What do majority of people buy - metallic or standard paint?
Why do manufacturers charge £300-£600 for metallic paint option?
Is there any advantage for metallic paint (all I understand metallic paint looks shiny).
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Why do manufacturers charge £300-£600 for metallic paint option?
The paint is more expensive.
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What do majority of people buy - metallic or standard paint?
These days, metallic.
Is there any advantage for metallic paint (all I understand metallic paint looks shiny).
For most people, the big advantages are that it tends to look better (subjective, I know) and that if you buy standard, you tend to get very little choice - usually only two or three colours. A few years ago, when buying a car, we initially planned to buy standard paint, but faced with a choice of white or red, neither of which we were keen on, we shelled out the extra and went for metallic.
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Solid white, black and red are making a come back.
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Few years ago had a Flake metallic rather than a Powder metallic-didn't look much but when the sun came out,it was impressive.
Edited by jc2 on 14/08/2008 at 12:47
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I've asked this question before. I know there's a trend for people to cough up the extra for metallic paint but I'm not even sure it looks better in all cases. I've got two black cars, one is metallic and one standard, and when washed and polished the standard one looks much shinier (and it's 6 years older than the metalic one!).
As mentioned above the popularity of metallic paint is in large part due to the very limited choice of standard colours. I think when I bought my cars the choice was black, white, red, blue.
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i do believe metallic paint is thicker (i.e more layers) and the cohesive properties of the metal powder/flakes give makes it stronger....but dont quote me on that, which probably explains the higher cost.
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Solid white black and red are making a come back.
Yippee! Mine is solid red.
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And mine`s solid white..
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I honestly believe that metallic paint finishes cost nothing like the premium charged over a solid colour to apply.
Making a profit selling cars is getting harder, so the manufacturers limit the solid colours available to push buyers into choosing metallic finishes and up goes the profit.
An example, when I bought my Fiat Panda 3 years ago there was a good choice of solid colours but now the only solid colour that is available at no extra cost (red costs £250 extra) is a pale yellow which I do not like at all.
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It might be psychological but I think that metallic paint finishes are easier to wash (less elbow grease required) and look better immediately afterwards.
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and mine's solid blue...... Oh dear!
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that metallic/pearlescent paints also have a lacquer coat which is absent from the solid paint finishes.
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that metallic/pearlescent paints also have a lacquer coat which is absent from the solid paint finishes.
When I bought a (genuine) touch-up kit for my solid red car the kit comprised a coloured base coat and a clear lacquer coat.
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>>also have a lacquer coat which is absent from the solid paint finishes.
That did used to be true, but, increasingly solid paint is now lacquered. The lacquer being there to protect the weaker water based base coat.
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What do majority of people buy - metallic or standard paint?
My preference is metallic simply because I (like many othersI expect) think it looks better. Although I'm not likely to be buying a brand new car in the near future.
Why do manufacturers charge £300-£600 for metallic paint option?
Because people pay I suppose.
Is there any advantage for metallic paint (all I understand metallic paint looks shiny).
Depreciation perhaps, or ease of resale? I don't know how much of a difference it makes, but when I come to replace my car, I'll decide what model I want and look around. I will rule out anything in solid colour immediately because I happen to prefer the look of metallic. So if you want me to buy your solid colour car, you'll have to drop the price quite a bit. I might be the only one, but if I'm not, and if lots of buyers take a similar approach, your choice will be to undercut all the metallic competition or accept a longer wait before you sell.
That's all a bit speculative, and doesn't apply if you get rid of your car by trading it in at a dealer (who will perhaps offer you less for a solid colour, but you paid less in the first place). But I thought the reason that police cars are tended to be silver not white these days was to make resale easier.
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> But I thought the reason that police cars are tended to be silver not white these days was to make resale easier.
This could bite them shortly as, as Lud says white is coming back into fashion.
Besides, silver must be the most boring, uninspired colour anyone could ever choose. So bland -- just looks like unpainted metal to me.
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Remember that metallics are very hard to match when bodywork is needed, whereas solid colours tend to match in much better. Makes it much easier to see if a metallic car has had bodywork done, I find, but you need good light and a clean, dry car, and to move around as you look at it.
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I like silver, but the fact that every other car produced from 2000-05 is that colour has blunted its appeal to many......
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Well
Originally metallic paint did need special paint booths in the body in white production process which were more complex to get working smoothly, and metallic did and generally does still come with COB (clear over base) which is a clear paint layer over the coloured layer.
