Owners complained about soft paint on the GL1800 since the day the first one rolled off the assembly line. Nobody ever wants to believe that they caused a problem. They always look for something else to blame it on.
I don't know anything about the current bikes, but the current rash of complaints is identical to the ones on the early GL1800s. Once a couple of people complain about it, it develops a mind of its own, and pretty soon, it seems like everyone is complaining of soft paint. A scapegoat has been created, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Nothing changed, but eventually the complaints just magically went away.
I must have gotten a specially painted Wing, because 16 years later, mine still looks amazing, without ever seeing one drop of wax. The few scratches on it were caused by either me, or road debris. My own personal experience with the same bike those people owned proved to me that they were just passing the buck. Is history repeating itself.
I do have concerns with matte and flat finishes, on any vehicle, not just a Wing. The constant rubbing from cleaning eventually knocks down the high spots that give a matte finish its dull appearance, and over time, the finish smooths out and develops an uneven sheen to it, and it looks terrible when it happens. It makes a vehicle look old and heavily worn. I even see this with the much harder matte plastic and vinyl finishes. Things like radio bezels and vinyl coverings get worn down from cleaning, and look terrible as they slowly begin to develop the same type of sheen. Finishes like that don't look like new for long. If the bike gets ridden and cleaned often, a lot of care is required to minimize this kind of damage. You can minimize the damage, but eventually it will happen if you own the bike long enough. I am beginning to believe that frequent cleaning causes more damage than anything else.
