Hello ACTIVE8,
Considering the savage sun we have at the latitude of 28 degrees, and 50 miles south of Brisbane, the bumpers and trims are holding very well.
The trims are still shiny, but the bumpers have turned grey nearly 10 years ago.
Despite that, I can still see the circular rubbing marks that I made when applying shoe polish to the bumpers, also nearly 10 years ago.
The inside fabric and plastic dash are still like new.
The car’s dark colour causes a lot of heat to accumulate, and it takes until about 3:00 AM to fully cool down.
I didn’t choose the colour, I bought what there was to buy.
I bought the car second-hand in 1997, and immediately applied window tinting.
The biggest problem with the dark colour is that with a common sort of red-green colour blindness, many people don’t see the dark red car in dark green tree-lined streets, and I’ve nearly been hit twice because of that.
Since then, I always drive with the sidelights on.
We leave our cars unlocked at work, and one of my colleagues winds his windows all the way down, and leaves the key in the ignition lock.
These pictures show the car parked outside my scrap of work in September of 2007 in the first picture, and last March in the 5 following pictures.
The windows are down by 2 inches, and a reflective sunshade is put behind the windscreen.
In summer, it’s 30ºC every day in the shade, with no variable weather; we’re in the sub-tropical zone.
That's a challenge to design a vehicle to operate fully under such "eXtreme" conditions!
