Shame about the (presumably current) Mazda red colour - it is a great shade of red.

Not surprised about the A5 cost of repair - a former neighbour had a similar issue on their A3 a couple of years ago and it cost well in excess of £1k for damage I could barely notice. Nice little earner for the repair shops, and, I suspect, insurers.

Its not easy making metallic paint blend in, which is the reason why several panels or a whole side of a car has to be done, if you paint one panel on its own it will look different to the others and not all paint is made by the same companies

if you look at some silver/grey metallic cars you can see if one panel has had a spray repair done due to it looking usually lighter than the rest, in order to blend in the near panels the spray is lighter sprayed onto the panels to make them blend in

My brother is a sprayer and says its difficult with certain colours to get them right and can take several attempts

Shame about the (presumably current) Mazda red colour - it is a great shade of red.

I agree, it is one of my favourite colours, along with Ink Blue (dark blue metallic) seen on some Nissans.

Why are you talking about painting for a small dent? If the paint is unbroken it can be fixed for about 40quid. Chipsaw$% recently did some deep scratches in a metallic colour for 200quid a panel. I think the op should get some other quotes.

Edited by Ethan Edwards on 22/12/2020 at 20:24

The Mazda Soul Reds (Metallic & Crystal) can be successfully matched, but if you treat it just like a regular metallic it won’t blend. A bodyshop will have to follow a specific process as set out by paint manufacturers to get it right. It’s time intensive and therefore more expensive to get right.

Not everyone is able to spot a poorly blended body panel, you need certain light and look at a certain angle to see any imperfections, many a time I have looked at a car where its been sprayed and you can see where its been patched, tell the seller and they dont believe you, later they say yes its had a touch up for a small dent

Takes a good panel man to cover a panel without any imperfections

We had a metallic Red Mondeo and in the 3 years we owned it the car was in the body shop 6 times, once for repairs after a break in and 5 times for warranty repairs on the doors. Each time the colour match was undetectable.

Dad had a silver Micra and wee all know what a pig that can be to match. Some kind soul hit the corner of the rear bumper and took it down to the black plastic its made of. Main dealer wanted to fit a new bumper and paint the who rear of the car blowing the paint down the sides to match the colour, that will be £400 sir. I took it to a local "smart" repair chap (not one who works outside or in a tent) - the wife had used him for their lease returns at work and the work had always been great. Took a quick look, no problems, £55 cash. As before he made a superb job which was undetectable 5 years later. When dad wiped the whole side of the car off a year later (his fault) the insurers repairer did a perfect match whatever the light.

There should be excuses with modern mixing technology.

Put it this way, as long as the customer is happy thats all that matters...

Cheap is no good if the final result annoys you every time you look at the car.

Again it depends if you can see it, not everyone can, I have seen many cars that have looked good to the owner but was actually a not so good job not noticed, but I know what you mean, it annoys me when I see a poor job.