Which Auto maker has the best paint job?

B

BlkonBlk

New member
I'm curious, especially to hear from you guys who do this for a living, which auto manufacturer do you think has the best factory paint job? Quality of finish, minimum of orange peel, etc...



I am a firm believer that it is prep work and not products that make a fantastic shine.....but a good paint job does provide a wonderful starting place.



All opinions welcome. Please include model, year, colors, etc.
 
Benz is good, and teh red on the 350z us also good.



All depends on who was working the spray booth on a certain day.
 
BMW paint seems to offer great gloss and minimal orange peel. In fact, our X5 has pretty flawless paint when it comes to factory quality. Porsche paint is also up there in terms of quality. After polishing and waxing it, the paint is glossy and reflective despite being only arctic silver. Plus, have you ever seen carguy's porsche?:cool:
 
Lexus is the most consistanly good.



Honda and Toyota are good mid range priced vehicles with nice paint, Ford is the best of the big 3. Benz and BMW can be real good or really, really bad-the early ML's for example can have some pretty horrendous orange peel. Newer ones are a lot better though.



Of course, Bentley, Rolls, Lamborghini and Ferarri are nearly flawless-they all seemed to have been wetsanded and buffed after painting.
 
Scottwax said:
Lexus is the most consistanly good.



Honda and Toyota are good mid range priced vehicles with nice paint, Ford is the best of the big 3. Benz and BMW can be real good or really, really bad-the early ML's for example can have some pretty horrendous orange peel. Newer ones are a lot better though.



Of course, Bentley, Rolls, Lamborghini and Ferarri are nearly flawless-they all seemed to have been wetsanded and buffed after painting.
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A lot of the Porsches you've posted seemed to have pretty nice paint as well. :xyxthumbs
 
VW/Audi seems to be some of the best paint I have worked with.



Ford has awesome paint too. I have mixed opinions about Toyota/Lexus paint, but for the most part it seems pretty nice.



I have had some bad experiences with Benz and BMW's paint, usually with orange peel and a very soft clear coat(MB). So I really cant say anything good about them.
 
Based on the cars I've personally detailed:



Domestics: Fords seem to be the most forgiving. The finish on the Mustangs I've worked on has been thick very uniform in my experience.



Imports: The older - 1990 Toyota Camry's seem to have a problem with paint cracking off. Aside from that, I have seen very little to complain about with Hondas and Toyotas, except to say that Hondas seem to get door dings very easily.
 
Bently,Ferrari,porsche,BMW,Honda,Mercedes in that order.



Ford,Holden,Nissan,Mazda. On the bottom end.:cool:
 
For domestics Ford paint is the best, GM paint is horrible.



Imports, the paint on my Jag was nice. However, I was not impressed with Toyota paint on my Dad's old 2001 Avalon. The clear was very soft and the finish was subpar IMO.
 
I have to say Toyota's paint is pretty bad, interesting that Lexus is a very high quality.



GM cars suck, but I noticed one car that looks like it has a great finish almost like more clearcoat was added, the Chevy Monte Carlo SS, I haven't detailed this car and don't specifically like it but I have seen a few that the paint looked real good, anyone else notice this.
 
I don't know about the cars, but the paint on my Toyota truck is somewhere between bad and horrible. It has orange peel (which is in most every paint), plus two more paint defects. One is something that looks like water spots under the clear, and another is a rough surface under the clear, in another area. The paint also chips very easily. The Tacomas are manufactured in CA, and I've heard they have strict environmental laws regulating the paint which subsequently affect the paint quality.
 
The paint on my Toyota is okay. Orange peel is obvious on this car. It's also really soft and chips too easily. I also don't like the shade of silver, but that has nothing to do with quality. It's not great, but it's not bad either. I also believe Lexus uses a different paint process than Toyota.



Honda's paint is probably the same as Toyota's, maybe a little better. The Accord has the usualy orange peel, but has strange patches of metallic flakes on the hood. They make the hood look cloudy. The paint is also soft.



The best I've seen is probably from BMW.
 
What's funny is that twenty or so years ago. GM was in many eyes one of the top paints you could get. In fact Mercede's sent a few teams to find out how GM could paint that many cars that well. Today they are real bad. Porsche would be my pick for a production car. Ferrari for all else
 
My 2002 VW GTI had awesome paint, almost no orange peel. I have a friend that details cars and does paintwork for a living, think that I had buffed the paint when in fact the car was a week old with no wax. My wife's 2002 Sport Trac had great paint too, very chip-resistant, and had nice gloss. Now we both have 2003 VWs (mine is a GTI, hers is a Jetta) and the paint is great on both cars. The only complaint is that on my car you can see "shadows" in the paint where the color is not very uniform. That is mostly on the side panels. Something only a true Autopian would notice.
 
Come on fellas! GM paint is not that bad! Think about it this way. After the paint does the famous GM paint flake all that is left is rusty primer. Then you don't have to wax anything!!



HAHAHAHAHAHA
 
I think any new car paint is going to be about the same. You really can't tell how great the paint is until it's had a few years on it to dull and fade. If it still looks as good as it did when it was new, then you know you have good paint.
 
stevefromatl said:
I think any new car paint is going to be about the same. You really can't tell how great the paint is until it's had a few years on it to dull and fade. If it still looks as good as it did when it was new, then you know you have good paint.
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Most new paint doesn't fade or dull if taken care of properly. What is an issue and can vary greatly between manufacturers is orange peel, obvious paint defects like runs and noticably thin paint, or finishes that easily chip and scratch.
 
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