Spooner

Working on buying a used GLK and I have a black one that has all the right goodies and a decent price. How is the paint quality on these vehicles? My Duramax was black and the paint SUCKED. Hard to get to gloss up and chipped easily. I had a charcoal grey Titan for a while that was light years ahead of the chevy and I am just hoping the paint on MB's is at least as good as that.

allanX204

From an older article:
Mercedes Benz has announced an innovative nano-particle clearcoat which offers significantly greater scratch resistance and improved gloss...

Here is the link to the full article
http://www.azonano.com/news_old.asp?newsID=45

MBRedux

To answer your question, black is a bit*h to care for no matter what its made of. But you're right, black metallic or not with nano clear should not be waxed or polished. They can dull these new black paints over time. The use of APC's or (Acrylic Paint Conditioners) are gaining favor over traditional wax and polish treatments.

Spooner

Good info. I'm really wanting a silver one but I'm just not seeing one equipped the way I want it for a decent price. It's crazy what some dealers think they are worth.

aggst1

As far as paint quality is concerned MBs use some of the best paints available. I know that because I worked until a year ago for PPG, the paint, glass and adhesives manufacturer and supplier of most MBs. They supply all American made MBs and a lot of European made although sometimes the company name is different as they have subsidiaries in Europe.

Black is a ***** to clean I agree but it definitely is nice.

MBRedux

Actually the paint company Mercedes Benz codeveloped their most recent paints with is Sikkens of Germany. Currently PPG supplies the dealers with their aftermarket paints for repairs. However it should be noted that PPG, Dupont, Sherwin Williams Auto, etc. do not have the authority nor the license to manufacture and distribute the very expensive Nano-Clear Coat from Sikkens which holds the patent.

aggst1

Most MB models manufactured in the 2000s were painted with PPGs Ceramiclear clear coat. It was the first paint to use nanoparticle technology. This product is made from PPGs OEM business unit and it is different from their auto refinish product offering. I am not sure what they are using on current models like GLK so if you heard they use Sikkens then it is probably correct.

In any case the paint specs from MB have always been among the most stringent. Definitely great products are used which explains why a ten year old Benz looks so much better than other ordinary cars of the same vintage.

Spooner

Well I should be picking up an iridium silver one today so I guess I don't have to worry about the black paint now.

CJM Online

Ours is on the boat from Germany now and is black. Wife insisted on a black car no matter what, and after looking at various makes/models new on the lot and after a few years, a part of the reason we chose the GLK350 was that MBs black paint/nano clear seems to hold up better than most (ie - less swirls, more gloss/shine, etc.). And I can say that GM vehicles seem to have some of the worst...even new on the lot Caddy SRXs and other brand GM vehicles had swirls and in some cases even the 'orange peel' appearance (including my wife's current Pontiac).

Ultimately time will tell, however we will only hand wash or touchless car wash and will not wax/polish (done the same with my 07 Expedition and it looks great after 4 years now) so we expect good results long term.

And FWIW I really like the lighter silver and darker gray colors on the GLK but it's even hard for me (who has never really liked black) to argue how good the GLK looks in black...especially with the AMG package chrome skid plates and chrome trimmed LED DRLs (though I don't like the AMG wheels so those will be swapped to the 7-spoke 20" by the dealer).

texan1501

Congratulation! We are still waiting our black GLK for my wife - very same story with the color
BTW, when did you place your order? Who long have you been waiting?

NYCGLK

I wanted black car, but glad I got silver, great color.

I had black rental C class couple of times. First, micro scratches are seen best on black. Second, after one day car looked filthy. I can drive mine for a month and you can't see dirt.

CJM Online

We originally ordered in December, then in early January decided to switch up to a European Delivery order. However, we already had a trip to Germany planned for early February and unfortunately the EDP timing did not work out so we switched back to a 'standard' special order (that likely delayed things a few weeks).

We did visit the factory in Sindelfingen (where they have you pick up EDP vehicles) during our trip but it turned out that the GLK was not built there (they build C, E, S and Maybachs there....GLKs are built in Bremen). We still took the tour of the C-class line and were very impressed. They didn't show us the painting area (we saw just about everything else), however, they did cover it during the intro video and of course it looked impressive. BTW, they built more than 660 C-class sedans the day we were there, most of which were bound for the US. They also noted that more than 60% of MB vehicles are sold in black with silvers/grays in a very distant second. There were a lot of white cars on the line though, and after seeing a few hundred cars, we only saw one in Mars Red.

And yes, I suspect any loaner vehicle (and many leased vehicles) in black will have micro scratches and swirls. It's just all too convenient to run the vehicle through the dealer or nearest car wash, touched or not, with no regard for what it will do to the finish. However, we special ordered the GLK just as we wanted it (nearly fully loaded...there wasn't one close to it in all of the US when they went looking) and plan to keep it for 5-8 years. In that time we will care for the paint finish carefully, and if it doesn't hold up as well as expected, the next car will not be black

On a related note, we did spring for the way over-priced but significantly convenient Keyless-Go. I can't understand why they charge so much for a feature that's usually standard on most other vehicles in the class (and even in non-luxury makes/models in the same class) but it will be nice for the wife to have. Overall the price of our GLK is a bit on the high side relative to the Caddy SRX, Audi Q5 and Volvo XC60 we compared to (didn't even look at the Lexus and Infiniti offerings...can't stand the looks of the RX in particular) but we really like the styling, fit and finish. My wife also really wanted a car, not an SUV as I insisted (too many bad drivers here in Las Vegas with big SUVs and lifted trucks), and compromised on the GLK as it was smaller in size than the others overall.

Spooner

Yeah my wife wanted the black but I've had 4 black vehicles and every time it was because it was a deal too good to pass up but man am I glad I ended up finding a silver one. What was funny is that it was kinda rainy on our drive home and when we pulled in to the garage you could just see a couple spots of dirt on the whole car and the rims were a little dirty. She finally caved in and said I was right about the color to get and she loves it now haha!

Now to get her to let me put some flat black 20's on it...