Wear and tear on a 6 month old car?

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Sat 5 May 2007 09:56
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - sony
SWMBO is looking for her next car. She does nearly 35,000 miles a year so is looking for a diesel car. Had a quick look yesterday evening at 6-12 months old cars and most of them had a handful of stonechips. Is it reasonable to expect this on cars of this age? Most of them had done between 5000-7000 miles.
many thanks
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Sat 5 May 2007 11:37
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - Quinny100
Paint is nowhere near as hard as it used to be, so stonechips are a fact of life. Most 6-12 month old cars will be from hire fleets so will have been hired for longer motorway trips where chips are pretty much inevitable.
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Sat 5 May 2007 12:39
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - Armitage Shanks {p}
Water based paint is very soft compared with the old ones which have succumbed to the infleunce of the tree huggers and other planet saving organisations.
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Sat 5 May 2007 14:04
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - daiking
Completely agree. I bought my first new car last August and after only 9mths/10,000miles, there's stone chips everywhere, not just the bonnet, even on the doors and seemingly the wheels.

Washing the car almost brings me tears as I spot the new chips everytime.
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Sat 5 May 2007 14:16
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - mss1tw
How much more eco-friendly is WB paint compared to what was used before? (What was used before?! Solvent based?)
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Sat 5 May 2007 14:38
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - 659FBE
Strangely, I have found the opposite to be the case with my Skoda - I just wonder if VAG are exploiting the more lax regime on pollutants in the Czech Republic and using solvent based paint.

My car was bought as a 2 year old and has obviously seen a lot of motorway use. (Used between HQ and dealers by Skoda Rep). There is hardly a stone chip on it despite the "prison wall" frontal styling. The paint is all original. This operating regime obviously suited the engine too as it burns virtually no oil - rare for a youngish PD.

Do any vehicle refinishers know if the East European sourced vehicles still use solvent based paint?

659.
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Sat 5 May 2007 14:43
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - storme
dunno why we paint cars anyway!!!! use aluminium panels nicely polished
no weight of paint and no weight of steel panels

lighter so more fuel efficient

or coloured plastic panels to be even lighter !!
--
sometimes a little bit too much opinion....but its only because i care !!!
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Sat 5 May 2007 14:43
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - Armitage Shanks {p}
About as friendly as the difference between sniffing petrol or varnish and sniffing water!
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Sat 5 May 2007 17:37
Wear and tear on a 6 month old car? - Aprilia
I think very very few car makers (and certainly none of the major ones) are using organic solvent-based paints any more. They are only used by the refinishing trade, and are slowly being phased out altogther in developed countries.
Properly applied water-based paint seems to be reasonably durable. Many makers have been using them for over 10 years and they have more or less perfected them. Some refinishers still struggle with them though, largely due to a lack of experience or proper equipment.

Finish varies a lot from one maker to another and I suspect in some cases problems are due to cost-cutting and poor preparation of the underlying metal. On some cars the paint seems to be put on incredibly thin, so its no wonder it chips easily. My sister's Swift is just over a year old and I looked around it recently. The paint is excellent with no chips - just a gouge low down on the front bumper where it his a piece of wood.
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