Sunscreen: Good for your skin, bad for your car's paint

BERLIN: You wouldn't normally think to keep sunscreen off your car, but you'd be surprised what a stain it can leave if you get a drop on the bonnet.

Sun block will help protect your skin, but it will do the opposite to your car's outermost layer, and car magazines are full of reports of dealers seeing cars where the chemicals in sunscreen have eaten into the top coat of paint.

If left on the paint in the blaring sun, a speck of sunscreen can quickly turn into a nasty, light stain, which will look particularly bad if your car has a darker paint shade.

And it's not just a stray squirt of sunscreen that poses a threat. Open a door or put your hand on the bonnet after rubbing on some sun block and you might later notice that your fingerprints are impossible to remove.

What's more, any marks like these will likely take down the estimated value of your car.

If you leave it out long enough, the paint will even start to swell and wrinkle, something you definitely won't be able to fix by polishing.

That's why you're always better off wiping any sunscreen off your hands before going anywhere near your car.