How is the paint finish on the older fits holding up? I'm particularly interested in the saturated colors, like red, but heard that red is more likely to fade. I've only had silver cars before, so I just don't know what to expect with darker colors. The car will not be garaged and I'm not interested in waxing it every month.

 

im on a year and a half in my red fit... i wax every 3-4 months and keep it outside, i use meguiers tech wax 2.0 and it lasts a while....

 

mine's vivid blue pearl and i haven't washed or waxed it in at least 4 months. it always looks like crap but once i wash and wax it, it looks very deep and vivid. i guess i will find out if it's still holding up well once i clean it again, whenever that is.

 

It's always hard to tell, because some people are in intense sun/heat areas where the car will BAKE in 100 degree temps. That's going to be a big difference from someone in the coastal fog belt that doesn't see sun at all in summer.

What you CAN do to get an idea of YOUR area, is to search used car listings, of Honda, of older models, and see how they look.

Over on the autotrader site, you can just specify "Honda", a year range (no model), specify "any distance" from your zip code, and specify the color "red". Certainly ALL the cars weren't babied.

Take a look around physically in your area. How do other red cars in general look? And what about Hondas specifically?

You can also read up on many past complaints on Honda paint by doing a Google search for:

Honda paint quality

Discussion here on paint quality and peeling and easily chipping off:
Honda Fit Exterior & Paint Questions - CarSpace Automotive Forums

Do we know if that will be true for our own cars? No. Because they may have made adjustments for the new model year. Just like they come out with new colors.