My Vue actually has decent paint (its never very shiny like you could get on a metal car, but its resilient. I think there's something different to doing the paint for plastic panels than for metal).

I was comparing it to a lot of the other vehicles from them we looked at. The Pontiac G8GT had crappy paint, it'd actually flake off on brand new cars. The new Equinox, Terrain, and SRX all have crappy and thin paint (that was one of the many reasons my uncle didn't take the re-lease specials on the SRX after he got rid of his H3 and instead got a new Ford Edge).

I will agree though, paint quality in general has gone down. People want more hp, more mpg, more safety, and more toys all with less weight. They've got to cut somewhere, they can't build entire cars out of CF, aluminum, and titanium (though the Outlander has an aluminum roof) to save weight and still make them cheap enough for normal people to buy. So they cut elsewhere, thinner paint, thinner metal, smaller gas tanks, power curves that focus on peak numbers for marketing but have virtually no power except at the very top end of their rev range...

Considering that the Outlander wasn't exactly a Range Rover in cost, I'm pretty happy with the paint on our red 08.

Silver, gray, and darker colors (like dark green or blue) cars hide defects well, as does white. Black shows more defects than anything else. Black looks nice, but it's impossible to keep looking good. So the imperfections you didn't notice on other non-black cars, just show up more on the black car.

We replaced a black car with the Outlander. I am SO HAPPY that this one isn't black.

 

The problem as note earlier is the modern environmentally friendly paint processes used by all car makers. Honda and Mercedes (two name just two) also have paint finishes that are very soft/thin and prone to stone chips.

The paint on my European built 2010 Outlander is much better than that on my 2009 Euro built Honda Civic Type-R.

 

Maybe the paint problem is country of origin specific. I am in Australia and my 09 Outlander was made in Japan and it is red. I dont treat it with kid gloves and never use any polish. It gets washed about once a month (when it gets so dirty you cant tell what colour it is) I use truck wash and a presure washer and a sponge. After washing it looks like it is brand new. Maybe they paint them better for Australian export market

 

It is very thin and it sucks.