Paint Condition after 2+ Years of Ownership
 

I'd like to hear from owners who have had at least two years of documented driving with their cars, how is your paint holding up?

I've not been very fortunate, for how well I have cared for the vehicle.

Some quick details on my care include:
garage kept, not driven in the rain, only above average to excellent roads driven on, only driven in winter when it is dry and the salt is cleared from the roads, minimal highway use, when in traffic or on busy roads I leave plenty distance between my car and the vehicle ahead of me, washed two to three times a month with a combination of hand washing and touch-less car washing, waxed car at least twice a year.

Despite the care and my best efforts I have:
chips on the front bumper/headlight plastic, "flakes" of paint chips on the rocker panels, multiple road debris chips/scratches on the front and rear fenders, and clear evidence of washing, even while using the best techniques and higher quality products.

Now, some of this damage is barely noticeable and will regularly occur when driving any vehicle, but out of the cars that I've owned the FR-S undoubtedly has the poorest quality of paint. FHI manufactured aside, not something I'd expect with Toyota's name on it.

I experienced some of this early on, but have hung low while I followed threads about chipping issues. Can anyone else share condition after two years?

Like yourself, I only use the best products available for my car and because of how easy it is to damage the paint I decided to have the car opticoated later in its life. I wish I took care of that when I first got this car.

For me it wasn't even 1 month after I got the car I was kicking myself in the ass for not getting some type of paint protection.
At the bare minimum the full hood, front bumper, and fenders should be done.

Now that my hood, front bumper, and 3/4's the drivers side back has been repainted I'm curious as to how the aftermarket paint will fare compared to the stock on pass side.


For those that did opticoating new, did it help a lot?

My front bumper is so beat up, no jokes, and I have WRB...
Sigh...

Admittedly, I have discovered opticoat only after buying the FR-S, but my dealer never even mentioned protector film.

I'm not sure if I'm more disappointed or surprised at how bad it really is...

after almost 2 years and 35,000+ miles, I pretty much could use a whole new paint job

Opti-coated and full front end paint protection film from new. Over 2 years of daily use and when it's clean, looks pretty well as good as it did new.

That's aggravating.

Bird s#!t eats right through the clear.

I carefully remove everything the day it happens.

I have several quarter-sized spots of orange-peel. Right through the clear in a single day. They're either radioactive birds or this clear coat is sub-par. :-/

Front bumper, fenders, doors scratched and beat up by cones from autocrossing. More damage to the BRZ in 2 years of autocrossing than all my previous cars combined in the previous 13 years. The paint is thin, as is the sheetmetal.

I'm 30k+ miles. Did opticoat and 3m on the front bumper myself when new. I have only one decent rock chip on the front lip of a fender. I've left bird crap on a few days and noticed no lasting effects. I wash every 2 weeks in the summer, and probably monthly in the winter, and I have very minimal marking. Only hand washing. Never waxed.

My paint looks fine, except for all the little chips I get from road debris on the front of the car.

Haven't had for 2 years but 6 months and 20,000 miles I hope I am qualified to comment on the subject.
I read all the time about how bad the paint chips but have not really found that with the Lava colour. About 98% of my time is spent on the highway and part of that is down a stretch near some gravel pits. This means there is a pile of rocks that get thrown up by other vehicles. So far I have taken more high velocity hits then I care to think of. Of this only three have actually chipped the paint and they also all left dime sized dents. When I detail I can see small specks in the clear coat where others obviously bounced off but a quick buff removes all sign of the.
I even got hit on the top of my bumper with a tail light lens that flew off a car in front of me and it left a fairly deep grove about 4 inches long but the paint did not crack or chip at all.
Wonder if the Lava paint is more flexible and able to take hits better or something along that line.
Be interesting to know if there are one or two colours that are worse then others when it comes to damage.

The paint on these cars is just crap imho

Living country doesn't help either.