Greetings;

My '96 Turbo Wagon is red. And seemingly fading VERY quickly. I've owned it 3 years and usually waxed it about every 4 months (probably should have been more.) Anyway, this summer after going thru a car wash, it was blatantly obvious that the original paint was fading TERRIBLY (it was also blatantly obvious that the front end had been repainted, which now makes the car look ridiculous.

Waxed the roof twice tonight. It helped some, but I'm afraid I'm doomed. It's 8 yrs old & 120k miles on it - I won't get it repainted.

Questions: is it possible the Super Wash did something to the finish? Or was it just my imagination, & it's time had come?

Is it worth getting buffed or something? Would it help?

I'm afraid this is my last (second) Volvo. Long timers on the board may remember me, but I think the car has finally beaten me down. Engine fan burned up the other day. The list of things I've done in 60k miles:

front axles; Engine fan; blower fan; tailgate repair (broken again); heated mirror broken; heated seats repaired; oil return line leak; O2 sensor; thermostat; PNP switch; emergency brake pads; broken headlight wiper; seized rear rotor; and of course the suspension is knocking around, so God only knows what's broken now. And I suppose within a year or 2, the paint will be so bad that the car will be worth nothing (although with that mileage, it might not be anyway.) That's about $1500 in repairs. I came from an Acura, with 2 minor problems in 7 years / 130k miles.

This does not include normal maintenance items, and yes, I did do normal maintenance.

Anyway, I really like the car, and I'm a pretty stick-to-it kind of guy, but I cannot tolerate a car that breaks something literally every few months. I beat.

Thanks for the help with the paint questions.