New 2012 35d Orange Peel

Originally Posted by quackbury

Can't use that excuse for the X5. Or any other BMW's built / painted in the USA.

I hear you, and not looking for an excuse for them But, they are still painted to BMW specifications, regardless of where they are painted. I've just noticed that the European paint spec seems to have fallen behind the U.S. and Asia..in the "smooth" paint department. I know it's not as big of a deal to the Europeans, nor myself. It's something they have stuck with, and I'm sure they have a reason.. just curious as to what it is?

It's called Peux d'Orange.

Originally Posted by dkreidel

I thought I'd search before introducing a new post and was surprised to find so much unhappiness with good 'ole USA paint from SC. I took delivery in the rain and today was the first real opportunity to wash the X5M up nice and see what I have. I was amazed at the orange peel and low gloss on the vertical surfaces - worst I've seen from BMW. I looked at the other Bimmers in our stable ( '12 650 vert, '12 750, '11 Z4) and although not perfect they are a hell of a lot better than the Spartanburg paint.

Sometimes one can color sand the clear and work most of it out, but I doubt if it would clean up before busting through the clear. Amazing BMW can't paint any better than this

The best paint I've ever had on a new car was a Mazda Millenia S; better than the 3 Porsches, MB, my RS6, ... BMW wins the race to the bottom I guess

Your other BMW is white and mojave... pretty unfair comparison to carbon black.

Fundamental difference between BMW and other manufacturers is that BMW uses a powder clear coat. Powder is more environmentally friendly in that the overspray can be recycled instead of being lost in the water floor. Powder can also have significantly more orange peel based on electrostatics and is much harder to get smooth than liquid clear. Lexus is by far the best as they use older liquid paints and lay it on super thick. That gives their cars that candy coated appearance.

Originally Posted by Kar Don

Fundamental difference between BMW and other manufacturers is that BMW uses a powder clear coat.

News to me....

But even if they do, I blame them for that inferior choice.

This is quite interesting if true.

Does BMW read these forums?

Originally Posted by RockChips

Does BMW read these forums?

Interesting question, as I haven't noticed a corporate presence here like on bimmerpost or clublexus. Both of those sites have active participants that are BMW and Lexus employees. They participate in discussions and I'm sure compile data and feedback that they report back with.

Curious if there is or ever has been a corporate presence here?

http://www.pfonline.com/articles/wat...lina-bmw-plant

That is for the primer and color coat. I'm not sure if Spartanburg switched to powder clear. Germany is 100% powder clear

Environmentally friendly painting technologies
The BMW Group is committed to powder clear coat technology. This technology requires neither water nor solvents. The BMW Group introduced the first powder clear coat line in 1997 in the Dingolfing plant, and the production sites in Regensburg and Leipzig are now also equipped with this technology. In addition, the use of water-based paint is standard at all production locations. The result of these efforts is that within the last ten years, the BMW Group has reduced the quantity of solvents used in the company by 50 percent.

I was at a local Mercedes dealer today. Every car had severe orange peel.

Originally Posted by RockChips

I was at a local Mercedes dealer today. Every car had severe orange peel.

I was at the Lexus and Audi dealerships on Sat. They did not have noticeable orange peel.

Originally Posted by RockChips

I was at a local Mercedes dealer today. Every car had severe orange peel.

Great. Thanks for the wonderful contribution to the thread.