on the car so far. Well..it got up into the high 40's today in PA so i decided to wash/wax it. After taking my good ole' time hand washing it i noticed the front bumper..and DAMNN there were soo many chips. The front hood had 2 very small chips but their basically negligible.

I walked a few feet over to my dad's 5 year old black/black SL500 and noticed his flawless bumper/hood. Completely flawless. It's got well over 50k miles on it.

Are the paints coming out of Japan reallly that sensitive?? this is terrible

I'll post pics soon hopefully. The car still looks incredible..this is just me venting..since i'm still in the pampering phase

 

I'm not sure it's all of "Japan." My Subaru WRX didn't get paint chips. I do agree that the IS does chip way too easily... I think there's a thread or two about this already so you're not the only one. Oh yea... both of my parents' Mercedes don't have any chips at all (well none that I can see even when I'm trying to look for them).

 

My GS has a little under 9k miles and the front bumper looks pretty bad.

I didn't want to install a clear bra since I only plan on keeping the GS for 2-3 years, but I'm starting to regret my decision of foregoing the clear bra.

 

I've only had mine for a little over 2 months.

RANT So far only 1 chip on the hood and that was from some ladies pocket book when I was parked at the train station. END RANT

Back OT overall I can't complain (yet!) considering its winter with all the salt and sand etc. but as has been stated there are a few threads with a complaint similar to yours.

Here is a thread that I think will interest you.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...ighlight=paint


TripleL

 

My car only had 350 miles when I noticed the many pencil tip sized chips on the front bumper. I touched it up and got clear bra the next day. I now have 2k miles and no more chips.
My dealer did not have the tungsten touch-up and said it would take two weeks if ordered. Luckily, I had like 6 shades of silver paint bottles for my R/C car hobby and one was close enough.

 

I can testify for the poor quality paint on my black onyx.. I've had the car for less than 5 months and I've already had a rock chip on my hood so deep that the bare metal is showing. I never had this problem with my other cars and the IS has been driven on the same roads as my old cars.

 

thanks for the responses

as far as the clear bra goes..im concerned with the "appearance" and if it would be as clean with the clear bra as without. i detail cars in the summer..so i appreciate a good paint job. i hope the clear bra doesnt take away from the black shine. i tried looking for closeup shots on a black car but couldnt find any.

any input?

 

On my Tungsten Pearl I see no difference in shine with the clear bra. Before I got my clear bra installed I saw the owner finish up on a black X5. I could not even tell that the clear bra was there. The only problem with a clear bra is that you can BARELY see the cutoff of the clear bra on the hood and the fender from certain angles. Besides the cutoff points you can't even tell that the clear bra is there. I don't know if this will hold true in 3 years since they COULD BE prone to fading and yelling. I'm not sure on that part. Think of it this way. You won't know that anything is there except a faint line across the hood at a few angles.

 

I'm a lousy photographer, and my digital cam is my cell phone, but here's a shot of my black IS350 with the clear bra installed at the time I took delivery from the dealer.

 

Is your phone 1.3mp? 2.0? It's pretty clear looking.

 

And here's an even worse pic after a couple of washes. Even in this bad pic, I think you can tell that the clear bra shows up a little bit in comparison to the shine on the rest of the hood. But the look is infinitely better than a hood with rock chips IMO.

 

It's a Motorola RAZR v.3. I'm not sure what the specs are (the owner's manual is a masterpiece of obscurity). Some of the pics seem to come out pretty good--the first one I posted is one of the best I've taken--others not so good.

 

environmentally harmful paint. I've had 5 German cars over the last 5 years and they ALL chipped horribly. Much depends on where and how you drive. If you drive mostly on highways with gravel & debris flying at 70mph then you WILL get nailed. I suggest a clear protector.

 

I did the same thing (wash/wax) Saturday and today I noticed all of the chips on the bumper....I'm going to get some touch up paint and clear-bra it ASAP

 

Yeah, its pretty bad. The paint on my IS cracked from a minor hit in my fender. DAMN IT!.

On my 3000, the paint would have stayed on the part. I mean, the primer should at least stay on the metal shouldnt it?

I have been hit 2x on my rear fenders on my 3000, I never lost any paint