Nowadays often the same paint booths are used for metallic and solid paint, and it's automated so that costs to manufacture are broadly similar
For the percentage of cars damaged in transit to the dealer metallic will be more expensive to rectify as per normal repairs as it can be harder to match the repair correctly etc
BUT the extra price at sale for met paint is not universal across all markets, and in many countries there is no price premium for met paint, so it really comes down to UK consumers being prepared to pay it, interestingly for company car fleets met paint is often thrown in for free anyways, so i would guess the bulk of the extra money is from private motorists
I've had both met paint and solid colour cars, and on the whole when coming to sell at 3 to 5 years old there has been no financial impact either way, but then I've generally stuck to the best looking red or blue when choosing solid, solid prices second-hand will seem artificially low as much as anything due to many being white, and white being mega out of fashion in the UK for much of the last 20 odd years
Currently I've got a met black car which had the met thrown in for free as a special when new, black being my preferred colour and the only colour I have ever paid a small premium for, had solid red, very nice dark solid blue which the guy I sold it too loved, solid yellow which suits the missus, and a wide range of met paints. I generally get the best colour I can get for free as giving a couple of hundred quid extra to the car makers seems like a bad plan to me.
Now my art teacher would have loved this conversation
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So bland -- just looks like unpainted metal to me.
Unpainted metal looks fabulous, although special treatments are needed to keep it looking that way. Also has the advantage that areas of sculpted mud, plaster of paris, filler and so on are immediately apparent to the second-hand purchaser... :o}
Daughter's bf has a very fine motor, a Nissan Skyline GTR, in a sort of satin pearlescent white, very restrained and non-bling. Slightly let down by the wheels and tyres which look as if they might have been stolen off an airliner, and I am sure a smaller diameter exhaust, or perhaps two pipes instead of one thing the size of a dustbin, would also be an improvement.
I haven't been in it yet. The back seat is encumbered by a roll cage. It is no mere cosmetic boulevard cruiser.
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>> So bland >> -- just looks like unpainted metal to me. >> Unpainted metal looks fabulous
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didnt do Delorean much good
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Unpainted metal looks fabulous although special treatments are needed to keep it looking that way.
In this months Practical Performance Car magazine there is an article about a UK hot rod with an Austin Ruby body that has been around since the '70s.
The new owner scraped the old paint off with a wood chisel, then could not decide on a colour scheme so he has smeared the bare steel bodywork with EP90 gear oil.
Probably not a good long term solution but it looks distinctive.
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Besides silver must be the most boring uninspired colour anyone could ever choose. So bland
Agreed, silver is nothing more than metallic grey. Very typically British that the most popular colour is also the most boring and bland.
A nice solid white, black or red looks absolutley great after a coat of wax. I do like like some metallics which are based on a proper colour. So many of the metallics now are just shades of grey.
I love having a red car, makes it very easy to find again in a large car park :)
Also good to see that white is coming back in, I've seen some cars lately in white that look the nuts.
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Both the prettiest cars I have owned were silver, two-tone (dark over light, shabby but dignified) in one case.
It makes me laugh when people say silver is just metallic grey, because matt non-metallic mid-to-dark battleship grey is probably the car colour I like best.
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Nowt wrong with grey (if it's dark as you say).
Never owned a silver car though. Not sure if it's because I've avoided them or anything just never owned one. Black, white, red (quite a few red actually), yellow (eurgh), blue, even green. No silvers though.
Personal favourite though is a certain kind of metallic navy blue that the Primera had for a short while. Even made the MKIV Primera look reasonably unhideous if that's possible!
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In a metallic car with body coloured bumpers (plastic), what paint is applied on bumper?
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I would never buy a non-metallic red or white. The former will turn pink unless looked after properly and the later is more prone to rust.
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I would never buy a non-metallic red or white. The former will turn pink unless looked after properly and the later is more prone to rust.
My red car is nearly ten years old and not a hint of it going pink. I think paints have moved on a bit.
White more prone to rust? Why?
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is more prone to rust.
Not really. But white paint does show rust and rust stains up more than other colours.
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white is coming back into fashion.
Is it really? Can't imagine why. But I shan't complain - I might be looking to get rid of a white car soon. Perhaps this means I'll get a few more quid for it...
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I think silver looks great, the only problem is that it's far too common.
20 years ago when I had a silver Renault 11 turbo, you didn't see silver cars that much.
Having briefly had a dark blue car recently, I can tell you that silver stays cleaner for much longer than dark colours too. My blue car looked great when clean, then 2 days later looked like it needed washing again. Silver car looks clean for 2 weeks.
