All owners please check your bumber & hoods!! I have counted 19 chips or flakes ranging from less than a pinhead in size up to a sharpie marker tip. I am exremely pi$$ed!! I contacted the service manager at my Nissan dealership and he said the only bulletin he has seen about the paint is that it was blistering or bubbling and the cure for that was prolonged exposure to the sun @ high temperatures. He said he is aware that the paint would chip at speeds in excess of 60mph and that was caused by debrise and would not be covered. Not wanting to go through the hastle of arguing with the dealership in what would end up in NNA's hands anyway I called NNA this afternoon who told me that I had to go through the dealership before I could escalate the claim.

First of all is anyone else experiencing the same problem? If so please post your response & contact me @ eheidl@aol.com so we can exchange information. I will be getting letters from several body shops confirming that the paint should not chip that easily. I can't understand how I drove a Red Civic Si with a 4" drop (so basically the same profile) & only had one rock chip in 3 years. And the chip was very obviously just that. I am not so sure that the what I call chips weren't actually paint blisters at some point that were knocked off during washing. I am actually considering getting rid of the car because I am growing too concerned with all the problems. I read the results of the survey regarding issues that other owners have & must have answered yes to over 80% of them.

Someone, anyone please help!! There are only two solutions to my problem, either NNA says that is normal & I say give me money back because if I am going to spend 35k on a car I don't want such a $hi^^y paint job

or

They admit that there is a problem and fix it.

I have been told that other companies such as Mazda with regard to the Miata have actually admitted there was a problem & repainted hoods in the past.

PLEASE HELP : )

 

Not only the Z has crappy paint.All my japanese cars suffer the same malady.Ironically,I had a 2000 Cougar which was a POS but the paint was awesome. I 'm an active poster at Miata.net and have not heard of Mazda repainting cars.

 

newer painting systems are prone to chips, the Z may or may not be worse than average, mine has no chips, so Im inclined to say it depends on the car(maybe the color? I have SB)

if its specificly the hood and not the bumper, you could argue that.

but in the end, if you want it to end(no paint will totally resist chips) back away from cars. dont tail them on the highway, Im talking like 30-50 feet from the car in front, get into the other lane if possible. it will eliminate rocks and such and save your car.

 

Thanks for the post, i'm going through the same process.
My paint is chipping and has excess orange peel. Nissan
paint inspector looked at car in Jan., he was good, also
found out front and rear bumpers didn't have proper paint
thickness...But said nissan would not cover chips...Nissan and
other people can say what they want, I know paint isn't suppose
to chip that easy...
Anyway, Nissan agreed to repaint entire car, that was all I needed to hear....Got it in writting from dealer and contacted Nissan direct....They gave me run around, said they would only paint car....OK, at this point I had 2 options, trade in current 350 or dealer recommeded the BBB...I followed all steps in owners and now I'm waiting...It's been 2 weeks or so, I've asked for new car, repurchase car or send car to factory for paint....Out come is decided by a BBB panel, what do I have to loose? Dealer seems to think they will replace vehicle, they've ordered me excact car from factory....I must say that entire dealership has been great, even the owner has contacted Nissan...I will say I will not just except a repaint....Hopefully Nissan will stand behind their logo, {quality}
Keep me posted as I will do the same.......

 

Don't know how many miles you have on your vehicles. However, I have the same problem. There are little chips missing all over the front end. I am sick.

I have been very careful regarding being close to vehicles, especially trucks. However, I am now looking at a bunch of white specs on my Daytona Blue. I now have approx 5700 miles on the car. I have never.....neeeeeeever seen so many chips in a front end. There has to be at least 50.

I need help.

 

I have 600miles and I already have a few chips on the bumper. I put a coat of wax on it like every 4 days because I read about his problem. I think its ridiculous that this paint chips so easy.

 

Clear bra anyone??

 

I have 1500 miles, mostly freeway, with one (1) paint chip the size of a pinhead on the hood. Not intending to brag here, but did want to point out not all Zzzzs are experiencing heavy paint chips.

 

I had a very tiny chip on my front bumper about 3mm x 3mm, no big deal i thought. so i purchased a touch up paint from my dealer and applied it, but i over touched it so i smeared it with tip of my finger...then to my shock, the paint chip turned into a huge black round fading of the paint itself. i first thought it was touch up paint reacting to the smear so i immediately got wet towel to wipe it off. then i started to lose more and more paint and the area is now big black circle about 1cm x 1cm exposing the bumper completely. shocked and dismayed, i washed the area and reapplied the touch to now 1cm x 1cm black circle. i'm shocked.

