Buying a New Car? Stop this Metallic Paint Rip Off!

beachbeth

Im not sure if Im posting this in the right place, so feel free to move Mods!

Any of you who have bought a new car in recent years will know that all garages charge extra for metallic paint (usually around £300). Well my husband is a car paint sprayer by profession and he paints metallic and non-metallic cars and says the process is exactly the same! The paint isn't more expensive and the actual process of putting it on is the same too!

We must all band together as consumers and stop garages charging extra just because they know metallic is more desirable! They may as well charge more for a blue car than a white car because they consider blue more popular. Its an absolute rip off!

So when you next buy a new car, let the garage know that you are aware of this and even write to the car dealers' head office to complain! When we bought our brand new Yaris a year ago we managed to haggle the price down so that we paid much less than the ticket price and this more than covered the extra for the metallic paint.

FunkyFairy

I have had 2 new cars both with metallic black.

I have got the dealer to upgrade for free or no deal strange how that one works lol

Pink.

Hi beachbeth,

You should get more replies on the motoring board so I'll move your thread over there.

Pink

xycom1

Didn't they used to always clear-coat metallic colours and not solid ones? But now most solid colours are clear-coated as well so there is no difference in the work required in spraying the car.

Just don't buy a Focus ST in Orange (£600 extra!).

hobo28

Its just the laws of supply & demand really. More people want metallic paint so they can get away with it.

I remember some time ago seeing two identical portable TV's in Dixons. The pink one was £20 extra and as the salesman explained, people really will pay the extra for the colour.

Fightbank using FunkyFairy's suggestion.

Throbbe

xycom1 wrote:

Didn't they used to always clear-coat metallic colours and not solid ones? But now most solid colours are clear-coated as well so there is no difference in the work required in spraying the car.

Just don't buy a Focus ST in Orange (£600 extra!).

Yep, that's what i thought too. I don't miss the colour coming off the car while polishing! Obviously they 'forgot' to amend the price once clearcoat finishes started being used on all colours. :rolleyes:

I believe the Focus ST has a 3 stage paint system rather than just the base and clearcoat though, so there may be some justification in the extra cost. If you do happen to buy an 'Asbo Orange' one, check the colour match between the bumper and surrounding panels very carefully, as I believe there were problems getting the same finish on metal and plastic sections.

blue_haddock

But if you complain about the cost of the metallic paint where do you stop? do you really think the 'luxury' carpet mats actually cost £50 to make? or the £200 CD upgrade actually costs that much.

If you only managed to negotiate enough off your Yaris to cover the cost of metallic paint you'd be horrified to find out you could of saved even more by going through a broker.

rdwarr

xycom1 wrote:

Just don't buy a Focus ST in Orange (£600 extra!).

Don't buy any car in Orange
Last one we had was a 1968 Ford Corsair; you could just about get away with it then.

robin58

rdwarr wrote:

Don't buy any car in Orange
Last one we had was a 1968 Ford Corsair; you could just about get away with it then.

It's the Pink ones you see now that make me want to :eek:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

beachbeth

blue_haddock wrote:

If you only managed to negotiate enough off your Yaris to cover the cost of metallic paint you'd be horrified to find out you could of saved even more by going through a broker.

We didn't just get the metallic paint money back!!! We got a lot of money off and negotiated for mats, full tank of petrol as well as the first service free! We did really well!

beachbeth

blue_haddock wrote:

But if you complain about the cost of the metallic paint where do you stop? do you really think the 'luxury' carpet mats actually cost £50 to make? or the £200 CD upgrade actually costs that much.

You are missing my point.Of course you expect to pay extra for the mats (unless you can negotiate for them like we did!) and a cd does cost more money than a cassette player, air con costs more than not having air con etc. But metallic paint is the same cost to produce as a solid colour and I have found when we have gone into dealerships to enquire about new cars they try to make out its because metallic is more expensive to produce. All Im saying is to tell them that you know perfectly well that it doesn't cost more and therefore this is ONE discount you want them to make if you decide to buy.