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Is that bollocks?
Yes. Lead chromate is still used in automotive paints in the EU and US. It was supposedly banned in the EU as part of REACH in 2015 but there were (and I think are still) exemptions in place. Golf - bright yellow - was in the BMW colour charts on and off throughout the 70s and 80s. So I'm calling that one out as bollocks.
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The vast number of yellow NYC taxis featured in films would be just one piece of evidence against this...
e.g. in 1961:
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Is that bollocks?
Yes, if the proposition is that the first yellow car paint was in the 1990s. It's possible that somebody told you a story with some truth in it, but that wasn't it. Lead based pigments have been used for hundreds of years, but lead pollution became a hot topic in the 70s/80s, hence the move to eliminate lead from petrol. There have been other moves to minimise the use of lead in other contexts where it can leach into the environment, including in paint, and concurrent attempts to find suitable replacements. It's possible that a proposed viable lead-free yellow and a BMW running on unleaded fuel (USA went unleaded before Europe, and AFAIK the faster German models were off the US market for a time until they sorted out how to go fast on unleaded) got mashed up into an urban legend.
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Brommers
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@Chalfie
In my head I have a vaguely remembered "fact" about Prince. And the yellow BMW in his Sexy MF video.
Before this point in time yellow paints had too much lead to be able to be used. This video marks the point when lead in yellow paint was low enough to be used/non existent.
Is that bollocks?