Silver also hides minor scratches well.
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Does anyone know what the first car offered with metallic paint was?
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silver is nothing more than metallic grey. Very typically British that the most popular colour is also the most boring and bland.
Possibly it is typically British, but I remember a two or three years ago looking round a hotel car park in France, and being struck by the fact that just about everything there was silver - or if not silver, white or gray. I got the impression that the French like silver even more than the British.*
Actually, it would be fascinating to see statistics for the colour of new cars for different countries over the years. Such statistics must exist somewhere.
*At which point a picture comes into my mind of a Frenchman in beret, snorting and remarking "Silver? I prefer even the rats to les Anglais" :-)
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I choose the colour based on it's visibility to other drivers ~ I have virtually no other consideration.
When I first became able to afford to buy new cars, I chose what I thought (at the time)were tasteful colours such as dark green and dark blue. Those cars got numerous carpark dents. I changed to yellow because an AA survey revealed that that was the safest colour, and I stopped getting carpark dents. After that I chose yellow for as long as it was available. As soon as yellow ceased to be available in my chosen model I changed to solid red, and that (in the unavailability of yellow) is still my preferred colour.
If I could afford cars which were painted to order I would choose "Coventry Fire Brigade Yellow" which was formulated in the 1960s by Warwick University for it's high degree of visibility. tinyurl.com/5s2nsw
Edited by L'escargot on 16/08/2008 at 09:17
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I have a relative by marriage (b.i.l.'s father) who, until he retired, was head of the paint shop at the then Rolls Royce plant in Crewe. This is the site which in recent years has become Bentley Motors under VAG ownership of course.
Back in the RR days, he of course had a set of standard colours they would work to but often the cars had to be painted to customer's specific instructions. A meeting would be arranged to include the customer and my "relative" where options and ideas would be discussed.
He has some great tales of what would now be called celebrities asking for colours and combinations of colour and trim which were perhaps best described as unusual.
He maintains that he had to add quite highly developed diplomatic skills to his more obvious task oriented ones !
Another strange phenomenon he identified was that the public figures who came across as pleasant, friendly sorts in public were often the most difficult and imperious in private while the more publicly ebullient were usually charming and polite when offstage.
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Over 130,000 miles in a Metallic `stone grey` (read road colour) Maestro, I had several near misses due to it not being seen on the road. Typically, drivers pulling out of side turnings.
In one instance, I actually saw a driver at the other side of a wide road,`sweep` his eyes in my direction before doing a U turn. He didn`t see me at all.
You just never get that with the `fridge` white of the van, despite it`s small size.
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Thank goodness some customers are prepared to specify the new bright and interesting colours.
The last 10 years or so have seen some of the most bland colours imaginable., and the vast majority of cars still come in wishy washy indeterminate colours, especially the metallics, and the amount of metal in the paints is hardly worth it in many cases, needs perfect sunshine and a magnifying glass to see the various shades within.
Just now and then someone will spec a really bright orange or yellow for example and it gives such a relief from the sea of bland.
I have 2 favourite colours for cars, both standard MB colours, blue-black and my all timer green-black.
Type and size of car determines i believe which colours suit most, seen thousands of tiny cars now in metallic black, just don't look right somehow, but each to his own.
Not just the exteriors either, most cars have acres of horrible black plastic, and the standard imitation plastic surround in the middle housing the radio etc.
Upholstery, black and more black.
The new Fiat 500 and its like, a breath of fresh air.
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L'escargot, is this the colour?
www.fire-engine-photos.com/picture/number4237.asp
By the way, with some SEATs, yellow is actually available as solid colour - i.e. one of the few colours one does not have to pay extra for.
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That's the colour. I believe it was accorded a British Standard number. Some people found it so striking that if they looked at it for too long they used to feel physically sick. In the mid 1970s the Home Office decreed that all fire service vehicles should be red so the colour had to be dropped.
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Logic would dictate that the most "unnatural" colours would be the ones most noticeable out of the corner of one's eye.
With that in mind I'd have thought that that bright shocking pink would be one of the safest colours on the road.
L'escargot, if that were proven to be the case, would you still stand by your logic and drive around in a bright pink car?
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L'escargot ........ would you still stand by your logic and drive around in a bright pink car?
No way Pedro! Not unless I worked for Sheilas' Wheels and it was a company car! There's a limit to all things.
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No way Pedro! Not unless I worked for Sheilas' Wheels and it was a company car! There's a limit to all things.
Hehehe!! I thought that might be the case!!
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