Yaris has cruddy paint?

[roccgirl]

OK. I love this car. Great gas mileage, and it is a company car, so I pay for nothing. It is a Barcelona Red 4-door S model. My ONLY complaint... CRAPPY PAINT! And I mean, really cheap thin easily scratched, etc.

My boss is always making comments about how my car is so scratched (I've only had it a year). I see the little scratches, but I treat this car no different than my personal vehicle, but the Yaris scratches if the wind blows. The worst part, the base under the red paint is WHITE! So every little scratch is SOOOOO obvious.

Anyone have this problem? I want to prove to my boss that it is NOT me. I guess crappy paint jobs is how they help to keep these cars cheap?!?

Any suggestions? Can't use the touch-up paint anymore because the paint has faded enough for it to be obvious when I use touch-up.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[eTiMaGo]

unfortunately this is one of the biggest complaints about the car Toyota must have saved quite a lot on the paint...

[roccgirl]

I am happy to know that I am not the only one complaining of cheap paint! I keep the interior of this car immaculate. I do not use silicone-based interior cleaners, and am always wiping down the door frames to keep everything looking new. It just kills me to see the scratches on the outside and know that I have been so careful, and it made no difference!

I even had a bit of paint peel off the front ground spoiler after I'd had the car only 2-3 months. I might try buffing out some of the scratches this weekend.

[Twistoffate0817]

The paint cant be that bad if i can wack into 4 trees and not have a single scratch or piece of paint missing.

[tuckevalastin]

We all have the same problem dont you worry

[hatchbackkid82]

Some cars deal with better than others, ine has held up pretty well

Originally Posted by tuckevalastin

We all have the same problem dont you worry

[SeaYa]

The clear coat on this car performs like a very early generation CC (wears fast and scratches easily) I notice all of my cinder chips go all the way to the metal, so they probably saved a lot of money on the primer as well. Best advice, spray or hand wash only, wax, repeat often/as needed.

[tuckevalastin]

I really wonder what the paint will be like on these cars in 8-10 years. So bad we can't get any resale vaue for them?

[41magmag41]

I'm not so sure the primer under the red paint is white, what it might be is that the clearcoat surface has been scratched and that appears white. A good wax filler will fill most of it in with a little elbow grease. I've found that Nanowax paste with carnauba by eagle one does an excellant job of filling in and polishing out the minor scratches in the clearcoat and paint. You don't get a 8000 dollar paint job on a 13000 dollar car unless you move up to audi, mercedes etc.

[tomato]

Originally Posted by 41magmag41

I'm not so sure the primer under the red paint is white, what it might be is that the clearcoat surface has been scratched and that appears white. .

It's white. I have the absolutely red with a couple of little dents. You can clearly see it's white underneath.

[tetzyamis]

My car's paint chips so easily too.
So many chips already...
I have chips on the doors too.
I got no dent on the doors, but have chips on them... How did this happen???
Ya, if I were to complain anything about this car, then it's the paint.

[tomato]

Crappy paint is a common problem. Consumer Reports has documented that for the Yaris, so if your boss needs hard data, it's out there. How about red nailpolish on the most obvious little dings after the area has been washed?

[KRAZGRL]

Originally Posted by tomato

Crappy paint is a common problem. Consumer Reports has documented that for the Yaris, so if your boss needs hard data, it's out there. How about red nailpolish on the most obvious little dings after the area has been washed?

You can go into any Toyota parts counter and buy a little bottle of touch-up paint (looks like a bottle of nail polish) but it matches perfectly. They usually are around 10 bucks.

[tomato]

Originally Posted by KRAZGRL

You can go into any Toyota parts counter and buy a little bottle of touch-up paint (looks like a bottle of nail polish) but it matches perfectly. They usually are around 10 bucks.

Thanks for the tip, I will!

[SilverBack]

Originally Posted by andruboz

the easy scratch paint on my car is behind the door handles. either that or the previous owner was Edward Scissorhands.

Yeah I have those too on the driver side only. They're very faint, so maybe they can be buffed out. Maybe there's a slight rub against the body while getting in and out?

[Former_Neon]

Originally Posted by KRAZGRL

You can go into any Toyota parts counter and buy a little bottle of touch-up paint (looks like a bottle of nail polish) but it matches perfectly. They usually are around 10 bucks.

Should I apply that directly over the rust that's formed in the chips?

[Lafiro]

I used a tool, and found that the paint is not evenly coated on the car, but somewhere around 4.19, don't think that was in mm, but I don't remember, I will try to find out next time I drive the 26miles to my friends shop.

[SeaYa]

Originally Posted by Lafiro

I used a tool, and found that the paint is not evenly coated on the car, but somewhere around 4.19, don't think that was in mm, but I don't remember, I will try to find out next time I drive the 26miles to my friends shop.

That number sounds like mils (1/1000 in.). That would be all layers combined too: EC, Primer, BC, and CC. How variable was the film build? Normal OEM sprays usually have a 0.6-0.8 mil window around their target for BC, so if you got 4.0 and 4.5, that's normal.

Thickness will only tell you so much, each layer has it's own adhesion, etch (scratch) and crack resistance. Obvioulsy, the cheaper coatings give you less performance. With all of the complaints, sounds like Toyota got the on-sale economy version. It'd be neat to take a forum poll to collect color, model, and year info and see if it's one color line, or range of years that have the most problems.