I never really understood why cars have the outer finish of an indoor piece of art. My car have scratches from my fingernails near the door handles. What's up with that? Should I wear white gloves when I approach the car?
All modern cars have paint which is then covered in clear coat (which is then covered in wax). The wax layer can easily be scratched but it also easily buffs out. The clear coat layer is VERY strong and will put up with quite a bit of abuse; you can make that coat even thicker if you so wish, with aftermarket products.
Hail doesn't directly damage the clear coat or the paint, it dents the actual metal itself. To make a car that resists those heavy hail storms would require quite a bit of extra weight, and overall this problem is cheaper to solve via insurance than by building a bullet-proof carapace that will add weight and rarely ever get used.
I also understand that it's better for the manufacturer that I pay through my insurance or otherwise, but that is not my point.
I see what you did there.
I don't understand why people even care. My bicycle has scratches all over the frame, and other users seem to don't care either and park their bicycle against mine without worrying about scratches.
Also, I don't understand car bumpers. They look sturdy, but one small parking error and they're basically destroyed beyond repair.
My main message to designers: don't make products that look sturdy but are in fact fragile!
[0] If not intentional, it's the way it ended up.
Are you sure it's from fingernails and not keys?
This is the same reason that keeping eyeglasses and other optics scratch-free takes careful cleaning technique. One careless wipe when there is the wrong kind of dust on the lens or on the cloth, and you gouge the surface.
The main issue I believe is the use of relatively thin aluminum body panels to save weight. They could be made from composites like carbon fiber and wouldn't be as vulnerable to hail damage, but that's still a relatively exotic high-cost material.
"There is no evidence in favor of the effectiveness of these devices. A 2006 review by Jon Wieringa and Iwan Holleman in the journal Meteorologische Zeitschrift summarized a variety of negative and inconclusive scientific measurements, concluding "the use of cannons or explosive rockets is a waste of money and effort"."
http://uk.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-hail-cannons-mexico...
https://www.facebook.com/flx/warn/?u=https%3A%2F%2Famp.ft.co...
It seems a comparatively much more reasonable and non-invasive low-tech solution...
Professional car painting is expensive for avoiding things like that. There are a lot of super-cheap brands also of course, but in the end, you have what you pay for.
I don't even...
