Yaris has cruddy paint?

[ozmdd]

Originally Posted by Former_Neon

The paint is just terrible on my Yaris. It seems like every time I turn around, I see yet another nick or light scratch on it. The hood is riddled with small chips and I'm really annoyed by it.
I don't drive down gravel roads or anything either. I owned a 1997 Dodge Neon prior to this and had maybe 3 small chips on the hood after having owned it for ten years. I've owned the Yaris nearly two years and it looks like shit.

I think many car companies are now using extremely thin paint, both to save cost and because the new technology allows very thin coatings.
I talked to a buddy with a newer STI who noticed the same thing.
That being said:
The one think I do notice in-common among cars with lots of chips on the front: they have drivers who tend to get-up behind other vehicles closer than they might ought to (read: tailgate). As a guy who is always in a hurry, I realized that is where most of the front-end paint damage is originating. Of course, some damage is unavoidable, depending on the roads in your area, and the low, bull-nose front end of our car makes it more vulnerable than some others. also, I'm not trying to say that every rock chip is a result of tailgating, but I think there is something to think about there. A lot of the chips happen without a lot of noise or big flying objects, so you might not be very aware that its happening.