Saw the pics JRP - I did have 2 of those mini orange spots after a thourough look at my G - they were located on the along the bottom door sill (passenger side only) - beside the blue infiniti strips - to which I just noticed (no joke) should be removed (haha) - the blue looked nice though... but yes - my spots did match your photos above - my fingernail was able to pick them off. I haven't found any on the exterior of the vehicle.

 

Good to hear you don't have any, my rear bumper and trunk lid under the spoiler are full of spots, again. With spots that many and size I imagine is really hard for anyone that takes care of the car not to notice, no matter wich color paint, so I don't think it's a problem with the white color and other cars has it and people just don't see it. I would have noticed those spots on any paint color, although I agree it shows more on white and light colored cars.
I'm starting to think that I drive on areas where there's something on the road that splashes my car but I haven't figure it out where yet.

 

^^ That could very well be that it's location specific driving that could be attributing to these spots. Although the fact that we live in the same city and aren't experiencing the exact same outcome doesn't add much strength to that argument. Did you get a good coat of wax on the car before the winter hit? Or did you have time? I had the time to put on a few coats before winter since I got mine in July.

 

No wax yet, I got the car late november so it was already pretty cold to do that and I don't have a garage, just an underground parking lot that's full of dust where I live. I'll do it as soon as the weather let me, I always do it to all my cars anyways.
By the way, you have any idea where to get Collinite wax in town?

 

I think that could very well be one contributing factor for the spotting on your vehicle... no wax to help stop the oxidation. The salt on the roads this year doesn't help.

I searched that product above and only found one official CDN dealer in Toronto http://www.thedockshoppe.com/. But locally in Ottawa you may want to check with any of the big boating stores such as Orleans Boat World or Ottawa Goodtime Centre or SOS Power Sales...

 

Hmm, I'll look into that, otherwise I'll just order online, I've heard good reviews and people seem to like it, they have a car wax too. Or I can just go with Meguiars Yellow wax they say it's good to. I can't just detail the car several times during the winter I need something that last the winter.
The spots are ON the paint, you can get them off with a towel or your finger some of them, they haven't damaged the paint in any way, I suppose they will be all over the wax the same way, with the difference they will never touch the paint but they will be there, just my thoughts anyways.

 

Ya, living in Ottawa it's virtually impossible to do anything productive to the car in the winter months... the potholes this spring are going to be a nightmare... I used the Meguiars 3-step thing (deep clean, polish, wax) but found that it didn't last long on the car. This year I may get my car glazed professionally. About 10 years ago my father got his truck glazed at a place south of Ottawa in Kemptville and they did an amazing job - I'll have to search for the co. name.
How did your winter tires do this winter? Did you end up going with the 18's?

 

Yeap, roads are in the worst conditions I've seen in the seven years I've been living in Ottawa, I drive on Carling everyday and it's nightmare, same for Riverside. I've read the Collinite wax is pretty durable, +6mo, they have several different wax series and people like it, I'm going to try it this spring.
The tires, great IMO, I got the 18" with Sport Edition A7 rims, I'll upload some pics I have to my gallery in a few minutes. I noticed though, that when you make a tight u-turn on dry pavement, the car bounces sideways, like the outmost front tire is shifting from the rim back and forth, I don't know how to explain this properly. It has happened a couple of times when I'm in a rush and make a quick u-turn. It might be that the winter tires have a soft sidewall and don't held that well in that kind of situation, other than that they have been pretty solid.
Take a look at autopia.org for detaling products and tips, great site.

 

Nice pics... I think Carling was rated as one of the worste roads in Ontario (not just Ottawa). Yes, sounds like a sidewall issue. I guess we have another month or so of our winters before we swap back. For an OEM rim - the 19's are damn nice to swap back to!

 

This might be awkward here but i don't know how to start a new post, but i was wondering does anyone know which autoshop in vancouver can install side led mirrors on a g37? And where to get side led mirrors?