Cervelo have been having problems with their paint jobs. They've been getting them done in asia somewhere and the quality has dropped. I bought a new S2 a few months back. When researching on the net I noticed there are alot of unhappy customers on the forums complaining of their paint jobs.
Mine wasn't
****, but it's not perfect which is what you expect when you fork out your money on a bike at in this price range. Spots including the bottom of the head tube and where the colours met were of in small areas.
I looked at several frames and just took the best looking one.
The guy in the shop said the paintjob looks blemished on them because they use as little paint as possible to keep the frame weights low. This leaves the crossover layers of carbon to be visible. Who know?