I was speaking to a highly rated body shop recently and they rave about the quality of Lexus paint as well as interior. It was interesting to hear them say jokingly that they cringe little when a Lexus comes into the shop and needs to be painted as they have to be on their A game to get it to match perfectly. They said much better than higher end German cars. Now we know why many of our cars still look fantastic after many years.

If I ever repaint the SC I may go with the same color my old LS430 was. Briarwood Pearl and maybe a little more metallic flake. Beautiful color.

 

I would disagree with their assertion and so would most professional detailers. Perhaps they specialize in Toyota/Lexus or have many customers with them.

Lexus paint quality between 1996 thru 2006/2007 was incredible. I remember my wife bought a 1999 LS 400 sedan with the white pearlcoat paint and that car's paint was like porcelain. Best paint job I have ever seen on a car, rocks chip just exposed the many layers of paint applied. Then Lexus paint quality between year 2007/2008 thru 2015 went south and was the worse of the high line brands.

Around 2007-2008 Lexus, along with all car manufacturers switched from oil based paints to water based paints due to EPA regulations. This led to a precipitous drop in industry car paint quality across the board including Lexus. Oil based paint is stronger and ages better than water based paint. We purchased a new 2008 Lexus LS460 that had a beautiful Black Sapphire Blue paint job. After a couple months it became evident that the paint was horrible, extremely thin and soft. Every little scratch or rock chip exposed primer or metal. Worse paint I can remember seeing on a modern car. I took it back to Lexus because I thought there could be a defect in the manufacturing and that's when I became informed of their switch to water based paints which they conceded was inferior to the previous oil based paints. The paint wore terribly and even my detailers I used at the time got to the point that they were no longer going to do my semi annual buff wax on the LS460 as "the paint was wearing out". They were right. I have since talked to several high end detailers and they are very critical of Lexus and Toyota paints since they went to a water based product. They indicated the German products have superior paint applications. From my experience I would agree.

From what I have seen, seems like in the last 4-5 years Lexus has stepped up their game and are delivering better quality paint application again.

 

Maybe I lucked out my older models. I have never had any issue with the paint on my 2006 SC or my 04 LS. My 14 GX paint is in great shape as well. Almost no chips at all. I'm not expert just repeating what they said to me. They don't specialize in any model. I can understand why certain years may be worse than others.

 

Lavishevo, I am certain both your 2006SC and 04LS have the great generation of oil based paint. Why its 14 years old and still in great shape! Its also why most of the SC430's are still in great shape 13-19 years later. My 2007 SC I believe also has the previous generation paint and probably why it looks great. Car is a tank in a way that they do not build anymore, reminds me frequently of the 1999 LS we had.