Volvo XC40 Forums

Even when driving carefully in t(e UK you sometimes brush the hedgerow on narrow country lanes.
I’ve done this twice in 18 months and both times have been surprised at the scratches that have resulted. I managed to buff the previous scratching out but you can still see them from certain angles.
I’ve not tried to do the same on the last lot running up the side of the car, but I expect the results to be the same.
I can see a visit to a body shop being part of Volvo ownership.

In over 40 years of driving, mainly company cars, I’ve never noticed such delicate paintwork on any of my cars. This included some robust hedge/ paintwork interfaces too.

So is this the colour (Pine Grey), the shape of the car, Volvo paint or just the rubbish water based stuff that all manufacturers are using?

I've noticed the same. I have a Thunder Grey car and the other day inadvertently scraped the side when I was carrying something past the car.

It's nothing to worry about and it will remain as it is. However compared to previous cars the top coat is incredibly thin. It's scraped to the white undercoat, but the Thunder Grey thickness of the top coat is almost non-existent.

I had the same problem on my previous three cars over the last 7 years. I reckon (based on nothing but pure ignorance) it's the water-based paint.

I don't know which cars have water based paints but I would guess Toyota and VW don't. My two previous cars of those makes had paint like armour.

All modern cars now have water based paints, although some are harder than others, VW being a hard but brittle paint doesn’t scratch quite so easily but suffers badly from stone chips. I know that from my previous golfs.

Many detailing sites will give details on how hard or soft different manufacturers paints are.

I still think that the old cellulose paint was better but it’s all about the environment now.

I forgot to say in my previous post Volvo paint is classed for detailing purposes as a medium hardness paint.

One of the claims made for so-called "ceramic" coating is that it will provide a harder, more scratch resistant finish. I was (with some reluctance) persuaded to have this treatment applied to my new car in February, so I'll see how it performs. No scratches yet, but not much use either!