I'll never buy a Maxima again....
 

This is ridicoulous my black maxima about the same scratches and chips as my '90 Honda Accord . Everytime I wash it I find something new:mad:. Recently I found some white dots on the black paint that don't wash away...has anyone else experienced this ?

I usually only drive around town and avoid the freeway whenever possible. Does anyone know if the person running nissanpaint.com has sent the info to Nissan ?

Maybe it's just the Black Color??? My uncles Black s10 does the same. You should change to another color.

I'm not going to dish out 2-3 grand for a new paint job after I spent $27K on it. I'm just very dissapointed with the paint quality...damn Nissan:mad:

u know what
 

u can go order a paint protection package in any nissan dealer....but it cost u some money to get that. it is really nice to use that cuz everything can wash away...i almost have the same situation as u...but i have the package when i got my car. so....just a suggestion for u....u know MAX is still a nice car, u can't blame on nissan's painting then u will not by maxima again...MAX is stilla cool car....

Just to let you know, I see almost all of the black car owners complaining about paint quality. At least from the TL, Camry, Audi and a few other boards. Black is always a real tough color to take care of.

So if you want a black car w/ really good paint, you will probably have to step up to a $40k+ car to get it.

Gen5 Max's have particularly bad paint, though. It's not just black, although it would seem the worst on that color.

Just FYI...I had a '99 BMW 540 before
 

my current Max (I relocated from out-of country, relo forced sale of Bimmer, & wanted to save some bucks here in US) has MUCH beter paint than the BMW -and the Bimmer was silver and the Max = black.

Since most -if not all- paint manufacturers changed to water-based finished (environmental issues) paint quality overall has decreased significantly..new paints are softer, less resistance to chipping and all that.

Grin & bear it

Re: Just FYI...I had a '99 BMW 540 before
 

Exactly. So I don't which car Galo is gonna get if he's next car is a black one. I would be better to invest in that 3m stonegard stuff

Re: u know what
 

I agree, I like the interior, exterior and the performance of the Max....just not tha paint. I purchased the permaplate paint protection and the leather protection when I bought the car. I don't think it helps.

Re: Just FYI...I had a '99 BMW 540 before
 

But my 2001 Accord has absolutely no paint chips even after close to a full year of abuse up and down Interstates for 28,000 miles in all sorts of traffic and conditions, including dump trucks that are losing load right on my car, and at speeds often well above 75 mph.

No chips. The front end is perfect.

Then Gen5 (00+) Maxima's clearly have poor paint quality compared to even previous generation Maxima's, and other cars in general. I think this was a cost-cutting measure that Nissan did and it's still an outstanding issue that hasn't been addressed by Nissan. :mad:

maxima paint sucks ****....
 

that's all I need to say

My 95's got chips in the front of it as well.

I have a tough time thinking that a rock moving at 65-70 mph shouldn't do any damage to the paint. That's one heck of an impact.

Shrugs

If you're referring to me, by "dumping load" I don't mean rocks, but rather just the lightweight stuff that can blow out of trucks on the highway. Small little pebbles and dust type debris that you hear knocking away on your bumper, hood, and windshield when you're stuck behind one.

I've also been stuck behind trucks that were kicking up serious amounts of roadside debris at me as well. I've taken some pretty big hits and was afraid, but still not chips. One did manage to put a 1-inch gash on the leading edge of my hood that went through the paint, but I covered that up with touch-up paint, a little wax, and an OEM half-nose mask ;)

Note, this is an Accord. Not a Maxima ;) None of the Accord people have been complaining about crappy paint, although I have heard this from the TL people, so I dunno :gotme:

actually, I had a burgandy accord and I think its just the darker colors, every time I would wash it I would see something new! same with my dad's old RL its was dark green and same thing would happen to it. Although I never saw excessive chipping I had a lot of little scratches, I think darker color makes them more visable. My silver accord has some scrathes but you can hardly notice them.

Wife's 94 accord's dark red metallic sucked pretty hard. Way more chips than my 92se maxima. It was like it was sandblasted.

