Lazer Red Saabs

[winsa12]

I have an 04 9^3 painted Lazer Red and noticed this past weekend that it has little chips of paint missing over the sides and on the hood. I also have one larger piece on the bottom of the rear bumper the size of a dime missing where I presume someone drove into while parking. Is this common with this color? I find it really odd because it has gotten worse in the last few months but I think I have driven the car 500 miles. I think it is really hard to get sandblasted when the car is parked 50 feet from a dead end on a side street.

Also, is it worth using touch up paint on them? I only ask because I am going to sell the car and want it to look as good as possible without dumping a lot of money in it.

[spazzz2002]

I also have laser red, and i have a few scratches... The shallow ones appear to be white underneath.. and the darker ones black... .let me know how it goes with the touch up paint...

[LaserRed9-3Aero]

I've owned my LR for 2 years and 29k miles. I live in a rural area, and we have a lot of gravel roads around here. Paint chips in are just a fact of life for everyone. But I have noticed that my 9-3's paint seems to be holding up very well. With every car I've owned, I touch-up chips as soon as I find them. I've only had to fix a couple of chips on my 9-3, which is much better than most other cars I've ever owned. So I'm impressed with that.

But the problem for me is the extremely low front air dam. I catch it on angled driveways regularly. Can't blame the paint for losing a battle against concrete. I keep it touched up as best I can, so I do regularly use touch-up paint on that.

If you get touch-up paint, I would recommend the genuine OEM Saab stuff. I first bought a bottle of paint from Colorrite, and it didn't match. It looked slightly too orange in the bottle and dried way too orange. Very visible & nasty looking. Then I bought a couple of bottles of Saab official touch-up paint. It's a perfect match when it dries.

[coldwake81]

I get a new (used) car about every year... and each time it seems that no matter how closely I look over a car when I purchase it I always end up finding new chips and scratches for weeks after.

Maybe this is just the same situation? You didn't notice them at first but as you're around the car more you spot things that weren't noticed originally.