In my experience with 8th- and 9th-gen Civics, your critiques of paint quality are fair. Although I thought the older Civics in the US were a bit different from those in Europe? I wonder if the paint and build quality differs. Lots and lots of these older Civics buzzing around here in Southern California, many of which have paint damage. I suspect that the owners either left them out in the sun constantly (i.e. no garage to park in at home) and/or washed them with dish soap and then didn’t follow-up with a last step protection layer (e.g. wax). It is something I’ve noticed people with less expensive cars tend to do if they’re into cleaning their own cars but are simultaneously not knowledgeable about car paint maintenance. People with higher end or newer cars usually invest in actual car soaps or instead have someone else clean and detail their cars.
And yes, that just sounds like general paint negligence (which I am a little guilty of myself, at least when it comes to washing frequency ), but the ubiquity of paint issues among Civics from this time period is a little suggestive. Like it’s literally every other Civic I see that has damage. Maybe Civic owners in my area just suck at keeping the paint clean and protected .
I had a classmate with an 8th-gen Civic; she cleaned it herself pretty regularly, but with dish soap. Had some sun damage and early signs of fading. She now has an Infiniti (barf) and cleans that with car soap, but possibly doesn’t top off with wax or use microfiber equipment, so there’s a good chance she’s scratching her paint and not leaving it protected . Oh well.
The current Civics and Accords have much nicer paint. Very glossy with decent depth, depending on the color. The metallic blue is pretty killer. And I walked past a silver 10th-gen Civic hatchback last night whose paint looked great. I’m curious to see when the paint damage will start showing up on these newer Civics.
Not to go off on a paint care tangent, but dish soap is bad because it strips waxes and other layers that protect from UV rays and the elements. So it might sound like a good stripper soap to prep a car for new wax and/or sealant, but it’s also damaging to the black rubber seals around stuff like the windshield. This might explain why the rubber around my car’s rear glass was cracking and peeling off before I ever got it; the previous owner probably cleaned this way. Luckily the glass itself is fine - no leaks or anything. My brother’s Escape has some terrible peeling and cracking around his windshield, though, to the point of possibly needing replacement. So, PSA to anyone in general: don’t use dish soap when washing a car.