Prior to owning my Max, I owned a 93 Accord EX (burgandy). At the time, I couldn't believe how many paint chips that car accumulated in a short period of time. Although I have several chips on the Max's front hood and bumper (after 10,000 miles), I would say that Nissan's paint is no better or worse than Honda's (not that I am pleased with either). Just for reference, prior to the 93 Accord, I owned a 90 Accord - same problems.

hmm...I guess I'm lucky then.

You guys are talking about older Gen5 (97-97) and one Gen4 (90-93) Accord's though. Mine's a 2001 - current Gen6 (98-02) design. We all seem to have pretty good paint on our cars. No chipping or flaking or excessive scratching on even the 98 cars that have a lot of mileage.

You guys get a better engine and performance. We get better paint :laugh:

I can't say if it's the Max or just black paint in general. I know my "Super Black" Maxima would get new scratches if you looked at it in one place too hard. Interesting to note that many of the "blue book"-type value calculators for cars reduce the value on black paint.

How long have you had your car for ?

Steve, I think hondas have good paint.. My maxima has around 13000 miles on it now, and the honda odyssey has 20000... Maxima has more chips. Honda odyssey at 20k has only 3 chips i can find, all small.

ZAINO

WonTon, your info would be consistent with my theory ;) We get fuel filler door splash guards too :D

don't really agree with you, 99 maxima is 44000km old and so is 00 odyssey, they both have scratches here and there about the same.

orange spots...
 

i was washing my car past friday and i noticed 2 orange spots...one more noticable than the other..the smaller one is on the hood and the other bigger one is on the side above the wheel area....i scrubbed it and everything but its not coming off....i have no idea what it is...lets juss say i didnt see them b4 i went to get my oil changed at the dealership....any ideas?
atw

I dont know about you, but my white GLE delt with paint chips pretty pretty well.. not any real significant amount of chips.

told u so......
 

said this from the very beginning, my 92's buld quality is much better than my '00. My paint is as u described.......sh!t. But what can i do?? Not much.

Same here, not really any chips (or any I notice anyway). I just have some scratches on the bottoms of the bumpers and those are to our fault anyway...

Re: orange spots...
 

My wife's Max gets similar stains from time to time. They are from these small berries dropped from the trees on the street where she parks at work (no place else to park, either:mad: )

Uh, I disagree that Honda's paint is better....our TL-S is basically a fancy Accord, built in the same place as the Accord, and it's paint blows just as bad as our 2K Maxima's (both are Pearl White).

I think that all paint quality has suffered since the companies moved away from solvent based paints to waterborne in the early '90's.

I like both the cars, but I'm afraid that if I want to keep them long term, I'll have to get the hood/bumpers repainted sooner than later:(

True, and yes I have heard paint complains from the TL-S guys a lot more often, but not from any Accord guys.

:confused: :gotme:

hey steve,

my second car is a 99 accord ex 5-spd with heather mist
paint and the paint is peeling off like an orange on the
front bumper....you must be lucky.
maxima has a few rock chips at only 10k miles
and yes, paints are now water based so they mostly all suck

I wonder what would happen if they just took a black 5th gen and left it in a showroom for a year. Theyed probably come back to see little black flakes all around the car where it molted :D
Youd think we owned a rare south american parrot....geeze

I doubt it is the color. I have a '91 and a 2k Max, both black and the '91's paint job is in much better shape than the 2k. I've had the 2k for 18 months. It is obvious the paint job on the newer models is inferior. I read somewhere that supposedly new environmental requirements has resulted in inferior paint. If this is the case why just Nissans?

m00se

:laugh:

Aight...I completely give up and throw in the towel on the whole paint issue. I think in general Gen5 Max's have the most issues, but no car is immune from paint problems, but I do seem to be lucky since mine is perfect after mucho highway abuse and driving at very excessive speeds :D

:gotme:

so far i'd take the max paint over my honda....
maxima so far has been FAR more reliable than honda
what happened to that venerable honda quality i always hear about??

:gotme:

http://wsphotofews.excite.com/006/pz/hl/RH/K892258.jpg

Looks about the same to me...

agree consumer reports data looks good.....
mine's had way too many problems
more than the maxima and truck put together.
crappy dealer in town doesn't ever fix it the first try anyway
which makes it harder to take.....

you guys may enjoy the service advisors advice to me though....
he told me that all that trouble i had with my honda was why he
owned and drove a MAXIMA!!!!!!