Holy cra@p. This thread's still alive??

 

Maybe we can cut a hole in a car cover to see out the window! My 02' Max SE has 7k on it and has too many chips on the hood and front bumper. Also, the rear bumper seems to scar easily. Count me in on any group complaints.

Maybe a heavy duty waxing on the front with a, ick, hood deflector will help. I feel sorry for those with darker colors.

 

Here is the person who owns the site. I'm not advacating anyone contact him, but if anyone happens to know him.....

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
ATALLA, MICHAEL (MA2930) michael@ATALLA.NET
MICHAEL ATALLA
538 Central Way, Suite B16
Kirkland, WA 98033
US
425-828-0442 978-858-8310

 

When I bought my 2K2 Max a couple weeks ago, the dealer applied Permaplate to the finish. They said it would help prevent chipping, acid damage from bird ****, tree sap, etc. It also has a 5 year garantee. So far, no paint chips.
Anybody else have Permaplate? Does it really help protect against paint chips long-term or have I just been lucky so far.

 

I've had my max for almost a month now and I had the permaplate stuff sprayed on my car. I haven't seen any chips, yet....Did you also get the leather guard ? If you did, is your whole interior shiny ?

 

I talked them into the Permaplate for free, but I couldn't get them to include the interior protection. Didn't matter, I Scotchguarded the carpet/mats myself and I'll use leather cleaner and conditioner as necessary.
Glad to hear you are also chip-free.

 

Hey folks,

I'm the one that started this thread and authored the documentation on the web site. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the data base that was started, and my repeated attempts to contact Michael have gone unanswered. I think this is dead, unless someone else wants to start it over. Frankly, I've lost interest. My car has not shown any further serious issues and I'm afraid that now that it is almost a year old, Nissan will just laugh and turn a blind eye, i.e., won't be as impactful with a car having 17,000 miles in less than a year.

I appreciate all the interest in helping to document, but I'm at a loss as to what to do now.

srm

 

I have a 2k Icelandic Pearl, my wife drives a white 96 SE with 132k on the odometer. Her paint is almost blemish free compared to mine. Every time I wash it I find new chips. I know that bras can damage the paint, but hindsight says I should have bought one.

 

Had my car for about 6 months and have more paint chips than all the cars in my household combined. I drove a Chrysler, of all cars, for three years and had about 5 paintchips at the most and our road was not blacktop but gravel. We've had blacktop for a year or so and dirven the max on a gravel road about once and the paint is chippin' like no other. Nissan needs to do something.

 

I wish I had seen this site before I bought my 2002 SE at the end of August. I had my maxima for about 2 weeks when I passed some guy who was driving on the median kicking up some rocks. When I got home I checked and found 2 small paint chips on the hood. Boy was I ****ed, but I figured I should have been more careful. Since then I have been extremely careful to avoid following to closely cars or trucks. Then I noticed that I had a few more chips. I thought that was odd, and I decided to do some research on the internet and stumbled upon this site. Now a few chips later (one big one in the middle of the drivers side door) I am freakin. I am thinking about purchasing the 3M paint film I have heard about since my car is still relatively new. I can't imagine what the paint will look like in 2-3 years. I did a lot of research which car I was going to buy and really was really content that I found the best price/performance/luxury combo out there but I totally missed the paint problem. I have read this whole thread (good god!) and I am impressed how the core group of guys have put together the www.nissnpaint.com web site and have logically though through what can realistically be done. I have filled out the form at the web site and will look to write a letter to the forum at http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=82787 I admire the persistance of many of and hope something will come of this.

 

I have been bracing myself for that first paint chip. I have 2800 kilometres now (1,680 miles), which still isn't much mileage, but no paint chips. Well, unless you count the one one of my kids inflicted on the rear door when he opened it into the garage cement-block wall.

I am still really happy with my purchase. Actually, I leased, so maybe that's why I am less worried about the chips.

 

Hey guys, Im doing my best to find a place to set up a PO box for you to send you letters (See the sticky at the top of the 5th gen forums on the paint issues). Most places want at least 6months of service. All I need is a month or two at most. I called a local Postal Annex and they will do 3 months for 30 bucks. I guess hats as good as it gets. I will post to the thread as soon as I have it ready and set up.

Thanks for your patience.

 

This thread still alive! Man, guess I predicted right at the start

 

Good luck my man. I setup the paint complaint web site several months ago and I still have less than 100 people who have complained. If they won't visit a web site to complain, good luck getting them to draft a letter and mail it.

 

i complained

 

I complained.

 

i complained as well,,,,i have a black 2kse with 62000 miles on it. man it looks very bad..i can't even count the chips anymore. i am thinking of getting the whole front re-painted in the summer...any suggestions?? if i do get it re-painted, i will invest in the clear 3m bra

 

Okay, everyone who has a complaint, Im sure you have already read the sticky I posted. Now, revisit the thread and get the information I posted just a couple of days ago. Ive already begun to receive letters, so keep em comming and let me know if theres any questions.


thanx guys!

 

Maxima-Ness...be sure to PM me when you are ready to send. I can package up my mailer with the web site complaints and send it at the same time with the cover letter Scott put together. If we're lucky, we'll have hit 100 complaints registered by then.

I gotta be honest that I don't expect a huge response from Nissan on this, but its not going to cost me anything to try.

 

Is it good to put the 3m over a repainted car????

I had a bra and the direvtions said it should NOT be used if the car was repainted???

 

so what the damage $ wise usually, say for the hood and the front bumper for the 3M??

