Which cars have the best finish

[valleyguy]

As a newbie who used to use Nu Finish once or twice a year, I’ve started redoing all my cars with Klasse. However, I’ve noticed that some cars detail and sparkle better than others. I don’t know if it’s the paint quality/layers or the shape of the sheet metal. In any case as I spend 2 hours a day on the L.A. freeways and I’ve begun to rank cars by the quality of their finishes. Any NEW car can look great (some better than others), but how do they age?

NEW JETTA – Great looking, even dirty cars have a great depth and shine to them. Oddly, the Beetle does not look as good, though it must be made in the same Mexican plant with the same paint. The old Jettas, however, have not aged well. The A4 Audi, presumably the same car, is not quite as good. May be different paint, the German plant, or shape of the sheet metal.

MERCEDES, LEXUS – Even very old cars that have not been kept up look good.

CAMRY & COROLLA – 5 to 10 year olds still look good. How many people detail a Corolla, even the old ones still carry a sparkle. (I may be biased here)

SATURN SIDE PANELS – Being plastic, these smooth panels keep their shine, again, few are detailed.

BMW, ACURA, INFINITI – OK I agree that new and/or with detailing they can look great, but I see too many 5 to 10 year olds that look downright average.

ALTIMA – Ages pretty well, the new model glistens.

SOME FORDS – Taurus & Contours seem to age pretty well. Honda falls into this group.

Average and below: GM, Korean, & Chrysler products

TRUCK SUVs – Generally average finish, however, new F150, Expedition, Navigator do stand out in this crowd, especially when detailed.

Of course this is all IMHO.

2k2 Civic - average
2k Neon – average -
94 Corolla – average +
92 Camry – average +

[joed1228]

I'll be brief but I think the best paint jobs are:

Rolls Royce
Jag's
Ferrari
Porsche
Audi
VW is pretty good

Corvettes has nice paint jobs as well, it seems the more expensive the car the more effort people put into the paint jobs. Vettes being Chevy's flagship sport car sort of have something to prove so I can see why the Vettes paint seems better than the Venture.

[Redcar GUY]

To bad I have two that are on the bottom of your list

Pic of the SS and tha Saturn

Close up of the side of saturn

[JayDub]

Oddly, the paint on my wife's new beetle is rock solid, while my dark blue paint on my (newer!) jetta is rock chipped like crazy.

some of the best paint I had was (oddly) my silver on the 1999 Civic I previously owned.

i agree with some of the points made here, but ive got to admit that bentley paintwork is nothing special - i have had seven models and they only look good because ive spent hundreds of hours detailing them with high speed dual buffers and various waxes.

My mate has a merc S320 - i think that is preety good - its in silver and has a brilliant shine.

[BradE]

VW does have pretty good paint for a non-expensive car. Many of the german cars use Sikkens paint, which is pretty good. I think Ferrari uses PPG, but I am not 100% sure.

The paint on my Lincoln is above average. It's not great, but it's better than most american paint jobs.

As far as American paint goes, I think it varies from car to car. I have seen some american cars that have pretty good paint jobs, and I have seen some that look totally horrible.

[JohnN]

I think that thanks to the environmental laws changing the formulations of paint the past few years, newer cars actually have worse paint.

Case in point - my parents' Ford Taurus - a 97, has great paint. Won't chip or peel, shines really nice, no orange peel.

Fast forward to the same car (a coworkers) in 01 - orange peel, and it's been rock chipped twice in a short period of time.

Same company, same model car - I don't think they moved to cheaper paint. It has to be those changes (or a government conspiracy to take detailers out of the equation...)

[Short Cut]

The paint on my '94 Porshce is good but still has quite a bit of orange peel. Seems to me that Lexus's have very nice and smooth paint without much OP.

[Dave C.]

Originally posted by JohnN
Case in point - my parents' Ford Taurus - a 97, has great paint. Won't chip or peel, shines really nice, no orange peel.

Fast forward to the same car (a coworkers) in 01 - orange peel, and it's been rock chipped twice in a short period of time.

Same company, same model car - I don't think they moved to cheaper paint. It has to be those changes (or a government conspiracy to take detailers out of the equation...)

There are a couple of things that could explain that, different factory, possibly cheaper paint, the way both parties drive, and also '01 wasn't Ford's best year (many recalls, management problems, etc.)

[kilo_watt]

My 2001 Boxster S came with a gorgeous Speed Yellow paint job. Really well applied. This is a non-metallic paint, so it doesn't hide flaws. I was very happy.

and then I found out how "soft" the paint is. It appears that all modern Porsche paints are incredibly soft and will chip or scratch at the slightest provocation. The front of my car looks like it has been sand blasted and is only 15k mi.

My Taurus paint, on my 98 Taurus SE actually looks fantastic (black) despite some issues that I'll be attending to with my PC tomorrow.

[valleyguy]

I agree those high-end cars look great, but then the owners are usually sticklers on keeping them detailed and of course their paint is better.

I notice the low-priced cars that look good. Either the owner spent some time getting it that way, or it had a great finish to begin with.

[Intel486]

Originally posted by valleyguy

TRUCK SUVs – Generally average finish, however, new F150, Expedition, Navigator do stand out in this crowd, especially when detailed.

I agree. We do stand out in a crowd.

http://www.f150online.com/galleries/...gallery725.jpg