I called the local dent pro guy to examine my touch up job, he woudn't believe that i turned a tiny chip into a black circle and insisted he wanted to clean "black dirt" from the area and reapply the touch up. so he used paint thining compund ever so lightly to take off bit of the touch up...and he says "yup, thats the bumper...wow...!" he then reapplied the touch up and gave me 2 options.

1. repaint the entire area = $300
2. drive as is with touch up paint =$0.

i chose $0 for now.
i'm shocked at how this little 3mm x 3mm chip tunred into a 1cm x 1cm!

 

350 z super black 1200 miles, 3 pinhead chips on hood..
sentra green 35000 miles no chips

 

Amen!!

 

I thought it was just me. My Z is only one week old and has only 110 miles and have already 12 paint chipped off the hood. its like I got a solar system of touch- ups plus 3 moons on my hood. I only drove my Z on the freeway once and this crappy paint job is driving me nuts. I just ordered a second bottle of touch paint (redline red), and the guy asked me "another bottle already?"

I worked hard and waited too doggone long to get my dream car, and this is what I got? talk about the fruit of my labor.

I feel you man.

I need help too.

TOPSPIN
REDLINE RED PERFORMANCE

 

17 years and 135,000 mi, I have a couple chips too they should use a plastic like finish on the front clip to stop that from happening, sounds like they painted the whole car with the same non chip resistant finish, bummer, you need to keep complaining.

 

I must admit NNA has been pretty responsive to all my problems with the exception of this paint issue. They gave me a 100k 72 month extended warranty & have done all necessary warranty work in a timely manner. The paint issue is bugging the **** out of me & they wont even send anyone to look at it since the chips are caused by rocks.... I keep trying to explain that the question isn't what caused them but rather should the paint resist chips & scratches from such small debris & pebbles. Anyway.. does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do next. I know some people are saying to get a clear bra but trust me it is too late for that. I tend to think this is more of a problem with the redlines than any of the others.. is it a coincidence that red happens to be the most expensive color?? Any advice anyone???? BBB, small claims court ??? Thanks in advance.

 

Yeah the front bumper gets chipped easy. Especially the lower part. A few on the hood. I have 14,000miles now. My bumper got damaged from hitting a raccoon. Got a new bumper.Needs to get painted in spring. Got my Colgan nose mask for highway drives. No more stone chips,sandblasting on the bumper!

 

I live in an area where there is constant construction on or near the roads and I haven't had any problems like the ones you are describing. My paint does have a bit of orange peel, and a few chips on the hood, but I have 10k miles, so I don't think it's excessive.

Good luck with your complaint. I hope it goes well for you.

 

My only advice is to adjust to reality. All new cars use water based acrylic paints now due to new environmental regulations. These acrylic paints are far less durable and more chip prone than older oil based paints. Your old Honda had oil based paint so it was more chip resisitant. My old 300 twin turbo did as well so it was chip resistant too. My new 350 and PT Cruiser chip like mad. Blame the government and the environmentalists - not Nissan.

The olny way to really deal with this is to get a clear bra.

joe

 

Sanderman, you can say that again...I just touched the gas nozzle at a shell station to the rim of the gas tank opening on our company's loaner 2002 Nissan Sentra and I got a nice little chip...DOWN TO THE METAL!!!

Last winter I got hit in the rear quarter panel hard enough to write the other car off and dented the hell out of my beater...an 84 Pontiac 6000...It literally caved in the whole rear quarter on the passanger side...so a few months later my cousin took a PIPE and HAMMER and bashed the crater out of the rear panel and it actually looks pretty smooth...The funny thing is...

THE PAINT NEVER CAME OFF...at least not more than a few little flakes...AMAZING.

OLD paint is not like NEW paint...I'm a believer now that not all paint is the same... :-(

Here is the picture before I beat the dent out...

 

You guys are really scaring me. I like to keep my cars about perfect as possible and I am looking to buy a 350Z soon. But I can tell you that my 2002 Mustang GT has hardly more than 3 through the clearcoat chips and very small (near impossible to see except for me of course) in the last 2 years and 21000 miles. I drive about 50% highway and have never used a bra. I wouldn't accept that the new paint standards are causing these chips. Sounds more like crappy paint or questionable paint processes.

 

Nuff said.. Great post