Red Paint

Yes, they're better these days.

However, red, yellow, and to some extent, white cars will always need waxing more often to protect the finish.

Argh! I want a yellow car. I saw a yellow Pug 107 a few days ago, it looked great, and it even smiles* at you!

Heh - get a yellow 407 and it'll look like some kind of jaundiced toothless evil grin.

The fading problem is actually the pigment not holding up to UV light. Cheap red pigments tend to lack this ability particulary when compared to early century pigments that did hold up to UV light far better than certain modern equivalents.

Some pigments reflect light better than others, reds and yellows for example can appear less opaque allowing UV light to penetrate right through to the undercoat or primer causing colour loss, fading or chalkiness.

It is unlikely that car manufacturers will use expensive pigments on such large scale modern assembly line painting.

It's a bit of lottery whether your cars paintwork will hold up to the persistent battering of light that will sooner than later break down the pigment barrier especially red.

Steve.

The message from Stephen Hull contains these words:

The main reason reds fade so badly compared to blue is that they have to absorb the shorter more energetic wavelengths in order to look red. The blue end of the spectrum is far more damaging than the red end. Blue paints, obviously, reflect the blue light and only absorb the red end.

The solid red colours do seem to be the worst for this. The number of 10 year old red cars that have gone completely matt is amazing. You don't seem to notice anywhere near as frequently with other colours.

You can often restore it with a decent paint cut, though.

Generally speaking, though, a non-classic car always looks better in metallic. I wouldn't dream of buying a non-metallic car these days. They look better, and last better, too. It is much harder to sell a solid coloured car.

Christian.

Red has a lower permanence than other colours, better quality permanence reds are in a different price range because light fast red pigments are generally more expensive to produce.

Indeed some red pigments allow lightwaves to pass through them and these will require more pigment or paint build up to reach the required level of colour depth to reflect back the light. Some red colours are obtained by using dyes upon a base as opposed to using a red pigment in the paint.

Steve.

The message from Stephen Hull contains these words:

Something still has to absorb the blue light for it to appear red - and that blue end of the spectrum is far more energetic and damaging.

When we look at red we see it as a red and thats because the other colours are being absorbed except the red component which is reflected back, The other component colours are described as white light. Passing white light through a prism will produce component colours and when it hits red paint all the component colours are absorbed except the red which is reflected back.

Red fades when a change in its original chemical structure alters and this can be caused when the balance of absorbed or reflected light changes. Some paint pigments are prone to fading with age some are not.

I don't know much about the colour spectrum or energetic light but I do know that light can degrade an organic pigment which results in colour fading.

Steve.

The message from Stephen Hull contains these words:

Quite right. And in general the fading is caused by chemical breakdown caused by incoming light. The more damaging end of the spectrum is the blue end which is why red paint fades faster.

Look in the bottom of a hedge or at old posters that've been in the sun and you'll see that the litter and the poster are predominantly bluish.

Went for metallic grey. Looks good but i have still got a sneaking preference for the red...never mind. Thanks to allrepondents.