Painting a Car Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

NOBODY TRUST THESE GUYS!! THEY GIVE YOU A GOOD NUMBER TO HOOK YOU IN THEN THEY UP IT FOR EVERY SINGLE THING WRONG WITH IT!! I WAS ORIGINALLY GOING IN THEIR THINKING $250 WAS GOING TO BE MY PRICE. GUESS AGAIN! THAT WAS WHAT HE SAID WHEN I WALKED IN THE DOOR THEN HE LOOKED AT MY CAR AND SAID ITS GUNNA BE $1500!!! THEIR IS 2 FUCKING DENTS!! SIZE OF A QUARTER MAYBE!! MAACO IS NOT WORTH ANYONES TIME

Caught the bus to work during week truck was painted and dried. One color-Black..should be easy right?? When I picked it up you could see the circles all on the side of the truck that they made in spraying the paint. People i didnt even know were pointing it out. Embarrassing! Angry! Never went back! Don't go to MAACO! My grandmother could have painted it better!

dont understand how macco is still in biz.a have a 1987 300zx i'm restoring and only consitard over spraing the car.I've read every complante,and i would like to consider myself to be a smart consumer.so after reading the stories i called a macco and asked for some basic info.i explained that i was vary picky and heard things about there workmanship and paint.I was told that i should not get the $299.oo paint becuse of the maintiance that goes into one-stage paint.now with out even looking to the car i was told that the $1200.00 2-stage paint will last.then when i asked to use top of the line paint from a nother comp. they refused saying that theres is top of the line and will not use another.that doesnt sound like that would be anything that i would like to get involved in.there paint is very poor.thanks for you'er info!!!!!!!!

Wow, glad that I checked, saw a "prep" deal from Macco and went to this site to check what that really meant in $$. I only need clearcoat but looks as if Macco could mess that up also, plus charge me for dings. Not worth it, thanks.

I have a 2000 Honda Accord. It is in very good shape. I just needed a change and was thinking about getting the color changed. Thank God I decided to do some research and checked out this website! After reading all of the reviews above, I have decided never to go to Maaco. I'd rather let my car stay the way it is.

My 2001 civic needs some work done. My car has been real good to me. Haven't had any major issues with it. Its been running great at almost 60,000 miles. I'm staying with it until it dies! lol. So here it is 9 yrs later with some dents and rust, and flat black. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. I was considering Maaco but after reading your postings I say Hell to the No! My boyfriend has a buddy at work who details cars on the side and has hooked up his own car. I want to see his work first though.

After reading all this.. am thinking i rather go else where macco seems to be screwing up everyones looks.

ok 15 pasajer ok black color

I was just about to contact Maaco! Thank you for all these comments i will NOT be using Maaco now or Ever!!!

MAACO IS NOW USING THIS SITE TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS. THE ABOVE POSTING BY A"FORMER EXECUTIVE
ONLY SHOWS DESPERATION. MAACO HAS PROVEN THAT ADVERTIZING WORKS...BUT THE PRODUCT SUCKS!!

As a former executive with MAACO Enterprises, as well as the former owner of MAACO in Gardena and also in Corona Ca. I can tell you there are good and bad shops in the chain. While MAACO can't make the owner turn out good quality, they have done a remarkable job of maintaining a chain that as a rule does great work at a fair price. Yes, you can pay a lot more and in some cases it is worth it. As long as you stick with either the 2 stage paint services or the polyurethane single stage, you will at least start with great material, then it is up to the shop to prep the car correctly and lay the paint down nicely, there is nothing more you can do. HOWEVER prior to leaving your car at MAACO check out the quality of finished jobs. Look for paint on the chrome, glass, undercarriage. Look for big chips and scratches that were painted over. Ask what price job you are looking at. The best place to inspect a paint job is under fluorescent lighting. All MAACO paint jobs should look very shiny and smooth, little of no texture (orange peel)
Ask if they do work for used car dealers. Get a list and call the used car manager and ask him what he thinks. Ask if they are preferred providers for any insurance companies, what we call DRP's.Check with Consumer Affairs, BBB, and here on the internet.
Be wise. Understand that paint jobs can't make a car rust. Understand that you may get what you pay for and if you have a Chevy pocket book and a Cadillac taste go elsewhere. All paint jobs chip if hit hard enough, period. No paint fades in 2 weeks. All advertising clearly states priced as low as. This does not mean any car, any condition is only... come on you guys, get real, take a little responsibility for your decisions and always shop around. I am happy to answer any questions, just use MAACO as the subject line. I am semi-retired after 32 years in the Auto Painting industry and seem to have more time than I expected. [email protected]

