What color is your GLE?

 

Sterling Mist.

 

There's your answer, silver and white don't show tiny chips and swirl marks unless you look really close at the finish.

 

So mostly people with dark colors are complaining?

 

They are more visible on dark colors but the chipping is common to all colors, you just don't see them as easily.

 

well, the way i look at it, the faster the paint cheap, the earlier i can get the car painted...with decent paint!

 

Yep, my SE is Black.

 

I dont have any major flaking or chipping problems, but I do have a large number of tiny chips all throughout the front bumper, front lower side valence, and the lowest portion of the hood. Can some of you guys with the flaking problems post some pics? I'd like to know what I'm in for.

 

Sterling Mist....but i've got'em too!!! Front bumper looks bad, thinking serious about gettin full nose mask and rolling perma style. i know about the dangers of this but i shake my head everytime i walk directly towards the max.

givin the fact that the body shop told me that even painting the front half of the car would cost a couple of grand. i know i could shop around but, i think i could live with the fade factor of the perma bra.

 

...Plenty of paint chips here, small, but more than there should be for a car I purchased 2/16/02... It is black so they stand out more, and I am sick of wondering how bad it will look after another year. My car has never even seen a gravel road, mostly highway and metroplex city driving (I live in D/FW) and this is unacceptable. Paint standards changing or not, why don't we see these complaints from Honda, Acura, Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc...

 

Actually a while back the Lexus IS300 guys where complaining about how "soft" the paint is. So it's just not Nissan...

 

Ok all I have a bite to chew with Nissan about my new 2K2 Maxima. I have a 1990 Jeep Wrangler that was painted just over a year ago, and it has less paint chips then my new Maxima. To all of you who know about jeeps and their flat front face, know they eat a lot of rocks thus show a lot of rock chips. I was really looking forward to having a car that could cruse the open highway with out coming home like it had hit a north wind sandstorm. I am very disappointed in my 2K2 in this sense and even more so in Nissan for not providing a remedy for this!
Now I am thinking about having the front end fixed and a clear bra put on! Sad I have to do this on a brand new car! I knew I should have bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee!

 

I've got a 2001 Maxima GLE with Merlot (dark red) paint and the custom "sandblast" pock marks all over the hood. The problems started to show by around 7000 miles. My 97 Nissan pickup has about 70,000 miles now and the paint looks 1000% better than the Maxima under the same driving conditions (can't blame it on tailgating or gravel roads).

I've spoke to my dealership a few times and they claim they have "NEVER" had a complaint about the paint and because it appears pock marked and chipped from external forces, they will not be responsible for it. They say is it not a problem with the quality of their paint. I told them about all the other people I've read about in this forum, but they didn't care.

I have a couple nasty chips on the bumper from a plastic chair. I set the back of the chair against the bumber and the paint chipped right off. There was no force involved at all, just the contact was enough to chip it. I've chewed on bubble gum with a harder coating than that Nissan paint.

They may think that by avioding the problems they are saving money, but I have bought my last Nissan if that is the case. I love the vehicles, but customer service is just as important to me. F' Nissan and their cheap azz paint! F'EM!!!

P.S. I tried to email a question to the nissanpaint.com web site, but the email came back as undeliverable. I'll keep my eye on this forum for any updates...

 

I talked to the service manager at my dealership today.

He was a real smart *** about it.

Anytime I would mention ths chips, he would say "Chips are only caused by flying rocks".

Mind you I live in a mostly metro area and never drive on rocky roads.....

He did invite me to come on down and buy some touch up paint.

Bleh.

 

Try talking to the GM of the dealership. Worked for me, I was able to get the hood repainted for free.

 

yeah.. my dealer told me they never get complaints on chips.. *YET* it takes months to see an inspector.. he's a very busy man.

also, there were so many people there, they have to give out loaner cars (which they hate doing) because it was taking so long.

yeah.. right, never a problem.

 

If I had this problem, I would have an attorney give the service manager or gm a call. I expect that this would get the ball rolling and undoubtedly there would be at least some kind of resolution. It would surely get them motivated.

It just so happens, hehe, that I broker legal services. For those of you that are interested in doing something like this, I'm offering the first month free for new members. Give me a month to try and get this resolved for you. What can it hurt?

For more details check out my website at: http://lcf.digitalrice.com or simply click my banner that rotates on the .org!

Chris

 

I have a 2002 GLE with Majestic Blue paint and tons of chips in the hood already. All this after 3 months and 3600 miles. Nissan finally came out and took pictures and then a week later I get a call and they tell me the damage is from forgein matter. Yea - right. The guy took about 25 to 30 pictures. When the claim was rejected I requested a letter and a copy of the picutes. I'm probably going to get a letter but they said the pictures were Nissan property and I could not have them. I have owned my first and last nissan.

 

<--- My face after I realized my Maxmima's paint was chipping off just like I read about in this forum. Too bad I found this forum a week AFTER I bought the Maxima.

F' you Nissan for not admitting your paint chips off like an egg shell!!!

 

Yeah i have at least 5 on my hood. One is so deep that you can actually see a little (and i mean minute) bit of primer grey underneath. WOW am i upset about how crappy this looks.

