Different Coloured Cars.

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I used to have a Volvo 360GLT which I really found was a fantastic car and very under rated, especially the sportier GLT version.
But I am not specifically comenting about the car itself but of the paintwork as these cars came in a few different colours and when I saw another Volvo 360, because I liked them I would notice little issues they may have with age. When I owned mine they had been out of production for a few years and mine was 10 years old when I bought it. Mine was a silver 3 door hatchback version. They did a 5 door hatchback and a 5 door saloon with a conventional boot (Trunk). They all had 2000cc Volvo engines (It was the similar looking but very different underneath Volvo 340's that had the other engine sizes (Renault 1400cc and Renault 1700cc engines).

Now as I spent time looking whenever I saw one for sale at a secondhand car dealer or when I happened to see one while passing (And I have owned three of the cars), I happened to notice that different coloured cars of this model would rust in different places, and it was in the same general areas according to the colour the car was painted in. Silver was usually along the very front of the bonnet (Hood) which it would eventually rust into little rust holes, and usually underneath the front fog lights (GLT and GLS if I recall) or that area on the non GLT models. Silver cars would rust but the rust holes would take ages to get larger.
The maroon cars would rust in very large patches from the very centre of the panels and the rust would creep under the paintwork almost un-noticed until one day someone would notice and an entire large area would flake off to reveal some quite severe rust but the rust when exposed would not have rusted through, but would not last long if it was not dealt with.
The red cars which were like a Ferrari red in colour would be suseptable to fading, and then show rust on the back and the front panels.
The light blue cars would look immaculate on top, but their undersides would need welding up.
The black cars were said suseptable fot paint flaking off. Black was not a popular colour for these models.
Grey seemed to look ok but grey was also not that popular. A type of slightly darker shade of blue which was seen far more on the Volvo 340's did seem to last but I don't remember seeing the 360's in this colour even though it was an option. The 340's were made in the other Volvo factory and they did last longer as they were less suseptable to rusting, but as a car, they looked the same but were entirely different cars. Different engines, different places where the spare wheel and the petrol tanks went, different seats, different exhausts. Only some parts were the same. Even some of the body pannels were different!
The 340's handling was ok but average. The performance was average.
The 360's were a whole different car! Performance and handling were great, and the GLT version was even better! The ordinary base model 360 was great but the GLT with its lowered suspension was brilliant. It was wierd as the suspension was soft but very very predictable. Stiffen it up and one may loose the feel of the car.

In all I would say that the silver cars lasted the longest. Another colour they did was white but again, I have seen quite a few white 340's but only one white 360.

Has anyone else who may have loved a specific make and model of car noticed the same where certain colours of car rust in certain places when one views them as they get older? (Most of the cars I viewed were around 15 to 25 years old when I got to look at them in secondhand car dealers or private sales so it is understandable living here near the sea that one would see rust. Some Rovers, Fords and Vauxhalls did not even last ten years! (Except for larger Vauxhalls. Were the larger Vauxhalls made in a different factory or were they made with heavier body panels compared to the small and medium sized Vauxhalls?))


I thought I would share this about paint and colours having very different qualities in their rust protection, and I remember as a child my parents would take us for a walk behind the old power station and fenced off were many pieces of metal all painted in different colours to test ttem against the sea air as this area has salty mists and sea spray so it was an ideal testing ground. I wonder what the results were? Interesting isn't it?

I used to have a 1985 Buick Century that was "Cream Beige" colored (sort of a yellowish tan off-white kind of thing).

It started rusting through the paint on an area of the lower part of the driver's door.

I noticed that my Century was not the only one rusting. But if I saw another one that was rusting it was usually the same color as mine and the rust was in the same area.

The 740's can look good but be rotten underneath.

Never noticed this about specific paint colours w/ the exception of red fading or paint that’s been in the Arizona sun being burnt off or whatever. But never noticed differences in where a specific car model would rust based on paint colour. Could be something to it. Maybe different colours Do have different formulas that provide different protection from different things in various areas of the car.

I once had a 740 GLT manual with overdrive and it was quicker in a straight line then the T5 I later had.
There was no rust on the 740. It was in silver. Sadly the gearbox gates wore so I could not get first or second gear just before I went to part exchainge the car. It happened a few days before so I asked the dealer if he wanted to reconsider the part exchange (The 740 and an Audi 90 and £1000 for a 2.6 Audi 80).
What you will find with a lot of Volvos like the 740 were that because they were expensive when new compared to other cars, many were bought by steel workers who were earning good wages, but they found that commuting to work through the corrosive atmosphere of the steel works, that they needed a car that would last. Other makes of car could rust through on them in as little as five years. So a lot of older Volvos on the secondhand market looked ok but if they had spent their time in this sort of atmosphere they would not last as long. (15 years instead of the usual 25 year + life expectancy).
Did you know that the Volvo 7 series (And the 9 series) were built so that the front and rear ends could be rebuilt with new parts if they had had an accident at up to 45mph? The metalwork was made in such a way that Volvo dealers could just order the new front end substructure and fit it on.
They also had non interference engines so if the cam belt went it would not do any damage, and also the engines had sleeves so every 250,000 to 450,000 miles one would change the sleeves to keep the car on the road.
The 9 series was a 7 series with improved handling. I had one of each and the 9 series handling was much improved. The 8 series was supposed to be ready but it wasn't, hence why they made the 9 series. The 8 series (I had two. One was a T5) was to be honest, a bit of a dissapointment in my view as an overall car as unlike the 7 and 9 series cars which were cheap to own and maintain, the 8 series cars were heavy on fuel and also almost cost me as much in tyres! I was having to buy new front tyres every few months on both cars, and every year I had to change the rear sub assembly suspension bearings which looked to be to be the exact same part, but was £250 a time for the non T5 and £500 a time for the T5.
The 7 and 9 series being back wheel drive never had issues like this. Also, like I said, the Porsche designed 4 cylinder twin overhead cam 2.3 engine (Non turbo) in the 740 was lighter and the GLT's aluminium body panels (Some panels like the boot (Trunk) made them only 1200kg in wright so they could out accelerate the T5 in a straight line. (I think the T5's were around 1600kg?)

Another thing I should mention is Volvo had two factories. Anything that came out of Sweeden tended to last but their Denmark factory built cars bought their steels from elsewhere so they did not last so long. (They still would outlast quite a few other makes of car).

I heard old white cars rust more than other colors. It's supposed to be because of using different foundation for the paint, as white laquer couldn't cover dark anti-rust foundation.
I believe in modern cars, they developed better foundation for light colors.

All was going very well until the EU decided to change from oil based paints to use water based paints, and for a few years some German cars like Mercades were complete rust heaps in a matter of just a few years.
I don't know what they later did to solve this issue. Did the go back to oil based paints or did they experiment and perfect other paints?