BudgetPlan1
Well-known member
- Dec 21, 2015
- 2,141
- 209
And that pretty much sums up black cars. When clean, there is (IMO) nothing that looks better...when dirty, there's nothing that looks worse.
Have been addicted to black cars for the last 15 years:
2004 Corvette - Black
2005 Saturn - Black
2006 Mazda3 - Black
2008 Mustang GT - Black
2013 Mustang GT - Black
2016 Subaru WRX - Black
2017 Honda Accord Coupe - Black
2019 Corvette - Black
Short version (which likely won't end up being very short at all) is that given your circumstances (no garage, gonna drive the car relatively often) I'd stay far away from black if your reasonably OCD.
Even with a garage and another vehicle to drive when it rains or is otherwise nasty out, you're gonna be fighting dust and whatever else settles from the heavens upon your paint. Here's some shots from our garage this morning of the 2019 Corvette. It was washed about 2 weeks ago and since that time has driven about 250 miles in sunny weather only:
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Just sitting outside and in the garage, it has accumulated a nice layer of dust and even small bug hits are noticeable. If you happen to get pollen in the Spring, it's about 10x worse *each day*. The Corvette has PPF and is coated and topped with PA Cosmic Spritz, none of which can alleviate the dust that settles upon it.
And if you do have the energy to wash it daily, the more you touch it (no matter how carefully) over time you will get some light swirling/defects even with the most careful of wash methods; you will be washing outside I'd guess and that certainly isn't the cleanest environment to remain isolated from airborne debris when you wash. For our black cars, I foam, bucket wash and air dry with a dedicated air blower which, given all the nooks and crannies in a Corvette, is pretty much a must with a black car. Lacking a blower, you can dry the car to what you think is 100% dry and the next time you drive it, water will find it's way out of a trapped space which will then leave trails down the side of the car and be horrifically noticeable on black. Even air drying this sometimes happens and frankly, it's infuriating 'cuz even the most non-detail-oriented will look at it and think you're a hack...in addition to your own frustration.
If you get a rock hit/chip that penetrates the paint (and I'm assuming the materials are the same as the last generations), the composite panels of the Corvette seem to have a white core/primer and it's very noticeable when breached. In 2017 I just finished completely re-doing our 2004 and not a week later, a rock bounced off of the hood and left a mark:
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Contrast that with our 2 non-black cars, a 2016 Aegean Blue Honda Civic and a 2016 Agate Grey Metallic Porsche Cayman; with the right coating, these cars *always* look good (or at least good enough for me)...except for winter when nothing looks good of course. The Civic we've had since new, been coated since new and has spent the better part of it's life sitting outside...and it always looks great. The Cayman I took on a 500 mile trip 2 weeks ago through heavy, blowing rain (both freeway and local driving) and it looked good enough when I got home that I didn't wash it for a few days; it was still pleasing to my eye.
I'm moving more towards the enjoyment of driving cars as opposed to keeping them clean and with that in mind, I'm done with black cars. The technology and products available these days can keep a car looking great w very little effort...as long as it's not black; they haven't solved that riddle yet, at least not enough to satisfy my current combination of OCD-ness and increasing laziness.
We kinda tried to get away from this when we ordered/bought the 2019 Corvette last winter...I tried to like Long Beach Red, one of the gray metallic's or Elkhart Lake Blue but I just couldn't bring myself to take the chance so we ended up with black again. Had Admiral Blue been available at that time, that woulda been the pick as, while still a somewhat dark color, it still would been a lot easier to keep clean.
Black metallic will mitigate it a bit but the Crystal Black Silica WRX had *so* much metallic in it that even when clean, it looked kinda dusty from all the metallic; was weird but also disconcerting at certain angles in the sun.
As with anything YMMV but I'm done with black...or so I say now; sometimes I just never learn and when ya see a new, shiny black car on a showroom floor, bad memories sometimes go out the window. :xyxthumbs:
An unfortunately, much like you mentioned, the only color I think would soften/hide some of the edges and other areas of the C8 that I personally find unattractive would be black. Part of the reason we went with black on the 2019 Corvette was to make some of the black 'accent elements' disappear into the overall look.
Other colors can look surprisingly good though, if ya get 'em right. Right before we sold mothers silver Mazda3 I did it with Polish Angel Master Sealant + Rapidwaxx and it was luscious:
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And someone here did a white Nissan Rogue w/ Polish Angel Viking and it was amazing:
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