Question for Black Rogue owners..

[kcfm]

Wondering if any of my fellow black Rogue owners have had any paint issues? Specifically, problems with the clearcoat. After washing my car a couple of weeks ago I noticed 3 quarter sized spots in the clear coat. It looked as though the clearcoat had been removed and it was just paint left, no shine whatsoever. I took it to the dealer, where they had to buff them out, but they told me it was caused by "ground water" like from an underground sprinkler system. I really didn't buy that since my car is never around any type of water source like that. But fine, I let it go. Then yesterday, I found 3 fairly large spots where I had bird poop on my car. Now the poop wasn't there when I got into my car to leave that day. Trust me I know because I am obessed with looking my car over now after my first paint issue. But when I got home that's when I noticed it. Now I was only gone about 4 hours, so even if the bird pooped on my car immediately after getting in it, it could have only been on there 4 hours max! And I highly doubt it happened right away. But I immediately washed it off when I got home but it had totally ruined the clearcoating already. Looks terrible! I have never experienced anything like this with any other car I have owned. Even when I had let bugs/poop sit on the paint for a week or more on other cars it still washed off with no problem and no paint issues. Now I have only owned this car for 7 weeks can you imagine what the finish is going to look like after a year or two?!

Anyone have any thoughts, similar issues, or do I have a car with some kind of inferior paint issue that needs to be addressed..

[philipa_240sx]

First off, black is one of the hardest to keep clean and it shows everything. I had a black car for years... I have first hand experience.

The water in my area is hard (lots of dissolved minerals) and it leaves spots on the paint like crazy. This isn't car specific. They don't come off with a simple wipe... even with water. I have to break out the detailing spray (Meguiars Quik Detailer), mist and wipe the entire vehicle to get rid of them. You can lessen the effect by washing your car in the shade or early morning/late evening or use softened water.

Other than water spotting, I have not noticed similar paint issues on my Rogue to what you are describing.

Other suggestions:

Use a quality auto wax. Specifically one of the newer synthetic waxes Like Mothers FX or Meguiars NXT. They seem to last much longer between applications versus Carnauba based waxes and should provide some protection. Many of these synthetic waxes can also be layered... by applying a lighter second coat it will srtip part of the first coat but the net effect is a thicker coat and more protection.

As for car washing, use a car wash soap. Never use laundry or dish soap as they are very harsh... they are after all meant to remove grease from dishes. For hard water, you can try the Mr Clean AutoDry System or something similar.

[kcfm]

First off, black is one of the hardest to keep clean and it shows everything. I had a black car for years... I have first hand experience.

The water in my area is hard (lots of dissolved minerals) and it leaves spots on the paint like crazy. This isn't car specific. They don't come off with a simple wipe... even with water. I have to break out the detailing spray (Meguiars Quik Detailer), mist and wipe the entire vehicle to get rid of them. You can lessen the effect by washing your car in the shade or early morning/late evening or use softened water.

Other than water spotting, I have not noticed similar paint issues on my Rogue to what you are describing.

Other suggestions:

Use a quality auto wax. Specifically one of the newer synthetic waxes Like Mothers FX or Meguiars NXT. They seem to last much longer between applications versus Carnauba based waxes and should provide some protection. Many of these synthetic waxes can also be layered... by applying a lighter second coat it will srtip part of the first coat but the net effect is a thicker coat and more protection.

As for car washing, use a car wash soap. Never use laundry or dish soap as they are very harsh... they are after all meant to remove grease from dishes. For hard water, you can try the Mr Clean AutoDry System or something similar.

It's definately not an issue of me not taking care of it properly or ordinary water spots. If anything, I spend way too much time detailing it. It's been washed once or twice a week, every week, since I have owned it and always in the shade using Meguiars car wash. I bought special Microfiber towels that I use to wash and dry it. I have already waxed it twice in the 7 weeks I have owned it. Once with a carnauba wax and once with this wax called "Rejex". It's not cheap and is supposed to be formulated to help repel bug and bird stains, hence the name Rejex I suppose.

I knew going into buying a black car that is shows the dirt and scratches probably more than any other color. Which I obviously didn't have a problem dealing with since I did purchase a black one. But when you spend this much money on a new car don't you expect a little better paint protection than this? If your car's finish can be ruined after only a couple of hours of bird doodoo sitting on it, I would tend to think that Nissan needs to come up with a better formulated clearcoat or something. And I do have friends that have/had black cars that have not had these issues with the clearcoat like I have.

I do like my Rogue, but am very dissapointed when it comes to this issue though.

[philipa_240sx]

Well, I can now see that maintenence is not an issue. Glad to see you care so well for your vehicle.

I am at a loss for why this is happening. There may be a paint issue and I would continue pursuing the dealer about this.

I bit of research reveals Nissan uses a 2 layers of basecoat and a 1 layer clearcoat on most of thier cars. Your paint should not be applied any differently that other colours.