2006 Sonata Decision

Precisely the kind of question that should never be asked Bob. Car color is an individual thing. Ask me and I think you should have bought black. Ask my wife or any one of a hundred people and you'll get different answers. Large flake is making a comeback in some cars. Painters have been spraying large and small flake for decades. Don't sweat it. Colors with large flake don't fade any faster than small flake. Hand rub your clear coat every year or two, depending on its clarity and then sit back and admire it over a beer. Or better yet - have the wife do the hand rub while you sit back with a beer and admire her.

Mike,

Oh yea, I know!

Thing is, I have seen 3 year old cars that already look cheesy because of the color. Most of the time, the color is "unusual", like the one we chose. Any color called "champagne" for example looks cheap after 3 years. (Champagne may be a variant of red, green, blue, brown, or yellow).

I am trading in a black car that's 11 years old, and we were warned against getting black. Well, we never regretted it, and it still looks good today. My instincts are to go with black again, but we were quite taken with the Deepwater Blue.

Oh well, thanks for the advice, and I will let you know how the color holds up against the fashion standards of 2010. :)

I do know what you mean Bob. There are some blues that looked chalky - no... like puke(!) in a very short time. These typically are not color problems though, as much as they are paint problems. Though we do spot those colors when they are problematic, you have to remember that there are a ton of blue cars out there that exhibited no problem. The issues with a given color is more associated with a period of time, and the paint formulas than it is with anything else.

The glaring exception to my generalization - and there's always an exception, is red. Red is the fasted color to oxidize. These days with clear coat finishes, it's not near the problem it was with enamels and lacquers. Today the hazing problems are much more an issue of the clear coat being affected by the elements.

Hell Bob - take that new car and enjoy the "unusual" color. At least you won't look like every other one out there.

Champagne shouldn't even be a color in my opinion. Talk about puke...