Painting a Car Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

I made it a point to ask to see some cars that had been painted recently and what they showed me changed my mind about using them. When I asked about over spray on the window trim and door handles the mgr said well you get what you pay for! He assured me that my car would be different. I feel price should not dictate the level of workman ship. The paint, amount of paint, and amount of buffing should be effected but never basic masking to ensure that the paint doesn't go where its not supposed to be.

Looks awesome. Love it.

Hey everyone! I am a Indiana resident seeking a good paint job. I bought the car cheap because it needed one and isn't trying to pay too much for one. Its black and I want it to be black but has sun damage on the hood roof and trunk. DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE TO GET A REAONABLE PAINT JOB/SPOT JOB IN INDIANA??? I'm reading bad reviews of Macco and don't know where else to go! HELP PLEASE!

Ok i have a green expedition that i would like to get it painted black. I hear all these stories about Maaco,but in other states is there anyone from Houston, TX on here who has had a paint jo done at a
Maaco and it actually looks good? If so please tell me where it was. I pai 3800 for my truck so I would like to stay below 1000 for a paint job.

for my 16th bday (2months ago) i got a cabrio convertible it was silver as a gift from my mom! my dad told me he'd be paying for my college tuition as his gift! i had saved up roughly $2000 from baby sitting, my job, and allowences mainly for college, apon hearing it was going to be paid for i decided to go to maaco to change my silver paint job (with no chips dents fading or rust) to a pearly pink! the guy was super sweet and said it be around $299! so excited i agreed! 4 days later i got a call saying i had to pay $1000 due to all the labor and fee's he listed so many i was hesitant but agree'd! 3 days later i went to pick it up! i looked beautiful! i was so stoked i happily hand over $1000! about a month went by all was well! then i decided to wash my car,in an auto wash at a gas sation, the wax and the scrubbing with the soap i guess was too much for the maaco paint because it took it off in sploches!now its silver and pink in weird shapes because of the chipping!!!! i went back and showed them they said "im sorry miss but you didnt purchase warrentee!" now im on a payment plan from a nice auto paint place that cost $7000, i would of never done it if i knew id be down $7000! i would of stuck with my nice silver paint job! PLEASE DONT GO TO MAACO! i know a low price is exciting but remeber $299 turned into $8000 for me!

I got Maaco's top paint job in 2008. It still looks great! Flawless? NO. But it looks great. They had a few freshly painted, newer high line cars on the lot to look at, & they looked good. Unlike some Maaco shops, the MAACO Lakewood N.J. has had a good reputation for a long time. I think It depends on shop ownership's pride in workmanship. Would I take a new car there? NO. But to spruce up an older car? Why not? I won't pay $5000.00 for a paint job on a $4-$5000.00 dollar car. Most if not all MAACO shops are independently owned. So I guess you will need to find a good MAACO shop. TIP! Don't get $199.99 special on a Bentley.

Here it is you can spend lots of money and get a really bad job that can cost you twice as much to have redone. The thing to do is talk to a real shop ask to see there work.
Look at the photos look for the clarity in the paint pick a object in the background and make sure it is clear like looking in a mirror . should be crisp and not distorted. The car should be completely dissembled so you have no bad masking no ugly paint edges and there is much more that goes into a good paint job. I own a high end shop and will answer and questions you have and send you pictures of what nice paint should look like. You don`t want to just pick any shop. Thanks
Mike Brown From Mike Brown Customs 440-415-2029 or [email protected] or you can google us.

After looking at prices and seeing what it cost to paint a car Yes MAACO will paint it for 200-400 put that just pain over and no prep and no primer and no clear-coat Just Paint. If you want a quality paint job you need to pay the price from 2k-9k depending on what you want. Or if you have a compressor and dont mind a OK paint job do it yourself

Personal were very professional and courteous
My car was damaged by a very bad wind storm.
Chips and dents on almost all panels. I chose the best paint with clear coat.
The job is not a factory finish, however, it looks great with a beautiful shine. I found two very minor dents, (about the size of pencil eraser) that they overlooked. VERY PLEASED!!!!

I have not been to maaco but have seen there work and everyone is right you get what you pay for they do not paint the jams etc.
especially for that price I have gotten a quote from a real shop and that was for 3500 but there jobs are mint condition work I personally do my own work I can paint a car for about 200 myself but it won't look that good but for that same 200 dollar paint job maaco will charge 600-800 and it won't look half as good as mine but this is because they do not put the prep work into it the prep is what make the car look good not the final paint it's whats underneath and they do not deal with preping all that much I knew a guy that did work at maaco thought he would move on to a profesional shop after being there for 5 years he went to 6 or 7 different shops trying to get a job when he told them where he got his experience they told him that they could not hire him becuase he was taught tomany bad habbits by this company and did not want there poor quality coming into there shop now how is that for a maaco story I'm sure they have done good jobs sometimes but other paint companies will not even hire one of there employees just becuase he worked for maaco that scares me

I have had several cars painted. I firmly believe you get what you pay for and ask for! Ask them to look the car over and make recommendations. I often joke about body shop time, always add a day. Just like when the cable guy is suppose to be there between 1-4 you don't make an appointment to be some where else at 4:30 or you will be sorry.

