Avoid Blizzard Pearl at all costs? (1 Viewer)

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Feb 5, 2021
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Location
Portland, OR
Hi there, I'm a long time lurker and hugely appreciate the wealth of knowledge shared here. I'm been saving up for years and researching, and I'm finally on the hunt for a GX to build.

My question is whether Blizzard Pearl always peels, or is is just fine on some cars? Whatever I buy will be parked outside for the foreseeable future. I've read all the threads about it, including the horror stories of having to choose between rattle can, Maaco, and $5k paint jobs to remediate. My inclination is that if I have to pay some regional inflated price, I'd especially like to avoid having the paint peel off, so lately I've been considering avoiding all Blizzard Pearl 470's. Is that stance too harsh? Are some of these pearl GX's just fine even when parked outside for years?

It's tough enough to find a nice non-nav one these days, and vetoing all Blizzard Pearl GX's definitely reduces the pool of candidates.
 
Our 2008 blizzard pearl isn’t peeling. Paints in phenomenal shape actually. Is the issue only with certain years?
 
Our 2008 blizzard pearl isn’t peeling. Paints in phenomenal shape actually. Is the issue only with certain years?

Lexus only has a repaint campaign for the '08 and '09 models, but my '07 is peeling. Somehow the standard primer they used on all colors wasn't adequate for the (real) pearl paint.
 
Completely hit or miss from what I’ve seen. You’ve got full spectrum, from peeling off in massive sheets, to paint looking like it just came off the showroom floor. It seems to me like it’s a 10 good examples I’ve seen posted on forums and then 1 that’s affected type deal.

My personal opinion is garaged blizzard pearls whose owners had the paint taken care of with regular washing/sealant are probably in the pristine group. I’ve also had people call bullcrap on that claim, but people also get bent out of shape when you insinuate that their waxing the vehicle once a year wasn’t enough. Whatever. Same deal when people claim they shouldn’t have to undercoat a frame to prevent rust in the rust belt.

My blizzard pearl fwiw has super clean paint. 2 prior owners. Pretty clean vehicle, was probably garaged all it’s life.

The claim from Toyota was UV exposure causing lose of bond between top coat and primer.
 
I've got an 08 blizzard pearl. Only had it a few month but no paint issues. That's not to say the previous owner may have had it redone. I dont know.

From what I heard or seen, it's mostly 07 or before and its usually above the windshield.
 
My 04 is peeling pretty bad on the hood but it was pulled behind an RV fir several years. I’d stay away. It’s just too costly to repair. However, if you don’t care - the car would/should be a lot cheaper
 
My wife bought hers about 4 years ago from Sterling McCall Lexus in Houston. It was a one owner dealer maintained 06 with only 120k. We thought we scored. Fast forward a year later and the drivers and passenger seat shows lots of covered up cracking and paint is peeling all over. Nothing like buying a luxury SUV to have it look like a beater a year later because the paint is falling off.
Excessive paint chipping issue occurred on the front bumper, hood, roof (almost completely stripped), every single door under the window trim and rear hatch under the glass. Since we have an 06 we had no help from Lexus.
It's currently getting a paint job to the tune of $5500. They had to strip almost the whole thing down to the metal to get the crappy primer off.
If we were to do it again I'd avoid the color all together unless you were buying it directly from the original owner. Even then I'd want to give them a lie detector test...
 
Are you going with the triple blizzard Pearl again? I’m pretty sure in these parts (Colorado) I’d be looking at least at $9,000 but still.
 
Yes, same color. Its my understanding that Toyota had an issue with the primer sticking to the metal. Meaning if you have blizzard pearl issues, you most likely will have to sand it all down to bare metal.
 


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What about all the 04-07 owners? My understanding is these are too old for them to care enough it.

Yeah they don’t care. I’m surprised they even bothered with the 08-09s. Probably as goodwill to original GX owners. I doubt Lexus cares about 2nd+ owners buying used. Just is what it is.

If my blizzard pearl starts to peel it’s getting sanded down to the E-coat then painted with durabak smooth bedliner.
 
Yeah they don’t care. I’m surprised they even bothered with the 08-09s. Probably as goodwill to original GX owners. I doubt Lexus cares about 2nd+ owners buying used. Just is what it is.

If my blizzard pearl starts to peel it’s getting sanded down to the E-coat then painted with durabak smooth bedliner.
I did suggest that but being the wife's DD there was no way she'd be down for that look.
I always do wonder about lining a vehicle but then worry about the resale value enough to never do it.
 
I did suggest that but being the wife's DD there was no way she'd be down for that look.
I always do wonder about lining a vehicle but then worry about the resale value enough to never do it.

It probably hurts resale a decent bit. This is why I’d go with the smooth stuff from durabak rather than traditional textured liner. Not a fan of the lineX look. Seen a few durabak jobs and they look pretty good.

I guess I’ve thrown resale out the window at this point. My primary market is now offroad enthusiasts if I ever chose to sell.

The other option is a vinyl wrap if it isn’t too far gone to show lots of defects underneath; but I can’t justify spending 2-5k on vinyl.
 
It’s bad enough that Lexus announced a warranty program in 2019 for 11 year old cars. Avoid it. Is it guaranteed? No, but why take the risk when it isn’t an issue with any other color?
 
It probably hurts resale a decent bit. This is why I’d go with the smooth stuff from durabak rather than traditional textured liner. Not a fan of the lineX look. Seen a few durabak jobs and they look pretty good.

I guess I’ve thrown resale out the window at this point. My primary market is now offroad enthusiasts if I ever chose to sell.

The other option is a vinyl wrap if it isn’t too far gone to show lots of defects underneath; but I can’t justify spending 2-5k on vinyl.
2-5k on something that only lasts a couple of years is
It’s bad enough that Lexus announced a warranty program in 2019 for 11 year old cars. Avoid it. Is it guaranteed? No, but why take the risk when it isn’t an issue with any other color?
Exactly. Its a toss up if your going to be one of the unlucky bunch that has their GX look like a better. I wouldn't risk it again
 
My 2007 blizzard pearl GX has lots of paint chips, but no peeling that I see.
 
My 05 is slowly showing signs of peeling/flaking. I'm trying to handle it as I come across it with touch up paint, but it tends to pop up in new places at times. In a few years, I'm sure I'll be looking at a respray to keep things looking presentable (which is really all I care about).
 

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