I was cleaning up a bit tonight and ran across a 2000 maxima dealer brochure. You know how the paint chips easily on these cars... especially the hood. Well, I see an article in the brochure that has a picture of a diamond being hurled at the Maxima paint. It reads:

The Diamond Test
What is the connection between the hardest substance on earth and your Nissan? In a word, Paint. Our patented Durasteel has a Nickel rich pre-coating designed to help keep the paint from chipping. To test it. we pummel the metal with diamonds, shot from a compressed air gun. It is a high-impact way to judge the resilience of the protective coat.

I love my car, but wouldnt it be nice if this was THAT durable?? I dont recall seeing that advertisement in the 2001 brochure, but I could be wrong on that.

 

The paint is pretty bad. The front end takes a beating. My 99 Maxima was never this bad but this car is terrible on the nose.