In response to " Will never use..." I have had many cars worked on and some painted. You don't get what you expect. You get what you pay for and what you ask for, if your lucky. A good shop or technician will tell you what looks good and what works well. People don't listen they don't focus on details. If you want to pay for only the outside painted, then that's what the shop will do even if they know it isn't right, because they want your $ and business. Same with "Lester in Carrollton, OH", chips and nicks painted over, maybe this is what the owner told them. "don't do any body work, just paint it". So they did.
Bottom line is like "stevo in Plainfield, IL" says, go there & see what they have done in the past. Who did the work? What does the shop look like? What did you think about the salesperson? Use your brain and do some research. Oh one more thing for "Bernadette Kazibwe", $150 for a paint job, it will will never happen, babe! If you could ever find some one to paint your car for that much, you would be so sorry and disappointed with the outcome, you would be depressed for another year!

I don't have to read any post or comments about Maaco Car Painting. ( But I did ) just to see that I am not the only person that knows that Maaco dose not do good paint work on cars. I saw my brother in law car that was white he had Maaco paint the car Blue. Maaco did not mask off the car good at all.You can still see the white paint when you open the car doors where they did not paint at. So on the out side of the car you see a blue car but once you open the car doors you see white, now just what dose that look like crap I say.Bot to sure if that's what my brother in law want only done in the first place was just the out side only painted. But Maaco should have done the complete car when painting a car for what ever the price may have been.

NEVER GO THERE!! Nothing but problems with the place. Very unprofessional!!! They promised me that my car would be ready after being there for a week. Called down the day before it was SUPPOSE to be ready and they confirmed that it would be ready the next day. THE CAR WAS NEVER PAINTED AFTER BEING THERE FOR 5 DAYS!!!! I don't even want to see what my car will look like. I gave this place a chance after reviewing horror stories on the interent about this specific location. Had a friend that had NO PROBLEMS, paint job was great, I need you can't mess up BLACK!!! So with trust, I went through them!! NEVER NEVER NEVER AGAIN!! PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE HEADACHE AND NEVER GO THERE...GO TO FALL RIVER IF YOUR IN THE LOCATION!!!

Okay. . . So my car is 10 years old, has 100,000 miles on it & has been wrecked twice... not the cars fault but mine because I'm a retarded driver. It's going to be awhile before I can afford a new car. . . and my car is too old to where I would only maybe get 3,000 out of the 8,000 I paid for it 2 years ago. Its a dark blue color which I hate. . . I want to turn it to black or a dark grey color. Is it even worth it to paint it? I dont want to spend a whole lot of money on it when the car itself isnt even worth much. So I need some advice here.

I took my Honda Accord to the Eugene, OR Maaco telling them to match the dark Bordeaux red, and instead they used a bright red. AWFUL. Then another person took over and said they would fix the color and make it great. It turned out stunningly beautiful - glossy and durable, lasted for years with no trouble at all. Maaco CAN do it, but you have to find the right franchise/person.

my paint job was really costly and wasent really good i had my car rusty again

Maaco Riverside gave me an Outstanding paint job and service. I had it color sanded, bumpers, molding etc. removed. Excellent experience !!!!!
For the price A Plus !

*SUBJECT: QUALITY AUTO REFINISHING COST: 1955 vs 2010
*1955 *Refinish labor rate: $2.00 per hour
*2010 *Refinish labor rate: $50.00 per hour
*Labor 30 hrs: (includes removeing minimum amount of mldgs, prep, paint & deliver car:
*1955 Paint Job: 30hrs x $2.00 per hr = $60.00
Marerials = $5.00
------
Grand Total =
** 2010 Paint Job: 30 hr x $50.00 = $1500.00
Materials = $500.00
---------
Grand Total (mininumal amt) = $2000.00
*** There are no short cuts in paint jobs, you get what you pay for.

maaco,is high profit,low buget auto repair ,there not craftsman,you get what you pay for .at least three grand for a good bc ccoat paint job regardless of color,paint jobs are only as good as the fondation,look before you leap.

I took my car to make and ask them to paint it black. The man at Maaco told me since the car was light blue it would be better to paint it blue. He showed me a blue color on a paper. When I went to get my car from maaco the color was a bright blue, a color you never see any where on the road. I had to asked the man to paint my car black again. I paid to have my car painted black twice. My advise is if you have a color in mind, don't take their suggestions. Because it may cost you much more as it did me.-- I don't know why Maaco is still in business.

I read all the comments about Maaco, and had had a bad experience with a Maaco in Seattle back in the early 1980's. I crunched my 95 Accord, so had a new door put on and then took the car to the Maaco in Federal Way, Washington for a complete paint job. Unlike most of the others on this site, I have been very, very pleased. I called an independent shop first, and they told me that a complete paint job would run from $5000 to $7000. I told them I wanted something that wasn't like a "Maaco job", but that I didn't need showroom quality, either. The guy then told me that the Federal Way Maaco was actually really good, and recommended them. So I went for it. They did a fantastic job!! Well worth the money. I would HIGHLY recommend this shop to anyone in the Puget Sound area. They are located at approx 328th and Pacific Hwy So.

called first to the maaco in rosemead ca. and they would not give me a quote of how much it would cost to paint my car. but they did tell me since this maaco had just opened up, they have a special of 249.oo. when it went over there they added and added coming to a total of 600.00. i didnt appreciate it to be lead like this. but after hearing all the other comments made by others who have been had from this company nationwide, i am surprised that the better business bureau has not gotten involved. if you advertise a price for a service. stand by it and try not to cheat people. because if you do word will get around.

You need to visit the maaco near you and ask to see some finished work. These guys in crest Hill were very helpful and explained the process and grades of paint. NOT ALL MAACOS ARE THE SAME. They showed me some relly nice restoration work they did on some 70's cars. Yes they can paint a car for $400 or so. this an inexpensive enamel. I got a base coat clear coat Viper red that looked great. Another body shop quoted me $3000 for the same work. The car is only worth $5k.....how stupid would that be?