QUOTE (finchy40 @ May 30 2008, 05:08 PM)

Since buying my IS250 in January I am concerned at how easily the paint chips off. The bonnet already has several chips, some of which are quite big. The Slate Grey colour doesnt help as the light colour primer underneath makes them stand out but is anyone else experiencing similar problems? If so, has anyone done anything about it?
My 250 is fast approaching its third birthday, but only has 27K miles on the clock. The bonnet and the front of the wings had a few chips, but were (reasonably) easily filled with the touch up kit and polished. However, the plastic front bumper and front spoiler looked horrendous with hundreds of very small chips in the paint.
A couple of weeks ago I managed to crack my front spoiler by touching the kerb doing a three pointer with the ambient temperature around freezing

. Lexus say the front spoiler is made from 'high impact ABS', but believe me they cannot have tested it anywhere cold. Anyway, options were to either to get it plastic welded and resprayed or buy a new one ready painted from the USA. As the cost was about the same I decided to get it repaired and at the same time remove the front bumper and get that re-sprayed (saves on material costs).
Getting to the point (sorry but needed the background info). The bodyshop I use are excellent and they were not very complimentary about the OEM paintwork, saying it was 'flakey' and the primer on the front bumper 'almost like chalk', and the OEM paint on the spoiler 'not a lot better'. Also said the clear coat looked like a 'single pack' coating. The bumper was therefore sanded right back and reprimed, re-sprayed in the 1G0 Cadoxton Slate and given a coat of two pack laquer (the colour coats are water based due to the new regs).
It was finished today and looks superb. Hopefully the non OEM clearcoat will prove tougher and more chip resistant than the original.
Not very happy with the OEM paint though

, a case of suspicions confirmed I'd say.