Paint to Order

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Paint to Order

grellgraxer: Nov 28, 2002; "I didn't fight a secret war in Nicaragua so you can walk these streets of freedom bad mouthing lady America, in your damn mirrored su

I noticed on Porsche's build site they offer a "paint to sample" option. For an additional $11,430 you can choose a color from Porsche's range of samples. But if you don't want to be constrained by their samples, you can go with the "paint to sample plus" option for a mere $14,670. This is described as "Individual color development and individual paintwork for any technically feasible solid or metallic color based on a submitted color sample."

With the assumption that the vast majority of private individuals who purchase new cars don't order them to spec, but rather buy one off a dealer lot, my questions are:

1. Do you think there is a market for a paint delete option? Cars comes from the factory in primer for $1,000 less? Then the buyer could have it painted whatever they like, or just drive around in a gritty primer painted car (cyberpunk).
2. Do other car companies offer a similar bespoke paint service? With modern day manufacturing, would it be possible for any car company to offer a paint to order for $2,500 or less?

# ¿ Jul 13, 2022 03:25

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 12:53

grellgraxer: Nov 28, 2002; "I didn't fight a secret war in Nicaragua so you can walk these streets of freedom bad mouthing lady America, in your damn mirrored su

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

1) no OEM would ever do this because A) it does not save much money and B) primer is not designed to be a durable-long lasting corrosion preventative coating. Also, painting a car after it is assembled is expensive. I got a quote for a high-quality respray on my car, trim out, fully masked etc and it was about $5,000. It's much easier to paint all the painted parts before they are installed.

2) only super luxury OEMs offer true bespoke painting; the closest you can get is stuff like BMW Individual where you can pick paint colors from an extensive library (basically the first option). You can't offer every color under the sun because you have a specific paint supplier that supplies you with specific colors (or components of colors). Custom painting adds a ton of complexity in both the supply chain and manufacturing process, and complexity drives cost.

If you want your car to be a different color, vinyl wraps exist and are both good and not very expensive.

Great points! I'll keep an eye out on the mid-range OEMs and see if paint to order (from a library of colors) eventually filters down to them. But you're right, they would be in direct competition with vinyl wrap solutions. Still, if companies could make this happen at the $2,000 price point, I think they would get some takers. For example, the Golf R only comes in 3 colors, which is ridiculous. Were I in the market for one, I would pay $2,000 to get it in British Racing Green or whatever from the factory.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2022 22:38

grellgraxer: Nov 28, 2002; "I didn't fight a secret war in Nicaragua so you can walk these streets of freedom bad mouthing lady America, in your damn mirrored su

Bulk Vanderhuge posted:

the MKVII had a custom program with 40 different colours to choose from:

Excellent example! I wonder how much they charged back in 2020 for paint to order. I saw this on the build site for the Golf R: "We�re sorry, availability of some equipment, options or features may be limited due to global supply issues affecting the auto industry." So maybe that's why they reverted to only 3 colors? Or maybe the paint to order option wasn't successful?

# ¿ Jul 14, 2022 06:19

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