It's kinda tough to see when they are that close up, I have a friend who owns a body shop and he also owns a Red 6th gen and his paint up close appears that way too.
The one shot appears like the clear has been removed some how. it also looks like it has been feathered out now you might try some clear on it to see what happens. Clean it good and tape off a small section give it a shot of clear and see what happens. try something like Dupli-color in a rattle can. see if it shows any improvement.
The previous owner probably shot it with black and left it that way. Most applications are a 2step thing with the color coat and clear coat.

 

Well it's a rebuild and looked good at first but now the paint is pulling up where the spoiler is glued down. That's a bigger job than I want to handle myself so I'm going to see the guy who did some work on my '04 a few years back and see what he says. he was reasonable with the other one and I don't think this is a rot issue.... hope not anyway. Going this afternoon, wish me luck.

 

Sorry, but that paintjob does not really good...lot's of orange peel, sanding marks visible under the paint job, already mentioned the clear coat coming off, most likely
from poor prep work. The white scratches look like polish compound buildup in a scratch. Those should buff out or can be removed with some stuff that cleans out the
polish. If you have spots you only want to touch up and are bare metal, remove the rust, apply zinc primer, then solid black. If you don't use primer, the rust will come back.

 

Took it to the professional who worked on my red car a few years ago, and he is going to work on it at the end of the month. He found a number of issues I hadn't noticed. Lucky for me that he loves to work on old cars and is very reasonable for the work he does. One man shop, no sign, doesn't advertise, gets all his business by word-of-mouth, and has all the business he can handle. He also wants to take a look at the red '04 and see if he can patch it up enough to pass inspection so I can drive it in the winter and spare the black one, at least for a year or two. He says it doesn't look like the black one has ever been driven in a Vermont winter.