Brompton has a history of integrity and respect for their client.

They had issues with the new tubing and the "lacquer" used for the raw effect in 2009 that lead to discontinueing of the "color"

Production restarted after 18 months, and the "new" raw lacquer is now listed on the 2011 catalog.

I just got my S6-E in raw, and I am planning on keeping this one for a while, so I really hope any issues from the past (if any) are now corrected.