Japanese cars and clear coat failure

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: Chris B.
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
My 21 year old Nissan's paint still looks and feels brand new,and this car has never been garaged.


I have to call [censored] on that. No way ANY car sits outside for 21 years and has mint condition paint.


22 year old Nissan paint. Car has never seen a garage. I just now went outside and took these pictures:

 

[Trav]

The 300Z was their premium product and probably came from a different factory with a different paint supplier and probably used a premium paint for that car.
Premium paint will outlast most OE by a wide margin but it is expensive, real expensive when you put nice coats on. A gallon of white and clear (inc hardener and reducers) in eg Axalta (Dupont) premium paints is almost $1,000 on the retail market so even it they spent half that its a huge cost when you throw premium primer into the mix its even more.

The other factor is that paint job may add 20lb to the car vs 8lb if that. BTW love those cars!