Where to start? First you must remember that all MAACO Centers are franchised. This means simply that quality will very widely from shop to shop. It is a fact that close to 98% of MAACO franchisees had no experience in the body shop business prior to owning a MAACO.
The paint used in almost every shop is either Dupont or Sherwin Williams, both very good paint materials, with 4 grades to choose from. The yearly 1/2 price special is not one of the top choices you can make at MAACO, with at least 3 other better grades to choose from.
About a gallon of Ready To Spray paint is needed on average to paint a car, outside only. The entrance level of Dupont and SW materials for a gallon of RTS material ranges between $90-140.00 at the shops cost. (does not include sealer, primer, sand paper, masking paper and tape or labor). Let's say you pay $200.00 for a low end basic paint job. Subtract $80.00 for paint materials, approx. $60.00 for labor, $18.00 for sand paper etc. and you can see there is little money to pay any advertising fees, franchise fees, (here it would be $16.00, 8% of sales), secretary, owners and estimators salary, comp insurance, building insurance, electric and gas, telephone, hazardous removal charge.
continued next ... too many words!

Any car that is to be even remotely considered SHOW QUALITY will not be done for less than 20K. A Total 100 percent build will be any easy 90K. No quality job can be done for less than 5K. The materials alone will cost at least half of that price.

I was thinking about taking my carss to Maaco for a paint over after seeing all their ads on TV. I thank you all for your feedback and I am going to look for someplace else. The real criminals are getting away with it again and the authorities will continue to harass and lock up hard working citizens.

I HAVE AN 04 FORD EXPEDITION
A FRIEND OF MINE RECOMMENDED A SHOP WERE HE HAD PAINTED A FEW OF HIS CARS BEFORE,SO I WENT AND I SPOKE TO THE OWNER ABOUT WHAT I WANTED TO BE DONE
SO I ENDED GETTING A METALLIC RED ON THE
WHOLE TRUCK WHICH INCLUDED BUMPERS SIDE MIRRORS AND ALL PLASTICS AND ALSO TAKING OFF ALL DENT ON THE TRUCK, ALSO HAD THE BROKEN FRONT WINDSHIELD REPLACE. THE TRUCK CAME OUT REALLY NICE LIKE NEW THE JOB WAS DONE IN ABOUT A WEEK ,WAS NOT GOING .IM HAPPY $2500 FOR A PAINT SHOP ON A SUV AND ALL DENTS TAKEN OFF PREETY GOOD..
AND I SURE DID HAVE DENTS.ILL RECOMMEND TO PAY A LITTLE EXTRA CASH BECAUSE LATER YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO PAY DOUBLE THE PRICE. TRY "AVOIDING THE CHEAP SHOPS"
YOU GET FOR WHAT YOU PAY

You get what you pay for maaco is terrible even their top of the line paint is crap they put very little paint on and it will chip off. A decent paint job will run you about 5000 at a quality body shop. You can find guys such as myself who work for the body shops that will do it on the side for about half the price.what you dont realize is the time put into a paintjob with two guys working on a car with no body repair sandiing the paint taping spraying and then wet sanding and buffing is about 60 hours of work 30 hours per person. that is not even including prep and paint of the door jams and engine if the color is to be changed. even at 10 dollars an hour plus materials you are looking at 1500 and good luck finding someone that actually know what they are doing to work for 10 an hour

I was thinking of taking my car to maaco for a paint job but after reading all this negative expiriences i made my decision thanks a lot for taking your time to make sure people dont keep getting rip off.

