Rubbish paint on new cars

[Crumpet]

As per the title; is modern paint and automated painting really rather crap? Or is it just Volvo?

I’ve always had new JLR products and while I’ve noticed the paint has got softer I’ve not noticed excessive orange peel. My current Jag has paint as flat as glass.

It is, however, currently in bits and I have a brand new XC90 as a courtesy car. Frankly it’s st and I’ve no idea why you’d spend your own money on one, but aside from this the paint is utterly appalling. I’ve seen oranges with less orange peel effect than this. Hopefully it shows in the photos but the whole car is like it. Just Volvo?

[Chubbyross]

That’s terrible. I’ve seen better finishes with Hammerite.

[Decky_Q]

Yes I've noticed this too, it appears on lots of brands products, brand new cars that look like they've had a poor repair.

[Crumpet]

Chubbyross said:

That’s terrible. I’ve seen better finishes with Hammerite.

That’s a good analogy. It’s nearer to Hammerite ‘hammered’ finish than to car paint. I would’ve flat out refused to accept the car like this, it’s the first thing I noticed. Well, the 22” rubber band tyres were, but it was pretty obvious!

It’s no wonder people put up with exploding crankshafts and never-ending electrical faults on Land Rovers when this is the competition!

[Tesco]

I was in a Merc dealership a few years ago picking up some parts and they had a customer in there collecting his brand new Merc SUV thing. They did the tacky unveiling routine while I was waiting. Christ, if that was my 90 odd grand I was handing over, I'd have been pissed. The finish on it was awful. Like a certain ripe fruit. Wasn't hard to see either under the spotlight of the showroom. Still, the old codger and the "glow in the dark" bronzed leggy sales assistant all looked very pleased.

[anonymous-user]

It seems to be widespread, BMW and Mercedes are truly awful and it's even on their £100k+ cars.

Presumably nobody else gives a st.

[Rozzers]

Volvo’s aren’t great, quite varied, but I haven’t seen any as bad as that, personally found the BMW’s consistently worse

[Jakey123]

Most people don't care/don't see it.
They'll all be down the local hand car wash for a large helping of swirl marks shortly after buying anyway.

[Crumpet]

Jakey123 said:

Most people don't care/don't see it.
They'll all be down the local hand car wash for a large helping of swirl marks shortly after buying anyway.

Funnily enough it’s the swirl marks on this that take your eye away from the orange peel!

I should know better, I suppose; I know for 95% of the population a car is a means of getting from A to B.

[georgeyboy12345]

Yeah it doesn’t bother me. My current car doesn’t have any of this, but ones I’ve owned previously have. Couldn’t care less about it.

[Evolved]

Gonna go out on a limb and say that’s had a repair. A cheap repair. A lot of cars, even brand new, have dings before they’re delivered. The body shops won’t be aiming for the best finish as the dealer will be covering the bill, pre sale.

I reckon it’s been ‘blown in’ with no flatting down following a ding.

[C.A.R.]

Before I scrolled to the pictures I admit I was half expecting some indiscernible, slightly-off but invisible to the naked eye paint finish issue, as we have come accustomed to from the "Detailing World" nut cases.

But bugger me, that is bad. People bemoan Tesla as they're thrown together cheaply and have a reputation for poor fit and finish, but the paintwork on mine is far superior to that Volvo!

[Fleckers]

ooooh nice orange peal

[Draxindustries1]

That really is poor paint. Not that youred want to do it to a brand new car with warranty involved ect but that needs flatting with 2500wet/dry , machine mopped with G3 then polished.
Tbh I wouldn't have accepted the car.

[Crumpet]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

It’s the whole car! Every single panel including the roof! It’s come out of the factory like this so not even a cheap blow over.

It’s got me rather concerned that my car is going to come back from the bodyshop with a similar quality. I suspect it’ll be going back….

[Klippie]

The paint on Honda's was awful, on a new Civic I looked at the sides had heavy orange peel finish, which was different to the bumpers, roof and bonnet, this was not a cheap car eiither.

Are modern (read less toxic) paint finishes just hard to paint with...no...you see some cars with a lovely flat shine to them, they probably have more corrective processes carried out to remove the defects...but this costs money i.e. profit.

The best paint I've seen was on a Bentley, what depth to the paint it had and a beautiful flat shine.

[ChocolateFrog]

Evolved said:

Gonna go out on a limb and say that’s had a repair. A cheap repair. A lot of cars, even brand new, have dings before they’re delivered. The body shops won’t be aiming for the best finish as the dealer will be covering the bill, pre sale.

I reckon it’s been ‘blown in’ with no flatting down following a ding.

It does seem too bad to be a factory finish.

[Radec]

It's on the majority of new cars now I think due to water based paint and spraying techniques, WV and BMW are 2 I have had with paint like that.

It would need a full wet sand and correction to get rid of it.

[sunbeam alpine]

I wonder whether some cars/shapes are more difficult to paint than others. I work on cars a lot but I avoid anything to do with paint!

I was at my mate's garages (Fiat/Alfa) a few weeks back. He'd just had a delivery of new cars. There were 3 Stelvios in different colours, all with terrible orange peel - the back ends were the worst. He also had a couple of brand new Giulias in, and they looked absolutely fine.

[colin79666]

I’ve owned 3 Fiats, 2 Fords, 2 Lexus and 2 Suzuki. Not surprisingly the Lexus were miles better than the rest, Suzuki probably worst for orange peel but the Fords were worst for paint easily chipping off, air bubbles or other contamination in the paint.