Opinions on paint colour

[seabrook132]

Hi all,

I'm looking at buying a Mk6 GTI very soon. Coming from a solid black car before, I don't ever want to go black again. It looks dirty half an hour after cleaning it (I live very close to an airport and dirt settles on the car very quickly) and just highlights every single mark on it.

The colours I'm looking at for the GTI then are all apart from black and white (not a fan of white cars). My current preference would be for a Tornado Red car, followed closely by Carbon Steel Grey. The carbon steel is very dark though, and I'm worried that I'm gonna be having exactly the same problems with this colour as my black car. I'm not trying to get away with not washing or maintaining the finish on my car, I'd just like to have a colour that doesn't show up swirl marks so much and will look reasonably clean until next week's wash.

So basically what I'm after is the opinions of you guys with Carbon steel cars on how easy it is to maintain? Is it gonna cause me the same headaches as the black?

Many thanks,

Dan

[Tainton]

Coming from a black Vauxhall to the golf I'd say its far easier to maintain.  Black takes a lot of hard graft to keep it in tip top condition and is a nightmare for showing blemishes and scratches - but when done properly its probably one of the best colours.

Mine mostly used for town driving so gets washed once every 3 weeks or as needed really.

My only criticism of carbon grey is I can't get that shiny wet look but that may be done to my choice of wax/products.
Carbon Grey GTI's are also a little rarer? seen plenty of white ones and reds common as muck.

[seabrook132]

Cheers for the reply.

Ive found that white and black seem to be the most popular colours by a long way (both colours i don't want!). Ive struggled on my search to find a red car though that may be more to do with the options I'm after rather than it being a rare colour. Carbon grey seems to be more popular than the red to me.

What wax are you using out of interest?