Q5-NY

Hi all. I know that black is extremely difficult to take care of, but has anyone noticed that their Q5 black paint is softer than other cars?

I am very careful when washing (only doing it myself with top quality products including genuine wool wash mitts, quality car wash, quality MF, pre-rinsing, foam gun, 2 bucket method, etc...), yet more and more swirls appear (it even seems that swirls appear between washings). I have never had this many issues with other black cars that I've owned.

In addition, I have a relative with a black Nissan Rogue who only takes it to dinky automatic car washes (and lets them dry it with their disgusting towels) and this car has less swirls than mine.

ookila

I feel the same way.....but nothing much u can do about it....just enjoy the ride and the beauty of the car i guess...

S4forDC

My suggestion would be to keep a good coat of wax on it. I know where you're coming from because I ended up with a lot of swirls on my Brilliant Black '05 S4 and only decided to go with Deep Sea Blue on my '11 Q5 because of it. Although I took it to a pretty good brushless car wash (I live in the city, so no access to wash it myself) and kept it garaged (as opposed street parking) it didn't hold up as well as I expected. A good coat of wax may have helped.

Camrudy

The Audi paint (as well as some other luxury brands) actually have a hard finish paint. It shows scratches but they are easy to remove or cover with wax. If the paint was soft, it would be harder to scratch but way more of a pain to remove once marred. The Audi (especially black) paint requires more maintenance but will still look fantastic in a few years because of the hard finish.

loscoz

Our Mazdas have had issues with 'soft' paint too. My hubby & I have taken to over Memorial Day weekend stripping, claying, and rewaxing all 4 of our cars every year. This insures protection to the paint from the elements of bird poop, harsh sun, snow, acidic rains, etc. We also incorporate coats (1 or 2) of swirl remover on the cars too.

Dreamaudi

My original order was for Brilliant black, but we found a Quartz Grey in the same Pipeline batch we were ordering ours from...and we swapped, and paid an extra $445 to do it too.

We have a black truck already, and while it's our favorite vehicle color, it's a big pain in the butt to keep it looking sparkly!

We finally bought a good buffer with the wool pad, and keep them well waxed...or should I say, my husband keeps them waxed!