[mnorrell]

Hi-
I am looking to see if others have experienced peeling or chipping paint on their RAV4s. Ours is a classic silver metal AWD that has had no hard driving yet, certainly nothing on bad roads. It has about 2200 miles on it, only 3 months old. We have been very conscious of potential damage to the edge of the tailgate door and always look for adequate clearance when we open it.

Despite all of that, we found the paint gone on the edge of the door this past weekend. When we looked closer it didnt' really look like a chip, per se, it looked more like a peel, as the edge of it had what looked like crumpled paint on it (like a piece of paper would look if you pushed it in from one edge). Again, we don't know what caused it, but if the paint is very sensitive and had adhesion problems, just rubbing it when we are loading the back of the SUV could have done this.

I really love this vehicle, but now I am worried that I now own a piece of junk. I have owned one camry and one ES 300 Lexus, and my husband has owned a couple of Toyotas too, and neither of us have ever had problems with the paint on those vehicles. Then again, none of them was younger than 2000 models.

I have read on-line about the water-based paints that Toyota now uses, and I have also read that the 2005 Tacoma's were the subject of a petition because of problems those owners had with the poor paint. There were lots of complaints there about door chips. I don't see much about RAV4s, but some complaints.

So, if any of you RAV4 owners have experienced disappointing paint chipping or peeling, I want to hear from you. I am afraid this is a systemic problem that is only going to get worse the longer we have the car. I intend to take pictures and make sure it is all documented with the dates and mileage. I have already reported it to Toyota Customer Service, and we will soon be visiting the dealership to have them look at it.

Thanks.