i cant be the only one to notice, but does anyone else have an issue with really weak paint and a really weak windshield? i would have the car for 1 month tomorrow, with roughly 1200 miles on it, and theres a good amount of minuscule rock chips on the front bumper, and one on my hood, even one on my roof! I've also gotten two rock chips in the windshield, one repaired and one I'm getting repaired tomorrow. i take extreme care of my cars as the only way I've noticed is every time i wash the thing but the old girl for some reason doesn't catch a break, and i don't live in the middle of nowhere where the only roads available is dirt. I've never driven a foot on dirt/gravel since i got the car. maybe i just have really bad luck? :frown2::crying:
I actually already had my windshield replaced once (within 500 miles!) and the new one already has smaller chips in it. The paint also has many many chips in it. I got some Dr. Colorchip to fill in some of the bigger holes (it works pretty well) and I'm just going to try to keep it waxed as well as I can. But yea, already sad that the paint is chipping away...
Ill have to look into the Dr.Colorchip, as the bumper is taking a beating and i don't want the paint chip spots to get surface rust. One of my windshield dings is basically on the a pillar portion, but is visible from the outside is will be 110% prone to cracking further if not repaired but i was told the a-pillar trim would have to come off to repair it. The very first chip is practically in the dead center and off to the left, exactly in my view which happened within less than 24 hours of owning the car. Ive never had anything hit my windshield in any car, until my very own brand new purchase that I'm super uptight with keeping in tiptop shape. :|
Wow guys. I actually have to say that my wife's Impreza and my Crosstrek both have strong windshields and paint. If you can really describe paint as "strong"? My wife's windshield has been hit twice by big to large size rocks and no dings to report anywhere. Also, she drives mostly highway so she is constantly behind people and her paint is holding up better than most of the other cars we have owned. Only minor chips in the nose of her car. She has a lil over 7000 miles on her car now, so I am happy overall how it is holding up. My Crosstrek is driven daily on a mix of highway/backroads/ and gravel roads and I have ZERO dings in my windshield. And it even got popped by a lug nut once going down the highway. My front end has 2 chips in it, which is amazing, because we drive this car all over the place. It has almost 17,000 miles on it now, and its less than a year old. Sorry you guys are having issues, maybe it has to do with the build dates or something? Maybe the first run of cars got sprayed thin at the plant and the glass manufacturer had a bad batch of glass? Who knows? Our car was built pretty early too though, ours was the third one sold at our local dealer. Purchased 12/22/16.
Man that is one great feat. half the rocks I've got hit by i didn't even realize until washing the car, and as i said above, I'm super uptight about my cars paint. I previously had a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was used as an overlander and a 2001 BMW 330ci that was lowered, so i knew it was inevitable to have my bumper get demolished wether it was scraping or road debris but nothing. the bmw took less hits than the jeep did on the highway, and in both cars I've NEVER, and i mean NEVER had anything hit my windshield once. Im thinking about maybe investing in one of those hideous unibrow wind deflectors and/or a normal bra or clear bra wrap if it starts to get worse. The funny thing is, when i went to get a new car, i was looking at 3 different options, but the previous 3 all had some sort of scratch on it. One of them was Island Blue that had a gash in the hood that was already rusting because of the salty air. I feel like subaru skimped out on a few layers of paint and protective coating to either keep costs, or weight down. oh well. i still love the car :laugh:
Wow guys. I actually have to say that my wife's Impreza and my Crosstrek both have strong windshields and paint. If you can really describe paint as "strong"? My wife's windshield has been hit twice by big to large size rocks and no dings to report anywhere. Also, she drives mostly highway so she is constantly behind people and her paint is holding up better than most of the other cars we have owned. Only minor chips in the nose of her car. She has a lil over 7000 miles on her car now, so I am happy overall how it is holding up. My Crosstrek is driven daily on a mix of highway/backroads/ and gravel roads and I have ZERO dings in my windshield. And it even got popped by a lug nut once going down the highway. My front end has 2 chips in it, which is amazing, because we drive this car all over the place. It has almost 17,000 miles on it now, and its less than a year old. Sorry you guys are having issues, maybe it has to do with the build dates or something? Maybe the first run of cars got sprayed thin at the plant and the glass manufacturer had a bad batch of glass? Who knows? Our car was built pretty early too though, ours was the third one sold at our local dealer. Purchased 12/22/16.
I don't think you have bad luck at all but I have noticed the front bumper has chips in it but I do ALOT of highway miles so I'm putting it down to stones & killing bugs lol.
Don't stop there about the weak paint, and glass. There's also a thin metal skin on these cars too. Absolutely no sound damping on the roof at all. Ever hear the roof in a rain storm? It's deafening. But as for the thin metal I have dents in the roof and I can't understand how they got there....It isn't even fall yet, when it comes the acorns are going to turn this car into SwissCheese. I park out side under a **** Oak tree, in fact my whole property is the oak tree..I got sap, sticks, bird crap, and anything else falling down.
