I'm considering buying a used Fit but the paint issue is really giving me anxiety as I plan to drive my next car til the wheels come off. Ideally I would like the paint to NOT come off. If I do end up buying one, what is the required maintenance to keep the paint looking good? How often do you wash and wax? I don't have a garage and live in Texas. I'm trying to decide if I should just pass on the Fit and go in another direction.

Thanks!

 

Red's the worst offender. Mine started to go pink by 2012, had it repainted in 2016. Most other colors hold up pretty well. I've seen a flaky looking black 2012 before but most I've seen still look good. I live in western Alabama for reference. This isn't a problem isolated to Honda, many cheap cars of the era suffer from it. The Civic of the similar era is by far worse off.

There isn't a good way to save the paint from fading. It's a problem with the clear coat. It's extremely thin and doesn't really do anything about UV.

Oh and here's a pic of mine fresh out of the booth with a new paint job. We went with Rallye Red (Civic color) and painted the rising sun in Taffeta White.

 

I wouldn't pass on a Fit because of reported clear coat and paint issues.
If you go to most any vehicle forum for almost any vehicle, you'll find people struggling with premature clear coat peeling and finish issues. My speculation is that today's more environmentally safer and compatible clear coats and paints, just aren't as durable as the paints of yesteryear.

That being said, IMO the Honda Fit paint isn't the most durable.
What can you do but all the usual maintenance and preventatives. By that I mean keeping a good quality wax on the vehicle.

I think you can buy a Fit with the reasonable expectation that you could drive it for many years and many miles.
Sadly, I don't think you can buy any vehicle today with great expectations concerning finish durability.

 

Look into ceramic coating. Can be pricey to get it done professionally but it is suppose to be the ultimate in paint protection.

 

I've never seen a FIT in our area with paint problems.

 

Our Fit has a nice, but delicate finish. I think part of the issue is the coatings quaility and quantity will be inferior on inexpensive cars. The coatings on our Buick are much better and much deeper but the car was more expensive.

Another factor we see with coatings in general is environmentaly friendly legislation which makes many modern coatings less durable. Painting a house these days is suicide as the paints only last a few years (combined with massive US labour inflation over the past few decades).

We have another cheap GM car with soft thin black metallic paint/ clear coat that seem similar to those on the Fit. Car looked terrible after a decade of winters. So summer 2018 I did a weekend cleaning and polishing; car really looked awesome, nearly new. The wax helped protect the finish from rain, sun, and salt. Wax lasted about 9 months of rough salty winter, then a quick wash, fine polish & wax (took about 4 hours) took finish back to near new condition again.

Threre are forums littered all over the internet for advice but what I did on that car took about 16 hours and included:

- Hand wash car twice
- Carefully use clay with liquid for lubrication
- Ultimate Compound
- Ultimate Polish (finer grain)
- Ultimate Wax
- Lots of cloths

I used Meguire's because they were on firesale and all the materials cost about $40. There are a ton of brands and many that are probably better.

The clay is abrasive so use carefully, fold a lot, use a lot of lubricant, and use only once in a blue moon. First time I ever used it and I thought it was awesome.

I used a drill with polishing wheels as my new cheap orbital polisher was too weak. Orbital is probably better than a drill but I have a lot of polishing and drill experience so didn't burn through the finish too much lol. Doing this in the sun makes the chemicals very difficult to remove so work in the shade. I found the Ultimate Polish very difficult to remove regardless. If you are going to do all this you really need a power polisher or your shoulders and hands will be very sore.

The ultimate liquid wax was very easy to apply and quite shiny. Hard carnuba wax is a bit more time consuming to apply and maybe a bit more work to remove but provides a deeper shine (maybe). I used Zymol carnuba wax (at $100 tub) on an old one stage paint red car and it was an awesome shine but the rain repellancy only lasted say 3 or 4 months.

You could also hire a "detailer" to do all the steps except wax. Then you buy high quality wax and do that stage yourself (or give him the wax). Then rewax every say 6 months.

 

You'd be surprised just what a simple wax will do, I clay bar mine once a year or so

Even after our harsh BC interior winters, the body shop pushed my car to the front of the line because the paint had more or less 0 oxidization or fade so it was really easy to match the new panels and get out of the way heh.

 

Note that Taffeta White and Monte Carlo Red are the two Honda colors that don't have clear coat-they're single paint layer systems. More work to keep up (ask me how I know).

 

What a nightmare for daily drivers! I didn't know that cars were being made without clear coats.

I owned a classic VW GTI in red with no clear coat. Looked awesome waxed but a bear to maintain. Also the red colour oxidized very quickly.

 

That would explain why 1 trip on the highway in my '13 Taffeta White Sport made it look like it just came back from the war. I was even being extremely cautious to avoid driving behind trucks and staying a good distance behind the person in front of me. I just picked it up from the previous owner who was an old man and barely drove it, looked BRAND new so I was kind of pissed. It's not really the chips that piss me off, it's the possibility of those areas rusting. I've covered them all up with a touch up pen which kind of looks like crap now but better than rust.

 

What I have been doing is cleaning and compounding the paint, then waxing it. Eventually I may clean up the paint and spray clear enamel on it. Note that the urethane parts chalk up, because they have a different finish.

 

I’ve been a detailer for 12 years. I agree with your application process, but I would change out the chemicals and materials. Firstly, using a clay bar is almost becoming obsolete in my opinion, as the new clay pads and towels are SO much faster, last longer, and are less aggressive. Mothers and Griot’s garage both have great clay pads. I’ve been having fantastic luck with Griot’s Garage complete compound, which I follow with their liquid wax 3-in-1. Unless you’re looking for a 99% defect free finish, you can skip the polishing step with this wax. Both chemicals are very easy to apply and remove. With my routine now, I usually follow the wax with either a griot’s spray wax or Mother’s CMX “ceramic” spray. (I use the word ceramic lightly here). This extra step helps with water hydrophobia and makes the finish last at least a few weeks longer, and it only takes an extra 10-20 minutes. As you stated, lots of CLEAN microfiber towels.

Doing this often will help your finish stay intact for longer. Use a designated car soap and a clean microfiber wash mitt. Don’t use dish soap (this may seem obvious, but I see it all the time). And finally... DO NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES EVER EVER GO THROUGH ANY TYPE OF AUTOMATIC CAR WASH!!!!!!!!!!!
I literally cannot stress this point enough. Car washes with brushes are an absolute death sentence for paint - especially thin, cheap paint like this. Touchless car washes are not much better as they use very harsh chemicals in place of brushes.

So long as you keep wax on the car and stay away from automatic car washes, you should keep your paint in tip top shape for years to come.