i remember years ago plain red cars often used to fade to a pinker colour as they got older.

Is this still a problem with newer cars and does it affect metallics?

Thinking of buying a fairly new metallic red car, but we’ll be keeping it about 10 years and i’m not the best at fiding time to wash / wax cars!

It’s the clear topcoat ageing that gives the effect that the colour has “faded” and it’s just more noticeable on a primary red colour. The colour hasn’t changed, and a machine polish to correct the topcoat solves the problem anyway.

Having said that, it’s very rare for it to happen now at all (on cars) due to improvements in paint tech and UV resistance etc.

I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.

mrs rocket’s fabulous Fiesta ST is eight years old and looks absolutely mint. Really bright vibrant Colorado red.

Last red car we had that faded was an early 80s Metro Turbo

I still see faded red cars going about. I haven’t really noticed any particular make (Vauxhall, possibly) or age, but I would have thought most were around 10 years old or a bit younger. My current vehicle is 11 years old, and sometimes when I seen a faded red car I make a mental note not to buy a red car in the future!

deejayen – Member

I still see faded red cars going about. I haven’t really noticed any particular make

Honda’s old red was known as “Milano Pink” due to how badly it faded.
My 20yr old Micra has no noticeable fading, but then has spent many a year being garaged and has immaculate body work.
Immaculate with the exception of the huge Audi shaped dent in the rear. 🙁

I think it used to be particularly lead free cars that did this – my old Golf was I think a newly lead free red (Germans health conscious) and it faded really quite markedly.

Single coat paint will fade worse than anything with a base coat and clear coat, which is why the older cars mentioned have problems.

Hardly anything modern will have a single stage paint (some cheaper end commercials still might?)

aye, older red cars where just solid red top coat and something to do with the red pigment made them susceptible to fading to pink.

Cars with metallic paint would normally have a clear lacquer which will be UV protecting. This is an obvious added expense which is one reason optional paint jobs cost more. As above, I would expect most cars to have a clear coat anyway now as they are generally formulated for much higher performance (scratch resistance, UV and water resistance etc and often solvent based compared to water based base coats) than normal base paints. i wouldnt take it as a rule though.

My 2000 Berlingo is very faded red. When I bought it last year, the seller said it would T-cut up nicely.

Needless to say I haven’t bothered.

Offthebrakes, I would have done it either if I had to do it by hand !

Machine polishing with a fast rotary machine is the only sensible option for doing a whole car, and even then, not that sensible if you don’t know what you are doing, as its not that hard to burn straight through the top coat into the colour and really make a mess.

Short answer is that new auto coatings are vastly more stable than older ones.

Older red pigments used (PR170) that were the best available at the time have been superseded by superior DPP reds, with much greater light fastness. Use of multi-layer coatings gives much more resistance than previously, and stringent real-time testing means that large colour change over time should have all but been eliminated.

Also means that if you buy from new, never pay anything extra for dealer issued re-coating, as nothing they offer is any better than oem coating from the manufacturer.