I saw the paint being super thin, which I decided to treat the surface with a ceramic nano coat. Like Cquartz, so far it's working out better than any wax I used in the past on other cars. It also is helping with the ease of washing, also noticed that the road debris isn't sticking to the nose that much, including smashed bugs. Although I am too starting to see pitting on the glass, keeping this windshield polished and clean is a real chore.
Welcome to the era of eco friendly paint and eco friendly cars. If you think your car is bad after 1 month imagine what 2 years and 30k miles does. My 15 Legacy's bumper is stone chipped to heck, I have numerous little dents in my roof and trunk. Thank the EPA for the "green" paint that doesn't stick and weight-reducing thin sheetmetal. I seriously wish I had invested in paint protection before wheels, tires, and other cosmetic mods. At some point I'll be looking at a front bumper repaint and clear bra.
The lack of sound deadening is a whole other story, I've added 6 rolls of this stuff in my doors, trunk, spare tire well, under the back seat, etc. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Peel-Seal-...s-6-in-x-25-ft-Aluminum-Roll-Flashing/1018733 Really reduces road noise and improves the sound from the stereo by keeping the sound in the car vs allowing it to go out through the metal. Also adds more heft to the doors making them easier to close. It's significantly cheaper than Dynamat, Fatmat, or other products and works just as well IMO.
Anyone have any experience with a clear film protection on a car? Does it hold up pretty well? There is a local place to me that does this service and they seem to do pretty well with it.
Tomorrow I'm going to get XPEL clear bra done on my headlights after 3 failed attempts at doing it myself. I have quite a bit invested in the retrofit internals so I figure it'd be smart to protect that investment. XPEL has a 10 year warranty covering the film AND installation, as in they'll cover the labor too if it needs replaced. No one else I know of has this good of warranty so I'm sure it will hold up. If you're looking at getting it done, make sure you do some research on films and know what they're putting on your car.
Anyone think it may be a good idea to apply some sort of clear film to the windshield and potentially the whole front end to protect it from rock chips, paint chips, etc. ?
you can clear bra the front end, but i WOULD NOT recommend doing a windshield. you have to heat that stuff and stretch it to make it fit and that distorts it. very hard to see out of even being clear. lucky for us, we have a Zero deductible on comprehensive insurance so we can replace our windshields free of charge when/if the need arises.
Anyone have any experience with a clear film protection on a car? Does it hold up pretty well? There is a local place to me that does this service and they seem to do pretty well with it.
The local place by me (Shades of Grey Tint) uses 3M VentureShield. Per their website it says they have a lifetime guarantee against yellowing and cracking. I'll look into this a little more.
we have used both XPEL and 3M VentureShield, as well as Suntek PPF. All are great quality with a great warranty. But as with everything else that sits out in the sun you have to "protect" it just as you would paint. I prefer XPEL and Suntek over 3M. we have used them all in our shop but 3M is way too expensive and in my opinion doesn't have the customer service that XPEL and Suntek have. we do not do clear bra anymore in our shop, as we simply aren't as good at it as someone who does that solely all the time. so we send any customer who comes in our shop to our local XPEL shop and they send us customers who ask them about window tint. we help each other out, thats how it should be...
35000kms and I've got chips all over the front, a stone kicked up and badly scratched the fender behind the wheel well. The paint seems very weak to me.
Subarus are known for having soft paint. Windshield cracking is just luck, I think. My wife and I both have our original windshields (17 Forester & 18 Impreza). I had both cars wrapped (color change), then clear bra'd, then ceramic coated when they were brand new. So at least on that front, I don't have to worry about the paint getting messed up in any way.
I've had all my cars clear bra'd and never had any of them yellow. I do wash and wax over the clear and vinyl wrap and the vehicles are garage kept. There is new technology out there in terms of windshield treatments. I know the shop I use for our vehicles has some windshield protection film. I saw them put it on a Tesla Model X not too long ago.
Congratulations to those whose cars are not in showroom condition anymore due to chipped paint, bumps, dings; scrapes etc. It's a right of passage. There is no reason anymore to drive in a state of fear and paranoia. You can now just jump in and go. It was going to happen sooner or later. I put a small dent in the driver's side door when moving things in the garage, and accidentally drove onto a curb, and got a loud bang backing off. It's been done. Now I can just drive and enjoy.
The paint is garbage on most Subarus, but the paint work on these seem worse. I have very low coverage points around the inner points of my headlights, as do the other Imprezas I've seen. I have a clear drip in the back, and the paint is about as soft as warm butter.
The only thing I suggest is to get the bugs off at the end of each day. That will save the front of your car from looking like an acid etched POS and you'll only have the chips to deal with.
As far as the windshield goes, I didn't believe the hype at first, but out of nowhere I have 2 rather large chips. I never heard anything hit the windshield and I don't drive with loud music, so I would have heard it for sure.
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