flatso

Are they are problem on the RX-8?

cruzdreamer

Window chips?? No. Paint.....not the best paint in the world...seems to get lots of tiny chips if you drive near lots of rocky areas and material company's. My last Mazda I had for 2 years and it had a ton on the lower bumper(not super noticeable unless you really looked) but there. There are a lot of material/rock companies in the area with trucks galore so I am more prone to get chips.

Genom

I actually have a window chip on my windshield. Very small, but I shudder to think what made it. Lots of paint chips as well. Damn construction trucks really suck over here right now. Gonna try to fix some of the larger chips this weekend, see how it goes.

TheDosDog

I think my 8 is a rock magnet. Being lower to the ground exposes you to more of the crap bouncing around on the highway. I've learned to lay way back and allow plenty of room in front. It has helped a lot.

skychick911

I have to drive the 5 freeway everyday...but i invested in a Clear Bra and this has helped a great deal since i haven't noticed any new chips-Jeff

beachdog

The owner's manual actually advises you to stay back something like 150ft @60 miles per hour to stay clear of the flying debris zone.

Nubo

That would be a bare minimum from a safety standpoint - it's less than 2 seconds of following distance. Thats 2 seconds to detect and evaluate a dangerous situation, decide on a course of action and execute it. It's really about staying alive. A lot of people think that's a silly reason but will do it to keep from chipping their paint.

SDFLY

This car is a godsend compared to my Mini Cooper wrt to rock chips on the windshield, I've never owned a car so prone to it, so far with the 8 I've had zero chips and try to stay away from large trucks on the road.

flatso

I know this is off topic but I was looking at the Mini for about a minute also. How would you compare the handling to the 8?

i3man

Don't you just hate it when you lay way back to avoid any flying debris and then someone cuts right in front of you They think all that open space you were leaving between your 8 and the car in front was for them to change lanes

FirstSpin

i3man, that's standard driving procedure on Houston freeways. Any room at all in front of ya and someone (generally a big-*** urban assault vehicle) will whip right in front of you. Then, assuming you had a view of the traffic in front of you before the incursion, you're stuck staring at the ***-end of an expedition or some other ugly equivalent vehicle. Yep, I try to lay back when I can but people do take advantage of that. One of my other pet peeves is large trucks, like garbage trucks, that roll around drizzling out "water". Some of the nastiest crap you'd ever hope to see.

I went with a clear-bra in order to avoid rock-chips. It's only been on the car for a month but so far, I'm paint-chip-free.

-=Zeqs=-

I freaking hate those stupid Urban Assault Vehicles too. People in large vehicles seem to think that because they are in a large vehicle, they will not get injured in accidents, so they drive like drunken idiots. They don't seem to give a crap about the fact that even if they don't die, the people they hit will be more prone to serious injury and death. Soccer moms are the worst too IMO. The insurance rates on SUV's are not as high as on a "sports car". They guzzle gas but aren't affected by the gas guzzler's tax. Half te time, they don't even have decent rear view visiblity.

So ya...hate em, especially Tahoe's, Excursions, Navigators and various ludicriously over-sized SUV that you see around town with just ONE 5'2" driver who can barely see over the steering wheel, with no passengers in it.

i3man

Just examined my hood today and found 3 new chips. My 8 is still less than a month old so every chip is new at this point. The 3 chips are in triangle formation and all about the same size and depth...kind of wish they were more spread so it'd be less noticable

We had very heavy rain the week of New Years and thousands of pot holes erupted on the streets. All that asphalt that gets displaced from pot holes turns into millions of tiny little rocks that in turn become little chip missles flying through the air

Some of the pot holes on our streets are big enough to bury animals in :p The pot holes are slowly getting filled but the displaced ashalt is still littering the streets and will not disappear anytime soon Pretty soon I'll be able to play connect the dots on my hood

flatso

I would suggest anyone who has not take a look at one the sponsers site Clear-guard. I used a similar product X-Pel on my Z3 and it works great. I just ordered the hood and light kits from them as the are having a 25% off sale. It really does a good job of protecting the paint. The downside is it's pricey, hard to install yourself(except the light kit) and you can see a slight edge in the right light which can collect wax also.

Has anyone gotten any of chips on the bumper? I am still deciding whether to get that kit which needs professional installation.