I went to several shops to get estimates for a complete paint job and two small dents one on the rt door and one on the hood. The estimates were 2600-3250. Someone suggested Auto Glow. From the moment I stepped in their office I felt comfortable with them. Auto Glow estimate was 780.00 I decided to give them a try. My car came out looking great! Thank you Auto Glow!

has anyone gotten a lawyer over this maaco stuff? if ppl dont do ne thing about it, they will keep on...

The car had traces of rust on tyop edges of trunk and everywhwere else I had small rust sopts that I had sanded and painted before going to Maaco.

Paiod Maaco to strip car upper body and remove any rust. There was only trace rust I knew. I also paid to have two wide black stripes run down top center of car.

MAACO FUCKED UP THE STRIPING. Stripes were painted two inches off center in back although in center in front of car. Sripe being off center is very visible at the trunk key lock. I measured the errors which included stripe width changes by over an inch, 2 inch position errors and stripe slanting.

Maaco got the silver paint on the chrome bumpers and trim all over the car.

The trunk has a spot of rust ther side of a dime just 1 week after when trunk sas supposidly stripped and sanded. I went back to Maaco oto get things corrected and was told essentially to fuck off.

Showed Manager with a diagram the errors in the striping. He said "I feel sorry for you."
I said "Your painter must have been drunk." He said I was being inappropriate. Manager said "We are not perfect and see we wrote that on your contract." Maaco does a bait and switch. Gets you there and changes the cost and lowers there promise of quality. The contract says "high quality" but that isd a total misrepresentation. Maaco warrantee says I get 90 days for paint peeling or defects but years for paint fading. Obviously they are not going to honor any warrenty. I weish I had seen this site before I let Maaco paint my car in such a careless manner. NOW I HAVE TO WORRY THAT THE PAINT IS GOING TO FALL OFF ???

Looks brand new now! They did a marvelous job!!!
Cost includes 6 hrs of labor $252.00 + materials $180.80 + tax = $432.80. A bit expensive place around here. Could have shopped around.

I strongly recommend no one use maaco to get thier car painted! It looks like 5 year olds do the work, very bad! I got taken this time but no more. Maaco is for suckers I was one I know!

Autoglow gave me a good deal and a good paint job.
I had to choose between maacco or autoglow but autoglow made me feel comfortable. I was afraid that the price would change after the actual quote but autoglow gave their word that i didn't have to worry about the price changing. They were honest and kept their word. I recommend Autoglow.

I went to MAACO for an estimate for painting one panel on my car and the quote was $600.00. Another shop charged $200.00. So much for MAACO being low cost.

I have decided to give my old MX6 to my grandson for his 16th birthday. After 23 years the paint is not so nice but the body is in great shape. Thought I would go to MAACO until I read these post... I WILL KEEP LOOKING!!!

Thanks to all who posted their warnings about Maaco. I was considering them but I see now that they are a bait and switch scammer that can't deliver a decent, long lasting, quality paint job. They are PRETENDERS! I will look elsewhere.

Had GT Collision center paint the roof and hood of my '96 850 to repair oxidized paint - they stripped it and painted it for $1100 - their service was awesome - they called me twice over the course of the four days they had it to let me know how the job was going and they followed up with a thank-you letter to me for letting them work on my car. The paint job looks great and I would go back in a heartbeat.

I live in Vermont, on the New Hampshire Border and saw a TV add about Maaco. I thought I would finally get a nice paint job since I always hated my silver color. Seems ALL the Toyotas are silver in this area, as is most other cars. I used to have a Toyota white car which I loved the color. I have scratches where I waxed my car one day and my cat went skiing on it. I would like a nice Toyota white paint color. I was going to check out Maaco but now I won't after reading all this. Wish I knew a dependable car painter around here.

So I take my car after its been fixed from a car accident. I tell em that i want a custom paint job white on top and black on bottom with a red stripe around the whole car going through the middle of the 2 paints. They say they can "definitely" do it. Takes them 2 months to paint it, not even 2 days out of the shop i see the paint chipping already so I take it back and have them redo it......they did it for free the 2nd time but i had to take it again cuz the paint was coming off again!!!!! 3 paint jobs and nothing good came out of it!!!!so this shop really sucks! they rip you off!!!! I do not recommend them at all!