I'd Like to Tell Toyota...This is for constructive suggestions to be made to Toyota regarding the FJ Cruiser. This is a flame free forum and heavily moderated.
After going off road a few times, you don't really worry about the paint, especially when you get those custom pin stripes!
This is true. And it is also true that Toyota skimps on the paint across the board. It's how they save money and one of the ways they make a distinction between Toyota and, at least in the U.S., a Lexus.
__________________ Don't you be discontinuin' my FJ, mang!
I agree with FJcryptographer, my dad was complaining about the cheap paint on his 07 tundra. Scratches easy and looks pitted in areas.
that is true of many asian imports for the most part. When you buy a toyota or honda, you are paying for an engine that is very reliable and will last for 300,000 miles and get good mileage. You are also paying for the higher trade in value. The rest of the vehicle is made very plainly and very cheap, compared to american vehicles(especially interiors). Function over form. American vehicles tend to have better quality materials, but engines usually aren't as reliable.
My last car was a honda accord. Had it for six years, never a problem mechanically and got great mileage. Made up of all plastic and and super thin sheet metal like fj. Paint would scratch just from looking at it.
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It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top. - Hunter S. Thompson
I agree with FJcryptographer, my dad was complaining about the cheap paint on his 07 tundra. Scratches easy and looks pitted in areas.
that is true of many asian imports for the most part. When you buy a toyota or honda, you are paying for an engine that is very reliable and will last for 300,000 miles and get good mileage. You are also paying for the higher trade in value. The rest of the vehicle is made very plainly and very cheap, compared to american vehicles (especially interiors). Function over form. American vehicles tend to have better quality materials, but engines usually aren't as reliable.
My last car was a honda accord. Had it for six years, never a problem mechanically and got great mileage. Made up of all plastic and and super thin sheet metal like fj. Paint would scratch just from looking at it.
I guess to each his own, but I'll take the interior of my FJ or 350Z (or as more examples; S2000, ridgline, tacoma, etc etc etc) ANY DAY over any $30K domestic vehicles. The seats in the FJ aren't great, but they're sure better than the POS seats in my Blazer which had NO support and looked like they were made from mouse fur. The quality of the dash plastic is another area where the imports are FAR superior in most cases that I can think of, and not to mention, after 50K miles, all the buttons and switches STILL WORK.
The Blazer (third domestic car I've owned, not to mention the various vehicles my parents had over the years before they got fed up with them too) MAY have had better paint, but that was more than made up for by the fact that the poorly designed swing-away spare tire like to swing away whenever the chassis flexed to much, at times where, say the vehicle is moving, and swung out and dented the side of the truck because it was bolted to the "thick" sheetmetal (and hence cracked the paint and required bodywork and repainting)
But, to each his own... *shrug*
The only way to get decent paint is to paint it in Mexico where the EPA doesn't ban all the good stuff
the paint seems to suck on all cars, When i had my Subaru STI everyone complained about the paint sucking on that. I buy the Toyota and now everyone hates this paint. Its probably the same paint manufacture for most of the Jap car manufactures .
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[2006 Yamaha R6]
[2008 Trail Team Edition] Tiochfaidh Ár Lá
[The first member to rock the Trail teams]
I did some research and found out FJ paint is only 7mil thick. Disappointing. Everything that hits it leaves a scratch. I love my FJ but would like 14-15mil paint like there was on my last Ford.
My only complaint about the whole vehicle, it give me a reason to go ODgreen one day-
Toyota botched this badly. They advertise and market this thing to be a true OFF ROAD vehicle. Taking it off road OFTEN means running up against branches, weeds, bushes, etc. And the FJ is, hands down, one of the WORST vehicles I've ever seen in resisting scratches from such vegetation. The FJ scratches so easily that soft pine needles can create huge brush marks on the paint. The clear coat and paint job are truly awful!!!
__________________ Don't you be discontinuin' my FJ, mang!
One reason I got a white TT is because I heard the paint sucked. White holds up better I think. Not all cars come with bad paint though. My Silver 2001 BMW looks brand new like the day I bought it and I only wash it once every 6 weeks or so by hand. Acura also makes expensive cars but the paint is Honda quality. I know a few other European brands are also pretty good but you pay for it. I think it's worth having good paint if you want to hang onto a car for many years. In Europe that is what most people do so the paint has to be good. In the USA it's typical for people to change cars every 3 years so the paint isn't made to last very long.
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2008 Trail Teams Edition MT - TRD Quickshift, TRD CAI,
Hardwire GPS, Sport Pedals, Maplight with Scanguage,
Trail Gear sliders, Weathertech Visors, TWM Shift Knob.
With the EPA regulations, more companies are producing water based paints. This means no more solvent based paints. So the hardness of the paint could be compromised. Paints will improve as they understand the technology better. I believe California was the first to adopt water based paint since the government put restrictions on it. Look at lacquer paint, it was some tough stuff, but it has tons of chemicals in it. I am not claiming that water based paints were used on the FJ, but it is possible. In my experience, I have owned 4 Toyota's and 3 Honda's. No issues with paint on any. Sure chips happen and paint will peel when it is hit hard enough. The issue may not be the paint, it may be the substrate. The bumper and panels are made of more flexible materials like TPO and urethane. Paint does not like to stick to plastic as well as metal. I had a 2007 Toyota Yaris that I put 69,000 miles on in 2-years. Rock chips yes, but the paint held up well and when the car was clean, you could not see most. Could it be that more chips/problems happen on a certain color? I know I have seen GM vehicles that were painted at two different plants and the color codes are different even though the colors are a close match. Just some info and my .02c
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