I'm actually really enthusiatic about the car and planning to buy one this Dec once I have enough funds saved up.

I currently own a WRX and a collective complaint of most of us WRX owners is that the paint is very thin and chips easy. Although the blue WRX paint job is beautiful, this thin layer that comes off easy is kind of upsetting.

I'm hoping this won't be an issue come time I own an EVO too. So, what's everyone's collective opinion on the EVO's paint job?

 

It sucks just as bad as the Subaru or maybe even worse. I had problems with my black WRX and an ungodly amount of premature front end paint chips. My Evo seems to be the same way, only it gets chips in front of the rear wheel well and even more mysterious chips along the rocker panels. Its really my only complaint thou. I just cant seem to figure why a 30k car or a 24k car for that matter has such a crappy paint job. Hell my grandmas 1984 Firenza Cruiser has better paint than either of these two vehicles.

 

Paint sucks! Clear Sucks! No rock/chip guard additive in basecoat or clear! But the car ROCKS!

 

Yeah my paint is getting ripped up, and I'm not flying down the highway tailgating garbage trucks or anything. It's clearly just a sorry paint job. And when I used some Meguiar's paint polish to try and clean up a little swirl? I got some blue on my rag.

A sure sign of shoddy work.

I'm probably going to end up painting the car at some point down the road, so I'll just take the best care I can with it for now, and hope it doesn't look like utter poo in a year.

 

Paint is worse on the EVO than on the STI.

 

its the new stupid laws they keep passing on these enviromental crap making the paint pure ****

 

Uh. I don't think environmental law has anything to do with a factory not being able to manage a decent paint job. Maybe you could explain that. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the cheap paint being laid on thin, and the cheap clear being laid on thin, in an effort to reduce manufacturing cost.

As far as I know, there's no law that says they can't put 40 coats of PPG on the car. It's just not cost effective.

 

Yea the paint is real thin but an alternative is to color sand the car and lay 4 or more extra coats of clear on there. A buddy of mine that owns a restoration shop said it would be a good idea but it is alot of work to do and if your not capable of doing it yourself its expensive.

 

The paint is my only real complaint too. My car has 6000 miles on it and the front end looks like it has been sandblasted. Compared it to my wifes VW Jetta that has 30,000 miles and it has hardly any chips. I wish I would have put on a clear bra right away, now I need to get the front painted and then a clear bra put on

 

Other than the paint being a bit thin on door jams and the small chips behind rear door on driver side ( about 2" high) the paint on my silver Evo seems pretty good. I have 13,000 miles and the front only has a couple small rock chips. The rest of the paint looks nice/smooth with no problems or complaints on quality

 

are you sure? the paint on regular WRX's is pretty bad so I can't see how an STi has all that better of paint.

 

I had a 1993 honda civic (charcoal grey), a 1995 Integra (black), a 2003 subaru WRX (WR-blue) and now the Evo (BBY). The paints were basically the same. Very easy to chip and scratch. To me the evo paint is no different...

 

The paint is terrible and my biggest complaint. It's definitely not the environmentalists because my wife's Mazda 6s (also black) is beautiful. It's worst than any car I've ever owned (that includes a $14k Saturn).

 

Sooooo what should I do about the paint job sucking so bad? I'm about to buy a new Evo and I want to nip this problem before it becomes a PROBLEM.


Thanks
helm

 

paint is @ss. i don't know how this can happen but mine is starting to rust right where the inside door sill is. no scratch or anything around it. can't be rocks cause the door covers it.