Red Paint

I am always concerned about silver paint. If you look around at older cars, silver never seems to age well unless its a Mercedes. Perhaps people with Mercedes wax their car more often (or have it done). I once had a beautiful red Subaru Legacy wagon. It was delivered to me new with horrible swirl marks but they disappeared as the wax wore off. With those polymer coatings that you don't buff, I don't think swirl marks were a problem on the Subaru red. We have 2 white Honda's now. Boy do they get dirty fast. One thing I always consider is visibility. I don't consider silver gray very visible. White is extremely visible. Red at night would depend on the lighting.

I remember that about the paint. I wonder if it has been corrected? I have seen many cars in Silver and they look fine. At least for now.

I spoke to several body shops today and they said nothing is worse than Black or Dark Blue so Red should be fine.

Ken

By the way, you do have to wonder if they are already rolling out special additions, have sales peaked already?

Red paint is ALMOST as much of a PITA as Black. The only real problem with black is that if you buff it using off the rack stuff, you'll have swirl marks like you wouldn't believe. You need special compounds for black.

The problem with red is, if you don't keep it cleaned and waxed, it oxidizes very easliy, and gets 'chalky'. But, you won't have the swirl mark problem, so buff/polish your heart out!

Just keep it clean and wax it 3-4 times a year. I have a red 1985 Corolla GTS that the paint is beutiful on.

Too bad the body is disintegrating...

Somehow I don't believe that. Red paint has the same clear coat on it that other colors have. "Chalky" is a surface phenomenon. What you said may have been true before clear coat (what? 35 years ago?).

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

I can't speak from personal experience (I can't afford to be anal about my car's appearance since I work in a mining area - my Concorde is Candy Apple Red - very similar to Inferno Red - and it is dirty 90% of the time - but not because of the color - it's because it really is really dirty), but judging from constant chatter on the 300M forums on the subject, I get the impression that black and white are the two colors to have on a car that will drive an anal person crazy though they look super nice when cleaned up perfectly - for few hours.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Well, my main experience is with Toyotas, and their red paint chalks up easily.

I have also seen a number of New Yorkers and LeBarons with lousy red paint.

Now, I have an '85 Corolla GTS in my backyard that the original paint still looks mint on.

I guess I don't understand how any paint can come up thru the clear coat, which sounds like what you're saying. Like I said - chalking is a surface phenomenon.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')