mk85911

Side by side, my black 1985 Carrera looks richer than my 2011 black Carrera. The paint on my 2007 Audi A8 is at least as good as the 2011 Carrera.

Baba Booey

The Aston paint may look good but it is notoriously soft. It chips and scratches more easily than any brand I've ever seen!!

Doug H

Had a DB11 for 3 years and no issues with paint. Are you speaking of older Aston Martins?

All paint chips on sports cars given the angle of the surface and what hits it. I never really thought if Porsche paint being high end or particularly bad. The paint chips on surface areas that are particularly prone to impact from road debris being kicked up.

As far as depth of paint. I had one of those Lava Orange RCFs when it first camevout and wow, that paint was super high quality and complex. You also basically have to repaint the whole car if you ever expect to match it perfectly.

I have never had any issues with Ferrari paint whatsoever and would be inclined to say much better than spots he, but I daily drive my Porsches so not a fair comparison use wise.

Ironman88

I had a 2013 Mercedes with a Diamond White Metallic paint finish that was the best paint (shine, resistance to stone chipping, fading, and scratching) of any car I have ever had. The difference was not subtle either.

The finish on that MB in particular was a $2k option. As it turns out, the clear coat used on it was a different formulation - "Ceramiclear" - co-developed over a 10-year period by Mercedes and PPG...

https://corporate.ppg.com/Innovation...clearcoat.aspx

OKB

I like RM or Glasurit. Ive always used them. But painters I know like their brands better. Its what you are used to. You can say what better because paint changes every day. Every day theres something different. You say Porsche used a Sikkens, at the factory, but you can buy that product in usa. You buy a sikkens here and its different material that they use in the factory. Then they recommend you to use a rm or ppg. And if your in certain states, you have to use water based, like ppg envirobase. Nobody uses that elsewhere because they have to change their whole paint distributing and mixing system to convert to water.
And its hard to find ppg water based here. I think the consensus is to use a very good quality product. The big mfg are all very good today.

Ironman88

I would have to say my experience with BMW is not consistent with your remark above.

BMW paint in my experience is inferior. And across many model years - up to and including my most recent experience which is with a 2017 model.

The paint is brittle - and it very easily and readily chips. Just one of many reasons that I'll never buy another BMW.

Doug H

Everything about BMWs are shyte, including the paint.

A lot of Mercedes fade and look bad over time as well. I like Mercedes as a brand though and really appreciate their AMG line, unlike BMWs which are the worst German car made. Audis have nice paint and interiors IMO.

Seems like the older Guards Red air cooled 911s fade a bit or turn a bit organish, but I have seen some really good looking 911s from the 70s, 80s and 90s with original paint.

Marine Blue

We have this same paint on our 17 Wagon and I agree that it is very high quality and very resistant to chipping and swirls. I put very little effort into keeping it clean and at nearly 40k miles the paint reflection is still as good as the day we bought it.

We have an 06 JCW Mini and while the paint color is beautiful the actual quality of the paint is crap compared to other cars we have owned from that generation including Honda, MB and Porsche. Being a BMW product I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Floyd540

"good paint" is made up of four things, maybe more. 1) surface prep, 2) really good paint which is not cheap; 3) top quality gun and guy behind the trigger; 4) color sand to 3000 or more and buff with three pads/ compounds. That makes a great paint job. My 32 Ford and 40 pickup truck in the garage have far better paint jobs than my 997.2. The old Fords , I painted myself. The 997 is terrific for a gun finish metallic factory job. Show us examples of your gun finish.
My opinion, 2011 997.2 Basalt black.

Marine Blue

My Spyder was built in Stuttgart and thus used the same manufacturing paint process as the 911 and I agree that the finish of the paint from the factory is excellent. Having said that, I do also think the paint swirls very easily and requires more care to keep it nice as opposed to the MB which gets washed in the drive through car wash

Here’s a couple of pics of Basalt from 2011

PV997

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool 911 guy but that is a beautiful car! Agree that the Porsche clear coat is ridiculously soft and scratches at the slightest touch. A ceramic coat has helped keep my black paint free of swirls. Some people don't like them here but if you have a dark car it's a good defensive measure IMO as the ceramic is definitely harder than the clear coat.

Dennis C

This is an interesting old thread. One of the reasons that I sold my 2014 Audi SQ5 last month was the paint. It was the worst paint job I’ve experienced on a modern car. I ordered this car new from the factory to my specifications, and I always took good care of the paint, as I do with all my cars. It simply wasn’t durable. My biggest issue was that stone chips in the Audi’s paint didn’t result in the small, irregular chips that are typical for most cars. A stone chip in the Audi’s paint almost always removed a much larger bit of paint than expected, often in a perfect circle. I had a few chips on my doors that were as big as dimes. Any efforts to repair these chips with touch-up paint or Dr. Colorchip would last for a few months, and then they would “pop out”, exposing the original chip again. It was very frustrating.

3404

Gen V Viper is the best looking paint I’ve had by far. No orange peel to speak of. Prefix did a great job with it. Wish I could say the same about other FCA products.