Thanks, Ken, Richard, and Steve for your helpful input on this. I thought something was wrong with the car, and I'm SO GLAD it's not a paint problem but a universal fact of life on the road. Unfortunately, when I have waxed the car, the nicks show up as white-- I'll have to find a wax that is dark! Good idea to apply extra to the front end. Now I can just go ahead and enjoy this wonderful car-- This Sebring is the most fun to drive of any car I've had in 30+ years on the road... little nicks and all! And for looks, the whole Chrysler line is gorgeous, if you ask me. --Michelle
| Michelle,
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| You sound just like me; which can be considered bad ;-) | | I have a 300M in black; my first mistake. Any dark colored car will show | flaws more so than a light color car like white and silver. | | The most common problem is trucks and to a lesser degree cars. Both kick-up | or toss small rocks. | There's nothing you can do about it except keeping your distance from | trucks; especially the ones that deliver stones. | | I also had a perfect paint job as I purchased the car new. I washed, | polished and waxed the car as often as possible but to no avail. Small | scratches kept showing up even though I use a chamois to dry and a | microfiber towel for polishing and waxing. | | The next place to avoid is the car wash. Here, most towels are used over | again before their put to the washing machine. Some cars that go through the | car wash might even be rusty in which case the little rust the towel picks | up is then used on your car. Unfortunately, if you live in an area that gets | bad winters there's not much you can do about it. | | My suggestion is to keep caring for it the way you have been and use good | products like meguiars and mothers and you'll be fine. If you ever drop a | cloth or sponge, be sure to wash it out before using it again as you can | pick up small objects that will scratch your paint. | | There's also a couple of options that help. 1) Purchase a hood reflector and | or a bra. If you use the bra, be sure to purchase a quality one and remove | it everytime you wash. | | Good luck and enjoy that car. | | Ken | | | | > Just bought a 2002 Sebring, previously owned, 9 months old since date it | was | > put into service, 13,000 mi. I LOVE THIS CAR! BUT... what I'm noticing | are | > more little chips out of the paint than I would expect for a car this new. | > And small scratches that I feel certain were not there, beginning to show | up | > almost every time I wash it. Either the dealer detailed this car in such | a | > way that the "cover-up" is wearing off and I'm seeing the true condition | > revealed -- OR -- the paint is very fragile and any little gravel that | > bounces up is chipping the paint! Is this normal? The plastic bumper on | > the front has many (many) small chips in it (which I guess I would | > expect) --but I take exceptionally good care not to scratch this car when | > washing/waxing and it seems to be accumulating small scratches too easily. | > There are no service bulletins that I could find on the paint. The car is | > steel blue pearlcoat, and I understand that blue metallics are more | > delicate --could this be the problem? | > thanks for any thoughts, | > Michelle | > | > | > | |
every piece of grit that is thrown up from the highway. There is so much construction going on, on the highways nowdays that the sand/grit/gravel/rocks are everywhere. Besides having a bra on the car, you have to grin and bare it. I always triple wax the front end of my car, may help and can't hurt.