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Years ago car manufacturers used to paint solid colours with a direct gloss paint, ie if the car was black it was painted with a black top coat, if it was red a red top coat etc. Whereas the metallics had a coloured base coat, then a clear lacquer applied over the top.
Now this meant that the colour element of a metallic paint was always protected from the environment unlike the solid direct gloss colours which were at the mercy of the weather/conditions and in this case this is why the sun would fade the pigment of red paint most noticeably.
Nowadays pretty much all automotive paint has a coloured base coat whether it is metallic or solid, then has the clear lacquer applied over the top, hence why problems of fading red are a thing of the past.
Obviously the 'higher end' manufacturers were the first ones to do this with their solid colours and you will see red cars from the same era from different manufacturers where one is still bright red and one has gone pink. The actual quality of the paint used is negligable, it was the technique that counted.
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