fragile paint on the newer cars?

[Brett Dikeman]

What gives with the paint on the newer cars?  My folks' C6 A6, not very
old (and not many miles), has the most impressive collection of paint
chips and scrapes I've ever seen.  They're about half the size of an
eraser head, on average.

The color is metallic dark green, and from the paint chips- which reveal a
green primer- you can clearly see that the color and clearcoat layers are
almost microscopically thin.

Contrast this to their now-12-year-old Volvo, which has (white) paint that
must've been made out of diamonds; despite years and years of abuse with
little waxing/polishing- a bit of cleanup, and it looks fantastic.  Even
the leading edge of the hood is almost completely chip-free.

I never had such durability issues with the paint on my 200, either...

Brett