Our 07 (and everyone w/ 07s) had a hood that chipped seemingly on its' own. When we picked up our 09 I thought the new "self-healing" paint would be more resilient to chips, but it's no better IME. Sure we've had a bit of kicked up pebbles form trucks but nothing too significant but there already are plenty of chips down to the metal on our hood. Not at all impressed w/ the latest Infiniti paint quality, still the same crap as far as I can tell

 

yup

self healing paint is for micro-marring.

rock chips are going to happen w/o a clear bra.

I find ford has pretty durable paint ironically enough.

 

I've been very lucky (but then again my car is only 2 months old) since I have no rock chips, given all the gravel dumped on the roads here for traction against ice.

Did get one small scratch, but it was shallow enough that the "healing" clear coat fixed it in about 4 days, I'll assume that's not bad considering that even in my garage it's only 50 degrees, and outside it's below freezing. I let it sit on purpose to see if it would also, figured if it didn't clear in a week I'd buff it out.

 

Don't blame the Scratch Shield paint. All modern mass-produced cars have the same problem with paint that is easily chipped. Years ago, automotive paints went to a water based formulation in order to be environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, they are not as resistant to chipping.

 

I've noticed the paint on the G seems to be softer and more prone to chipping then any of the prior vehicles I've owned i.e. Cobra, GTO, and Lightning

 

I agree with this perspective. All makes have this chipping issue due, in part to the changing environmental regulations. Scratch Shield paint in particular is designed to handle scratches into the elastic clear coat and cannot resist actual impacts from stones.

Speaking of other makes, my Silverado crewcab dually has paint that chips all over the hood and front fasia. Worse, it's beginning to come off in small sections on the roof and is fading in some vertical sections! Yeah, I live in Colorado where the sand and rocks on the road are like a mild abrasive, but my new G seems to be doing far better than the Chevy ever did.

 

I see a fair amount of GM products here that have bits of paint coming off, I'm in north Idaho so a somewhat similar climate to Colorado also. Having said that, I thought GM solved that problem? I remember a friend's Buick and my cousin's Corvette both had to basically be repainted due to paint literally peeling off, it was some of the first water based paint used in the early or mid 90's by GM. Is this still happening with GM products now, most of the cars I see around here with an "unfixed" paint peeling problem are GM products from the early or mid 90's.