Paul Tan's Automotive Industry News

Lexus LS to get scratch-resistant paint?

Advertisement

Toyota Clearcoat

The flagship Lexus LS will soon come with a special highly scratch-resistant clear coat which Toyota says possess self-restoring qualities. The clear coat is highly resistant to typical surface scratches usually caused by car wash brushes and fingernails. You can usually spot loads of fingernail scratches near your door handle area, and sometimes you’re bound to hit the paint while reaching to grab your door handle.

An ingredient in the new clearcoat apparently encorages molecular bonding, resulting in a denser structure than conventionally possible.  This gives the coat flexibility and elasticity, making it less prone to damage and more resistant to light and acid, and giving it the ability to self-restore after deformation.

16 Comments »

  1. drgn86 said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 3:17 am

    This is similar to Nissan’s new paint which can self-restore from light scratches, really innovative…

  2. littleboy said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 7:31 am

    its really fantastic…..don hv headace to polish the scratches in the handle…..when can it put on the malaysian model????

  3. KitKat said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 8:21 am

    WOnder when this paint hit the steets.

  4. Littlefire said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 9:12 am

    For sure it will have it limitation, but anything inovative. I will welcome it…

  5. NeoN 575 said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 10:04 am

    Bloody LEXUS..the high profile company should have it earlier..Nissan already highlight this feature during Nissan Tech Week

  6. w_lighter said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 10:19 am

    Wow… is it car key resistant too? this is useful especial in msia where there’s alot of bastard that likes to scratch other people’s car.

  7. Justinx said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 11:27 am

    Is this Lexus’s response to the 2010 Ford Taurus vs. Lexus LS commercial (which can be seen on Youtube), that shows the Lexus more vulnerable to gravel?

  8. droll said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 12:11 pm

    didn’t mercedes announce something similar a few years’ back?

  9. KS said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 12:21 pm

    I don’t think its gona work as how it sounds like. Finger nails scratch is a “weak” type of scratch. How much is it going to help?

  10. mouse said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 12:39 pm

    guys.. is a scratch-resistant clear coat.. not scratch proof. It will not scratch unless is really serious. Is like a layer of silicon coating..

  11. Wen said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 12:41 pm

    The paint job shops are gona make a fortune.

  12. RUDY CHOW said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 12:50 pm

    This all bulshit la. Its like the tint layer for glass/window for cars. some 99% block UV, but when it comes to really hot under the sun, jialat laa..

  13. painsama said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 1:03 pm

    Cikgu-cikgu disiplin in our schools would be glad to have this. Their cars would be resistant to those bastard revengeful students who like to scratch their teachers’ cars. Then our cikgu-cikgu disiplin could have rotan everyone sprees for good.

  14. csv said,

    October 2, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

    isnt this same as Nissan’s scratch shield?

  15. mshjohorean said,

    October 3, 2009 @ 9:59 am

    nano tech?

  16. Andy Lee said,

    October 5, 2009 @ 11:00 am

    This paint sounds like just the answer many car owners needed.

    We have a LS460L that is about a year old now and we have been treating this car like a baby. Still, we couldn’t prevent the occassional scratch or two (the first, which can be remembered vividly was administered thanks to our overly enthusiastic dog while greeting our return). Had our car came with such paint, we would be driving the LS460L more often instead of just the occassional drives every now and then.

    Cheers, Andy Lee

Leave a Comment

Log in

Please do not submit your comment twice, the system has accepted your comment, it just needs to be moderated first. Once your first comment is approved, all subsequent comments will show automatically.

previous post: Nissan’s new global compact hatch in sketches
next post: Mitsubishi i-MiEV Cargo: zero emissions van