Jeff

 

That about sums up my thoughts too!

 

I have a 2001 Maxima and was ready for this problem when i purchased it. My last car had the same problem, so i had a "clearmask" by 3M put on the entire front. It's like clear window tint made just for this problem. So far. it has worked like a charm- I drive about 400 miles a week on the interstate and on backwoods highways (behind lots of trucks and farm equipment). The $200 investment is much less than my insurance deductable.
I spoke with my brother-in-law who owns a body shop and he said that all car makers are now required to use a water-based paint because of environmental problems. He said that poor paint quality is an industry-wide problem.

 

--GRRRRRRRR--

I think Nissan got water based paint confused with water color paint.

 

Has anyone got anything out of Nissan for the paint chip problem? Nissan customer service told me to follow the instructions in the manual and contact the reference. This is a bunch of BS.

 

when I bought my max a few weeks back I was sooo looking forward to getting it home and getting it all cleaned up. After spending over 6 hours on just the exterior, I threw in the towel. The paint on these cars are definitely flawed. My 94 acura integra that had 225k miles shined better, and had several less chips than my 2000 Maxima. LOVE the car...hate the paint...

ry

 

Has anyone NOT had a paint chip problem? Cuz I don't have any, after 9000 miles.

 

I had a '90 integra. Bulletproof in every way. Sold it 2 years ago. Same story - lots of miles and the paint looked better than my 2 year old Max and it was driven on the same roads in the same way.

Miss that damned car.

 

Very interesting about these paint chips. I had one after only two days of ownership of my 2k3. At first I thought i nailed a bug until I washed the bumper to my disgust. My '92 GXE does not look bad considering it has over 200k on it.

Does anyone on the forum have a clear bra? I talked to a tint guy yesterday that used to do it and he said it is a hassel to put on. He won't put on a clear bra ever again. His quote.

 

My '01 Super Black SE Anniversery edition has more primer showing than black paint. Not only to I have chips, but I also have many, many scratches running length-wise along the car. Funny thing, the scratches are smooth, no edges, no paint remains. Kinda like taking a fine pointed brush with white paint and painting stripes.

28+pages of posts on this issue. What can we do?

Chuck

 

I got the old Heave-Ho from the dealership when I complained. I was pretty much told that unless I'm standing there and watching the paint pop off the car by itself, they will do nothing about it. If there is any indication that it is chipped because of contact with another object, no matter how small an object or how light the contact was, they will not fix it.

My last two vehicles have been Nissan. I hope they do the right thing and make good on a bad paint job. If not, I will NEVER buy another one! Too bad such a nice car has such a cheap azz paint job.

F' you Nissan and your cheap azz paint!

 

has anybody tried that tinted wax? it might cover up the rock chips w/o having to resort to touch-up paint.
also, the windshields on both my '97 and my '02 Max look like they were hit by a sandblaster. At first I thought it was tree sap, but no amount of rubbing will get the little pock marks off. Will Nissan do anything about this? (yeah, right)

 

I've tried the Black Turtle Wax on a different car once and I was not impressed. It may have made a few scratches a little less obvious, but only slightly. I wouldn't buy it again.

<-- (Me after i realized Nissan wasn't going to do ANYTHING about their cheapass paint)

F' you Nissan!!! F' you and your cheapass paint!!!

 

We have a 2K2 Merlot SE just turned 2000 miles.

I have 4 very large chips in the hood (visible from 5 feet away) and several smaller ones. We just sold our 93 Subaru with 120K and that hood was in better shape than this 2 month old Nissan. I love just about everything about this car, but I am afraid that it will be down to bare metal before it is paid off!

Plus, what really bothers me is a spot about the size of a quarter just over the rear wheel (driver-side). This spot, when you look at it at just the right angle, looks like a lighter, duller color than the rest of the car. However, looking straight on you can't see a thing. A good wash made no difference.

Tried to take a picture of it, but it doesn't come out.

I don't know what to do. Do I try to have it repainted? I will have this car for a while (we usually run our cars 9-10 years) so resale isn't really a concern.

SteveH

 

Welcome to the club!

 

Has anyone apply this yourself?

Where did you buy yours? and was it difficult to get it smooth and aligned properly?

Just picked up my 2K3 Sterling Mist SE last week and don't want any chip as most of its commute is highway.

Thanks

 

I have 14K miles on my Max and don't have any paint chips on my hood! Maybe thats cause I got mine repainted with PPG.

 

What's PPG? Is it some type of paint sealant?

 

It's paint. I had to get a new hood and I made sure it was painted with PPG.

 

i have a good idea.. after all our cars are finally paid off, and by that time the chips will be out of control.. just get a high quality paint job and start off from scratch.

 

I use to have a 98 Accord. It had very little paint chips when I had a face to face with a tree (ice). After the front end was repaired, I've notice in the first week, it had gotten as much paint chip as the 3 years prior. I attribute that to after market paint job where it wasn't baked on properly. When I finally got rid of it (one year after) for the Maxima, the front end looked like the surface of the moon.

So far after a week, I haven't find any paint chips yet.

Had to get a jump this morning because while playing with the control in the car and installing the sunroof visor, I left the ignition in the on position all weekend.