I own a 2001 Maxima SE AE, grey lustre, very nice car except for the increasingly noticeable paint chips on my hood. Yes, they are small, but I see them ... and they are multiplying. I thought maybe all cars had these or maybe at 11K miles I should expect these. Well, my friend has a Galant with 52K miles, deep red, and no chips ... not one. Should I be concerned? Should I try to treat these? If so, how? Should I trade before they get worse?
Thanks for your help.

 

Welcome to the detriments of owning a Maxima. They have HORRIBLE paint. The best thing to invest in is a bra (either the clear 3M one or traditional leatherette one), or repaint the front of the car. I originally bought the bra but didn't like it much and ended up repainting the front.
-Cyrus

 

no fair, we have one of the 10 best engines in the us, but we have crap paint

 

In the long run, I think the nissan car-bra does more harm to the paint than good. I saw what horrible things it did to my paint before some guy backed into my front end, and after it was fixed, I swore never to put it on the car again

 

stop commuting on the highway at high speeds and you won't get any more chips. I bet you red car friend works locally.

Although if ya' from LA, you're probably not travelling at high speeds on the hwy

 

Yes, ever since I had own my Max, I had terrible chips on the hood from road debris. Ironically, I had crashed the whole front end last year, and the body shop that repaired my car did an excellent paint job on the car. In fact, it was better than stock! It's been well over a year-and-a-half now, and I can't even find ONE chip!

 

Cheap paint on a $30,000 car.

 

Cheap paint is right, I just came off of a Honda CIVIC 130,000 miles, not one chip. I already got a chip on my Max at 1,200 miles and I was still babying the car. Really disappointing.

 

I use a car bra when I'm driving up and down between the Bay Area and southern CA. I only put the bra on the minute I leave the door and I take it off the minute I arrive at my destination. I've heard some bad things about leaving the car bra on too, so I try to minimize the usage time of the bra as much as possible. But with the high speeds on the highway/freeway, I think it's worth putting the car bra on. The first few times I drove without it, I got about 3 chips each way on my car. Since I got my bra, I don't think I've gotten a chip yet.

 

Hmm, wonder if it might be worth it to get the car repainted eventually.... Can anyone ballpark a high quality paint job for the Maxima?

 

This is covered in the FAQs...
Repainting the stock color - $2000-$2500
Repainting a different color - $4000-$6000