any one else notice that the darker colors on new cars is getting worse and worse, i was looking at a new black chevy SSR and i thought man i could paint better with a spray can! seems like GM's black looks really crappy and rough i also noticed the same thing on a new GTO and a CTS-V cadillac

Depends on the vehicle. You can notice the orange peel a lot more on darker colored cars. Mercedes and BMW's dont have the problem, I guess you get what you pay for.

Niether is true , all the manufacturers are painting orange peel effect because the metal they use is more subject to minor little flaws , the orange peel efect hides them. Look around door handles on for and chev trucks you will notice that they kinda have little ripples around the handles. This metal(aluminum) has far less memory than old steel used in old days. If you were to remove the orange peel efect it will look god awfull and show all imperfections in the metal finish like a blown skirt shows the goodies on a girl lol

Mark is dead on. If you have ever seen a car right off the assembly line it looks like shit.

Dont forget that cars off the assembly line are painted by robots

i think its the robots fault on the paint job by GM i complimented a yeah believe this a... hyundai dealer on their black tiburon that thing had really nice black paint for a sub 20k car now why is that ??? i also think gm is notorious for crappy paint what about all gms cars and trucks painted silver or white ever seen an early 90's white gm pick up all the ones i see have chipped of peeling white paint and GM's silver fades really fast compared to others maybe its just the weather here in northern minnesota.

Yes in the 90's and 80's gm had a paint eveness problem and over painted panels and hoods made it crack and peel easily in temperature changes. Paint reconditioning and sealing/protecting keeps it going for years tho so long as the paint wasnt over done. Along the seam edges on the top of there boxes is extremely thin so be ware. GM has worked out alot of the bugs on painting and there getting a hang of it. Preventative measures and up keep will make almost any factory paint job last forever(meaning longer than youll be alive).