My month-old black Prius (with Toyoguard sealant) has more paint scrathes now than did my decade-old Seville when I sold it last week. My car is REALLY scratch-prone. The last scratch happened when I brushed (and I mean BRUSHED) the paint with the metal button on my blue blazer. The seville would have shrugged that off without a mark! The origins of most of the other scratches are a complete mystery--they could be ther result of falling leaves, for all I know! Is it my paint, black paint, or all our paints? GM certainally has a lot to learn from Toyota about desigining and engineering fuel-efficient cars; but it also seems that Toyota has a lot to learn from GM about formulating and applying durable (black) paint. Do your experiences confirm my problem, or am I really off-base here?
My black Pri has a lot of swirl marks, which I take care of with wax and they come out quite nicely. I noticed a nick or 2 from road debris, but we installed a bra on the car and that prevents a lot of damage. Otherwise, there are probably only 1 or 2 real scratches on the car. We also have Toyoguard... so I don't know what to tell you! Have you waxed the car yet? Maybe that will help? Sorry I can't offer any more ideas...
Use a good micro fiber towels to prevent swirl marks. Also, Meguiars NXT removes and hides swirl marks. All paint scratches and shows swirl marks if not properly cared for.
MadHungarian, I love my car but yeah, the paint is crap! Nothing and no one has touched the paint except me and I have a reasonable knowledge on how to detail a car as I've been doing this for years. I've got all the top end stuff but yeah, swirl marks are showing up! Didn't have this problem with previous vehicles. What's worse is the front of the car. It has a ba-zillion pits in it and I've only got 7000 miles on it. It looks like I've been tailgating a truck hauling gravel for all those miles. I'm pretty disappointed in the paint quality. I'm interested in hearing if others are having the same problem. This is shaping up to be an issue with the car and is as lame as the stereo quality. At this point, the fix will require re-painting the front and then going with an invisible bra... FWIW, my car is the tideland for color. -bob
I have a couple of tiny nicks on my front end (and I do follow gravel trucks on one of SoCals busiest trucker highways, the 710, to work) so maybe a bra is the way to go for me, but I'm concerned about drag for the fuel efficiency. Also, will the "invisible bra" I've heard a few people mention be a better choice? Also, my uncle's black Mercedes always seemed to show dirt/dust, as well as those swirls from being washed more so than any lighter coloured car we've had.
I have to agree. My Silver Prius is also scratch prone. Especially by the door handles. It seems to me that the paint is very soft. Or at least gives that impression. The paint on my other GM vehicles, is just the opposite. At least GM has good paint LOL.
Weird. Variation in batches of paint, maybe? My silver manufactured in Mar 2004 looks great after 9000 miles. I use Mr. Clean Autodry exclusively and an all-cotton mitt, laundered after each use.