 

$300 for basic hood and bumper kit
$700 for entire front covered

 

thx

 

I have a 1999 Maxima which had bumper damage during a fender bender. For about an extra $75 I could get a new bumper as the parts would cost more but that would reduce the labor cost. I opted for a new bumper. Four weeks after the job, the paint began peeling. I went back to the body shop. The owner was very surprised. At first he was just going to repaint it. I said if you did it right and it didn't work then doing it again means the paint will just peel off again, maybe in a month or maybe a year, but not good for either of us. He said he followed all the guildelines perscribed as a DuPont authorized shop. He called their technical rep. The explaination I got was this: Nissan uses a mold release agent that causes an adhesion problem. This confused the bodyman as he said the bumper was clearcoated. My best understanding of the solution is that he plans to bake the bumper at 140 degrees to release the agents. Now that this has happened I have taken notice of a few Nissan cars that have major paint peeling on the bumpers. I hope this information is helpful.
NOTICE: I have no experience in auto paint and I am only passing along information as it was given to me. I have no way of knowing if this information is accurate.

 

This makes sense - I have my car garaged both at work and at home so the paint rarely sees the high temperatures of Houston direct sun. Consequently, I've had moderate paint chipping which tells me that I have paint that hadn't cured.

My recommendations for anyone with a new or nearly new Maxima: let it bake in the direct sun for several weeks to months to ensure your paint hardens. I know this is not the best for interiors but it should make your paint more durable.

 

Didn't we go through this a while back? Everybody was complaining but only 4 or 5 people actually did it? It seems like everyone complains but when it comes down to actually taking action, only a handful are really down.

 

Talk about bringing a thread back from the dead!!!!

Yeah, no major results since less than 100 people actually registered their complaint.

On another note...the theory that "baking" the paint strengthens it would explain why I have not experience any paint chipping since the early days of driving my Maxima. No new paint damage has appeared in a year.

 

There were several reasons why there wasn't an avalanche of activity on this:

1) the website to register your problem didn't work right.
2) going to Nissan with this problem is comparable to ****ing up a rope.
3) disgust breeds apathy - everyone that had problems heard about everyone elses lack of success in dealing with those problems so why bother.

 

The heck with the post. Tim, where on earth did you come up with the "Come on Little Kitties" pic? It's a riot!

Buzz

 

Your low response rate may be because of folks like me who haven't had their Max out on the highways/interstates, yet. I've had mine since the end of January and just finished up my first real trip (1400 miles round) in it last week. I have a personal rule of donning the bra whenever I hit the road and leaving it off in town, but I'll give the old girl a good going over this week and add some feedback to this thread.

I do know that within a few days of picking it up, I noticed some very slight rock damage to the front bumper. I knew that the car was driven in from another dealership and that's probably when the damage occured. But, I drove it another 50 miles home from where I purchased it and figured that I'd have all sorts of he** trying to convince the dealer that it was their problem.

I'm still scratching my head wondering why I didn't see any damage when I was picking it up, cause I went around the car several times checking for damage.

Buzz

 

My car is only a month old and ive got 1700 miles on the odometer and already have 5 paint chips on the hood, and a scratch on the door, My 2k sterling mist didnt have any problems like this... I am going to fill out the form MichealAE, I realy hope that Nissan takes a look at this.

 

Is Nissan North America still headquartered in Gardena? If so, I could go in with all the information. I'm SURE that some other Los Angeles .org members would kill to go with me.

 

Please read the entire thread and PLEASE note the date of the posts. Please note...

THIS THREAD STARTED IN MARCH OF 2001

Keep that in mind when you reply to posts. This paint chip issue is almost two years old (counting threads which preceded this one). There has been ample opportunity for thousands of Maxima owners to file complaints or take action and it is well-reflected that the large majority aren't willing to go any further than just posting on this thread...which, no matter what anybody thinks about the ORG, will not accomplish anything.

This post is not intended to discourage action, but we spent over six months with the registration site for complaints functioning perfectly and only about 75 people actually registered a complaint. Those who are new Maxima owners and would like to take action...I strongly support it despite my cynicism.

 

I have a 2002 SE with 2200 miles on it and I already have 4 chips on the edge of the front hood. I am really upset that I paid a lot of money for the car and the paint is almost falling off the car. I would definitely like to bring a suit against nissan!

 

ive got them too, but not as severly as some that i have seen. probably 6-7 decent chips on the hood and front bumper cover. and a big old shopping cart ding on the back cover! that one hurt! that is being taken care of by the store whose cart hit the car. i had also posted on the last thread as well. my 2kmax has 17000 on it and i have had it for a year and a half. most of my driving is on the city streets, so i have to post on the squeeks and rattles pages too! lucky me!

 

Keep this thread alive...

F' Nissan and their cheap *** paint job.

 

I visit my350z.com every now and again and those guys are having the same issues. Excessive chips in the first days of ownership.

 

I have a 2001 SE that has around 27K on it and the paint looks like hell. I would have used that complaint page, but am new to the org. I was wondering if any of you have noticed that paint is actually coming off some of the edges. Like on my gas cap filler door, the top edge appears white. It looks like it has been sand blasted off. Have any of you had luck dealing with the dealer about this kind of problem.

Sorry if this was redundant, I got sick of reading this thread after the first 15 pages.

 

Rise ye dead thread... RISE I SAY!

 

Maybe I know crap about paint, but after 12,000 km (2002 GLE) I haven't noticed anything bad. I don't see any chips.

In the event there really aren't any noticeable chips present, I'm guessing the other complaints are mainly from drivers who tailgate, or who are exposed to other vehicles going by on gravel roads.

Just a thought.