I'm getting ready to buy my 528i off lease. It has been parked outside for most of its 3 years. After another 3 years of living outside in the hot NM sun, is the paint likely to be in bad shape? This would ruin the resale value of the car, which would shift the equation to simply leasing a new car. Might seem like a dumb question, but I've never owned a car that's lived outside for an extended period.

 

the sun kills everything on a car. Its just a matter of time.

 

not necessarily true.

to protect the interior,, you can get tints that aren't offensively dark or colored yet provide incredible protection from the things that destroy interior materials. i use suntek hp50 on all of my vehicles. it helps protect me and my family from all UV, but also protects the car. and...on silver vehicles like mine, it looks neat imo because it's slightly tinted blue.

as far as the exterior...coatings are huge in the boutique detailing world now and...they work as advertised. the premier coating is Opti-Coat 2.0. it can be applied to all exterior surfaces and offer the same sort of protection for those surfaces that i spoke about re: tint and what it provides for interiors.

there is a certain temperature element that you can't necessarily prevent unless the car is under cover, but the UV is what is the most destructive to finishes and materials...that and environmental contaminants/fallout.

my suggestion is to find a really high end detailer - there are tons on autogeek - and have them address the car completely after you purchase it. coat it and forget it.

good luck

 

It is hard on the car, not just the paint but the interior and plastic bits.

I have a E60 5 series that I bought off a lease 3 years ago, it was clearly parked inside most of its life prior to me getting it. For me, it lives outside (mini and porsche get the garage), and I live right by the beach in SoCal so I get moist humid air + hot sun.

I get the car clay-bar/polished/waxed/detailed at least 2x per year (and waxed more often), and it is in pretty bad shape by then, but the paint looks great still. I also have my windows tinted and use a front sunshade. I use lexol vinyl cleaner and lexol leather on the interior bits. The interior is fine.

Maintenance is the key to prolonging its life... but eventually it will succumb to the elements. That said, there is no reason you can't get 10 years out of it.

 

i finally emerged from constantly lurking to post about a car that i'm getting but as usual i end up talking about car care, haha.

seriously though, you should look into opti-coat 2.0 too.

after you have the car prepared and the coating applied...it eliminates the need for any of that in any frequency/schedule remotely close to what you are on now. it's amazing stuff, really. 10 billion times thicker than wax; single component resin that resists scratching/marring...similar surface tension to teflon! i've researched the crap out of this stuff because it sounded ridiculous but it's true.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the tips.

 

OK. I admit I'm beating a dead horse here. But I just like the looks of the 997 better than the 991. When I walk into my garage and see my GTS Cab, I'm struck by how pretty it is, how cohesive. At first viewing of the 991 I didn't necessarily feel this way, but I've seen the 991 in person a few times now, and it just doesn't hit me the same way. I'm not as much of a student of the cars as some of you are, as in "I don't like the front end, or rear end, or tail lights...." all I can tell you is that something about the new car doesn't look as good to me as our 997s.